Don't Tell Me What Kinda Day to Have

5:30 PM -- Im all for new technology that makes our lives or jobs easier, but there’s one emerging software application I just don’t get: emotion detection.

This software -- being rolled out for use in call centers by Nice Systems, Mindbridge Software, and others -- tells service reps when their callers are angry or satisfied. These vendors have spent millions of dollars on algorithms driving this technology.

Some people might cite lack of privacy, but that’s not my complaint. By now, we know our customer service calls are being recorded because most calls begin with a recording telling us that.

I don’t know about you, but I have a reliable low-tech method of detecting emotion in conversation: If the person I’m talking to sounds more like a character on HBO than the Disney Channel, I detect anger. I don’t need software for that.

Unsurprisingly, emotion detection software works pretty much the same way. It detects when your voice hits a certain decibel or you use harsh language. Must customer service reps be told that the person screaming and cursing at them is mad?This software isn’t really aimed at the person on the phone, though. One of the features of programs such as Nice Perform is to send an alert to the call center manager that there is a problem, so the manager can get involved. But there’s more -- and here’s where storage comes in. An angry call gets digitized and stored with all the other angry calls, so managers can search for keywords, analyze trends, and email files to others in the company.

So if you’re a storage admin and find disk space disappearing on your network from a lot of irate customer calls, don’t phone your call center staffers and berate them. It will only make the situation worse.

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch