soundboards
I know that the subject of soundboards have been addressed in the past but I'd like to revisit it. The consensus seemed to be that a machine would never be able to beat a human being so I forgot about it for a few months.
And then I read this article:
Almost Human: The Surreal, Cyborg Future of Telemarketing - Alexis C. Madrigal - The Atlantic
And I saw it being used live.You'd never be able to tell it's not a live person (even though the female recording sound very ditzy and somewhat simple minded) unless the person was trying to throw off the system on purpose (as did the TIME reporter in the article).
A highlight from the article.
I know for a fact a couple of banks here in canada is experimenting with it.
For a very simple script (and I do mean simple, the script basically is the presentation and the rebuttals are a reworded presentation), the organization in particular used 2 weeks of training before putting agents on live calls on that system.
From what I saw, the agent managed 2 cold calls (but the article says 3) at the same time.
I heard they could manage 4-5 rebuttals.
IMHO, the only real drawbacks of the system would be that the script would really have to be very simple, extremely tight or/and the product easy to sell. Most likely used for simple lead generation or something.
So what do you guys think? Cool? Uncool? Tips? Opinions? Did anyone ever test this for themselves?
And then I read this article:
Almost Human: The Surreal, Cyborg Future of Telemarketing - Alexis C. Madrigal - The Atlantic
And I saw it being used live.You'd never be able to tell it's not a live person (even though the female recording sound very ditzy and somewhat simple minded) unless the person was trying to throw off the system on purpose (as did the TIME reporter in the article).
A highlight from the article.
|
"We had the same problems every other call center has," he said. "It's low-paid, low-skilled, entry-level people that frankly aren't going to be there a lot." "It knocked our turnover from 400 percent a year to 135 to 140 percent. And it dramatically changed the characteristics of employing people." The soundboard technology they came up with "really transformed our business. Our conversions improved. Our average order improved. Our complaints dropped off dramatically. Our return-to orders dropped off dramatically." |
For a very simple script (and I do mean simple, the script basically is the presentation and the rebuttals are a reworded presentation), the organization in particular used 2 weeks of training before putting agents on live calls on that system.
From what I saw, the agent managed 2 cold calls (but the article says 3) at the same time.
I heard they could manage 4-5 rebuttals.
IMHO, the only real drawbacks of the system would be that the script would really have to be very simple, extremely tight or/and the product easy to sell. Most likely used for simple lead generation or something.
So what do you guys think? Cool? Uncool? Tips? Opinions? Did anyone ever test this for themselves?