62
Softbank plans to cancel out angry customer voices using AI
(arstechnica.com)
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
This is giving me Black Mirror vibes. Like when that lady's consciousness got put into a teddy bear, and she only had two ways to express herself:
I get that you shouldn't go off on customer service reps (the reason you're angry is never their fault), but filtering out the emotion/intonation in your voice is a bridge too far.
Most of the time angry customers don't even understand what they're angry at. They'll 180 in a heartbeat if the agent can identify the actual issue. I agree, this is unnecessary.
Based on my experience working in a call center, I wouldn't call it unnecessary. People are fucked up.
It's not an easy job, and it can absolutely be rough and frustrating. But knowing what your customer is saying is pretty important.
I did phones in a different century, so I don't know whether this would fly today. But, my go-to for someone like this was "ok, I think I see the problem here. Shall we go ahead and fix it or do you need to do more yelling first?"
I can't remember that line ever not shutting them down instantly. I never took it personally, whatever they had going on they were never angry at me personally.
Then again, I do remember firing a couple of customers ("we don't want your business any more etc") after I later became a manager and people were abusive to staff. So you could be right, also.
Haha while I love the line, that last part would quickly get you pulled into a talk with management.
I would laugh, and then tell you to never do that again.
Yep, 100%.
In college, I worked at a call center for one of the worst Banks of America (oops, meant banks in America 😉). Can confirm that, and I dealt with a LOT of angry customers.