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Every contact centre engages in some form of Call Quality Monitoring in order to improve agent performance and customer satisfaction. Call centres have traditionally used a manual process to sort, select, and analyse a representative sample of interactions for evaluation purposes. Unfortunately, such a process is marked by subjectivity, which in turn results in a distorted picture of agent performance. To address the challenge of identifying and removing subjectivity, empirical research is required. In this paper, we introduce an evidence-based, machine learning-driven framework for the automatic detection of subjective calls. We analyse a corpus of seven hours of recorded calls from a real-estate call centre using Deep Neural Network (DNN) for a multi-classification problem. The study establishes the first baseline for subjectivity detection, with an accuracy of 75%, which is comparable to relevant speech studies in emotional recognition and performance classification. We conclude, among other things, that in order to achieve the best performance evaluation, subjective calls should be removed from the evaluation process or subjective scores deducted from the overall results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Focusing on Filipino nurses, who are situated in a culture of migration where nursing is seen to pave way for overseas migration, this article explores the (non)migration decision‐making process and the temporal and agentic dimensions of the decision to stay. While regimes of mobility may restrict or enable cross‐border movements through immigration regulations, this article focuses on ongoing processes within the Philippines such as labour market development, family relations and individual considerations. The analysis shows how important events, as well as anticipated events, in aspiring migrants' life cycles impact on their decisions and aspirations. Changes in the local labour market, such as the proliferation of call centres, have provided new opportunities for socioeconomic mobility within the Philippines. This article demonstrates how nonmigration of skilled workers is a complex and multilayered phenomenon. While staying has long been seen as a passive and natural situation, this article, in line with an emerging literature, acknowledges that staying requires agency. Further, nonmigration has an inherent temporal dimension as migration aspirations may change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, one of the important aspects of research on call/contact centre (CC) systems is how to automate their operations. Process automation is influenced by the continuous development in the implementation of virtual assistants. The effectiveness of virtual assistants depends on numerous factors. One of the most important is correctly recognizing the intent of clients conversing with the machine. Recognizing intentions is not an easy process, as often the client's actual intentions can only be correctly identified after considering the client's emotional state. When it comes to human–machine communication, the ability of a virtual assistant to recognize the client's emotional state would greatly improve its effectiveness. This paper proposes a new method for recognizing interlocutors' emotions dedicated directly to contact centre systems. The developed method provides opportunities to determine emotional states in text and voice channels. It provides opportunities to explore both the client's and the agent's emotional states. Information about agents' emotions can be used to build their behavioural profiles, which is also applicable in contact centres. In addition, the paper explored the possibility of emotion assessment based on automatic transcriptions of recordings, which also positively affected emotion recognition performance in the voice channel. The research used actual conversations that took place during the operation of a large, commercial contact centre. The proposed solution makes it possible to recognize the emotions of customers contacting the hotline and agents handling these calls. Using this information in practical applications can increase the efficiency of agents' work, efficiency of bots used in CC and increase customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Antidepressant use has increased over the last two decades, with Australia and New Zealand among the highest antidepressant users in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Comorbidity and polypharmacy are common in antidepressant users, increasing the likelihood of interaction-related adverse drug events, which are frequently preventable. Aim We aimed to identify, profile, and analyse potential antidepressant drug–drug interactions in information-seeking antidepressant users. Methods We retrospectively analysed antidepressant-related drug–drug interaction enquiries from patients or carers who contacted a pharmacist-led Australian national medicines call centre over an 8-year period to determine patient characteristics, concomitant drugs involved, prevalence and type of antidepressant-related drug–drug interaction across life stages, and associated risks. Results Of 3899 antidepressant drug–drug interaction calls, the most frequent concomitant drugs were antipsychotics, opioids, benzodiazepines, and complementary medicines. Narrative analyses of 2011 calls identified 81.0% of patients with potential drug–drug interactions and 10.4% categorised with worrying symptoms. The most frequent drug–drug interaction risks were excessive sedation, increased anticholinergic effects, serotonin syndrome, and suicidal thoughts. Carers of children aged

This paper describes workplace dynamics in a call centre located in Romania, a subsidiary of a multi-national corporation (MNC). Positing a centralised practice transfer and global management strategy, the company relies exclusively on home-country decision makers. Placed within Romania’s dependent economic profile alongside its deregulated employment relations, centralised managerial decisions create widespread organisational uncertainty with numerous hire and fire and downsizing procedures, followed by subsequent recruitment campaigns designed to replace the previously displaced workforce.

2.3 Call In: a call centre in the era of informational economy Call In was one of the call centres to put up shop in Biel. While we will turn to the political economic transformations that led to the instalment of this particular call centre in this particular city in more detail below, in this case, the call centre (pseudonymised as "Call In") is located in an office building on a peripheral street in a rather run-down area of downtown Biel/Bienne (henceforth: Biel). Keywords: affective-discursive practices; authenticity; call centre; dialect; Switzerland EN affective-discursive practices authenticity call centre dialect Switzerland 93 116 24 07/18/22 20220701 NES 220701 1 Introduction Imagine a spacious and brightly lit room, buzzing with activity. 2.1 The call centre-project The call centre described in the introduction is the site of the sociolinguistic ethnographic research project "When language becomes the subject of work: Multilingualism in Biel/Bienne's call centres", led by Alexandre Duchêne at the Institute of Multilingualism in Fribourg, Switzerland (2010-2011) and financed by the I Forum du Bilinguisme i in Biel. [Extracted from the article]

Introduction. Antidepressant use has increased over the last two decades, with Australia and New Zealand among the highest antidepressant users in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Comorbidity and polypharmacy are common in antidepressant users, increasing the likelihood of interaction-related adverse drug events, which are frequently preventable. Aim. We aimed to identify, profile, and analyse potential antidepressant drug-drug interactions in information-seeking antidepressant users. Methods. We retrospectively analysed antidepressant-related drug-drug interaction enquiries from patients or carers who contacted a pharmacist-led Australian national medicines call centre over an 8-year period to determine patient characteristics, concomitant drugs involved, prevalence and type of antidepressant-related drug-drug interaction across life stages, and associated risks. Results. Of 3899 antidepressant drug-drug interaction calls, the most frequent concomitant drugs were antipsychotics, opioids, benzodiazepines, and complementary medicines. Narrative analyses of 2011 calls identified 81.0% of patients with potential drug-drug interactions and 10.4% categorised with worrying symptoms. The most frequent drug-drug interaction risks were excessive sedation, increased anticholinergic effects, serotonin syndrome, and suicidal thoughts. Carers of children aged <15 years and older adults (65-74 years) were more likely to report experiencing worrying symptoms. Although more potential pharmacodynamic than pharmacokinetic interactions were recorded, pharmacokinetic interactions tended to have more significant clinical impact. Discussion. Antidepressant users often have information gaps and safety concerns regarding drug-drug interactions that motivate help-seeking behaviour. Symptoms and drug-drug interaction consequences may be underestimated in these patients. Primary care health professionals have a role in proactively addressing the risk of drug-drug interactions to support benefit-risk assessment and shared decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, one of the key areas of research on contact centre systems is their automation. The main element that influences the possibility of automation of contact centre processes is the call transcription methods implemented by automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. Such systems enable developing intention recognition methods and, consequently voice bots. The current solutions used in ASR systems for many less popular languages do not guarantee a fully satisfactory transcription quality for hotline voice calls. This is due to the unique characteristics of the sound signal generated there, whose quality parameters differ significantly from those of studio recordings. The paper presents a comparative study of selected speech recognition systems that were additionally supplemented with elements of preprocessing of sound recordings and postprocessing of originally produced transcriptions. As for preprocessing, the following methods were tested: separation of the client and agent channels into two independent signals, training of ASR systems, and audio signal correction. With regards to postprocessing, on the other hand, tests were performed for inarticulate sounds, normalization of standard phrases (e.g. numbers, dates, times, etc.), and identification of close-sounding phrases and foreign language phrases, and lemmatization. Based on the research conducted and the analyses performed, a new method of call transcription intended specifically for contact center systems was proposed. The research conducted for this paper was based on the Polish language model, for which major problems are observed with the quality of automatic contact center call transcriptions.

In response to neighbouring Italy’s accelerating outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Slovenia established a national toll-free telephone helpline, which operated from 9 March until 12 June 2020 and answered more than 40 thousand calls in its first ten weeks alone. It was operated by medical students and integrated professionals from diverse fields in order to provide trustworthy, accurate, and understandable information to the citizens of Slovenia. We examine the impact that this centralised helpline had on managing the COVID-19 health crisis by shaping and monitoring the public’s response.

The past two decades have seen a growing interest in research on call centre discourse from sociolinguistic and pragmatic perspectives. Turn-by-turn micro-analyses of call centre interactions have looked at the complex power relations and face-considerations in dealing with customers' and agents' impolite behaviour. Although silence is ubiquitous in dyadic conversations, surprisingly few studies of call centre interactions have investigated silence between adjacency pairs and the potential trouble it may indicate. To fill this gap, this paper explores silence in service calls. Specifically, it first looks at routine calls for information and the most common ways in which silence is accounted for by the agents. It then examines non-routine calls where silence becomes interactionally meaningful following the agents' withheld responses at a transition-relevance place. Thus, silence becomes marked behaviour by virtue of being oriented to as unexpected by the customer and thus open to evaluations of impoliteness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mental health conditions are a significant public health problem globally, responsible for >8 million deaths per year. In addition, they lead to lost productivity, exacerbate physical illness, and are associated with stigma and human rights violations. Uganda, like many low- and middle-income countries, faces a massive treatment gap for mental health conditions, and numerous sociocultural challenges exacerbate the burden of mental health conditions., Objective: This study aims to describe the development and formative evaluation of a digital health intervention for improving access to mental health care in Uganda., Methods: This qualitative study used user-centered design and design science research principles. Stakeholders, including patients, caregivers, mental health care providers, and implementation experts (N=65), participated in focus group discussions in which we explored participants' experience of mental illness and mental health care, experience with digital interventions, and opinions about a proposed digital mental health service. Data were analyzed using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to derive requirements for the digital solution, which was iteratively cocreated with users and piloted., Results: Several challenges were identified, including a severe shortage of mental health facilities, unmet mental health information needs, heavy burden of caregiving, financial challenges, stigma, and negative beliefs related to mental health. Participants' enthusiasm about digital solutions as a feasible, acceptable, and convenient method for accessing mental health services was also revealed, along with recommendations to make the service user-friendly, affordable, and available 24×7 and to ensure anonymity. A hospital call center service was developed to provide mental health information and advice in 2 languages through interactive voice response and live calls with health care professionals and peer support workers (recovering patients). In the 4 months after launch, 456 calls, from 236 unique numbers, were made to the system, of which 99 (21.7%) calls went to voicemails (out-of-office hours). Of the remaining 357 calls, 80 (22.4%) calls stopped at the interactive voice response, 231 (64.7%) calls were answered by call agents, and 22 (6.2%) calls were not answered. User feedback was positive, with callers appreciating the inclusion of peer support workers who share their recovery journeys. However, some participant recommendations (eg, adding video call options) or individualized needs (eg, prescriptions) could not be accommodated due to resource limitations or technical feasibility., Conclusions: This study demonstrates a systematic and theory-driven approach to developing contextually appropriate digital solutions for improving mental health care in Uganda and similar contexts. The positive reception of the implemented service underscores its potential impact. Future research should address the identified limitations and evaluate clinical outcomes of long-term adoption., (©Johnblack K Kabukye, Rosemary Namagembe, Juliet Nakku, Vincent Kiberu, Marie Sjölinder, Susanne Nilsson, Caroline Wamala-Larsson. Originally published in JMIR Human Factors (https://humanfactors.jmir.org), 06.06.2024.)

Nowadays, one of the important aspects of research on call/contact centre (CC) systems is how to automate their operations. Process automation is influenced by the continuous development in the implementation of virtual assistants. The effectiveness of virtual assistants depends on numerous factors. One of the most important is correctly recognizing the intent of clients conversing with the machine. Recognizing intentions is not an easy process, as often the client’s actual intentions can only be correctly identified after considering the client’s emotional state. When it comes to human–machine communication, the ability of a virtual assistant to recognize the client’s emotional state would greatly improve its effectiveness. This paper proposes a new method for recognizing interlocutors’ emotions dedicated directly to contact centre systems. The developed method provides opportunities to determine emotional states in text and voice channels. It provides opportunities to explore both the client’s and the agent’s emotional states. Information about agents’ emotions can be used to build their behavioural profiles, which is also applicable in contact centres. In addition, the paper explored the possibility of emotion assessment based on automatic transcriptions of recordings, which also positively affected emotion recognition performance in the voice channel. The research used actual conversations that took place during the operation of a large, commercial contact centre. The proposed solution makes it possible to recognize the emotions of customers contacting the hotline and agents handling these calls. Using this information in practical applications can increase the efficiency of agents’ work, efficiency of bots used in CC and increase customer satisfaction.

Abstract Aim To describe telenurses’ experiences of difficult calls. Design A qualitative approach with a descriptive design was used to gain a deeper understanding of the telenurses’ experiences. Methods The data were collected in spring 2017 through semi‐structured interviews with 19 telenurses at call centres and primary healthcare centres and were analysed with qualitative content analysis. Results Becoming emotionally concerned is central to the telenurse’s experiences of difficult calls. Difficult calls are accompanied by feelings such as inadequacy, uncertainty and anxiety, which can be described as emotional tension. Emotional tension refers to situations when the caller’s expressed emotions were conveyed to the telenurses and altered their state of mind. The telenurses stated that difficult calls that cause them to become anxious remain in their thoughts and go through their minds repeatedly, making a deep impression.

Abstract Background Neonatal mortality is a major health burden in Bungoma County with the rate estimated at 31 per 1000 live births and is above the national average of 22 per 1000. Nonetheless, out of the nine sub county hospitals, only two are fairly equipped with necessary infrastructure and skilled personnel to manage neonatal complications such as prematurity, neonatal sepsis, neonatal jaundice, birth asphyxia and respiratory distress syndrome. Additionally, with more than 50% of neonates delivered without skilled attendance, in below par hygiene environments such as home and on the roadsides, with non-existent community based referral system, the situation is made worse. The study aims to evaluate the progress made by an intervention “Collaborative Newborn Support Project” geared towards reducing neonatal mortality rate by 30% between October 2015 and December 2018 in Bungoma County, Kenya. Methods/Design This intervention will take a quasi-experimental design approach with experimental and control sites. The project will involve pre- and post-intervention data collection with comparison group to assess intervention effects. The primary outcome will be the percentage reduction of neonatal mortality in Bungoma County. Secondary outcomes include; a) Percentage of mothers or care givers able to identify at least three danger signs in neonates in the project area, b) Proportion of neonates with complications referred to specialized neonatal centers, through the call center, c) Percentage of health providers in neonatal care units who adhere to expected neonatal standards of care (rapid and complete application of standard protocols), d) Percentage increase in neonates with severe complications in the specialized neonatal units and e) Percentage of neonates who stay in neonatal care units beyond 5 days. Discussion We outline implementation details of the ongoing ‘Collaborative Newborn Support Project’ in Bungoma County, Kenya. This includes strategies in the operations of the telehealth platform, call centre service, community engagement and measuring of the outputs and outcomes. The funding and ethical approvals have been obtained and the study commenced. Trial registration PACTR201712002802638 Retrospectively registered on 5th December 2017 at Pan African Clinical Trials Registry.

Ensuring newly arrived migrants gain fluency in the language of their host country has challenged governments worldwide. Whilst many governments provide settlement and language programs for migrants, a critical site for language development and cultural integration is the workplace itself. However very few studies have explored how different worksites and job types in the new globalised economy may facilitate migrants' acquisition of the language of a target community with which they need to communicate. Drawing on a long-term ethnographic study and sets of interviews, this research explores how a multilingual call centre based in London facilitates such language acquisition. This site uses English as well as a number of other European languages to market mostly IT products into Europe and beyond and we discuss how the training and provision of scripts contributes to agents being able to develop their language skills. This study revealed a number of facilitators for language acquisition including the spatial layout of the worksite where communication, both socially and professionally, takes place; but perhaps most surprisingly, we learned that the way in which the agents use scripts to scaffold their exchanges on phones plays a significant role in language acquisition. • Long-term ethnographic study of a UK call centre. • Many of its agents are newly arrived migrants. • The call centre provides language learning opportunities. • Language learning opportunities arise in coaching and training. • Calling scripts scaffold agent/customer exchanges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To detect the number of agents needed to serve customers, it is necessary to consider the call centre as a mass service system. Then it is possible to asses the convenient number of agents according to the probability of the system receiving a request and the time in which the request is serviced by employing a Markov chain and the Erlang model. In an archetypal call centre, the incoming calls are added to a waiting queue and subsequently they are assisted by an agent. In case all agents are occupied, the customer has to wait in the queue until one of the agents becomes available. It is, therefore, important to compromise on the number of agents and the time the customers spend waiting in the queue. The result should be that there are enough agents in the call centre to serve the customers in the time required. This article focuses on solving this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hidden workers behind offshore outsourced online customer services are still suffering significant consequences inherited from colonial systems. The report is based on a review of 158 live-chat conversations between the online audience and two customer service agents based in Pakistan and outsourced by UK companies. This online chat platform was created and designed for the participatory art project 'How May I Serve You'. Analysis of the conversations demonstrated how outsourced companies survey employees chats and physical behaviours, threaten pay cut or dismissal, and demand that the agents lie about their identity. Further research is needed to identify practical solutions to enhance employees' working conditions when working in the online customer service industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]