METHOD SELECTING ACTIONS OR PHASES FOR AN AGENT BY ANALYZING CONVERSATION CONTENT AND EMOTIONAL INFLECTION

A method and apparatus are provided for accepting a call by an automatic call distributor and for automatic call handling of the call. The apparatus for automatic call handling has: a call receiving system that outputs at least one voice signal; a text voice converter having an input for the at least one voice signal, the text voice converter converting the voice signal to a text stream and providing the text stream on an output thereof; an emotion detector having an input for the at least one voice signal, the emotion detector detecting at least one emotional state in the voice signal and producing at least one tag indicator indicative thereof on an output of the emotion detector; and a scripting engine having inputs for the text stream and the at least one tag indicator, the scripting engine providing on an output thereof at least one response based on the text stream and on the at least one tag indicator. The method and apparatus provides the agents with scripts that are based on not only the content of the call from a caller, but that are also based upon the emotional state of the caller. As a result, there is a decrease in call duration, which decreases the cost of operating a call center. This decrease in the cost is a result in the amount of time an agent spends based on the agent's hourly rate and the costs associated with time usage of inbound phone lines or trunk lines.