Start-up of the day: NeoSound makes analysis of call center calls easier

By Paul Smits

NeoSound Intelligence makes it easier to monitor the quality of calls in call centers. Normally this is done by listening to recordings based on your own selection. This takes a lot of time and only a fraction of calls can be analyzed in this way.

The Amsterdam start-up has developed technology whereby all conversations can be automatically monitored. With the understanding that good telephone customer service is an important element for success, this technology helps to improve the services of organizations. Concrete results can mean more sales and lower costs.

NeoSound enables call center supervisors to select the most relevant recordings based on specified criteria. Think for instance about angry callers who have long silences. NeoSound’s program distinguishes various emotions and other critical performance indicators in order to filter the problematic calls out from thousands of other conversations.

CEO and co-founder Denis Ardabatsky explains the activities of his company.

What was the motivation behind starting NeoSound?

As a matter of fact, it started with music, which you can easily compose nowadays by singing with the help of an app. That was more for fun. After that we, a group of mathematicians, started to focus specifically on sound recognition. We realized its usefulness for call centers after being in contact with a large telecom company in Latvia, .

What does the company have to offer?

Call center managers are aware of the value of customer interaction. However, it is difficult to select useful information from all of the stored conversations. Supervisors are not able to listen to very many conversations. Monitoring is therefore often costly and customer service may remain substandard.

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Using NeoSound, the quality managers are able to select the most attention-grabbing conversations based on criteria such as emotions, silences and other key factors.

NeoSound translates the human voice into relevant data, like emotions, silences or sentiments. This is done using technology such as an API service, where one system can communicate with another. Call centers can thereby easily integrate the technology into their own software.

Are there other start-ups also trying to help call centers in this way?

No, not in the way that we do. We go further than just translating conversations into texts, as is already the case. We make analysis possible based on acoustics and intonation. We listen to how people speak, not just to what they say. That’s why NeoSound is not very dependent on a particular language and our technology can easily be applied anywhere in the world.

What is the reaction to your product?

For instance from the start with our first customer, a telecom company: they immediately saw the novel potential.

What has been the main obstacle so far?

That is explaining our product. Doing so is a challenge, partly because most call centers are cautious when it comes to monitoring the quality of telephone calls. Smaller companies are more open to innovation than larger companies. This is one of the reasons why we are not focusing on the really large companies at this time. They require a lot of time and consultation before deciding whether they want to work with it.

What are you most satisfied with when it comes to the start-up of your company?

Actually, we are never one hundred percent satisfied. In general, the great thing about it is helping resolve a problem. That you are able to take the customer’s requests into account. The more satisfied they are, the better. It’s not just about algorithms, but also about the results you can achieve with them.

What do you expect in the coming year?

We aim to take our sales process to the next level with the help of data on cost savings and increased customer sales. We are focusing on expansion in the Netherlands for the time being. After that we want to attract customers in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.