Emotional cues need to be identified and acted on during help sessions that include email, chat, and Web-based forms.

Whether in person or over the phone, customer support workers regularly detect and respond to emotions as part of their job. In an attempt to keep valued customers, these workers mollify the angry and thank the pleased. To do their job well, support workers must accurately detect and respond not just to the words that these customers are using, but also to the emotional state of the speaker. However, with the growing proportion of business transacted online, there is a corresponding growth in online customer support. Support agents are at a disadvantage in this new, all text, domain.

In face-to-face communication, humans have an innate ability to recognize and respond to the emotions of their conversation partner. The conversation content is augmented by body language, facial expressions, and vocal cues to help us interpret the speaker's emotions. When using the telephone we don't get the body language and facial expressions, but we still have the full range of vocal cues to help interpret the language being used. Someone else might use the same words, but depending on tone of voice the meaning might change entirely. In our daily interactions, it is important to recognize when someone is so angry about an issue that they start yelling.

continued on http://www.supportindustry.com/newsletter/smartsense.htm

DEDICATED TO ALL THOSE WHO ARE SEARCHING FOR A TOOL TO UNDERSTAND TONE OF THE CUSTOMER IN WEB SUPPORT.