Natural dialog in a time-sensitive setting

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Abstract
For economic reasons, the task performed by telephone operators is very time-sensitive, and the task has been studied extensively. Most of the work however has concerned the human-computer interaction between the operator and the workstation and not the human-human interaction between the operator and the customer. GOMS analyses of operators handling toll calls (1), found that conversation was on the "critical path" of the call most of the time. That is, during most of a call, verbally exchanged information was necessary for the next step. We are conducting exploratory analyses of operator-customer dialogs to learn how dialog variables might affect the speed or outcome of a call. In preliminary interviews with operators about their jobs, operators seldom mentioned the workstation, but rather talked about their job as dealing with customers in a time-sensitive way that balanced the demands of the job with the needs of the customer. The first study has focused on Directory Assistance calls, in which a customer asks for a telephone number (and/or possibly an address). The analysis focuses on what makes a long vs a short call and what makes a faster vs slower operator.

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