SOFTWARE firm Qire has launched a new system it says could stop the problem of call centres making silent calls.

Telecoms regulator Ofcom is cracking down on the problem of silent calls, in which people are called by call centres but are never connected to an operator.

Now Liverpool-based telecoms specialist Qire has launched a system it hopes will solve the problem.

Its Interactive Voice Messaging system means people who would otherwise receive a silent call instead hear an automated message telling them who is calling and giving them the chance to speak to a call centre operator if they prefer.

Qire already boasts clients including Co-operative Financial Services, utility companies Severn Trent and Scottish & Southern, and debt collectors Direct Legal Collections. Founder and chief executive Guy Cooper hopes the system will win Qire new business while solving a social problem.

Call centres use automated dialling systems to make them more efficient. It means they can make more calls than there are agents, with those calls only being passed on to agents when somebody answers the phone.

But if the phone is answered and an agent is not available, then the line goes dead, creating a silent call.

In a consultation document in October, Ofcom said more than 22% of the population had experienced silent calls on their landline in the previous six months.

One way to make a system more efficient was to use answering machine detection (AMD) technology that cut off calls as soon as it recognised an answering machine. But because that software is not 100% accurate, people still receive silent calls when they pick up the phone before the AMD system cuts off the call.

Mr Cooper said: “The big issue with AMD is that typically you’ve got about two seconds to decide whether to transfer it to an operator. If you get that wrong and think it’s a machine, but it’s actually a person, you generate a silent call.

“We do the opposite. We assume it’s a person. While we’re listening to see whether it’s a machine, we’re talking to whatever’s at the other end of the line.

“It’s a computerised conversation – eg, ‘I’m calling today about the order you made, but we can’t deliver today’.

“Because we’re talking, it gives us a lot more time to detect whether we’re talking to an answering machine.”

GUY COOPER profile: Inside LDP Business tomorrow