Cold Call Coach

Grades real first-touch cold calls against the DataSift cold-calling playbook. The pipeline pulls recordings straight from your SmrtPhone web session (no API exists for this), transcribes them with an audio-capable model so tonality observations are heard rather than guessed, then Claude grades each gradeable conversation against references/rubric.md and exports everything to Excel.

Requirements and setup (once)

1. Python 3.10+ with: pip install playwright openpyxl then playwright install chromium
2. SmrtPhone login: python scripts/smrtphone_login.py (headed window opens, log in once; the session is saved to smrtphone_state.json and lasts weeks)
3. OpenRouter key for transcription: copy scripts/env.example to .env and set OPENROUTER_API_KEY (get one at openrouter.ai)
4. Optional team roster: copy scripts/roster.example.json to roster.json to pin caller roles (a dedicated cold caller's calls never route to another rubric) and exclude departed callers

Costs (transparent)

• Transcription: about $0.002 per audio minute (Gemini 2.5 Flash via OpenRouter). A week of coaching for a 3-caller team (say 60 gradeable calls averaging 2 minutes) costs roughly $0.25 in transcription.
• Recording downloads and the call log are free (your existing SmrtPhone plan).
• Grading runs inside your Claude session.

Pipeline

Run from your project folder:

python scripts/pull_calls.py --min-seconds 60 --days 7   # call log + MP3s
python scripts/transcribe.py                              # audio -> transcripts + triage

Outputs land in output/call_coaching/:

• call_log.json / calls_to_review.json - every call, then the review set
• transcripts/{call_id}.md - diarized transcript with inline delivery notes ([long pause 4s], [rushed], [warm tone]) plus a DELIVERY SUMMARY block (pace, agent energy, talk balance, notable audio moments) and a label check line
• review_queue.json - calls grouped: cold_call / lead_management / closing / not_gradeable

Only grade calls in the cold_call group with worth_grading: true. Voicemails, wrong numbers, and dead air are logged, never scored.

Grading procedure

1. Read references/rubric.md fully (applicability gate, short-call rule, auto-fails, 5 categories weighted 15/30/20/15/20, score anchors, both report templates, the required SCORES JSON footer).
2. Read the worked examples in references/calibration/ before your first session and stay consistent with them.
3. For each call: read the whole transcript once; verify AGENT/SELLER labels by content (our agent is whoever asks about buying the property); route full vs short (short = a DECLINE inside ~30 seconds; doubt resolves to full); score each reachable criterion against its 0/3/5 anchors (1, 2, 4 interpolate).
4. Write one report per call to output/call_coaching/reports/cold_call/{call_id}_{caller}.md using the rubric's templates exactly, including the CRITERION SCORES table and the SCORES JSON footer.
5. Roll up a per-caller scorecard, then export the workbook:

python scripts/export_excel.py

One styled Excel file: Summary (full calls, /100, band colored), Short Calls (opener + conversion on their own scale), Coaching Detail, Caller Scorecard, Criterion Scores.

Grading quality protocol (mandatory verify pass)

• Every quote must appear verbatim in the transcript (check by substring).
• Every criterion score cites a quote or an explicit absence.
• N/A only where the rubric allows; list every N/A and redistributed weight.
• Recompute the math: tables must foot exactly and the JSON footer must match the tables number for number.
• Grade ONLY what is audible on the call. CRM state and dispositions are never scored.
• Full calls and short calls are different scales; never rank them together.

Measured reliability

Independent graders reproduce full-call totals within about +/-3 points and agreed on the grade band in every test comparison; see references/reliability.md. Treat totals within 5 points as equivalent, and get a second grade before any band-boundary personnel decision.

Failure modes

• pull_calls.py exits 2 or reports an HTML response: session expired; re-run python scripts/smrtphone_login.py.
• transcribe.py key error: set OPENROUTER_API_KEY in .env.
• Recording URL 404: the recording was deleted in SmrtPhone; log and skip.
• Transcripts can truncate on very long calls; N/A the unreachable categories and note it.

Related

• Follow-up and qualification calls: the lead-manager-coach skill.
• Offer and negotiation calls: the closer-coach skill.
• This skill grades call QUALITY, not dial volume KPIs.