Method and system for a scalable computer-telephony integration system

• US 10,205,828 B1
• Filed: 01/05/2018
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Kammeyer, Aaron C., Kirchner, Randall J., Ward, Christopher L., Littell, Louis A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Khai N.
• Application Number:
  US15/863,521
• Time in Patent Office: 403 Days
• Field of Search: 37921001, 37926501, 37926502, 37926503, 37926504, 37926505, 37926506, 37926507, 37926508, 37926509, 3792651, 37926511, 37926512, 37926513, 37926514, 37926601, 37926602, 37926603, 37926604, 37926605, 37926606, 37926607, 37926608, 37926609, 3792661
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/84 output devices, e.g. displays or monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/256 comprising a service specific user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/404 Collaboration among agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/558 Databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/60 related to security aspects in telephonic communication systems network architectures or network communication protocols for network security H04L63/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6009 Personal information, e.g. profiles or personal directories being only provided to authorised persons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6018 Subscriber or terminal logon/logoff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5133 Operator terminal details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/58 Arrangements for transferring received calls from one subscriber to another; Arrangements affording interim conversations between either the calling or the called party and a third party substation line holding circuits H04M1/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0012 : Details of application programming interfaces [API] for telephone networks; Arrangements which combine a telephonic communication equipment and a computer, i.e. computer telephony integration [CPI] arrangements

Abstract

Methods, systems, apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable media are described for a scalable computer-telephony integration system. Various aspects may include storing sets of call agent login information for several call agents within the computer-telephony integration system and across several independent computing systems in a contact center login database. Additionally, various aspects may include generating several contact center service categories and sets of contact information for each contact center service category, which may be stored in a contact center directory database. When an incoming call is received from a customer, various aspects may include obtaining customer call information from the customer and generating a customer call key, which may be stored as a reference to the customer call information in a contact center customer call information database. The call key may be used to reduce an amount of data electronically transferred between call agents during telephone call transfers.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for presenting a contact center directory in a computer-telephony integration system, the method executed by one or more processors programmed to perform the method, the method comprising:

presenting, via one or more processors, a plurality of contact center service categories to a system administrator, each contact center service category corresponding to a particular type of contact center service in the computer-telephony integration system;

for each of the plurality of contact center service categories, presenting, via the one or more processors, one or more sets of contact information for communicating with call agents assigned to the contact center service category; and

presenting to the system administrator, via the one or more processors, one or more user controls for editing at least one of;

(i) the plurality of contact center service categories, (ii) the one or more sets of contact information for communicating with the call agents assigned to the plurality of contact center service categories, or (iii) associations between the plurality of contact center service categories and the one or more sets of contact information for communicating with the call agents.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting one or more user controls for editing the plurality of contact center service categories includes presenting, via the one or more processors, one or more user controls for adding a new contact center service category to the plurality of contact center service categories or removing one of the plurality of contact center service categories.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting one or more user controls for editing the one or more sets of contact information includes presenting, via the one or more processors, one or more user controls for adding a new set of contact information to the one or more sets of contact information or removing one of the one or more sets of contact information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting one or more user controls for editing the associations between the plurality of contact center service categories and the one or more sets of contact information includes presenting, via the one or more processors, one or more user controls for assigning one of the one or more sets of contact information to one of the plurality of contact center service categories or removing an association between one of the one or more sets of contact information and one of the plurality of contact center service categories.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

when the set of contact information is assigned to the contact center service category, the method includes storing, via the one or more processors, a reference to the set of contact information with the contact center service category in a contact center directory database; and

when the association between the set of contact information and the contact center service category is removed, the method includes removing, via the one or more processors, the reference to the set of contact information from the contact center service category in the contact center directory database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more user controls for editing are presented on a first display and on a second display, a call agent of the call agents is presented with one or more contact center service categories of the plurality of contact center service categories which the call agent has permission to access, the one or more sets of contact information for communicating with other call agents assigned to the selected contact center service category, and one or more user controls for transferring, dialing, or conferencing the other call agents associated with the one or more sets of presented contact information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein when the system administrator edits one of the one or more sets of contact information, the method further comprises:

presenting, via the one or more processors, the edited set of contact information with each of the contact center service categories that the edited set of contact information is assigned to on the second display.

8. A client device for presenting a contact center directory in a computer-telephony integration system, the client device comprising:

one or more processors;

a non-transitory computer-readable memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, and storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the client device to;

present a plurality of contact center service categories to a system administrator, each contact center service category corresponding to a particular type of contact center service in the computer-telephony integration system;

for each of the plurality of contact center service categories, present one or more sets of contact information for communicating with call agents assigned to the contact center service category; and

present to the system administrator one or more user controls for editing at least one of;

(i) the plurality of contact center service categories, (ii) the one or more sets of contact information for communicating with the call agents assigned to the plurality of contact center service categories, or (iii) associations between the plurality of contact center service categories and the one or more sets of contact information for communicating with the call agents.

9. The client device of claim 8, wherein to present one or more user controls for editing the plurality of contact center service categories, the instructions cause the client device to present one or more user controls for adding a new contact center service category to the plurality of contact center service categories or removing one of the plurality of contact center service categories.

10. The client device of claim 8, wherein to present one or more user controls for editing the one or more sets of contact information, the instructions cause the client device to present one or more user controls for adding a new set of contact information to the one or more sets of contact information or removing one of the one or more sets of contact information.

11. The client device of claim 8, wherein to present one or more user controls for editing the associations between the plurality of contact center service categories and the one or more sets of contact information, the instructions cause the client device to present one or more user controls for assigning one of the one or more sets of contact information to one of the plurality of contact center service categories or removing an association between one of the one or more sets of contact information and one of the plurality of contact center service categories.

12. The client device of claim 11, wherein:

when the set of contact information is assigned to the contact center service category, the instructions cause the client device to store a reference to the set of contact information with the contact center service category in a contact center directory database; and

when the association between the set of contact information and the contact center service category is removed, the instructions cause the client device to store the reference to the set of contact information from the contact center service category in the contact center directory database.

13. The client device of claim 8, wherein the one or more user controls for editing are presented on a first display and on a second display, a call agent of the call agents is presented with one or more contact center service categories of the plurality of contact center service categories which the call agent has permission to access, the one or more sets of contact information for communicating with other call agents assigned to the selected contact center service category, and one or more user controls for transferring, dialing, or conferencing the other call agents associated with the one or more sets of presented contact information.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable memory storing thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

present a plurality of contact center service categories to a system administrator, each contact center service category corresponding to a particular type of contact center service in a computer-telephony integration system;

for each of the plurality of contact center service categories, present one or more sets of contact information for communicating with call agents assigned to the contact center service category; and

present to the system administrator one or more user controls for editing at least one of;

(i) the plurality of contact center service categories, (ii) the one or more sets of contact information for communicating with the call agents assigned to the plurality of contact center service categories, or (iii) associations between the plurality of contact center service categories and the one or more sets of contact information for communicating with the call agents.

15. The computer-readable memory of claim 14, wherein to present one or more user controls for editing the plurality of contact center service categories, the instructions cause the one or more processors to present one or more user controls for adding a new contact center service category to the plurality of contact center service categories or removing one of the plurality of contact center service categories.

16. The computer-readable memory of claim 14, wherein to present one or more user controls for editing the one or more sets of contact information, the instructions cause the one or more processors to present one or more user controls for adding a new set of contact information to the one or more sets of contact information or removing one of the one or more sets of contact information.

17. The computer-readable memory of claim 14, wherein to present one or more user controls for editing the associations between the plurality of contact center service categories and the one or more sets of contact information, the instructions cause the one or more processors to present one or more user controls for assigning one of the one or more sets of contact information to one of the plurality of contact center service categories or removing an association between one of the one or more sets of contact information and one of the plurality of contact center service categories.

18. The computer-readable memory of claim 17, wherein:

when the set of contact information is assigned to the contact center service category, the instructions cause the one or more processors to store a reference to the set of contact information with the contact center service category in a contact center directory database; and

when the association between the set of contact information and the contact center service category is removed, the instructions cause the one or more processors to store the reference to the set of contact information from the contact center service category in the contact center directory database.

19. The computer-readable memory of claim 14, wherein the one or more user controls for editing are presented on a first display and on a second display, a call agent of the call agents is presented with one or more contact center service categories of the plurality of contact center service categories which the call agent has permission to access, the one or more sets of contact information for communicating with other call agents assigned to the selected contact center service category, and one or more user controls for transferring, dialing, or conferencing the other call agents associated with the one or more sets of presented contact information.

20. The computer-readable memory of claim 19, wherein when the system administrator edits one of the one or more sets of contact information, the instructions cause the one or more processors to:

present the edited set of contact information with each of the contact center service categories that the edited set of contact information is assigned to on the second display.