System and method for managing customer call-backs

• US 10,257,355 B1
• Filed: 08/23/2018
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company
• Original Assignee: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company
• Inventors: Merritt, Sears
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoque, Nafiz E
• Application Number:
  US16/111,051
• Time in Patent Office: 229 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/20 Ensemble learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/01 Dynamic search techniques; Heuristics; Dynamic trees; Branch-and-bound
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/556 Statistical analysis and interpretation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/558 Databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42195 Arrangements for calling back a calling subscriber when the wanted subscriber ceases to be busy H04M3/48
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4365 based on information specified by the calling party, e.g. priority or subject
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5231 with call back arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5235 Dependent on call type or called number [DNIS]

Abstract

A system herein provides automated call-back of customers who have terminated an inbound call by exercising a call-back option of an interactive voice response unit or by abandoning the inbound call, using predictive modeling of caller value to prioritize call-backs. The call management system monitors the inbound customer call and detects any termination of the customer call. A call-back module opens a call-back record for the terminated customer call and associates that call-back record with an identified customer. The call-back module retrieves customer demographic data and other data associated with the identified customer. A predictive module determines a value prediction signal for the identified customer by modeling purchase and lapse behaviors and classifies each identified customer for either priority call-back or subordinate call-back treatment. Priority call-back classification may result in assignment to a priority call-back queue, assignment to a priority call-back queue position, or call-back by a selected agent.

Claims

1. A processor based method for managing customer calls within a call center, comprising:

upon receiving a customer call at a call center of an enterprise from an inbound caller, opening, by the processor, an inbound call record for the customer call including any automatic number identifier information delivered with the customer call;

monitoring, by the processor, the customer call of the inbound caller to retrieve one or more of IVR data received from the inbound caller via interaction with an interactive voice response unit and inbound queue data retrieved by monitoring an inbound call queue including the inbound caller, and updating the inbound call record for the inbound caller with the one or more of the IVR data and the inbound queue data retrieved;

analyzing, by the processor, the one or more of the IVR data and the inbound queue data to detect any termination of the inbound call by exercising a call-back option via the interactive voice response unit or by abandoning the customer call, and in the event of detecting the termination of the customer call;

opening, by the processor, a call-back record for the terminated customer call including any automatic number identifier information delivered, and the one or more of the IVR data and the inbound queue data in the inbound call record;

querying, by the processor, one or more databases to retrieve customer identifier data and to associate the call-back record with an identified customer via the customer identifier data;

retrieving, by the processor, customer demographic data associated with the identified customer;

determining, by a predictive model executing on the processor, a value prediction signal comprising one or more of a first signal representative of a likelihood that the identified customer will accept an offer to purchase a product, a second signal representative of a likelihood that the identified customer will lapse in payments for a purchased product, and a third signal representative of a likelihood that the identified customer will accept an offer to purchase the product and will not lapse in payments for the purchased product;

wherein the predictive model comprises a logistic regression model operating in conjunction with a tree based model;

classifying, by the predictive model executing on the processor based on the value prediction signal determined by the predictive model, the identified customer into one of a first value group and a second value group;

in the event the classifying step classifies the identified customer into the first value group, assigning, by the processor, the identified customer to a priority call-back queue assignment;

wherein the priority call-back queue assignment comprises one or more of a queue position in a priority call-back queue and a priority queue position in a call-back queue;

in the event the classifying step classifies the identified customer into the second value group, assigning, by the processor, the identified customer to a subordinate call-back queue assignment;

wherein the subordinate call-back queue assignment comprises one or more of a queue position in a subordinate call-back queue and a subordinate queue position in a call-back queue; and

automatically calling back the identified customer, by an automatic calling device in communication with the processor, based on the priority call-back queue assignment or the subordinate call-back queue assignment for the identified customer.

2. The processor based method according to claim 1, wherein the step of querying the one or more database comprises querying one or more of an internal customer profile database of the enterprise, an external directory services database, and an external customer demographic database, to retrieve the customer identifier data;

and wherein the customer identifier data comprise two or more of name of the identified customer, address of the identified customer, and zip code of the identified customer.

3. The processor based method of claim 2, wherein the customer identifier data is associated with one or more of an ANI or DNIS delivered with the customer call, and a call-back number provided by the inbound caller while exercising the call-back option.

4. The processor based method of claim 1, wherein the inbound queue data include one or more of waiting time of the customer call spent in the inbound queue, and identity of the inbound queue among multiple inbound queues of the call center.

5. The processor based method of claim 1, wherein the priority call-back queue assignment is the queue position in the priority call-back queue, and the subordinate call-back queue assignment is the queue position in the subordinate call-back queue.

6. The processor based method of claim 5, wherein the priority call-back queue is a queue for immediate call-back, and the subordinate call-back queue is a queue for deferred call-back.

7. The processor based method of claim 5, wherein the priority call-back queue is a queue for call-back by higher-skill agents, and the subordinate call-back queue is a queue for call-back by lower-skill agents.

8. The processor based method of claim 5, wherein the priority call-back queue is a queue dedicated to call-backs, and the subordinate call-back queue is a blended queue for both receiving inbound calls and for call-backs.

9. The processor based method according to claim 1, wherein the first value group comprises customers having a first set of modeled lifetime values, and the second value group comprises customers having a second set of modeled lifetime values, wherein modeled lifetime values in the first set of modeled lifetime values are higher than modeled lifetime values in the second set of modeled lifetime values.

10. A processor based method for managing customer calls within a call center, comprising:

upon receiving a customer call at a call center of an enterprise from an inbound caller, opening, by the processor, an inbound call record for the customer call, the inbound call record including any automatic number identifier information delivered with the customer call;

monitoring, by the processor, the customer call to detect any termination of the customer call by exercising a call-back option via the interactive voice response unit or by abandoning the customer call, and in the event of detecting the termination of the customer call;

opening, by the processor, a call-back record for the terminated customer call including any automatic number identifier information delivered;

querying, by the processor, one or more database to retrieve customer identifier data and to associate the call-back record with an identified customer via the customer identifier data;

retrieving, by the processor, customer demographic data associated with the identified customer;

determining, by a predictive model executing on the processor, a value prediction signal comprising one or more of a first signal representative of a likelihood that the identified customer will accept an offer to purchase a product, a second signal representative of a likelihood that the identified customer will lapse in payments for a purchased product, and a third signal representative of a likelihood that the identified customer will accept an offer to purchase the product and will not lapse in payments for the purchased product;

wherein the predictive model comprises a logistic regression model operating in conjunction with a tree based model;

classifying, by the predictive model executing on the processor based on the value prediction signal determined by the predictive model, the identified customer into one of a first value group and a second value group;

in the event the classifying step classifies the identified customer into the first value group, automatically calling back the identified customer via an automatic calling device in communication with the processor, for connection to a selected agent of the call center;

in the event the classifying step classifies the identified customer into the second value group, automatically executing a subordinate call-back procedure via an automatic calling device in communication with the processor.

11. The processor based method according to claim 10, wherein the step of monitoring the customer call to detect any termination of the customer call comprises retrieving one or more of IVR data received from the inbound caller via interaction with the interactive voice response unit, and inbound queue data retrieved by monitoring an inbound call queue including the inbound caller;

and wherein the call-back record includes the one or more of the IVR data and the inbound queue data.

12. The processor based method according to claim 10, wherein the step of querying the one or more database comprises querying one or more of an internal customer profile database of the enterprise, an external directory services database, and an external customer demographic database, to retrieve the customer identifier data;

and wherein the customer identifier data comprise two or more of name of the identified customer, address of the identified customer, and zip code of the identified customer.

13. The processor based method according to claim 10, wherein the selected agent of the call center is selected based on matching the customer identifier data to private call-back data associated with the selected agent.

14. The processor based method according to claim 10, further comprising the step of retrieving internal call history data for the identified customer, and wherein the selected agent is selected based on the internal call history data for the identified customer.

15. The processor based method according to claim 10, wherein the step of automatically executing a subordinate call-back procedure comprises one or more of automatically calling back with a recorded message, automatically calling back for connection to an agent from a pool of unskilled agents, and automatically deferring call-back.

16. A system for managing customer calls within a call center, comprising:

an inbound telephone call receiving device for receiving a customer call from an inbound caller to the call center;

a telephone calling device for placing outbound customer calls from the call center;

an interactive voice response unit;

non-transitory machine-readable memory that stores call history information and customer profile information for customers of the call center;

a predictive modeling module that stores a predictive model of customer value, wherein the predictive model comprises a logistic regression model operating in conjunction with a tree based model; and

a processor, configured to execute a call-back management module, wherein the processor in communication with the non-transitory machine-readable memory and the predictive modeling module executes a set of instructions instructing the processor to;

generate an inbound call record including any automatic number identifier information delivered with the customer call received by the inbound telephone call receiving device;

monitor the customer call to detect any termination of the customer call by exercising a call-back option of the interactive voice response unit or by abandoning the customer call, and in the event of detecting the termination of the customer call;

opening a call-back record for the terminated customer call including any automatic number identifier information delivered with the customer call;

query one or more database to retrieve customer identifier data and to associate the call-back record with an identified customer;

retrieve from the non-transitory machine-readable memory any of the call history information and the customer profile information associated with the identified customer;

determine a value prediction signal comprising one or more of a first signal representative of a likelihood that the identified customer will accept an offer to purchase a product, a second signal representative of a likelihood that the identified customer will lapse in payments for a purchased product, and a third signal representative of a likelihood that the identified customer will accept an offer to purchase the product and will not lapse in payments for the purchased product;

classify the identified customer into one of a first value group and a second value group based on the value prediction signal; and

direct the telephone calling device for placing outbound customer calls;

in the event the call-back management module classifies the identified customer into the first value group, to automatically call back the identified customer for connection to a selected agent of the call center;

in the event the call-back management module classifies the identified customer into the second value group, to automatically execute a subordinate call-back procedure.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the set of instructions further comprise an instruction to retrieve IVR data received from the inbound caller via interaction with the interactive voice response unit, and wherein the call-back record for the terminated customer call further comprises the IVR data received from the inbound caller.

18. The system according to claim 16, wherein selected agent of the call center is selected based on matching the customer identifier data to private call-back data associated with the selected agent.

19. The system according to claim 16, wherein the set of instructions further comprise an instruction to retrieve internal call history data for the identified customer, and wherein the selected agent of the call center is selected based on the internal call history data for the identified customer.

20. The system according to claim 16, wherein the subordinate call-back procedure comprises one or more of automatically calling back with a recorded message of the interactive voice response unit, automatically calling back for connection to an agent from a pool of unskilled agents, and automatically deferring call-back.