Providing data messaging support by intercepting and processing received short message service (SMS) messages at a customer support service

• US 10,601,743 B1
• Filed: 09/04/2018
• Issued: 03/24/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: West Technology Group LLC (West Corporation)
• Original Assignee: West Corporation
• Inventors: Caldwell, Adam, Cordell, Jeffrey William, Boutcher, James K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Algibhah, Hamza N
• Application Number:
  US16/120,519
• Time in Patent Office: 567 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

A message receiving, intercepting and processing method and corresponding application and device may provide receiving a message at a message processing server, pre-processing the message to determine a particular contextual classification associated with a word included in the message and assigning the message to a predefined message bucket that has a number of automated responses. The method may also include identifying an automated response to the message that includes contextual information that is based on the parsed word from the message and processing the message to determine whether to generate the automated response and transmit the automated response to an end user device based on a confidence score.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

pre-processing a message at a message processing server to determine a contextual classification associated with at least one word included in the message;

replacing at least one word in the message with a known alias term linked to a predefined message bucket;

assigning the message to the predefined message bucket comprising a plurality of automated responses by selecting at least one of a plurality of different predefined message buckets;

processing the message to determine whether to generate an automated response; and

transmitting the automated response to an end user device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a short message service (SMS) type.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-processing the message comprises parsing at least one word from the message as having an associated response category related to the context of the at least one parsed word.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising identifying an automated response to the message that includes the contextual information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the contextual information is based on the parsed at least one word from the message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigned predefined message bucket has a corresponding list of responses that are relevant to the subjective content of the contextual classification associated with the at least one word included in the message.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising transmitting the automated response to the end user device based on a confidence score.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor configured to;

pre-process a message at a message processing server to determine a contextual classification associated with at least one word included in the message;

replace at least one word in the message with a known alias term linked to a predefined message bucket;

assign the message to the predefined message bucket comprising a plurality of automated responses by selecting at least one of a plurality of different predefined message buckets;

process the message to determine whether to generate an automated response; and

transmit the automated response to an end user device.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the message is a short message service (SMS) type.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the pre-process of the message comprises the processor configured to perform a parse operation on at least one word from the message with an associated response category related to the context of the at least one parsed word.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to identify an automated response to the message that includes the contextual information.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the contextual information is based on the parsed at least one word from the message.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the assigned predefined message bucket has a corresponding list of responses that are relevant to the subjective content of the contextual classification associated with the at least one word included in the message.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to process the message to determine whether to generate the automated response and transmit the automated response to the end user device based on a confidence score.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to store instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform:

pre-processing a message at a message processing server to determine a contextual classification associated with at least one word included in the message;

replacing at least one word in the message with a known alias term linked to a predefined message bucket;

assigning the message to the predefined message bucket comprising a plurality of automated responses by selecting at least one of a plurality of different predefined message buckets;

processing the message to determine whether to generate an automated response; and

transmitting the automated response to an end user device.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the message is a short message service (SMS) type.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the pre-processing the message comprises parsing at least one word from the message as having an associated response category related to the context of the at least one parsed word.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to identify an automated response to the message that includes the contextual information.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the contextual information is based on the parsed at least one word from the message.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the assigned predefined message bucket has a corresponding list of responses that are relevant to the subjective content of the contextual classification associated with the at least one word included in the message.