Method, software and system for developing interactive call center agent personas

• US 20050169453A1
• Filed: 01/29/2004
• Published: 08/04/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Bushey, Robert R., Knott, Benjamin A., Martin, John M., Andrews, Stephanie
• Granted Patent: US 7,512,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.20
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00

Abstract

A method, software and system of developing personalities for interactive and/or automated call center applications are provided. According to teachings of the present invention, sample population questionnaires and interviews may be used to identify key personality traits. The impact of the identified key personality traits are then empirically determined. Based on the empirical determination of the key personality traits'"'"' impact on customer satisfaction, a plurality of personality profiles may be generated for evaluation. A plurality of application types and voice talents may then be employed to evaluate the impact of each personality profile on customer satisfaction, for different user populations and different types of automated systems. The personality traits for each automated system are preferably rated and reviewed to ensure a system accurately represents the identified key personality traits. The various voice talents may also be evaluated to identify those traits best at conveying a desired personality.

Claims

1. A method for developing automated interactive call center agent personalities, comprising:

querying a population to identify key personality traits sought from an assistance provider;

evaluating empirically a plurality of the identified key personality traits to identify an impact on user satisfaction;

defining a plurality of personality profiles, each of the plurality of personality profiles based on the key personality traits and their impact on user satisfaction;

testing the plurality of personality profiles within a plurality of application types using a plurality of voice talents for a plurality of different user populations and in a plurality of differing automated systems;

obtaining user ratings for the personality traits within each automated system to determine whether an automated system accurately represents the key personality traits and profiles;

evaluating whether the voice talents convey the key personality traits;

obtaining ratings from the population for each personality profile regarding personality profile ability to delivery customer satisfaction;

evaluating whether the customer satisfaction delivered by each personality profile meets a desired customer satisfaction metric; and

varying combinations of voice talents, automated systems and application types until a personality profile meeting desired characteristics is defined.

2. Software for developing a call center application persona, the software embodied in computer readable media and when executed operable to:

interrogate a sample population to identify preferred persona characteristics;

generate a weighting for a selected plurality of the preferred persona characteristics;

construct at least one persona based on the preferred persona characteristic weightings;

evaluate a customer satisfaction level for the at least one persona; and

modify one or more aspects of the at least one persona to achieve a preferred level of customer satisfaction.

3. The software of claim 2, further operable to conduct interviews with the sample population to identify preferred persona characteristics.

4. The software of claim 2, further operable to present questionnaires to the sample population to identify preferred persona characteristics.

5. The software of claim 2, further operable to perform an analysis of variance on the selected plurality of preferred persona characteristics to generate the preferred persona characteristic weightings.

6. The software of claim 2, further operable to perform a regression analysis on the selected plurality of preferred persona characteristics to weight the preferred persona characteristics as predictors of customer satisfaction.

7. The software of claim 2, further operable to evaluate the at least one persona in light of a proposed automated system to determine whether the persona accurately represents preferred persona characteristics.

8. The software of claim 2, further operable to modify verbal aspects of the at least one persona to achieve the preferred level of customer satisfaction.

9. The software of claim 2, further operable to vary the sample population to insure an appropriate level of customer satisfaction across a broad customer base.

10. The software of claim 2, further operable to vary aspects of an automated system in which the at least one persona is to be used to insure an appropriate level of customer satisfaction for at least one automated call center application.

11. A method for developing an automated speech recognition application persona, comprising;

identifying personality traits key to customer satisfaction;

assigning values to the identified personality traits;

defining a plurality of personality profiles based on the assigned values;

evaluating measurable customer satisfaction effects associated with each personality profile;

rating the personality profiles regarding their ability to represent key personality traits in one or more selected automated systems;

varying one or more characteristics of the personality profiles; and

evaluating the varied personality profile characteristics to identify characteristics most capable of conveying preferred personality traits.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising assigning empirical weightings to the identified personality traits using regression analysis.

13. A method of claim 12, further comprising performing a one-way analysis of variance for each identified personality trait.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising performing the regression analysis on the identified personality traits to determine a relationship between the identified personality traits.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising identifying the personality traits key to customer satisfaction using interviews with a sample population.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising identifying personality traits key to customer satisfaction using questionnaires with a sample population.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising varying an application in which a personality profile is to be used to rate the ability of the personality profile to represent the key personality traits of customer satisfaction.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising varying characteristics of a test population used to rate the personality profiles regarding an ability to represent the key personality traits in one or more automated systems and in evaluating the varied personality profile characteristics to identify the characteristics most capable of conveying preferred personality traits.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising varying one or more verbal characteristics of each personality profile to identify characteristics most capable of conveying preferred personality traits.

20. A system for developing customer service applications, comprising:

at least one processor;

memory operably associated with the processor; and

a program of instructions storable in the memory and executable by the processor, the program of instructions operable to elicit key personality traits from a sample population, order the key personality traits according to customer satisfaction relevance, create one or more customer service application personality profiles based on the ordered personality traits, evaluate the customer service application personality profiles for a customer satisfaction level determination, and modify one or more aspects of each customer service application personality profile not in accordance with a desired level of customer satisfaction.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising the program of instructions operable to conduct at least one of a sample population interview and a sample population questionnaire to elicit key personality traits from the sample population.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising the program of instruction operable to perform at least one of an analysis of variance and a regression analysis on the key personality traits to order the key personality traits.

23. The system of claim 20, further comprising the program of instructions operable to modify verbal characteristics of each personality profile to bring the personality profile into accordance with the desired level of customer satisfaction.

24. The system of claim 20, further comprising the program of instructions operable to modify the personality profiles in accordance with an associated automated customer service application operating environment to achieve the desired level of customer satisfaction.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising the program of instructions operable to vary operational aspects of the associated automated customer service application to achieve the desired level of customer satisfaction.

26. The system of claim 24, further comprising the program of instructions operable to vary one or more goals of the automated customer service application to achieve the desired level of customer satisfaction.