Method and system for mapping caller information to call center agent transactions

• US 20060023863A1
• Filed: 07/28/2004
• Published: 02/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Knott, Benjamin Anthony, Bushey, Robert R., Joseph, Kurt M., Pasquale, Theodore
• Granted Patent: US 8,165,281 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2011 Service processing based on information specified by a party before or during a call, e.g. information, tone or routing selection
• 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 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements

Abstract

A system and method of processing a call at a call center is provided. In a particular embodiment, the method includes receiving the call at the call center, receiving an indication element associated with a call center transaction, retrieving call center transaction data based on the indication element, and generating a sequence of pre-populated call center agent terminal transaction processing screens based on at least a portion of the call center transaction data. In a particular embodiment, a set of prioritized transactions based on likelihood of matching a customer request is disclosed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a call center routing and control module having an input to receive incoming calls and to receive a transaction identifier indicative of a caller transaction to be executed;

a transaction database including a plurality of transactions that are suitable for execution by the call center;

transaction selection logic responsive to the transaction database and including logic to select a set of transactions for execution in response to the transaction identifier; and

display screen sequence logic responsive to the transaction selection logic, the display screen sequence logic configured to generate agent display screen commands corresponding to a sequence of display screens associated with the set of selected transactions.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one agent terminal responsive to the call center routing and control module.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one agent terminal is responsive to the agent display screen commands.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the agent terminal includes a display and wherein the display generates a sequence of pre-populated screen views in response to the agent display screen commands.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the call center routing and control module is responsive to a network interface connection.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction identifier indicative of the caller transaction is an action-object pair.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the action-object pair is determined in response to receiving a customer opening statement at an interactive voice response unit remotely coupled to the call center routing and control module via a distributed network.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the distributed network is a telephony network.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interactive voice response unit in remote communication with respect to the call center routing and control module.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the interactive voice response unit is responsive to a telephone exchange.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the interactive voice response unit has an input to receive calls and to receive a customer opening statement from the telephone exchange.

12. A method of processing a call at a call center, the method comprising:

receiving the call at the call center;

receiving an indication element associated with a call center transaction;

retrieving call center transaction data based on the indication element; and

generating a sequence of pre-populated call center agent terminal transaction processing screens based on at least a portion of the call center transaction data.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing the sequence to a call center agent terminal.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising displaying a sequence of display screens at the call center agent terminal in accordance with the sequence.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving caller information related to the display screens.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising processing the call center transaction based on the transaction data and based on the caller information.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the indication element is an action-object pair determined in response to a caller opening statement received at an interactive voice response unit.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the indication element associated with the call center transaction is a predicted call center transaction based on an evaluation of the caller opening statement.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the call center transaction is selected from at least one of adding a telephony service, modifying a telephony service, and disconnecting a telephony service.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the telephony service comprises call notes.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the telephony service comprises long-distance telephone service.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the telephony service comprises a bundle of different services.

23. A method of call handling comprising:

collecting data at an interactive voice response unit;

forwarding the collected data to a remote analysis module;

comparing the collected data to a plurality of call center transactions;

populating display screens and displaying the populated display screens at a call center agent terminal in response to determining a match between a particular call center transaction and the collected data; and

processing the particular call center transaction.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising accessing a matrix that maps caller requests and call center transactions to compare the collected data to the plurality of call center transactions.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the matrix is an action-object transaction matrix.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the collected data comprises a caller opening statement.