Measuring customer service levels

• US 20060059034A1
• Filed: 09/10/2004
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FMR LLC
• Original Assignee: FMR LLC
• Inventors: Iannucci, Louis A., Ronan, Robert J., Kulis, Peter E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,583,472 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5022 by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5064 Customer relationship management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5083 wherein the managed service relates to web hosting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/55 Testing of service level quality, e.g. simulating service usage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for measuring how well interactive components of a service facility that are accessible to users through a communication network perform in serving users, the interactive components being a proper subset of all of the interactive components of the service facility, and using the results of the measuring to evaluate the performance of the service facility with respect to a target performance.

Claims

1. A computer-based method comprising:

measuring how well interactive components of a service facility that are accessible to users through a communication network perform in serving users, the interactive components being a proper subset of all of the interactive components of the service facility, and

using the results of the measuring to evaluate the performance of the service facility with respect to a target performance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactive components of the selected proper subset comprise key components.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling a user to select interactive components of one or more Web pages associated with the service facility to be included in the proper subset of components.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the service facility is a Web-based service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance value is measured using a time-based metric.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a target performance value for each interactive component of the selected proper subset.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling a user to group interactive components of the selected proper subset into one or more groups of interactive components; and

receiving a target performance value for each group of interactive components.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the interactive components are grouped on a page-basis.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a weight for one or more interactive components of the selected proper subset.

10. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in an information carrier, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

measure how well interactive components of a service facility that are accessible to users through a communication network perform in serving users, the interactive components being a proper subset of all of the interactive components of the service facility, and

use the results of the measuring to evaluate the performance of the service facility with respect to a target performance.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the interactive components of the selected proper subset comprise key components.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 being further operable to:

enable a user to select interactive components of one or more Web pages associated with the service facility to be included in the proper subset of components.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the service facility is a Web-based service.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the performance value is measured using a time-based metric.

15. The computer program product of claim 10 being further operable to:

receive a target performance value for each interactive component of the selected proper subset.

16. The computer program product of claim 10 being further operable to:

enable a user to group interactive components of the selected proper subset into one or more groups of interactive components; and

receive a target performance value for each group of interactive components.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the interactive components are grouped on a page-basis.

18. The computer program product of claim 10 being further operable to:

receive a weight for one or more interactive components of the selected proper subset.

19. A system comprising:

a storage device storing a plurality of Web pages that collectively define a service facility, each Web page comprising a plurality of components;

a server computer in communication with the storage device, the server computer capable of;

measuring how well interactive components of the service facility that are accessible to users through a communication network perform in serving users, the interactive components being a proper subset of all of the interactive components of the service facility, and

using the results of the measuring to evaluate the performance of the service facility with respect to a target performance.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the interactive components of the selected proper subset comprise key components.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the server computer is further capable of:

enabling a user to select interactive components of one or more Web pages associated with the service facility to be included in the proper subset of components.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the service facility is a Web-based service.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the performance value is measured using a time-based metric.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the server computer is further capable of:

receiving a target performance value for each interactive component of the selected proper subset.

25. The system of claim 19, wherein the server computer is further capable of:

enabling a user to group interactive components of the selected proper subset into one or more groups of interactive components; and

receiving a target performance value for each group of interactive components.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the interactive components are grouped on a page-basis.

27. The system of claim 19, wherein the server computer is further capable of:

receiving a weight for one or more interactive components of the selected proper subset.