Method and System for Hybrid Call Handling

• US 20080086690A1
• Filed: 09/21/2006
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rajput, Nitendra, Verma, Ashish, Balakrishnan, Sreeram Viswanath, Faruquie, Tanveer Afzal
• Application Number:
  US11/534,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20080086690A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/736
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

The present invention provides a hybrid call handling method and system. The method comprises navigating a plurality of received calls from a plurality of callers. The method further comprises monitoring a call health status for each of the plurality of the calls being navigated for entire call duration and notifying a bad call health status of the monitored call to a human agent for employing at least one rectification action. The call health status is determined by monitoring and measuring one or more call parameters. The invention provides for a system for call handling and navigation by an automated system with a human agent assisting the automated system for rectification of calls with bad call health status. Once the call with a bad health is transferred to the human agent, he assists the automated system either by directly communicating with the caller or by communicating using a machine interface.

Claims

1. A hybrid call handling method comprising:

navigating a plurality of received calls from a plurality of callers,

monitoring a call health status for each of the plurality of the calls being navigated for an entire call duration; and

notifying a bad call health status of the monitored call to a human agent for employing at least one rectification action.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the call health status comprises monitoring one or more call parameters.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the call parameters comprises at least one of a call flow, duration of the call, a caller'"'"'s inputs, prompts played to the caller, a call priority status, probability of a non-native caller accent, the call history, and the stability of the caller'"'"'s emotional state.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the call history comprises a call log, a speech recognition score for each prompt, an action classification score for each prompt, and number of events for each prompt.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein notifying comprises transferring the call control of the monitored call to the human agent.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein notifying comprises intervention of the human agent for handling the monitored call.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the call health status is determined on the basis of one or more pre-assigned threshold values to at least one of the call parameters.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising alerting the human agent on detecting the bad call health status.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing one or more call parameters to the human agent.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the rectification action comprises:

analyzing the call parameters to determine at least one cause for the bad call health status; and

employing one or more corrective actions to rectify the bad call health status.

11. The method of claim 1, optionally comprising transferring call control from the human agent to the automated system upon rectification of the bad call health status.

12. A hybrid call handling system comprising at least one automated system and at least one human agent, the automated system comprising:

a call navigating module;

a call monitoring module coupled to the call navigating module to monitor a call health status; and

a call control module coupled to the call monitoring module.

13. The hybrid call handling system of claim 12, further comprising a call receiving module, wherein the call receiving module comprises at least one of an interactive voice response system and a machine interface.

14. The hybrid call handling system of claim 12, wherein the call navigating module comprises a call context gatherer unit.

15. The hybrid call handling system of claim 12, wherein the call monitoring module comprises a call log analyzer unit.

16. The hybrid call handling system of claim 12, wherein the call control module comprises a bad call health alert unit, a call control transfer unit, and a call context presentation unit.

17. The hybrid call handling system of claim 16, wherein the bad call health alert unit includes a visual alert unit, an audible alert unit, and a combination thereof.

18. A hybrid call handling system comprising:

a plurality of calls originating from a plurality of callers, the plurality of callers coupled over a first network;

one or more automated systems coupled to the first network, the automated system comprising one or more modules for at least one of;

navigating a plurality of received calls from a plurality of callers, monitoring a call health status for each of the plurality of the calls being navigated for an entire call duration; and

controlling the monitored call; and

one or more human agent terminals coupled to the automated system over a second network, the human agent terminal comprising at least one of;

a call health alert unit; and

one or more human agents for rectification of bad call health.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the first and the second network include a PSTN network, a cellular phone network, an IPLC network, a VoIP network, Internet, Intranet, a computer network and a combination thereof.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the human agent terminal further comprises a text-to-speech engine for enabling the human agent to interact with the caller.