CUSTOMER SERVICE METHODS, APPARATUS AND REPORT/ALERT GENERATION BASED ON CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL INFORMATION

• US 20090310774A1
• Filed: 06/11/2008
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Curtis, Suzanne Elizabeth, Blackwood, Dianne Keener, Somers, Joy, Hendricks, James William
• Granted Patent: US 8,588,395 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.130
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements

Abstract

Methods and apparatus that provide customer service representatives with information for supporting a customer service call are described. Also described are method and apparatus for collecting customer service call information and generating reports and/or alerts there from. Through the use of customer service call data from multiple divisions, problems and/or underperformance at a division can be identified and rectified in a timely manner. Information from one division can also be used to predict possible problems at other divisions allowing problems to be addressed, in some cases, prior to customer complaints at a division to be addressed in some cases before an increase in the number of customer service calls at the individual division triggers an alert.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a customer service call from a customer;

retrieving account information corresponding to said customer;

selecting a business offer to present to said customer based on retrieved account information corresponding to said customer; and

populating a customer service representative screen with retrieved account information and information on the selected business offer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning the received call to one of a plurality of call queues; and

wherein said selecting a business offer to present to said customer includes selecting said business offer as a function of the call queue to which said customer service call was assigned.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said plurality of call queues includes at least two of:

a service call queue;

a billing inquiry queue; and

a sales queue.

4. The method of claim 3,

wherein said plurality of queues includes a service call queue;

and

wherein when said call is assigned to the service call queue, selecting a business offer includes selecting from a plurality of business offers including warranty offers and service repair offers.

5. The method of claim 4,

wherein said plurality of queues includes a billing inquiry queue;

and

wherein when said call is assigned to the billing inquiry queue, selecting a business offer includes selecting from a plurality of payment plan offers, at least one of said payment plan offers including automatic billing to a credit card.

6. The method of claim 3,

wherein said plurality of queues includes a billing inquiry queue;

and

wherein when said call is assigned to the billing inquiry queue, selecting a business offer includes selecting from a plurality of payment plan offers, at least one of said payment plan offers including automatic billing to a credit card.

7. The method of claim 3,

wherein said plurality of queues includes a sales queue;

and

wherein when said call is assigned to the sales queue, selecting a business offer includes selecting from a plurality of service packages providing a greater number of services than a number of services to which the customer already subscribes as indicated by the retrieved account information.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing call disposition information indicating the disposition of said customer call; and

generating a report including information obtained from said stored call disposition information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein storing call disposition information includes:

storing said call disposition information in a database with call disposition information indicating the disposition of other customer calls, said stored call disposition information indicating the reason for the call and the action taken to address the reason for the customer call.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein generating a report includes:

grouping call information according to different disposition categories indicated by said stored call disposition information; and

incorporating information on the resolution of calls corresponding to the different disposition categories.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

incorporating in said report information indicating the reasons for calls received for a disposition category.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

generating a plurality of division reports, different division reports corresponding to different divisions which correspond to different service regions, said reports indicating the number of calls for each of a plurality of different call reasons, serviced by a corresponding division during a time period; and

automatically determining if a division is encountering a problem by comparing the information included in the plurality of division reports to identify disparities between number of calls for particular reason above a threshold level.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating an alert when it is determined that a division is encountering a problem.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein generating an alert includes providing information on the call reason which triggered the alert.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the call reason is one of a network fault condition, billing error, and faulty service by a company technician.

16. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

generating a plurality of division reports for a division over an extended period of time; and

automatically generating an alert when a division report indicates an increase in calls for a call category corresponding to reporting of a service or billing problem.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said alert is generated when said increase is an increase of at least 20%.

18. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

generating a plurality of division reports for different divisions for a given time period; and

automatically generating an alert when a division report indicates calls for a call category corresponding to reporting of a service or billing problem for one division exceeds an average level generated for multiple divisions for the call category by a predetermined amount.

19. A system comprising:

a computer telephony integration server for receiving a customer service call from a customer;

a billing system for retrieving account information corresponding to said customer;

an offer selection module for selecting a business offer to present to said customer based on retrieved account information corresponding to said customer; and

a control module for populating a customer service representative screen with retrieved account information and information on the selected business offer.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

memory for storing offer selection rules;

wherein the computer telephony integration server assigns the received call to one of a plurality of call queues; and

wherein the said offer selection module selects a business offer to present to said customer as a function of the call queue to which said customer service call was assigned in addition to retrieved account information.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein said plurality of call queues includes at least two of:

a service call queue;

a billing inquiry queue; and

a sales queue.

22. A method of processing customer service representative call data comprising:

generating a plurality of division reports for a division over an extended period of time; and

automatically generating an alert when a division report indicates a significant increase in calls for a call category corresponding to reporting of a service or billing problem.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said alert is generated when said increase is an increase of at least 20%.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

generating a plurality of division reports for different divisions for a given time period; and

automatically generating an alert when a division report indicates calls for a call category corresponding to reporting of a service or billing problem for one division exceeds an average level generated for multiple divisions for the call category by a predetermined amount.

25. A system for processing customer service representative call data comprising:

an extended time period report generation module for generating a plurality of division reports for a division over an extended period of time; and

an alert generation module for automatically generating an alert when a division report indicates a significant increase in calls for a call category corresponding to reporting of a service or billing problem.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein said alert is generated when said increase is an increase of at least 20%.

27. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

a time period report generation module for generating a plurality of division reports corresponding to different divisions for a given time period; and

means for generating an alert when a division report indicates calls for a call category corresponding to reporting of a service or billing problem for one division exceeds an average level generated for multiple divisions for the call category by a predetermined amount.