Methods and Systems for Managing Support Cases Based on Support Issues Received by way of Social Media Outlets

• US 20120060096A1
• Filed: 09/07/2010
• Published: 03/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Ebrahimi, Fariborz, Makam, Chethan, Desai, Swapneel H., Manadavadiprakash, Gurucharan, Gunturu, Vittal, Sebati, Zouhair
• Granted Patent: US 8,924,487 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Exemplary systems and methods for managing support cases based on support issues received by way of social media outlets are disclosed. An exemplary method includes a social media management subsystem receiving data representative of a support issue by way of a social media outlet, establishing a support case based on the support issue, displaying a portal configured to facilitate management of a plurality of support cases including the support case, receiving a request to assign the support case to one or more backend support subsystems, transmitting data representative of the support case to the one or more backend support subsystems, and monitoring one or more actions performed by the one or more backend support subsystems to address the support issue. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a social media management subsystem by way of a social media outlet, data representative of a support issue provided by a user of the social media outlet;

establishing, by the social media management subsystem, a support case based on the support issue;

displaying, by the social media management subsystem, a portal configured to facilitate management of a plurality of support cases including the support case;

receiving, by the social media management subsystem by way of the portal, a request to assign the support case to one or more backend support subsystems;

transmitting, by the social media management subsystem in response to the request, data representative of the support case to the one or more backend support subsystems; and

monitoring, by the social media management subsystem, one or more actions performed by the one or more backend support subsystems to address the support issue.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the data representative of the support issue comprises:

searching the social media outlet for a communication associated with or including the support issue; and

receiving, in response to the searching, data representative of the communication.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the searching the social media outlet comprises:

receiving data representative of one or more search criteria; and

searching the social media outlet in accordance with the one or more search criteria.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the searching further comprises:

receiving a selected search frequency; and

automatically searching the social media outlet in accordance with the selected search frequency.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the data representative of the support issue comprises receiving the data representative of the support issue by way of a social media outlet account included within the social media outlet and corresponding to an organization associated with the social media management subsystem.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the support issue is posted by the user to a web page associated with the social media outlet account.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing the support case comprises establishing at least one electronic file configured to maintain information associated with at least one of the support issue, the user, and the support case.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least a portion of the information is provided by an operator of the social media management subsystem by way of the portal.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

transmitting, by the social media management subsystem to the user, data representative of an information request for at least a portion of the information;

receiving, by the social media management subsystem in response to the information request, the at least a portion of the information; and

storing, by the social media management subsystem, the at least a portion of the information in the at least one electronic file.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the request for information comprises a uniform resource locator (“

URL”

) of a secure website configured to facilitate input of the at least a portion of the information by the user, and

the receiving the at least a portion of the information comprises receiving the at least a portion of the information by way of the secure website.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the social media management subsystem is associated with an organization, and wherein each of the one or more backend support subsystems is associated with one or more departments or agents of the organization.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more backend support subsystems comprise at least one of a backend billing subsystem, a backend technical support subsystem, a backend marketing subsystem, and a backend customer service subsystem.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the data representative of the support case to the one or more backend support subsystems comprises providing the one or more backend support subsystems with access to the support case by way of the portal.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, by the social media management subsystem, information related to the one or more actions by way of the portal.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions comprise sending one or more communications configured to address the support issue.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising facilitating, by the social media management subsystem, communication between an operator of the social media management subsystem and an operator of the one or more backend support subsystems.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the facilitating the communication between the operator of the social media management subsystem and the operator of the one or more backend support subsystems comprises displaying a chat window within the portal, the chat window configured to receive and display messages provided by the operator of the social media management subsystem and messages provided by the operator of the one or more backend support subsystems.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the social media management subsystem, data representative of a promotional offer to the user by way of the social media outlet.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the promotional offer is associated with the support issue.

21. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

22. A method comprising:

receiving, by a social media management subsystem by way of one or more social media outlets, data representative of a plurality of support issues provided by users of the one or more social media outlets, the plurality of support issues comprising a first support issue and a second support issue;

establishing, by the social media management subsystem, a plurality of support cases based on the plurality of support issues, the plurality of support cases comprising a first support case based on the first support issue and a second support case based on the second support issue;

displaying, by the social media management subsystem, a portal configured to facilitate management of the plurality of support cases;

receiving, by the social media management subsystem by way of the portal, a first request to assign the first support case to a first backend support subsystem and a second request to assign the second support case to a second backend support subsystem;

transmitting, by the social media management subsystem in response to the first request and the second request, data representative of the first support case to the first backend support subsystem and data representative of the second support case to the second backend support subsystem; and

monitoring, by the social media management subsystem, one or more actions performed by the first backend support subsystem to address the first support issue and one or more actions performed by the second backend support subsystem to address the second support issue.

23. A system comprising:

a communication facility configured to receive, by way of a social media outlet, data representative of a support issue provided by a user of the social media outlet; and

a social media management facility selectively and communicatively coupled to the communication facility and configured to

establish a support case based on the support issue,

display a portal to facilitate management of a plurality of support cases including the support case,

receive, by way of the portal, a request to assign the support case to one or more backend support subsystems,

transmit, in response to the request, data representative of the support case to the one or more backend support subsystems, and

monitor one or more actions performed by the one or more backend support subsystems to address the support issue.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the social media management facility is further configured to display data representative of the one or more actions within the portal.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the social media management facility is further configured to

receive data representative of a promotional offer from one of the one or more backend support subsystems, and

transmit the data representative of the promotional offer to the user by way of the social media outlet.