PUBLIC NON-COMPANY CONTROLLED SOCIAL FORUM RESPONSE METHOD

• US 20150324805A1
• Filed: 05/08/2014
• Published: 11/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Skiba, David, Finney, Peter, Maher, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 10,475,042 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Users may post issues and questions on public social media websites and other public forums. A business or product of the business may be the subject of the post. With a properly trained system the business can determined if another community member is likely provide and accurate, sufficient, and timely response to the post. If so, the business can avoid allocating resources to respond to such posts. However, if it is determined that an appropriate response is not likely, or not likely within an acceptable timeframe, the business may notify an agent to provide an appropriate response. As a benefit, the business may leverage a community of knowledgeable users to provide assistance to other users and thereby not expend resources unnecessarily.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

accessing a social media website operable to receive and host posts from a community of users;

identifying a post from the social media website that solicits a response;

estimating a time to receive a sufficient response to the post by a member of the community of users; and

upon the estimated time to receive a sufficient response being greater than a previously determined acceptable time, routing the post to a contact center agent to respond to the post on behalf of a company that is not included in the community of users.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon the estimated time to receive a sufficient response not being greater than a previously determined acceptable time;

monitoring the social media website; and

upon determining that a period of time since the post was posted has lapsed and no sufficient response to the post has been posted, routing the post to the agent to respond to the post.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the period of time is the estimated time to receive a sufficient response.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of estimating the time to receive a sufficient response, further comprises:

determining at least one attribute of the post;

accessing a database having a number of records of the at least one attribute and a response time for which a historical post having the at least one attribute received a sufficient response; and

determining a representative response time in accord with the historical post.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of determining the representative response time for the post further comprises normalizing the representative response time by applying an adjustment factor comprising, at least one of, the number of records, the time of day of the post, the day of the post, the time of day the post was accessed, the day the post was identified, the number of the at least one attributes, the identity of the post creator, the alias of the post creator, the geographic origin of the post, the subject of the post, the sentiment of the post, keywords importance, the identity of the social media website, the number of endorsements of the post, the length of the post, media of at least a portion of the post, and the number of comments from the community of users to the post.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of determining at least one attribute of the post, further comprises, selecting at least one of, the time of day of the post, the day of the post, the time of day the post was identified, the day the post was identified, the identity of the post creator, the alias of the post creator, the geographic origin of the post, the IP address of the post creator, the subject of the post, the sentiment of the post, keyword, the identity of the social media website, the number of endorsements of the post, the length of the post, media of at least a portion of the post, and the number of comments from the community of users to the post.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

waiting the estimated amount of time;

upon identifying at least one reply to the post as not a sufficient response, modifying the estimated time; and

upon the adjusted estimated time to receive a sufficient response passing without receiving the sufficient response, performing the step of routing the post to the content center agent.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the sufficient response, further comprises a response to the post that is, at least one of, followed by another post from the post creating expressing gratitude, followed by another post from the post creating expressing sufficiency, a number of endorsements by the community of users indicating sufficiency, and a lack of subsequent posts critical of the response.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring the social media website;

upon determining that a sufficient response to the post has been posted, analyzing the sufficient response with respect to at least one post attribute; and

storing in a database the at least one post attribute and associated response time.

10. A system, comprising:

a network interface;

a work queue of an agent of a contact center;

a processor; and

wherein the processor is operable to access via the network interface a social media website operable to receive and host posts from a community of users, identify a post from the social media website that is soliciting a response, estimate the time to receive a sufficient response to the post by a member of the community of users, and upon the estimated time to receive a sufficient response being greater than a previously determined acceptable time, route the post via the network interface to the work queue of a contact center agent to respond to the post on behalf of a company that is not included in the community of users.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a database, having a number of records of the at least one attribute and a response time for which a historical post having the at least one attribute received a sufficient response; and

wherein the processor, is operable to perform the step of estimating the time to receive the sufficient response, by being operable to determine at least one attribute of the post, access the database, and determining a representative response time for the post in accord with the historical post.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium with instructions thereon that when read by the computer cause the computer to:

access a social media website operable to receive and host posts from a community of users;

identify a post from the social media website that is soliciting a response;

estimate the time to receive a sufficient response to the post by a member of the community of users; and

upon the estimated time to receive a sufficient response being greater than a previously determined acceptable time, route the post to a contact center agent to respond to the post on behalf of a company that is not included in the community of users.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to:

upon the estimated time to receive a sufficient response not being greater than a previously determined acceptable time;

monitor the social media website; and

upon determining that a period of time since the post was posted has lapsed and no sufficient response to the post has been posted, route the post to the agent to respond to the post.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the period of time is the estimated time to receive a sufficient response.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions to estimate the time to receive a sufficient response, further comprises instructions to:

determine at least one attribute of the post;

access a database having a number of records of the at least one attribute and a response time for which a historical post having the at least one attribute received a sufficient response; and

determine a representative response time for the post in accord with the historical post.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions to determine the representative response time for the post further comprises instructions to normalize the representative response time by applying an adjustment factor comprising, at least one of, the number of records, the time of day of the post, the day of the post, the time of day the post was identified, the day the post was identified, the number of the at least one attributes, the identity of the post creator, the alias of the post creator, the geographic origin of the post, the subject of the post, the sentiment of the post, keywords importance, the identity of the social media website, the number of endorsements of the post, the length of the post, media of at least a portion of the post, and the number of comments from the community of users to the post.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions to determine at least one attribute of the post, further comprises, instructions to select at least one of, the time of day of the post, the day of the post, the time of day the post was undefined, the day the post was identified, the identity of the post creator, the alias of the post creator, the geographic origin of the post, the IP address of the post creator, the subject of the post, the sentiment of the post, keyword, the identity of the social media website, the number of endorsements of the post, the length of the post, media of at least a portion of the post, and the number of comments from the community of users to the post.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions to:

wait the estimated amount of time;

upon identifying at least one reply to the post as not a sufficient response, modify the estimated time; and

upon the adjusted estimated time to receive a sufficient response passing without receiving the sufficient response, perform the step of routing the post to the content center agent.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the sufficient response, is determined by instructions to determine that a response to the post that is, at least one of, followed by another post from the post creating expressing gratitude, followed by another post from the post creating expressing sufficiency, a number of endorsements by the community of users indicating sufficiency, and a lack of subsequent posts critical of the response.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to:

monitor the social media website;

upon determining that a sufficient response to the post has been posted, analyze the sufficient response with respect to at least one post attribute; and

store in a database the at least one post attribute and associated response time.