METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PRO-ACTIVE DETECTION AND CORRECTION OF LOW QUALITY QUESTIONS IN A QUESTION AND ANSWER BASED CUSTOMER SUPPORT SYSTEM

• US 20160217472A1
• Filed: 01/28/2015
• Published: 07/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Cannon, Matthew, Podgorny, Igor A., Goodyear, Todd Frey, Gielow, Christopher C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,475,043 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission

Abstract

User satisfaction with answers that may be provided through a question and answer based customer support system is predicted by pre-submission analysis of the attributes of the question itself before the answer is generated. Questions being entered into the question and answer based customer support system that are not likely to satisfy either an asking user submitting a question, or subsequent searching users accessing the resulting question and answer pair, are labeled improperly formatted questions, or low quality format questions. The question data representing improperly formatted questions is then either filtered out, avoided completely, or, proactively corrected by providing the user with a set of personalized question format transformation instructions to transform improperly formatted questions into a re-phrased/re-formatted properly formatted questions having a question format predicted to provide a significantly higher probability of user satisfaction with any answer eventually provided.

Claims

1. A method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system, the method comprising:

providing a software system to one or more users;

providing users of the software system a question and answer based customer support system through which question data can be entered by the users, the question data representing questions to potentially be provided to one or more support personnel associated with the question and answer based customer support system so that the questions represented by the question data can be answered by at least one of the one or more support personnel;

defining low quality question formats that are predicted to result in answers that will have user satisfaction ratings below a threshold level of user satisfaction;

defining questions having low quality question formats as improperly formatted questions;

receiving question data representing a question submitted by a user through the question and answer based customer support system;

before providing the question data to any of the one or more support personnel, analyzing the question data to determine if the question data represents an improperly formatted question; and

if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data represents an improperly formatted question, taking one or more corrective actions before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel.

2. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 1 wherein the software system is selected from the group of software systems consisting of:

a computing system implemented tax preparation software system;

a network accessed tax preparation software system;

a web-based tax preparation software system;

a cloud-based tax preparation software system;

a computing system implemented business management software system;

a network accessed business management software system;

a web-based business management software system;

a cloud-based business management software system;

a computing system implemented accounting software system;

a network accessed accounting software system;

a web-based accounting software system;

a cloud-based accounting software system;

a computing system implemented financial management system;

a network accessed financial management system;

a web-based financial management system; and

a cloud-based financial management system.

3. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 1 wherein the question and answer based customer support system includes a web-based question and answer forum associated with the software system and/or an area of endeavor of the software system.

4. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 1 wherein the question and answer based customer support system includes a customer support question and answer database, the customer support question and answer database including question and answer data representing one or more questions submitted by asking users of the software system and the answers to those questions provided by the one or more support personnel, further wherein;

the question and answer data in the customer support question and answer database can be searched and accessed by searching users of the software system.

5. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 4 wherein answers provided by the one or more support personnel to questions submitted by asking users of the software system can be rated by both the asking user who submitted the question data and searching users who access the question and answer data in the customer support question and answer database.

6. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 1 wherein the question data is submitted by asking users of the software system through question data submission interfaces provided through the question and answer based customer support system, the question data submission interfaces including one or more question data entry fields to enter the question data, the question data to be analyzed before being provided to any of the one or more support personnel to determine if the question data represents an improperly formatted question.

7. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 1 wherein low quality question formats that are predicted to result in answers that will have user satisfaction ratings below a threshold level of user satisfaction include:

“

Who”

question formats;

“

What”

question formats;

“

When”

question formats;

“

Where”

question formats;

“

Why”

question formats;

“

How”

question formats;

rhetorical question formats;

grammatically incorrect question formats; and

ill-formed question formats.

8. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 1 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data represents an improperly formatted question, the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes filtering out the improperly formatted question before the improperly formatted question is provided to the support community, and before any resources are devoted to answering the improperly formatted question.

9. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 1 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data represents an improperly formatted question, the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes refusing to accept submission of the improperly formatted question before the improperly formatted question is provided to the support community, and before any resources are devoted to answering the improperly formatted question.

10. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 1 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data represents an improperly formatted question, the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes attempting to correct the improperly formatted question by providing the user with a set of question transformation instructions used to transform the improperly formatted question into a properly formatted question.

11. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 10 wherein the user is provided the format transformation instructions representing suggestions on how to re-phrase/reform the improperly formatted question that are customized to the specific question data being submitted.

12. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 11 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data represents an improperly formatted question because the question represented by the question data is a general knowledge/open-ended format question, the asking user is provided format transformation instructions that guide the user through a step-by-step process to transform the identified general knowledge/open-ended format question into properly formatted closed-ended question format.

13. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 11 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data represents an improperly formatted question because the question represented by the question data is in a low quality rhetorical, or otherwise “

unanswerable”

, question format, the asking user is provided format transformation instructions that guide the user through a step-by-step process to transform the identified rhetorical, or otherwise “

unanswerable”

, format question into properly formatted closed-ended question format.

14. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 11 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data represents an improperly formatted question because the question represented by the question data is in a grammatically incorrect question or search query format, the asking user is provided format transformation instructions that guide the user through a step-by-step process to transform the identified grammatically incorrect question or search query format question into properly formatted closed-ended question format.

15. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 14 wherein the user is provided the format transformation instructions via a question-asking experience question transformation interface screen.

16. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 15 wherein question-asking experience question transformation interface screen is a question optimizer question-asking experience question transformation interface screen.

17. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 16 wherein the user is provided the format transformation instructions representing suggestions on how to re-phrase/reform the improperly formatted question through the question optimizer question-asking experience question transformation interface screen as the question data is being submitted.

18. A method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system, the method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system comprising:

providing a software system to one or more users;

providing users of the software system a question and answer based customer support system through which question data can be entered by the users, the question data representing questions to potentially be provided to one or more support personnel associated with the question and answer based customer support system so that the questions represented by the question data can be answered by at least one of the one or more support personnel;

defining high quality question formats that are predicted to result in answers that will have user satisfaction ratings above a threshold level of user satisfaction;

defining questions having high quality question formats as properly formatted questions;

receiving question data representing a question submitted by a user through the question and answer based customer support system;

before providing the question data to any of the one or more support personnel, analyzing the question data to determine if the question data represents a properly formatted question; and

if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data does not represent a properly formatted question, taking one or more corrective actions before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel.

19. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 18 wherein the software system is selected from the group of software systems consisting of:

a computing system implemented tax preparation software system;

a network accessed tax preparation software system;

a web-based tax preparation software system;

a cloud-based tax preparation software system;

a computing system implemented business management software system;

a network accessed business management software system;

a web-based business management software system;

a cloud-based business management software system;

a computing system implemented accounting software system;

a network accessed accounting software system;

a web-based accounting software system;

a cloud-based accounting software system;

a computing system implemented financial management system;

a network accessed financial management system;

a web-based financial management system; and

a cloud-based financial management system.

20. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 18 wherein the question and answer based customer support system includes a web-based question and answer forum associated with the software system and/or an area of endeavor of the software system.

21. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 18 wherein the question and answer based customer support system includes a customer support question and answer database, the customer support question and answer database including question and answer data representing one or more questions submitted by asking users of the software system and the answers to those questions provided by the one or more support personnel, further wherein;

the question and answer data in the customer support question and answer database can be searched and accessed by searching users of the software system.

22. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 21 wherein answers provided by the one or more support personnel to questions submitted by asking users of the software system can be rated by both the asking user who submitted the question data and searching users who access the question and answer data in the customer support question and answer database.

23. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 18 wherein the question data is submitted by asking users of the software system through question data submission interfaces provided through the question and answer based customer support system, the question data submission interfaces including one or more question data entry fields used to enter the question data, the question data to be analyzed before being provided to any of the one or more support personnel to determine if the question data represents a properly formatted question.

24. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 18 wherein high quality question formats that are predicted to result in answers that will have user satisfaction ratings above a threshold level of user satisfaction include closed-ended formatted questions.

25. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 18 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data does not represent a properly formatted question, the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes filtering out the question before the question is provided to the support community, and before any resources are devoted to answering the question.

26. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 18 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data does not represent a properly formatted question, the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes refusing to accept submission of the question.

27. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 18 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data does not represent a properly formatted question, the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes attempting to correct the question by providing the user with a set of question transformation instructions used to transform the question into a properly formatted question.

28. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 27 wherein the user is provided the format transformation instructions representing suggestions on how to re-phrase/reform the question that are customized to the specific question data being submitted.

29. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 28 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data does not represent a properly formatted question because the question represented by the question data is a general knowledge/open-ended format question, the asking user is provided format transformation instructions that guide the user through a step-by-step process to transform the identified general knowledge/open-ended format question into a properly formatted closed-ended question format.

30. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 28 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data does not represent a properly formatted question because the question represented by the question data is in a low quality rhetorical, or an otherwise “

unanswerable”

, question format, then the asking user is provided format transformation instructions that guide the user through a step-by-step process to transform the identified rhetorical, or an otherwise “

unanswerable”

format question into a properly formatted closed-ended question format.

31. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 30 wherein if, based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data does not represent a properly formatted question because the question represented by the question data is in a grammatically incorrect question or search query format, the asking user is provided format transformation instructions that guide the user through a step-by-step process to transform the identified grammatically incorrect question or search query format question into a properly formatted closed-ended question format.

32. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 27 wherein the user is provided the format transformation instructions representing suggestions on how to re-phrase/reform the improperly formatted question via a question-asking experience question transformation interface screen.

33. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 32 wherein question-asking experience question transformation interface screen is a question optimizer question-asking experience question transformation interface screen.

34. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 33 wherein the user is provided the format transformation instructions representing suggestions on how to re-phrase/reform the improperly formatted question through the question optimizer question-asking experience question transformation interface screen as the question data is being submitted.

35. A system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system, the system comprising:

a software system;

a computing system for providing the software system to one or more users;

a question and answer based customer support system through which question data can be entered by the users, the question data representing questions to potentially be provided to one or more support personnel associated with the question and answer based customer support system so that the questions represented by the question data can be answered by at least one of the one or more support personnel;

a computing system for providing users access to the question and answer based customer support system and for providing the users the capability to enter the question data representing questions to potentially be provided to one or more support personnel

low quality question format data defining low quality question formats that are predicted to result in answers that will have user satisfaction ratings below a threshold level of user satisfaction, questions having low quality question formats being defined as improperly formatted questions;

a question data receiving module for receiving question data representing a question submitted by a user through the question and answer based customer support system;

an question format analysis module, the question format analysis module analyzing the question data received at the question data receiving module to determine if the question data represents an improperly formatted question before providing the question data to any of the one or more support personnel; and

a corrective action module, the corrective action module implementing one or more corrective actions if based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data represents an improperly formatted question before the question data is provided to the one or more support personnel.

36. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 35 wherein the software system is selected from the group of software systems consisting of:

a computing system implemented tax preparation software system;

a network accessed tax preparation software system;

a web-based tax preparation software system;

a cloud-based tax preparation software system;

a computing system implemented business management software system;

a network accessed business management software system;

a web-based business management software system;

a cloud-based business management software system;

a computing system implemented accounting software system;

a network accessed accounting software system;

a web-based accounting software system;

a cloud-based accounting software system;

a computing system implemented financial management system;

a network accessed financial management system;

a web-based financial management system; and

a cloud-based financial management system.

37. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 35 wherein the question and answer based customer support system includes a web-based question and answer forum associated with the software system and/or an area of endeavor of the software system.

38. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 35 wherein low quality question formats that are predicted to result in answers that will have user satisfaction ratings below a threshold level of user satisfaction include:

“

Who”

question formats;

“

What”

question formats;

“

When”

question formats;

“

Where”

question formats;

“

Why”

question formats;

“

How”

question formats;

rhetorical question formats;

grammatically incorrect question formats; and

ill-formed question formats.

39. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 35 wherein the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes filtering out the improperly formatted question before the improperly formatted question is provided to the support community, and before any resources are devoted to answering the improperly formatted question.

40. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 35 wherein the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes refusing to accept submission of the improperly formatted question before the improperly formatted question is provided to the support community, and before any resources are devoted to answering the improperly formatted question.

41. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 35 wherein the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes attempting to correct the improperly formatted question by providing the user with a set of question transformation instructions used to transform the improperly formatted question into a properly formatted question.

42. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 41 wherein the user is provided the format transformation instructions representing suggestions on how to re-phrase/reform the improperly formatted question that are customized to the specific question data being submitted.

43. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 41 wherein the user is provided the format transformation instructions representing suggestions on how to re-phrase/reform the improperly formatted question that are customized to the specific question data being submitted as the question data is being submitted.

44. A system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system, the system comprising:

a software system;

a computing system for providing the software system to one or more users;

a question and answer based customer support system through which question data can be entered by the users, the question data representing questions to potentially be provided to one or more support personnel associated with the question and answer based customer support system so that the questions represented by the question data can be answered by at least one of the one or more support personnel;

a computing system for providing users access to the question and answer based customer support system and for providing the users the capability to enter the question data representing questions to potentially be provided to one or more support personnel

high quality question format data defining high quality question formats that are predicted to result in answers that will have user satisfaction ratings above a threshold level of user satisfaction, defining questions having high quality question formats being defined as properly formatted questions;

a question data receiving module for receiving question data representing a question submitted by a user through the question and answer based customer support system;

an question format analysis module, the question format analysis module analyzing the question data received at the question data receiving module to determine if the question data represents a properly formatted question before providing the question data to any of the one or more support personnel; and

a corrective action module, the corrective action module implementing one or more corrective actions if based on the analysis of the question data, a determination is made that the question data does not represent an improperly formatted question before the question data is provided to the one or more support personnel.

45. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 44 wherein the software system is selected from the group of software systems consisting of:

a computing system implemented tax preparation software system;

a network accessed tax preparation software system;

a web-based tax preparation software system;

a cloud-based tax preparation software system;

a computing system implemented business management software system;

a network accessed business management software system;

a web-based business management software system;

a cloud-based business management software system;

a computing system implemented accounting software system;

a network accessed accounting software system;

a web-based accounting software system;

a cloud-based accounting software system;

a computing system implemented financial management system;

a network accessed financial management system;

a web-based financial management system; and

a cloud-based financial management system.

46. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 44 wherein the question and answer based customer support system includes a web-based question and answer forum associated with the software system and/or an area of endeavor of the software system.

47. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 44 wherein high quality question formats that are predicted to result in answers that will have user satisfaction ratings above a threshold level of user satisfaction include closed-ended question formats.

48. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 44 wherein the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes filtering out the question before the question is provided to the support community, and before any resources are devoted to answering the question.

49. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 44 wherein the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes refusing to accept submission of the question before the question is provided to the support community, and before any resources are devoted to answering the question.

50. The method for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 44 wherein the one or more corrective actions taken before providing the question data to the one or more support personnel includes attempting to correct the question by providing the user with a set of question transformation instructions used to transform the question into a properly formatted question.

51. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 50 wherein the user is provided the format transformation instructions representing suggestions on how to re-phrase/reform the improperly formatted question that are customized to the specific question data being submitted.

52. The system for pro-active detection and correction of low quality questions submitted to a question and answer based customer support system of claim 50 wherein the user is provided the format transformation instructions representing suggestions on how to re-phrase/reform the improperly formatted question that are customized to the specific question data being submitted while the question data is being submitted.