CONTEXT-AWARE SUPPORT INTEGRATION

• US 20170091778A1
• Filed: 09/30/2015
• Published: 03/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Johnson, Warren, Balarajan, Sanjeev, Liu, He, Lopez, Matthew, Siow, Andy
• Application Number:
  US14/870,636
• Publication Number:
  US 20170091778A1
• 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 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales

Abstract

Technologies for enabling support providers to integrate into a support application and provide real-time support for requests based at least partly on authorizations associated with the support providers are described. The technologies described can access authentication data associated with support providers. The technologies described can receive a request associated with a product and/or a service and determine contextual data associated with the request. The technologies described can determine authorization data associated with support providers, determine support providers for supporting the request based partly on the contextual data, determine that the support providers are authorized to receive the request, and generate task data associated with the request. The technologies described can further include sending the task data to devices corresponding to the support providers, determining that an individual support provider accepts the request, and causing a display of a graphical element indicating that the individual support provider accepts the request.

Claims

1. A computing device, comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable storage medium in communication with the processor, the computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to;

access authentication data associated with a plurality of support providers;

receive a request associated with at least one of a product or a service;

determine contextual data associated with the request, the contextual data defining a status of an application associated with the product or the service;

determine one or more individual support providers for supporting the request based at least in part on the contextual data;

determine authorization data associated with the one or more individual support providers, the authorization data defining requests that the individual support providers are authorized to receive;

based, at least in part, on the authorization data, determine that the one or more individual support providers are authorized to receive the request;

generate task data associated with the request;

send the task data to devices corresponding to the one or more individual support providers;

receive acknowledgement data indicating an acknowledgement of the task data from a device of the devices corresponding to an individual support provider of the one or more individual support providers;

determine that the individual support provider accepts the request based at least in part on the acknowledgement data; and

cause a display of a graphical element indicating the acknowledgement of the task data.

2. The computing device as claim 1 recites, wherein the contextual data defines at least one of a status of a web browser application, a status of a wizard application, a status of an interface of the application, a status of a mail services application or a messaging services application, or a status of a social networking services application.

3. The computing device as claim 2 recites, wherein the computing device is further configured determine, from the authorization data, that the one or more individual support providers are authorized to receive the request based at least in part on the contextual data.

4. The computing device as claim 1 recites, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

determine roles associated with individual support provider profiles corresponding to the one or more individual support providers; and

determine, from the authorization data, that the one or more individual support providers are authorized to receive the request based at least in part on the roles associated with the corresponding support provider profiles.

5. The computing device as claim 1 recites, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

determine compensation structures associated with individual support provider profiles corresponding to the one or more individual support providers; and

determine, from the authorization data, that the one or more individual support providers are authorized to receive the request based at least in part on the compensation structures.

6. The computing device as claim 1 recites, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

determine quotas associated with individual support provider profiles corresponding to the one or more individual support providers, a quota comprising a maximum number of requests that an individual support provider can accept in a predetermined period of time; and

determine, from the authorization data, that the one or more individual support providers are authorized to receive the request based at least in part on the quotas.

7. The computing device as claim 1 recites, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

determine ratings associated with individual support provider profiles corresponding to the one or more individual support providers; and

determine, from the authorization data, that the one or more individual support providers are authorized to receive the request based at least in part on the ratings.

8. The computing device as claim 1 recites, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

determine rankings associated with individual support provider profiles corresponding to the one or more individual support providers; and

determine, from the authorization data, that the one or more individual support providers are authorized to receive the request based at least in part on the rankings.

9. The computing device as claim 1 recites, having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon that cause the computing device to provide an interface configured to receive at least one of the authentication data, data associated with the request, the contextual data, or the acknowledgement data, wherein the interface is configured to transmit at least the task data including the contextual data.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising computer-implemented operations for:

receiving authentication data from a plurality of support provider devices;

receiving a request associated with at least one of a product or a service;

determining contextual data associated with the request, the contextual data defining a status of an application associated with the product or the service;

determining, based at least in part on the authentication data, authorization data corresponding to support provider profiles associated with the plurality of support provider devices;

determining, from data associated with a plurality of support providers and the authentication data, one or more support providers that are authorized to support the request;

generating task data associated with the request, the task data including the contextual data;

sending the task data to devices corresponding to the one or more support providers;

receiving acknowledgement data indicating an acknowledgement of the task data from a device of the devices corresponding to an individual support provider of the one or more support providers;

determining that the individual support provider accepts the request; and

causing a display of a first graphical element indicating at least one of the acknowledgement of the task data and a mechanism for creating a shared meeting space.

11. The computer-implemented method as claim 10 recites, wherein at least some of the plurality of support providers are freelance support providers.

12. The computer-implemented method as claim 10 recites, wherein at least some of the plurality of support providers are third-party entities that employ one or more sub-support providers.

13. The computer-implemented method as claim 12 recites, wherein the third-party entities route the request to an individual sub-support provider of the one or more sub-support providers.

14. The computer-implemented method as claim 10 recites, comprising computer-implemented operations for:

causing a display of a second graphical element comprising a control configured to provide functionality to generate the request in response to an actuation of the control; and

receiving the request based at least in part on receiving data indicating that the control was actuated.

15. The computer-implemented method as claim 14 recites, comprising computer-implemented operations for:

determining, based on the authentication data, a number of support providers in the plurality of support providers that are signed into the support provider profiles and are authenticated;

determining that the number meets or exceeds a threshold value; and

based at least in part on determining that the number meets or exceeds the threshold value, causing the display of the second graphical element.

16. The computer-implemented method as claim 10 recites, wherein determining the one or more support providers for supporting the request comprises:

accessing the data associated with the plurality of support providers, the data defining at least one of an availability associated with the individual support providers, an expertise associated with the individual support providers, a rating associated with the individual support providers, a language of the individual support providers, a geographic location of the individual support providers, a quota of requests associated with the individual support providers, or a compensation structure associated with the individual support providers;

determining a correlation between the contextual data and the data associated with the plurality of support providers; and

determining the one or more support providers based at least in part on determining the correlation between the contextual data and the data associated with the plurality of support providers.

17. One or more computer storage media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, configure the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request associated with a product or a service;

determining contextual data associated with the request, the contextual data defining a status of an application associated with the product or the service;

accessing data associated with a plurality of support providers associated with remote devices, the data associated with the plurality of support providers including authorization data;

causing a selection of one or more support providers of the plurality of support providers based at least in part on a correlation between the contextual data and the data associated with the plurality of support providers;

sending a communication of the request comprising the contextual data to remote devices associated with the one or more support providers;

receiving acknowledgement data indicating acknowledgement of the communication from a remote device of the remote devices corresponding to an individual support provider of the one or more support providers;

determining that the individual support provider accepts the request based at least in part on the acknowledgment data; and

generating a notification indicating the acknowledgement of the communication, wherein the notification comprises a display of a graphical element, an audio signal, a message, or a status change of at least one component of a computing device.

18. One or more computer storage media as claim 17 recites, wherein operations further comprise:

at least one of accessing authentication data corresponding to the plurality of support providers or receiving authentication data from support provider devices corresponding to the plurality of support providers; and

determining the authorization data based at least in part on the authentication data.

19. One or more computer storage media as claim 17 recites, wherein operations further comprise:

determining performance data associated with the individual support provider;

determining a rating associated with the individual support provider based at least in part on the performance data; and

ranking the individual support provider and one or more other individual support providers based at least in part on the rating.

20. One or more computer storage media as claim 17 recites, wherein operations further comprise:

determining that the individual support provider resolves the request;

based at least in part on determining that the individual support provider resolves the request, sending a mechanism to a user device to prompt a user associated with the user device for feedback data;

determining a rating associated with the individual support provider based at least in part on the feedback data; and

ranking the individual support provider and one or more other support providers based at least in part on the rating.