System for editing and aligning captured events and data to a common time base to create customer service engagement multimedia document

• US 7,287,223 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2003
• Issued: 10/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation), Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Bobrow, Daniel G., Boreczky, John, Smoliar, Stephen W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu; Le Hien
• Application Number:
  US10/455,616
• Publication Number:
  US 20040260759A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,600 Days
• Field of Search: 715/704, 717/124, 709/223, 709/224, 709/203, 709/204, 709/318, 345/855, 707/102, 707/500, 705/51, 702/188
• US Class Current: 715/704
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

When a hardware or software problem reoccurs, a customer is rarely able to remember and repeat the process that was performed by a customer service representative to correct the problem the first time. By capturing desktop events and/or one or more other available data streams during the first customer service engagement, and making a document containing that data available to the customer, the customer can solve a reoccurrence of the problem without having to contact the customer service center. The captured data is integrated into a single multimedia document, which has an indexing capability, highlights critical information, and includes annotations and/or comments. The integrated multimedia document can be distributed to the customer by the customer service representative during an engagement, over a customer accessible network site visited by the customer, or in a CD-ROM provided with the product.

Claims

1. A method for generating a record of a customer service engagement between a customer located at a customer site and having a problem to be solved and a customer service representative attempting to solve the problem, comprising:

capturing a plurality of events that occur during the customer service engagement;

capturing data of at least one additional data stream that is generated during the customer service engagement;

aligning the captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to a common time base;

editing the aligned captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to create a customer service engagement multimedia document of the customer service engagement that includes the plurality of events and the at least one additional data stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing a plurality of events comprises capturing a plurality of events that occur on a data processing platform of the customer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein capturing the plurality of events that occur on the data processing platform of the customer comprises capturing desktop events that occur on a computer device of the customer.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein capturing the plurality of events that occur on the data processing platform of the customer comprises:

providing the customer service representative with access to the data processing platform at the customer site, such that the plurality of events are displayed on a data processing device at a customer service location associated with the customer service representative; and

storing the displayed plurality of events at the customer service location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing at least one additional data stream comprises capturing at least one of video data and audio data input at the customer site.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein capturing at least one of the video data and the audio data input at the customer site comprises:

transmitting the captured at least one of the video data and the audio data from the customer site to a customer service location associated with the customer service representative; and

storing the transmitted at least one of the video data and the audio data at the customer service location.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing at least one additional data stream comprises capturing telephone audio data between the customer and the customer service representative.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein capturing the telephone audio data comprises:

transmitting the captured telephone audio data from the customer site to a customer service location associated with the customer service representative; and

storing the transmitted telephone audio data at the customer service location.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein editing the aligned captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to create a customer service engagement multimedia document comprises at least one of:

removing at least one of customer proprietary data and data unnecessary to solve the problem;

masking at least one of customer proprietary data and data unnecessary to solve the problem; and

rendering unintelligible at least one of customer proprietary data and data unnecessary to solve the problem.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein editing the aligned captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to create a customer service engagement multimedia document comprises adding index information to the customer service engagement multimedia document.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein adding index information comprises adding problem classification information.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein adding index information comprises adding subject keyword information.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein adding index information comprises adding error message information.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein editing the aligned captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to create a customer service engagement multimedia document comprises adding at least one of customer comment information and customer service representative comment information.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein editing the aligned captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to create a customer service engagement multimedia document comprises adding at least one hyperlink to problem solving information that is stored outside of the customer service engagement multimedia document.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising distributing the customer service engagement multimedia document to at least one customer who is experiencing the problem, wherein the at least one customer can play the distributed customer service engagement multimedia document to allow the at least one customer to solve the problem.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein distributing the customer service engagement multimedia document comprises:

placing the customer service engagement multimedia document into a library of customer service engagement multimedia documents; and

making the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents available to the at least one customer.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein making the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents available to the at least one customer comprises:

searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents to identify at least one customer service engagement multimedia document related to the problem; and

selecting a desired customer service engagement multimedia document from the identified at least one customer service engagement multimedia document.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents to identify at least one customer service engagement multimedia document related to the problem comprises searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents based on at least one problem classification indicative of the problem.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents to identify at least one customer service engagement multimedia document related to the problem comprises searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents based on at least one subject keyword indicative of the problem.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents to identify at least one customer service engagement multimedia document related to the problem comprises searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents based on at least one error message indicative of the problem.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents to identify at least one customer service engagement multimedia document related to the problem comprises viewing manga frames of at least one customer service engagement multimedia document in the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein making the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents available to the at least one customer comprises providing the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents on a customer-accessible network location.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein making the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents available to the at least one customer comprises:

having the customer service representative search the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents for a desired customer service engagement multimedia document based on the problem; and

transmitting the selected customer service engagement multimedia document to the at least one customer.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein distributing the customer service engagement multimedia document comprises providing a data storage medium containing at least the customer service engagement multimedia document and a search index to the at least one customer with a product that experiences the problem.

26. A storage medium storing a set of program instructions executable on a data processing device and usable to generate a record of a customer service engagement between a customer located at a customer site and having a problem to be solved and a customer service representative attempting to solve the problem, the set of program instructions comprising:

instructions for capturing a plurality of events that occur during the customer service engagement;

instructions for capturing data of at least one additional data stream that is generated during the customer service engagement;

instructions for aligning the captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to a common time base;

instructions for editing the aligned captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to create a customer service engagement multimedia document of the customer service engagement that includes the plurality of events and the at least one additional data stream.

27. The storage medium of claim 26, wherein the instructions for capturing a plurality of events comprise instructions for capturing a plurality of events that occur on a data processing platform of the customer.

28. The storage medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions for capturing the plurality of events that occur on the data processing platform of the customer comprise instructions for capturing desktop events that occur on a computer device of the customer.

29. The storage medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions for capturing the plurality of events that occur on the data processing platform of the customer comprise:

instructions for providing the customer service representative with access to the data processing platform at the customer site, such that the plurality of events are displayed on a data processing device at a customer service location associated with the customer service representative; and

instructions for storing the displayed plurality of events at the customer service location.

30. The storage medium of claim 26, wherein the instructions for capturing at least one additional data stream comprise instructions for capturing at least one of video data and audio data input at the customer site.

31. The storage medium of claim 30, wherein the instructions for capturing at least one of the video data and the audio data input at the customer site comprise:

instructions for transmitting the captured at least one of the video data and the audio data from the customer site to a customer service location associated with the customer service representative; and

instructions for storing the transmitted at least one of the video data and the audio data at the customer service location.

32. The storage medium of claim 26, wherein the instructions for capturing at least one additional data stream comprise instructions for capturing telephone audio data between the customer and the customer service representative.

33. The storage medium of claim 32, wherein the instructions for capturing the telephone audio data comprise:

instructions for transmitting the captured telephone audio data from the customer site to a customer service location associated with the customer service representative; and

instructions for storing the transmitted telephone audio data at the customer service location.

34. The storage medium of claim 26, wherein the instructions for editing the aligned captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to create a customer service engagement multimedia document comprise at least one of:

instructions for removing at least one of customer proprietary data and data unnecessary to solve the problem;

instructions for masking at least one of customer proprietary data and data unnecessary to solve the problem; and

instructions for rendering unintelligible at least one of customer proprietary data and data unnecessary to solve the problem.

35. The storage medium of claim 26, wherein the instructions for editing the aligned captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to create a customer service engagement multimedia document comprise instructions for adding index information to the customer service engagement multimedia document.

36. The storage medium of claim 35, wherein the instructions for adding index information comprise instructions for adding problem classification information.

37. The storage medium of claim 35, wherein the instructions for adding index information comprise instructions for adding subject keyword information.

38. The storage medium of claim 35, wherein the instructions for adding index information comprise instructions for adding error message information.

39. The storage medium of claim 26, wherein the instructions for editing the aligned captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to create a customer service engagement multimedia document comprise instructions for adding at least one of customer comment information and customer service representative comment information.

40. The storage medium of claim 26, wherein the instructions for editing the aligned captured plurality of events and the captured at least one additional data stream to create a customer service engagement multimedia document comprise instructions for adding at least one hyperlink to problem solving information that is stored outside of the customer service engagement multimedia document.

41. The storage medium of claim 26, wherein the set of program instructions further comprises instructions for distributing the customer service engagement multimedia document to at least one customer who is experiencing the problem, wherein the at least one customer can play the distributed customer service engagement multimedia document to allow the at least one customer to solve the problem.

42. The storage medium of claim 41, wherein the instructions for distributing the customer service engagement multimedia document comprise:

instructions for placing the customer service engagement multimedia document into a library of customer service engagement multimedia documents; and

instructions for making the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents available to the at least one customer.

43. The storage medium of claim 42, wherein the instructions for making the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents available to the at least one customer comprise:

instructions for searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents to identify at least one customer service engagement multimedia document related to the problem; and

instructions for selecting a desired customer service engagement multimedia document from the identified at least one customer service engagement multimedia document.

44. The storage medium of claim 43, wherein the instructions for searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents to identify at least one customer service engagement multimedia document related to the problem comprise instructions for searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents based on at least one problem classification indicative of the problem.

45. The storage medium of claim 43, wherein the instructions for searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents to identify at least one customer service engagement multimedia document related to the problem comprise instructions for searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents based on at least one subject keyword indicative of the problem.

46. The storage medium of claim 43, wherein the instructions for searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents to identify at least one customer service engagement multimedia document related to the problem comprise instructions for searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents based on at least one error message indicative of the problem.

47. The storage medium of claim 43, wherein the instructions for searching the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents to identify at least one customer service engagement multimedia document related to the problem comprise instructions for viewing manga frames of at least one customer service engagement multimedia document in the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents.

48. The storage medium of the claim 43, wherein the instructions for making the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents available to the at least one customer further comprise instructions for transmitting the selected customer service engagement multimedia document to the at least one customer.

49. The storage medium of claim 42, wherein the instructions for making the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents available to the at least one customer comprise instructions for providing the library of customer service engagement multimedia documents on a customer-accessible network location.