Method for routing electronic correspondence based on the level and type of emotion contained therein

• US 7,289,949 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2002
• Issued: 10/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle OTC Subsidiary LLC (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: RightNow Technologies Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Gianforte, Greg, Warner, Douglas K., Richter, James Neal, Durbin, Stephen D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dorvil; Richemond
• Assistant Examiner(s): SPOONER, LAMONT M
• Application Number:
  US10/266,180
• Publication Number:
  US 20030069936A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,849 Days
• Field of Search: 704/1, 704/9, 704/10, 704/206, 704/203, 704/205, 707/530, 707/531, 707/532, 707/1, 707/5, 707/100, 379/93.15, 379/93.17, 379/89.2, 715/531, 715/530
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product for determining the emotional content of an electronic correspondence to route or prioritize the information, to set the expectations of a customer support worker, to flag those workers who are using inappropriate language with the customer, or to determine another best course to send the correspondence. In a preferred embodiment, a customer sends an electronic correspondence to a company via email. Emotionally charged words or symbols in each sentence are detected. The message is then given an emotional ranking which is used to determine what future action is most appropriate for the correspondence.

Claims

1. A method for routing electronic correspondence to personnel or entity having a potential interest in the emotional content of the words or symbols within said electronic correspondence, said method comprising:

receiving said electronic correspondence;

analyzing said electronic correspondence to determine an emotional ranking for said correspondence;

assigning an emotional value to said electronic correspondence using a reference data structure, wherein said emotional value is reflective of both positive and negative emotions;

providing a time-scaled weighting average of a plurality of emotional ranking values of said electronic correspondence, to more accurately reflect recent emotions of the originator of said electronic correspondence; and

routing said electronic correspondence to one of said personnel or entity more likely having said potential interest without substantially modifying the contents thereof for further action based on said emotional ranking.

2. A method in a computing environment for routing an electronic correspondence based on the level and type of information contained within the electronic correspondence, the method comprising:

parsing said electronic correspondence;

assigning one or more values to portions of said electronic correspondence;

utilizing said one or more values to provide an emotional ranking for said electronic correspondence;

providing a time-scaled weighting average of a plurality of emotional ranking values of said electronic correspondence, to more accurately reflect recent emotions of the originator of said electronic correspondence; and

routing said electronic correspondence to personnel having an interest in taking action based on said correspondence as a result of said emotional ranking without substantially modifying the contents thereof.