Method to make a discussion forum or RSS feed a source for customer contact into a multimedia contact center that is capable of handling emails

• US 7,747,705 B1
• Filed: 05/08/2007
• Issued: 06/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Raja, Moiz
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Thu
• Assistant Examiner(s): UTREJA, NEERAJ K
• Application Number:
  US11/745,540
• Time in Patent Office: 1,148 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a contact center configured to convert post notifications from a forum or blog server into work items for distribution to an appropriate agent and forward agent responses to the forum or blog server as a responsive post.

Claims

1. In a contact center associated with an organization comprising a plurality of agents servicing work items, a method, comprising:

(a) the a contact sever-center executing a marshaller mail server, a post-email marshaller, and a work item server;

(b) the marshaller mail server subscribing to at least one of a forum server and a blog server;

(c) the marshaller mail server receiving, from at least one of a-the forum and the blog server, a notify message addressed to the marshaller mail server, wherein the notify message is associated with a posting on the at least one of the forum server and blog server, wherein the posting is from a customer and relates to a product or a service of the organization;

(d) the marshaller mail server mail server directing the notify message to a first contact center inbox associated with the at least one of a forum server and blog server; and

(e) the post email marshaller parsing the notify message received in the first contact center inbox to determine a customer identifier for the customer that made the post;

(f) the post email marshaller determining if a user inbox exists for the customer associated with the customer identifier;

(g) if no user inbox exists, create user inbox;

(h) if a user inbox exists or after a user inbox is created, the marshaller mail server forwarding the notify message to the work item server, wherein, to the work item server, the notify message appears to be sent from the customer from the customer inbox; and

(h) the work item server distributing the notify message as a work item to an agent for servicing the work item, wherein the work item includes the customer'"'"'s request regarding the product or the service of the organization as presented in the posting.

2. The method of claim 1,

(i) the work item server receiving, from the agent, a response to the work item;

(j) the work item server forwarding the response to the marshaller mail server, wherein the response is directed to the user inbox associated with a customer;

(k) the marshaller mail server placing the response in the user inbox;

(1) the post email marshaller determining if a response has been received in the user inbox;

(m) the post email marshaller converting the response into a responsive post to send to the either the forum server or the blog server;

(n) the marshaller mail server sending the responsive post to either the forum server or the blog server to respond to the post from the customer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (e) comprises the sub-steps:

(e1) parsing the notify message to determine the customer identifier, the customer identifier being associated with the customer posting at least part of the text message to the at least one of a forum server and blog server;

(e2) determining whether the customer identifier is associated with the contact center;

(e3) in response to the customer identifier being associated with the contact center, not directing the notify message to the work item server for servicing; and

(e4) in response to the customer identifier not being associated with the contact center, directing the notify message to the work item server for servicing.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first contact center inbox is associated with at least one of a topic and thread of the at least one of a forum server and blog server, wherein the customer identifier is in the body and not header of the notify message, wherein the contact center has a plurality of contact center inboxes, each being associated with a different forum or blog server, and wherein a message derived from the notify message is directed to the work item server, the directed message having at least one of the customer identifier or the user inbox associated with the customer identifier as a sender of the directed message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein step (e) comprises the sub-steps:

(e1) in response to a user inbox not existing for the customer identifier, the post email marshaller creating the user inbox for the customer identifier; and

(e2) in response to a user inbox already existing for the customer identifier, post email marshaller not creating a further contact center inbox for the customer identifier.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the notify message is an email derived from an RSS feed and comprising at least part of the information in the RSS feed.

7. In a contact center comprising a plurality of agents servicing work items, a method, comprising:

the marshaller mail server subscribing to at least one of the forum server and the blog server;

the marshaller mail server receiving, from at least one of the forum and the blog server, a notify message addressed to the marshaller mail server, wherein the notify message is associated with the posting on the at least one of the forum server and blog server, wherein the posting is from the customer and relates to a product or a service of the organization;

the marshaller mail server directing the notify message to a first contact center inbox associated with the at least one of a forum server and blog server;

the post email marshaller parsing the notify message received in the first contact center inbox to determine a customer identifier for the customer that made the post;

the post email marshaller determining if a user inbox exists for the customer associated with the customer identifier;

if no user inbox exists, creating user inbox;

if user inbox exists for the customer or after a user inbox is created, the marshaller mail server forwarding the notify message to the work item server, wherein, to the work item server, the notify message appears to be sent from the customer or from the customer inbox;

the work item server distributing the notify message as the work item to the agent for servicing the work item, wherein the work item includes the customer'"'"'s request regarding the product or the service of the organization as presented in the posting;

(a) the contact center executing a marshaller mail server, a post-email marshaller, and a work item server;

(b) the work item server receiving from an agent a response to a work item, wherein the work item is a response to an email received from a post-email marshaller for a customer associated with a posting to at least one of a forum server and blog server;

(c) the work item server directing the response to a user inbox associated with the customer at a marshaller mail server; and

(d) from the user inbox, the post-email marshaller converting the response into a posting for the forum server or the blog server; and

(e) the marshaller mail server directing posting to the forum server or the blog server.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one of a forum server and blog server comprises a plurality of the at least one of a forum server and blog server and wherein step (e) comprises the substeps:

(e1) the post email marshaller parsing the response to determine which of the plurality of the at least one of a forum server and blog server to send the response or a message derived therefrom;

(e2) converting the response into an email addressed from the contact center to the corresponding at least one of a forum server and blog server, the email complying with posting guidelines of the at least one of a forum server and blog server; and

(e3) forwarding the email to the marshaller mail server to send to the corresponding at least one of forum server and blog server.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein determining if a user inbox exists for the customer comprises the sub-steps:

parsing the notify message to determine a customer identifier, the customer identifier being associated with the customer posting at least part of the text message to the at least one of a forum sewer and blog server;

determining whether the customer identifier is associated with the contact center;

in response to the customer identifier being associated with the contact center, not directing the notify message to the work item server for servicing; and

in response to the customer identifier not being associated with the contact center, directing the notify message to the work item server for servicing.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first contact center inbox is associated with at least one of a topic and thread of the at least one of a forum server and blog server, wherein the customer identifier is in the body and not header of the notify message, wherein the contact center has a plurality of contact center inboxes, each being associated with a different forum or blog server, and wherein a message derived from the notify message is directed to the agent, the directed message having the customer identifier or the first contact center inbox associated with the customer identifier as the sender of the directed message.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein step comprises the sub-steps:

parsing the notify message to determine a customer identifier, the customer identifier being associated with the customer posting at least part of the notify message to the at least one of a forum server and blog server;

determining whether the customer identifier is currently associated with a contact center inbox;

in response to the customer identifier not currently being associated with a user inbox, creating a user inbox for the customer identifier; and

in response to the customer identifier currently being associated with a user inbox, not creating a further user inbox for the customer identifier.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the notify message is an email derived from an RSS feed and comprising at least part of the information in the RSS feed.

13. A contact center, comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a plurality of topic inboxes, each topic inbox operable to receive a notify message received from one of a forum server or a blog server, wherein the notify message is associated with a post on the forum server or the blog server, and wherein the post is associated with a request from a customer about a product or service of an organization;

a plurality of user inboxes, each user inbox operable to receive a notify message associated with a customer; and

a work item server operable to receive the notify message from a user inbox, operable to send a work item associated with the notify message to an agent, operable to receive a response from the agent associated with the work item, and operable to send the response back to the user inbox;

a marshaller mail server in communication with the plurality of topic inboxes, the plurality of user inboxes, and the work item server, the marshaller mail server operable to receive the notify message from the forum server or blog server, operable to send the notify message to a topic inbox, operable to send a notify message to the work item server, wherein the notify message appears to have been sent from a user inbox, operable to receive the response from the work item server, operable to put the response into the user inbox, operable to receive a response post, and operable to send the response post to the forum server or the blog server,

a post email marshaller in communication with the with the plurality of topic inboxes, the plurality of user inboxes, and the marshaller mail server, the post email marshaller operable to parse the notify message received in the topic inbox to determine a customer identifier for the customer, operable to send the notify message to the user inbox for the customer and identified by the customer identifier, operable to determine a response has been received from the work item server, and operable to convert the response into a response post for the marshaller mail server.

14. The contact center of claim 13, wherein if no response has been received, the post email marshaller waits for the response.

15. The contact center of claim 14, wherein the post email marshaller is further operable to:

determine whether the customer identifier is associated with the contact center;

in response to the customer identifier being associated with the contact center, not directing the notify message to the work item server for servicing; and

in response to the customer identifier not being associated with the contact center, directing the notify message to the work item server for servicing.

16. The contact center of claim 15, wherein the notify message sent to the work item server includes a flag indicating that the work item server should send the response to the marshaller mail server instead of the customer.

17. The contact center of claim 16, wherein contact center is in communication with a plurality of forum servers and blog servers and wherein the post email marshaller is further operable to:

parse the response from the work item server to determine which of the plurality of the forum servers and blog servers to send the response post;

convert the response into an email addressed from the contact center to the corresponding forum server or blog server, the email complying with posting guidelines of the forum server or blog server; and

forwarding the email to the corresponding forum server or blog server.

18. The contact center of claim 14, wherein the post email marshaller is further operable to:

determine whether the customer identifier is currently associated with a user inbox;

in response to the customer identifier not currently being associated with a user inbox, create a user inbox for the customer identifier; and

in response to the customer identifier currently being associated with a user inbox, not create a further user inbox for the customer identifier.

19. The contact center of claim 14, wherein the topic inbox is associated with at least one of a topic and thread of the at least one of a forum server and blog server, wherein the customer identifier is in the body and not header of the first text message, wherein the contact center has a plurality of topic inboxes, each being associated with a different forum or blog server, and wherein a message derived from the notify message is directed to the agent, the directed message having the customer identifier or the user inbox associated with the customer identifier as the sender of the directed message.

20. The contact center of claim 14, wherein the notify message is derived from an RSS feed and is an email comprising at least part of the information in the RSS feed.