Method apparatus and system for capturing and analyzing interaction based content

• US 7,953,219 B2
• Filed: 07/18/2002
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nice Ltd
• Original Assignee: Nice Systems Limited (Nice Ltd)
• Inventors: Shermister, Shai, Freedman, Ilan, Dolev, Yair, Pereg, Oren, Waserblat, Moshe, Falik, Talia, Bar, Eytan, Meidav, Yifat, Arussy, Lior, Aharoni, Gili
• Primary Examiner(s): Wassum; Luke S
• Application Number:
  US10/484,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20040249650A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,239 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 379/265.06
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/947 Human resources

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus (100) for capturing and analyzing customer interactions, the apparatus comprising a multi-segment interaction capture device (324), an initial set up and calibration device (326), a pre-processing and context extraction device (328) and a rule-based analysis engine (300).

Claims

1. An apparatus for capturing and analyzing customer interactions the apparatus comprising:

a multi-segment interaction capture device for capturing at least two interaction information units of various media types, the capture device comprising at least a voice capture device;

a storage device for storing the at least two interaction information units;

an initial set up and calibration device;

a pre-processing and content extraction component adapted for receiving the at least two interaction information units of various media types and for extracting content data items from said at least two interaction information units, by applying audio analysis on at least one of the at least two interaction information units, said content data items include content items other than text;

a rule based content analysis engine for receiving the content data items and for selectively performing interaction content analysis of the at least one of the at least two interaction information units found suitable for further analysis, by using content analysis rules including non-text based analysis rules,

a classification component for classifying the content data items from the at least two interaction information units into at least two user-defined categories, by matching at least one of the content data items against the at least two user-defined categories and associating the at least one of the content data items with one of the at least two user-defined categories, the at least two user-defined categories defined in accordance with at least one word combined with a screen event or with a CRM entry that occurred substantially at the time the at least one word was used; and

a content data items database for storing the content data.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an interaction capture and storage component for capturing interaction information.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the interaction capture and storage component is further comprised of a computing device designed to log, capture and store information.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the interaction capture and storage component initially stores at least one interaction information unit or interaction meta-data.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the interaction capture and storage component further comprises a buffer area for intermediate storage of at least one interaction information unit.

6. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the interaction capture and storage component further provides the rule based content analysis engine at least two interactions and at least one interaction meta-data associated with each of the at least two interactions stored in the interaction capture and storage component or stored in content data items database.

7. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising telephony integration component for providing computer telephony integration information to the interaction capture and storage component.

8. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the interaction capture and storage component triggers recording of an interaction or a portion thereof in response to a predetermined event or rule.

9. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising an interpretation device for imposing rules on the rule based content analysis engine.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the interpretation device further comprises content classification trees and rules.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a customer relationship management application.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the content data items database is one of the following:

a knowledge base component, or a telephony integration component, accessed via a network.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one of the at least two interaction information units is a communication through which content is passed or exchanged.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one of the at least two interaction information units is selected from the group consisting of:

telephone conversation, audio, video, voice over IP, data packets, screen events, e-mails, chat messages, text, surveys'"'"' results, quality management forms results, collaborative browsing results or sessions, e-mail messages, screen captures, short message, multimedia messages, instant messages, collaborative web browsing, and coded data.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the content data items database is a customer relationship management database, or knowledge base or a computer telephony integration component for providing telephony integration related information to the interaction capture and storage component.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the rule based content analysis engine is conditionally activated based on a predetermined rule or event.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an intermediate storage device having an intermediate format wherein the results of the analysis made by the rule based content analysis engine are stored on and used by or exported to an application.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the intermediate storage device is one of the following:

a DAT tape;

a hard disk;

a memory device;

a magnetic media storage device or a storage device that store information in a permanent, transient or intermediate form.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the results of analysis made by the rule based content analysis engine provide the user with selective operations based on the results of the analysis.

20. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the results of the analysis made by the rule based content analysis engine update or create rules used by the rule based analysis engine.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the results of the rule based content analysis engine are used to generate a report.

22. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a quality management application for evaluating agents'"'"' performance, said quality management application employing quality management electronic evaluation forms.

23. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a playback application for providing an automatically controlled playback of an interaction recording, in accordance with the results generated by the rule based content analysis engine, said playback application further includes at least one tool for presenting additional information relevant to said recording, during playback.

24. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the pre-processing and content extraction component or the rule based content analysis engine includes at least one item selected from the group consisting of:

a behavioral pattern identification device, a speaker identification device, a speaker verification device, a speakers separation device, a call flow analysis device, an excitement analysis device, an emotion analysis device, a screen events analysis device, a video analysis device, a speech recognition device, a word spotting device, and an optical character recognition device (OCR).

25. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one of the content data items is selected from the group consisting of:

extracted text, a word, a phrase, an excitement level, an emotion level of a customer, an emotion level of an agent, an identified screen event, a behavioral pattern, a call flow parameter, a speaker identification, results of speakers separation or results of object analysis for video.

26. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the rule based content analysis engine uses at least one additional information source selected from the group consisting of:

an interaction meta-data, an organization knowledge base, customer Relationship Management (CRM) information, and Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) information.

27. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the pre-processing and content extraction component determines whether at least one of the at least two interaction information units is suitable for further analysis.

28. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one spotted word is used by a customer to refer to a new campaign or a product advertised by the business.

29. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one of the at least two user-defined categories is a category to which emotional interactions correlated with a release of new product or a new product version are assigned.

30. An apparatus for capturing and analyzing customer interactions the apparatus comprising:

a multi segment interaction capture device for capturing an at least one interaction between a customer and a call canter, the multi segment interaction capture device adapted to capture a vocal interaction;

an initial set up and calibration device;

a storage device for storing the at least one interaction;

a pre processing and content extraction device for analyzing audio within the at least one interaction and processing the at least one interaction; and

a rule based content analysis engine for selectively analyzing at least one interaction suitable for further analysis; and

a classification component for classifying the content data items from the at least two interaction information units into at least two user-defined categories, by matching at least one of the content data items against the at least two user-defined categories and associating the at least one of the content data items with a suitable category of the at least two user-defined categories, the at least two user-defined categories defined in accordance with at least one word combined with a screen event or with a CRM entry that occurred substantially at the time the at least one word was used.

31. The apparatus of claim 30 further comprises a content data items database.

32. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein the rule based content analysis engine is a software device operative to perform rule check on at least two data items stored in any of the following:

the content data items database, the storage device, an interaction meta-data database, a CRM database; and

whereby the results of the rule check are made available to applications.

33. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the pre-processing and content extraction device further provides indication as to the result of the rule check to applications or to a person or entity.

34. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the pre-processing and content extraction device performs content analysis on at least one raw interaction data during capturing.

35. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein the multi segment interaction capture device is operative to receive at least one interaction.

36. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein the at least one interaction is analyzed for the emotional state of a caller or an agent.

37. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein the initial set up and calibration device performs adaptive operations on the data on the storage device and an interaction meta-data database whereby the calibration of the appropriate configuration is customer or market segment tailored.

38. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein the storage device stores any one of the following:

an interaction raw database;

an interaction metadata database;

a knowledge base, a CRM database or CTI information.

39. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein the pre processing and content extraction device extracts a predetermined part of the at least one interaction for further processing and analysis.

40. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein the pre processing and content extraction device triggers monitoring of an interaction or portion thereof in response to a predetermined event or rule.

41. The apparatus of claim 40 wherein the pre processing and content extraction device is conditionally activated based on a predetermined rule or event.

42. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein the storage device stores pre-processed interaction extracted analysis results.

43. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein the pre-processing and content extraction device determines whether at least one interaction is suitable for further analysis.

44. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein the at least one spotted word is used by a customer to refer to a new campaign or a product advertised by the business.

45. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein at least one of the at least two user-defined categories is a category to which emotional interactions correlated with a release of new product or a new product version are assigned.

46. A method for capturing and analyzing customer interactions the method comprising:

pre-processing of interactions previously captured by analyzing audio within the interactions, the pre-processing stage comprising;

identification;

filtration; and

classification of interactions; and

extracting selected content data items from the interactions suitable for further analysis; and

classifying the content data items from the at least two interaction information units into at least two user-defined categories, by matching at least one of the content data items against the at least two user-defined categories and associating the at least one of the content data items with a suitable category of the at least two user-defined categories, the at least two user-defined categories defined in accordance with at least one word combined with a screen event or with a CRM entry that occurred substantially at the time the at least one word was used, thereby enabling the detection of behavioral patterns or environmental factors in interactions that are candidates for further analysis.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein the identification is accomplished by pre-processing of at least two interactions.

48. The method of claim 46 wherein the identification is accomplished by examination of meta-data associated with the interactions.

49. The method of claim 46 wherein the stage of pre-processing further comprises the step of analyzing an at least one captured interaction.

50. The method of claim 46 wherein the identification is accomplished by examination of at least one of the following:

computer telephony interaction information or CRM information or knowledge base information or information extracted from an adaptive database.

51. The method of claim 46 further comprising determining which interactions are suitable for further analysis.

52. The method of claim 46 wherein the at least one spotted word is used by a customer to refer to a new campaign or a product advertised by the business.

53. The method of claim 46 wherein at least one of the at least two user-defined categories is a category to which emotional interactions correlated with a release of new product or a new product version are assigned.

54. A method for capturing and analyzing customer interactions the method comprising:

pre-processing at least two interaction information units using audio analysis for at least one of the at least two interaction information units, extracting content data items from the at least two interaction information units;

storing the content data items in a content data item database;

selectively analyzing the at least one of the at least two interaction information units suitable for further analysis by applying content analysis rules on said content data items, including non-text based analysis rules by a rule based content analysis engine; and

classifying the content data items from the at least two interaction information units into at least two user-defined categories, by matching at least one of the content data items against the at least two user-defined categories and associating the at least one of the content data items with a suitable category of the at least two user-defined categories, the at least two user-defined categories defined in accordance with at least one word combined with a screen event or with a CRM entry that occurred substantially at the time the at least one word was used.

55. The method of claim 54 further comprising the step of associating the at least two interaction information units or content data items captured in compliance with at least one predetermined rule.

56. The method of claim 54 further comprising the step of updating at least one item with the results of the analysis, the at least one item selected from the group consisting of:

an interaction raw database;

an interaction meta-data database;

a knowledge base, a CRM database, and a computer telephony integration database.

57. The method of claim 54 wherein the content data items are raw interactions.

58. The method of claim 57 further comprising the step of capturing interactions by a multi segment interaction capture device.

59. The method of claim 58 wherein content analysis is performed on the at least two interaction information units captured during the capture of interactions stage.

60. The method of claim 54 wherein the content data items include raw interaction and associated meta data or associated post preprocessing meta data or information available from at least one database.

61. The method of claim 54 further comprising the step of performing at least one adaptive operation on data by an initial set up and calibration device whereby the calibration of the appropriate configuration is customer or market segment tailored.

62. The method of claim 54 further comprising the step of monitoring of an interaction or portion thereof in response to a predetermined event or rule.

63. The method of claim 54 further comprising the step of activating the pre processing and content extraction device based on a predetermined rule or event.

64. The method of claim 54 further comprising the step of imposing rules on the rules based content analysis engine.

65. The method of claim 54 further comprising the step of generating a report based on analysis results.

66. The method of claim 54 further comprising using analysis results in at least one usage selected from the group consisting of:

a quality management application for evaluating agents'"'"' performance, said quality management application employing quality management electronic evaluation forms, an e-learning application, a playback application, and a reporter or statistics application.

67. The method of claim 54 further comprising playing at least one of the at least two interaction information units by a playback application for providing an automatically controlled playback of an interaction recording, in accordance with a result generated by the rule based analysis engine, said playback application further includes at least one tool for presenting additional information relevant to said interaction recording, during playback.

68. The method of claim 54 wherein the pre-processing or analyzing includes at least one item selected form the group consisting of:

a behavioral pattern identification, speaker identification, speaker verification, speaker separation, call flow analysis, excitement analysis, emotion analysis, screen events analysis, video analysis, speech recognition, word spotting, and optical character recognition (OCR).

69. The method of claim 54 wherein at least one of the content data items is selected from the group consisting of:

extracted text, a word, a phrase, an excitement level, an emotion level of a customer, an emotion level of an agent, an identified screen event, a behavioral pattern, a call flow parameter, a speaker identification, results of speakers separation or results of object analysis for video.

70. The method of claim 54 wherein the analyzing uses at least one additional information source selected from the group consisting of:

an interaction meta-data, an organization knowledge base, customer Relationship Management (CRM) information, and Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) information.

71. The method of claim 54 further comprising determining whether at least one of the at least two interaction information units are suitable for further analysis.

72. The method of claim 54 wherein the at least one spotted word is used by a customer to refer to a new campaign or a product advertised by the business.

73. The method of claim 54 wherein at least one of the at least two user-defined categories is a category to which emotional interactions correlated with a release of new product or a new product version are assigned.