Voice response system with live agent assisted information selection and machine playback

• US 8,027,458 B1
• Filed: 04/06/2004
• Issued: 09/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Alorica Business Solutions, LLC
• Original Assignee: TuVox, Inc. (West Corporation)
• Inventors: Pollock, Steven Samuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Hemant
• Application Number:
  US10/819,572
• Time in Patent Office: 2,730 Days
• Field of Search: 370351-356, 379 8801- 8806, 379/88.13, 379/88.16, 379/201.01, 37926501-26606, 379/88.11, 379/88.17, 4554141-4144, 455/417, 455/412.1, 704/270, 704/270.1, 704/275, 709201-203, 709228-229, 709218-219, 715/727
• US Class Current: 379/265.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends

Abstract

In accordance with one embodiment, a method for operating a telephonic voice content system is provided. The method, comprises in a non-live agent mode, interacting with a caller by receiving an utterance from the caller, performing a machine selection of voice content to play to the caller based on the utterance, and playing the machine-selected voice content to the caller; and upon receiving a request to speak to a live agent from the caller, switching to a live agent mode wherein a live agent holds a conversation with the caller, and selects voice content to play to the caller based on the conversation; and switching to the non-live agent mode and playing the live agent-selected voice content to the caller.

Claims

1. A method for operating a telephonic voice content system, the method, comprising:

upon receiving a telephone call from a caller, switching to interacting with the caller in a non-live agent mode and processing the call in the non-live agent mode comprising receiving an utterance from the caller, performing a machine selection of voice content to play to the caller based on the utterance, and playing the machine-selected voice content to the caller;

while in the non-live agent mode, upon receiving a request to speak to a live agent from the caller, switching to a live agent mode wherein a live agent holds a conversation with the caller, and performs a selection operation to select voice content to play to the caller based on a request for information by the caller;

wherein if said selection operation fails in a case where there is no voice content matching the information the live agent provides the information, and logs an entry to indicate the lack of voice content matching the information;

wherein said switching comprises selecting the live agent based on expertise of the live agent to answer questions by the caller; and

selectively switching to the non-live agent mode and playing the live agent-selected voice content to the caller.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein switching to the live agent mode comprises sending details of utterances by the caller and system responses to the utterances during the non-live agent mode to the live agent.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the live agent comprises analyzing utterances of the caller during the non-live agent mode to determine the expertise of the live agent.

4. A method for serving voice content to a caller using a voice response system, the method, comprising:

upon receiving a telephone call from a caller, switching to interacting with the caller in a non-live agent mode and processing the call in the non-live agent mode, comprising receiving at least one utterance from the caller;

performing a machine selection operation wherein the utterance is analyzed and correlated to a topic within a text knowledge base;

playing voice content relating to the topic to the caller; and

while in the non-live agent mode, receiving a request to speak to a live agent from the caller; and

switching to a live-agent mode comprising analyzing utterances of the caller to determine what expertise is needed by a live agent in order to answer questions by the caller;

selecting a live agent with the expertise;

transferring the caller to the selected live agent who then holds a conversation with the caller and determines what information the caller requires, wherein the agent selects a topic from the text knowledge base corresponding to the information if the topic exists, failing which the agent provides the information to the caller and logs an entry to indicate the information is not present in the text knowledge database,

and

selectively switching back to the non-live agent mode and playing the selected topic to the caller.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein if no topic exists in the knowledge base corresponding to the required information then the live agent provides the information to the caller.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising composing a log entry of the required information for which no topic exists in the knowledge base.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising sending details of the utterances of the caller and responses thereto by the voice response system to the live agent.

8. A voice response system for serving voice content to a caller, the system, comprising:

a database that includes a text knowledge base organized into topics;

a telephony interface to receive a telephone call;

a non-live agent mode to handle the telephone call wherein a voice content selection mechanism selects a topic based on a correlation of an utterance received from the caller to a topic in the knowledge base; and

a voice content player plays the selected topic to the caller; and

a call transfer mechanism to transfer the telephone call to a live agent, selected to have expertise to answer questions by the caller based on analysis of utterances by the caller to determine said expertise, if requested by the caller for a selection of a topic from the knowledge base based on a request for information by the caller;

wherein the live agent provides the information if there is not topic in the knowledge base to match the information; and

logs an entry to indicate that the knowledge base lacks the information, and to selectively switch the system back to the non-live agent mode for initiate playback of the live agent selected voice content by the voice content player.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the caller transfer mechanism transfers the telephone call to the live agent in response to a request from the caller.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising a logging mechanism wherein the live agent can log information requested by the caller for which no topic exists in the knowledge base.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the call transfer mechanism sends call details comprising utterances made by the caller and system responses thereto prior to the transfer.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising a display unit to display the call details.

13. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method, comprising:

upon receiving a telephone call from a caller, interacting with the caller in a non-live agent mode and processing the call in the non-live agent mode comprising receiving an utterance from the caller, performing a machine selection of voice content to play to the caller based on the utterance, and playing the machine-selected voice content to the caller;

while in the non-live agent mode, upon receiving a request to speak to a live agent from the caller, selecting a live agent to answer questions by the caller based on analysis of utterances by the caller to determine the expertise, switching to a live agent mode wherein the selected live agent receives a request for information by the caller, selects voice content to play to the caller based on the request if the voice content exits in database;

provides the information if the voice content cannot be found in the database; and

logs an entry to indicate that the database is missing the information; and

selectively switching to the non-live agent mode and playing the live agent-selected voice content to the caller.

14. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method, comprising:

while in a non-live agent mode, receiving at least one utterance from a caller;

performing a machine selection operation wherein the utterance is analyzed and correlated to a topic within a text knowledge base;

playing voice content relating to the topic to the caller;

receiving a request to speak to a live agent from the caller;

selecting a live agent with expertise to answer questions by the caller based on analysis of utterances by the caller to determine the expertise; and

switching to a live agent mode comprising transferring the caller to the selected live agent who holds a conversation with the caller and determines what information the caller requires, wherein the agent performs a selection operation to select a topic from the text knowledge base that contains the information;

provides the information to the caller if no topic with the information can be found in the text knowledge base; and

logs an entry to indicate that the text knowledge base is missing the information; and

selectively switching back to the non-live agent mode wherein the selected topic is then played to the caller.