Method and apparatus for converting form information to phone call

• US 8,117,084 B2
• Filed: 02/06/2007
• Issued: 02/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle OTC Subsidiary LLC (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Art Technology Group Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Siegrist, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Allen, Will
• Application Number:
  US11/671,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20080187125A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,834 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.4, 705/14.51, 705/14.58, 705/14.65, 705/14.68, 705/14.73, 705 261- 272, 705/304
• US Class Current: 705/26.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/39 using speech synthesis speech synthesis per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/003 Click to dial services

Abstract

A method and apparatus for establishing a phone call between a potential customer viewing information on the internet and a sales agent includes the steps of receiving a message indicating that the customer wishes to be contacted and including contact information for the customer and other information, converting at least some of the information in the message to speech, establishing a phone call to the sales agents, playing the speech to the sales agent, establishing a phone call to the customer using the contact information in the message, and bridging the first call to the second call. In some embodiments, a text message such as email or SMS is sent in addition to the phone call to the sales agent or when the phone call to the sales agent cannot be completed.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a phone call comprising the steps of:

receiving, by a call server, a message including information entered by a customer at a website, the message indicating that a customer wishes to be contacted by a sales agent, the message including customer identification information, customer contact information, and product identification information that identifies a good or service in which the customer is interested;

establishing a first phone call to the customer by a first voice over internet protocol (VoIP) gateway in communication with the call server;

establishing a second phone call to a sales agent by a second VoIP gateway in communication with the call server;

converting at least a portion of the message to speech;

playing the speech to the sales agent in the second phone call;

bridging the first phone call and the second phone call to connect the sales agent to the customer, wherein the bridging comprises directing an internet protocol output of the first VoIP gateway to an internet protocol input of the second VoIP gateway and directing an internet protocol output of the second VOIP gateway to an internet protocol input of the first VOIP gateway; and

placing a third phone call to the sales agent using sales agent contact information different from that used on the second call, wherein the first phone call is bridged to the third phone call instead of the second phone call, and wherein the sales agent associated with the second phone call is the sales agent associated with the third phone call.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first phone call and the second phone call is conducted over a public switched telephone network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer contact information comprises a telephone number.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the message converted to speech includes at least a portion of the customer identification information and at least a portion of the product identification information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the customer identification information includes the customer name and at least a portion of the customer'"'"'s name is converted to speech.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second phone call is conducted over a public switched telephone network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second and third phone calls are made sequentially.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second and third phone calls are made in parallel.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending a text message to the sales agent, the text message including at least a portion of the message that was converted to speech in the converting step.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the message is an email.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the message is a short message service (SMS) message.

12. A system for establishing a phone call, the system comprising:

a call server configured receive a message including information entered by a customer at a website, the information in the message including customer identification information, customer contact information, and product identification information that identifies a good or service in which the customer is interested, the call server including a database that includes at least one sales agent contact data and a text-to-speech module, the call server being configured to perform the steps of

establishing a first phone call to the customer;

establishing a second phone call to a sales agent;

converting at least a portion of the message to speech;

playing the speech to the sales agent in the second phone call; and

bridging the first phone call and the second phone call to connect the sales agent to the customer; and

a first voice over internet protocol (VoIP) gateway in communication with the call server;

a second VoIP gateway in communication with the call server;

wherein the first VoIP gateway is used to establish the first phone call, the second VoIP gateway is used to establish the second phone call, and the bridging step is performed by directing an internet protocol output of the first VoIP gateway to an internet protocol input of the second VoIP gateway and directing an internet protocol output of the second VoIP gateway to an internet protocol input of the first VOIP gateway, and

wherein the call server is further configured to place a third phone call to the sales agent using sales agent contact information different from that used on the second call, wherein the first phone call is bridged to the third phone call instead of the second phone call, and wherein the sales agent associated with the second phone call is the sales agent associated with the third phone call.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the first phone call and the second phone call is conducted over the public switched telephone network.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the customer contact information comprises a telephone number.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the portion of the message converted to speech includes at least a portion of the customer identification information and at least a portion of the product identification information.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the customer identification information includes the customer name and at least a portion of the customer'"'"'s name is converted to speech.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the second phone call is conducted over the public switched telephone network.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the second and third phone calls are made sequentially.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the second and third phone calls are made in parallel.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the call server is further configured to place any number of calls to a sales agent in addition to the second and third calls.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the call server is further configured to perform the step of sending a text message to the sales agent, the text message including at least a portion of the message that was converted to speech in the converting step.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the message is an email.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the message is a short message service (SMS) message.

24. The system of claim 12, further comprising a web server in communication with the end user terminal via the Internet, the web server being configured to transmit display information to the end user terminal.

25. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform:

receiving a message including information entered by a customer at a website, the message indicating that a customer wishes to be contacted by a sales agent, the message including customer identification information, customer contact information, and product identification information that identifies a good or service in which the customer is interested;

establishing a first phone call to the customer by a first voice over internet protocol (VoIP) gateway in communication with the call server;

establishing a second phone call to a sales agent by a second VoIP gateway in communication with the call server;

converting at least a portion of the message to speech;

playing the speech to the sales agent in the second phone call;

bridging the first phone call and the second phone call to connect the sales agent to the customer, wherein the bridging comprises directing an internet protocol output of the first VoIP gateway to an internet protocol input of the second VoIP gateway and directing an internet protocol output of the second VoIP gateway to an internet protocol input of the first VOIP gateway; and

placing a third phone call to the sales agent using sales agent contact information different from that used on the second call, wherein the first phone call is bridged to the third phone call instead of the second phone call, and wherein the sales agent associated with the second phone call is the sales agent associated with the third phone call.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 25, wherein the portion of the message converted to speech includes at least a portion of the customer identification information and at least a portion of the product identification information.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the customer identification information includes the customer name and at least a portion of the customer'"'"'s name is converted to speech.