System and method for automated customer service with contingent live interaction
First Claim
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1. A computerized method for determining when to transfer a user from an automated service to a live agent comprising:
- a) training a set of classification models using a set of classified historical interactions to perform real-time classification of an interaction wherein said classified historical interactions comprise, at least, prompts provided by the interactive voice response system, transcriptions of statements by a caller derived from an automatic speech recognizer, meanings ascribed to statements made by the caller, and confidence scores for the transcriptions; and
b) during an automated interaction between the user and the automated service, using a computer to calculate a log likelihood ratio, using said classification models, to determine whether to transfer said user, from said automated interaction to a live interaction, by computing a log of a prediction that the interaction is good over a prediction that the interaction is bad;
wherein;
1) said log likelihood ratio is computed using the formula log(P(x|LMgood)/P(x|LMbad));
2) LMgood is a first classification model trained using records of one or more previous interactions classified as good;
3) LMbad is a second classification model trained using records of one or more previous interactions classified as bad; and
4) x is a set of responses made by the user during the interaction.
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Abstract
A balance between customer satisfaction and cost to providing customer care can be achieved based on the use of online interaction classification techniques. Such techniques can use measurements such as a log likelihood ratio to determine if an interaction should be removed from automation.
537 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A computerized method for determining when to transfer a user from an automated service to a live agent comprising:
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a) training a set of classification models using a set of classified historical interactions to perform real-time classification of an interaction wherein said classified historical interactions comprise, at least, prompts provided by the interactive voice response system, transcriptions of statements by a caller derived from an automatic speech recognizer, meanings ascribed to statements made by the caller, and confidence scores for the transcriptions; and b) during an automated interaction between the user and the automated service, using a computer to calculate a log likelihood ratio, using said classification models, to determine whether to transfer said user, from said automated interaction to a live interaction, by computing a log of a prediction that the interaction is good over a prediction that the interaction is bad; wherein; 1) said log likelihood ratio is computed using the formula log(P(x|LMgood)/P(x|LMbad)); 2) LMgood is a first classification model trained using records of one or more previous interactions classified as good; 3) LMbad is a second classification model trained using records of one or more previous interactions classified as bad; and 4) x is a set of responses made by the user during the interaction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions to configure a computer to determine when to transfer a user from an automated service to a live agent by performing steps comprising:
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a) predicting whether an interaction is good, based on a first classification model trained using records of one or more previous interactions classified as good, using P(x|LMgood); b) predicting whether the interaction is bad, based on a second classification model trained using records of one or more previous interactions classified as bad, using P(x|LMbad); c) calculating a log likelihood ratio using log(P(x|LMgood)/P(x|LMbad)); d) comparing said log likelihood ratio to a threshold value, such that if said log likelihood ratio falls below said threshold value, instructions are executed to transfer said user from automation to said live agent; wherein; i) x is a set of responses made by the user during the interaction; and ii) the one or more previous interactions classified as good and the one or more previous interactions classified as bad comprise, at least, prompts provided by an interactive voice response system, transcriptions of statements by a caller derived from an automatic speech recognizer, meanings ascribed to statements made by the caller, and confidence scores for the transcriptions. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computerized system for determining when to transfer a user from an automated service to a live agent comprising:
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a) an interactive voice response system (IVR); b) a monitoring module; wherein i) said user interacts with said IVR; ii) said monitoring module evaluates, after each turn in said IVR, a probability that said user'"'"'s interaction with the IVR is good and a probability that said user'"'"'s interaction with the IVR is bad; iii) said monitoring module signals an alarm to bring in a human agent if a log of the ratio of said good probability over said bad probability is below a predetermined threshold; iv) said monitoring module evaluates the probability that the user'"'"'s interaction with the IVR is good using P(x|LMgood); v) the monitoring module evaluates the probability that the user'"'"'s interaction with the IVR is bad using P(x|LMbad); vi) x is a set of responses made by the user during the interaction; vii) LMgood is a first classification model trained using records of one or more previous interactions classified as good; viii) LMbad is a second classification model trained using records of one or more previous interactions classified as bad; and ix) said one or more previous interactions classified as good and said one or more previous interactions classified as bad comprise, at least, prompts provided by the interactive voice response system, transcriptions of statements by a caller derived from an automatic speech recognizer, meanings ascribed to statements made by the caller, and confidence scores for the transcriptions. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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Specification