Method of providing phone service menus

• US 8,453,071 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2006
• Issued: 05/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Berstis, Viktors, Gilzean, Candice B., Gaillard, Sonia M.
• Primary Examiner(s): SALOMON, PHENUEL S
• Application Number:
  US11/348,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20070186184A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,667 Days
• Field of Search: 715/810, 715/841, 715/853, 379/88.19, 379/88.2
• US Class Current: 715/810
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A method and system for facilitating the navigation of menu trees offered by service providers is provided. The method of facilitating menu tree options at a menu tree facilitator includes the steps of receiving a customer request from a customer at a menu tree service center, the request including a customer identification, and determining one menu tree from a plurality of menu trees based on the customer request, wherein each of the plurality of menu trees is associated with a service provider. The method also includes determining at least a portion of the determined menu tree based on the customer request; and sending the portion of the determined menu tree to the customer based on the determination. The menu tree facilitator is a separate entity from the service provider.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating menu tree options, the method comprising:

receiving from a customer, customer subscription data at a menu tree service center prior to receiving a customer request from the customer, wherein the customer subscription data comprises at least one linked customer number linked to a spoken word or phrase, the linked customer number and spoken word or phrase stored on a database at the menu tree service center;

receiving the customer request from a customer at the menu tree service center, the customer request including a customer identification;

determining one menu tree from a plurality of menu trees based on the customer request, wherein each of the plurality of menu trees is associated with a service provider;

determining at least a portion of the determined menu tree based on the customer request, wherein the portion is further determined based on at least one of a customer menu tree navigation record and a predetermined menu tree provided to the menu tree service center by the service provider and stored at the menu tree service center server;

sending the portion of the determined menu tree to the customer based on the portion;

receiving a response from the customer at the menu tree service center based on the portion;

transmitting the response from the menu tree service center to the service provider;

sending a service provider request for the linked customer number to the customer via the menu tree service center;

receiving a verbal response from the customer at the menu tree service center, wherein the verbal response comprises the spoken word or phrase;

retrieving the linked customer number from the menu tree service center server based on the verbal response; and

sending the linked customer number to the service provider.