Cross channel identification in electronic commerce environments

• US 8,571,201 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2009
• Issued: 10/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle OTC Subsidiary LLC (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle OTC Subsidiary LLC (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Coleman, Barry Gordon, Muszynski, Stephane Samuel
• Primary Examiner(s): SHAH, ANTIM G
• Application Number:
  US12/489,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20100322404A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,589 Days
• Field of Search: 379/93.12, 379/93.23, 379/220.01, 379/265.09, 379/265.11, 709/203, 709/217, 709/218, 709/227
• US Class Current: 379/265.09
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2038 Call context notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1205 where the types of switching equipement comprises PSTN/ISDN equipment and switching equipment of networks other than PSTN/ISDN, e.g. Internet Protocol networks

Abstract

A technique for providing context information for a PSTN phone call originating from an user includes dynamically selecting a phone number (or invite code or combination thereof) from among a pool of available phone numbers; displaying the selected phone number to the user in a web page; receiving context information corresponding to the user; receiving an incoming phone call on the dynamically selected phone number, connecting the incoming call to an outgoing call to the call center, and providing the context information to a computer corresponding to an agent to whom the outgoing call is connected. The context information may include a web page viewed by the user, and may be sufficient to provide a co-browsing capability. The technique may be utilized with or without session based web pages and may be performed by a sever that serves web page content to the user or a third party service provider.

Claims

1. A computerized method for providing context information, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from a user on a web page during a web session that the user desires to place a call;

in response to the receiving, selecting a first public switched telephone network (PSTN) telephone number from among a pool of PSTN telephone numbers;

associating the first PSTN telephone number with a web session identifier for the web session and the web page, wherein the first PSTN telephone number is displayed to the user during the web session;

receiving an incoming PSTN phone call corresponding to the first PSTN telephone number from the user;

determining the web session identifier and the web page associated with the first PSTN telephone number;

directing the incoming PSTN phone call to a second person, wherein the directing comprises determining a second PSTN telephone number associated with the second person, generating an outbound call to the second PSTN telephone number, and bridging the incoming PSTN phone call to the outbound call;

retrieving context information using the web session identifier; and

providing the context information and co-browsing capability between a first computer corresponding to the user and a second computer corresponding to the second person to the second person after determining the second PSTN telephone number;

wherein the second PSTN telephone number is determined after the first PSTN telephone number is displayed to the user during the web session and after the incoming PSTN phone call is received.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information includes an identifier of a web page being displayed to the user when an indication that a PSTN phone call is desired is received.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information includes an identifier of the user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the identifier is entered by the user during the web session.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the web session identifier identifies a web session at a server from which the web page is downloaded.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information is retrieved from a server different from a server from which the web page was downloaded.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first PSTN telephone number includes an invite code.

8. A computerized method for providing context information, the method comprising:

receiving a request from an end user computer from a web page during a web session that an end user desires to place a call, the request received at a first server;

in response to the receiving, dynamically allocating a first PSTN telephone number from a pool of PSTN telephone numbers, the first PSTN telephone number being usable for placing a PSTN phone call;

associating the first PSTN telephone number with a web session identifier for the web session and the web page;

transmitting, in response to the request, the first PSTN telephone number to the end user computer for display to the end user associated with the end user computer during the web session;

receiving an incoming PSTN phone call corresponding to the first PSTN telephone number from the end user;

connecting the incoming PSTN phone call to an outgoing PSTN phone call to a second person, wherein the connecting comprises determining a second PSTN telephone number associated with the second person, generating an outbound call to the second PSTN telephone number, and bridging the incoming PSTN phone call to the outbound call;

determining the web session identifier and the web page associated with the first PSTN telephone number, wherein the determining the second PSTN telephone number is based at least in part on a direct inward dialing of the incoming PSTN phone call; and

transmitting context information corresponding to the end user to a second computer associated with the second person and enabling co-browsing between the end user computer and the second computer after determining the second PSTN telephone number;

wherein the second PSTN telephone number is determined after the first PSTN telephone number is displayed to the user during the web session and after the incoming PSTN phone call is received.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting tracking software to the end user computer from the first server, the tracking software being operable to cause the end user computer to transmit context information to the first server.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the context information comprises information entered by the end user at the end user computer.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the context information comprises an identifier of a web page viewed by the user at the end user computer.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifier is a uniform resource locator.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first PSTN telephone number includes an invite code.

14. A system for providing context information to a call center, the system comprising:

a PSTN call switching device connectable to the PSTN; and

a server connected to the PSTN call switching device;

wherein the server is configured to perform the steps of dynamically selecting a first PSTN telephone number from among a pool of available telephone numbers in response to receiving a request from an end user computer from a web page during a web session that an end user desires to place a call;

associating the first PSTN telephone number with a web session identifier for the web session and the web page;

transmitting the first PSTN telephone number for display on the end user computer associated with the end user during the web session;

receiving context information corresponding to the end user computer;

receiving a notification of an incoming phone call corresponding to the first PSTN telephone number on the PSTN call switching device;

directing the PSTN call switching device to connect the incoming phone call to an outgoing call to a call center, wherein the directing comprises determining a second PSTN telephone number associated with the call center, generating an outbound call to the second PSTN telephone number, and bridging the incoming PSTN phone call to the outbound call;

and

providing the context information to a second computer associated with the call center and enabling co-browsing between the end user computer and the second computer after determining the second PSTN telephone number;

wherein the second PSTN telephone number is determined after the first PSTN telephone number is displayed to the user during the web session and after the incoming phone call is received.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first PSTN telephone number is transmitted in a message addressed to the end user computer.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the context information corresponding to the end user computer is received from the end user computer.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein server is configured to transmit the first PSTN telephone number to the end user computer in response to a request from the end user computer.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the PSTN call switching device comprises a first VOIP (voice over internet protocol) gateway connected to a second VOIP gateway, the first VOIP gateway having an input connected to an output of the second VOIP gateway, and the first VOIP gateway having an output connected to an input of the second VOIP gateway.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the server is configured to receive a request for the context information from the second computer, the request for context information containing an identifier corresponding to a PSTN telephone number associated with the outgoing call.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the wherein the phone number is transmitted in a message addressed to a second server, the second server being configured to include the telephone number in a web page downloaded to the end user computer.

21. The system of claim 14, wherein the first PSTN telephone number includes an invite code.