System and method for real-time customized agent training

• US 8,600,034 B2
• Filed: 11/22/2011
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nice Ltd
• Original Assignee: Nice Systems Limited (Nice Ltd)
• Inventors: Teitelman, Michael, Portman, Leon
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar, Ahmad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoque, Nafiz E
• Application Number:
  US13/302,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20130129071A1
• Time in Patent Office: 742 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.01, 379/265.02, 379/265.05, 379/265.06
• US Class Current: 379/265.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/403 Agent or workforce training
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/404 Collaboration among agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• 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 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements

Abstract

A system, device and method is provided for handling customer-agent interactions. An unsuccessful interaction may be detected between a customer and a first agent unable to resolve a problem. A successful interaction may be detected between the customer and a second agent that resolves the problem. The first agent may be sent a report summarizing the successful interaction by the second agent.

Claims

1. A method for handling customer-agent interactions, the method comprising:

in one or more processors;

detecting an unsuccessful interaction in a telephone call between a customer and a first agent unable to resolve a problem;

detecting that the customer telephone call is transferred from the first agent to a second agent;

detecting a successful interaction between the customer and the second agent that resolves the problem; and

sending to the first agent after the successful interaction ends a textual report summarizing the successful interaction by the second agent.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

iteratively transferring the customer from first agent of a pair of agents to a second agent of a pair of agents after each unsuccessful interaction with the first agent of the pair until the successful interaction with the second agent is detected; and

sending the report of the successful interaction to each of the agents that did not handle the interaction successfully.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer is connected to the first and second agents in separate interaction sessions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the report is generated by automatically editing a text transcription of an audio recording of the successful interaction by extracting sentences, words or phrases from the text transcription that include predetermined key-words.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising sending the report to all agents that had interactions with the customer about the problem.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising sending the report to a subset of agents that had interactions with the customer about the problem, wherein the agents in the subset satisfy one or more predetermined criteria selected from the group consisting of:

agents in the same department as the second agent, agents with same target training level as the second agent, agents with the same security clearance as the second agent, and agents who have failed a predetermined number of times to provide solutions to other problems in the same training category as a category of the problem.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein an unsuccessful interaction with the first agent is automatically detected when the customer is re-connected to a different agent.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein an unsuccessful interaction with the first agent is automatically detected by recognizing pre-defined key-words at a voice recognition system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein an unsuccessful interaction with the first agent is detected by receiving negative feedback from the customer.

10. The method of claim 1 comprising only tracking interactions in interesting sessions that satisfy one or more predetermined interesting criteria selected from the group consisting of:

sessions with more than a predetermined number of interactions, sessions with more than a predetermined number of transfers, sessions where the customer contacts a support center more than a predetermined number of times, sessions where the customer is transferred more than a predetermined number of times, and sessions where the customer contacts the first agent in a different session than the second agent and where the first and second agents are in the same department.

11. A system for handling customer-agent interactions, the system comprising:

one or more processors to detect an unsuccessful interaction in a telephone call between a customer and a first agent unable to resolve a problem, detect that the customer telephone call is transferred from the first agent to a second agent, detect a successful interaction between the customer and the second agent that resolves the problem, and send the first agent after the successful interaction ends a textual report summarizing the successful interaction by the second agent.

12. The system of claim 11, comprising a switch to iteratively transfer the customer to a next sequential agent in a sequence of agents after completing an unsuccessful interaction with a current agent in the sequence until the successful interaction with the second agent in the sequence of agents is detected and wherein the processor sends the report of the successful interaction to each of the unsuccessful agents in the sequence of agents.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the customer operates a device that is connected to the first and second agent devices in separate interaction sessions.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor generates the report by automatically editing a text transcription of an audio recording of the successful interaction by extracting sentences, words or phrases from the text transcription that include predetermined key-words.

15. The system of claim 14 comprising a voice recognition system to generate the text transcription of the audio recording of the successful interaction.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor automatically detects the unsuccessful interaction with the first agent when the same customer is re-connected to a different agent.

17. The system of claim 11 comprising a voice recognition system to recognize words in audio recordings of the agent interactions, wherein the processor automatically detects the unsuccessful interaction with the first agent when the voice recognition system recognizes key-words pre-defined to be associated with unsuccessful interactions.

18. The system of claim 11 comprising a screen at the first agent device, wherein the screen displays the report summarizing the successful interaction by the second agent.