Treatment of web feeds as work assignment in a contact center

• US 8,621,011 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2009
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Bland, Michael Alan, Burgin, Daniel K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder, Patrice
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hagos, Eyob
• Application Number:
  US12/464,659
• Publication Number:
  US 20100293560A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,694 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709206-207, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

To provide an enhanced customer service experience, various combinations of web searches, site-specific filtering tools and syndicated feed readers can be used to find relevant posts on the internet. Internal email, IM, phone, and the like can cooperate with an appropriately equipped expert-finding solution to assist with help in locating the experts qualified to respond to the post(s). The leveraging of RSS/Atom feeds or similar technology, content analysis, and contact center work distribution algorithms are leveraged to monitor the feeds from multiple sites and automatically distribute messages to appropriately skilled contact center agents. Each message discovered is analyzed to determine which contact center queue it is to be routed to, and then the contact center assigns it to an appropriate agent. This eliminates or significantly reduces the amount of manual searching and qualification of posts.

Claims

1. An enhanced customer service method comprising:

performing a web search to search for, identify, retrieve and aggregate a plurality of messages that were posted on the internet in one or more of a blog, discussion forum, social networking site, news feed, web feed, blog feed, video feed, group feed and an RSS feed, the plurality of messages;

being from at least two different sources,

being identified and retrieved based on an identification of one or more predefined terms contained in the message, and

being one or more message types;

filtering only the retrieved plurality of messages which contain the one or more predefined terms, wherein filtering the retrieved plurality of messages which contain the one or more predefined terms further comprises;

determining that at least one of the retrieved plurality of messages which contain the one or more predefined terms is a press release of a company; and

in response to determining that the at least one of the retrieved plurality of messages which contains the one or more predefined terms is a press release of the company, filtering out the at least one of the retrieved plurality of messages that is the press release of the company;

analyzing, using a processor and analysis module, the content of the plurality of retrieved messages; and

based on the analysis, performing one or more of;

automatically responding to one or more of the plurality of messages,

forwarding one or more of the plurality of messages to a customer service agent, and

logging an indication of any action taken in response to the receipt, filtering and analysis of one or more of the plurality of messages.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the different sources are one or more of blogs, discussion forums, social networking sites, news feeds, web feeds, blog feeds, video feeds, group feeds, RSS feeds and internet-based sites with an API and the message types include one or more of text, multimedia, video and a combination of text and graphics.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising routing one or more of the plurality of messages to an appropriate queue for handling by the customer service agent.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the analysis includes one or more of determining if a response has already been provided, determining a priority for one or more messages, determining if one or more of the plurality of messages are sensitive, determining if one or more of the plurality of messages requires a response, determining if one or more of the plurality of messages are from the same person, determining if one or more of the plurality of messages include one or more keywords and comparing content of one or more of the plurality of messages to information in a knowledge base.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically formulating a response to one or more of the plurality of messages.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining login information for one or more information sources from which the plurality of messages are received.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising utilizing an API (Application Program Interface) to interact with an information source from which the plurality of messages are received.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the forwarding to the customer service agent is based on skills-based routing techniques.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage media having stored thereon instructions, that when executed by a processor, perform the steps of claim 1.

10. A system for enhanced customer service, the system comprising:

means for performing a web search to search for, identify, retrieve and aggregate a plurality of messages that were posted on the internet in one or more of a blog, discussion forum, social networking site, news feed, web feed, blog feed, video feed, group feed and an RSS feed, the plurality of messages;

being from at least two different sources,

being identified and retrieved based on an identification of one or more predefined terms contained in the message, and

being one or more message types;

means for filtering only the retrieved plurality of messages which include the one or more predefined terms, wherein filtering the retrieved plurality of messages which include the one or more predefined terms further comprises;

determining that at least one of the retrieved plurality of messages which include the one or more predefined terms is a press release of a company; and

in response to determining that the at least one of the retrieved plurality of messages which contains the one or more predefined terms includes a press release of the company, filtering out the at least one of the retrieved plurality of messages that includes the press release of the company;

means for analyzing, using a processor and analysis module, the content of the plurality of retrieved messages; and

based on the analysis, means for performing one or more of;

automatically responding to one or more of the plurality of messages,

automatically forwarding one or more of the plurality of messages to a customer service agent, and

automatically logging an indication of any action taken in response to the receipt, filtering and analysis of one or more of the plurality of messages.

11. An enhanced customer service system comprising:

an aggregator that performs a web search to search for, identify, retrieve and aggregate plurality of messages that were posted on the internet in one or more of a blog, discussion forum, social networking site, news feed, web feed, blog feed, video feed, group feed and an RSS feed, the plurality of messages;

being from at least two different sources,

being identified and retrieved based on an identification of one or more predefined terms, and

being one or more message types;

a filter module that filters only the plurality of retrieved messages which include the one or more predefined terms, determines that at least one of the retrieved plurality of messages which include the one or more predefined terms is a press release of a company, and in response to determining that the at least one of the retrieved plurality of messages which includes the one or more predefined terms is a press release of the company, filters out the at least one of the retrieved plurality of messages that is the press release of the company;

a processor and one or more of an analysis module and artificial intelligent module that, using the processor, analyze the content of the plurality of retrieved messages, and, based on the analysis;

an auto response module automatically responds to one or more of the plurality of messages,

an interaction center forwards one or more of the plurality of messages to a customer service agent, or

a logging module logs an indication of any action taken in response to the receipt, filtering and analysis of one or more of the plurality of messages.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the different sources are from one or more of blogs, discussion forums, social networking sites, news feeds, web feeds, blog feeds, video feeds, group feeds, RSS feeds and internet-based sites with an API and the message types include one or more of text, multimedia, video and a combination of text and graphics.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the interaction center routes one or more of the plurality of messages to an appropriate queue for handling by the customer service agent.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the analysis includes one or more of determining if a response has already been provided, determining a priority for one or more of the plurality of messages, determining if one or more of the plurality of messages are sensitive, determining if one or more of the plurality of messages requires a response, determining if one or more of the plurality of messages are from the same person, determining if one or more of the plurality of messages include one or more keywords and comparing content of one or more of the plurality of messages to information in a knowledge base.

15. The system of claim 11, further comprising a response formulation module that cooperates with the auto response module to automatically formulate a response to one or more of the plurality of messages.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein login information for one or more information sources from which the plurality of messages are received is stored in a login module.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the interaction center utilizes an API to interact with an information source from which the plurality of messages are received.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the forwarding to the customer service agent is based on skills-based routing techniques.

19. The system of claim 11, further comprising a knowledge base that is used to assist with the filtering, analysis, auto response and routing.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein one or more of the plurality of messages are automatically received by the aggregator.