Network predictive customer service queue management

• US 8,693,671 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2012
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Five9, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Five9, Inc.
• Inventors: Fried, Lance, Katz, Joseph, Korfin, Rick
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Quynh
• Application Number:
  US13/594,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20130051546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 592 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.02, 379/265.09, 379/266.07, 379/309
• US Class Current: 379/265.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/12 intelligent networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42306 Number translation services, e.g. premium-rate, freephone or vanity number services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4283 Call holding circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5231 with call back arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5238 with waiting time or load prediction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/125 Details of gateway equipment

Abstract

A communications portal for interfacing with a carrier network, a contact center, and a user is disclosed. Telecommunications links are connected to the communications portal to receive inbound calls and place outbound calls. A gateway signaling proxy containing an application server and a reverse automation subsystem is connected to the telecommunications links to recognize and store user selections, detect answer supervision, and execute scripts as configured in the user interface.

Claims

1. A communications portal system comprising:

a gateway signaling proxy configured to logically connect to a contact center and a communication device of a user, wherein the gateway signaling proxy is operative to initiate communication with the communication device and with the contact center, bridge communication between the communication device and the contact center, and receive from the communication device a request to communicate with the contact center;

a control server logically connected to the gateway signaling proxy, wherein the control server is operative to control the gateway signal proxy; and

an application server logically connected to the gateway signaling proxy and the control server, wherein the application server is operative to retrieve a navigation instruction from a storage device based on information associated with the request;

wherein the communications portal system is operative to use the navigation instruction to automatically navigate menu options of the call center through a communication link between the gateway signaling proxy and the call center.

2. The communications portal system of claim 1, further operative to identify and store a contact information associated with the request and subsequently retrieve and use the stored contact information to initiate communication with the user.

3. The communications portal system of claim 2, wherein the contact information is a phone number and is derived using a dialed number identification service.

4. The communications portal system of claim 2, wherein the contact information is a phone number and is derived using a quasi-dialed number identification service.

5. The communications portal system of claim 1, further operative to identify a contact information associated with the request and reject the request if the contact information satisfies a predetermined condition.

6. The communications portal system of claim 5, wherein a rejected request is redirected to the contact center over a telecommunications link.

7. The communications portal system of claim 6, wherein communication data transmitted to the contact center over the telecommunications link following the redirection is stored in the storage device.

8. The communications portal system of claim 1, wherein the gateway signaling proxy bridges communication between the communication device and the contact center based on one or more predefined conditions.

9. The communications portal system of claim 8, wherein the predefined conditions includes the activation of answer supervision by the contact center.

10. The communications portal system of claim 1, further comprising:

a media server logically connected to the gateway signaling proxy, the media server has stored thereon multimedia content transferable to the communication device;

wherein the communications portal system is receptive to one or more inputs provided in response to the multimedia content, wherein the one or more inputs are received from the communication device.

11. The communications portal system of claim 10, wherein the inputs are of a type selected from the group consisting of:

dual-tone multi-frequency input, voice input, and soft key input.

13. The communications portal system of claim 1, wherein the application server is operative to cause one or more prompts to be transmitted to the communication device according to the navigation instruction, and wherein the storage device is operative to store one or more inputs received from the communication device provided in response to the one or more prompts.

14. The communications portal system of claim 13, wherein:

the gateway signaling proxy is operative to terminate communication with the communication device upon a storage of the one or more inputs and a contact information associated with the user; and

the communications portal system is operative to use at least one of the one or more inputs to navigate the menu options of the call center subsequent to the termination of the communication with the communication device.

15. The communications portal system of claim 13, wherein:

the gateway signaling proxy is operative to terminate communication with the communication device upon a retrieval from the storage device a navigation history associated with the user; and

the communications portal system is operative to use the navigation history to navigate the menu options of the call center subsequent to terminating the communication with the communication device.

16. The communications portal system of claim 1, further operative to maintain a communication with the call center, thereby holding a position on behalf of the user in a waiting queue associated with the call center.

17. The communications portal system of claim 1, wherein the gateway signaling proxy is operative to reestablish communication with the contact center upon detection of an error condition that caused a previous communication with the contact center to terminate.

18. The communications portal system of claim 17, wherein the application server is operative to reuse the navigation instruction to automatically navigate the menu options upon the reestablishment of the communication with the contact center.

19. The communications portal system of claim 18, wherein the navigation instruction effectively causes the application server to retrieve a navigation history associated with the user from the storage device and use the navigation history to navigate the menu options.

20. The communications portal system of claim 1, wherein the application server is operative to prompt the user with a pre-configured message after a detection of an answer supervision.

21. The communications portal system of claim 1, wherein the application server is operative to prompt the contact center with a pre-configured message after a detection of an answer supervision.

22. The communications portal system of claim 1, wherein the application server is operative to cause the gateway signaling proxy to initiate communication with the contact center, wherein one or more observed characteristics of the communication are stored in the storage device.

23. The communications portal system of claim 22, wherein one of the one or more observed characteristics is one of answer supervision, error codes, and elapsed time in a waiting queue associated with the call center.

24. The communications portal system of claim 1, further operative to generate a prediction on incoming request pattern.

25. The communications portal system of claim 24, wherein the application server is operative to cause the gateway signaling proxy to pre-establish communication with to the contact center based on the prediction prior to receiving the request.

26. The communications portal system of claim 25, wherein the gateway singling proxy is operative to bridge the pre-established communication with the contact center with the communication device associated with the request subsequently received.

27. The communications portal system of claim 25, wherein the pre-established communication effectively holds a position in a waiting queue associated with the contact center.

28. The communications portal system of claim 24, further comprising a management user interface through which one or more confidence levels for the prediction are assigned.

29. The communications portal system of claim 1, further operative to generate estimation data pertinent to the request and transmit the estimation data to the communication device.

30. The communications portal system of claim 29, wherein the estimation data relates to call center agent availability.

31. The communications portal system of claim 29, wherein the estimation data relates to wait time.

32. The communications portal system of claim 29, wherein the estimation data is presented to the user as audio.

33. The communications portal system of claim 29, wherein the estimation data is transmitted to the user over a Short Messaging Service (SMS) message.

34. The communications portal system of claim 29, wherein the estimation data is transmitted to the user over an e-mail message.

35. The communications portal system of claim 1, wherein the navigation instruction includes a script.

36. The communications portal system of claim 35, wherein the script uses one or more pre-stored navigation inputs provided by the user.

37. The communications portal system of claim 1, further comprising:

a media server configured to logically connect to the gateway signaling proxy, wherein the media server provides multimedia to be transmitted to the contact center for navigating the menu options.

38. The communications portal system of claim 1, wherein the gateway signaling proxy is operative to put the communication device on hold while the communications portal system navigates the menu options of the contact center.

39. The communications portal system of claim 1, wherein the gateway signaling proxy is operative to terminate communication with the communication device while the communications portal system navigates the menu options of the contact center, reestablish communication with the communication device based on a predetermined condition, and bridge communication between the communication device and the contact center.

12. The communications portal system of 1, further comprising:

a media server configured to logically connect to the communication device over an Internet Protocol (IP) communications protocol, the media server has stored thereon multimedia content transferable to the communication device;

wherein a hyperlink to the media server provided to the communication device is presented as a phone number.