Method, computer readable medium, and system for assisting a customer in making purchases

• US 8,799,093 B2
• Filed: 11/18/2008
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stillman, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Misiaszek, Michael
• Application Number:
  US12/273,288
• Publication Number:
  US 20090076930A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,086 Days
• Field of Search: 705 261- 272
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A method of assisting a customer in making purchases includes receiving a voiced call from the customer at an automated voice services node. Voice instructions from the customer are received through the received voiced call at the voice services node. The voice instructions pertain to the purchase to be made for the customer. The voice instructions are interpreted to generate instruction data. A stored customer profile is located. The customer profile provides governing data for purchases for the customer. An automated purchase is initiated over a communications network in accordance with the instruction data and customer profile.

Claims

1. A method of assisting a customer in making purchases, comprising:

receiving a voice call from the customer at an automated voice services node and receiving caller identifier data with the voice call;

receiving initial voice input from the customer through the received voice call at the voice services node, the initial voice input pertaining to the purchase to be made for the customer;

interpreting the initial voice input to generate instruction data;

locating a customer profile obtained and stored previous to the voice call and providing governing data for purchases for the customer, the customer profile being located in accordance with the caller identifier data provided with the voice call;

initiating an automated purchase over a communications network in accordance with the instruction data and customer profile, without receiving any additional voice input from the customer from when the initial voice input is received to when the automated purchase is initiated, and the automated purchase being initiated independent of any offering of choices offered to the customer in a voice menu, and

notifying the customer of the initiated automated purchase,

wherein verbal information provided to the customer from the automated voice services node is provided in accordance with voice extensible mark-up language instructions executed at the automated voice services node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein notifying the customer comprises:

generating a notification of the status of the automated purchase; and

delivering the notification to the customer.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the governing data of the customer profile indicates permissible goods and services brands.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the governing data of the customer profile indicates credit account information.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the governing data of the customer profile indicates price ranges for various categories of items to be purchased.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the governing data of the customer profile indicates permissible vendors.

7. The method of claim 1,

wherein locating the stored customer profile comprises receiving caller identifier data through the voice call from the customer and looking up the customer profile according to the caller identifier.

8. The method of claim 1,

wherein locating the stored customer profile comprises receiving a user name and password from the customer at the voice services node, and looking up the customer profile according to the user name and password.

9. The method of claim 2,

wherein the notification is an email to an email address of the customer contained in the customer profile.

10. The method of claim 2,

wherein the notification is a return voice call to the telephone of the customer at a telephone number contained in the customer profile, wherein the return voice call provides text to speech at the voice services node to speak the notification to the customer.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing data to a customer profile database by receiving information from the computer of the customer, wherein the information is entered by the customer on the computer.

12. The method of claim 11,

wherein providing data to the customer profile database further comprises the customer visiting a web site and entering data within a template of the web site.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing data to a customer profile database by receiving a voice call from the customer to the voice services node, receiving voice information from the customer, and converting the voice information to data within the customer profile database.

14. The method of claim 1,

wherein locating a stored customer profile and initiating the automated purchase are performed by an application server in conjunction with a customer agent server,

wherein the customer agent server utilizes the customer profile data to generate purchase requests upon activation from the application server, and

wherein the application server is in communication with the voice services node to receive an indication that the voice call for a customer purchase has been received, retrieve the profile data for the customer, and provide the customer profile data and the instruction data to the customer agent server.