Operator network that routes customer care calls based on subscriber / device profile and CSR skill set

• US 8,848,899 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2008
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Brunet, Jeffrey, Collins, Ian, Chowdhary, Yousuf, Rao, Bindu Rama
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoque, Nafiz E
• Application Number:
  US12/057,004
• Publication Number:
  US 20080175372A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,378 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.02, 379/265.09, 379/265.12, 379/265.13
• US Class Current: 379/265.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2066 Call type detection of indication, e.g. voice or fax, mobile of fixed, PSTN or IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution

Abstract

An operator network is capable of routing incoming customer care calls to specific customer care representatives based on a subscriber profile and customer service representative (CSR) skill set. The device profile is retrieved from the mobile handset while the incoming customer care call is in a queue waiting to be connected to a CSR. The retrieved device profile is also used to determine an appropriate CSR to handle an incoming customer care call.

Claims

1. A system for handling user support calls, comprising:

one or more processors communicatively coupled to a plurality of communication terminal devices each used by a corresponding live attendant;

program instructions stored in memory and executable by the one or more processors to;

receive a call from a remote communication device of a user;

cause routing of the call from the communication device to a communication terminal of one of the live attendants based on (i) information retrieved from the communication device during the call and (ii) expertise information for the plurality of live attendants accessed from a database;

provide, to the communication terminal of the one of the live attendants, an emulated version of the communication device based at least in part on the information retrieved from the communication device during the call;

receive a diagnosis, from the one of the live attendants, of the communication device; and

cause modification of one or both of executable code and parameters in the communication device.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the information retrieved from the communication device comprises a device profile.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the information retrieved from the communication device identifies at least one of:

a manufacturer, a model, a firmware version, a software version, a hardware version, of a subscriber.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the expertise information comprises a mapping of the live attendants to one or both of manufacturers of communication devices or types of communication devices.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the expertise information comprises a mapping of the live attendants to an operating system.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the information is retrieved from the communication device while the call with the communication device is on hold.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the communication device is a handheld wireless voice terminal.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising program instructions stored in memory and executable by the one or more processors to receive, from the communication terminal of the one of the live attendants, a command to initiate a firmware update on the remote communication device.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the diagnosis is based on an interaction of the live attendant with the emulated version of the communication device.

10. A method of handling user support calls, comprising:

receiving an incoming call from a communication device of a user;

after receiving the call, retrieving information from the communication device during the call;

selecting one of a plurality of live attendants based on (i) the retrieved information from the communication device and (ii) expertise information for a plurality of live attendants accessed from a database;

provide, to the selected one of the plurality of live attendants, an emulated version of the communication device based at least in part on the retrieved information from the communication device; and

routing the call to a communication terminal used by the selected live attendant.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the retrieving is performed while the call is on hold.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the information retrieved from the communication device identifies at least one of:

a manufacturer, a model, a firmware version, a software version, a hardware version, of a subscriber.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein the information retrieved from the communication device comprises a device profile.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein the method comprises:

tracking performance of the plurality of live attendants; and

updating the expertise information for the plurality of live attendants in the database.

15. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

retrieving a subscriber profile from the communication device; and

wherein selecting one of the plurality of live attendants is further based on the retrieved subscriber profile.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein the method comprises:

presenting at least a portion of the information retrieved from the communication device to the selected live attendant.

17. The method according to claim 10, wherein the communication device is a handheld wireless voice terminal.

18. A system for handling user support calls, comprising:

one or more processors communicatively coupled to a plurality of communication terminal devices each used by a corresponding live attendant;

program instructions stored in memory and executable by the one or more processors to;

receive a call from a remote communication device of a user;

cause routing of the call from the communication device to a communication terminal of one of the live attendants based on (i) information retrieved from the communication device during the call and (ii) expertise information for the plurality of live attendants accessed from a database;

provide, to the communication terminal of the one of the live attendants, an emulated version of the communication device based at least in part on the information retrieved from the communication device during the call; and

cause collection and updating of the expertise information for the one of the live attendants in the database.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the information retrieved from the communication device identifies at least one of:

a manufacturer, a model, a firmware version, a software version, a hardware version, or a subscriber.

20. The system according to claim 18, wherein the expertise information comprises a mapping of the live attendants to one or both of manufacturers of communication devices or types of communication devices.

21. The system according to claim 18, wherein the program instructions are executable by the one or more processors to cause one or both of diagnosis of the communication device or modification of one or both of executable code and parameters in the communication device.

22. The system according to claim 18, wherein the communication device is a handheld wireless voice terminal.