Closed loop communication

• US 9,049,102 B1
• Filed: 06/14/2013
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wasserman, Rich, Bootwala, Yusuf, Park, Thomas, Eakin, Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Chai, Longbit
• Application Number:
  US13/918,235
• Time in Patent Office: 718 Days
• Field of Search: 726/3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments of a system. In one embodiment, among others, a method comprises intercepting a communication between a first party and a second party in a communication forum. The communication includes first party proxy information as an intended recipient information. The method further comprises accessing a communication pair using the intended recipient information. The intended recipient information is associated with second party proxy information. The second party proxy information is associated with second party information. Additionally, the method comprises determining whether the identity of the sender is valid.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in at least one computing device, comprising:

code that monitors a plurality of anonymous communications between a first party associated with a first client device and a plurality of second parties associated with a plurality of second client devices, wherein individual anonymous communications are exchanged between the first party and a corresponding second party of the plurality of second parties, wherein the first party can be a sender of a first portion of the plurality of anonymous communications and the first party can also be an intended recipient for a second portion of the plurality of anonymous communications, wherein a sender email address is substituted with an active sender proxy email address and the intended recipient uses an intended recipient proxy email address;

code that analyzes the plurality of anonymous communications to at least determine an average response time of individual response times of the first party responding to individual received communications of the second portion of the plurality of anonymous communications sent from individual second parties of the plurality of second parties;

code that generates an analysis report of the plurality of anonymous communications, the analysis report including at least a feedback of suggestion for improvement related to the average response time; and

code that provides the analysis report including the feedback of suggestion for improving the average response time to the first client device of the first party.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first party is a merchant and the plurality of second parties are a plurality of customers.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

code that intercepts a particular anonymous communication of the plurality of anonymous communications sent to the corresponding second party from the first party, the particular anonymous communication including sender information identifying the first party, wherein the sender information includes the sender email address of the first party;

code that substitutes the sender email address associated with the first party with the active sender proxy email address; and

code that sends the particular anonymous communication to the corresponding second party.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of anonymous communications related to a plurality of product shipments, and the plurality of anonymous communications are further analyzed to determine a percentage of the plurality of product shipments associated with a reported shipping error.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of anonymous communications related to a plurality of products sold, and the plurality of anonymous communications are further analyzed a percentage of the plurality of products sold associated with a reported defect.

6. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device;

a memory accessible to the at least one computing device; and

a closed loop communication manager executable in the at least one computing device, the closed loop communication manager comprising;

logic that monitors a plurality of anonymous communications associated with a plurality of communication pairs and being exchanged between a first client device and a plurality of second client devices, wherein individual communication pairs comprise a first party and a second party, and wherein the first party can be a sender of a first portion of the plurality of anonymous communications and the first party can also be an intended recipient for a second portion of the plurality of anonymous communications, wherein a sender email address is substituted with an active sender proxy email address and the intended recipient uses an intended recipient proxy email address;

logic that analyzes the plurality of anonymous communications to at least determine an average response time of individual response times of the first party responding to individual received communications of the second portion of the plurality of anonymous communications sent from the second party;

logic that generates an analysis report that includes at least a feedback of suggestion for improvement related to the average response time; and

logic that sends the analysis report including the feedback of suggestion for improving the average response time to the first client device of the first party.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the first party of a first communication pair of the plurality of communication pairs is the same as the first party of a second communication pair of the plurality of communication pairs.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the plurality of anonymous communications relate to a plurality of product shipments, and the plurality of anonymous communications are analyzed to further determine a percentage of product shipments associated with a reported shipping error.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the plurality of anonymous communications relate to a plurality of products sold, and the plurality of anonymous communications are analyzed to further determine a percentage of products sold associated with a reported defect.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein a specific communication pair of the plurality of communication pairs is associated with pair data that includes first account information associated with the first party and second account information associated with the second party.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein the closed loop communication manager further comprises:

logic that intercepts a first anonymous communication sent from the first party to the second party;

logic that substitutes the sender email address associated with the first party with active sender proxy email address associated with the first party; and

logic that sends the first anonymous communication having the active sender proxy email address to the second party, the first party being unidentifiable to the second party.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein the first party is a merchant and the second party is a customer of the merchant.

13. A method, comprising:

monitoring, via at least one of one or more computing devices, a plurality of anonymous communications among a plurality of communication pairs, wherein individual communication pairs comprise a first party and a second party, wherein the first party can be a sender of a first portion of the plurality of anonymous communications and the first party also can be an intended recipient for a second portion of the plurality of anonymous communications, wherein a sender email address is substituted with an active sender proxy email address and the intended recipient uses an intended recipient proxy email address;

analyzing, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a communications metric associated with the plurality of anonymous communications;

calculating, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, an average response time of individual response times of the first party responding to individual received communications of the second portion of the plurality of anonymous communications send from the second party;

generating, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, an analysis report including at least a feedback of suggestion for improvement related to the average response time; and

sending, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the analysis report including the feedback of suggestion for improving the average response time to a first client device of the first party.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first party of a first communication pair is the same as the first party of a second communication pair.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of anonymous communications are associated with a same first party and a plurality of different second parties.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of anonymous communications relate to a plurality of products sold, and the communications metric includes a percentage of products sold associated with a reported defect.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of anonymous communications relate to a plurality of product shipments, and the communications metric is a percentage of product shipments associated with a reported shipping error.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

intercepting, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a specific communication of the plurality of anonymous communications sent from the first client device; and

replacing, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the sender email address with the active sender proxy email address.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the first party is a merchant and the second party is a customer of the merchant.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the analysis report is sent to the first client device in response to receiving a payment for the analysis report.