Processing electronic mail replies

• US 9,202,218 B1
• Filed: 03/27/2012
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Crisman, Zachary, Joshi, Siddharth Vivek, Sheehan, Jamie J., Dannaker, Charles E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): KRISHNAN, RAJESHWARI
• Application Number:
  US13/431,341
• Time in Patent Office: 1,344 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/206, 709/209, 715/752, 705/7.27, 705/16
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/37 E-mail addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/42 Anonymization, e.g. involving pseudonyms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4555 Directories for electronic mail or instant messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3228 One-time or temporary data, i.e. information which is sent for every authentication or authorization, e.g. one-time-password, one-time-token or one-time-key

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for processing email and/or reply emails. A contact entry associated with a user issue is created. The contact entry is associated with an issue category based upon a context of the contact entry. A unique email token associated with the contact entry is generated. Emails sent to the user are generated with a reply-to address that incorporates the email token.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying at least one program executable in at least one first computing device, wherein, when executed, the at least one program causes the at least one first computing device to at least:

generate a contact entry in a data store, the contact entry associated with a user initiation of communication with an enterprise, the contact entry further associated with an issue to be resolved;

associate the contact entry with an issue category based at least in part upon the issue associated with the contact entry;

generate a token associated with the contact entry in response to associating the contact entry with the issue category, the token being a unique identifier;

generate an email associated with the contact entry, the email associated with a tokenized email address incorporating at least a portion of the token, the email associated with a resolution state of the issue associated with the contact entry;

designate a username as a portion of a local-part of the tokenized email address, the at least a portion of the token being appended to the username, the username associated with an original email address of the enterprise;

designate a “

reply-to”

address of the email as the tokenized email address;

designate a “

from”

address of the email as the original email address associated with the username;

send the email to at least one user email address associated with an account of a user associated with the contact entry;

obtain a reply email that is sent to the tokenized email address from a sender;

determine that the sender of the reply email corresponds to the user by determining that a “

from”

address of the reply email matches the at least one user email address;

determine that the reply email is received within an expiry window associated with the tokenized email address, the expiry window comprising a window of time outside of which the tokenized email address is expired; and

determine that the token is in an activated state in response to determining that the reply email is received within the expiry window.

2. A system comprising:

an electronic data store configured to store at least specific computer-executable instructions; and

a computing device comprising a hardware processor and in communication with the electronic data store, the computing device configured to execute the at least specific computer-executable instructions to at least;

generate a contact entry in the electronic data store, the contact entry further associated with a user initiation of communication with an enterprise, the contact entry further associated with an issue to be resolved;

associate the contact entry with an issue category based at least in part upon the issue associated with the contact entry;

generate an email token associated with the contact entry in response to associating the contact entry with the issue category, the email token being a unique identifier with respect to a plurality of identifiers associated with a plurality of email tokens in the electronic data store;

generate an email associated with the contact entry, the email associated with a tokenized email address incorporating at least a portion of the email token, the email comprising a message advising that the issue is still being resolved;

designate a username as a portion of a local-part of the tokenized email address, the at least a portion of the email token being appended to the username, the username associated with an original email address of the enterprise;

designate a “

reply-to”

address of the email as the tokenized email address;

designate a “

from”

address of the email as the original email address;

send the email to at least one user email address associated with a user account of a user associated with the contact entry;

obtain a received email sent to the tokenized email address;

identify the “

from”

address of the received email;

identify the email token in the tokenized email address;

identify the user account associated with the email token;

determine that the “

from”

address of the received email corresponds to the at least one user email address associated with the user account;

determine that the email token is associated with a “

to”

address of the received email;

identify the issue category associated with the email token; and

forward the received email to another email address based at least in part upon the issue category associated with the email token.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least:

determine that the “

from”

address of the received email differs from the at least one user email address; and

reject the received email in response to determining that the “

from”

address differs from the at least one user email address.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least:

generate an expiry window associated with the email, the expiry window being a period of time beginning when the email is sent to the at least one user email address;

determine that a received date of the received email is outside of the expiry window; and

reject the received email in response to determining that the received date of the received email is outside of the expiry window.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least determine that a status of the contact entry has changed.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is further configured to execute specific computer-executable instructions to at least generate another email associated with the contact entry in response to determining that the issue has been resolved, the other email comprising another message advising that the issue has been resolved.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least determine whether to escalate resolving the issue based at least in part on a number of reply communications received from the at least one user email address.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least initiate escalation of the issue in response to a determination to escalate resolving the issue.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least determine an escalation state of the issue in response to receipt of an email from the at least one user email address regarding the issue.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

generating, by a computing device, a contact entry associated with a user initiated communication with an enterprise and a user specified issue;

associating, by the computing device, the contact entry with an issue category based at least in part on the user specified issue;

generating, by the computing device, a unique token associated with the contact entry;

generating, by the computing device, a first email associated with the contact entry, the first email comprising;

a “

reply-to”

address, wherein a local part of the “

reply-to”

address comprises the unique token appended to a username, wherein the username is associated with an original email address of the enterprise; and

a “

from”

address comprising the original email address;

sending, by the computing device, the first email to a destination address specified in the contact entry;

receiving, by the computing device, a second email;

determining, by the computing device, that a “

to”

address of the second email comprises the “

reply-to”

address included in the first email;

identifying, by the computing device, the unique token from the “

to”

address;

determining, by the computing device, that a sender of the second email corresponds to the destination address specified in the contact entry in response to identifying that at least one email address associated with the sender of the email corresponds to the unique token;

determining, by the computing device, that a status indicator associated with the contact entry indicates that the user specified issue associated with the contact entry is unresolved;

generating, by the computing device, a response email message comprising a message advising that the user specified issue is still being resolved; and

transmitting, by the computing device, the response email message to the destination address.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining, by the computing device, that the second email is received outside an expiry window;

generating, by the computing device, an expiration rejection email message comprising a message advising that the second email was received outside the expiry window; and

transmitting, by the computing device, the expiration rejection email message to the destination address specified in the contact entry.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the expiration rejection email message further comprises a message advising of at least one alternative method of contact.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

validating, by the computing device, the status indicator associated with the contact entry corresponding to the unique token;

determining, by the computing device, that the status indicator is not equal to an expected value;

generating, by the computing device, a status rejection email message; and

transmitting, by the computing device, the status rejection email message to the destination address.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the status rejection email message comprises a message advising that a status is not equal to the expected value.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the expected value of the status indicator comprises an activated state corresponding to the unique token.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining, by the computing device, that a threshold specifying a maximum number of emails sent to the “

reply-to”

email address has been satisfied;

generating, by the computing device, a rejection email message in response to determining that the threshold specifying the maximum number of emails sent to the “

reply-to”

email address has been satisfied; and

transmitting, by the computing device, the rejection email message to the destination address.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising generating another email associated with the contact entry in response to determining that the user specified issue has been resolved, the other email comprising another message advising that the user specified issue has been resolved.