Call holding management

• US 9,571,639 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2014
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Gabbai, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, QUYNH H
• Application Number:
  US14/584,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20160191702A1
• Time in Patent Office: 778 Days
• Field of Search: 379/201.01, 379/211.01
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/18 Comparators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/558 Databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/02 Calling substations, e.g. by ringing selective calling H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4285 Notifying, informing or entertaining a held party while on hold, e.g. Music On Hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4286 Notifying a held subscriber when his held call is removed from hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4288 Notifying a called subscriber of an incoming call during an ongoing call, e.g. Call Waiting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing

Abstract

A system or a method may be provided that automatically distinguishes between a hold status and when someone live is talking on the phone. For example, the caller'"'"'s phone may detect when the call holding has ended and a customer service representative is now actually on the line. The phone may alert the user to pick up the call at that time, such as utilizing a call-back mechanism. In an embodiment, the system may analyze and learn the various call holding music or recordings of call centers. The system may detect when the call holding music or recording ends in a telephone call and may alert the user.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a hardware memory storing information regarding call holding features for telephone communications, and

one or more processors in communication with the memory and adapted to;

detect, by a mobile call holding app installed on a mobile telephone device of a user, an initiation of a telephone communication at the mobile telephone device between the user and a called party;

identify the called party of the telephone communication based on a telephone number of the called party;

in response to identifying the called party of the telephone communication, search a call holding routine database using the telephone number or an identity of the called party to find a call holding routine of the called party;

communicate the call holding routine of the called party to the mobile telephone device of the user;

monitor, by the mobile call holding app, the telephone communication using the call holding routine of the called party to detect whether a call holding has occurred;

determine, by the mobile call holding app, that the user is put on hold during the telephone communication by detecting a call holding recording that matches the call holding routine of the called party;

in response to determining that the user is put on hold, present call holding options selectable by the user via the mobile call holding app on the mobile telephone device of the user; and

implement, by the mobile call holding app, a call holding feature selected by the user from the call holding options and separate from the telephone communication during the call holding.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the call holding recording is repeated in a loop during the call holding and wherein the one or more processors are further adapted to detect the call holding recording based on the loop.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the call holding recording is a non-verbal type recording and wherein the one or more processors are further adapted to detect the call holding when no human voices are detected in the telephone communication for a predetermine amount of time.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further adapted to:

maintain the call holding routine database storing routine call holding recordings of various entities;

determine a routine call holding recording for the telephone communication from the call holding routine database;

compare the routine call holding recording with an audio pattern of the telephone communication; and

detect the call holding when the audio pattern of the telephone communication matches that of the routine call holding recording.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the routine call holding recording comprises unique audio signal patterns to be compared with the audio pattern of the telephone communication.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the unique audio signal patterns comprise amplitude and frequency versus time data points of the routine call holding recording.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the call holding feature comprises presenting one or more of audio presentations, video presentations, and textual information to the user at a user device based on user preferences.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the user preferences are determined based on one or more of a browsing history of the user, a purchase history of the user, and a transaction history of the user.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the call holding feature comprises offering rewards to the user in exchange for the user viewing advertisements or promotions.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the call holding feature allows the user to leave the telephone communication, and wherein the one or more processors are further adapted to notify the user to return to the telephone communication when the call holding ends.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the user is notified at a user device at which the telephone communication is initiated.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the user is notified at another device of the user different from a user device at which the telephone communication is initiated.

13. The system of claim 12, where the another device is a wearable device worn by the user and connected to the user device.

14. A method comprising:

detecting, by a mobile call holding app installed on a mobile telephone device of a user, an initiation of a telephone communication at the mobile telephone device between the user and a called party;

identifying the called party of the telephone communication based on a telephone number of the called party;

in response to identifying the called party of the telephone communication, searching a call holding routine database using the telephone number or an identity of the called party to find a call holding routine of the called party;

communicating the call holding routine of the called party to the mobile telephone device of the user;

monitoring, by the mobile call holding app, the telephone communication using the call holding routine of the called party to detect whether a call holding has occurred;

determining, by the mobile call holding app, that the user is put on hold during the telephone communication by detecting a routine call holding recording that matches the call holding routine of the called party;

in response to determining that the user is put on hold, presenting call holding options selectable by the user via the mobile call holding app on the mobile telephone device of the user; and

implementing, by the mobile call holding app, a call holding feature selected by the user from the call holding options and separate from the telephone communication during the call holding.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the routine call holding recording is detected by comparing audio patterns of the telephone communication with audio pattern signatures of the routine call holding recording.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

collecting routine call holding recordings from various entities that implement call holding;

determining an audio pattern signature for each of the routine call holding recordings; and

storing the audio pattern signature for each of the routine call holding recordings in the call holding routine database.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the routine call holding recordings are collected from monitoring telephone communication between the user and the various entities.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the routine call holding recordings are collected by crowdsourcing based on telephone communication between other users and the various entities.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the call holding feature allows the user to leave the telephone communication, and wherein the method further comprises notifying the user to return to the telephone communication when the call holding ends.