Method and system for a scalable computer-telephony integration system

• US 9,794,414 B1
• Filed: 01/13/2017
• Issued: 10/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Kammeyer, Aaron C., Kirchner, Randall J., Ward, Christopher L., Littell, Louis A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Addy, Thjuan K
• Application Number:
  US15/406,171
• Time in Patent Office: 277 Days
• Field of Search: 37921201, 37921102, 37926511, 37926505, 379264, 379273, 37920101, 37920715
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/84 output devices, e.g. displays or monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/256 comprising a service specific user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/404 Collaboration among agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/558 Databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/60 related to security aspects in telephonic communication systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6009 Personal information, e.g. profiles or personal directories being only provided to authorised persons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6018 Subscriber or terminal logon/logoff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5133 Operator terminal details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/58 Arrangements for transferring received calls from one subscriber to another; Arrangements affording interim conversations between either the calling or the called party and a third party substation line holding circuits H04M1/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0012 : Details of application programming interfaces [API] for telephone networks; Arrangements which combine a telephonic communication equipment and a computer, i.e. computer telephony integration [CPI] arrangements

Abstract

When an incoming call is received from a customer, various aspects may include obtaining customer call information from the customer and generating a customer call key, which may be stored as a reference to the customer call information in a contact center customer call information database. The call key may be transferred from a first call agent to a second call agent without transferring the customer call information. Then the second call agent may use the call key to retrieve the customer call information and/or the customer call information may be presented on a display for use by the second call agent during the call. The call key may be used to reduce an amount of data electronically transferred between call agents during telephone call transfers.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of managing a call agent to call agent telephone call transfer, the method executed by one or more processors programmed to perform the method, the method comprising:

receiving, by a second call agent located at a contact center from a first call agent located at the contact center in a computer-telephony integration system, a customer call from a customer and a customer call key stored in a database as a reference to customer call information for responding to the customer call, wherein the customer call key is transferred to the second call agent without transferring the customer call information;

using the customer call key to retrieve, via one or more processors, the customer information associated with the customer call key from the database; and

presenting, via the one or more processors, the customer call information on a display for use by the second call agent during the customer call with the customer to facilitate alleviating electronically transferring sensitive information between call agents and to reduce an amount of data electronically transferred between call agents during telephone call transfers.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via the one or more processors and from each of a plurality of call agents within the computer-telephony integration system, an indication of availability of the respective call agent to communicate with users of the computer-telephony integration system over the communication network; and

presenting, via the one or more processors, the indications of availability and identification information for each of the plurality of call agents on the display.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving an indication of availability of the respective call agent comprises:

receiving, via the one or more processors from a contact center device of the respective call agent, an indication that the respective call agent is on a telephone call;

setting, via the one or more processors, the indication of availability for the respective call agent to indicate that the respective call agent is on the telephone;

upon completion of the telephone call, receiving, via the one or more processors from the contact center device of the respective call agent, an indication that the respective call agent is available; and

setting, via the one or more processors, the indication of availability for the respective call agent to indicate that the respective call agent is available.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein a display is a first display and wherein receiving an indication of availability of the respective call agent comprises:

presenting, via the one or more processors, one or more user controls for selecting an indication of availability from a plurality of availabilities on a second display for the respective call agent; and

receiving, via the one or more processors, the indication of availability for the respective call agent based upon a selection of the one or more user controls on the second display.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

presenting, via the one or more processors, a user control for searching the plurality of call agents on the display for use by the second call agent to view an indication of availability for a particular call agent of the plurality of call agents.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via the one or more processors, at least some of the customer call information via natural language processing in an interactive voice response (IVR) module;

determining, via the one or more processors, additional customer call information by comparing the received at least some customer call information to previously stored customer personal information and when there is a match, determining the additional customer call information by obtaining the previously stored customer personal information; and

transferring the customer call, via the one or more processors, from the IVR module to the first call agent along with the customer call key.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining additional customer call information comprises:

receiving, via the one or more processors, a phone number for the customer when the customer call is received;

comparing, via the one or more processors, the received phone number to previously stored customer phone numbers; and

when there is a match, obtaining, via the one or more processors, insurance policy information associated with the previously stored customer phone number.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein transferring the customer call key to the second call agent without transferring the customer call information comprises:

presenting, via the one or more processors, a set of contact information for the second call agent on a display for use by the first call agent during the customer call with the customer;

presenting, via the one or more processors, one or more user controls for transferring, dialing, or conferencing, the second call agent on the display for use by the first call agent; and

transferring the customer call, via the one or more processors from the first call agent to the second call agent along with the customer call key, upon receiving a selection from the first call agent via the one or more user controls to transfer the customer call to the second call agent.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer call key is an eight digit alphanumeric character string.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein customer call information includes at least one of:

identification information for the customer, a subject of an inquiry by the customer, or insurance policy information for the customer.

11. A system of managing a call agent to call agent telephone call transfer, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

a communication network;

a database;

a first contact center device for a first call agent located at a contact center, wherein a customer call from a customer and customer call information for responding to the customer call are received at the first contact center device;

a second contact center device for a second call agent; and

a non-transitory computer-readable memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, the first contact center device, the second contact center device, the communication network, and the database, and storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to;

transfer the customer call, via the communication network, from the first call agent to the second call agent along with a customer call key stored in a database as a reference to customer call information for responding to the customer call without transferring the customer call information;

use the call key to retrieve the customer information associated with the customer call key from the database; and

present, via the communication network, the customer call information on a display for use by the second call agent during the customer call with the customer to facilitate alleviating electronically transferring sensitive information between call agents and to reduce an amount of data electronically transferred between call agents during telephone call transfers.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

receive, via the communication network and from each of a plurality of call agents within the computer-telephony integration system, an indication of availability of the respective call agent to communicate with users of the computer-telephony integration system over the communication network; and

present, via the communication network, the indications of availability and identification information for each of the plurality of call agents on the display.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein to receive an indication of availability of the respective call agent, the instructions cause the system to:

receive, via the communication network from a contact center device of the respective call agent, an indication that the respective call agent is on a telephone call;

set the indication of availability for the respective call agent to indicate that the respective call agent is on the telephone;

upon completion of the telephone call, receive, via the communication network from the contact center device of the respective call agent, an indication that the respective call agent is available; and

set the indication of availability for the respective call agent to indicate that the respective call agent is available.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein a display is a first display and wherein to receive an indication of availability of the respective call agent, the instructions cause the system to:

present, via the communication network, one or more user controls for selecting an indication of availability from a plurality of availabilities on a second display for the respective call agent; and

receive, via the communication network, the indication of availability for the respective call agent based upon a selection of the one or more user controls on the second display.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

present, via the communication network, a user control for searching the plurality of call agents on the display for use by the second call agent to view an indication of availability for a particular call agent of the plurality of call agents.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

receive at least some of the customer call information via natural language processing in an interactive voice response (IVR) module;

determine additional customer call information by comparing the received at least some customer call information to previously stored customer personal information and when there is a match, determining the additional customer call information by obtaining the previously stored customer personal information; and

transfer the customer call, via the communication network, from the IVR module to the first call agent along with the customer call key.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein to determine additional customer call information, the instructions cause the system to:

receive a phone number for the customer when the customer call is received;

compare the received phone number to previously stored customer phone numbers; and

when there is a match, obtain insurance policy information associated with the previously stored customer phone number.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein to transfer the customer call from the first call agent to a second call agent, the instructions cause the system to:

present, via the communication network, a set of contact information for the second call agent on a display for use by the first call agent during the customer call with the customer;

present, via the communication network, one or more user controls for transferring, dialing, or conferencing, the second call agent on the display for use by the first call agent; and

transfer the customer call, via the communication network from the first call agent to the second call agent along with the customer call key, upon receiving a selection from the first call agent via the one or more user controls to transfer the customer call to the second call agent.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the customer call key is an eight digit alphanumeric character string.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein customer call information includes at least one of:

identification information for the customer, a subject of an inquiry by the customer, or insurance policy information for the customer.