METHOD FOR DETERMINING CUSTOMER VALUE AND POTENTIAL FROM SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER PUBLIC DATA SOURCES

• US 20110125550A1
• Filed: 04/19/2010
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Matula, Valentine C., Skiba, David, Erhart, George
• Application Number:
  US12/762,854
• Publication Number:
  US 20110125550A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/005 Language recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/655 Combination of telephone service and social networking messaging within social networks H04L51/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0024 Services and arrangements where telephone services are combined with data services arrangements which combine a telephonic equipment and a computer H04M7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A system can determine the value of a customer that uses social media. An enterprise can provide an identity of a customer, identities of customers, or a profile of one or more customers. The enterprise can also provide one or more criteria in which to base the customer value calculation. The criteria can include the number of friends for a social media site, the number posts the user creates, the number of responses to the user'"'"'s postings, the tenor of the user'"'"'s postings, etc. Resources of information, including historic and current activity on social media sites, public resources, and other sources, are examined to provide a score for each criteria. A customer value score may then be generated from the criteria scores. The value score may then be used to modify the interactions of a contact center with the customer.

Claims

1. A method for the method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, an identity for a consumer that is a user of a social media network;

retrieving, by the processor, a value score for the consumer based on the identity, wherein the value score is based on information associated with the consumer'"'"'s social media network usage; and

modifying, by the processor, a business interaction with the consumer based on the value score.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the identity uniquely identifies a user of a social media network.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein a contact center retrieves the value score from a database based on the identity.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein a consumer with a higher value score receives a higher level of customer service or a higher level of interaction.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining, by the contact center, the value score is determined for the consumer.

6. The method as defined in claim 5, wherein determining the value score comprises:

based on the received identity, retrieving by a dialog system, retrieving a dialog data structure associated with calculating a value score from a database;

accessing, by a dialog core, at least one social media network;

reading, by the dialog core, at least one parameter, provided in the dialog data structure, from the social media network;

applying, by the dialog core, an algorithm, provided in the dialog data structure, to the at least one parameter to obtain at least one criteria score; and

calculating, by the dialog core, the value score from the at least one criteria score.

7. The method as defined in claim 6, further comprising:

applying, by the dialog core, at least one weight to the at least one criteria score; and

calculating, by the dialog core, the value score from the at least one weighted criteria score.

8. The method as defined in claim 6, wherein the at least one parameter includes a number of followers on a social media network, a number of friends on a social media network, a number of blog readers, a number of hits on a blog, page, or video blog, a number of posts made by the user, a number or responses to the any one of a user'"'"'s posts, or an emotion of one or more posts.

9. A computer readable medium having stored thereon processor executable instructions that cause a computing system to execute a method for determining a value for a user of a social media network, the instructions comprising:

instructions to receive an identity for the user;

based on the received identity, instructions to retrieve a dialog data structure associated with calculating a value score;

instructions to access at least one social media network;

instructions to evaluate at least one parameter, provided in the dialog data structure, associated the social media network;

instructions to apply an algorithm, provided in the dialog data structure, to the at least one parameter to obtain at least one criteria score;

instructions to apply at least one weight, provided in the dialog data structure, to the at least one criteria score to obtain at least one weighted criteria score; and

instructions to calculate the value score from the at least one weighted criteria score.

10. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the identity is one of a group consisting of a username, a name, an address, a phone number, an email address, and a profile.

11. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the profile is a generally describes two or more customers using social media.

12. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the at least one parameter includes a number of followers on a social media network, a number of friends on a social media network, a number of blog readers, a number of hits on a blog, page, or video blog, a number of posts made by the user, a number or responses to the any one of a user'"'"'s posts, or an emotion of one or more posts.

13. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the social media network is at least one of Facebook, Twitter, Spoke, MySpace, a blog, a video blog, or a chat room.

14. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the dialog data structure is created by a dialog creator.

15. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein creating the dialog data structure comprises:

instructions to receive an identity for the user;

instructions to receive one or more social media networks to analyze;

instructions to receive a criteria;

instructions to receive a weight for one or more of the criteria;

instructions to receive a scoring algorithm for one or more of the criteria; and

instructions to store the one or more social media networks to analyze, the criteria, the weight, and the scoring algorithm in the dialog data structure.

16. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 15, wherein creating the dialog data structure further comprises:

instructions to receive a parameter for the value analysis; and

storing the parameter in the dialog data structure.

17. A communication system comprising:

a social media gateway in communication with a social media network, the social media gateway operable to obtain criteria information from the social media network;

a dialog system in communication with the social media gateway, the dialog system operable to determine a value score for a customer and based on the obtained criteria information and operable to provide the value score; and

a contact center in communication with the dialog system, the contact center operable to receive the value score and operable to modify an interaction with the customer based on the value score.

18. The communication system as defined in claim 17, wherein the dialog system comprises:

a dialog core in communication with the social media gateway, the dialog core operable to determine the value score from a dialog data structure;

a heuristic rules and dialogs database in communication with the dialog core, the heuristic rules and dialogs database operable to store the dialog data structure;

a dialog creator in communication with the heuristic rules and dialogs database, the dialog creator operable to create the dialog data structure and operable to store the dialog data structure into the heuristic rules and dialogs database;

a message history database in communication with the dialog core, the message history database operable to store an interaction history associated with the customer to which the value score applies; and

an agent interface in communication with the dialog core and an agent associate with the contact center, the agent interface operable to send the value score to an agent and operable to receive the response from the agent, wherein the agent modifies the response based on the value score.

19. The communication system as defined in claim 19, wherein the dialog core comprises:

a dialog core operable to analyze the criteria information to determine the value score; and

a text processing component operable to evaluate an emotion of a message associated with customer and provide the emotion to the dialog core as criteria information.

20. The communication system as defined in claim 19, wherein the value score includes a value profile comprising:

one or more criteria segments operable to store the criteria;

for each criteria segment, a weight segment operable to store a weight reflecting an importance of the criteria;

for each criteria segment, a score segment operable to store a score for the criteria;

for each criteria segment, a weighted score segment operable to store a weighted score for the criteria generated from multiplying the score by the weight; and

a total value score segment operable to store the value score for the customer created by summing the weighted scores for all of the criteria segments.