System and method of determining call treatment of repeat calls

• US 7,636,432 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2005
• Issued: 12/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Knott, Benjamin Anthony, Bushey, Robert R., Korth, Sarah
• Primary Examiner(s): Gauthier; Gerald
• Application Number:
  US11/129,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20060256932A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,684 Days
• Field of Search: 379/67.1, 379/265.02, 379/266.01, 379/88.18, 379/202.01, 704/231, 704/270.1, 340/506, 370/356, 702/179, 705/39, 705/44, 717/143
• US Class Current: 379/265.02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/551 Call history recording a computer conference H04L12/1831
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5235 Dependent on call type or called number [DNIS]

Abstract

A method and system of handling a call received at a call center is disclosed. The method includes determining that the call is a repeat call, determining whether the repeat call is to receive a first treatment type and servicing the repeat call with the first treatment type when the repeat call is determined to receive the first treatment type. The system includes an automated call processing system, a first computer readable memory including a repeat caller definition table, a second computer readable memory including a repeat caller action-object table, and a third computer readable memory including a special treatment resolution table. The automated call processing system has access to the repeat call definition table to identify a repeat call request and has access to the action-object table and the special treatment resolution table to determine whether the identified repeat call is to receive a first treatment type.

Claims

1. A method of handling a call received at an automated call routing system, the method comprising:

determining a threshold time period;

determining whether the call qualifies as a repeat call based on the threshold time period;

accessing an action-object table to assign a task to the call;

comparing, when the call qualifies as a repeat call, the task of the call to a task of a prior call to determine whether the call is a repeat call; and

when the call is the repeat call. determining based on the task of the call whether the repeat call is to receive one of a first treatment type and a second treatment type, wherein the second treatment type includes providing access to a self-service automated system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the call is determined to qualify as a repeat call based on a comparison of the threshold time period to a duration between an occurrence of the prior call and an occurrence of the call.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the call qualifies as a repeat call when the duration is not greater than the threshold time period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold time period is a number of days.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing an action-object pair of the call to an action-object pair that is related to a prior call to determine whether the call is a repeat call.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first treatment type includes a special treatment and the second treatment type includes a standard treatment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the special treatment includes providing access to a live agent.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein task-identification information is provided by a caller in connection with a purpose of call inquiry of the automated call routing system, and wherein the first treatment type includes routing the call to a live agent and the second treatment type includes routing the call to a self-service system.

9. A system comprising:

an automated call processing system;

a first computer readable memory including a repeat caller definition table;

a second computer readable memory including a repeat caller action-object table;

a third computer readable memory including a special treatment resolution table; and

wherein the automated call processing system has access to the repeat call definition table to identify a repeat call request, and has access to the action-object table and the special treatment resolution table to determine whether the identified repeat call is to receive one of a first treatment type and a second treatment type, wherein the second treatment type includes providing access to a self-service automated system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein an action-object pair retrieved from the action-object table is used as an index into the special treatment resolution table.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the special treatment resolution table includes a plurality of action-object pair entries.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein a first of the action-object pair entries corresponds to the repeat call and a second of the action-object pair entries corresponds to a prior call.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein a third of the action-object pair entries corresponds to a related action-object pair corresponding to the prior call.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the automated call processing system includes logic to compare an action-object pair retrieved from the action-object table that corresponds to the repeat call to another action-object pair that corresponds to a prior call.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the prior call and the repeat call are identified as being originated by the same caller.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the logic determines whether the repeat call is identified as associated with an unresolved issue of the caller.