Systems and methods for enabling customer care assistance with self-service transactions

• US 7,729,948 B1
• Filed: 03/24/2006
• Issued: 06/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Urbanek, Robert E., Gailloux, Michael A., Biere, Devon L., Katzer, Robin D., Sharma, Sanjay K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart; Matthew S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Goyea; Olusegun
• Application Number:
  US11/388,673
• Time in Patent Office: 1,530 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28, 455/411, 455/419, 455/414.4, 455/405, 455/418, 455/422.1, 455/424, 704/275, 709/220, 709/223, 405/422.1, 405/418, 405/424, 719/315, 186/35, 370/328, 370/338, 370/265.01
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Upon a client encountering an error while operating a self-service application for changing services in a wireless device, the client can queue themselves to speak with a customer care center representative. Data collected from the client through the self-service application is transferred to a customer care system to provide the customer care representative with application state information including which step in the application the customer requires assistance with. Upon the customer care representative successfully assisting the customer the wireless device continues on to the next step in the self-service application. When all of the steps in the self-service application are complete or upon completion of each step, the data collected is transferred to the customer care system and used to update the necessary systems to implement the change in service.

Claims

1. A system that enables customer care assistance with self service transactions, the system comprising:

a self-service application provided to a wireless device, the self-service application executable on the wireless device to perform a plurality of steps of a self-service transaction workflow;

a self-service application server comprising a processor configured to interact with the self-service application, the self-service application server tracks a current workflow state that identifies one of the plurality of steps, and the self-service application server receives work-in-progress data entered by a user of the wireless device and stored on the wireless device during execution of the plurality of steps; and

a customer care system coupled to the self-service application server, the customer care system comprising a processor configured to allow the customer care system to obtain the current workflow state and the work-in-progress data from the self-service application server when connecting a customer care representative to the user;

wherein the customer care system is configured to perform a step of the self-service transaction workflow after connecting the customer care representative to the user and wherein the self-service application on the wireless device resumes performance of the self-service transaction workflow after the customer care system performs the step of the self-service transaction workflow.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the customer care system is configured to update the current workflow state and the work-in-progress data in response to inputs from the customer care representative.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the customer care system is further configured to provide an updated workflow state and updated work-in-progress data to the self-service application server.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the self-service application server is configured to resume interacting with the self-service application on the wireless device after receiving the updated workflow state and updated work-in-progress data from the customer care system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the workflow implements one or more self-service transactions from a group comprising device activation, account/subscription maintenance, an electronic serial number (ESN) swap, a mobile directory number (MDN) swap, or a carrier serving area (CSA) swap.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a group of enterprise systems coupled to the customer care system to receive data corresponding to each system so as to complete the workflow.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the group of enterprise systems receives the data corresponding to each system at the completion of the workflow or work-in-progress data at the completion of each workflow state.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a data validation system coupled to the wireless device or the self-service application server to obtain the work-in-progress data at the completion of a workflow state or a milestone in the workflow.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the data validation system is configured to perform data validation through one or more of a group comprising of data format, address validation, fraud detection, credit check, or number availability.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a master customer transaction database coupled to the self-service application server and the customer care system to obtain the current workflow state and the work-in-progress data so as to track customer transactions within the customer care system.

11. A system that enables customer care assistance with self service transactions, the system comprising:

a wireless device that enables a user to perform one or more self-service transactions from a group consisting of device activation,

account/subscription maintenance, an ESN swap, an MDN swap, or a CSA swap, wherein the wireless device comprises a processor configured to execute a plurality of steps for each of the one or more self-service transactions and a memory that stores a current transaction state that identifies one of the plurality of steps for a self-service transaction and work-in-progress data entered for the self-service transaction when the self-service transaction is performed;

a self-service application server comprising a processor configured to interact with the wireless device to track a current workflow state that identifies one of the plurality of steps and to receive the work-in-progress data entered into the wireless device; and

a customer care system configured to receive the current transaction state and the work-in-progress data from the self-service application server when connecting a customer care representative to the user;

wherein the customer care system is configured to update the current transaction state and the work-in-progress data in response to inputs from the customer care representative and to provide an updated workflow state and updated work-in-progress data to the wireless device through the self-service application server; and

wherein the wireless device is configured to resume the self-service transaction after receiving the updated workflow state and updated work-in-progress data from the self-service application server.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a group of enterprise systems coupled to the customer care system to receive data corresponding to each system so as to complete the self-service transaction, wherein

the group of enterprise systems receives transaction data at the completion of the self-service transaction or work-in-progress data at the completion of each transaction state.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a data validation system coupled to the wireless device or the self-service application server to obtain the work-in-progress data at the completion of a transaction state or a milestone in the self-service transaction, wherein

the data validation system is configured to perform data validation through one or more of a group comprising of data format, address validation, fraud detection, credit check, or number availability.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a master customer transaction database coupled to the self-service application server and the customer care system to obtain the current transaction state and the work-in-progress data so as to track customer transactions within the customer care system.

15. A method of providing customer care assistance for self-service transactions on a wireless device, the method comprising:

providing a self-service application to the wireless device for execution of a workflow for a self-service transaction on the wireless device;

receiving a request for customer care assistance with the workflow of the self-service transaction executing on the wireless device;

obtaining a current workflow state of the workflow that identifies a current one of a plurality of steps in the workflow and work-in-progress data of the self-service transaction stored on the wireless device;

providing the current workflow state of the workflow that identifies a current one of a plurality of steps in the workflow and the work-in-progress data of the self-service transaction from the wireless device to a self-service application server;

providing the current workflow state of the workflow that identifies a current one of a plurality of steps in the workflow and the work-in-progress data of the self-service transaction from the self-service application server to a customer care system;

updating the current workflow state and the work-in-progress data in response to input from a customer care representative using the customer care system; and

providing the updated workflow state and the updated work-in-progress data to the wireless device for continuing the self-service transaction on the wireless device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the wireless device carries out a remainder of the self-service transaction workflow beginning from the updated workflow state.