Systems and methods for customer contact

• US 8,600,035 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2009
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jay, Jon R., Dashe, Jeremy A., Judkins, Brock A., Kaufman, Donald L., Lin, Yung-Chun, Sharpe, Raymond P. Jr., Sullivan, Joseph D., Weiland, Thomas J., Kidwai, Tauseef
• Primary Examiner(s): AL AUBAIDI, RASHA S
• Application Number:
  US12/547,370
• Publication Number:
  US 20110051922A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,561 Days
• Field of Search: 37926501-26501, 379/265.09, 379/266.01
• US Class Current: 379/265.09
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2011 Service processing based on information specified by a party before or during a call, e.g. information, tone or routing selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing

Abstract

A user of a personal computing device may identify an item of interest displayed in a user interface provided by a network-based service and would like to obtain more information. The user may submit one or more electronic contact requests to a contact service in communication with a contact distribution system in order to obtain more information. The contact distribution system determines accurate, real-time availability of service agents and enables communications between the customer and an agent to be established in accordance with user contact information provided by the user.

Claims

1. A system for coordinating contact between a user and a service agent, the system comprising:

a network-based service configured to generate a user interface for display to a user, the user interface comprising service agent information, wherein the service agent information comprises an availability of the service agent to communicate with the user;

a data store configured to temporarily store the service agent information for a fixed period of time; and

a contact service in communication with the network-based service, the contact service configured to;

receive an electronic request for service agent information from the network-based service;

obtain the service agent information from the data store when the electronic request is received within the fixed period of time;

obtain the service agent information from a contact distribution system when the electronic request is received after the fixed period of time, wherein the contact distribution system generates the service agent information by communicating with one or more service agents and determining the service agent information from one or more agent responses, and wherein the contact service is further configured to temporarily store at least part of the obtained service agent information in the data store for the fixed period of time; and

provide the obtained service agent information to the network-based service.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the request for service agent information comprises a request for an agent status, the agent status representing the availability of the service agent to communicate with the user.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the request for service agent information comprises a request for a contact status, the contact status representing a status of the contact between the user and the service agent.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the contact service is further configured to obtain a contact leg identifier from the contact distribution service, the contact leg identifier uniquely identifying the contact status to the contact distribution service.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the contact service is further configured to generate a contact identifier, the contact identifier uniquely identifying requests from the network-service agent to the contact service.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the contact service is further configured to obtain an agent leg identifier from the contact distribution service, the agent leg identifier uniquely identifying a contact between the agent and the content distribution service.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic request is associated with an item, wherein the contact service is further configured to receive a second electronic request for service agent information, wherein the second electronic request is associated with the item, and wherein the contact service is configured to obtain the service agent information from the data store in connection with the second electronic request when the second electronic request is received within fixed set period of time.

8. A system for coordinating contact between a user and a service agent, the system comprising:

a data store configured to temporarily store service agent information for a fixed period of time;

a contact service in communication with the data store, wherein the contact service is configured to;

receive a request for service agent information;

obtain the service agent information from the data store when the request is received within the fixed period of time; and

respond to the request for service agent information with a response from a contact distribution system when the request is received after the fixed period of time, wherein the contact distribution system is configured to generate service agent information by communicating with one or more service agents and determine the service agent information from one or more agent responses.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the service agent information comprises an agent status, the agent status representing an availability of the service agent to communicate with the user.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the agent status is based upon an availability signaled to the contact distribution system by one or more service agents using an agent user interface to the contact distribution system.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the service agent information comprises a contact status, the contact status representing a status of a contact between the user and the service agent.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the contact service is configured to receive a request for service agent information including user contact information, and wherein the contact status is based, at least in part, upon the status of the contact generated between the user and the service agent using the user contact information.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the contact distribution system enables contact between the user and the service agent by one or more of a telephone call, electronic mail, an SMS message, instant messaging, an electronic message that is published or posted for viewing by others, and a video message.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the contact status comprises a time duration during which the user waits to communicate with a service agent.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the contact status comprises at least one of connecting status, connected status, and on hold status.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein contact between the user and the service agent may be reinitiated at a later time.

17. The system of claim 8, wherein the service agent information comprises a service agent response to a user query after contact between the user and the service agent is established.

18. The system of claim 8, wherein the contact service is further configured to obtain identifiers that uniquely identify requests for service agent information and responses to the requests.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the contact service is further configured to generate a contact identifier, the contact identifier uniquely identifying requests for service agent information to the contact service.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the contact service is further configured to obtain a contact leg identifier from the contact distribution service, the contact leg identifier uniquely identifying a response to the requests for service agent information.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the contact service is further configured to obtain an agent leg identifier from the contact distribution service, the agent leg identifier uniquely identifying a contact between the agent and the content distribution service.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the contact service is further configured to associate the contact identifier and contact leg identifier with each other so as to facilitate responding to requests for service agent information with the corresponding response.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the contact service is further configured to store at least one of the identifiers and user information received in response to requests for service agent information.

24. A computer-implemented method for coordinating contact between a user and a service agent, the method comprising:

under control of one or more configured computer systems;

receiving a request for service agent information;

obtaining the service agent information from a data store when the request is received within a fixed period of time, wherein the data store is configured to temporarily store service agent information for the fixed period of time;

generating the service agent information by communicating with one or more service agents when the request is received after the fixed period of time, wherein the service agent information is determined from one or more agent responses;

associating the service agent information with the request for service agent information; and

responding to the request with the generated service agent information.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the service agent information comprises an agent status, the agent status representing an availability of the service agent to communicate with the user.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 25, wherein the agent status is based upon availability signals received from a service agent.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the service agent information comprises a contact status, the contact status representing a status of a contact between the user and the service agent.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the service agent information comprises a service agent response to a user query after contact between the user and the service agent is established.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the service agent information is associated with the request for service agent information by associating identifiers that uniquely identify each of the service agent information and the request for service agent information with each other.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 29, further comprising storing one or more of the service agent information, the identifiers, and the associations between the identifiers.

31. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having encoded thereon instructions to coordinate contact between a user and a service agent, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computing apparatus, cause the computing apparatus to:

receive a request for service agent information;

obtain the service agent information from a data store when the request is received within a fixed period of time, wherein the data store is configured to temporarily store service agent information for the fixed period of time;

generate the service agent information by communicating with one or more service agents when the request is received after the fixed period of time, wherein the service agent information is determined from one or more agent responses;

associate the service agent information with the request for service agent information; and

respond to the request with the generated service agent information.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the service agent information comprises an agent status, the agent status representing an availability of the service agent to communicate with the user.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein the agent status is based upon availability signals received from a service agent.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the service agent information comprises a contact status, the contact status representing a status of a contact between the user and the service agent.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the service agent information comprises a service agent response to a user query after contact between the user and the service agent is established.

36. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the service agent information is associated with the request for service agent information by associating identifiers that uniquely identify each of the service agent information and the request for service agent information with each other.

37. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 36, further comprising storing one or more of the service agent information, the identifiers, and the associations between the identifiers.