Automatic contact center agent assistant

• US 9,214,001 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2007
• Issued: 12/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alvaria Cayman
• Original Assignee: Aspect Software Incorporated
• Inventors: Rawle, Jerry David
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Amresh
• Application Number:
  US11/674,500
• Publication Number:
  US 20080195659A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,227 Days
• Field of Search: 707/6
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2038 Call context notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for presenting information to an agent of an organization. The method includes the steps of the organization detecting a contact with a client of the organization, classifying the contact based upon information delivered along with the contact and delivering the contact to the agent. The method further includes the steps of retrieving a set of reference key words and key words in context based upon the classification of the contact, detecting keywords and keywords in context from a dialog between the agent and client, matching at least some of the detected keywords and key words in context with the reference keywords and keywords in context, identifying information within a database based upon the matching and presenting the identified information to the agent.

Claims

1. A method of presenting information to a human agent of a plurality of human agents of a contact distribution system of an organization for handling a plurality of at least one of inbound and outbound contacts with human clients, such method comprising:

the organization contact distribution system detecting a contact of the plurality of contacts with a human client of the organization;

automatically classifying the client into a respective classification of a plurality of client classifications based upon information delivered along with the contact, each respective classification associated with a respective dictionary of reference key words and keywords in context with weighted links to information resources in an associated database;

automatically selecting a human agent of the plurality of human agents to handle the contact by a dialog between the agent and the client, and delivering the contact to a communications device of the human agent to permit the human agent to conduct the dialog with the client;

automatically retrieving the respective dictionary of reference key words and key words in context based upon the classification of the client;

automatically monitoring the dialog between the human agent and the human client, and automatically detecting keywords and keywords in context from the dialog as they occur during the dialog between the human agent and the human client;

automatically matching at least some of the detected keywords and key words in context with the respective reference keywords and keywords in context;

automatically analyzing information exchanged between the agent and the client to identify information useful to the agent for responding to the client during the contact within the associated database based upon the matching; and

presenting during the dialog the identified information and a list of a plurality of recommended responses sorted by ranking of importance and continually updated during the dialog based upon agent selections, to the agent on an agent terminal device for selection by the agent during the dialog between the human agent and the human client.

2. The method of presenting information as in claim 1 wherein classifying the contact type further comprises identifying a web page from which the contact originated.

3. The method of presenting information as in claim 2 wherein the information delivered along with the contact further comprises an identifier selected from the group consisting of ANI, URL and e-mail and wherein the client is classified based upon prior contacts with the client.

4. The method of presenting information as in claim 3 wherein classifying the contact type further comprises retrieving client information using the identifier delivered along with the contact.

5. The method of presenting information as in claim 1 wherein classifying the contact type further comprises detecting a contact destination provided by the client.

6. The method of presenting information as in claim 1 wherein the step of presenting the information further comprising presenting the list of a plurality of recommended responses with new recommendations added during the dialog with older recommended responses scrolled downward as the dialog continues.

7. The method of presenting information as in claim 6 wherein the step of providing the plurality of recommended responses further comprises prioritizing and continually updating and reordering the list of the plurality of recommended responses, and stopping the scrolling when a cursor is placed over part of the list.

8. The method of presenting information as in claim 7 wherein the step of prioritizing further comprises summing a weight of each matched keyword and presenting the information with a greatest relative weight first and adjusting the summed weights by creating linkages between key words based on selections made by the agent and adjusting the linkages based upon selection weightings assigned to the agents.

9. An apparatus for presenting information to a human agent of an automatic contact distribution system of an organization, such apparatus comprising:

means for detecting a contact with a human client of the organization at the automatic contact distribution system;

means for classifying the client into a respective classification of a plurality of client classifications based upon information delivered along with the contact, each respective classification associated with a respective dictionary of reference keywords and keywords in context with weighted links to information resources in an associated database;

means for automatically selecting a human agent from a plurality of human agents to handle the contact by a dialog between the agent and the client and for delivering the contact to a communications device of the human agent to permit the human agent to conduct the dialog with the client;

means for automatically retrieving the respective dictionary of reference key words and key words in context based on the classification of the client;

means for automatically monitoring the dialog between the human agent and the human client and for automatically detecting keywords and keywords in context from the dialog as they occur during the dialog between the agent and client;

means for matching at least some of the detected keywords and key words in context with the reference keywords and keywords in context;

means for automatically analyzing information exchanged between the agent and the client to identify information useful to the agent for responding to the client during the contact within the associated database based upon the matched key words and key words in context; and

a display device for presenting during the dialog the identified information and a prioritized list of recommended responses sorted by ranking of importance to the agent for selection by the agent during the dialog between the human agent and the human client which is continually updated during the dialog based on agent selections.

10. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 9 wherein the means for classifying the contact type further comprises means for identifying a web page from which the contact originated.

11. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 10 wherein the information delivered along with the contact further comprises an identifier selected from the group consisting of ANI, URL and e-mail.

12. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 11 wherein the means for classifying the contact type further comprises client information retrieved using the identifier delivered along with the contact.

13. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 9 wherein the means for classifying the contact type further comprises a contact destination provided by the client.

14. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 9 wherein the identified information further comprising a plurality of presented information references.

15. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 14 wherein the plurality of information references further comprises a plurality of prioritized references.

16. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 15 wherein the prioritized references further comprises a weight assigned to each matched keyword that is used to prioritize the references.

17. An apparatus for presenting information to a human agent of an organization, such apparatus comprising:

a contact with a human client received by an automatic contact distributor of the organization;

a classification processor that automatically classifies the client into respective classifications of a plurality of client classifications based upon information delivered along with the contact each respective classification associated with a respective dictionary of reference keywords and keywords in context with weighted links to information resource in an associated database;

a contact distributor that selects a human agent from a plurality of human agents to handle the contact by a dialog between the agent and the client and delivers the contact to a communication device of the human agent to permit the human agent to conduct the dialog with the client;

a database containing the dictionaries of key words and key words in context and that retrieves the respective dictionary of reference key words and key words in context, based on the classification of the client;

an artificial agent that automatically monitors the dialog between the human agent and the human client and automatically detects keywords and keywords in context from the dialog as they occur during the dialog between the human agent and human client;

a matching processor that matches at least some of the detected keywords and key words in context with the respective reference keywords and keywords in context;

a knowledge base that automatically analyzes information exchanged between the human agent and the human client during the dialog to identify information useful to the agent for responding to the client during the contact within a database based upon the matched key words and key words in context; and

an agent terminal that presents, prioritized and continually updated based on agent selections, the identified information to the agent during the dialog between the human agent and the human client including responses suggestions and recommended resources to the human agent useful to the human agent for handling the contact responsive to actions of the human agent during the dialog.

18. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 17 wherein the information delivered along with the contact further comprises an identifier of a web page from which the contact originated.

19. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 17 wherein the information delivered along with the contact further comprises a source identifier selected from the group consisting of ANI, URL and e-mail.

20. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 19 wherein the means for classifying the contact type further comprises client information retrieved using the identifier delivered along with the contact.

21. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 17 wherein the information delivered along with the contact further comprises a contact destination provided by the client.

22. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 17 wherein the identified information further comprising a plurality of information references.

23. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 22 wherein the plurality of information references further comprises a plurality of prioritized references.

24. The apparatus for presenting information as in claim 23 wherein the prioritized references further comprises a prioritization weight calculated by summing the weights assigned to each matched keyword and adjusting the summed weight by creating linkage between keywords based upon selections made by the agents and adjusting the linkages based upon selection weightings assigned to the agents.