Call control service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11115528-B1
Application number	US-201815880380-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 25, 2018
Priority date	Jan 25, 2018
Publication date	Sep 7, 2021
Grant date	Sep 7, 2021

Abstract

A technology is described for providing virtual call assistants and call options to identified callers. An example method may include identifying a caller and a call recipient using addressing information included in a call received at a call control service. After identifying the caller, a priority designation assigned to the caller may be obtained from an agent linking profile. An interactive agent linked to the priority designation assigned to the caller may be identified, wherein the interactive agent may be configured to provide prioritized call services. Thereafter, the interactive agent linked to the priority designation may be invoked.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
a memory device including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
receive, via a content designer user interface (UI) hosted in a service provider environment and from a device associated with a call recipient:
a first priority designation of a first type for a first caller and a second priority designation of a second type, different than the first type, for a second caller;
a first interactive agent assigned to the first priority designation and a second interactive agent assigned to the second priority designation; and
a subject matter associated with calls;

receive a call at a call control service hosted in the service provider environment, wherein the call control service is managed by a computing service provider;
identify the first caller and the call recipient using addressing information for the call, wherein the call recipient is registered with the call control service;
determine that the call is associated with the subject matter and that the call recipient is unavailable to receive the call;
obtain, from an agent linking profile that includes priority designations assigned to callers by the call recipient, the first priority designation assigned to the first caller;
identify the interactive agent linked to the subject matter and the first priority designation assigned to the first caller, wherein the interactive agent is to provide a virtual call assistant personalized to the subject matter and the first priority designation assigned to the first caller; and
invoke the interactive agent linked to the subject matter and the first priority designation.

2. The system as in claim 1 , wherein the memory device includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to further:
receive an action identifier for a call option selected by the first caller as returned by the interactive agent to the call control service; and
invoke a second interactive agent to initiate an action associated with the action identifier.

3. The system as in claim 1 , wherein the interactive agent is configured to interface with a messaging service indicated by a call option selected by the first caller to send a message from the first caller to the call recipient.

4. The system as in claim 1 , wherein the first interactive agent is configured to initiate a calendar service indicated by a call option selected by the first caller to schedule a meeting with the first caller and the call recipient.

5. A computer implemented method comprising:
identifying a caller and a call recipient for a call received at a call control service, wherein the call control service is hosted in a service provider environment managed by a computing service provider;
obtaining, via an agent linking profile in which the call recipient has previously assigned one or more priority designations to one or more callers, a priority designation assigned to the caller;
identifying an interactive agent linked to the priority designation assigned to the caller, wherein the interactive agent is user configurable via a content designer user interface (UI) hosted in the service provider environment to provide a virtual call assistant personalized to the priority designation assigned to the caller; and
invoking the interactive agent linked to the priority designation.

6. The method as in claim 5 , wherein the agent linking profile includes the one or more priority designations obtained from a company directory.

7. The method as in claim 5 , further comprising:
referencing a meeting calendar associated with the call recipient to determine whether the call recipient is available to receive the call;
referencing a communications channel associated with the call recipient to determine whether the communications channel is being utilized indicating that the call recipient is available to receive the call; or
determining that the call recipient is unavailable to receive calls associated with a specified priority designation.

8. The method as in claim 5 , wherein the interactive agent is configured to send a message to the call recipient in response to the caller selecting a call option to exchange messages using the interactive agent, wherein the interactive agent:
sends speech input from the caller to a natural language service and provides text of the speech input to the call recipient; and
sends text input provided by the call recipient to a text-to-speech service and provides speech audio to the caller via a client device.

9. The method as in claim 5 , wherein the interactive agent is configured to send a message based on a determination that the caller selects a call action to exchange SMS (Short Message Service) messages or MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) messages with the call recipient.

10. The method as in claim 5 , wherein the interactive agent is configured to schedule a meeting in response to the caller selecting a call option to schedule a time for another call.

11. The method as in claim 10 , further comprising:
prompting the caller for a meeting time;
referencing a meeting calendar associated with the call recipient to determine whether the call recipient is available during the meeting time; and
adding an invitation for the meeting time to the meeting calendar.

12. The method as in claim 10 , further comprising:
determining a meeting time based on the priority designation of the caller; and
providing the meeting time to the caller.

13. The method as in claim 5 , further comprising:
prompting the caller for information related to the call using the interactive agent;
evaluating the information to determine a priority of the call; and
identifying a call option associated with the priority of the call.

14. The method as in claim 5 , wherein the call is routed to the call control service from a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network.

15. The method as in claim 5 , wherein the interactive agent is hosted in the service provider environment, a private user network, or a user data center located on user premises.

16. The method as in claim 5 , wherein the call control service invokes the interactive agent using an API (Application Programming Interface) or a program code function.

17. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, causing the one or more processors to:
identify a caller and a call recipient using addressing information for a call routed to a call control service hosted in a service provider environment, wherein the call control service is managed by a computing service provider;
determine at least one of a topic or a subject matter of the call and that the call recipient is unavailable to receive the call;
obtain, from an agent linking profile, a priority designation assigned to the caller and a reference to an interactive agent linked to the priority designation and the at least one of the topic or the subject matter of the call, wherein the interactive agent is user configurable via a content designer user interface (UI) hosted in the service provider environment to provide a virtual call assistant personalized to the priority designation assigned to the caller; and
invoke the interactive agent linked to the priority designation using the reference, wherein the interactive agent is configured to provide call options and dialog associated with the call options to the caller using

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Rao Siddhartha Shankara
• Etler Samuel Rislove
• Wiegner Carlin

Classifications

• H04M3/527

  Centralised call answering arrangements not requiring operator intervention · CPC title

• H04M3/5166

  in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends · CPC title

• H04M3/4936

  Speech interaction details (speech recognition per se G10L15/00) · CPC title

• G06Q10/06314 Primary

  Calendaring for a resource · CPC title

• H04M3/4365 Primary

  based on information specified by the calling party, e.g. priority or subject · CPC title