Recommended roster based on customer relationship management data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016352908-A1
Application number	US-201514724872-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 29, 2015
Priority date	May 29, 2015
Publication date	Dec 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for facilitating collaboration in a contact center by providing a roster of recommended subject matter experts on a topic related to an ongoing customer contact session. For example, embodiments can use a modification of the skills matching algorithm of the CRM system used to initially select an agent to also evaluate the needs of the service incident, and match those needs with people who would be able to contribute to a conversation and help the agent. The system can then recommend these possible contributors in a ranked order based on how well each collaborator's skills match the requirements of the incident. When the agent requires assistance and creates a conversation, the system can recommend to the agent a list of users that can help, based on the strength of the match to the skill that would equate to the incident.

First claim

1 . A method for facilitating collaboration in a contact center, the method comprising:
initiating a session between a customer contact and a customer service agent in response to a request from a customer, wherein the customer service agent is selected from a plurality of customer service agents based on incident information related to the request from the customer and skills information for each of the plurality of customer service agents; conducting the session between the customer contact and the customer service agent; receiving from the customer service agent, while conducting the session between the customer contact and the customer service agent, a request to collaborate with a subject matter expert; in response to receiving the request to collaborate with a subject matter expert, determining current incident information for the session including product/category information between the customer contact and the customer service agent; accessing a subject matter expert definition database in which a plurality of subject matter expert definitions are expressed as a product/category combination in a multi-level hierarchy; selecting from the subject matter expert definition database a plurality of subject matter experts based on the current incident information and a location of each of the subject matter experts in the multi-level hierarchy; and recommending to the customer service agent the plurality of subject matter experts.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein recommending to the customer service agent the plurality of subject matter experts based on conducting the session between the customer contact and the customer service agent further comprises:
generating an ordered list of the plurality of subject matter experts based on a degree of match between the current incident information for the session and skills information for each of the plurality of subject matter experts in the multi-level hierarchy; and providing the ordered list of the plurality of subject matter experts to the customer service agent.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving from the customer service agent a selection of one of the recommended subject matter experts; and in response to receiving the selection of one or more of the recommended subject matter experts, conducting a collaborative session between the customer service agent and the selected one or more of the recommended subject matter experts while conducting the session between the customer contact and the customer service agent.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising updating the skills information for the selected one or more of the recommended subject matter experts based on a contribution of the subject matter expert to a resolution of the session between the customer contact and the customer service agent.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of subject matter experts comprises a plurality of customer service agents.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of subject matter experts comprises one or more users who are not customer service agents.

7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein a structure of incident information related to the request from the customer, a structure of the skills information for each of the plurality of customer service agents, a structure of the current incident information for the session, and a structure of the skills information for each of the plurality of subject matter experts are defined based on a structure of product information representing products or services for which support is available.

8 . A system comprising:
a processor; and a memory coupled with and readable by the processor and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to facilitate collaboration in a contact center by:
initiating a session between a customer contact and a customer service agent in response to a request from a customer, wherein the customer service agent is selected from a plurality of customer service agents based on incident information related to the request from the customer and skills information for each of the plurality of customer service agents;
conducting the session between the customer contact and the customer service agent;
receiving from the customer service agent, while conducting the session between the customer contact and the customer service agent, a request to collaborate with a subject matter expert;
in response to receiving the request to collaborate with a subject matter expert, determining current incident information for the session including product/category information between the customer contact and the customer service agent;
accessing a subject matter expert definition database in which a plurality of subject matter expert definitions are expressed as a product/category combination in a multi-level hierarchy;
selecting from the subject matter expert definition database a plurality of subject matter experts based on the current incident information and a location of each of the subject matter experts in the multi-level hierarchy; and
recommending to the customer service agent the plurality of subject matter experts.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein recommending to the customer service agent the plurality of subject matter experts based on conducting the session between the customer contact and the customer service agent further comprises:
generating an ordered list of the plurality of subject matter experts based on a degree of match between the current incident information for the session and skills information for each of the plurality of subject matter experts in the multi-level hierarchy; and providing the ordered list of the plurality of subject matter experts to the customer service agent.

10 . The system of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving from the customer service agent a selection of one of the recommended subject matter experts; and in response to receiving the selection of one or more of the recommended subject matter experts, conducting a collaborative session between the customer service agent and the selected one or more of the recommended subject matter experts while conducting the session between the customer contact and the customer service agent.

11 . The system of claim 10 , further comprising updating the skills information for the selected one or more of the recommended subject matter experts based on a contribution of the subject matter expert to a resolution of the session between the customer contact and the customer service agent.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of subject matter experts comprises a plurality of customer service agents.

13 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of subject matter experts comprises one or more users who are not customer service agents.

14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein a structure of incident information related to the request from the customer, a structure of the skills information for each of the plurality of customer service agents, a structure of the current incident information for the session, and a structure of the skills information for each of the plurality of subject matter experts are defined based on a structure of product information representing products or services for which support is available.

15 . A non-transitory, computer-readable memory comprising a set of instructions stored therein which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to facilitate collaboration in a contact center by:
initiating a session between a customer contact and a customer service agent in resp

Assignees

• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Sloan Scott
• Chan Victor Chung-Wai
• Patterson Christopher
• Sharma Manish

Classifications

• H04M3/5233 Primary

  Operator skill based call distribution · CPC title

• H04M3/563

  User guidance or feature selection · CPC title

• H04M3/5191

  interacting with the Internet · CPC title

• H04M3/58

  Arrangements for transferring received calls from one subscriber to another; Arrangements affording interim conversations between either the calling or the called party and a third party (substation line holding circuits H04M1/80) · CPC title