Method and apparatus for serving online communities of users

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018129512-A1
Application number	US-201615346653-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 8, 2016
Priority date	Nov 8, 2016
Publication date	May 10, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and apparatus for serving online communities of users includes effecting display of an interactive section on at least a portion of a user interface of a website upon receiving a user input indicative of a need for assistance. The interactive section is displayed to enable the user to post one or more queries to at least one relevant community of users from among a plurality of community of users associated with the website. Further, an interaction is facilitated between the user and one or more users associated with the at least one relevant community of users or between the user and the agent using the interactive section in response to posting of the one or more queries by the user.

First claim

1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
effecting, by a processor, display of an interactive section on at least a portion of a user interface (UI) associated with a website during a current journey of a user on the website; identifying, by the processor, at least one relevant community of users, at least in part, based on the current journey of the user on the website; the interactive section receiving one or more queries posted by the user to at least one relevant community of users from among a plurality of community of users associated with the website; and subsequent to said posting of the one or more queries by the user to the interactive section effecting, by the processor, interaction between the user and at least one of:
one or more users associated with the at least one relevant community of users; and
an agent associated with the website.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the processor, a user input during the current journey on the website, the user input indicative of a need for assistance, wherein the display of the interactive section is effected in response to receiving the user input.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
tracking, by the processor, user activity on the website during the current journey of the user on the website.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
performing at least one of prediction of user's intention and identification of the at least one relevant community of users based on the tracked user activity during the current journey of the user on the website.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
customizing, by the processor, content displayed on one or more UIs of the website based on user-specified or predicted user's intention.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
effecting, by the processor, display of a first option on the interactive section to receive user input indicating user's intention for visiting the website; and using, by the processor, the indicated user's intention to identify the at least one relevant community of users.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
effecting, by the processor, display of a second option on the interactive section to receive user selection of a persona type from among a plurality of persona types, wherein each persona type from among the plurality of persona types is representative of a set of behavioural attributes associated with a group of users of the website; and using, by the processor, the selected persona type to identify the at least one relevant community of users.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
effecting, by the processor, display of a representation illustrative of journeys of a plurality of users currently active on the website; and grouping, by the processor, the journeys of the plurality of users into clusters based, at least in part, on a commonality in journey attributes.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the journey attributes relate to any of current Web page being viewed, user geography, browsing pattern, user persona type, and user authentication status.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
enabling, by the processor, the user to view content viewed by other users associated with substantially similar journeys on the website.

11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
configuring, by the processor, the plurality of community of users based on user attributes related to related to any of purchase propensity, uniform resource locator (URL) categorization, sales or service categorization, current journey, online behaviour, and omnichannel interaction data; and classifying, by the processor, a plurality of users currently active on the website into one or more communities from among the plurality of communities of users.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
identifying, by the processor, a community of users from among the plurality of community of users based on a commonality in activity on the website associated with the user and the identified community of users; and using, by the processor, the identified community of users to configure one of the at least one relevant community of users.

13 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
effecting, by the processor, display of a past interaction history associated with the at least one relevant community of users on the interactive section upon receiving a user request.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein facilitating the interaction comprises:
receiving, by the processor, answers provided by the one or more users or the agent to the user in response to the one or more queries posted by the user; and effecting, by the processor, display of said answers provided by the one or more users or the agent to the user.

15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
associating, by the processor, a rating with each answer from among the answers; and determining, by the processor, the rating associated with the each answer based on individual ratings provided by users or agent associated with respective community of users from among the at least one relevant community of users.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
effecting, by the processor, display of a best rated answer to at least one query from among the one or more queries posted by the user using the interactive section.

17 . A system, comprising:
at least one processor; and a memory having stored therein machine executable instructions, that when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
effect display of an interactive section on at least a portion of a user interface (UI) associated with a website during a current journey of a user on the website;
identify at least one relevant community of users, at least in part, based on the current journey of the user on the website;
receive, via the interactive section, one or more queries posted by the user to at least one relevant community of users from among a plurality of community of users associated with the website; and
subsequent to said posting of the one or more queries by the user to the interactive section effect interaction between the user and at least one of:
one or more users associated with the at least one relevant community of users; and
an agent associated with the website.

18 . The system of claim 17 , the system is further caused to:
receive a user input during the current journey on the website, the user input indicative of a need for assistance, wherein the display of the interactive section is effected in response to receiving the user input.

19 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the system is further caused to:
track user activity on the website during the current journey of the user on the website.

20 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the system is further caused to:
perform at least one of prediction of user's intention and identification of the at least one relevant community of users based on the tracked user activity during the current journey of the user on the website.

21 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the system is further caused to:
customize content displayed on one or more UIs of the website based on user-specified or predicted user's intention.

22 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the system is further caused to:
effect display of a first option on the interactive section to receive user input indicating user's intention for

Assignees

• 24/7 Customer Inc

Inventors

• Singh Bhupinder
• Sri R Mathangi

Classifications

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06F3/0483

  Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor · CPC title

• G06F9/4446 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F3/04883

  for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title