Systems and methods for routing cross-channel calls

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9325846-B1
Application number	US-201414493743-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 23, 2014
Priority date	Nov 13, 2008
Publication date	Apr 26, 2016
Grant date	Apr 26, 2016

Abstract

Activities performed by a client at a site of an organization are monitored and stored in an activity database. A call is thereafter received from the client at a telephone system of the organization, which performs an identification of the client. The identification is provided to a cross-channel router as a request for a prediction on where the call from the client should be routed, and the router indexes into the activity database based on the identification of the client to obtain the monitored activity of the client. The router employs predicting rules and the obtained activity to generate a prediction of client needs, and returns the generated prediction to the telephone-based system, which presents prioritized telephone prompts to the client according to the returned prediction to help in routing the call.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of routing a call from a client to a service representative of an organization, the method comprising:
monitoring activities of the client at a site of the organization;
upon a call from the client being received at a telephone-based system of the organization, receiving a request from the telephone-based system for a set of information regarding the monitored activities;
removing information from the set of information when an age of the information in the set of information is greater than a predetermined age, wherein a value of the set of information regarding the monitored activities decreases as the information ages;
applying predicting rules to the monitored activities of the client to make a prediction regarding why the client is calling the organization;
determining whether to use the prediction based on a confidence level associated with the prediction; and
determining telephone prompts to be presented to the client based on the monitored activities of the client at the site, wherein the telephone prompts to be presented to the client are based on the prediction responsive to a determination that the prediction should be used.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitored activities of the client at the site are selected from a group that includes each part of the site that the client navigates to, how long the client is at each part of the site, each search the client performs at the site, search results obtained from each search that the client navigated to, how many times the client navigates to each part of the site, and whether the client prints any part of the site.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitored activities of the client are stored in an activities database indexed according to the client.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client is identified at the site by way of identifying information supplied by the client when accessing the site, the identifying information including at least a user name.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the telephone prompts to be presented to the client are determined by predicting why the client is calling the organization based on the monitored activity of the client at the site, the predicting being performed by applying predicting rules to the monitored activity.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitored activities of the client occur prior to the call from the client.

7. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions thereon implementing a method of routing a call from a client to a service representative of an organization, the method comprising:
monitoring activities of the client at a site of the organization;
upon a call from the client being received at a telephone-based system of the organization, receiving a request from the telephone-based system for a set of information regarding the monitored activities;
removing information from the set of information when an age of the information in the set of information is greater than a predetermined age, wherein a value of the set of information regarding the monitored activities decreases as the information ages;
applying predicting rules to the monitored activities of the client to make a prediction regarding why the client is calling the organization;
determining whether to use the prediction based on a confidence level associated with the prediction; and
determining telephone prompts to be presented to the client based on the monitored activities of the client at the site, wherein the telephone prompts to be presented to the client are based on the prediction responsive to a determination that the prediction should be used.

8. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 , wherein the monitored activities of the client at the site are selected from a group that includes each part of the site that the client navigates to, how long the client is at each part of the site, each search the client performs at the site, search results obtained from each search that the client navigates to, how many times the client navigates to each part of the site, and whether the client prints any part of the site.

9. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 , wherein the monitored activities of the client are stored in an activities database indexed according to the client.

10. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 , wherein the client is identifies at the site by way of identifying information supplied by the client when accessing the site, the identifying information including at least a user name.

11. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 , wherein the telephone prompts to be presented to the client are determined by predicting why the client is calling the organization based on the monitored activity of the client at the site, the predicting being performed by applying predicting rules to the monitored activity.

12. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 , wherein the monitored activities of the client occur prior to the call from the client.

13. A system for routing a call from a client to a service representative of an organization, the system comprising:
a subsystem that monitors activities of the client at a site of the organization;
a subsystem that, upon a call from the client being received at a telephone-based system of the organization, receives a request from the telephone-based system for a set of information regarding the monitored activities;
a subsystem that removes information from the set of information when an age of the information in the set of information is greater than a predetermined age, wherein a value of the set of information regarding the monitored activities decreases as the information ages;
a subsystem that applies predicting rules to the monitored activities of the client to make a prediction regarding why the client is calling the organization;
a subsystem that determines whether to use the prediction based on a confidence level associated with the prediction; and
a subsystem that determines telephone prompts to be presented to the client based on the monitored activities of the client at the site, wherein the telephone prompts to be presented to the client are based on the prediction responsive to a determination that the prediction should be used.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the monitored activities of the client at the site are selected from a group that includes each part of the site that the client navigates to, how long the client is at each part of the site, each search the client performs at the site, search results obtained from each search that the client navigates to, how many times the client navigates to each part of the site, and whether the client prints any part of the site.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the monitored activities of the client are stored in an activities database indexed according to the client.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the client is identified at the site by way of identifying information supplied by the client when accessing the site, the identifying information including at least a user name.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein the telephone prompts to be presented to the client are determined by predicting why the client is calling the organization based on the monitored activity of the client at the site, the predicting being performed by applying predicting rules to the monitored activity.

Assignees

• Usaa

Inventors

• Dixon David P
• Moore Richard E

Classifications

• H04M3/5191 Primary

  interacting with the Internet · CPC title

• H04M3/5166 Primary

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

• H04L67/535

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title

• G06N5/02

  Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation · CPC title

• H04M2203/408

  Customer-specific call routing plans · CPC title