Providing better customer service by analyzing customer communications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9852459-B1
Application number	US-201615281650-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2016
Priority date	Sep 30, 2016
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a system and method for analyzing customer communications to provide better customer service including generating customer related data from communications of a customer by at least one sensing device located in a venue, transmitting the generated customer related data to an analysis engine, determining based on an analysis of the customer related data a customer experience, identifying at least one suggestion to provide better customer service including the identification of a representative of the venue that the analysis engine has determined can assist the customer, and receiving the at least one suggestion including an indication that the representative should assist the customer from the analysis engine by a computing device associated with the representative of the venue.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method implemented by at least one hardware processor for providing better customer service by analyzing customer communications, comprising:
generating customer related data from verbal communications of a customer in a venue, by at least one sensing device mounted to at least one structure of the venue at a known location in the venue;
transmitting, by the at least one sensing device, the generated customer related data to an analysis engine;
analyzing, by the analysis engine, the generated customer related data;
detecting, by the analysis engine, a tone of the verbal communications of the customer from the customer related data, wherein the analysis engine is trained to perform the detecting by:
receiving a database of tones as a training input; and
determining a difference between tones of the verbal communications using the training input;

determining, by the analysis engine, a customer experience based on the detected tone of the verbal communications of the customer;
identifying, by the analysis engine, at least one suggestion to provide better customer service based at least in part on the determined customer experience, the at least one suggestion comprising an identification of a representative of the venue that the analysis engine has determined can assist the customer;
determining, by the analysis engine, a location of the customer based on the known location of the at least one sensing device that generated the customer related data from verbal communications of the customer;
receiving, by a computing device associated with the representative of the venue, the at least one suggestion from the analysis engine and the determined location of the customer, the at least one suggestion comprising an indication that the representative should assist the customer; and
in response to receiving the at least one suggestion and the determined location of the customer, displaying on a display of the computing device: the at least one suggestion comprising the indication that the representative should assist the customer and the determined location of the customer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the displayed determined location of the customer comprises a map including the customer's location, the computing device displaying the map on the display in response to receiving the at least one suggestion from the analysis engine.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the customer related data is unstructured data and the analysis engine analyzes the unstructured data to generate the at least one suggestion.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the analysis engine:
determines a length of the verbal communications of the customer;
determines the customer experience based on the determined length of the verbal communications; and
identifies the at least one suggestion based at least in part on the determined length of the verbal communications.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the analysis engine:
detects key phrase in the verbal communications of the customer;
determines the customer experience based on the detected key phrase;
identifies the at least one suggestion based at least in part on the detected key phrase of the verbal communications.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the analysis engine:
translates the verbal communications of the customer into text;
analyzes the text to determine the customer experience; and
identifies the at least one suggestion based at least in part on the analysis of the text.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the verbal communications of the customer are verbal communications between the customer and a second representative; and
the identification of the representative of the venue that the analysis engine has determined can assist the customer is based on a determination that the representative can assist the customer better than the second representative.

8. A system for providing better customer service by analyzing customer communications, the system comprising:
an analysis engine, comprising at least one processor, the analysis engine configured to:
receive customer related data containing verbal communications of a customer in a venue from at least one sensing device mounted to at least one structure of the venue at a known location in the venue;
analyze the received customer related data;
detect a tone of the verbal communications of the customer from the customer related data, wherein the analysis engine is trained to perform the detecting by:
receiving a database of tones as training input; and
determining a difference between tones of the verbal communications using the training input;

determine a customer experience based on the detected tone of the verbal communications of the customer; and
identify at least one suggestion to provide better customer service based at least in part on the determined customer experience, the at least one suggestion comprising an identification of a representative of the venue that the analysis engine has determined can assist the customer;
determine a location of the customer based on the known location of the at least one sensing device from which the customer related data has been received; and
transmit the at least one suggestion and the determined location to a computing device associated with the representative of the venue;

at least one sensing device mounted to at least one structure of the venue at a known location in the venue and configured to generate customer related data from verbal communications of a customer in the venue, the at least one sensing device configured to transmit the customer related data to the analysis engine; and
a computing device associated with the representative of the venue, the computing device configured to receive the at least one suggestion and the determined location of the customer from the analysis engine and in response to receiving the at least one suggestion, display on a display of the computing device, the at least one suggestion and the determined location of the customer to the representative of the venue, the at least one suggestion comprising an indication that the representative should assist the customer.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the displayed location of the customer comprises a map including the customer's location, the computing device displaying the map on the display in response to receiving the at least one suggestion from the analysis engine.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the customer related data is unstructured data and the analysis engine is configured to analyze unstructured data to generate the at least one suggestion.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the analysis engine is configured to:
determine a length of the verbal communications of the customer;
determine the customer experience based on the determined length of the verbal communications; and
identify the at least one suggestion based at least in part on the determined length of the verbal communications.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the analysis engine is configured to:
translate the verbal communications of the customer into text;
analyze the text to determine the customer experience; and
identify the at least one suggestion based at least in part on the analysis of the text.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein:
the verbal communications of the customer are verbal communications between the customer and a second representative; and
the identification of the representative of the venue that the analysis engine has determined can assist the customer is based on a determination that the representative can assist the customer better than the second repre

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Deluca Marco A
• Francis Timothy M
• Nigul Leho
• Thomson Brian W

Classifications

• G06Q30/01 Primary

  Customer relationship services · CPC title

• G06Q30/0643

  graphically representing goods, e.g. 3D product representation · CPC title

• G06Q30/0613 Primary

  using intermediate agents · CPC title

• H04L67/18

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06Q30/0641

  utilising user interfaces specially adapted for shopping · CPC title