Abstract: Example embodiments of the present invention may include a method that includes collecting caller response timings to each of a plurality of dialog states conducted during a call, and estimating a plurality of parameters based on the caller response timings. The method may also include selecting a response completeness value responsive to the estimated plurality of parameters, the response completeness value is used to calculate at least one optimal timeout value. The method may also include selecting the at least one optimal timeout value, and setting the at least one optimal timeout value for each of the corresponding dialog states. The timeout value(s) may be used for subsequent calls to provide optimal user satisfaction and call success rates.
Abstract: A method, system and server comprise determining, at a server, an appropriate Position Determining Entity (PDE) to forward data to based on a network in which a mobile station is roaming and forwarding the data from the server to the PDE.
Abstract: A method and apparatus of communicating with multiple mobile station devices in a concerted effort is disclosed. According to one example method of operation content is provided to multiple mobile station devices in a pre-defined venue location. The method may also provide identifying the mobile station devices as being present at the pre-defined venue location via a server and initiating an application on the server that establishes a customized content delivery function utilized to deliver customized content to each of the identified mobile station devices. A command may be triggered to begin transmitting the customized content to each of the mobile station devices at a predetermined time and the customized content may be transmitted to each of the mobile station devices responsive to receiving the trigger command.
Abstract: Disclosed is a method, apparatus, system and non-transitory computer program product configured to process user call responses and assign caller specific preferences to the user based on the caller's feedback. One example method of processing spoken words from a user of a calling platform may include operations, such as calling a user via a call processing device, and sending a call prompt message to the user after the user has answered the call, the call prompt message soliciting a user response. The user may respond and the response is received as a spoken call greeting from the user in response to the call prompt message. Other operations may include recording the spoken call greeting, and determining whether the spoken call greeting is indicative of a language preference. The system may process the user's word or utterances and assign language preferences to the user based on the user provided information.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
January 5, 2016
Date of Patent:
February 28, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
James K. Boutcher, David Scheet, Jeffrey William Cordell, Daniel E. Smith
Abstract: A message processing application may receive at least one inquiry message from a user device in the form or a text message, email or other communication message format. The message may be received and processed to identify the content of the inquiry message to determine whether the inquiry message should be transferred to a live agent or whether the inquiry message should be responded to with an automated response stored in a database.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
July 14, 2014
Date of Patent:
February 28, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
James K. Boutcher, Geetha Gopalakrishnan
Abstract: A method and apparatus of communicating with multiple mobile station devices in a concerted effort is disclosed. According to one example method of operation the method may include identifying a number of mobile station devices as being present at the pre-defined venue location via a server and initiating an application on the server that establishes a feedback menu display. The method may also include transmitting the feedback menu display to each of the identified mobile station devices receiving feedback messages from a majority of the mobile station devices responsive to the feedback menu display questions, and processing the feedback messages and providing a result to the moderator device.
Abstract: Example embodiments of the present invention may include a method that provides transcribing spoken utterances occurring during a call and assigning each of the spoken utterances with a corresponding set of first classifications. The method may also include determining a confidence rating associated with each of the spoken utterances and the assigned set of first classifications, and performing at least one of reclassifying the spoken utterances with new classifications based on at least one additional classification operation, and adding the assigned first classifications and the corresponding plurality of spoken utterances to a training data set.
Abstract: A method and apparatus of providing notifications to a customer is disclosed. One example method of operation may include identifying a notification event associated with a customer via a customer management module and retrieving a customer preference record and determining a notification device preference for a customer Internet protocol (IP) device included in the customer preference record. The method may also include transmitting the notification event to the customer's IP device based on the notification device preference, the notification event may include a live agent support option which may be accessed in the event that the automated support options fail to satisfy the customer's questions and concerns.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
February 9, 2016
Date of Patent:
February 21, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
Jeffrey William Cordell, James K. Boutcher
Abstract: In nurse call systems that enable communication from a plurality of cordless handsets with a plurality of extension terminals carried by nurses belonging to a group, a nurse call conversion unit is provided between a nurse call control device and a private branch exchange. A call signal for a group representative call in which only an identification number for a group is given is transmitted by the nurse call conversion unit from the nurse call control device to the private branch exchange. From this call signal, the private branch exchange generates a call signal for extension terminals belonging to a group and calls the extension terminals.
Type:
Application
Filed:
October 22, 2015
Publication date:
February 16, 2017
Applicants:
NEC Platforms, Ltd., NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE EAST CORPORATION, NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE WEST CORPORATION
Abstract: A method and apparatus of processing a voice call are disclosed. One example method of operation may include recording at least a portion of a conference call and storing the portion of the conference call in memory. The method may also include processing the portion of the conference call to identify at least one segment of interest and processing the at least one segment of interest and creating at least one tag of interest to be associated with a third party application. The method may also include forwarding the at least one tag of interest to a third party computing device responsive to the identified segment of interest.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 12, 2016
Date of Patent:
February 14, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
Jeffrey William Cordell, James K. Boutcher, David Scheet
Abstract: The invention disclosed is a new system and method for providing the mutual sharing of resources devoted to customer service. The system utilizes a telecommunications switching apparatus to rout incoming customer contacts to one or more pools of customer service agents. The system provides for a universal customer service interface that allows customer service agents to assist customers of other related companies. The automated system for sharing customer service resources includes a mutual assistance routing system in communication with requesting users of customer service agents, responding providers of customer service agents, databases containing customer information, thereby allowing customers who contact the requesting user to be served by shared agents.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 14, 2015
Date of Patent:
February 7, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
James Lehr Kennedy, Julia Lynn McDevitt, Adam Thomas Bangston, James Francis Curran, Verun Reddy Gade, Demond LeWayne Smith, Dongyun Wang
Abstract: A system, method and computer readable medium for targeting messages delivered by wireless communication comprising determining at least one target space within at least one wireless communications network, determining a notification list comprising at least one recipient in said at least one target space, determining at least one notification message, and transmitting said at least one notification message through said at least one wireless communications network to at least one recipient on said notification list.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
June 1, 2015
Date of Patent:
February 7, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
Steven D. Adams, Stephen John Ciesielski, Ashish Patel, Michelle L. Steinbeck, James C. Creigh
Abstract: A method and apparatus of modifying user content data on a mobile station are disclosed. One example method of displaying customized content data on a mobile station may include receiving the content data at the mobile station, and modifying the content data based on predefined viewing preferences of the user. The modified content may then be displayed on a display interface of the mobile station allowing the user to view the content based on their specified preferences.
Abstract: A method and apparatus of processing communications with end users are disclosed. One example method may include detecting a message or post on a website over the Internet that matches a monitoring company's keywords or rules and processing the message by parsing the message and performing a natural language interpretation of the message and processing the parsed message to determine the user's topic of interest. In response, the method may further provide generating a response to the message based on the user's requested objective and sending the response to the user acknowledging the user's topic of interest. Live agents may be notified to check the status of a message and continually override automated message responses to ensure the integrity of the responses.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
February 2, 2016
Date of Patent:
January 24, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
Aaron Scott Fisher, Bruce Pollock, Silke Witt-ehsani
Abstract: A method and computer readable medium for routing a call to geographically dispersed agents based on agent skill-set, agent location and caller location that results in the call being delivered to the best available agent. The computer readable medium and method are utilized with a system comprised of a call center application module coupled to a database module with a communications network being used to couple incoming calls from customers with the best available agent. A database contains a ranking of available agents, based on a dataset including information regarding skill-set, previous interaction with the customer, proximity to the customer, language capability, current availability, and the like. The method chooses the best available agent to service a customer call based on the agent rankings. In the case where the customer has a preference for proximity of the agent to the customer, the system adjusts the agent rankings according to the agent's distance from the customer prior to making a selection.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
June 7, 2013
Date of Patent:
January 24, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
James K. Boutcher, Michael Todd Mateer, Craig A. Webster
Abstract: At least one inquiry message is received from a user device in the form or a text message, email or other communication message format. The message may be received and processed to identify the content of the inquiry message to determine whether the inquiry message should be transferred to a live agent queue or whether the inquiry message should be responded to with an automated response stored in a database. In the case of the automated message failing to address the user's inquiry or if the automated responses do not appear to be relevant based on the comparison of the message content to automated response content then transmitting the inquiry message to the live agent queue.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
January 26, 2016
Date of Patent:
January 24, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
Kellan Stec, Geetha Gopalakrishnan, James K. Boutcher
Abstract: A message receiving, intercepting and processing method and corresponding application and device may provide receiving a message at a message processing server, the message being intended for a phone number associated with a customer service provider, identifying a telephone number of the sender of the message, parsing at least one word from the message, retrieving user account information of the sender, and generating an automated response to the message that includes contextual information that is based on at least one of the user account information and the parsed at least one word from the message.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
January 6, 2016
Date of Patent:
January 17, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
Adam Caldwell, Jeffrey William Cordell, James K. Boutcher
Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for transmitting notifications to customers. One example method may include identifying a notification event associated with a customer via a customer management module and retrieving a customer record. The method may also include identifying a customer's mobile device via a voice channel preference indicating the mobile device in the customer preference record, and transmitting the notification event to the customer's mobile device based on the voice channel preference.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 5, 2016
Date of Patent:
January 17, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
Jennie Dawn Hanson, Jeffrey William Cordell, James K. Boutcher
Abstract: The illustrative embodiments described herein provide improved systems and methods for conferencing enterprise and non-enterprise callers. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a first call initiated by an enterprise caller at an enterprise, communicating with an enterprise media server to initiate a tributary conference on the enterprise media server, joining the enterprise caller to the tributary conference such that the enterprise caller is in data communication with the tributary conference, receiving a second call initiated by a non-enterprise caller via a public switched telephone network, interfacing the non-enterprise caller with a data center media server, creating a home conference on the data center media center, joining the second call to the home conference, and interfacing the home conference on the data center media server to the tributary conference on the enterprise media server to form a linked conference between the enterprise caller and the non-enterprise caller.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
June 17, 2014
Date of Patent:
January 10, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
Myron P. Sojka, Mark Steven Jarzynka, Srinivas Maganti, Andrew Nelson
Abstract: In a call center, a caller's geographical position may be mapped together with a geographical position of a call agent allocated to handle the call. A map may display tags depicting the respective positions of the caller and the call agent with a visual link indicating the call connection. The call agent may be selected dependent on the relative proximity to the caller.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
December 1, 2015
Date of Patent:
January 10, 2017
Assignee:
West Corporation
Inventors:
James K. Boutcher, Michael Joseph Parmeley