Abstract: Customers may use a number of channels to communicate with a business or other organization. If a customer initially posts an issue on social media and, before seeing a response, initiates a communication via a different channel (e.g., telephone call, email, etc.) to address the same issue, duplicative efforts may be reduced or eliminated. The customer is identified as being associated with the social media post and background information may be extracted from the social media post. If the issue is addressed on the social media site, the customer is notified, even if they are presently engaged in the communication via the different channel. If the customer is satisfied with the response, they may discontinue the communication via the different channel. If the customer is not satisfied, an agent may be assigned based, at least in part, on information gained from the social media website.

Abstract: An event associated with a communication session between a first party and a second party is detected. The event is related to the communication session. For example, the event may be a phrase spoken in the communication session or a presentation of a call progression screen to a contact center agent. At this point, the communication session is analyzed for a period of non-communication that meets a defined threshold during a monitoring period associated with the event. If a period of non-communication is detected that is longer than the threshold during the monitoring period, the period of non-communication is flagged. The flagged period of non-communication can then be used to evaluate how a contact center agent is performing.

Abstract: Co-browsing sessions provide a way for one party to see exactly what is being displayed on another party's computer or similar device. Co-browsing is particularly useful to an agent to help a customer solve a problem on a computer. Contact centers may determine portions of a co-browsing session that have been successful, capture the associated inputs, and have them play back to future customers. The agent may then be relieved from portions of the co-browsing interaction that are predictable and provide manual inputs having less predictability. The instructions for the automated co-browsing portions may be executed by the agent's device, the customer's device, and/or a server and may appear to the customer to be originating from the agent.

Abstract: Contact centers strive to provide quality customer service in a timely manner as well as to maintain profitability to ensure continued business operations. Having optimal agents available to accept every work item a customer may have is expensive and, when such skills are unneeded, wasteful. Once a work item is received, an optimal agent or agents are identified; however, if the wait time is unacceptable, the work item may be passed to a suboptimal agent who is able to process a portion of the work item. Once the optimal agent becomes available, the work item is joined by the optimal agent or, alternatively, a second non-optimal agent is brought in to address a second portion of the work item.

Abstract: Media files are often tagged, such as by XML or other tagging paradigms, in order to indicate aspects of certain portions of the media file. Disclosed herein, security policy tagging is provided that supports a logically nested or hierarchical structure. Tags may be time- and/or event-altered, such as when a user who is denied access at one point in time may be granted access at a later point in time. The need to amend the security policy based upon the passage of time is reduced or eliminated as portions, or sub-portions, of a media file that may be selectively tagged with security tags may be presented or downloaded based upon the security policy. The a security policy may incorporate rules that change permissions upon the passage of time or the occurrence of an event, without requiring the modification of the presentation, the security tags of the presentation portion, or the security tag associated with a parent portion of the presentation or the presentation itself.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, audio and non-audio data can be represented as sound sources in a three-dimensional sound space adapted to also provide visual data. Non-audio data can be associated with audio sound sources presented in the sound space. Navigation within this combined three-dimensional audio/visual space can be based primarily on the audio aspects of the sound sources with the details of the non-audio data being presented on demand, for example, when the listener navigates through the combined three-dimensional audio/visual space to a particular sound source at which point the non-audio data associated with that sound source can be presented.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, the grouping and arrangement of sound sources within a three-dimensional sound space can be based on attributes of the sound source. The content presented in the three-dimensional sound space can comprise social media content. According to another embodiment, the content can comprise voicemail messages and the three-dimensional sound space can be used for managing and retrieving the voicemails messages. In yet another embodiment, the content can comprise communications in a contact center between a customer or other caller and a customer support agent. According to a further embodiment, the three-dimensional sound space or an environment in which the three-dimensional sound space is implemented can provide an opportunity for the user or listener to initiate a follow-on communication with the originator of the sound source such as a social media post or other social media communication, a voice call, or other message or communication.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to using a three-dimensional sound space to analyze security surveillance information. According to one embodiment, the three-dimensional sound space can comprise part of a security surveillance system in which sound sources related to security surveillance information can be presented and a user can efficiently navigate even a large number of sound sources in the three-dimensional sound space. Effective audio surveillance relies on the ability of the surveillance personnel to efficiently identify calls that need further analysis and calls that need no further analysis without introducing too many false negative or false positive conditions. Utilization of three-dimensional space described herein can increase the ease with which security analysts review audio content and identify relevant audio content that requires further analysis.

Abstract: A social media network is monitored for postings of a control group. The control group is a group of one or more individuals that posts on a particular topic. The postings of the control group may cover all the postings of each member of the control group for a period of time. A first relative social media score is calculated for the postings of the control group on the social media network. A social media score is calculated for a social media posting of a user or entity on the social media network. The relative social media score for the control group is compared to the social media score for the user or entity to see if there is a significant difference. If there is a significant difference, an agent in a contact center to is identified respond to the social media posting of the user or entity.

Abstract: An automated system for message analysis whereby messages within a given category may be identified and processed as a category connote. While a domain of messages may be monitored and processed in the due course of business, connote message are different. For example, a number of messages may fall into a domain of “poor airline food.” Such messages may be processed in the due course of business. However, a message with a different aspect, such as, “I found glass in my food,” may be initially identified as begin within the domain of “poor airline food,” and processed further to distinguish the message as being a connote with regard to the “poor airline food” category and warranting special handling.

Abstract: Conferences comprise a number of listening, viewing, and/or speaking participants. A conference participant may ask a question or make a statement that can be answered or verified against an authoritative source. A reference validity checker is provided to receive the conference content, recorded or in real-time, determine that a question or statement was made that can be answered or verified, query a knowledgebase, and present indicia of the response. The indicia may be an indicator (e.g., true/false, verified, etc.) and/or a link to a source, such as a particular entry in a knowledgebase. The knowledgebase may be selected from internal sources or external sources depending on factors, such as the type of question/statement or topic associated therewith. The indicia may annotate a transcript or recording of the conference so that a subsequent review may have the ability to locate the source of the answer/response as desired.

Abstract: Many factors can affect the operation of a contact center, especially contact centers utilizing human agents. An agent's health may be utilized as a predictor of performance with respect to a particular task. Having sensors to gather health data are provided. The data may then be aggregated into a long-term health trend, which may be determined to indicate that a change in an agent's performance is likely and may allow the contact center to reallocate tasks and/or other resources to accommodate the change in performance to mitigate the effect of the change in the agent's health. Work tasks are then routed to agents accordingly.

Abstract: Contact centers strive to match the demands and preferences of their customers with the skills and abilities of the agents who process work items associated with the customers (e.g., contacts). However, the preferred agent may be unavailable, non-existent, backlogged or otherwise ineligible to accept the work item. An agent who is non-preferred but still qualified may be utilized to process the work item, such as an agent with adequate skills with respect to a particular attribute of the work item. Reports for the selection of the non-preferred but qualified agents are provided herein. A contact center may then utilize such reporting to identify underserved areas of their customer base.

Abstract: The delivery of goods to a customer comprises a substantial portion of human activity. To correct address errors and/or to more precisely locate delivery locations, systems are provided to assist human, human operated vehicle, or autonomous vehicles to locate a delivery point. Often the location of a delivery point is inaccurate or imprecise. GPS and other coordinate systems often fail or are imprecise without an unobstructed view of the sky. Even with coordinates available, the delivery point may be different from the coordinates or, more commonly, coordinates that are different from some standard point within a postal address associated with the coordinates. Providing a delivery system that utilizes a broadcasted identifier, such as an identifier associated with the order of the item, the delivery of the item may be made proximate to the source of the broadcasted identifier or further refined using the broadcasted identifier as a reference.

Abstract: Allocation of resources utilized by a contact center remains a balancing act between the burden of having resources that are generally underutilized and underperforming due to resource constraints. Many contact centers support a variety of communication types (e.g., audio-video, audio, text, email, etc.) associated with a respective communication channel. Communications may be dynamically incentivized or allocated from one communication channel having greater resource demands to another communication channel having lesser resource demands. Additionally, the resources of the contact center may be shared by customers of clients utilizing the contact center. As a result, one customer having a spike in demand may have their, and/or another customer's, communications reallocated to the less demanding channel to manage contact center resource utilization.

Abstract: An event associated with a communication session between a first party and a second party is detected. The event is related to the communication session. For example, the event may be a phrase spoken in the communication session or a presentation of a call progression screen to a contact center agent. At this point, the communication session is analyzed for a period of non-communication that meets a defined threshold during a monitoring period associated with the event. If a period of non-communication is detected that is longer than the threshold during the monitoring period, the period of non-communication is flagged. The flagged period of non-communication can then be used to evaluate how a contact center agent is performing.

Abstract: At least one social media channel includes a plurality of user messages, which are accessible via a communication network. At least some of the stored messages are retrieved from the at least one social media channel via the communication network, and a collection of frequently asked questions (FAQ) is generated or updated by analyzing the retrieved messages to form a plurality of topical issue clusters. Each topical issue cluster is associated with at least one topic parameter from among a plurality of topic parameters, each topic parameter relates to at least one of use, installation or maintenance of a product or service, and each topical issue cluster includes at least one issue identified by a community of users and at least one resolution of the issue identified by the community of users. The generated or updated FAQ is uploaded to a storage location accessible to the community of users.

Abstract: An agent may be qualified to perform a number of tasks, each requiring different levels of mental and/or physical ability. Prior to scheduling the agent to work a particular task, a scheduling process receives biometric data for the agent and, based on the biometric data and the demands of the various tasks, schedules the agent to work on one task versus another task. As a benefit, the agent's present abilities and/or impairments may be better utilized by scheduling the agent to perform tasks for which they are better suited and/or not scheduling the agent to perform tasks for which they are less well suited. Agents may be incentivized to provide the biometric data and/or maintain their ability to be able to perform certain tasks.

Abstract: Even with the best efforts to design and deliver accurate systems with usable interfaces, customers often encounter difficulties in completing a task using an electronic device, such as completing a form on a web page, using a software application, or navigating an interface. This may be due to a programming error, inaccurate instructions, or an unusual situation not contemplated by the programmers or designers. Without interaction with a human agent, a cue may be provided to the user upon detection of an issue for completing the task. A co-browse operation may be automatically initiated to provide a cue selected in accord with the issue that thereby allows the user to complete the task.

Abstract: Contact centers may incorporate automated agents to respond to inquiries. The inquiries may solicit a substantive response, for example, by providing a time when the inquiry asks for the departure time for a flight. Such responses omit the normal conversational subject matter used to embellish person-to-person conversations and appear are very machine-like. Herein, a source of user context, such as a social media website, customer database, or other data, is accessed. Certain aspects of the customer may then be identified and used to embellish the reply with additional and/or alternative content. As a result, the reply may be more conversational.