Based On Agent's Skill (e.g., Language Spoken By Agent) Patents (Class 379/265.12)
  • Patent number: 10366395
    Abstract: An interactive and custom support kiosk is disclosed. In one embodiment, a kiosk is provided including a user attribute identification system and a region-specific linkage. The user attribute identification system may be a user language identification system where the user's preferred language may be detected. With detection of a user's preferred language, the kiosk may display a language-customized display with customized features based on the identified language. In some embodiments, the customized features may include a language-based experience format similar to a user's experience which would be expected in the user's home geography. In some examples, a second level of interaction may be provided wherein the user may be connected to a region-specific operator. The operator may provide immediate live help or assistance through the kiosk. In addition, security controls may be provided with the interactive language and custom support kiosk.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2019
    Assignee: INFOCUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Lap-Shun Hui, John Lee, Raymond Yu
  • Patent number: 10346544
    Abstract: Approaches presented herein enable assignment of translated work to an agent in a support environment based on a confidence factor that measures accuracy of translation and an agent's language skill. Specifically, agent proficiencies in a set of natural languages are measured and scored. An incoming communication is translated into one or more natural languages and each language translation is assigned a translation score based on a confidence of translation. The skill score and translation score are utilized to calculate a confidence factor for each language. In one approach, the communication is assigned to an agent that has a confidence factor greater than a predetermined threshold confidence factor. In another approach, the communication is only assigned if a rule optimizing agent availability and risk of constrained resources is satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gary R. Brophy, Dennis D. Koski, Todd A. Mueller, Jeffrey A. Schmidt
  • Patent number: 10291782
    Abstract: Systems and methods for a work distribution service. At a multi-tenant platform that provides a work distribution service for a plurality of external systems, a priority is assigned to a first work item of a first external system. The work item is received via a RESTful work item API call request. The priority is assigned based on work item attributes of the work item and a workflow instruction corresponding to workflow information specified by the work item. The workflow instruction is provided by the external system via a RESTful Workflow API. A worker is assigned to the work item based on: the priority of the work item, the workflow information, and worker state managed by the first external system via a RESTful Worker API. The worker state includes worker attributes. The work item is generated by the external system, and the workflow instruction is managed by the external system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
    Inventors: John Wolthuis, Robert Brazier
  • Patent number: 10284721
    Abstract: A system and method for establishing a communication with a customer by an agent, via one or more communication modes includes an agent computer and a second computer. The agent computer receives a batch notification identifying a batch of one or more customer records in the agent computer, for communication in the near future, wherein the one or more customer records is associated with one or more customers. The second computer provides the batch notification enabling the agent computer to identify the batch of one or more customer records. The system determines a next step action based on an outcome of a communication attempt made to communicate with the customer and based on a specified number of communication attempts made to communicate with the customer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: Micro Macro Assets LLC
    Inventor: Senraj Soundar
  • Patent number: 10275775
    Abstract: Context information, indicative of a tenant's engagement with a multi-tenant service, is obtained. An engagement state for the tenant is determined and the context information, and engagement state, are correlated to an issue to be addressed. A user experience is conducted, based upon the likely issue to be addressed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Paul Sanjeev Balarajan, Matt J. Lopez, Warren Johnson, Masroor Hussain Syed, Andy Kwan Jin Siow, Brian VanDoren
  • Patent number: 10277744
    Abstract: A system and method for performance-based routing of interactions in a contact center. A routing server receives information on an interaction to be routed, and identifies a call reason for the interaction. The identification of the call reason may be based, for example, speech analytics. The routing server identifies one or more agents having experience in handling the topic. The routing server further determines a proficiency level of the identified agents in handling the topic, and selects one of the identified agents having at least a minimum level of proficiency. The routing server transmits a message for routing the interaction to the selected agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Inventors: Yochai Konig, Herbert Willi Artur Ristock
  • Patent number: 10264124
    Abstract: Systems and methods for customizable user experience service include receiving a first user interaction from a user device at a service platform of a service provider. First instructions are retrieved from a predictive management device based on the first user interaction with the service platform. The service platform may provide the first user interaction to the predictive management device from which the predictive management device may determine the first instructions. The service platform generates a first customized user experience based on the first instructions. The first customized user experience is provided to the user device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: PAYPAL, INC.
    Inventor: Eddie Batlle
  • Patent number: 10257354
    Abstract: Techniques for L3 pairing in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for L3 pairing in a contact center system comprising identifying a plurality of contacts waiting for assignment, identifying a plurality of agents available for assignment, and selecting at least one of the plurality of agents with at least one of the plurality of contacts for assignment and connection within the contact center system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: Afiniti Europe Technologies Limited
    Inventor: Zia Chishti
  • Patent number: 10217112
    Abstract: An issue is identified based on corresponding information indicative of steps taken in an on-boarding process and a velocity of transition through the steps. The issue is matched against an agent based on agent capabilities exposed by the agent. The issue and corresponding information are routed to the agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Matt J. Lopez, Warren Johnson, Paul Sanjeev Balarajan
  • Patent number: 10210543
    Abstract: A user accesses an account management system website via a user computing device and establishes a user account with the account management system. The user downloads an application onto the user computing device, which receives information for one or more loyalty cards. A loyalty card is associated with a merchant system location in response to a user request, in response to a request from a merchant device, in response to being read by a merchant POS device, or as a result of the loyalty card being identified by the account management system, based on aggregate data received from a plurality of user computing devices, as belonging to a loyalty card class associated with one or more merchant system locations. The user enters the merchant system location and the application detects the user computing device location. The application suggests the loyalty card according to user-configured alert settings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventor: David K. Windmueller
  • Patent number: 10165122
    Abstract: According to one example, a method includes providing an interactive call menu creation service to a client device. The method further includes receiving a first dataset from the client device of an entity via the interactive call menu creation service, the first dataset including a call structure that defines a plurality of communication destinations and destination addresses for the communication destinations. The method further includes, in response to receiving the first dataset, generating a second dataset, the second dataset comprising code for embedding in a webpage to provide an interactive call menu for establishing communication to the plurality of communication destinations. The method further includes sending the second dataset to the client device in response to receiving the first dataset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: GENBAND US LLC
    Inventors: Jeffrey Singman, Dany Sylvain
  • Patent number: 10163129
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to methods, systems, and apparatuses for providing promotion recommendations using a promotion and marketing service. Some aspects may provide a method for providing a promotion recommendation framework. The method includes receiving, via a network interface, a promotion recommendation inquiry from a component of a promotion and marketing service, the promotion recommendation inquiry including electronic identification data identifying at least one of a consumer or a consumer characteristic. The method also includes identifying, via processing circuitry, promotion transaction information associated with the electronic identification data. The promotion transaction information includes electronic data identifying at least one transaction performed using the promotion and marketing service.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: Groupon, Inc.
    Inventors: Nipun Agarwal, Rajesh Girish Parekh, Ying Chen
  • Patent number: 10135988
    Abstract: Techniques for case allocation are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for case allocation comprising receiving, by at least one computer processor, at least one case allocation allocated using a first pairing strategy, and then reassigning, by the at least one computer processor, the at least one case allocation using behavioral pairing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: Afiniti Europe Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Ittai Kan, David J. Delellis
  • Patent number: 10129394
    Abstract: A method for automatically routing a telephonic communication is provided, and includes receiving a customer identifier and communicating with a customer history database storing historic data and determining whether the received customer identifier corresponds to a stored customer identifier in the customer history database, wherein the customer profile included in the stored historic data is based on a portion of a customer's demographic identity. Historic data corresponding to the stored customer number is identified based on the comparison of the received customer identifier and the stored customer identifier. The telephonic communication is associated with a predetermined communication destination based on the identified historic data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: MATTERSIGHT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kelly Conway, Christopher Danson, Douglas Brown, David Gustafson
  • Patent number: 10110746
    Abstract: Techniques for benchmarking pairing strategies in a task assignment system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for benchmarking pairing strategies in a task assignment system comprising determining a first base cohort of a first plurality of historical task assignments for at least two pairing strategies for a first base period, determining a first performance difference between the at least two pairing strategies after a first measurement period based on the first base cohort, and outputting the first performance difference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2018
    Assignee: Afiniti Europe Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Zia Chishti, David Zachary Hudson, Phil Davis, Akbar A. Merchant, Ittai Kan
  • Patent number: 10051124
    Abstract: Techniques for behavioral pairing in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for pairing in a contact center including ordering one or more contacts, ordering one or more agents, comparing a first difference in ordering between a first contact and a first agent in a first pair with a second difference in ordering between a second contact and a second agent in a second pair, and selecting the first pair or the second pair for connection based on the comparing, wherein the first contact and the second contact are different or the first agent and the second agent are different.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: Afiniti Europe Technologies Limited
    Inventor: Zia Chishti
  • Patent number: 10009465
    Abstract: A system includes one or more memory devices storing instructions, and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to perform steps of a method for providing customer sentiment depiction. The system may receive customer information and session information and generate a customer sentiment estimate. The system may then receive an indication of a detected customer voice characteristic and generate an updated customer sentiment estimate that may be transmitted to a customer service terminal for display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2018
    Assignee: CAPITAL ONE SERVICES, LLC
    Inventors: Xu Benjamin Fang, Lewis Wong
  • Patent number: 9974105
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a communication system and a method thereof, an information processing apparatus and a method thereof, an information processing terminal and a method thereof, which can start wireless communication easily and promptly. When an electromagnetic wave radiated from a reader/writer of a PDA 2 is received in a reader/writer of a personal computer 1, the personal computer 1 notifies the PDA 2 of device information stored therein. The PDA 2 establishes synchronization for Bluetooth communication with the personal computer 1 in accordance with a Bluetooth address contained in the device information and selects a service in accordance with a service record contained in the device information to establish communication via Bluetooth. The present invention can be applied to various information processing apparatuses such as a personal computer or a PDA.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2018
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takashi Sasai, Hiroshi Kakuda, Masamitsu Higo
  • Patent number: 9961203
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a data storage device that stores remote agent quality assurance code and communication session code. Further, the apparatus includes a data capture device that captures data associated with a remote agent positioned in proximity to the data capture device. In addition, a processor receives a request from an agent routing platform for a service provided by the remote agent through a communication session between the remote agent and a user requesting the service. The processor executes the remote agent quality assurance code to determine that at least a portion of the captured data is non-compliant with the one or more quality assurance policies provided by the agent routing platform. Further, the processor executes the remote agent quality assurance code to provide one or more indicia of non-compliance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2018
    Assignee: Language Line Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey Cordell, James Boutcher, Lindsay D'Penha
  • Patent number: 9924041
    Abstract: Techniques for case allocation are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for case allocation comprising receiving, by at least one computer processor, at least one case allocation allocated using a first pairing strategy, and then reassigning, by the at least one computer processor, the at least one case allocation using behavioral pairing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2018
    Assignee: Afiniti Europe Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Ittai Kan, David J. DeLellis
  • Patent number: 9917949
    Abstract: Techniques for behavioral pairing in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for pairing in a contact center including ordering one or more contacts, ordering one or more agents, comparing a first difference in ordering between a first contact and a first agent in a first pair with a second difference in ordering between a second contact and a second agent in a second pair, and selecting the first pair or the second pair for connection based on the comparing, wherein the first contact and the second contact are different or the first agent and the second agent are different.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2018
    Assignee: Afiniti Europe Technologies Limited
    Inventor: Zia Chishti
  • Patent number: 9900435
    Abstract: A method for routing activities in a contact center to contact center agents includes: concurrently selecting, by a processor, N activities, wherein N is an integer greater than 1; concurrently identifying, by the processor, N contact center agents; identifying, by the processor, one or more sets of preferences associated with the N activities and the N contact center agents; matching, by the processor, the N activities and the N contact center agents based on the one or more sets of preferences; and routing, by the processor, one or more of the N activities to the matched contact center agents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2018
    Assignee: GENESYS TELECOMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES, INC.
    Inventors: Vladimir Mezhibovsky, Nikolay Korolev, Vitaliy Teryoshin, Herbert Willi Artur Ristock
  • Patent number: 9838537
    Abstract: A call center system has a computerized server executing software (SW) from a machine-readable medium, a data collection function of the SW enabled for collecting data regarding incoming transactions, a data processing function coupled to the data collection engine and enabled for processing the data collected against a set of business rules, the data processing function determining a priority level for individual ones of the incoming transactions, and a distribution function enabled for distributing a priority indication determined by the data processing function to one or more presentation interfaces accessible to agents, at or near the time the associated transaction is engaged by the agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: GENESYS TELECOMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES, INC.
    Inventors: Herbert Willi Artur Ristock, Vladimir Mezhibovsky, Nikolay Korolev
  • Patent number: 9813557
    Abstract: A contact center, methods, and mechanisms are provided for assigning work items to resources using attributes that conditionally expand a selectable pool of resources. The work item is first analyzed for any required, preferred, and conditional attributes and then queued in multiple resource attribute sets for work assignment. Work items are assigned to resources by considering a match between the analyzed attributes of a work item and a resource while observing alternative assignment conditions. When met, the alternative assignment conditions cause the work item to be queued in additional resource attribute sets thereby expanding the pool of selectable resources. Once assigned, the work item may be removed from queues not selected in the work assignment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventor: Robert C. Steiner
  • Patent number: 9781270
    Abstract: A system and method for case-based routing as opposed to atomic interaction routing. A processor opens a case in a customer database. The case is associated with a workflow that has steps anticipated to be executed for the case. The processor identifies first and second steps of the workflow, and further identifies an agent with skills for handling the first and second steps. The processor generates a task for handling at least the first step of the workflow, and transmits instructions to route the task to the identified agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: GENESYS TELECOMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES, INC.
    Inventors: Todd Hollenberg, Bradley Krug, Herbert Willi Artur Ristock, Charlotte Toerck, Nikolay Korolev, David H. Anderson
  • Patent number: 9692899
    Abstract: Techniques for benchmarking pairing strategies in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for benchmarking pairing strategies in a contact center system including determining results for a first plurality of contact-agent interactions, determining results for a second plurality of contact-agent interactions, and determining combined results across the first and second pluralities of contact-agent interactions corrected for a Yule-Simpson effect.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2017
    Assignee: Afiniti Europe Technologies Limited
    Inventor: Syed Meesum Raza Rizvi
  • Patent number: 9686411
    Abstract: Method, system and program product, comprising obtaining agent performance data; ranking, agents based the agent performance data; dividing agents into agent performance ranges; partitioning callers based on criteria into a set of partitions; determining for each partition an outcome value for a first agent performance range and a second agent performance range; calculating for the partitions a respective outcome value difference indicator based on the outcome value for the first agent performance range and the outcome value for the second agent performance range for the partition; matching a respective agent to a respective caller in one of the partitions, based on the outcome value difference indicators for the partitions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: Afiniti International Holdings, Ltd.
    Inventors: S. James P. Spottiswoode, Zia Chishti
  • Patent number: 9679034
    Abstract: One embodiment of the invention provides a method of operating a computer-telephony system. The method comprises providing computer-telephony support for a plurality of customers. Each customer maintains customer relationship management (CRM) data. The CRM data is uploaded from the plurality of customers into a computer-telephony database. The uploading includes transforming the CRM data from an original format maintained by the respective customer into a standardized format for the computer-telephony database. Telephone calls can then be handled using the transformed CRM data in the computer-telephony database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: NEW VOICE MEDIA, LTD.
    Inventors: Richard Pickering, Ashley Unitt, Dan Phipps
  • Patent number: 9654631
    Abstract: An interactive voice response (IVR) system performs automatic language selection without requiring the caller to provide a manual language selection input. The IVR system receives an incoming call along with appropriate caller identification. The IVR system sends a request for the caller's language preference information either to the caller's device or to a service provider that hosts the caller's account. After receiving the caller's language preference information, the IVR system selects a language for the caller and provides an IVR menu tree using the selected language. The selected language is persisted as the caller's preferred language at either the IVR system or at a service provider for future use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2017
    Assignee: RINGCENTRAL, INC.
    Inventors: Christopher van Rensburg, Vlad Vendrow
  • Patent number: 9648166
    Abstract: Systems and methods for managing customer communications over communication channels are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method for managing customer communications over a plurality of communication channel may include (1) at least one of a plurality of computer processors determining a communication channel for contacting a customer; (2) at least one of the plurality of computer processors determining contact information for the customer to be used with the determined communication channel; (3) presenting the contact information to an agent; (4) receiving, at an electronic device, authorization to initiate contact with the customer using the contact information; and (5) at least one of a plurality of computer processors automatically initiating contact with the customer using the communication channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.
    Inventors: Robert Moore, Brian Lawhorne
  • Patent number: 9558501
    Abstract: A content recommendation system including a step which selects some from a plenty of music compositions in accordance with attribute conditions successively generated, a step which further selects a part or all of the selected music compositions in accordance with the similarity degree between the feature vector of each of the selected music compositions and the user preference vector, and a step which presents the selected music composition to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takayuki Sakamoto, Hiroki Kato, Tsuyoshi Takagi
  • Patent number: 9530139
    Abstract: One-to-many comparisons of callers' words and/or voice prints with known words and/or voice prints to identify any substantial matches between them. When a customer communicates with a particular entity, such as a customer service center, the system makes a recording of the real-time call including both the customer's and agent's voices. The system segments the recording to extract different words, such as words of anger. The system may also segment at least a portion of the customer's voice to create a tone profile, and it formats the segmented words and tone profiles for network transmission to a server. The server compares the customer's words and/or tone profiles with multiple known words and/or tone profiles stored on a database to determine any substantial matches. The identification of any matches may be used for a variety of purposes, such as providing representative feedback or customer follow-up.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: III Holdings 1, LLC
    Inventors: Chin H. Khor, Marcel Leyva, Vernon Marshall
  • Patent number: 9479643
    Abstract: An embodiment of the invention routes a call from a caller to a select agent with a controller, the call being routed based on a caller profile of the caller and a regional profile. A processor can generate a new call record for the call between the caller and the select agent, the new call record including caller attributes and agent attributes. A detector can monitor the call between the caller and the select agent, the call being monitored for communication barriers. The communication barriers can include words and/or phrases that indicate a misunderstanding, and/or repetition of the same phrase. The processor can update the caller's profile and/or the regional profile, the caller's profile and/or regional profile being updated with the new call record.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Tamer E. Abuelsaad, Gregory J. Boss, Brent Hodges, John Elbert Moore
  • Patent number: 9451090
    Abstract: A system and method for performance-based routing of interactions in a contact center. A routing server receives information on an interaction to be routed, and identifies a call reason for the interaction. The identification of the call reason may be based, for example, speech analytics. The routing server identifies one or more agents having experience in handling the topic. The routing server further determines a proficiency level of the identified agents in handling the topic, and selects one of the identified agents having at least a minimum level of proficiency. The routing server transmits a message for routing the interaction to the selected agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: GENESYS TELECOMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES, INC.
    Inventors: Yochai Konig, Herbert Willi Artur Ristock
  • Patent number: 9424561
    Abstract: A system for scheduling resources and rules for routing includes a server connected to a network, a scheduling application executable from the server, and at least one programmable software agent for scheduling routing rules. The scheduling application receives statistics about forecast arrival rates for incoming interactions and current resource availability data and schedules resources and routing rules according to the forecast requirements the software agent propagating the portion of scheduling relative to the routing rules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
    Assignee: GENESYS TELECOMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES, INC.
    Inventor: Alan Wayne McCord
  • Patent number: 9420098
    Abstract: A method for responding to calls in an Interactive Voice Response system (IVR) of an organization, the method comprising receiving in an IVR a call from a customer of the organization, activating a response in the IVR based at least on former interactions with the organization, and wherein the IVR is a computerized system comprising at least one processor, and an apparatus for performing the same.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: NICE-SYSTEMS LTD
    Inventors: Omer Erel, Shay Levy, Dmitri Volsky
  • Patent number: 9413894
    Abstract: Techniques for handling contacts and agents in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for handling contacts and agents in a contact center system including comparing a first measure of performance of a first method for pairing the contacts and the agents with a second measure of performance of a second method for pairing the contacts and the agents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: Afiniti International Holdings, Ltd.
    Inventors: Zia Chishti, Stuart J. Spottiswoode, Christopher W. Jones
  • Patent number: 9392115
    Abstract: A method for routing activities in a contact center to contact center agents includes: identifying an activity to be routed to a contact center agent; identifying one or more parameters for handling the activity; identifying one or more contact center agents; retrieving preference settings for the identified one or more contact center agents; routing the activity to one of the identified contact center agents based on the identified one or more parameters and the retrieved preference settings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: GENESYS TELECOMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES, INC.
    Inventors: Herbert Willi Artur Ristock, Vladimir Mezhibovsky, Nikolay Korolev, Vitaliy Teryoshin
  • Patent number: 9392116
    Abstract: A system and method for managing a customer's experience with a contact center that takes available data about the customer, the agents of the contact center, and the organization represented by the contact center, for identifying opportunities for additional conversations/interactions with the customer and engaging in those additional conversations/interactions at a time and with a resource predicted to maximize outcomes for the organization. A processor is configured to identify express and/or implied intents for an interaction between the customer and the contact center. A business goal related to the express and/or implied intents is also identified for determining a current performance of the contact center and for identifying any performance gaps. Contact center targets are identified based on their performance in handling the express and/or implied intents, and the identified performance gaps. An available one of the identified targets is then selected for routing the interaction to the target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: GENESYS TELECOMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES, INC.
    Inventors: Matthew J. Surridge, Andrew T.C. Verrall, Cameron David Smith, Gregory J. Hedges, Merijn te Booij
  • Patent number: 9344556
    Abstract: A system for automated audio quality testing, comprising a plurality of endpoint emulators, call engines, and optionally audio generator devices and head and torso simulator devices, and a method for using such a system for testing of audio quality over a variety of system architectures for optimization of contact center operations and improvement of customer experience.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2016
    Assignee: CYARA SOLUTIONS PTY LTD
    Inventors: Alok Kulkarni, Geoff Willshire
  • Patent number: 9300802
    Abstract: Techniques for behavioral pairing in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for pairing in a contact center including ordering one or more contacts, ordering one or more agents, comparing a first difference in ordering between a first contact and a first agent in a first pair with a second difference in ordering between a second contact and a second agent in a second pair, and selecting the first pair or the second pair for connection based on the comparing, wherein the first contact and the second contact are different or the first agent and the second agent are different.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: SATMAP International Holdings Limited
    Inventor: Zia Chishti
  • Patent number: 9288326
    Abstract: Techniques for handling contacts and agents in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for handling contacts and agents in a contact center system including determining a first caller grade for a first call, determining a first agent grade for a first agent, and matching the first caller and the first agent based on a comparison of the first caller grade with the first agent grade.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: SATMAP International Holdings Limited
    Inventors: Zia Chishti, Stuart J. Spottiswoode, Christopher W. Jones
  • Patent number: 9258423
    Abstract: Methods and systems may generate contextual leads in an automated communication link establishment and management system. In addition, systems and methods may automatically integrate an automated calling system with a customer relationship management system, contact management system, and/or task management system, so that historical information stored concerning past contact activity and automated calling sessions relating to contacts is automatically updated in the customer relationship management system, contact management system, and/or task management system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2016
    Assignee: ConnectAndSell, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher W. Beall, Mark Godley, James Michael Wilmsen
  • Patent number: 9253329
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention pertain to an apparatus, a method, and a computer program configured to transmit messages between a plurality of devices during a conference call and connect the plurality of devices to a service provider based on a request for at least one service. The transmitted messages can be audio messages or audio and video messages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: West Corporation
    Inventors: Mark J. Pettay, Myron P. Sojka, Hendryanto Rilantono, Mark Steven Jarzynka, Gregory Stuart Cardin, Bernard Roubaud
  • Patent number: 9226123
    Abstract: A communication node processes a call supported over a voice coded channel in a wireless communication network. The node tentatively designates the call as a voice call as soon as the call is initiated. While the call is designated as a voice call, the node limits processing of the call as a text telephony call to passively monitoring for one or more partial or complete text characters in the call. Responsive to detecting one or more partial or complete text characters in the call via this passive monitoring, the node designates the call as a text telephony call. While the call is designated as a text telephony call, the node fully processes the call as a text telephony call by passively detecting one or more complete text characters in the call, and conditioning and de-conditioning signals of the call for reliable transmission and reception over the voice coded channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (publ)
    Inventors: Peter Yue, Hung Ma, Emmanuel Grecki, Pierre Gendron
  • Patent number: 9225833
    Abstract: A call center compliance system is used to ensure that agents adhere to call center policies and applicable regulations when handling calls. A call handler processing a call between an agent and a remote party bridges on a speech analytics component. A keyword set is used by the speech analytics component to analyze the remote party's or the agent's speech. If a keyword is detected, an event notification is provided from the speech analytics component to the call handler. A logic script executing in the call handler defines what actions are to occur in response to receiving the event notification. The call handler can provide information to the agent, record a violation, or await further event notifications. In one embodiment, detection of a first keyword in a first keyword set spoken by a remote party causes the agent's speech to be monitored using a second keyword set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: NOBLE SYSTEMS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Karl H. Koster, Jennifer L. Blackwell, Jason P. Ouimette
  • Patent number: 9225834
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for modeling of agent skills based on or more closely matching categorization structures of the CRM system. According to one embodiment, defining skills of each of a plurality of customer service agents in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can comprise defining a set of product information representing products or services for which support is available through the CRM system. A set of incident information representing incidents handled by the CRM for one or more of the products or services can also be defined and a structure of the incident information can be based on a structure of the product information. A set of skills information for each of the plurality of customer service agents can also be defined. A structure of the skills information can be based on the structure of the product information and the structure of the incident information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: ORACLE INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Victor Chung-Wai Chan, Peter S. Tung, Justin Hamson, Devin Herron, Alice Wack, W. Scott Seebauer
  • Patent number: 9166960
    Abstract: A validation method for validating IP information header in data packets from user equipment connected to a mobile telecommunications network (1) and accessing an IP network (5) through a proxy. In the method trusted location information of the user equipment (2) from a trusted source of the telecommunications network is requested (109). Then, the trusted location information is inserted into the IP information header of a message (112) to be sent to a location based function (17).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (publ)
    Inventors: Amedeo Imbimbo, Salvatore Loreto
  • Patent number: RE46986
    Abstract: Method, system and program product, for operating a call center system, the method comprising: obtaining performance data for agents in a set of agents; obtaining a respective abstracted data stream for multiple calls, each respective data stream having multiple different locations along the abstracted data stream representing multiple different respective fields, the meaning for the field data in the respective different locations for the different respective fields not known by the system; determining respective patterns for the respective data streams; obtaining performance data for the respective patterns; matching using a selected matching algorithm one of the agents from the set of agents to one of the calls based at least in part on the performance data for the respective pattern of the call and on performance data for the respective agents of the set of agents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2018
    Assignee: Afiniti International Holdings, Ltd.
    Inventors: Zia Chishti, Akbar A. Merchant
  • Patent number: RE47201
    Abstract: Method, system and program product, for operating a call center system, the method comprising: obtaining performance data for agents in a set of agents; obtaining a respective abstracted data stream for multiple calls, each respective data stream having multiple different locations along the abstracted data stream representing multiple different respective fields, the meaning for the field data in the respective different locations for the different respective fields not known by the system; determining respective patterns for the respective data streams; obtaining performance data for the respective patterns; matching using a selected matching algorithm one of the agents from the set of agents to one of the calls based at least in part on the performance data for the respective pattern of the call and on performance data for the respective agents of the set of agents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: Afiniti International Holdings, Ltd.
    Inventors: Zia Chishti, Akbar A. Merchant