U.S. patent application number 12/762854 was filed with the patent office on 2011-05-26 for method for determining customer value and potential from social media and other public data sources.
This patent application is currently assigned to AVAYA INC.. Invention is credited to George Erhart, Valentine C. Matula, David Skiba.
Application Number | 20110125550 12/762854 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 44062080 |
Filed Date | 2011-05-26 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110125550 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Erhart; George ; et
al. |
May 26, 2011 |
METHOD FOR DETERMINING CUSTOMER VALUE AND POTENTIAL FROM SOCIAL
MEDIA AND OTHER PUBLIC DATA SOURCES
Abstract
A system can determine the value of a customer that uses social
media. An enterprise can provide an identity of a customer,
identities of customers, or a profile of one or more customers. The
enterprise can also provide one or more criteria in which to base
the customer value calculation. The criteria can include the number
of friends for a social media site, the number posts the user
creates, the number of responses to the user's postings, the tenor
of the user's postings, etc. Resources of information, including
historic and current activity on social media sites, public
resources, and other sources, are examined to provide a score for
each criteria. A customer value score may then be generated from
the criteria scores. The value score may then be used to modify the
interactions of a contact center with the customer.
Inventors: |
Erhart; George; (Loveland,
CO) ; Skiba; David; (Golden, CO) ; Matula;
Valentine C.; (Granville, OH) |
Assignee: |
AVAYA INC.
Basking Ridge
NJ
|
Family ID: |
44062080 |
Appl. No.: |
12/762854 |
Filed: |
April 19, 2010 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
61263013 |
Nov 20, 2009 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/7.29 ;
704/270.1; 705/319; 705/7.33 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G10L 15/005 20130101;
G06Q 30/0201 20130101; H04M 3/42068 20130101; G06Q 30/0269
20130101; G06Q 50/01 20130101; H04M 3/5191 20130101; H04M 7/0024
20130101; G06Q 30/0204 20130101; G06Q 30/0256 20130101; G06Q
30/0264 20130101; H04M 3/5233 20130101; H04W 4/21 20180201; H04M
2203/655 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/7.29 ;
705/319; 704/270.1; 705/7.33 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 10/00 20060101
G06Q010/00; G06Q 99/00 20060101 G06Q099/00; G10L 21/06 20060101
G10L021/06 |
Claims
1. A method for the method comprising: receiving, by a processor,
an identity for a consumer that is a user of a social media
network; retrieving, by the processor, a value score for the
consumer based on the identity, wherein the value score is based on
information associated with the consumer's social media network
usage; and modifying, by the processor, a business interaction with
the consumer based on the value score.
2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the identity uniquely
identifies a user of a social media network.
3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein a contact center
retrieves the value score from a database based on the
identity.
4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein a consumer with a
higher value score receives a higher level of customer service or a
higher level of interaction.
5. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising
determining, by the contact center, the value score is determined
for the consumer.
6. The method as defined in claim 5, wherein determining the value
score comprises: based on the received identity, retrieving by a
dialog system, retrieving a dialog data structure associated with
calculating a value score from a database; accessing, by a dialog
core, at least one social media network; reading, by the dialog
core, at least one parameter, provided in the dialog data
structure, from the social media network; applying, by the dialog
core, an algorithm, provided in the dialog data structure, to the
at least one parameter to obtain at least one criteria score; and
calculating, by the dialog core, the value score from the at least
one criteria score.
7. The method as defined in claim 6, further comprising: applying,
by the dialog core, at least one weight to the at least one
criteria score; and calculating, by the dialog core, the value
score from the at least one weighted criteria score.
8. The method as defined in claim 6, wherein the at least one
parameter includes a number of followers on a social media network,
a number of friends on a social media network, a number of blog
readers, a number of hits on a blog, page, or video blog, a number
of posts made by the user, a number or responses to the any one of
a user's posts, or an emotion of one or more posts.
9. A computer readable medium having stored thereon processor
executable instructions that cause a computing system to execute a
method for determining a value for a user of a social media
network, the instructions comprising: instructions to receive an
identity for the user; based on the received identity, instructions
to retrieve a dialog data structure associated with calculating a
value score; instructions to access at least one social media
network; instructions to evaluate at least one parameter, provided
in the dialog data structure, associated the social media network;
instructions to apply an algorithm, provided in the dialog data
structure, to the at least one parameter to obtain at least one
criteria score; instructions to apply at least one weight, provided
in the dialog data structure, to the at least one criteria score to
obtain at least one weighted criteria score; and instructions to
calculate the value score from the at least one weighted criteria
score.
10. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the
identity is one of a group consisting of a username, a name, an
address, a phone number, an email address, and a profile.
11. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 10, wherein
the profile is a generally describes two or more customers using
social media.
12. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the
at least one parameter includes a number of followers on a social
media network, a number of friends on a social media network, a
number of blog readers, a number of hits on a blog, page, or video
blog, a number of posts made by the user, a number or responses to
the any one of a user's posts, or an emotion of one or more
posts.
13. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the
social media network is at least one of Facebook, Twitter, Spoke,
MySpace, a blog, a video blog, or a chat room.
14. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the
dialog data structure is created by a dialog creator.
15. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein
creating the dialog data structure comprises: instructions to
receive an identity for the user; instructions to receive one or
more social media networks to analyze; instructions to receive a
criteria; instructions to receive a weight for one or more of the
criteria; instructions to receive a scoring algorithm for one or
more of the criteria; and instructions to store the one or more
social media networks to analyze, the criteria, the weight, and the
scoring algorithm in the dialog data structure.
16. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 15, wherein
creating the dialog data structure further comprises: instructions
to receive a parameter for the value analysis; and storing the
parameter in the dialog data structure.
17. A communication system comprising: a social media gateway in
communication with a social media network, the social media gateway
operable to obtain criteria information from the social media
network; a dialog system in communication with the social media
gateway, the dialog system operable to determine a value score for
a customer and based on the obtained criteria information and
operable to provide the value score; and a contact center in
communication with the dialog system, the contact center operable
to receive the value score and operable to modify an interaction
with the customer based on the value score.
18. The communication system as defined in claim 17, wherein the
dialog system comprises: a dialog core in communication with the
social media gateway, the dialog core operable to determine the
value score from a dialog data structure; a heuristic rules and
dialogs database in communication with the dialog core, the
heuristic rules and dialogs database operable to store the dialog
data structure; a dialog creator in communication with the
heuristic rules and dialogs database, the dialog creator operable
to create the dialog data structure and operable to store the
dialog data structure into the heuristic rules and dialogs
database; a message history database in communication with the
dialog core, the message history database operable to store an
interaction history associated with the customer to which the value
score applies; and an agent interface in communication with the
dialog core and an agent associate with the contact center, the
agent interface operable to send the value score to an agent and
operable to receive the response from the agent, wherein the agent
modifies the response based on the value score.
19. The communication system as defined in claim 19, wherein the
dialog core comprises: a dialog core operable to analyze the
criteria information to determine the value score; and a text
processing component operable to evaluate an emotion of a message
associated with customer and provide the emotion to the dialog core
as criteria information.
20. The communication system as defined in claim 19, wherein the
value score includes a value profile comprising: one or more
criteria segments operable to store the criteria; for each criteria
segment, a weight segment operable to store a weight reflecting an
importance of the criteria; for each criteria segment, a score
segment operable to store a score for the criteria; for each
criteria segment, a weighted score segment operable to store a
weighted score for the criteria generated from multiplying the
score by the weight; and a total value score segment operable to
store the value score for the customer created by summing the
weighted scores for all of the criteria segments.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE
[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional
Application Ser. No. 61/263,013, filed Nov. 20, 2009, entitled "GEO
POD SYSTEM," which is incorporated herein by reference in its
entirety.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Contact centers generally exchange information with
consumers through directed contacts. Directed contacts consist of
emails, phone calls, or other forms of communication that are
directed to the contact center or the consumer. However, many
people today, exchange information or interact through non-direct
methods. Non-direct communications require users to post
communications to third party sites or forums, but not to direct
those communications to a specific person or organization.
Non-direct communication methods include social media, which may
include websites, networks, blogs, micro-blogs, RSS feeds, social
media websites (such as, Linked-In, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace,
etc.), and other types of social media. Generally, it is not
possible for contact centers to communicate with consumers through
non-direct methods. As such, the contact centers may be unable to
interact with consumers that use social media to offer certain
types of customer service.
[0003] Further, contact centers have limited amounts of resources.
As such, to be efficient, and to drive down costs, contact centers
like to use resources only on customers that have a likely chance
of buying products or responding to an interaction. As such,
contact centers would like to project where they may use their
resources best. Unfortunately, there are no current ways of
deducing whether marketing efforts are directed to a high value
customer when that customer is using social media.
SUMMARY
[0004] It is with respect to the above issues and other problems
that the embodiments presented herein were contemplated.
Embodiments presented herein provide systems and methods for
determining the value of a customer that uses social media to
communicate. An enterprise that desires to understand the value of
a customer can provide an identity or identities of customers or
provide a profile of one or more customers to a contact center 102.
Further, the enterprise can provide one or more criteria in which
the enterprise wants to base the customer value. The criteria can
include such things as the number of friends or followers for that
user on a social media site, the number of posts the user creates
in a pre-determined period of time (e.g. hour, day, week, etc.),
the number of responses to the user's postings, the tenor of the
user's postings, and other data. The different parameters can be
scored to provide a score for each parameter, then summed to create
a customer value.
[0005] In further embodiments, the parameters associated with the
social media site can also be combined with other data from public
or other sources. For example, a determination of the wealth or
income of the user can be made, for example, in the neighborhood
from which the user lives, or from other data. The additional data
and social media data can be combined to create a more
comprehensive customer value.
[0006] A Social Media Gateway can be used to gather information on
specific social network users. In addition, data may be collected
about the user that may exist on public blogs, wikis, etc. Finally,
data sources with public information, e.g., census, zillow.com,
etc., may be used to gather more user information.
[0007] The system can create a value of the source or destination
user. The value profile is generated from information on the above
mentioned sites. A key aspect of the value profile is the
derivative information, or how influential the user might be.
Information about number of followers (twitter), number of friends
(Facebook), blog readers, etc. help to determine how far the user's
influence may spread, thus increasing the customer's value. Adding
to the influence attribute can be an activity factor. If a user
posts a lot and has a lot of replies in return, then they may be a
more valuable customer that would spread information through that
influence. Finally, text analysis could be used to determine the
general emotion of the posts and responses. A user who has upbeat
and happy posts might be more likely to spread good words about an
enterprise.
[0008] To obtain this information, the system can utilize both
stored data and realtime search data. Stored data may include
information that is discovered, including: social network accounts,
blog sites, demographic data, etc. The discovered can be
information that does not change very often. A complete picture may
be generated over time as different modes of communication are
used. The realtime data can be queried as needed by the contact
center. Since influence and value may change over time, the
stored/realtime information may be searched whenever a contact
center application requires it. Queries done at the time of an
inbound/outbound contact can enable the system to pick up on recent
posts, accurate follower counts, and any other changes in critical
data.
[0009] The system utilizes realtime and stored data on each
contact. Both inbound and outbound contacts may make use of this
data. When a user interaction is identified as being of interested
by the contact center (see previous base level patent application),
the system performs the data lookup and search. The result of
compiling the information is a profile of the potential value and
influence of this particular user. With this data, the system can
make decisions about routing to a suitable agent, options for
self-service, or any other treatment choices made by the contact
center.
[0010] Another key implementation of this method is to use the
value profile with existing voice calls and other channels already
in use today. By maintaining data reaching back into the social
media or public data world, the real time influence/intent/value
can be calculated and used for simple voice calls too.
[0011] Following are a few example use cases. A Twitter post is
ingested by the contact center from a user asking if anyone has
flown CJet airlines and if they liked them. The method gathers
recent posts by this user from Social Network sites. The analysis
is run to see if this is a good natured or intent customer. Next a
value number would be computed. If this customer had several posts
discussing European Business Class flights, then the potential
score would be high. Coupled with the intent score this may be a
customer that CJet should reach out to offer special deals.
[0012] A customer sends an email question requesting help. The
system analyzes their social media posts and determines this is a
happy customer that is well connected. The email is then quickly
routed to an agent who composes a special email response to try and
answer the problem but also offering a link to an online (without a
wait) chat, if that is desired by the customer.
[0013] A well connected blogger Tweets a question about CJet
airlines. The monitoring process ingests the message and analyzes
the message and historical posts. The process sees the number of
posts, the emotion of the posts, and the number of followers. The
process determines that this is an "influential" customer and sends
and @ reply message to the blogger about special CJet airline deals
for them.
[0014] The phrases "at least one", "one or more", and "and/or" are
open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in
operation. For example, each of the expressions "at least one of A,
B and C", "at least one of A, B, or C", "one or more of A, B, and
C", "one or more of A, B, or C" and "A, B, and/or C" means A alone,
B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C
together, or A, B and C together.
[0015] The term "a" or "an" entity refers to one or more of that
entity. As such, the terms "a" (or "an"), "one or more" and "at
least one" can be used interchangeably herein. It is also to be
noted that the terms "comprising", "including", and "having" can be
used interchangeably.
[0016] The term "automatic" and variations thereof, as used herein,
refers to any process or operation done without material human
input when the process or operation is performed. However, a
process or operation can be automatic, even though performance of
the process or operation uses material or immaterial human input,
if the input is received before performance of the process or
operation. Human input is deemed to be material if such input
influences how the process or operation will be performed. Human
input that consents to the performance of the process or operation
is not deemed to be "material".
[0017] The term "computer-readable medium" as used herein refers to
any tangible storage that participates in providing instructions to
a processor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms,
including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media,
and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example,
NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks. Volatile media includes
dynamic memory, such as main memory. Common forms of
computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a
flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic
medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium,
punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of
holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid state
medium like a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or
any other medium from which a computer can read. When the
computer-readable media is configured as a database, it is to be
understood that the database may be any type of database, such as
relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or the like.
Accordingly, the invention is considered to include a tangible
storage medium and prior art-recognized equivalents and successor
media, in which the software implementations of the present
invention are stored.
[0018] The terms "determine", "calculate", and "compute," and
variations thereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and
include any type of methodology, process, mathematical operation,
or technique.
[0019] The term "module" as used herein refers to any known or
later developed hardware, software, firmware, artificial
intelligence, fuzzy logic, or combination of hardware and software
that is capable of performing the functionality associated with
that element. Also, while the invention is described in terms of
exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciated that individual
aspects of the invention can be separately claimed.
[0020] The term "in communication with" as used herein refers to
any coupling, connection, or interaction using electrical signals
to exchange information or data, using any system, hardware,
software, protocol, or format.
[0021] A user context, an extended user context, and/or a user
social context as used herein means information about a user of a
social media network that can be used to determine a "value" of
that user.
[0022] The term "social media network" or "social media" is a
service provider that builds online communities of people, who
share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in
exploring the interests and activities of others. Generally, social
media are web-based and provide a variety of ways for users to
interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0023] The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the
appended figures:
[0024] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a
communication system operable to interact with persons using a
social media network;
[0025] FIG. 2A is a block diagram of an embodiment of a social
media gateway;
[0026] FIG. 2B is a block diagram of an embodiment of a dialog
system;
[0027] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a dialog data
structure;
[0028] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a customer
value data structure;
[0029] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of a process for
creating a customer value data structure for a user of social
media;
[0030] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an embodiment a process for
generating a customer value for a user of a social media;
[0031] FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an embodiment a process for
modifying an interaction with a user of social media based on the
customer value associated with the user;
[0032] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a computing
environment; and
[0033] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a computer
system.
[0034] In the appended figures, similar components and/or features
may have the same reference label. Further, various components of
the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label
by a letter that distinguishes among the similar components. If
only the first reference label is used in the specification, the
description is applicable to any one of the similar components
having the same first reference label irrespective of the second
reference label.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0035] The ensuing description provides embodiments only, and is
not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of
the claims. Rather, the ensuing description will provide those
skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing
the embodiments. Various changes may be made in the function and
arrangement of elements of the embodiment without departing from
the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
[0036] A communication system 100, for interacting with persons
using social media is shown in FIG. 1. The communication system 100
can include a contact center 102, a network 108, and one or more
types of social media networks or systems, such as social media
network 1 112, social media network 2 114, and/or social media
network 3 116. Social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116 can be
any social media including, but not limited to, networks, websites,
or computer enabled systems. For example, a social media network
may be MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Spoke, or other
similar computer enabled systems or websites. The communication
system 100 can communicate with more or fewer social media networks
112, 114, and/or 116 than those shown FIG. 1, as represented by
ellipses 118.
[0037] The network 108 can be any network or system operable to
allow communication between the contact center 102 and the one or
more social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116. The network 108
can represent any communication system, whether wired or wireless,
using any protocol and/or format. The network 108 provides
communication capability for the contact center 102 to communicate
with websites or systems corresponding to the one or more social
media networks 112, 114, and/or 116. However, the network 108 can
represent two or more networks, where each network is a different
communication system using different communication protocols and/or
formats and/or different hardware and software. For example,
network 108 can be a wide area network, local area network, the
Internet, a cellular telephone network, or some other type of
communication system. The network 108 may be as described in
conjunction with FIGS. 8 and 9.
[0038] A contact center 102 can be a system that can communicate
with one or more persons that use social media networking sites
112, 114, and/or 116. The contact center 102 can be hardware,
software, or a combination of hardware and software. The contact
center 102 can be executed by one or more servers or computer
systems, as described in conjunction with FIGS. 8 and 9. The
contact center 102 can include all systems, whether hardware or
software, that allow the contact center 102 to receive, service,
and respond to directed and non-directed contacts. For example the
contact center 102 can include the telephone or email system, an
interface to human agents, systems to allow human agents to service
and respond to received contacts, and one or more systems operable
to analyze and improve the function of agent interaction.
[0039] The contact center 102 may include a dialog system 104 and a
social media gateway 106. While the dialog system 104 and the
social media gateway 106 are shown as being a part of the contact
system 102, in other embodiments, the dialog system 104 and/or the
social media gateway 106 are separate systems or functions executed
separately from the contact center 102 and/or executed by a third
party. The dialog system 104 may process and receive messages. The
social media gateway 106 can receive and translate messages from
the one or more social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116. An
embodiment of the dialog system 104 is described in conjunction
with FIG. 2B. An embodiment of the social media gateway 106 is
described in conjunction with FIG. 2A.
[0040] The contact center 102 may also communicate with one or more
communication devices 110. The communication devices 110 can
represent a customer's or user's cell phone, email system, personal
digital assistant, laptop computer, or other device that allows the
contact center 102 to interact with the customer. The contact
center 102 can modify a non-direct contact, from a social media
network 112, 114, and/or 116, into a directed contact by sending a
response message directly to a customer's communication device
110.
[0041] An embodiment of the social media gateway 106 is shown in
FIG. 2A. The social media gateway 106 can include one or more
components which may include hardware, software, or combination of
hardware and software. The social media gateway 106 can be executed
by a computer system, such as those described in conjunction with
FIGS. 7 and 8. However, in other embodiments, the components
described in conjunction with FIG. 2A are logic circuits or other
specially-designed hardware that are embodied in a field
programmable gate array (FPGA) application specific integrated
circuit (ASIC), or other hardware.
[0042] Herein, the social media gateway 106 can include one or more
content filters 202a, 202b, and/or 202c. A content filter 202 can
receive all of the messages for the contact center 102 from a
social media network 112, 114, and/or 116 and eliminate or delete
those messages that do not require a response. For example, a
message between two friends on a Facebook page, if not pertaining
to a product or a service of the company operating the contact
center 102, may not need a response. As such, the content filter
202 can filter out or delete the non-suitable message from the
messages that are received by the social media network application
programming interface (API) 1 204a, social media network API 2
204b, and/or social media network API 3 204c. With the content
filter 202, the social media network API 204 only needs to
translate those messages that should be received by the dialog
system 104. Translation typically requires the conversion of the
message into a different format.
[0043] The content filter 202 is provided with one or more
heuristics for filter rules from a filter database (not shown).
These filter rules can be created by the external customer or
internal user (e.g. agent or administrator) of the communication
system 100. Thus, the user or customer of the communication system
100 can customize the filtering of messages from social media
networks 112, 114, and/or 116. Further, different rules may be
applied to different social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116, as
some social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116 may have different
types of messages or postings than other types of social media
networks 112, 114, and/or 116. While the content filter 202 is
shown as part of the social media gateway 106, it is to be
appreciated that the content filter 202 may be a part of the social
media network API 204. The content filter 202 may correspond to
query terms used by the social media network API 204. The content
filter 202 or query terms are an argument to the social media
network API 204 call.
[0044] The social media network API 204 can be an application that
the social media network 112, 114, and/or 116 provides to access
the social media network 112, 114, and/or 116. Thus, the social
media network API 204 is called and connects the social media
gateway 106 to the social media network 112, 114, and/or 116. Any
suitable filter criteria may be employed for social media API 204.
Examples of filter criteria include positive content of positive
the source of posting, an address field, destination or recipient
address fields, a time stamp field, a subject matter field, and a
message body field. For example, a type of searchable content can
be name of the business enterprise running or employing the contact
center 102 and/or the products or services of the enterprise.
[0045] The social media gateway 106 can include one or more social
media network APIs 204. As shown in FIG. 2A, the social media
gateway 106 may include a social media network API 204 for each
social media network 112, 114, and/or 116. As such, the social
media gateway 106 can interact with each social media network 112,
114, and/or 116 in the particular (often unique) format or protocol
used by the social media network 112, 114, and/or 116. Further,
when new social media networks are created, the social media
gateway 106 can be easily expanded to interact with those social
media networks by adding another social media network API 204.
Where social media networks 112 are more standardized, or use
substantially similar formats or protocols, a single social media
network API 204 can be shared by multiple social media networks
112-116.
[0046] The social media network API 204 can receive messages from
and send messages to the social media network 112, 114, and/or 116.
The social media network API 204 can translate a message received
from a social media network 112, 114, and/or 116 and send the
translated message to a message filter 206. The social media
network API 204 can translate the received message into a standard
formatted file. For example, the translated message may be
represented by an extensible mark-up language (XML) file or other
file having a general format. As such, each specific and particular
social media network message can be translated into a standard
format for use by the dialog system 104. Further, the social media
network API 204 can receive a generally or standard format response
message, from the dialog system 104, and translate that response
into a particularly or specifically formatted response message that
can be posted to the corresponding social media network 112, 114,
and/or 116.
[0047] Messages to the contact center 102 are addressed to the
contact center 102. For example, a customer may become a "friend"
of the contact center 102 on a social media network 114, such as
Facebook. The customer may then address a message to the contact
center 102 on Facebook. This non-direct contact is a message that
is not sent directly to the contact center 102 but to the contact
center's Facebook page. In other embodiments, the contact center
102 receives messages not addressed to the contact center 102. For
example, the contact center 102 can receive tweets from Twitter
that are "broadcast" rather than addressed to the contact center
102. The contact center 102 may also search for messages or content
on the social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116. Exemplary search
criteria include customer name, customer profession, customer home
address, customer business address, customer employer name,
customer educational or professional background, customer hobby,
personal or business interests, customer family profile, and the
like. Thus, the social media gateway 106 of the contact center 102
can query, gather, or connect to a live feed of data from a social
media network 112, 114, and/or 116 and then apply a filter to the
indirect information.
[0048] Further, the social media network API 204 can also retrieve
user context or other extended information from the social media
networks 112, 114, and/or 116. User context or other extended
information can include historical posts, historical tweets, or
other historical communications that a user may have received or
sent. Further, user context or other extended information can
include, but is not limited to, account information for a user, the
user's followers or friends, information on where historical
messages were posted (e.g., geo-location, time/date, what type of
device, etc.), trending analysis that the social media network 112,
114, and/or 116 might provide the user, etc. Thus, the social media
network API 204 can retrieve information that is associated with a
user and a social media network 112, 114, and/or 116 but not
necessarily a part of a current message. The social media network
API 204 is a gatherer of data, which can be used to determine a
value for the user of the social media networks 112, 114, and/or
116.
[0049] The translated messages from the social media network API
204 can be received by a message filter 206. A message filter 206
can perform some or all of the functions of the content filter 202
and eliminate messages before being sent to the dialog system 104.
However, in other embodiments, the message filter 206 eliminates
information from within the messages before the redacted messages
are sent to the dialog system 104. For example, a message from a
social media network 112 may have three or four interactions
between two parties not associated with the contact center 102.
Only one of the several postings may be pertinent to the dialog
system 104. As such, the message filter 206 can eliminate or delete
at least a portion of the other messages for the dialog system 104.
Thus, the dialog system 104 receives a message where some of the
content of the message has been deleted. The message filter 206 can
retrieve heuristics or filter rules from a filter database (not
shown), similar to the content filter 202. A substantial difference
between the content and message filters 202 and 206 is that the
content filter 202 is specific to a particular message format
associated with a corresponding social media network 112, 114,
and/or 116, while the message filter 206 is applied to a
standardized or universal format and is therefore common to
multiple social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116. One skilled in
the art will understand the type of rules that may be used to
filter information from messages such that only pertinent
questions, facts, requests, or information is sent to the dialog
system 104.
[0050] A message aggregator 208 may also be included with the
social media gateway 106. A message aggregator 208 can, in contrast
to the message filter 206, combine two or more messages into a
packet or grouping that is sent to the dialog system 104.
Therefore, the message aggregator 208 can interrelate or combine
messages based on information within the messages. For example, two
messages may be combined based on any of the message fields
referenced above, such as the person that posted the message, the
subject, the request or question asked, the person the message was
sent to, or other information that may be pertinent to the dialog
system 104. Thus, the dialog system 104 may be able to respond
concurrently to two or more messages based on a grouping provided
by the message aggregator 208. Regardless of whether the messages
are aggregated, each message or grouping of messages can be sent
from the social media gateway 106 to the dialog system 104.
[0051] The social media gateway 106 can also send responses back to
the social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116. A response from an
agent in the contact center 102 can be sent to the social media
gateway 106. The response may be in a general format and
translated. The translated response may then be posted to the
appropriate social media network 112, 114, and/or 116 by the social
media gateway 106. In other embodiments, the agent may post the
response directly to the social media network 112, 114, and/or 116
without sending the response to the social media gateway 106.
[0052] An embodiment of the dialog system 104 is shown in FIG. 2B.
The dialog system 104 can include one or more components which may
be hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software.
The dialog system 104 can be executed by a computer system such as
those described in conjunction with FIGS. 8 and 9. However, in
other embodiments, the components described in conjunction with
FIG. 2B, are logic circuits or other specially-designed hardware
that are embodied in a FPGA or ASIC. The components contained
within the dialog system 104 can include a dialog core 210 that is
communication with a message history database 222, an agent
interface 224, and a heuristic rules and dialogs database 218.
Further, the heuristic rules and dialogs database 218 can be in
communication with a dialog creator 220.
[0053] The dialog core 210 can include one or more sub-components.
For example, the dialog core 210 can include a trend analysis
component 212, a text processing component 214, and an analysis
tools component 216. These components, similar to the components
for the dialog system 104, can be hardware, software, or
combination of hardware and software. The dialog core 210 may step
through the states of a dialog data structure. A dialog data
structure can include a set of inputs and associated actions that
can be taken which allow for the automatic and structured response
to social media requests or messages. For example, if a user asks
for a manual, the input of the text word "manual" can cause the
dialog system 104 in accordance with a dialog data structure, to
send information about one or more manuals. In turn, the receiver
of the response may respond, in kind, with the selection of a
certain user manual. In which case, the dialog data structure may
then instruct the dialog core to send the user to a website where
the user can retrieve an electronic version of the manual. As such,
the dialog data structure provides a script a dialog that allows
the dialog core 210 to automate the interaction between the contact
center 102 and a person. This automation eliminates the need for
agent involvement, in some situations, and makes the contact center
102 more efficient and more effective. Further, the automation
expands the contact center's ability to answer numerous messages
from the plethora of postings on the numerous social media networks
112, 114, and/or 116.
[0054] The dialog creator 220 will create a dialog data structure
300 that includes instructions for various states for each social
media message that comes into the contact center 102. The first
instruction might be to send the social media message to the trend
analysis component 212, then to the text processing component 214,
and then execute a query of a Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) database 232 (to determine if this user has an existing
order). A CRM database 232 can be a database as described in
conjunction with FIGS. 8 & 9 and can store information about
customers or other data related to customer relations. Finally the
dialog data structure 220 might decide that the social media
message should be sent to a human agent 228 for processing. The
instructions or node transitions are executed in the dialog core
210 and make use of many different components that the dialog
creator 220 combines in any way the user desires to handle the
social media messages. The dialog core 210 can make use of the
trend analysis component 212, text processing component 214, or
other systems. The dialog core 210 may also interface with a CRM
system and/or database 232, external databases, social media user
information (e.g., followers, friends, post history, etc. from the
social media site), or other systems.
[0055] The trend analysis component 212 is operable to analyze
trends that occur between two or more messages received by the
social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116. The two messages can be
from different social media networks, so that the trend analysis
component 212 can identify trends across several different social
media networks 112, 114, and/or 116. Trends can include multiple
occurrences of the same word or phrase, multiple occurrences of a
customer identity, product name or service, or multiple occurrences
of some other information that might indicate a trend. Further, the
trend analysis component 212 may be able to identify escalations in
the occurrences of particular text, identities, or other
information, or may identify multiple occurrences over a period of
time. The trend analysis component 212 may also be able to apply
one or more different algorithms to occurrences of information
within the social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116. For example,
the trend analysis component 212 can match the number of
occurrences of a phrase or word over a period of time and apply
analysis to determine if the occurrences are increasing or
decreasing over the period of time.
[0056] The text processing component 214 is operable to analyze
text of one or more messages from social media networks 112, 114,
or 116. Some possible methods for text processing can include
Regular Expression, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), text part of
speech tagging, text clustering, N-Gram document analysis, etc. In
addition, for possibly longer documents, (such as, blogs or
emails), the text processing component 214 may execute one or more
methods of document summarization. The summarization may occur if
the social media message will be sent to an agent 228 of the
contact center 102; the summarization can reduce the amount of
information that the agent 228 may manage. The text processing
rules or models may be stored in and/or retrieved from a text
processing rules database 230. The text processing rules database
230 can be a database as described in conjunction with FIGS. 7 and
8 that stores rules or models used by the text processing component
214.
[0057] The text processing component 214 can identify one or more
occurrences of a particular text, such as using one or more of the
message fields referenced above, in order to associate that social
media message with one or more dialogs data structures in the
heuristic rules and dialog database 218. For example, the text
processing component 214 can look for the word "manual," in the
social media message. If the word "manual" is found, the text
processing component 214 may retrieve a dialog data structure from
the heuristic rules and dialogs database 218 and, as the dialog
data structure instructs, communicate with the customer about one
or more owner's manuals, repair manuals, or other types of manuals.
In another example, if the social media message includes the words,
"buy", "sell", "price, "discount" or other types of words that may
indicate the user or customer wishes to buy a product, the text
processing component 214 can retrieve one or more dialog data
structures from the heuristic rules and dialogs database 218 that
can provide instruction to assist the customer in purchasing
products or services from the enterprise.
[0058] The analysis tools component 216 is operable to analyze
response messages received back from an agent interface 224. In
analyzing the agent's responses, the analysis tools component 216
can determine if the dialog data structures 300 (FIG. 3) originally
retrieved by the text processing component 214 met the needs of the
customer. In the analysis, the agent 228 may enter one or more
items of information, for the analysis tools component 216, about
the response and about how the response matched with the dialog
data structures 300. The analysis tools component 216 can review
the response and determine if it was similar to the response
provided by the dialog data structure 300 (FIG. 3). Thus, the
analysis tools component 216 can provide information to the dialog
core 210 or the dialog creator 220 to improve the dialog data
structures 300 (FIG. 3) that are included in the heuristic rules
and dialogs database 218.
[0059] The message history database 222 can be any database or data
storage system as described in conjunction with FIGS. 8 and 9.
Thus, the message history database 222 can store data in data
fields, objects, or other data structures to allow other systems to
retrieve that information at a later time. The message history
database 222 can store previous messages or information about
previous messages. Thus, for example, if the trend analysis
component 212 is analyzing several messages over a period of time,
the trend analysis component 212 can retrieve information about
previous messages associated with the current analysis from the
message history database 222. As such, the trend analysis component
212 can better detect trends occurring at the social media networks
112, 114, and/or 116. The data stored by the message history
database 222 can include the entire message or only a portion of
the message, and in some circumstances, include metadata about the
message(s).
[0060] The heuristic rules and dialogs database 218 can be any type
of database or data storage system as described in conjunction with
FIGS. 8 and 9. The heuristic rules and dialogs database 218 can
store information in data fields, data objects, and/or any other
data structures. An example of information stored within the
heuristic rules and dialogs database 218 is described in
conjunction with FIG. 3. The heuristic rules and dialogs database
218 stores rules and dialogs data structures that automate
responses to received social media messages. The dialogs data
structures control the interaction between the dialog core 210 and
the social media network 112, 114, and/or 116. The dialogs or
heuristic rules can be created by a dialog creator 220. Thus, the
dialog creator 220 can interface with user input 226 to receive
information about dialogs. The user input 226 is then used to form
the states and responses for a dialog data structure.
[0061] An agent interface 224 is a communication system operable to
send action items to contact center agents 228, in the contact
center 102. An agent can be a person or other system that is
operable to respond to certain questions or requests from a
customer. For example, the agent 228 can be a person that has
specialized expertise in a topic area, such as technical support.
The agent interface 224 can format the social message into an
action item and forward that message to one or more agents 228. The
agent interface 224 can also receive response(s) back from the
agents 228. The information provided by the agent 228 may be used
by the dialog core 210 to complete a response to the social media
message. For example, the information may classify the social media
message (e.g., sales, service, etc.). In other embodiments, the
response is a complete response to the social media message that
can be posted to the social media network 112, 114, and/or 116.
[0062] An embodiment of a dialog data structure 300 is shown in
FIG. 3. The dialog data structure 300 can be stored in several
different forms of databases, such as relational databases, flat
files, object-oriented databases, etc. Thus, while the term "data
field" or "segment" is used herein, the data may be stored in an
object, an attribute of an object, or some other form of data
structure. Further, the dialog data structure 300 can be stored,
retrieved, sent, or received during the processing of dialogs by
the dialog core 210 or the dialog creator 220. The dialog data
structure 300 stores one or more items of information in one or
more segments. The numeric identifiers (e.g. 302, 304, etc.) shown
in FIG. 3 can identify, the one or more segments.
[0063] The dialog data structure 300 can include one or more input
segments, such as, input segment 1 302 and input segment 2 304, a
rules segment 306, and/or a dialog script segment 308. Input
segments 302 and 304 each include one or more inputs that may be
required to associate a social media message with the dialog data
structure 300. The inputs segments 302 and 304 may include a
customer identity, a respective customer type, a text word, a
phrase, or other information that indicates that the dialog data
structure 300 is associated with or pertaining to the social media
messages.
[0064] The input segments 302 and 304 may also include certain
trends that the trend analysis component 212 can identify. As such,
if a trend is identified and associated with the inputs 302 and/or
304, the dialog data structure 300 can be retrieved and used by the
dialog core 210. While there are only two input segments 302 and
304 shown in FIG. 3, there may be more or fewer input segments
associated with the dialog data structure 300, as indicated by
ellipses 310.
[0065] The rules segment 306 can include one or more heuristic
rules that either help with the association of the respective
dialog data structure 300 with the social media message or control
the interaction between the dialog core 210 and the social media
customer. For example, the rule 306 can state that the dialog data
structure 300 applies only if the social media message includes
input segment 1 302 but not input segment 2 304. One skilled in the
art will be able to identify other types of rules that may govern
the association of the dialog data structure 300 with the social
media message. In other embodiments, the rules segment 306 states
that if the social media message includes inputs 302 and/or 304,
then the dialog core 210 should respond with a certain type of
action.
[0066] Generally, a dialog script segment 308 includes a script of
actions or responses that direct one or more other components, such
as the dialog core 210 (FIG. 2B), to conduct actions or send the
responses. The dialog script segment 308 can include the one or
more states and corresponding responses or actions required by the
dialog core 210. If the dialog script segment 308 applies (that is,
if the social media message is requesting a certain type of
information), the dialog script segment 308 may include the one or
more responses that the dialog core 210 should communicate to
respond to that social media message. The dialog script segment 308
can also include a response and a pointer to another dialog script
segment 308 or another dialog data structure 300. Further, the
dialog script segment 308 may have one or more actions that may be
taken by another component after a secondary response is received
by a customer. Thus, the dialog script segment 308 can direct or
instruct an interaction to continue with a social media user over a
period of time and over several interactions between the user and
the contact center 102.
[0067] It should be noted that the dialog script segment 308 can
reference one or more other dialog data structures 300. Thus, the
dialog script segment 308 can direct the dialog core 210 to
reference at least one other dialog data structure 300 to further
act on the social media message. Further, the social media message
can be subject of two or more dialog script segments 308, and
direct the dialog core 210 to complete two dialog script segments
308 on the social media message. Also, dialog script segments 308
may not be associated with a response but direct the dialog core
210 to complete other actions, such as populating databases or
gathering information.
[0068] An embodiment 400 of a data structure to store or create a
customer value is shown in FIG. 4. This customer value profile 400
can include one or more data segments that contain one or more
criteria. For example, data segments 402 through 404 and 406 can
each include a type of criteria, a score, a weight, or other
information. For example, for one criteria 402, there is criteria 1
408, criteria 1 408 can be the criteria that is being evaluated. A
criteria can be a parameter, metadata, or other information from a
social media network or from another source, such as a public data
source. For example, this criteria can include the number of
followers or friends the user has on a social media network 112, a
number of posts a user makes during a pre-determined period of time
(e.g. an hour, a week, a month), a number of responses the user
receives to a post, a number of responses the user posts to other
postings, a score for the tenor of a posting. A tenor can be a mood
or some other valuation of the text within a posting or
response.
[0069] From public data sources, it may be possible to determine
the address of the user which may then be used to determine an
approximate wealth or income for the user, the phone number, the
name, or some other data that may be used to improve or better
clarify the customer value. Data segment 402 can also include a
weight 410. A weight segment 410 can include a weight 410 that can
be a measure of the importance of the criteria in determining the
customer value score. A weight 410 can be a multiplier, whether the
multiplier is a decimal or an integer, which changes the value of
the criteria score. The weight may be provided in comparison to
other weights. Thus, one criteria may be more important than
another, which is reflected in the weight value. For example, the
number of friends or followers may be more important than the
number of responses the user makes to other postings. As such, the
weight for the number of friends or followers can be greater than
the weight for the number of responses.
[0070] The data segment 402 can also include a score segment 412.
The score segment 412 can include a score that can include the
algorithm used to score the criteria. For example, a criteria may
include the number of followers the user has and that number of
followers may be stored in the criteria segment 408. However, to
score that, the score may include an algorithm which determines the
number of standard deviations from a mean number of followers for
that social media network. For example, if the mean user has 100
friends on Facebook, and the current user has 1000 friends, they
may be two standard deviations from the mean. As such, the score
may be determined by a number of standard deviations. For example,
if a user is two standard deviations from the mean, the number of 2
standard deviations from the mean may result in a score of 10. The
actual score may also be stored in the score segment 412. A weighed
score segment 414 may store the result of the computation of the
weight and the score. As such, the weighted score includes the
total score for that criteria. The total value score segment 418
can store the sum of all weighted scores added. The total value
score 418 represents the value of this customer or the customer
profile.
[0071] An embodiment of a method 500 to create a customer value
data structure is shown in FIG. 5. Generally, the method 500 begins
with a start operation 502 and terminates with an end operation
518. While a general order for the steps of the method 500 are
shown in FIG. 5, the method 500 can include more or fewer steps or
arrange the order of the steps differently than those shown in FIG.
5. The method 500 can be executed as a set of computer-executable
instructions executed by a computer system and encoded or stored on
a computer readable medium. Hereinafter, the method 500 shall be
explained with reference to the systems, components, modules,
software, data structures, etc. described in conjunction with FIGS.
1-4.
[0072] A contact center 102 can receive an identity, in step 504.
An identity can be a user name, a name, an address, a cell phone
number, an email address, or some other identifying information for
a person. In other embodiments, the identity can include a profile
of two or more people. For example, the profile can be of any
person that may desire a certain product or service. The profile
may also be for any customer using social media. The dialog creator
220 can receive the profile or the identity.
[0073] Optionally, the dialog creator 220 may also receive the one
or more social media networks, 112, 114, and/or 116 that need to be
analyzed for users to determine customer value. The networks to be
analyzed can be received as user input 228 at the dialog creator
220. The different social networks to analyze can be social network
1 112, 2 114, and/or 3 116. For example, the social networks may be
Facebook, Twitter, Spoke, etc.
[0074] The dialog creator 220 can also receive one or more
criteria, in step 508. The criteria can apply to the criteria
segment 408 and the customer profile 400. In other embodiments,
there may be a standard set of criteria which the user inputs or
selects. The standard criteria can determine a general customer
value without specifics received from the user.
[0075] The dialog creator 220 may also receive one or more
weightings for the criteria, in step 510. The weights or weightings
can be a multiplier for the criteria. For example, the weightings
may be a decimal number or an integer that is multiplied to the
criteria to give a weighted score. In other embodiments, it may be
a portion of a 100%, such as 25%. The percentage can be a
reflection of the value of the criteria amongst all other criteria,
such that adding all the percentage weights of all the criteria
equals 100%.
[0076] The dialog creator 220 can receive, as a user input 228, one
or more scoring algorithms, in step 512. The scoring algorithms can
be a mathematical function for how the criteria are calculated. For
example, criteria may be calculated by the distance above or below,
mean value. For example, a criteria can be the number of standard
deviations away from a mean. For example, if a user has 200 friends
or followers on Facebook and the mean is 100, that user may be one
standard deviation above the mean value. The one standard deviation
value can be a score or may be scored on another scale. In other
embodiments, the algorithms can differently calculate scores for
different criteria using different mathematical functions.
[0077] The dialog creator 220 can then receive value campaign
parameters, in step 514. A campaign value parameter can be a
parameter that defines how values are going to be determined for
one or more people. For example the value campaign can instruct
which social networks 112, 114, 116 to investigate, can identify
from dates to use for evaluating, may have other types of
parameters that define how a value determination is made for one or
more people.
[0078] The criteria used to analyze identities and profiles,
weights, algorithms, and value campaign parameters may be stored in
a dialog data structure 300 in step 516. The campaign parameters
can be stored in the rules segment 306, meanwhile, the identity or
profiles can be stored in the user input segment 302 or 304. The
other received information, such as the social networks to analyze,
the criteria, the weights, and the algorithms may be stored in a
dialog script that includes a customer value data structure 400 in
the dialog script segment 308. Thus, to determine values, a dialog
system 104 can read the dialog script and be directed to applying
the algorithms to one or more criteria to determine scores and then
calculating the weighted score by multiplying the criteria scores
with the weight.
[0079] An embodiment of a method 600 for determining a customer
value is shown in FIG. 6. Generally, the method 600 begins with a
start operation 602 and terminates with an end operation 618. While
a general order for the steps of the method 600 are shown in FIG.
6, the method 600 can include more or fewer steps or arrange the
order of the steps differently than those shown in FIG. 6. The
method 600 can be executed as a set of computer-executable
instructions executed by a computer system and encoded or stored on
a computer readable medium. Hereinafter, the method 600 shall be
explained with reference to the systems, components, modules,
software, data structures, etc. described in conjunction with FIGS.
1-4.
[0080] A contact center 102 can receive an identity or profile, in
step 604. An identity can include any identifying information for a
person such as a name, a user name, an address, a phone number, or
other data that may be used to identify a person using a social
media network 112, 114 or 116. In other embodiments, a profile is
provided, for example, anyone using Facebook, any female between
the ages of 18 through 30, or other types of profiles. From the
identity, the dialog system 104 can retrieve a data dialog
structure 300 from the heuristic rules and dialogs database 216, in
step 606. The contact center 100 searches the heuristic rules and
dialogs database 216 for a dialog data structure 300 that includes
the identity or profile stored in the input segment 302 or 304.
Alternatively, the dialog system 104 retrieves a value campaign
data structure 400 and inserts the identity or profile in the input
segment 302 or 304.
[0081] The dialog core 210 of the dialog system 104 can read the
dialog script in a dialog data structure 300. The dialog script can
direct the dialog core 210 to access one or more accounts for a
social media user associated with the identity or profile, in step
608, to obtain a user context, an extended user context, and/or a
user social context. Thus, the dialog core 210 can retrieve
information to access the social media account from a CRM database
232 a message history database 222, or some other source or may
directly access the social media account in the social media
network 112 114, and/or 116. In accessing the social media account,
the dialog core 210 reads information about the user from the
social media account. The information retrieved can describe the
person or their usage of the social media account. For example, the
dialog core 210 may retrieve the number of followers the user has
on Facebook, may retrieve former messages from a message history on
Facebook, or may retrieve and read other information available in
the social media network 112, 114, and/or 116. In other
embodiments, the dialog core 210 can determine a number of hits on
a blog, page, or video blog to determine values.
[0082] Trend analysis component 212 reads and evaluates the
parameters, in step 610. Thus, information that is required for the
dialog script is retrieved from the social media account and stored
in a temporary data structure by the dialog core 210. The
parameters are then evaluated to determine a value score. A dialog
core 210 can read the algorithms from the dialog script and apply
those algorithms to the parameters to obtain a score in step 612.
In applying the algorithms, the dialog core 210 executes a
mathematical function to determine the value of the parameters. The
mathematical function will provide a score for the parameter.
[0083] Dialog core 210 may then apply a weight to the score, in
step 614. For example, the dialog core 210 can read the weighting
from the dialog script and multiply the weight by the value of the
parameter determined in step 612. The result of the applying the
weighting is a weighted value score. For each criteria, a value
weighted score is created. A dialog core 210 may then calculate a
value score for the user by adding the two or more weighted value
scores together in step 616. This summation produces a total value
score for that user.
[0084] An embodiment of a method 700 to create a customer value
data structure is shown in FIG. 7. Generally, the method 700 begins
with a start operation 702 and terminates with an end operation
710. While a general order for the steps of the method 700 are
shown in FIG. 7, the method 700 can include more or fewer steps or
arrange the order of the steps differently than those shown in FIG.
7. The method 700 can be executed as a set of computer-executable
instructions executed by a computer system and encoded or stored on
a computer readable medium. Hereinafter, the method 700 shall be
explained with reference to the systems, components, modules,
software, data structures, etc. described in conjunction with FIGS.
1-4.
[0085] A contact center 102 can receive an identity, in step 704.
The identity can be an identity of a user of a social media network
112, 114, and/or 116. An identity identifies the user and can
include a user name, a name, an address, a phone number, other
contact information, or other information that can uniquely
identify the user. From the identifying information, the contact
center 102 can retrieve a customer value score, in step 707. The
customer value score may be stored in a CRM database 232 or a
message history database 222 and be available for retrieval by the
contact center 102. The customer value score can represent a value
with that user for the identity received in step 704.
[0086] The contact center 102 then may modify an interaction with
that user based on the customer value score, in step 708. For
example, if the user has a high customer value score, the contact
center 102 may provide a higher level of customer service, such as,
present an agent 228 to interact with the customer who has more
skill or more knowledge about a typical subject. Further, the
customer may be subject to a higher level of interaction including
more messages sent to the user in order to gain the user's
attention or affiliation with the enterprise. Thus, by determining
a customer value score, an enterprise can better direct resources
to the customers that may have the greatest potential for consuming
products or promoting those products to other consumers.
[0087] FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of a computing
environment 800 that may function as servers, computers, or other
systems provided herein. The environment 800 includes one or more
user computers 805, 810, and 815. The user computers 805, 810, and
815 may be general purpose personal computers (including, merely by
way of example, personal computers, and/or laptop computers running
various versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows.TM. and/or Apple
Corp.'s Macintosh.TM. operating systems) and/or workstation
computers running any of a variety of commercially-available
UNIX.TM. or UNIX-like operating systems. These user computers 805,
810, 815 may also have any of a variety of applications, including
for example, database client and/or server applications, and web
browser applications. Alternatively, the user computers 805, 810,
and 815 may be any other electronic device, such as a thin-client
computer, Internet-enabled mobile telephone, and/or personal
digital assistant, capable of communicating via a network 820
and/or displaying and navigating web pages or other types of
electronic documents. Although the exemplary computer environment
800 is shown with three user computers, any number of user
computers may be supported.
[0088] Environment 800 further includes a network 820. The network
820 may can be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the
art that can support data communications using any of a variety of
commercially-available protocols, including without limitation SIP,
TCP/IP, SNA, IPX, AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way of
example, the network 820 maybe a local area network ("LAN"), such
as an Ethernet network, a Token-Ring network and/or the like; a
wide-area network; a virtual network, including without limitation
a virtual private network ("VPN"); the Internet; an intranet; an
extranet; a public switched telephone network ("PSTN"); an
infra-red network; a wireless network (e.g., a network operating
under any of the IEEE 802.11 suite of protocols, the Bluetooth.TM.
protocol known in the art, and/or any other wireless protocol);
and/or any combination of these and/or other networks.
[0089] The system may also include one or more server 825, 830. In
this example, server 825 is shown as a web server and server 830 is
shown as an application server. The web server 825, which may be
used to process requests for web pages or other electronic
documents from user computers 805, 810, and 815. The web server 825
can be running an operating system including any of those discussed
above, as well as any commercially-available server operating
systems. The web server 825 can also run a variety of server
applications, including SIP servers, HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI
servers, database servers, Java servers, and the like. In some
instances, the web server 825 may publish operations available
operations as one or more web services.
[0090] The environment 800 may also include one or more file and
or/application servers 830, which can, in addition to an operating
system, include one or more applications accessible by a client
running on one or more of the user computers 805, 810, 815. The
server(s) 830 and/or 825 may be one or more general purpose
computers capable of executing programs or scripts in response to
the user computers 805, 810 and 815. As one example, the server
830, 825 may execute one or more web applications. The web
application may be implemented as one or more scripts or programs
written in any programming language, such as Java.TM., C, C#.TM.,
or C++, and/or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python, or
TCL, as well as combinations of any programming/scripting
languages. The application server(s) 830 may also include database
servers, including without limitation those commercially available
from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase.TM., IBM.TM. and the like, which can
process requests from database clients running on a user computer
805.
[0091] The web pages created by the server 825 and/or 830 may be
forwarded to a user computer 805 via a web (file) server 825, 830.
Similarly, the web server 825 may be able to receive web page
requests, web services invocations, and/or input data from a user
computer 805 and can forward the web page requests and/or input
data to the web (application) server 830. In further embodiments,
the web server 830 may function as a file server. Although for ease
of description, FIG. 6 illustrates a separate web server 825 and
file/application server 830, those skilled in the art will
recognize that the functions described with respect to servers 825,
830 may be performed by a single server and/or a plurality of
specialized servers, depending on implementation-specific needs and
parameters. The computer systems 805, 810, and 815, web (file)
server 825 and/or web (application) server 830 may function as the
system, devices, or components described in FIGS. 1-4.
[0092] The environment 800 may also include a database 835. The
database 835 may reside in a variety of locations. By way of
example, database 835 may reside on a storage medium local to
(and/or resident in) one or more of the computers 805, 810, 815,
825, 830. Alternatively, it may be remote from any or all of the
computers 805, 810, 815, 825, 830, and in communication (e.g., via
the network 820) with one or more of these. The database 835 may
reside in a storage-area network ("SAN") familiar to those skilled
in the art. Similarly, any necessary files for performing the
functions attributed to the computers 805, 810, 815, 825, 830 may
be stored locally on the respective computer and/or remotely, as
appropriate. The database 835 may be a relational database, such as
Oracle 10i.TM., that is adapted to store, update, and retrieve data
in response to SQL-formatted commands.
[0093] FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a computer system 900
upon which the servers, computers, or other systems or components
described herein may be deployed or executed. The computer system
900 is shown comprising hardware elements that may be electrically
coupled via a bus 955. The hardware elements may include one or
more central processing units (CPUs) 905; one or more input devices
910 (e.g., a mouse, a keyboard, etc.); and one or more output
devices 915 (e.g., a display device, a printer, etc.). The computer
system 900 may also include one or more storage devices 920. By way
of example, storage device(s) 920 may be disk drives, optical
storage devices, solid-state storage devices such as a random
access memory ("RAM") and/or a read-only memory ("ROM"), which can
be programmable, flash-updateable and/or the like.
[0094] The computer system 900 may additionally include a
computer-readable storage media reader 925; a communications system
930 (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an
infra-red communication device, etc.); and working memory 940,
which may include RAM and ROM devices as described above. The
computer system 900 may also include a processing acceleration unit
935, which can include a DSP, a special-purpose processor, and/or
the like.
[0095] The computer-readable storage media reader 925 can further
be connected to a computer-readable storage medium, together (and,
optionally, in combination with storage device(s) 920)
comprehensively representing remote, local, fixed, and/or removable
storage devices plus storage media for temporarily and/or more
permanently containing computer-readable information. The
communications system 930 may permit data to be exchanged with the
network 820 (FIG. 8) and/or any other computer described above with
respect to the computer system 900. Moreover, as disclosed herein,
the term "storage medium" may represent one or more devices for
storing data, including read only memory (ROM), random access
memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic disk storage
mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/or other
machine readable mediums for storing information.
[0096] The computer system 900 may also comprise software elements,
shown as being currently located within a working memory 940,
including an operating system 945 and/or other code 950. It should
be appreciated that alternate embodiments of a computer system 900
may have numerous variations from that described above. For
example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particular
elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including
portable software, such as applets), or both. Further, connection
to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may
be employed.
[0097] In the foregoing description, for the purposes of
illustration, methods were described in a particular order. It
should be appreciated that in alternate embodiments, the methods
may be performed in a different order than that described. It
should also be appreciated that the methods described above may be
performed by hardware components or may be embodied in sequences of
machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a
machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purpose processor or
logic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the
methods. These machine-executable instructions may be stored on one
or more machine readable mediums, such as CD-ROMs or other type of
optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs,
magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other types of
machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronic
instructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by a
combination of hardware and software.
[0098] Specific details were given in the description to provide a
thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be
understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments
may be practiced without these specific details. For example,
circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not to obscure the
embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known
circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be
shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the
embodiments.
[0099] Also, it is noted that the embodiments were described as a
process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data
flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a
flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many
of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In
addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process
is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have
additional steps not included in the figure. A process may
correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a
subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its
termination corresponds to a return of the function to the calling
function or the main function.
[0100] Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware,
software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description
languages, or any combination thereof. When implemented in
software, firmware, middleware or microcode, the program code or
code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a
machine readable medium such as storage medium. A processor(s) may
perform the necessary tasks. A code segment may represent a
procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a
subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any
combination of instructions, data structures, or program
statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment
or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information,
data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information,
arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or
transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing,
message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.
[0101] In alternative embodiments, the contact center system 102
can also access public sources of data to further enhance the
customer value score. For example, a contact center 102 may access
public records about addresses for the user. From that information,
the contact center 102 may determine a possible income level or
wealth level for the user. As such, the contact center 102 can
determine if the customer is likely to buy or purchase a product.
Other information may be accessed from other data sources and
applied to the customer value score. As such, the customer value
score can reflect a total more robust determination of the value of
the customer to the enterprise.
[0102] In still another embodiment, the nature of the parameters
used to determine the value score of the customer value score or
the customer value score itself may be temporal. In other words,
the weight associated with a parameter may be dynamic and decay
based on the age of the parameter value. Decaying may be
accomplished using a leaky integrator approach that can function as
a moving average. The size of the integration window can be
adjusted to highlight the trends without including too much noise.
There can be multiple dimensions to any trend "tracking" that can
be included as modifiers. For example, the weight of the score may
decrease 5% every week based on the age of a parameter.
[0103] Further, the customer value score can also be dynamic and
change based on age or other temporal, geographic, or other
information about parameters of the customer value score. Further,
the customer value score may also change depending on the time of
day, time of week, time of month or year. For example, a user may
have a higher customer value score during the work week or work day
compared to nights or weekends.
[0104] In further alternatives, the dialog core 210 may detect
trending by a customer or user. Each individual social media user
may be "trending" on a topic. For example, "Bob" occasionally talks
(tweets/facebook posts) about possible summer vacation plans, but,
starting in the month of March, the frequency of mentions for
"summer vacation" increases from 0.5 mentions per month across all
social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116 to 3 mentions per month
across all social media networks 112, 114, and/or 116. The increase
may be a positive short term trend for an individual user that may
trigger a value assessment that "Bob" should be targeted for a
summer travel outreach campaign. Thus, a baseline of activity on a
topic may be determined then the dialog core 210 can notice
significant changes (i.e., statistically significant changes) that
may be valuable information for a business. In other words, trends
are meaningful with an understanding of what the base "noise" level
is for a social media user.
[0105] In still further embodiments, a trend for one user may be
compared to the trends of other users, either as individuals or as
aggregated groups. With the comparison information, threshold
levels (i.e., the levels at which a customer becomes valuable) can
be automatically adjusted. For example, if a major media outlet
(e.g., Time Magazine) writes an article on time share condos as a
vacation option, the average level of conversation on time share
condos for vacation may increase across a large body of users. An
average number of mentions, for the whole of social media users, of
time shares may increase. As such, trying to determine a valuable
customer may not function with an unadjusted threshold because too
many people may go over the threshold. However, the dialog core 210
may automatically adjust the threshold based on the actions of the
whole of social media users to cull out those users that post in
excess of the larger general trend. Thus, for any given topic,
there is an average number of mentions. The average number of
mentions can fluctuate with external factors. Users that exceed the
average number of mentions per unit time might be showing greater
interest or potential. This analysis optimizes the use of contact
center resources in attempting to connect to
interested/interesting/influential customers.
[0106] While illustrative embodiments have been described in detail
herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may be
otherwise variously embodied and employed, and that the appended
claims are intended to be construed to include such variations,
except as limited by the prior art.
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