U.S. patent application number 14/634645 was filed with the patent office on 2015-06-18 for quality review of contacts between customers and customer service agents.
The applicant listed for this patent is Amazon Technologies, Inc.. Invention is credited to Donald L. Kaufman.
Application Number | 20150172466 14/634645 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 48876429 |
Filed Date | 2015-06-18 |
United States Patent
Application |
20150172466 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kaufman; Donald L. |
June 18, 2015 |
QUALITY REVIEW OF CONTACTS BETWEEN CUSTOMERS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
AGENTS
Abstract
A user of a personal computing device may identify an item of
interest provided by a network-based service for which additional
information is desired. Customer service agents (CSAs) of the
network-based service may be contacted by the user to respond to
queries. To assess the quality of a contact, a contact review
service may record the contact between the CSA and the user and
edit the contact to reduce its length for ease of review. The
edited contact may be submitted to one or more reviewers to obtain
reviews characterizing the contact quality. Reviewers may include
CSAs not participating in the contact or other human reviewers. The
reviewers may return their reviews to the contact review service,
which generates a composite review from the returned reviews. The
composite review may be employed for CSA evaluation and/or training
purposes, amongst others.
Inventors: |
Kaufman; Donald L.;
(Kirkland, WA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Amazon Technologies, Inc. |
Seattle |
WA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
48876429 |
Appl. No.: |
14/634645 |
Filed: |
February 27, 2015 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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13960219 |
Aug 6, 2013 |
8983055 |
|
|
14634645 |
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|
12973715 |
Dec 20, 2010 |
8503664 |
|
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13960219 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
379/265.06 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04M 2203/401 20130101;
G06Q 10/06398 20130101; H04M 3/2218 20130101; H04M 3/5191 20130101;
G06Q 30/0281 20130101; H04M 3/00 20130101; H04M 3/42221 20130101;
H04M 3/5175 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04M 3/51 20060101
H04M003/51; G06Q 30/02 20060101 G06Q030/02; H04M 3/22 20060101
H04M003/22; G06Q 10/06 20060101 G06Q010/06 |
Claims
1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having
computer-executable instructions encoded thereon, wherein the
instructions, when executed by a computing apparatus, cause the
computing apparatus to: obtain a record of a contact between a
customer and a customer service agent; and provide to a reviewer:
at least a portion of the record of the contact between the
customer and the customer service agent, and a user interface
configured to enable the reviewer to provide a review of the
contact between the customer and the customer service agent,
wherein the reviewer is neither the customer nor the customer
service agent.
2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1,
wherein the instructions further cause the computing apparatus to
isolate at least a portion of a contribution of the customer to the
record of the contact.
3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 2,
wherein the instructions further cause the computing apparatus to
isolate at least the portion of the contribution of the customer to
the record of the contact by selecting a portion of the record of
the contact near an end region of the record of the contact.
4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1,
wherein the user interface is further configured to request the
reviewer to characterize a satisfaction of the customer with the
customer service agent using a predetermined scale.
5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1,
wherein the reviewer comprises a human worker of a human
interaction task component.
6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1,
wherein the record of the contact between the customer and the
customer service agent comprises one or more of telephone calls,
electronic mail messages, short message service (SMS) messages,
instant messages, and video messages.
7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1,
wherein the user interface is further configured to enable the
reviewer to request additional information regarding the
contact.
8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7,
wherein the instructions further cause the computing apparatus to
provide to the reviewer an additional portion of the record of the
contact in response to the request for additional information.
9. A contact review service comprising: a data store that stores
one or more records of contacts between a first person and a second
person; and a computing device in communication with the data
store, wherein the computing device is operative to: obtain a
record of contact between the first person and the second person
from the data store; and provide to a reviewer: at least a portion
of the record of contact between the first person and the second
person, and a user interface configured to enable the reviewer to
provide a review of the contact between the first person and the
second person, wherein the reviewer is neither the first person nor
the second person.
10. The contact review service of claim 9, wherein the computing
device is further operative to generate the portion of the record
of contact by isolating at least a portion of a first person
contribution to the record of contact.
11. The contact review service of claim 10, wherein isolating the
record of contact comprises selecting a portion of the record of
contact near an end region of the record of contact.
12. The contact review service of claim 9, wherein the user
interface is further configured to request the reviewer to
characterize a satisfaction of the first person with the second
person.
13. The contact review service of claim 9, wherein the reviewer is
a human worker of a human interaction task component.
14. The contact review service of claim 9, wherein the user
interface is further configured to enable the reviewer to request
additional information regarding the contact.
15. The contact review service of claim 14, wherein the computing
device is further operative to provide to the reviewer an
additional portion of the record of contact in response to the
request for additional information.
16. The contact review service of claim 9, wherein the record of
contact between the first person and the second person comprises
one or more of telephone calls, electronic mail messages, short
message service (SMS) messages, instant messages, and video
messages.
17. The contact review service of claim 9, wherein the computing
device is further operative to provide the portion of the record of
contact and the user interface to the reviewer when the review is
not busy.
18. The contact review service of claim 9, wherein the reviewer is
a customer service agent.
19. A computer-implemented method of determining a quality of
contact between a first person and a second person, the method
comprising: under control of one or more configured computer
systems, obtaining a record of a contact between a first person and
a second person; and providing to a reviewer: at least a portion of
the record of the contact between the first person and the second
person, and a user interface configured to enable the reviewer to
provide a review of the contact between the first person and the
second person, wherein the reviewer is neither the first person nor
the second person.
20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising
generating the portion of the record of the contact by isolating an
end region of the record of the contact.
21. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising
providing to the reviewer a scale for the reviewer to use to assess
a quality of the contact between the first person and the second
person.
22. The computer-implemented method claim 19, wherein the reviewer
comprises a human worker of a human interaction task component.
23. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the
contact between the first person and second person comprises one or
more of telephone calls, electronic mail messages, short message
service (SMS) messages, instant messages, and video messages.
24. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising
receiving a request from the reviewer for additional information
regarding the contact.
25. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, further comprising
providing to the reviewer an additional portion of the record of
the contact in response to the request for additional information.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is a continuation of U.S.
application Ser. No. 13/960,219, filed Aug. 6, 2013, now U.S. Pat.
No. 8,983,055, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.
12/973,715, filed Dec. 20, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,503,644, both
of which are expressly incorporated by reference in their
entireties.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Data networks are increasingly employed by users to perform
a variety of tasks formerly performed in person. For example, a
user may purchase an item from a network-based retailer using his
or her computing device. In yet another example, the user may
employ a banking service to check account balances, pay bills,
schedule transfers, and the like. In this manner, providers of
network-based services may conduct a number of pre- and post-sale
contacts with the users (i.e., their customers).
[0003] In order to help the users employ these services, many
network-based retailers have provided service agents that may be
contacted by telephone to assist users. Systems, such as call
centers, have been further developed as centralized, scalable
mechanisms to handle the volume of user calls received.
[0004] With these call centers in place, it is desirable to the
network-based retailers that their service agents provide good
service to users. To that end, improved mechanisms for assessing
the quality of calls between users and service agents (e.g., user
satisfaction with a call) are desired to determine to quantify the
performance of service agents.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages
will become more readily appreciated as the same become better
understood by reference to the following detailed description, when
taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0006] FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an illustrative call
quality review service for assessing the quality of contacts
between customers and customer service agents;
[0007] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the operating environment of
FIG. 1, illustrating the contact review service recording and
processing a call between a customer and customer service
agent;
[0008] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the operating environment of
FIG. 1, illustrating the contact review service processing and
distributing the recorded call between the customer and customer
service agent to one or more other customer service agents for
quality review; and
[0009] FIG. 4 is an illustrative user interface for display on a
reviewer's computing device that facilitates contact quality
review.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0010] Aspects of the present disclosure relate to reviewing
contacts between service agents of network-based services (e.g.,
websites) and users of the network-based services for quality.
Contacts may include any communication between users and service
agents. In this context, the quality of a contact may refer to the
service agent's success in addressing the user's concerns and/or a
perceived level of the user's satisfaction with the contact.
Embodiments discussed below may refer to the users as customers and
the service agents as customer service agents (CSAs). However, it
may be understood that users are not limited to customers but may
include any users of network-based services.
[0011] In this regard, a contact review service is described that
enables assessment of the quality of a contact between a customer
and a CSA. For example, a customer using a customer computing
device, such as a personal computer, may identify an item of
interest presented by a network-based service and may desire to
communicate with a CSA regarding the item of interest. This
network-based service may be anything that provides a good,
service, or information that is of interest to the customer.
Accordingly, the network-based service may include network-based
retailers, such as those which sell items for purchase to the
customer, network-based sources of entertainment and/or information
(e.g., network-based encyclopedias, media sharing, etc),
network-based social networking services which enable users to
share content with one another, and the like.
[0012] In one embodiment, the network-based retailer may provide a
mechanism by which the customer may contact a CSA. Contacts may be
conducted by communication mechanisms including, but not limited
to, telephone, voice-over IP (VOIP), video conferencing, instant
messaging (IM), short message service (SMS) text messaging, and
other communications protocols known in the art. As described in
greater detail below, when the customer employs such a contact
mechanism to contact a CSA, the contact review service may
distribute the contact to an available CSA and record the content
of the contact between the customer and the CSA.
[0013] For example, the network-based service may be a
network-based retail service, implemented via a website, e.g., a
website that sells music and videos. Using a personal computing
device, the customer may identify an item of interest displayed for
sale by the network-based retail service, for example, an audio CD.
In addition to identifying the item of interest, the customer may
also have one or more questions regarding purchase of the CD, such
as the return policy of the network-based service. The
network-based service may provide a telephone number for contacting
the network-based service. When the customer places a telephone
call to a CSA, a voice recording of both the customer and the CSA
may be made by the contact review service.
[0014] In order to facilitate quality review of the recorded
contact, the contact review service may subject the recorded
contact to pre-review processing. The pre-review processing is
designed to produce an edited, recorded contact that includes less
content than the original recorded contact. In one aspect, the
recorded contact may be edited to focus on the customer's portion
of the contact. In another aspect, the recorded contact may be
edited focus only on a portion of the total contact (e.g., sample
the contact). In further embodiments, the recorded content may be
edited to remove any sensitive or private information regarding the
customer, such as names, credit card information, address, social
security number, and the like. Thus, it may be easier for a
reviewer to determine the quality of the contact from the edited,
recorded contact than the original recorded contact.
[0015] Continuing the example of a customer call regarding a CD,
the audio recording of the customer speaking with the CSA may be
edited during pre-review processing. In one example, the voice of
the CSA may be removed from the call, leaving the customer's
speech. In another example, at least a portion of the blank space
that remains within the call may be removed. In one instance, this
blank space may include the blank space created by the previous
removal of the voice of the CSA. In another instance this blank
space may include at least a portion of pauses between the
customer's words, such as at least a portion of long pauses (e.g.,
pauses longer than a second), may be removed. In a further
embodiment, the recorded content may be edited to remove any
sensitive or private information regarding the customer, such as
names, credit card information, addresses, social security numbers,
and the like. In an additional example, a selected duration of the
remaining audio recording (e.g., the last 15 to 20 seconds of the
duration of the audio recording) may be sampled. The audio
recording edited in this manner may be stored for later review.
[0016] The contact review service may subsequently transmit the
edited audio recording to a reviewer for quality review. In one
embodiment, the reviewer may be a CSA. In this case, the contact
review service may identify one or more on-duty CSAs that did not
participate in the contact under review and are not presently
conducting a contact with a customer. The contact review service
may select one or more of these available CSAs and transmit the
edited, recorded contact to the selected CSAs.
[0017] In an alternative embodiment, the reviewer may include a
human worker of a human interaction task component. The human
interaction task component may employ human workers to obtain
selected information in response to a given input. In this case,
the contact review service may provide the human interaction task
component with the edited, recorded contact and instructions for a
selected number of human workers to review the contact.
[0018] The contact review service may further generate and transmit
a user interface to the reviewer. The reviewer may employ this user
interface with his or her computing device to facilitate quality
review of the edited, recorded contact. For example, the user
interface may enable the reviewer to review the recorded contact,
rate the contact, and, optionally, request additional information
regarding the recorded contact, amongst other functions.
[0019] If the customer appeared to be satisfied from the sample,
the reviewer may employ the user interface to indicate that the
contact quality was good. If the customer did not appear to be
satisfied from the sample, the reviewer may employ the user
interface to indicate that the contact quality was bad. If the
reviewer is unable to determine the customer's disposition after
reviewing the sample, the reviewer may indicate that the contact
quality was indeterminate. Alternatively, if the reviewer is unable
to determine the customer's disposition after reviewing the sample,
the reviewer may request additional information regarding the
contact, such as a longer sample or a sample from another location
within the contact. It may be understood that, in alternative
embodiments, the contact may be rated on a numerical scale or be
rated using other ratings schemes known in the art.
[0020] For example, assume that the reviewer includes a selected
number of CSAs. The edited, recorded audio recording discussed
above may be provided to one or more CSAs (e.g., 3), along with the
graphical user interface, when the selected CSAs are not busy with
other duties. The CSAs may listen to the sampled portions of the
edited call and enter his or her review in the provided user
interface. For example, the CSAs may be prompted by the user
interface to provide an assessment of whether the customer was
satisfied and/or whether the CSA handled a difficult situation well
(a good call) or the customer was dissatisfied and/or the CSA did
not handle the call well (a bad call). A selected scale, such as a
numerical scale (e.g., 1 to 5, 1 to 10) or a binary scale (e.g.,
positive/negative), may be employed by the reviewer when making
their review.
[0021] Optionally, as discussed in greater detail below, should a
CSA require more information to provide a review, the CSA may
request more information through the user interface. In response to
the request, the contact review service may provide a version of
the edited call that is modified to include more of the call (e.g.,
the last 30 seconds of the call as compared to the last 15
seconds). In certain embodiments, the CSA may choose, through the
user interface, the additional information provided by the contact
review service.
[0022] The ratings generated by the reviewers may be returned to
the contact review service for further analysis. Analysis may
include aggregating the reviews of the respective reviewer and
generating a composite review. The composite review may be
associated with the CSA participating in the call to evaluate the
performance of the participating CSA. The composite review may be
further employed to characterize the contact for training
purposes.
[0023] For example, continuing the example above, the contact
review service may receive reviews from three CSAs. Assume that a
binary positive/negative scale is employed to rate the call and the
reviewers return two positive reviews and one negative review. As
the majority of the reviews are positive, the contact review
service may determine the aggregate review of the call to be
positive.
[0024] Beneficially, reviewing contacts that are edited and sampled
significantly improves the contact review process. In one aspect,
traditional contact review has focused primarily upon customer
surveys. However, these surveys are dependent upon obtaining
customer responses, which can be both time consuming and expensive.
In contrast, embodiments of the disclosed contact review service
are not reliant upon customer feedback in a traditional sense,
reducing this cost. Instead, the customer's feedback is taken from
their contact with a CSA.
[0025] With reference to FIG. 1, an embodiment of an operating
environment 100 for quality review of contacts between customers
and customer service agents (CSAs) is illustrated. In the operating
environment 100, a customer may employ his or her customer
computing device 104 to communicate with a network-based service
106 implemented via a website. The network-based service 106 may
maintain or generate one or more user interfaces capable of display
by the customer computing device 104. Should the customer have a
problem or query regarding information displayed in one or more of
the user interfaces provided by the network-based service 106, the
customer, employing his or her customer computing device 104 may
make contact with a CSA employing his or her agent computing device
110.
[0026] The system 100 is depicted in FIG. 1 as operating in a
distributed computer environment comprising several computer
systems that are interconnected using one or more computer
networks. The system 100 could also operate within a computer
system having a fewer or greater number of components than are
illustrated in FIG. 1. Thus, the depiction of system 100 in FIG. 1
should be taken as illustrative and not limiting to the present
disclosure. For example, the system 100 could implement various Web
services components (including but not limited to virtual utility
computing services, a.k.a. "cloud computing services") and
peer-to-peer network configurations to implement at least a portion
of the processes.
[0027] The contact review service 102 and network-based service 106
may each be embodied in a plurality of components, each executing
an instance of the respective contact review service 102 and
network-based service 106. A server or other computing component
implementing the contact review service 102 and network-based
service 106 may include a network interface, memory, processing
unit, and computer readable medium drive, all of which may
communicate which each other may way of a communication bus. The
network interface may provide connectivity over a network 112
and/or other networks or computer systems. The processing unit may
communicate to and from memory containing program instructions that
the processing unit executes in order to operate the contact review
service 102 and network-based service 106. The memory generally
includes RAM, ROM, and/or other persistent and auxiliary
memory.
[0028] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the network
112 may be any wired network, wireless network, or combination
thereof. In addition, the network 112 may be a personal area
network, local area network, wide area network, cable network,
satellite network, cellular telephone network, or combination
thereof. Protocols and components for communicating via the
Internet or any of the other aforementioned types of communication
networks are well known to those skilled in the art of computer
communications and, thus, need not be described in more detail
herein.
[0029] The customer computing device 104 and agent computing device
110 may include any communication device, such as a PC, a kiosk, a
thin client, a home computer, and a dedicated or embedded machine.
Further examples may include laptop or tablet computers, personal
computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), hybrid PDAs/mobile
phones, mobile phones, electronic book readers, set-top boxes, and
the like.
[0030] With further reference to FIG. 1, illustrative components of
the contact review service 102 will now be addressed. In an
embodiment, the contact review service 102 includes a contact
distribution component 116 for receiving a contact request from a
customer for contact with a CSA (e.g., a call from a customer) to
place the customer in contact with an available CSA (e.g., route
the customer call to an available agent phone).
[0031] The contact distribution component 116 may be in
communication with one or more CSAs, as represented by agent
computing device 110. In an embodiment, a CSA may employ his or her
agent computing device 110 to notify the contact distribution
component 116 of times when the CSA is available for duty. In other
embodiments, the contact distribution component 116 may maintain a
schedule of available CSAs. Embodiments of the contact distribution
component 116 may be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No.
12/192,067, filed on Aug. 14, 2008, entitled, "SYSTEM AND METHOD
FOR AUTOMATED CALL DISTRIBUTION" and U.S. patent application Ser.
No. 12/192,064, filed Aug. 14, 2010, entitled, "INDEPENDENT
CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENTS," the entirety of each of which are hereby
incorporated by reference.
[0032] Contact requests may take any form, depending upon the type
of communication mechanisms that are provided to contact the CSA.
In one embodiment, a customer may call a CSA using a traditional
POTS or voice-over-IP service. In another embodiment, a customer
may employ a messaging service, such as instant messaging, text
messaging, and electronic mail, to contact the CSA. In another
embodiment, a customer may employ video conferencing to contact the
CSA. In a further embodiment, the customer may contact the CSA
through a website (e.g., the network-based service 106). Examples
of such a contact may be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No.
12/547,370, filed on Aug. 25, 2009, entitled, "SYSTEMS AND METHODS
FOR CUSTOMER CONTACT" and U.S. patent application Ser. No.
12/547,387, filed on Aug. 25, 2009, entitled, "SYSTEMS AND METHODS
FOR CUSTOMER CONTACT," the entirety of each of which is hereby
incorporated by reference in their entirety.
[0033] During the course of the contact, a contact processing
component 120 of the contact review service 102 may further record
the contact between the CSA and the customer for quality
assessment. Contacts received by the contact review service 102 may
be stored in one or more data stores, represented by data store
114. It may be understood that data store 114 may include
network-based storage capable of communicating with any component
of the system 100 via network 112. The data store 114 may further
include storage that is in local communication with any component
of the system 100.
[0034] Upon completion of the contact between the CSA and the
customer, contact processing component 120 may further process the
recorded contact prior to quality review. In one embodiment, the
recorded contact may be edited to substantially remove content from
the CSA. For example, in the case of a contact that is a call, at
least a portion of the voice of the CSA may be removed from the
edited contact. In the case of a contact that is an instant message
conversation, at least a portion of the text of the CSA may be
removed from the edited contact. In another embodiment, the
recorded contact may be edited by the contact processing component
120 to remove delays in the customer's portion of the contact. For
example, in the case of a call, long pauses between words spoken by
the customer (e.g., pauses due to the removal of the CSA's portion
of contact or pauses in speech by the customer), white noise, or
other durations of silence may be removed from the edited
contact.
[0035] In a further embodiment, the contact processing component
120 may sample a portion of the edited contact. Sampling may
include taking a selected portion of the edited contact for further
use in the contact review process. By employing a sample, rather
than the entire contact, the reviewer is not required to listen to
the entire edited contact. Sampling durations may be varied, as
necessary. In one embodiment, a sample may be approximately 15 to
30 seconds. In one embodiment, sampling may include taking a
portion of the contact of at the end. Taking a portion of the
contact at the contact end may be beneficial, as the final
disposition of the customer may be readily apparent and the
reviewer may easily assign a review to the contact. In other
embodiments, sampling may include other portions of the contact,
such as a portion of the contact at the beginning or in the middle
of the contact.
[0036] As discussed in greater detail below, when the reviewer
finds it difficult to make a review determination, the reviewer may
request additional information regarding the contact. In this case,
the contact processing component 120 may sample additional parts of
the contact. For example, the contact processing component 120 may
sample a portion of the contact contiguous with the portion of the
contact already sampled. In another example, the contact processing
component 120 may sample a portion of the contact that is different
that the portion of the contact already sampled. For example, if an
end portion of the contact has been previously sampled, a beginning
portion of the contact may be additionally sampled in response to
the reviewer request.
[0037] The edited and sampled contact may be stored in the data
store 114 until the contact is selected for review by the contact
processing component 120. In an embodiment, contacts may be
selected for review in the order in which it they are recorded by
the contact processing component 120. In another embodiment,
contacts may be selected for review based upon performance
evaluations of CSAs. That is to say, contacts that are conducted by
CSAs pending review may be selected ahead of contacts that are not
conducted by CSAs pending review. Other mechanisms for selecting
contacts for review may additionally be employed without limit.
[0038] After identifying the contact to be reviewed, the contact
processing component 120 may select one or more reviewers to review
the contact. In one embodiment, the reviewer may include one or
more CSAs. In this case, the contact processing component 120 may
query the contact distribution component 116 to identify one or
more CSAs that are available to conduct contact reviews (e.g., CSAs
that the contact distribution component 116 knows to be on duty and
are not presently in contact with a customer). To preserve the
integrity of the review process, in certain embodiments, a CSA that
participated in the contact under review may be eliminated from
consideration for review of that same contact. The contact
processing component 120 may further select at least one of these
available CSAs and transmit the edited, sampled contact to the
selected CSAs for review.
[0039] In an alternative embodiment, the reviewer may include a
human worker of a human interaction task component 124. Embodiments
of the human interaction task component 124 are described in U.S.
patent application Ser. No. 12/200,822, filed Aug. 28, 2008,
entitled, "ENHANCING AND STORING DATA FOR RECALL AND USE" and Ser.
No. 12/623,354, filed Nov. 20, 2009, entitled "ENHANCING AND
STORING DATA FOR RECALL AND USE USING USER FEEDBACK," each of which
are incorporated by reference in their entirety. Generally
described, the human interaction task component 124 may include a
collection of human workers that are tasked with responding to
questions that are relatively faster, easier, and/or more cost
effective to answer using a human respondent rather than a
computing device. Therefore, a human worker of the human
interaction task component 124 may receive the edited, sampled
contact and be requested to provide a review to the contact
processing component 120.
[0040] A user interface component 122 of the contact review service
102 may also generate a user interface for transmission with the
edited, sampled contact that facilitates the reviewer's review of
the edited, sampled contact. In alternative embodiments, the user
interface may be transmitted to the reviewer before or after
transmission of the edited, sampled contact. As discussed in
greater detail below, the user interface may enable the reviewer to
examine the edited, sampled contact (e.g., audio, text, video,
etc.), such as pause, play, fast-forward, and rewind. The user
interface may further enable the reviewer to request additional
information regarding the edited, sampled contact (e.g., a longer
sample and/or a sample from a different portion of the contact).
The user interface may further enable the reviewer to submit a
review of the edited, sampled contact to the contact processing
component 120.
[0041] Reviews may employ any review scheme as understood in the
art. In one embodiment, the review scheme may include a binary
scheme in which the reviewer provides a positive or negative
response (e.g., good review or bad review). In another embodiment,
the review scheme may include a numerical scheme in which the
reviewer provides a numerical value provides a number within
selected limits (e.g., 1 to 10, where 1 is worst and 10 is
best).
[0042] The contact processing component 120 may further collect the
reviews generated by the reviewers and generate an aggregate review
based upon the received reviews. In one embodiment, where the
review scheme is binary, the response receiving the majority of
reviewer responses may be determined by the contact processing
component 120 to be the aggregate review. In another embodiment,
where the review scheme is numerical, the contact processing
component 120 may employ an average of the received reviews to
determine the aggregate review. The aggregate reviews may
subsequently be stored in the data store 114 for subsequent use in
evaluating the performance of the CSA participating the in the
contact and/or for training purposes.
[0043] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the operating environment of
FIG. 1, illustrating a customer contact distributed to an available
CSA and recorded by the contact review service 102. As depicted in
FIG. 2, the customer may submit a request for contact with a CSA
using his or her customer computing device 104. The request may be
the act of attempting to contact the CSA. For example, in the case
where the customer employs a telephone to contact the CSA, the
request may be calling the number associated with the CSA.
[0044] The request from the customer may be transmitted to the
contact review service 102. The contact review service 102
identifies an available CSA and directs the customer into contact
with the identified, available CSA. As discussed above, the contact
review service 102 may maintain real-time records of CSA
availability such that, when a customer request for contact with a
CSA is received, the contact review service 102 may be able to
determine whether a CSA is immediately available or whether the
customer will be required to wait for a CSA to become
available.
[0045] The contact review service 102 may further record the
content. As discussed above, the content may include any mechanism
of communication, including but not limited to, telephone calls,
voice-over IP (VOIP) calls, video conferencing, instant messaging
(IM), short message service (SMS) text messaging, and other
communications protocols known in the art. Recordation of the
contact may take place concurrently with the contact or after
completion of the contact.
[0046] The recorded contact may also be edited at the time of
recordation or at a later time and stored. In certain embodiments,
editing may reduce the amount of total content within the contact
and further isolate the customer's contribution to the contact. In
this manner, subsequent review of the edited contact may be less
time consuming and more focused on the role of the customer.
[0047] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the operating environment of
FIG. 1, illustrating review of an edited contact by a CSA. It may
be understood, however, that in an alternative embodiment, the
contact review service 102 may distribute the edited contact record
to one or more human workers of the human interaction task
component 124 instead of a CSA. The contact review service 102
requests a selected, edited contact record from the data store 114.
A variety of selection criteria may be employed for use selecting
the contact record. In certain embodiments, the selection may be
made at random. In other embodiments, the selection may be made in
chronological order, with the oldest contact records selected
first. In further embodiments, the selection may be made based upon
the CSA, where contacts that include participation by a CSA that
will be undergoing training or evaluation within the near future
may be reviewed in advance of other contacts.
[0048] Upon receipt of the edited contact record, the contact
review service 102 may select one or more CSAs for review of the
edited contact. CSAs may be selected using a number of criteria. In
one embodiment, a CSA may be selected at random. In another
embodiment, a CSA may be selected based upon seniority and/or
experience. In a further embodiment, a CSA may not be selected
should that CSA have participated in the contact under
consideration. It may be understood, however, that the CSA
selection may be performed in advance of the contact selection in
alternative embodiments.
[0049] Following selection of the edited contact and the one or
more CSAs, the edited contact may be transmitted to the CSAs for
review. As discussed above, a contact quality user interface 400
that facilitates review of the edited contact may also be
transmitted to the CSAs before, during, or after transmission of
the edited contact. An embodiment of the contact review user
interface 400 is illustrated in FIG. 4.
[0050] The user interface 400 may include a contact record
identification number 402, media control window 404, media windows
406, 408, and contact review window 410. The contact record
identification number 402 may be employed for use in uniquely
identifying the edited contact amongst others.
[0051] The media control window 404 may provide user interface
objects 404A and 404B for controlling the playback of edited
contact. For example, edited contacts including telephone and VOIP
calls and video may all benefit from the ability to precisely
control the playback of such media. For example, user interface
objects 404A may enable start, stop, fast-forward, and rewind of
the contact playback. User interface objects 404B may include a
progress bar indicating the time of the edited contact file at
which the reviewer is presently located. The user interface objects
404B may be further employed to move the media playback to a
desired point within the total sampled duration of the edited
contact.
[0052] Instant messaging, text messaging, electronic mail messages,
and other written forms of contact may be displayed in media window
406. In certain embodiments, the contact review service 102 may
perform speech to text conversion on audio contacts (e.g., calls)
and/or the audio portions of video conferencing contacts and
display the edited contact within the media window 406. In certain
embodiments, written forms of the contact may be displayed in the
media window 406 even if they are redundant with other audio or
visual media displayed in media window 408.
[0053] The reviewer, after reviewing the edited contact, may enter
their review in the contact review window 410. In an embodiment
illustrated in FIG. 4, the reviewer may select from review options
that are binary (e.g., user interface objects 410A (positive) or
410B (negative)). As discussed above, however, other review options
may be employed without limit in the contact review window 410,
such as numerical scales (e.g., 1 to 5, 1 to 10).
[0054] Should the reviewer be unable to make a review based upon
the received contact, a request for more information may be made by
selection of user interface object 410C. Selection of user
interface object 410C may request a selected amount of additional
time to be sampled from the contact record. Furthermore, the
reviewer may select where the additional time comes from, such as
the contact end, the contact beginning, or a selected location
therebetween.
[0055] With reference again to FIG. 3, a review entered by the
reviewer in the user interface 400 may be transmitted to the
contact review service 102. In further embodiments, the contact
review service 102 may provide the edited contact to multiple CSAs
for review. While not all CSAs may respond, it is anticipated that
a fraction of the total potential respondents will return a
response. Therefore, multiple reviews may be received for a single
edited contact.
[0056] The contact review service 102 may subsequently generate a
final review for the contact under review based upon at least a
portion of the received reviews. The manner in which this final
review is generated may depend upon the review options. For
example, in the binary review option scheme illustrated in FIG. 4,
the final review may be a majority of the received reviews. In the
case of a numerical review option scheme, the final review may be
an average of the received reviews.
[0057] All of the processes described herein may be embodied in,
and fully automated via software code modules executed by one or
more general purpose computers or processors. The code modules may
be stored in any type of computer-readable medium or other computer
storage device. Some or all the methods may alternatively be
embodied in specialized computer hardware. In addition, the
components referred to herein may be implemented in hardware,
software, firmware, or a combination thereof
[0058] Conditional language such as, among others, "can," "could,"
"might," or "may," unless specifically stated otherwise, are
otherwise understood within the context as used in general to
convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do
not include certain features, elements, and/or steps. Thus, such
conditional language is not generally intended to imply that
features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or
more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily
include logic for deciding, with or without user input or
prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are
included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.
[0059] Any process descriptions, elements, or blocks in the flow
diagrams described herein and/or depicted in the attached figures
should be understood as potentially representing modules, segments,
or portions of code which include one or more executable
instructions for implementing specific logical functions or
elements in the process. Alternate implementations are included
within the scope of the embodiments described herein in which
elements or functions may be deleted, executed out of order from
that shown, or discussed, including substantially concurrently or
in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved as would
be understood by those skilled in the art.
[0060] It should be emphasized that many variations and
modifications may be made to the above-described embodiments, the
elements of which are to be understood as being among other
acceptable examples. All such modifications and variations are
intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure
and protected by the following claims.
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