System and method for handling a voice prompted conversation

1 . A method, comprising:

categorizing a plurality of events which occur during automated conversations based on an impact of the events on a level of user satisfaction with the automated conversations;

assigning to each category of events a quality score corresponding to the impact on user satisfaction of the events in each category; and

initiating a conversation handling action for one of the conversations based on the categories of events detected during the one of the conversations.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the categories of events includes the steps of:

identifying categorized events occurring in the one of the conversations; and

incrementing a total quality score by a value corresponding to the quality score for each identified event.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the conversation handling action is initiated at a total quality score threshold.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the automated conversations are automated phone calls.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the conversation handling action is transferring the one of the phone calls to a live operator.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the events include one of a confirmation event, a no input event, a no match event, a correction event and a more than one repeat event.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

resetting the total quality score prior to initiating a conversation handling action.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the resetting is in response to the occurrence of an event categorized as having a positive impact on user satisfaction with the automated conversations.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality scores assigned to the various categories of events is based on a characteristic of the user.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the characteristic includes a location of the user.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality score corresponding to a category of events is based on a characteristic of the user.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the initiating step is suspended for the one of the conversations when the one of the conversations reaches a predefined state.

13 . A system, comprising:

a storage module storing a categorization of a plurality of events which occur during automated conversations, the categorization being based on an impact of the events on a level of user satisfaction with the automated conversations, wherein each of the events of each category is assigned a quality score corresponding to the impact on user satisfaction of the events in each category; and

a quality score module initiating a conversation handling action for one of the conversations based on the categories of events detected during the one of the conversations.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the quality score module records a total quality score for the one of the conversations by identifying categorized events occurring in the one of the conversations and incrementing the total quality score by a value corresponding to the quality score for each identified event.

15 . The system of claim 13 , further comprising:

a conversation handling module implementing the conversation handling action when initiated by the quality score module.

16 . The system of claim 13 , further comprising:

an automated prompting module providing prompts to a user during the automated conversation.

17 . The system of claim 16 , further comprising:

an automatic speech recognition engine analyzing user responses to the prompts to identify information included in the responses.

18 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the conversation handling action is transferring the one of the automated conversations to a non-automated conversation handler.

19 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the conversation handling action is a change of a parameter of the automatic speech recognition engine.

20 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the conversation handling action is initiated when a total quality score threshold is reached.

21 . The system of claim 20 , wherein the total quality score threshold is set based on desired performance characteristics of the system to achieve a desired minimum level of customer satisfaction.

22 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the quality score module is implemented using Voice XML.

23 . A system comprising a memory to store a set of instructions and a processor to execute the set of instructions, the set of instructions being operable to:

access a categorization of a plurality of events which occur during automated conversations, the categorization being based on an impact of the events on a level of user satisfaction with the automated conversations;

access a quality score assigned to each category of events, the quality score corresponding to the impact on user satisfaction of the events in each category; and

initiate a conversation handling action for one of the conversations based on the categories of events detected during the one of the conversations.

24 . A method, comprising:

categorizing a plurality of events which occur during automated conversations based on an impact of the events on a level of user satisfaction with the automated conversations;

assigning to each category of events a quality score corresponding to the impact on user satisfaction of the events in each category; and

recording user satisfaction for a plurality of automated conversations based on the categorization of events detected during the conversations.

25 . A method, comprising:

storing a sequence of events which occur during automated conversations;

recording events in one of the automated conversations;

initiating a conversation handling action for the one of the conversations when the recorded events correspond to the stored sequence of events.