IP Library Granted Patent US 10,003,692
Granted Patent B2
US 10,003,692 · App. 15/298,914 · Granted Jun 19, 2018

System initiated dialog adjustment

Inventors: David Skiba (Golden, CO); Reinhard Klemm (Basking Ridge, NJ); Patrick Tendick (Basking Ridge, NJ); George W. Erhart (Loveland, CO); Wen-Hua Ju (Monmouth Junction, NJ)
Assignee: Avaya Inc.
H04M3/5191H04L51/02H04M3/5175H04M2203/2061
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,003,692
App. No.
15/298,914
Granted
Jun 19, 2018
Kind
B2
Abstract

Text-based automated customer service agents provide an attractive contact center interaction for may customer-agent communications. However, the “say anything” nature of text may result in additional problems not encountered in prompted interactions. A single misunderstanding or error may cause an automated communication to fail, however, by providing micro-tasks to a human agent, an automated communication may be maintained longer with benefit of a human agent's input. A lack of progress towards completion of a work item may cause the communication to be routed to a human agent and/or a different channel (e.g., voice, email, etc.). Accordingly, a micro-task or an opt-out operation may be provided to maintain the communication with an automated agent for as long as possible but yet provide improved customer service when necessary.

Claims (40)

1. A system, comprising:

a network connection;

a processor to:

access a communication between a customer of a contact center and an automated agent of the contact center and wherein the communication is associated with a work item of the contact center, and wherein the communication comprises a plurality of messages utilizing a text communication channel;

provide, as a component of the communication, at least one of the plurality of messages as a query message selected to obtain an expected response message from the customer that addresses at least a portion of the work item;

determine that progress is not being made upon determining that at least one of the plurality of messages is a received response message comprising an out of context message;

upon determining that the communication is not progressing towards resolution of the work item, initiating an alternative communication comprising at least one of an alternative agent or an alternative communication channel; and

wherein the at least one of the plurality of messages comprises a query to solicit an expected response message from the customer to answer the query and the processor determines that progress is not being made based upon the received response message failing to provide an answer to the query.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor further executes a process comprising the automated agent.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein, the query comprises a request to identify an action associated with the work item and, the communication is determined to not be progressing upon the response message failing to identify the action associated with the work item.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the response message from the customer comprises a free-form response.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor determines that progress is being made upon determining the out of context messages comprises redirecting the communication to a different work item.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor determines that progress is being made upon further determining the out of context messages comprises a response to a currently unasked query associated with the work item.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein, determining the communication is not progressing, further comprises the processor performing one or more of (a) a sentiment of the communication, (b) a language analysis, (c) an intent analysis, or (d) a domain analysis.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein, upon determining the communication is not progressing, the processor performs one or more of (a) moving the communication to an alternative channel comprising a live agent, (b) logging the customer as an uncooperative person, (c) providing a warning dialog cautioning the customer to resume progress of resolution of the work item, or (d) providing a justification for why the information requested by the query is needed.

9. A system, comprising:

a network connection;

a processor to:

access a first communication between a customer of a contact center and an automated agent of the contact center and wherein the first communication is associated with a work item of the contact center, and wherein the first communication comprises a plurality of messages utilizing a text communication channel;

receiving a response message, of the plurality of messages, from the customer;

in response to determining that the response message comprises a nonsensical response, initiating a branch communication comprising presenting at least one of the plurality of messages to a human agent, receiving a response from the human agent, and processing the response from the human agent as the response message from the customer;

receiving a subsequent response message, of the plurality of messages, from the customer; and

in response to determining that the subsequent response message comprises a subsequent nonsensical response, initiating a subsequent branch communication comprising presenting at least one of the plurality of messages to a subsequent human agent, receiving a subsequent response from the human agent, and processing the subsequent response from the human agent as the subsequent response message from the customer.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the response from the human agent provides a processing cue to the automated agent and is absent any response to the customer.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein, upon receiving the response from the human agent, the processor terminates the branch communication.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein, upon receiving a signal from the human agent, the processor terminates the first communication.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the response message is a first message of the plurality of messages.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the response from the human agent comprises a language identification.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processor processes the combination of the response from the human agent and the response message as the response message.

16. The system of claim 9 , wherein the human agent comprises an agent allocated to providing the response from the human agent and, upon providing the response from the human agent, is allocated to another work item.

17. The system of claim 9 , wherein the human agent and the subsequent human agent are the same person.

18. A system, comprising:

a network connection;

a processor to:

access a first communication between a customer of a contact center and an automated agent of the contact center and wherein the first communication is associated with a work item of the contact center, and wherein the automated communication comprises a plurality of messages utilizing a text communication channel;

providing, as a component of the plurality of messages, a query message selected to obtain an expected response message from a customer that addresses at least a portion of the work item;

receiving a response message, in response to the query message, from the customer;

in response to determining that the received response message comprises an intent to opt-out of the first communication and initiate a subsequent interaction, selecting an opt-out mode, transferring the work item to a second communication between the customer and a second agent, and terminating the first communication;

receiving a subsequent response message, of the plurality of messages, from the customer; and

in response to determining that the subsequent response message comprises a subsequent nonsensical response, initiating a subsequent branch communication comprising presenting at least one of the plurality of messages to a human agent, receiving a subsequent response from the human agent, and processing the subsequent response from the human agent as the subsequent response message from the customer.

Assignments (14)
(SECURITY INTEREST) GRANTOR'S NAME CHANGE Recorded Sep 21, 2023
From: AVAYA INC.
To: AVAYA LLC
Reel/Frame 065019/0231 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS (REEL/FRAME 53955/0436) Recorded May 18, 2023
From: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: AVAYA MANAGEMENT L.P.; AVAYA INC.; INTELLISIST, INC.; AVAYA INTEGRATED CABINET SOLUTIONS LLC
Reel/Frame 063705/0023 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS (REEL/FRAME 61087/0386) Recorded May 18, 2023
From: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: AVAYA MANAGEMENT L.P.; AVAYA INC.; INTELLISIST, INC.; AVAYA INTEGRATED CABINET SOLUTIONS LLC
Reel/Frame 063690/0359 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS (REEL/FRAME 045034/0001) Recorded May 18, 2023
From: GOLDMAN SACHS BANK USA., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: AVAYA INC.; INTELLISIST, INC.; AVAYA INTEGRATED CABINET SOLUTIONS LLC; OCTEL COMMUNICATIONS LLC; VPNET TECHNOLOGIES, INC.; ZANG, INC. (FORMER NAME OF AVAYA CLOUD INC.); HYPERQUALITY, INC.; HYPERQUALITY II, LLC; CAAS TECHNOLOGIES, LLC; AVAYA MANAGEMENT L.P.
Reel/Frame 063779/0622 →
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded May 4, 2023
From: AVAYA INC.; AVAYA MANAGEMENT L.P.; INTELLISIST, INC.
To: CITIBANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 063542/0662 →
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded May 3, 2023
From: AVAYA MANAGEMENT L.P.; AVAYA INC.; INTELLISIST, INC.; KNOAHSOFT INC.
To: WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB [COLLATERAL AGENT]
Reel/Frame 063742/0001 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS AT REEL 45124/FRAME 0026 Recorded Apr 26, 2023
From: CITIBANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: AVAYA HOLDINGS CORP.; AVAYA INC.; AVAYA MANAGEMENT L.P.; AVAYA INTEGRATED CABINET SOLUTIONS LLC
Reel/Frame 063457/0001 →
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Aug 5, 2022
From: AVAYA INC.; INTELLISIST, INC.; AVAYA MANAGEMENT L.P.; AVAYA CABINET SOLUTIONS LLC
To: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 061087/0386 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Sep 25, 2020
From: AVAYA INC.; AVAYA MANAGEMENT L.P.; INTELLISIST, INC.; AVAYA INTEGRATED CABINET SOLUTIONS LLC
To: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
Reel/Frame 053955/0436 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jan 23, 2018
From: AVAYA INC.; AVAYA INTEGRATED CABINET SOLUTIONS LLC; OCTEL COMMUNICATIONS LLC; VPNET TECHNOLOGIES, INC.; ZANG, INC.
To: CITIBANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 045124/0026 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jan 10, 2018
From: AVAYA INC.; AVAYA INTEGRATED CABINET SOLUTIONS LLC; OCTEL COMMUNICATIONS LLC; VPNET TECHNOLOGIES, INC.; ZANG, INC.
To: GOLDMAN SACHS BANK USA, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 045034/0001 →
BANKRUPTCY COURT ORDER RELEASING ALL LIENS INCLUDING THE SECURITY INTEREST RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME 041576/0001 Recorded Dec 15, 2017
From: CITIBANK, N.A.
To: AVAYA INC.; AVAYA INTEGRATED CABINET SOLUTIONS INC.; OCTEL COMMUNICATIONS LLC (FORMERLY KNOWN AS OCTEL COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION); VPNET TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Reel/Frame 044893/0531 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jan 27, 2017
From: AVAYA INC.; AVAYA INTEGRATED CABINET SOLUTIONS INC.; OCTEL COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION; VPNET TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
To: CITIBANK, N.A., AS ADMINISTRATIVE AGENT
Reel/Frame 041576/0001 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 20, 2016
From: SKIBA, DAVID; ERHART, GEORGE; TENDICK, PATRICK; KLEMM, REINHARD P.; JU, WEN-HUA
To: AVAYA, INC.
Reel/Frame 040078/0660 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20180115643A1 · Apr 26, 2018
Cited By (1)
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