Patent Application
20150358466
Conventional auto-answer call centers including e-commerce, credit card, etc. have hierarchical instructions requiring a user to input a response to each prompt of the call center. The navigation process to the final target dialing number is time consuming and boring. For those people who travel abroad and their mobile phones use roaming service, this kind of navigation incurs extra expenses and wastes time.
A headend of a call center system sends a user a visual hierarchy map upon their first request. A client application residing on a user's device loads the hierarchy map with corresponding instructions on a screen and monitors a user's input. A user browses the hierarchy map and locates a final number sequence they would like to dial, and selects the specific leaf node of the hierarchy tree for that number sequence. The dialing instructions are sent to a backend of the call center system, and a communication circuit is constructed accordingly. Meanwhile, the number is stated on the headend for optimizing the rendering of the hierarchy map. For subsequent operations, the hierarchy map is arranged according to the dialing count, i.e., the more the number is dialed, the higher it will be located in each level of the hierarchy map.
The above presents a simplified summary of the subject matter in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of subject matter embodiments. This summary is not an extensive overview of the subject matter. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the embodiments or to delineate the scope of the subject matter. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the subject matter in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects of embodiments are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the subject matter can be employed, and the subject matter is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. Other advantages and novel features of the subject matter can become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the drawings.
The subject matter is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the subject matter. It can be evident, however, that subject matter embodiments can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the embodiments.
A message, including an instruction hierarchy, is sent to a user's device (landline, mobile device, television, monitor, etc.) after the user calls a call center (call centers can be from a service provider and/or directly from a business, etc.). Once the user selects a menu item in a call menu hierarchy, the user's device automatically interacts with the call center at the appropriate point. This technique has many advantages over the traditional call center voice hierarchy. In the traditional call center, a user must listen to menu functions of all the keys one by one in a single step before they can determine which key they should press. This is very time consuming and requires the user to start the menu listing program over if they do not hear the appropriate function the first time. Voice prompting is different from text or picture prompting. The voice prompting can cause errors in dialing, especially in noisy environment. The conventional methods are very tedious and time consuming, costing the user a lot of time and money, especially when they travelling abroad where phone rates are typically at a premium. With these types of conventional methods, the instruction or menu hierarchy always prompts the user in the same sequence. It cannot modify the sequence unless the sequence is adjusted manually on the headend side—which is very cumbersome.
In one instance of a call center system 100 as illustrated in
An example data structure 300 of one instance that resides on a statistics server is shown in
In one example, system 400 illustrated in
The map processor 408 can receive the dialed call center number 410 at the time of dialing to prepare it for receiving a call center hierarchy map 412. In other instances, the map processor 408 does not receive the call center number 410 at the time of dialing but monitors communication means of the mobile device for incoming hierarchy maps. In either case, when the map processor 408 receives the call center hierarchy map 412, it processes the map information, if necessary, and sends it to the display 406 of the mobile device 402. The user is then presented with the call center hierarchy map 412 and can select which node of the hierarchy they desire to contact. This user interaction with the hierarchy map 414, whether via the mobile device interface 404 and/or via the display 406, is then forwarded to the map processor 408. The map processor 408 then determines a desired call center connection 416 and transmits this information via a communication means of the mobile device 402 to establish a direct connection for the user.
What has been described above includes examples of the embodiments. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the embodiments, but one of ordinary skill in the art can recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the embodiments are possible. Accordingly, the subject matter is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2012/083371 | 10/23/2012 | WO | 00 |
