Patent Application
20120130910
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The current invention relates generally to providing customer support from multiple different sources in a single system.
The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.
A product or service user or customer is typically confronted with many different options when seeking information and support about the product or service. A call to the provider may provide useful results, but it may not. Some may prefer to perform a web search which may or may not produce useful results. In addition, the results from such a search may provide results from untrustworthy sources. Similarly, a visit to the support website offered by the maker or distributor of a product may not provide any results to a current problem. The many different sources of information and the differences in the quality and quantity of support information provided may reduce the satisfaction that a customer may feel about the product or service.
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for a customer support flow. These mechanisms and methods for customer support can enable embodiments to provide more reliable and faster provision of support to customers and users of both products and services.
A customer support flow system and method is described. In one example, a method includes, receiving an inquiry from a user, forwarding the inquiry to a public user group. forwarding the inquiry to a customer support agent, applying the inquiry to previously received comments, receiving a comment to the inquiry from at least one of the public user group, the customer support agent, and the applying of the inquiry, and displaying the received comments to the user on a single display.
While the present invention is described with reference to an embodiment in which techniques for customer support are implemented in a system having an application server providing a front end for an on-demand database service capable of supporting multiple tenants, the present invention is not limited to multi-tenant databases nor deployment on application servers. Embodiments may be practiced using other database architectures, i.e., ORACLE®, DB2® by IBM and the like, or on web server architectures without departing from the scope of the embodiments claimed.
Any of the embodiments may be used alone or together with one another in any combination. Inventions encompassed within this specification may also include embodiments that are only partially mentioned or alluded to or are not mentioned or alluded to at all in this brief summary or in the abstract. Although various embodiments of the invention may have been motivated by various deficiencies with the prior art, which may be discussed or alluded to in one or more places in the specification, the embodiments of the invention do not necessarily address any of these deficiencies. In other words, different embodiments of the invention may address different deficiencies that may be discussed in the specification. Some embodiments may only partially address some deficiencies or just one deficiency that may be discussed in the specification, and some embodiments may not address any of these deficiencies.
In the following drawings like reference numbers are used to refer to like elements. Although the following figures depict various examples of the invention, the invention is not limited to the examples depicted in the figures.
Systems and methods are provided for a customer support flow. These systems and methods are particularly valuable in the context of supporting products and services for which there are different sources of information available. These systems and methods may be provided using a multi-tenant database, but are not so limited.
As used herein, the term multi-tenant database system refers to those systems in which various elements of hardware and software of the database system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, a given application server may simultaneously process requests for a great number of customers, and a given database table may store rows for a potentially much greater number of customers. As used herein, the term query plan refers to a set of steps used to access information in a database system.
Next, mechanisms and methods for a customer support flow will be described with reference to example embodiments. In one implementation, a customer support system integrates public community answers, private case interaction, and company knowledge into one flow experience. In one embodiment, the system can be packaged and sold as one application that a company can customize and deploy to meet customer support needs. A customer support system can be designed to create a portal for a user to have his needs met. For example, the system may include ask and search interactions. It may include abilities to ask experts, seek customer support, and more.
Examples of customer support sites and handling user questions are shown for example in
In Process Flow B, the customer 121 formulates a question or query 123 and this question is applied to a community 125. The community may be a group of expert users, a discussion group, a user group, or any other type of group or community. After presenting the question to the community at 125, the customer will wait at 126. On some occasions, the customer may receive an answer to the query which solves the problem or in other cases as shown in
Having obtained no successful resolution at 119 and 129, the customer may turn to the company that produces, maintains, or distributes the product. Alternatively, the customer may go to the company first. In Process Flow C, the customer 131 has become dissatisfied after having receiving no answers. The customer formulates a query 133 and applies that query to the company 135. The customer then waits at 136 for an answer and, at 137, the customer receives some answer from the company. At 139, the customer has received some level of satisfaction and now feels better about the company or the product than before.
In Process Flow D, the company takes some time at 141 and collects many different questions and queries 143 from one or more different sources. The company at 145 can then formulate and put together an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) 147. The FAQ provides a list of common or important questions selected by the company. The answers for these questions are compiled and are provided at 148. At 149, these are published to a website as a FAQ system.
Line E provides an alternative process flow. This process flow can serve as an alternative to lines A, B, C, and D and provide both better support and higher convenience. The customer 151 formulates a query or question 153 which is simultaneously submitted to a search engine 154, a community 155, the company 156, and the FAQ 157. All of the answers from these are collected and combined at 158 to present a number of different possible answers at 158. As seen at 159 this may result in a satisfied customer.
The question at 113, 123, 133, or 153 may be a service request, a repair request, a user instruction request, or some question about features or some operation of the product. In the Example of Line E, a single user or owner request is applied simultaneously to different possible sources of answers. This may result in a question being answered more quickly. With a single flow from the user to many different possible sources of answers, the customer is provided with one place to ask the customer service department of the company as well as various communities of others. The one process flow to get answers provides alternative answers and it may provide answers more quickly.
For the company, the single flow may reduce the cost of supporting products and services. It may automatically create a base of shared knowledge between users, fans, support groups, and the company. It may also provide a process for sales agents and service agents to engage in a customer community. This in many cases may result in happier customers.
Referring to
In
Tabs along the left margin of the questions page may allow the user to select various functions on the support page. A user can type a question in the questions box 225. Upon pressing the ask key 226B, this question may be directed or sent directly to a company representative. Upon pressing a search key 226A it may be sent to a search engine that will search the company website, a support website, a community website, other websites, or a combination of websites for an answer.
As shown in
As shown in
Upon making this kind of selection, the user can select to post the question and then a set of possible matches are shown in a box 241. As in the example of
In
The user then continues from the possible answers of box 241 or, alternatively, as shown in
Page 245 is a posted questions page. This page includes a place where a new question can be added at 225. The posted question can be shown at 247A and other questions can also be provided at 247B, 247C. These additional questions allow the user to provide answers for the benefit of others. If the user has additional knowledge about the product, then he can answer these other questions from other users. The user can also see what kinds of questions other people are asking.
In the first questions page, the user can see his question 247A and an answer 247B. Any of the types of questions and answers described above may be presented. In addition, the left side of the page may present selection and sorting options, as described below. In the next page 245B, the user can be presented with additional answers 247B, 247C, 247D to the question. The number of answers can be controlled in part using the selection tabs on the left of the page or by selecting different question that have received more or fewer answers. The user has selected the second answer 247B and it is shown as highlighted. In the third page 245C, the user has moved the second answer 247B up one place so that it is now the top answer. These pages show one example of how a user can indicate which answers are his favorite answers.
In the search page, a user may enter search terms. In the illustrated example, the user is shown other similar questions. This allows the user to select one of the similar questions instead of the one that the user entered. These pre-existing questions may already have answers, so that by selecting a similar prior question, the user receives faster service. As shown and described below, by matching the user's questions to other previously asked questions, a user can select a previously asked question that is directed to the same problem and find a better answer that has already been provided. This allows the user to have an immediate answer to an answer to a question rather than waiting for an answer to a slightly different question which is directed to the same problem.
The search terms page 309 then leads the user to an answer page 311. As shown in
Below a demarcation 302 of
If a general question is posted 319 in the privileged domain, then the user may be directed to a support page 321 which shows the user's new question in a general open area. If the posted question is private 323 then a similar page 325 can be provided which allows only for private answers directly with the company. As illustrated, these support pages 323 and 325 for the authenticated, logged in user do not show in the open posted question and answer pages 309 and 311. Alternatively, these pages may lead directly to answer pages in the privileged domain 305.
As another alternative, these private and privileged answer pages 321-325 may lead directly into a special questions posted area within the privileged domain 305. In the posted questions area,
In one example, when the user first arrives at the support landing page shown in
In the display of best answers, a central area of the support landing page 401 can provide a separate central pane 415 for discussions to be posted. In the illustrated example, each question and its corresponding answer is shown with a date, an indication of the category to which it belongs, and a number of votes. The votes can be provided by the community or by users to indicate whether they like this question or dislike this question. Votes can also be applied to answers. Alternatively, the votes can indicate a number of times that the question has been asked or answered. In the illustrated example, there is a question of whether other music players can be docked on the iPClock, a fictitious name for a fictitious product used as an example herein (also referred to as the IPSpeaker).
The central pane shows several different questions 417 and answers 419. The questions and answers are shown next to each other and as indicated by the selection tab 411, the displayed answers have been voted to be the best answer or the most popular answer or the most frequent answer and is therefore shown as a best answer in the category selection area 411. The central discussion pane 415 also shows other possible responses to the questions. There can be references to support articles 421 and other similar questions or answers 417 and 419.
Referring to
In
A display option 422 in the discussion area allows additional answers to be shown, if desired. This is an example of some possible display options, however other may be also or alternatively be provided depending on the particular circumstances. This user feature allows for a variety of different types of answers to be shown in the same discussion area or for a particular type of answer group to be expanded or contracted to show more or less detail.
A recommendations box 421 allows the user to also select similar questions, information about product updates, information about deals, and information about discounts. As an alternative to the discussion area 415 these options can be provided either by changing the discussion area or taking the user to a different page. Note that beginning with
Referring to
Referring to
In
In
A final button in the main drop-down list 429 allows the user to “Click Continue to Ask and Post Your Question.” Upon making this selection, the question is submitted to company support and the user is presented with the view in
In
In the example of
The support system can strike different balances between emphasizing private conversations and supporting the community. As shown above, a user may post questions to either company support, the community or both. By allowing the community to stay involved, community support is fostered. By allowing the user to exclude the community, a direct, personal connection to official company information can be enjoyed. As shown above, the system can list questions and answers in different ways. They can be ranked, sorted, and categorized by popularity, relevance, date and other criteria. In addition, questions and answers can be folded with the “Show x Answers” link that is shown in several of the example displays (where x is the number of available answers). A similar option can be used to fold questions. The folding technique allows important questions to be maintained as prominent.
In one example, when an agent starts a private conversation, that conversation becomes the primary focus of the thread. To make that apparent to the end user, all of the other questions and answers can be folded automatically. This allows all of the previous and subsequent public answers to be folded under one or more links, such as a “Show x Questions” or “Show x Answers” link. Using folding, the private conversation can be raised to the top of the screen keeping it as the primary focus. A similar effect may be achieved by date sorting, color highlighting, using a separate area of the screen, etc.
In one example, the private block 441 moves through the entire conversation as one unique block, always open until the issue is resolved. In other words, while other conversations (question and answer cycles) can be folded and unfolded or moved or deleted, the private conversation cannot be. This also helps to show it as the most important aspect of the customer conversation. This approach communicates to the customer that company support and the company support web site takes private conversations and customer satisfaction seriously. It recognizes that when the customer decides to make a question private, then the question may be important to the customer.
At the same time, the present support system also allows community support to be encouraged. In the illustrated examples, this is done in part by encouraging users to submit questions to the community and then allowing users to rank and vote on the answers. The user is also presented with public answers at the same time that the private conversation is displayed. The public answers in the example of
These techniques can be seen by considering the example of
After the newest answer and the private answer, other users have also provided answers 455, 457. These answers are older so they are listed below the private answer. In the illustrated example, the answers are all in date order with the oldest answer first. However, they may be arranged so that only unviewed answers are above the private conversation box, or so that the newest answers are put at the top. Additional questions 459 and answers 461 may follow the first question 451. And these may be compressed in a variety of different ways using folding 463.
In the Question Status area, the user can select, for example, all the questions, the best answers, open questions, or some other category. In the My Follow area, a user may focus on particular specific questions and answers that the user has either posted or selected as important. The Category section 521 allows the user to select between different categories or all categories. A central discussion area 523 shows the end results of all the category, status and follow selections as a set of question and answer postings.
At the second level of processing, the question receives answers 539 from one or more sources, such as users, expert users, community members, company representatives, search results, etc. The question and the answers then receive votes 541. The votes may come from the same sources that are eligible to provide the answers and may come from guests or users that want to participate in the system or that have provided their own question and would like to contribute in another way. This voting may be applied to many different questions and to many different answers. Based on the voting, a best question may be selected. In addition, a best answer may be selected for the best question or for all of the questions.
At the next level of filtering, the company representative has provided an answer 543 for the question. This answer may be automatically selected as the best answer or the answer can be selected based on the votes or based on the opinion of the user who originally posted the question. Even when a best answer is selected, other answers may be shown with the associated number of votes. This allows later users to see a variety of different answers and select the one that is best suited to their particular circumstances.
After some time, a question can be configured to expire. At area 545, a former question and best answer has been moved into a retirement status. As indicated, the question cannot be followed and the answer cannot be accessed or displayed to users.
A similar approach can be applied to articles. The articles, as mentioned above can come from a knowledge base, whitepapers, user manuals and guides, or any other source. As shown, an article 547 can be associated with a category 533, and can be tagged for following 535. The article can also receive votes 541. The article can be associated with an answer 539 which can also be voted on. In contrast to questions and answers, the article can be exposed to comments 549 from users, experts, or company representatives.
Comments can also be applied to questions and answers to provide more detail about particular answers. The article may be treated as a best answer or as a separate and different kind of item. By treating articles in the same way that questions and answers are treated, articles can be incorporated into the same display and provided to users without leaving the user interface for questions and answers. In area 551, the article has been expired and, like the expired question, it can no longer be followed or viewed. The article is effectively hidden or deleted.
Referring to
Referring to
For a logged in user, by contrast, a different option can be used. In the illustrated example a “My Products” selection 573 is provided. The guest user may expand the My Products list to show different categories of products. In another embodiment, the My Products selection can be expanded to show different products that the logged in user has registered with the company website. The products may be grouped into categories 575 or shown individually, depending on the particular needs of the user.
As shown and described above, a variety of different ideas may be used to filter answers and views to provide the best user experience. In determining which answers are the best answers and in selecting rankings or votes for answers, many different techniques may be used. In one example, page views are used. The answer that is most frequently viewed is selected to be the best answer. In another example, an answer that has a large number of followers, comments or votes can be selected. In another example, a multiplier is used to weight these different measures. So, for example, follows may be weighted to count half as much as votes, so that both are considered but indirect factors are treated as less important than direct factors. In another example, the company can decide which is the most important and the influence of user group and community factors can be alerted to the company for the company to evaluate. This allows a company to take a direct or indirect hand over the website support information depending on the particular circumstances of the company and the desired support experience.
The support pages can be further tailored to particular product areas by creating different appearances and user experiences for different categories of products. In one example, consumer entertainment products can provide a more casual, and suggestive support experience, while network infrastructure products can provide a more detailed, factual, technically precise experience. In another example, users who login with dealer or reseller credentials can be provided with a different experience than end user or purchaser groups. The experience can also be customized by tailoring open groups in a way to promote participation. Private questions can be more oriented toward resolving questions quickly and cordially. The filtering processes described above can also be applied differently for different product categories and different groups.
The support page system can be further enhanced in a variety of other ways not fully shown in the diagrams herein. These enhancements may be adapted to promote a range of different product, marketing, support, and sales strategies. In one example, a recommendation engine can be used to direct different users to different support landing pages. Information about the user can be obtained from a login, from cookies, from the user's browser, or from direct questions to determine which landing page is best suited for any particular user. In another example, user credentials can be taken from another web account, such as Facebook, Twitter, or other accounts. A user can also be directed to the support pages directly from another user account. So, for example, a user may visit a company's Facebook page and then enter the support pages of the company website directly. The user's Facebook credentials might then be used to log the user in, rather than using a separate support page login.
In the examples above, questions can be followed by other users of the support pages. This can be provided using a separate follow interface area in which users can see outstanding questions and answered questions for a particular product or category of products and then choose to follow that question, the question can be associated with that user identification. When the user logs in, the followed questions can be retrieved and a recent status can be provided. The user can then stop following the question, post comments, or more. In another example, a user might be offered an opportunity to have a question automatically selected for following. The question might be selected as relating to a particular product, category, set of words in the question, etc. For more active following, push notifications, e-mails, or other notices can be sent to a user when there is activity on a question that the user is following.
In order to motivate users in the community to participate in the support system, incentives may also be provided. The company can monitor user answers and, based on votes, rankings, page views, or any other factors, select particular users for recognition. Users may be recognized by a special status in a user name, access privileges, leader indications or direct rewards. By encouraging hobbyists to participate more fully, the demand on company resources may be reduced and the company may be able to provide better support at less cost.
The support system described above presents a variety of different advantages to different kinds of users. An active and knowledgeable user can become a known expert, recognized by peers. This status may be sufficient reward or may be used to promote an independent repair or sales business. For purchasers and users, the support site can provide more support than a company may be willing or able to provide. A user may also be able to find additional solutions that a company cannot endorse. Using the private features, a user can receive help with personalized or private issues. For example, the private option can be used to resolve billing issues. Public questions allow all to view the question. These features can be used to allow a newly arriving user to immediately learn of widespread problems, such as service outages, calendar based bugs, etc. With a public view, it will be clear to a user upon landing on the support site that others are having a similar issue and that it is a common or widespread issue.
Additional techniques may be applied to further optimize a support page using the principles discussed above. In one example, company representatives can be designated for particular groups. This may allow the representative to create a personality both in answering and in presentation for particular categories of goods, issues, or user groups. Similarly for dealers, resellers, technicians, service organizations, installers, and others, the company can use log in credentials to allow extended support information to be provided. Dedicated company representatives or access to more expert company representatives can be provided as needed or desired.
In further refinements, a variety of different default or selectable configurations and operations may be provided. So, for example, open groups can be made visible to all users. Users that have not logged in can be provided with a guest access and allowed to see all open groups and questions. For authenticated users that have provided a profile, they may automatically be shown open groups and questions based on their product choices. The product choices may be purchased products or products in which the user has a strong interest.
Looking back at the different functions and utilities shown in the drawing figures and, in particular, the sequence of example user interface screens in
The customer support system may show a screen that allows the user to either narrow down their search or alternatively post it directly as a private message to the customer support representatives of the company. The user may then be provided with the ability to click on “My Questions” to show only those questions posted by the user. Responses to these may be obtained from a user of the online community and the original poster can post a response. Such a back and forth may continue until both sides are satisfied.
The customer support system may also be adapted to display on different types of devices. Questions, answers, and other posts may be viewed from a mobile device, a desktop device, or even a properly configured television. In one implementation, the user can access the customer support feed via a mobile device. Similarly, a user may respond from the mobile device.
The customer support system in the described examples can also support private posts by a customer support representative. In one example, the user is able to select to view all the answers. In another view, the first four answers may be hidden, but selectable by a “Show 4 Answers” or “Show More Answers” control. With private posts, other users typically cannot see the post. In one implementation, the original user may select other users to grant permission to see and comment on that user's private posts. The same system may allow the user to respond to the private messages. Again, the post may be only accessible to the customer support representative and the user.
At the same time, if a user group or community is a part of the customer support system, then other users may continue to post about the posted question even as the customer support representative is having a private conversation with the user.
The customer support system described herein also offers display options to allow the user to configure and manage all of the conversation and posts. In one embodiment, the private conversation may be moved to the bottom or the top of the queue as displayed in the user interface. In one embodiment, the private messages in the conversation may be grouped together. In addition groups of questions may be compressed or expanded on the display.
Typically, there will eventually come a final post by a support community member, super user or a customer support representative indicating the problem was solved. In this case, the many posted answers may prove to be confusing or even misleading. The customer support system solves this problem by ranking the answers and even selecting a best answer. In one implementation, either the user, the customer support representative, other users, or some combination select the best answer from among all of the answers that were posted for a single problem or group of problems. In one embodiment, the best answer is put at the top of the conversation. In another embodiment, the best answer may be added as an answer to frequently asked questions.
Environment 610 is an environment in which an on-demand database service exists. User system 612 may be any machine or system that is used by a user to access a database user system. For example, any of user systems 612 can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptop computer, a work station, and/or a network of computing devices. As illustrated in
An on-demand database service, such as system 616, is a database system that is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, but instead may be available for their use when the users need the database system (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand database services may store information from one or more tenants stored into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system (MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database service 616” and “system 616” will be used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one or more database objects. A relational database management system (RDMS) or the equivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against the database object(s). Application platform 618 may be a framework that allows the applications of system 616 to run, such as the hardware and/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demand database service 616 may include an application platform 618 that enables creation, managing and executing one or more applications developed by the provider of the on-demand database service, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems 612, or third party application developers accessing the on-demand database service via user systems 612.
The users of user systems 612 may differ in their respective capacities, and the capacity of a particular user system 612 might be entirely determined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. For example, where a salesperson is using a particular user system 612 to interact with system 616, that user system has the capacities allotted to that salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that user system to interact with system 616, that user system has the capacities allotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical role model, users at one permission level may have access to applications, data, and database information accessible by a lower permission level user, but may not have access to certain applications, database information, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level. Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard to accessing and modifying application and database information, depending on a user's security or permission level.
Network 614 is any network or combination of networks of devices that communicate with one another. For example, network 614 can be any one or any combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network), telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, star network, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriate configuration. As the most common type of computer network in current use is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred to as the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood that the networks that the present invention might use are not so limited, although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol.
User systems 612 might communicate with system 616 using TCP/IP and, at a higher network level, use other common Internet protocols to communicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTP is used, user system 612 might include an HTTP client commonly referred to as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from an HTTP server at system 616. Such an HTTP server might be implemented as the sole network interface between system 616 and network 614, but other techniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations, the interface between system 616 and network 614 includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a plurality of servers. At least as for the users that are accessing that server, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS′ data; however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.
In one embodiment, system 616, shown in
One arrangement for elements of system 616 is shown in
Several elements in the system shown in
According to one embodiment, each user system 612 and all of its components are operator configurable using applications, such as a browser, including computer code run using a central processing unit such as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 616 (and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) and all of their components might be operator configurable using application(s) including computer code to run using a central processing unit such as processor system 617, which may include an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. A computer program product embodiment includes a machine-readable storage medium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used to program a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodiments described herein. Computer code for operating and configuring system 616 to intercommunicate and to process webpages, applications and other data and media content as described herein are preferably downloaded and stored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device as is well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotating media including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is well known, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer code for implementing embodiments of the present invention can be implemented in any programming language that can be executed on a client system and/or server or server system such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language, Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such as VBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may be used. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).
According to one embodiment, each system 616 is configured to provide webpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client) systems 612 to support the access by user systems 612 as tenants of system 616. As such, system 616 provides security mechanisms to keep each tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than one MTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another (e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or they may be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one or more servers located in city A and one or more servers located in city B). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/or physically connected servers distributed locally or across one or more geographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to include a computer system, including processing hardware and process space(s), and an associated storage system and database application (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also be understood that “server system” and “server” are often used interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database object described herein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, a collection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online or offline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include a distributed database or storage network and associated processing intelligence.
User system 612, network 614, system 616, tenant data storage 622, and system data storage 624 were discussed above in
Application platform 618 includes an application setup mechanism 738 that supports application developers' creation and management of applications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 622 by save routines 736 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenant process spaces 704 managed by tenant management process 710 for example. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 734 that provides a programming language style interface extension to API 732. A detailed description of some PL/SOQL language embodiments is discussed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478 entitled, METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA A MULTI-TENANT DATABASE ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE issued Jun. 1, 2010 to Craig Weissman, which is incorporated in its entirety herein for all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one or more system processes, which manages retrieving application metadata 716 for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata as an application in a virtual machine.
Each application server 700 may be communicably coupled to database systems, e.g., having access to system data 625 and tenant data 623, via a different network connection.
For example, one application server 7001 might be coupled via the network 614 (e.g., the Internet), another application server 700N-1 might be coupled via a direct network link, and another application server 700N might be coupled by yet a different network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating between application servers 700 and the database system. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may be used to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.
In certain embodiments, each application server 700 is configured to handle requests for any user associated with any organization that is a tenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove application servers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there is preferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to a specific application server 700. In one embodiment, therefore, an interface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5 Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the application servers 700 and the user systems 612 to distribute requests to the application servers 700. In one embodiment, the load balancer uses a least connections algorithm to route user requests to the application servers 700. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as round robin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, in certain embodiments, three consecutive requests from the same user could hit three different application servers 700, and three requests from different users could hit the same application server 700. In this manner, system 616 is multi-tenant, wherein system 616 handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data and applications across disparate users and organizations.
As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs a sales force where each salesperson uses system 616 to manage their sales process. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customer follow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., all applicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant data storage 622). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the data and the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit, calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system having nothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her sales efforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example, if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internet access in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as to that customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.
While each user's data might be separate from other users' data regardless of the employers of each user, some data might be organization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users or all of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, there might be some data structures managed by system 616 that are allocated at the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at the user level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants including possible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keep data, applications, and application use separate. Also, because many tenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their own system, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions that may be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data and tenant specific data, system 616 might also maintain system level data usable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data might include industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharable among tenants.
In certain embodiments, user systems 612 (which may be client systems) communicate with application servers 700 to request and update system-level and tenant-level data from system 616 that may require sending one or more queries to tenant data storage 622 and/or system data storage 624. System 616 (e.g., an application server 700 in system 616) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or more SQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. System data storage 624 may generate query plans to access the requested data from the database.
Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, such as a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefined categories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may be used herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and custom objects according to the present invention. It should be understood that “table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each table generally contains one or more data categories logically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a table contains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields. For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes a customer with fields for basic contact information such as name, address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe a purchase order, including fields for information such as customer, product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems, standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRM database applications, such standard entities might include tables for Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity data, each containing pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word “entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and “table”.
At 803, an inquiry is received from a user. The inquiry can be about a product or service and may relate to features of the product, a problem with the product, or future developments of the product. The inquiry may also be about accessories, purchases, or compatibility with other products or services, depending on the particular product or service involved.
At 805, a private comment directed to the user inquiry is received at the customer support system. While these comments are illustrated as coming from a customer support representative of the sales, manufacturing or distribution company, other people may be authorized to provide private comments as well. In many cases, the private comments will be an answer to the inquiry or a request for further information about the inquiry.
At 807, the public comment is displayed to a public user group. The user group may require authentication of some kind or the information may be made available to anyone willing to log on.
At 809, the public comment is displayed to the user. This may be done in the same way that it is displayed to the public user group or separately. At 811, the private comment is displayed to the user. To preserve the privacy of the user inquiry and response, these are viewable only to the user. The user may be provided an option to make the inquiry and the private comment private or only the private comment. Allowing the inquiry to be public may allow the user to obtain answers that view the public inquiry in addition to the private comment. Public and private comments may be provided on different displays or at different times or together, depending on the particular implementation.
The displays will typically be provided as a browser web page display through the internet, however, they may be provided over other communication networks and using other viewing applications. A purpose-built or a general purpose feed reader may be used for example. A specific application or a general viewer may be used. In addition, as shown in the examples above, there may be additional operations and the order of the operations may be changed. So, for example, public comments may be displayed to a user before an inquiry is received or before a private comment is received. The private comment may be displayed to the user before the user inquiry is displayed to a public user group. Access to the private comment can be limited by authentication, such as a log in or in a variety of other ways.
At 903, the user can then post a question to the online community. As an alternative, the user may instead simply view questions or answers that have already been posted either by himself or others. In one example, the user may be provided 905 with a prompt as he inputs a question. The prompts will be intended typically to facilitate the search for an answer. In one example, the prompts are proposed questions that resemble what the user has entered. These questions may have the benefit of being better phrased or having already been answered. The prompts may also allow the user to narrow the inquiry to certain products or types of products or to certain areas of inquiry, such as maintenance, warranty service, repair, use, etc.
At 907, the user narrows down the search using the prompts and, at 911, the user narrows the types of people that are permitted to view the question. This can be done using a prompt to designate the search as either a private message or a public message. A private message will be sent to the customer support representatives of the company. At 913, the user posts the question.
The customer support system can provide many different tools for viewing and managing questions, queries, answers and comments. At 915, the user clicks on “My Questions” to show only those questions posted by the user. This can be done in the same session as the original log in at 901 or it can be done at a new session at a later time.
At 917, there is a response to the user's question from a user of the online community. The response may be displayed with the query and the display may be public. The community response may be generated in any of a variety of different ways. In one example, the question is posted on page with other questions and it may be supplied in feeds to community members. The community members log in to the support page or view the feed and then post responses. The response may be applied to a discussion group where the post is commented on by community members. The community may be restricted to those with log in credentials or it may be open, depending on the particular implementation.
At 919, the original poster of the question may respond to the response. There may then be follow-up communications from one or more members of the community. The postings may continue as long as there is interest from the user or members of the community.
At 921, the user receives a response from a customer support representative. This response may be viewed in any of the same ways that the community response is viewed. If this part of the support has been designated as private, then this response will be seen only by the user. As mentioned above, a user may choose to receive only responses from the community or only responses from customer support, or both. The user may designate the question to company support as public or private and may designate responses and later communications with company support as public or private. In the illustrated examples, the post is a private post by the customer support representative. The original user, however, may select other individual users or user groups to grant permission to see and comment on private posts.
At 923 the user posts a response to the customer support agent. As with the community, the user and representative may continue to post until the matter is closed. At 925, a final post is made by the customer support representative indicating the problem was solved. This closes the matter. At the same time, other users may continue to post responses with the user and with other community members even though the customer support representative is having a private conversation with the user.
At 927, the best answer may be selected as a response to the user's initial question. The selection may be made by the user, the customer support representative, other users, or some combination of these persons or groups. This best answer designation, while not required, may make it easier for a later user to find a good answer to a similar or the same question. Later users may be further helped at block 931 if the best answer is added as an answer to a frequently asked questions (FAQ). The control and maintenance of the FAQ may typically be by company support, however, it may also be controlled by others or there may be multiple FAQ's on the same support site managed by different people.
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the specific embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/415,784 entitled Methods and Systems for a Customer Support Flow, by Mustafa Al-Alami, filed Nov. 19, 2010 (Attorney Docket No. 489PROV), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61415784 | Nov 2010 | US |
