Patent Issued for Aided call transfer system (USPTO 11272054): United Services Automobile Association

2022 MAR 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Gerrard, Trent Wade (Schertz, TX, US), Gonzales, Aaron Michael (San Antonio, TX, US), Montoya, Jesus (San Antonio, TX, US), Navarro, Daniel Lee (San Antonio, TX, US), Perry, Jeffrey Cory (San Antonio, TX, US), Smith, Randy (Cottonwood Shores, TX, US), filed on February 7, 2019, was published online on March 8, 2022.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11272054, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Call centers are widely deployed by companies, government agencies, and other organizations to handle incoming telephone calls from customers or users who want to ask questions and/or to request assistance. To handle such inquiries and requests, call centers are staffed with technical support personnel, customer service personnel, or sales support personnel (hereinafter collectively referred to as agents). Depending on the nature of an inquiry or a request for assistance, an agent may handle the inquiry or request, or may forward the inquiry or request to another agent by transferring the call.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In general, one innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include determining, by a speech recognition engine, a plurality of keywords from information provided by a user to an agent during a call; automatically identifying a transfer option for transferring the call based on the plurality of keywords; and providing, on a user device of the agent, the identified transfer option for transferring the call.

“Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding computer systems, apparatus, and computer programs recorded on one or more computer storage devices, each configured to perform the actions of the methods. A system of one or more computers can be configured to perform particular actions by virtue of having software, firmware, hardware, or a combination of them installed on the system that in operation causes or cause the system to perform the actions. One or more computer programs can be configured to perform particular actions by virtue of including instructions that, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the actions.

“The foregoing and other embodiments can each optionally include one or more of the following features, alone or in combination. Automatically identifying a transfer option may include automatically identifying, based on a first keyword, a plurality of potential transfer options for transferring the call, wherein the first keyword is determined, by the speech recognition engine, from a first part of the conversation between the user and the agent; and automatically identifying, among the plurality of potential transfer options, the transfer option based on a second keyword, wherein the second keyword is determined, by the speech recognition engine, from a second part of the conversation between the user and the agent. The first keyword may indicate a life event of the user. The method may include automatically updating a user profile of the user with the life event. The agent may be employed by an organization and the transfer option identifies a unit at the organization where the call should be transferred. The method may include receiving, from the user device, a selection of the identified transfer option; and automatically transferring the call to the identified unit at the organization. The method may include displaying, on the user device, an option for transferring the call to the identified unit using warm transfer. The method may include automatically pre-filling a note to a receiving agent at the identified unit based on the information provided by the user to the agent during the call.

“The details of one or more embodiments of the subject matter of this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.

“Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method performed by at least one processor, the method comprising: dynamically capturing, by the at least one processor, during a call between a first individual and a second individual, one or more keywords from a verbal conversation between the first individual and the second individual during the call; automatically determining, by the at least one processor, a transfer option from among a plurality of candidate transfer options for transferring the call based on the captured one or more keywords, wherein each of the candidate transfer options specifies a different respective transfer unit for receiving the call; providing a display of the determined transfer option on a graphical user interface rendered using a user device of the second individual, wherein providing the display of the determined transaction option comprises: presenting the graphical user interface using the user device of the second individual, the graphical user interface comprising a graphical representation of each of the plurality of candidate transfer options, and visually emphasizing the determined transfer option on the graphical user interface relative to the other candidate transfer options, concurrently with presenting the graphical representation of each of the plurality of candidate transfer options on the graphical user interface; receiving, from the user device, a selection of the determined transfer option using the graphical user interface; and automatically transferring, by the at least one processor, the call to the transfer unit specified by the determined transfer option.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically determining the transfer option comprises: automatically determining, based on a first set of keywords, the plurality of candidate transfer options for transferring the call, wherein the first set of keywords is extracted, by the at least one processor, from a first part of the verbal conversation between the first individual and the second individual; and automatically determining, among the plurality of candidate transfer options, the transfer option based on a second set of keywords, wherein the second set of keywords is extracted, by the at least one processor, from a second part of the verbal conversation between the first individual and the second individual.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first set of keywords includes a keyword that indicates a life event of the first individual.

“4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: automatically updating a user profile of the first individual with the life event.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second individual is employed by an organization and the transfer option specifies the transfer unit at the organization for receiving the call.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein: providing the display of the determined transfer option on the graphical user interface rendered using the user device of the second individual comprises: providing a display of (i) a warm transfer option for transferring the call to the identified unit using warm transfer, and (ii) a cold transfer option for transferring the call to the identified unit using cold transfer; receiving, from the user device, the selection of the determined transfer option comprises: receiving a selection of one of the warm transfer option or the cold transfer option; and automatically transferring the call to the transfer unit specified by the transfer option comprises: automatically transferring the call to the transfer unit specified by the transfer option using the selected warm transfer option or cold transfer option.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: automatically pre-filling a note including a context of the verbal conversation between the first individual and the second individual, and automatically sending the pre-filled note to the transfer unit specified by the transfer option before transferring the call to the transfer unit specified by the transfer option.

“8. A system comprising: at least one computer; and a computer-readable medium coupled to the at least one computer having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the at least one computer, cause the at least one computer to perform operations comprising: dynamically capturing during a call between a first individual and a second individual, one or more keywords from a verbal conversation between the first individual and the second individual during the call; automatically determining a transfer option from among a plurality of candidate transfer options for transferring the call based on the captured one or more keywords, wherein each of the candidate transfer options specifies a different respective transfer unit for receiving the call; providing a display of the determined transfer option on a graphical user interface rendered using a user device of the second individual, wherein providing the display of the determined transaction option comprises: presenting the graphical user interface using the user device of the second individual, the graphical user interface comprising a graphical representation of each of the plurality of candidate transfer options, and visually emphasizing the determined transfer option on the graphical user interface relative to the other candidate transfer options, concurrently with presenting the graphical representation of each of the plurality of candidate transfer options on the graphical user interface; receiving, from the user device, a selection of the determined transfer option using the graphical user interface; and automatically transferring the call to the transfer unit specified by the determined transfer option.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein automatically determining the transfer option comprises: automatically determining, based on a first set of keywords, the plurality of candidate transfer options for transferring the call, wherein the first set of keywords is extracted, by the speech recognition engine, from a first part of the conversation between the first individual and the second individual; and automatically determining, among the plurality of candidate transfer options, the transfer option based on a second set of keywords, wherein the second set of keywords is extracted, by the speech recognition engine, from a second part of the conversation between the first individual and the second individual.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first set of keywords includes a keyword that indicates a life event of the first individual.

“11. The system of claim 8, wherein the second individual is employed by an organization and the transfer option specifies the transfer unit at the organization for receiving the call.

“12. The system of claim 8, wherein: providing the display of the determined transfer option on the graphical user interface rendered using the user device of the second individual comprises: providing a display of (i) a warm transfer option for transferring the call to the identified unit using warm transfer, and (ii) a cold transfer option for transferring the call to the identified unit using cold transfer; receiving, from the user device, the selection of the determined transfer option comprises: receiving a selection of one of the warm transfer option or the cold transfer option; and automatically transferring the call to the transfer unit specified by the transfer option comprises: automatically transferring the call to the specified by the transfer option using the selected warm transfer option or cold transfer option.

“13. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise: automatically pre-filling a note including a context of the verbal conversation between the first individual and the second individual, and automatically sending the pre-filled note to the transfer unit specified by the transfer option before transferring the call to the transfer unit specified by the transfer option.

“14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to at least one computer having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the at least one computer, cause the at least one computer to perform operations comprising: dynamically capturing during a call between a first individual and a second individual, one or more keywords from a verbal conversation between the first individual and the second individual during the call; automatically determining a transfer option from among a plurality of candidate transfer options for transferring the call based on the captured one or more keywords, wherein each of the candidate transfer options specifies a different respective transfer unit for receiving the call; providing a display of the determined transfer option on a graphical user interface rendered using a user device of the second individual, wherein providing the display of the determined transaction option comprises: presenting the graphical user interface using the user device of the second individual, the graphical user interface comprising a graphical representation of each of the plurality of candidate transfer options, and visually emphasizing the determined transfer option on the graphical user interface relative to the other candidate transfer options, concurrently with presenting the graphical representation of each of the plurality of candidate transfer options on the graphical user interface; receiving, from the user device, a selection of the determined transfer option using the graphical user interface; and automatically transferring the call to the transfer unit specified by the determined transfer option.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For more information, see this patent: Gerrard, Trent Wade. Aided call transfer system. U.S. Patent Number 11272054, filed February 7, 2019, and published online on March 8, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11272054.PN.&OS=PN/11272054RS=PN/11272054

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