Patent Issued for Call routing system (USPTO 11349990): United Services Automobile Association

2022 JUN 17 (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 Condon, Kelly (Phoenix, AZ, US), Cook, Mark (Anthem, AZ, US), Jenkins, Austin (Phoenix, AZ, US), Madsen, Merrill (Anthem, AZ, US), Sprague, Samantha (Glendale, AZ, US), Wroble, Conor (Chandler, AZ, US), filed on April 1, 2020, was published online on May 31, 2022.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11349990, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “When a person calls an organization’s customer service phone number, he or she is routed to a customer service representative. To talk to the customer service representative, the call routing system may request the person identify the reason for his or her call. In some cases, the call routing system may provide some options such as dialing a number for an option related to complaints. The call routing system may also request the person to enter some identifying information about him or her, such as a member number or a birthdate. After the person enters the requested information, the call routing system typically routes the person to the next available customer service representative.

“The techniques introduced here may be better understood by referring to the following Detailed Description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals indicate identical or functionally similar elements. Moreover, while the technology is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to limit the technology to the particular embodiments described. On the contrary, the technology is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the technology as defined by the appended claims.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A conventional call routing system can randomly route a person’s call to a next available customer service representative based on a reason for the person’s call. For instance, the conventional call routing system can request a person to identify a reason for his or her call and can determine that the person is calling about credit card fraud. Based on this reason, the conventional call routing system can randomly select a next available customer service representative within the credit card fraud department to answer the person’s call. In some cases, such a random routing may provide a positive outcome for the person, but in some cases, the person may have a negative experience with the randomly selected customer service representative. By randomly routing the call to an available customer service representative, a conventional call routing system cannot predict whether its routing will result a good experience for the person.

“Furthermore, at the end of a phone call, the conventional call routing system may present an option to a person to take a survey that provides information as to whether the person had a positive experience or a negative experience. However, most people do not take the survey, reducing the sample size of the customers used to determine a metric (e.g., customer satisfaction score) that describes a probability of whether customers had a positive or negative phone call experience. Moreover, the few people who do take the survey are typically either extremely satisfied or extremely dissatisfied, which does not provide representative data for customer satisfaction.

“To overcome at least some of the issues described above for a conventional call routing system, this patent document describes systems, apparatus, and methods for routing calls based on analyzing a person’s prior phone call conversation with a customer service representative. Such a technique can provide a better measure of customer satisfaction score without relying on customer surveys that tend to be ineffective, skewed, or both. The example headings for the various sections below are used to facilitate the understanding of the disclosed subject matter and do not limit the scope of the claimed subject matter in any way. Accordingly, one or more features of one section can be combined with one or more features of another section.

“I. Determine Customer Satisfaction Score”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for routing a call, comprising: a server configured to: receive call data related to a conversation between a first person and a second person on a first call, wherein the conversation is related to a first topic selected by the first person via the first call, wherein the call data includes: an identifier that identifies the first person, and a plurality of metrics that characterize the first person’s experience on the first call; determine, based on the plurality of metrics, an individual satisfaction score that describes a level of satisfaction of the first person associated with the first call; receive an indication of a second call from the first person, wherein the indication includes the identifier of the first person and a second topic selected via the second call; identify one or more persons to answer the second call based on: (1) the individual satisfaction score of the first person from the first call, and (2) a training score of each of the one or more persons, wherein the training score indicates a level of training, of each of the one or more persons, in the second topic, wherein the training score is one of one or more training scores associated with one or more topics for each of the one or more persons, wherein the training score satisfies a criterion established, for each of the one or more persons, according to the individual satisfaction score of the first person from the first call, and (3) a plurality of additional satisfaction scores associated with each of the one or more persons, wherein, for each of the one or more persons, the plurality of additional satisfaction scores is determined from prior conversations on prior calls with a plurality of additional persons; and send, to one or more computers associated with the one or more persons, a message that indicates that the second call is mapped to the one or more persons.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to: determine that the level of satisfaction is high in response to the satisfaction score being greater than a pre-determined threshold value, and determine that the level of satisfaction is low in response to the satisfaction score being less than the pre-determined threshold value.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the satisfaction score is determined by a supervised machine learning technique based on a plurality of targets, wherein a first set of targets includes a first set of values for the plurality of metrics associated with the high level of satisfaction, and wherein a second set of targets includes a second set of values for the plurality of metrics associated with the low level of satisfaction.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of metrics includes: a difference in time between a first time value when the first person initiates the first call and a second time value when the second person answers the first call, a first value that describes a number of times that the first person called regarding the first topic, wherein the first value is greater than or equal to one, a second value that describes a number of times that the first person is transferred from one person to another person on the first call, wherein the second value is greater than or equal to zero, a plurality of scores that describe a sentiment of the first person on the first call, and an indication of whether a sentiment during an end portion of the conversation of the first call was positive or negative.

“5. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of scores includes a first score that describes a maximum positive sentiment value, a second score that describes a maximum negative sentiment value, a third score that describes an average positive sentiment value, and a fourth score that describes an average negative sentiment value.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first topic is the same as the second topic.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to: send a second message to a computer associated with a third person regarding a performance of the second person in response to determining that the satisfaction score is greater than or equal to a second pre-determined threshold value or is less than or equal to a third pre-determined threshold value, wherein the second pre-determined threshold value is greater than the pre-determined threshold value, wherein the third pre-determined threshold value is less than the pre-determined threshold value, and wherein the second message includes the satisfaction score.

“8. A method of routing a call, comprising: receiving call data related to a conversation between a first person and a second person on a first call, wherein the conversation is related to a first topic selected by the first person via the first call, wherein the call data includes: an identifier that identifies the first person, and a plurality of metrics that characterize the first person’s experience on the first call; determining, based on the plurality of metrics, an individual satisfaction score that describes a level of satisfaction of the first person associated with the first call; receiving an indication of a second call from the first person, wherein the indication includes the identifier of the first person and a second topic selected via the second call; identifying one or more persons to answer the second call based on: (1) the individual satisfaction score of the first person from the first call, and (2) a training score of each of the one or more persons, wherein the training score indicates a level of training, of each of the one or more persons, in the second topic, wherein the training score is one of one or more training scores associated with one or more topics for each of the one or more persons, wherein the training score satisfies a criterion established, for each of the one or more persons, according of the individual satisfaction score of the first person from the first call, and (3) a plurality of additional satisfaction scores associated with each of the one or more persons, wherein, for each of the one or more persons, the plurality of additional satisfaction scores is determined from prior conversations on prior calls with a plurality of additional persons; and sending, to one or more computers associated with the one or more persons, a message that indicates that the second call is mapped to the one or more persons.

“9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining that the level of satisfaction is high in response to the satisfaction score being greater than a pre-determined threshold value, and determining that the level of satisfaction is low in response to the satisfaction score being less than the pre-determined threshold value.

“10. The method of claim 8, wherein the satisfaction score is determined by a supervised machine learning technique based on a plurality of targets, wherein a first set of targets includes a first set of values for the plurality of metrics associated with the high level of satisfaction, and wherein a second set of targets includes a second set of values for the plurality of metrics associated with the low level of satisfaction.

“11. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of metrics includes: a difference in time between a first time value when the first person initiates the first call and a second time value when the second person answers the first call, a first value that describes a number of times that the first person called regarding the first topic, wherein the first value is greater than or equal to one, a second value that describes a number of times that the first person is transferred from one person to another person on the first call, wherein the second value is greater than or equal to zero, a plurality of scores that describe a sentiment of the first person on the first call, and an indication of whether a sentiment during an end portion of the conversation of the first call was positive or negative.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of scores includes a first score that describes a maximum positive sentiment value, a second score that describes a maximum negative sentiment value, a third score that describes an average positive sentiment value, and a fourth score that describes an average negative sentiment value.

“13. The method of claim 8, wherein the first topic is the same as the second topic.

“14. The method of claim 8, further comprising: sending a second message to a computer associated with a third person regarding a performance of the second person in response to determining that the satisfaction score is greater than or equal to a second pre-determined threshold value or is less than or equal to a third pre-determined threshold value, wherein the second pre-determined threshold value is greater than the pre-determined threshold value, wherein the third pre-determined threshold value is less than the pre-determined threshold value, and wherein the second message includes the satisfaction score.”

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

For more information, see this patent: Condon, Kelly. Call routing system. U.S. Patent Number 11349990, filed April 1, 2020, and published online on May 31, 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=11349990.PN.&OS=PN/11349990RS=PN/11349990

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