Patent Issued for Method and apparatus for determining an on-hold queue position of a call (USPTO 11962717): United Services Automobile Association

2024 MAY 02 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Balasingh, Charles (San Antonio, TX, US), Dixon, David Patrick (Boerne, TX, US), Dziuk, Janelle Denice (Falls City, TX, US), Gray, Emily Margaret (San Antonio, TX, US), Hansen, Gregory David (San Antonio, TX, US), Jennings, Megan Sarah (San Antonio, TX, US), Mehra, Samip Dilip (Peoria, AZ, US), Yarbrough, Gregory B (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on October 11, 2022, was published online on April 16, 2024, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11962717 is assigned to United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “When a person calls an organization’s customer service phone number, he or she is often placed into a call hold queue. Depending upon factors such as time of day, weather, day of the week, and number of customer service representatives available to take calls, a caller may wait a long time to talk to a customer service representative. Some situations cannot be resolved digitally, while other situations may be dangerous or undesirable for a caller to wait an extended time for the next available representative. Accordingly, it is desirable to identify the callers who may need or benefit from expedited assistance.

“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 the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A call center system can accept a call and place a caller or user into an on-hold queue. As used herein, a person calling into the call center system is generally referred to as a “user”. In some cases, the calls may be answered in the order in which they are received. At times the wait can be long, and it can be advantageous to answer some calls in a more expedited manner. For example, a user may be experiencing an event such as an accident or be calling during a time period in which the user may need more immediate service. In other embodiments, if the user typically communicates with the enterprise digitally, a call can indicate that the user has been unable to resolve their issue electronically and thus requires assistance. Also, some users such as minors, dependents on accounts, and those with disabilities may be unable to effectively resolve their issue electronically.

“To overcome at least some of the issues described above for an on-hold system, this patent document describes systems, apparatus, and methods for determining an adjustment of a user’s on-hold wait time based on one or more reasons that can indicate why they are calling. Such a technique can improve routing and call wait times because it considers caller frequency as well as environmental factors, thus identifying those whose questions may be better suited to be answered digitally and those who need assistance more quickly, providing a technical solution to identifying priority callers. Additionally, the disclosed system can identify those in distress and provide quicker service. 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. Identify User and Determine a Level of Importance”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method of determining a queue position of a call for a user, the method comprising: receiving, at an enterprise, the call from a user device associated with the user, wherein the user device includes an application associated with the enterprise; placing the call into an on-hold queue; receiving, at the enterprise, sensor data associated with the user device from one or more sensors associated with the user, the sensor data being indicative of a traffic state and/or health data of the user; determining a weighted level of importance associated with the call based on call history information associated with the user device and the received sensor data; comparing the weighted level of importance to at least one weight threshold; and decreasing a wait time for the call based on the weighted level of importance meeting or exceeding the at least one weight threshold.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is indicative of the traffic state, and wherein the sensor data is received from one or more sensors located in a vehicle associated with the user.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is indicative of the traffic state, and wherein the method further comprises: receiving, at the enterprise, the sensor data including accelerometer data associated with the user device; determining that a traffic accident associated with the user has occurred based at least on the accelerometer data; and increasing the weighted level of importance in response to determining that the traffic accident has occurred.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining that the traffic accident has occurred further comprises identifying movement patterns within the accelerometer data that indicate the traffic accident.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a second call to an emergency number in the call history of the user device within a predetermined time period of the call to the enterprise; and increasing the weighted level of importance in response to the second call being identified.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is indicative of health data of the user, and wherein the sensor data indicative of health data of the user is received from a medical device attached to the user.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving additional sensor data indicative of a dangerous condition of a vehicle associated with the user; and increasing the weighted level of importance in response to the additional sensor data.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is indicative of health data of the user, and wherein the sensor data indicative of health data of the user is received from a wearable device worn by the user.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor data includes sensor data indicative of the traffic state and sensor data indicative of health data of the user; wherein the sensor data indicative of the traffic state was received from one or more sensors in a vehicle associated with the user; wherein the sensor data indicative of health data of the user was received from a wearable device worn by the user; and wherein the determining the weighted level of the call is based on both the sensor data indicative of the traffic state and the sensor data indicative of health data of the user.

“10. A system for determining a queue position of a call for a user comprising: a server configured to: receive, at an enterprise, the call from a user device associated with the user, wherein the user device includes an application associated with the enterprise; place the call into an on-hold queue; receive, at the enterprise, sensor data associated with the user device from one or more sensors associated with the user, the sensor data being indicative of a traffic state and/or health data of the user; determine a weighted level of importance associated with the call based on call history information associated with the user device and the received sensor data; compare the weighted level of importance to at least one weight threshold; and decrease a wait time for the call based on the weighted level of importance meeting or exceeding the at least one weight threshold.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein the sensor data is indicative of the traffic state, and wherein the server is further configured to: receive, at the enterprise, the sensor data including accelerometer data associated with the user device; determine that a traffic accident associated with the user has occurred based at least on the accelerometer data; and increase the weighted level of importance in response to determining that the traffic accident has occurred.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the determining that the traffic accident has occurred further comprises identifying movement patterns within the accelerometer data that indicate the traffic accident.

“13. The system of claim 10, wherein the server is further configured to: identify a second call to an emergency number in the call history of the user device within a predetermined time period of the call to the enterprise; and increase the weighted level of importance in response to the second call being identified.

“14. The system of claim 10, wherein the sensor data is indicative of health data of the user, wherein the server is further configured to: receive the sensor data indicative of health data of the user from a personal device associated with the user.

“15. The system of claim 10, wherein the sensor data is indicative of health data of the user, wherein the server is further configured to: receive the sensor data indicative of health data of the user from a wearable device associated with the user.

“16. The system of claim 10, wherein the sensor data includes sensor data indicative of the traffic state and sensor data indicative of health data of the user, wherein the server is further configured to: receive the sensor data indicative of the traffic state from one or more sensors in a vehicle associated with the user; receive the sensor data indicative of health data of the user from a personal device associated with the user; and wherein the determining the weighted level of the call is based on both the sensor data indicative of the traffic state and the sensor data indicative of health data of the user.

“17. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having machine executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, direct the one or more processors to perform a method comprising: receiving, at an enterprise, a call from a user device associated with a user, wherein the user device includes an application associated with the enterprise; placing the call into an on-hold queue; receiving, at the enterprise, sensor data associated with the user device from one or more sensors associated with the user, the sensor data being indicative of a traffic state and/or health data of the user; determining a weighted level of importance associated with the call based on call history information associated with the user device and the received sensor data; comparing the weighted level of importance to at least one weight threshold; and decreasing a wait time for the call based on the weighted level of importance meeting or exceeding the at least one weight threshold.

“18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17, the method further comprising: identifying a second call to an emergency number in the call history of the user device within a predetermined time period of the call to the enterprise; and increasing the weighted level of importance in response to the second call being identified.

“19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the sensor data is indicative of the traffic state, the method further comprising: receiving, at the enterprise, the sensor data including accelerometer data associated with the user device; determining that a traffic accident associated with the user has occurred based at least on the accelerometer data; and increasing the weighted level of importance in response to determining that the traffic accident has occurred.

“20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the sensor data is indicative of health data of the user, the method further comprising: receiving the sensor data indicative of health data of the user from a personal device associated with the user.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Balasingh, Charles. Method and apparatus for determining an on-hold queue position of a call. U.S. Patent Number 11962717, filed October 11, 2022, and published online on April 16, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11962717)&db=USPAT&type=ids

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)