Patent Issued for Reconnection Routing For Service Sessions (USPTO 10,958,540)

2021 APR 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States) has been issued patent number 10,958,540, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventor is Lilley, David Alexander (Schertz, TX).

This patent was filed on October 12, 2017 and was published online on April 5, 2021.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “An organization may use any number of computing systems, communications networks, data storage devices, or other types of systems to provide services to individuals. An organization may also employ service representatives that use the various systems to assist individuals in service sessions that are conducted over the telephone, in a video conference, through text chat sessions, or over other communication channels. An organization may seek to optimize the manner in which incoming service requests are routed to service representatives to ensure optimal usage of computing resources and also to provide an appropriate level of responsiveness to the individuals.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “Implementations of the present disclosure are generally directed to routing requests in a service environment. More specifically, implementations are directed to routing of requests in a service environment to reconnect following a previously terminated service session, in which the routing of an individual’s subsequent service request is based at least partly on the previous routing that was performed to establish the terminated service session.

“In general, innovative aspects of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include operations of: initiating a first service session based on a first service request that is submitted by an individual in the service environment; storing, in an activity data store, an activity record that identifies the individual and a category associated with the first service session; receiving an alert indicating a termination of the first service session; and receiving an indication of a second service request that is submitted by the individual in the service environment after the termination of the first service session and, in response, retrieving the activity record from the activity data store, determining a service representative (SR) associated with the category indicated in the activity record, and initiating a second service session between the SR and the individual in the service environment.

“Implementations can optionally include one or more of the following features: the service environment includes an interactive voice response (IVR) interface; the first service request is a call to the IVR interface; the category of the first service session is determined based on a navigation, through the IVR interface, to establish the first service session; the second service request is a call to the IVR interface; initiating the second service session includes bypassing at least a portion of the IVR interface; the activity record includes a telephone number of the individual; the activity record is retrieved that corresponds to the telephone number calling into the IVR interface; the activity record includes a time-to-live (TTL) value; the second service session is initiated based on determining that an elapsed time between the storing of the activity record and the receiving of the second service request has not exceeded the TTL value; the TTL value is based on the category; the operations further include detecting the termination of the first service session and, in response, sending an instruction to present a reconnection dialog on a user device of the individual; the second service request is sent from the user device in response to a selection made, by the individual, in the reconnection dialog; the operations further include selecting, from a category data store that includes a plurality of categories of service requests, the category associated with the first service session, wherein the activity record includes a category identifier that is a key to the category in the category data store; and/or the plurality of categories stored in the category data store includes a hierarchical arrangement of categories.

“Other implementations of any of the above aspects include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs that are configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices. The present disclosure also provides one or more computer-readable storage media coupled to one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations in accordance with implementations of the methods provided herein. The present disclosure further provides a system for implementing the methods provided herein. The system includes one or more processors, and one or more computer-readable storage media coupled to the one or more processors having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations in accordance with implementations of the methods provided herein.

“Implementations of the present disclosure provide the following technical advantages and/or technical improvements over previously available solutions. In traditional service environments, such as call centers, call routing may involve a number of administrators who determine which service representative is to receive and handle a particular call from a customer. Moreover, traditional call routing systems (either automatic or manual) may be prone to errors in which requests are misrouted, and subsequently require one or more rerouting operations to attempt to find the appropriate service representative to service a request. Implementations address these problems by determining a category for the service request, based on the category of a previously terminated service session, and automatically routing the request to a service representative who is suitable to handle the request of the predicted category. By providing for more accurate routing of requests, implementations do not consume the processing power, memory, and/or other computing resources that traditional systems consume to recover from errors in routing and/or re-routing of requests following an erroneous routing decision. Moreover, by providing a faster and more efficient mechanism for routing a service request following a terminated service session, by using information from the previous routing to expedite the reconnection routing, implementations avoid the expenditure of processing power, active memory, network bandwidth, storage space, and/or other computing resources that traditional systems are required to expend to re-determine the intent of the service request and route the service request. The expedited reconnection process described herein also provides a less frustrating and faster user experience for an individual reconnecting with a service environment following a previously interrupted service session.

“It is appreciated that methods in accordance with the present disclosure can include any combination of the aspects and features described herein. That is, methods in accordance with the present disclosure are not limited to the combinations of aspects and features specifically described herein, but also include any combination of the aspects and features provided.

“The details of one or more implementations of the present disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A computer-implemented method for routing service requests in a service environment, the method performed by at least one processor, the method comprising: initiating, by the at least one processor, a first service session based on a first service request that is submitted by an individual in the service environment; storing, by the at least one processor, in an activity data store, an activity record that identifies the individual and a category of service request associated with the first service session; selecting a time-to-live (TTL) value from among multiple different time periods based on the category of service request associated with the first service session, each time period being associated with one or more different categories of service requests and storing the TTL value in the activity record, wherein the TTL value indicates how long the activity record is to remain active; receiving, by the at least one processor, an alert indicating a termination of the first service session; and receiving, by the at least one processor, an indication of a second service request that is submitted by the individual in the service environment after the termination of the first service session and, in response: retrieving, by the at least one processor, the activity record from the activity data store; and determining that an elapsed time between the storing of the activity record and the receiving of the second service request has not exceeded the TTL value and in response: determining, by the at least one processor, a service representative (SR) associated with the category of service request indicated in the activity record; and initiating, by the at least one processor, a second service session between the SR and the individual in the service environment.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the service environment includes an interactive voice response (IVR) interface.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein: the second service request is a call to the IVR interface; and initiating the second service session includes bypassing at least a portion of the IVR interface.

“4. The method of claim 2, wherein: the activity record includes a telephone number of the individual; and the activity record is retrieved that corresponds to the telephone number calling into the IVR interface.

“5. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining the category of service request associated with the first service session by determining a last node of the IVR interface that the individual navigated to prior to the establishment of the first service session.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein a period of time indicated by the TTL value excludes non-business hours.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting, by the at least one processor, the termination of the first service session and, in response, sending an instruction to present a reconnection dialog on a user device of the individual; wherein the second service request is sent from the user device in response to a selection made, by the individual, in the reconnection dialog.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting the termination of the first service session; and determining that the termination of the first service session was due to an error and, in response, sending an instruction to present a reconnection dialog on a user device of the individual; wherein the second service request is received from the user device in response to a selection made, by the individual, in the reconnection dialog of a particular mode by which to reestablish a service session.

“9. A system, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: initiating, by the at least one processor, a first service session based on a first service request that is submitted by an individual in the service environment; storing, by the at least one processor, in an activity data store, an activity record that identifies the individual and a category of service request associated with the first service session; selecting a time-to-live (TTL) value from among multiple different time periods based on the category of service request associated with the first service session, each time period being associated with one or more different categories of service requests and storing the TTL value in the activity record, wherein the TTL value indicates how long the activity record is to remain active; receiving, by the at least one processor, an alert indicating a termination of the first service session; and receiving, by the at least one processor, an indication of a second service request that is submitted by the individual in the service environment after the termination of the first service session and, in response: retrieving, by the at least one processor, the activity record from the activity data store; and determining that an elapsed time between the storing of the activity record and the receiving of the second service request has not exceeded the TTL value and in response: determining, by the at least one processor, a service representative (SR) associated with the category of service request indicated in the activity record; and initiating, by the at least one processor, a second service session between the SR and the individual in the service environment.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the service environment includes an interactive voice response (IVR) interface.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein: the second service request is a call to the IVR interface; and initiating the second service session includes bypassing at least a portion of the IVR interface.

“12. The system of claim 10, wherein: the activity record includes a telephone number of the individual; and the activity record is retrieved that corresponds to the telephone number calling into the IVR interface.

“13. The system of claim 10, the operations further comprising determining the category of service request associated with the first service session by determining a last node of the IVR interface that the individual navigated to prior to the establishment of the first service session.

“14. The system of claim 9, wherein a period of time indicated by the TTL value excludes non-business hours.

“15. The system of claim 9, the operations further comprising: detecting the termination of the first service session and, in response, sending an instruction to present a reconnection dialog on a user device of the individual; wherein the second service request is sent from the user device in response to a selection made, by the individual, in the reconnection dialog.

“16. One or more computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: initiating, by the at least one processor, a first service session based on a first service request that is submitted by an individual in the service environment; storing, by the at least one processor, in an activity data store, an activity record that identifies the individual and a category of service request associated with the first service session; selecting a time-to-live (TTL) value from among multiple different time periods based on the category of service request associated with the first service session, each time period being associated with one or more different categories of service requests and storing the TTL value in the activity record, wherein the TTL value indicates how long the activity record is to remain active; receiving, by the at least one processor, an alert indicating a termination of the first service session; and receiving, by the at least one processor, an indication of a second service request that is submitted by the individual in the service environment after the termination of the first service session and, in response: retrieving, by the at least one processor, the activity record from the activity data store; and determining that an elapsed time between the storing of the activity record and the receiving of the second service request has not exceeded the TTL value and in response: determining, by the at least one processor, a service representative (SR) associated with the category of service request indicated in the activity record; and initiating, by the at least one processor, a second service session between the SR and the individual in the service environment.

“17. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the service environment includes an interactive voice response (IVR) interface.

“18. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein: the second service request is a call to the IVR interface; and initiating the second service session includes bypassing at least a portion of the IVR interface.

“19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein: the activity record includes a telephone number of the individual; and the activity record is retrieved that corresponds to the telephone number calling into the IVR interface.

“20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise determining the category of service request associated with the first service session by determining a last node of the IVR interface that the individual navigated to prior to the establishment of the first service session.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Lilley, David Alexander. Reconnection Routing For Service Sessions. U.S. Patent Number 10,958,540, filed October 12, 2017, and published online on April 5, 2021. 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=10,958,540.PN.&OS=PN/10,958,540RS=PN/10,958,540

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