Patent Issued for Systems and methods for automated call-handling and processing (USPTO 11431845): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 SEP 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 11431845, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Roberts, Clay F. (Gurnee, IL, US), Skala, Joseph D. (Lake Barrington, IL, US).

This patent was filed on August 11, 2020 and was published online on August 30, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Companies typically provide telephone “call centers” or “contact centers” as a service to their customers. This is particularly so-though not exclusively so-when the company relies upon personalized service to their customers to generate real revenue, or to generate intangible value for the company, such as customer goodwill. For example, financial institutions, such as insurance companies, banks, mortgage companies, and credit card companies may provide telephone call centers with live operators for day-to-day matters. In addition, cable television companies may provide such centers for pay-per-view or other assistance, and other companies may provide centers for automated purchases, for technical assistance, for power outage assistance, for emergency assistance, for travel reservations, for student registration, for lotteries, for participation in television or radio game shows, etc.

“The operation of one call center (including both automated and live capabilities) for the benefit of one company in one industry does not remain static. Changes to a call center involving system upgrades, improvements in call handling, interaction, management, processing, or routing are common. One of the parameters that tends to complicate changes is the ‘size” of a call center, which, in turn, is generally a function of the number of anticipated calls.

“Various technologies can form a part of a call center. For example, an “Automated Attendant” system is conventionally a system that connects to a PBX system, a Centrex system, or an Automatic Call Distributor (“ACD”), accepting incoming calls, providing audible prompts to callers, and accepting input from callers. As the name suggests, an Automated Attendant seeks to automate the functions of a live telephone operator (or “attendant”).

“Before the advent of modern call centers, a live switchboard operator would briefly answer calls by asking the caller who they wished to speak to or what department to be connected to. After the caller made his request, the live switchboard operator would route the call to the requested destination and drop off the line. In a similar manner, and with respect to the Automated Attendant systems discussed above, the input that is accepted by an Automated Attendant may be used to provide another prompt to the caller, terminate the call, or it may be used to allow the caller to self-route the call to some destination.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and do not restrict the claimed subject matter.

“A system for managing multiple telephone calls consistent with one aspect of the disclosure comprises an automated attendant apparatus for receiving a call from a user; a plurality of rules for amending a session record associated with the call to reflect a plurality of instructed actions; and an interpreter for evaluating an amended session record to derive one of the plurality of instructed actions, where the automated attendant apparatus is configured to implement the derived action.

“A method for managing multiple telephone calls consistently comprises receiving a plurality of calls from users on a plurality of automated attendant apparatus; sending a plurality of session values associated with the plurality of calls to a controller over a network; amending one of the plurality of session values according to one of a plurality of rules under the control of the controller to reflect a corresponding instructed action; evaluating an amended session record to derive an instructed action; and implementing at least one of the plurality of instructed actions under the control of one of the plurality of automated attendant apparatus.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for managing telephone calls comprising: at least one computing device configured to: assign a first vector directory number to a call using a rules-based session engine; create a session record for the call; select, using the rules-based session engine, a call flow record from a plurality of call flow records stored at a call flow database table, the call flow record specifying the first vector directory number and a second vector directory number; assign the second vector directory number to the call; write the second vector directory number to the session record; access a vector using the second vector directory number; and perform an action associated with the vector.

“2. The system of claim 1 further comprising: storing the session record in a call log detail table of a relational database.

“3. The system of claim 2 wherein: the session record of the call log detail table comprises a unique identifier, a segment identifier, a vector directory number selected based on a Dialed Number Information Service (DNIS) number, a previously selected menu option, and a destination vector directory number.

“4. The system of claim 1, further comprising: storing a plurality of rule records for routing the call in a call flow detail table of a relational database.

“5. The system of claim 4, wherein: each rule record in the call flow detail table comprises a vector directory number selected based on a Dialed Number Information Service (DNIS) number, a previously selected menu option, and a destination vector directory number.

“6. The system of claim 4, further comprising: modifying call process flow logic by updating at least one of the plurality of rule records stored in the call flow detail table.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein: the call is one of a plurality of calls received concurrently at the computing device; the rules-based session engine is one of a plurality of rules-based session engines operating in parallel; and wherein each rules-based session engine handles one of the plurality of calls.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the action comprises at least one of: playing a message during the call, presenting a plurality of menu options available for selection during the call, prompting for selection of one of the plurality of menu options, receiving a selection of one of the plurality of menu options, receiving information entered during the call, and routing the call to an extension.

“9. The system of claim 1 wherein: the rules-based session engine is located remotely relative to the computing device.

“10. A method, comprising: assigning a first vector directory number to a call using a rules-based session engine; creating, by a computing device, a session record for the call; selecting, by the computing device and using the rules-based session engine, a call flow record from a plurality of call flow records stored at a call flow database table, the call flow record specifying the first vector directory number and a second vector directory number; assigning, by the computing device, the second vector directory number to the call; writing, by the computing device, the second vector directory number to the session record; accessing, by the computing device, a vector using the second vector directory number; and performing an action associated with the vector.

“11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: storing the session record in a call log detail table of a relational database.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein: the session record of the call log detail table comprises a unique identifier, a segment identifier, a vector directory number selected based on a Dialed Number Information Service (DNIS) number, a previously selected menu option, and a destination vector directory number.

“13. The method of claim 10, further comprising: storing a plurality of rule records for routing the call in a call flow detail table of a relational database.

“14. The method of claim 13, wherein: each rule record in the call flow detail table comprises a vector directory number selected based on a Dialed Number Information Service (DNIS) number, a previously selected menu option, and a destination vector directory number.

“15. The method of claim 13, further comprising: modifying call process flow logic by updating at least one of the plurality of rule records stored in the call flow detail table.

“16. The method of claim 10, wherein: the call is one of a plurality of calls received concurrently at the computing device; the rules-based session engine is one of a plurality of rules-based session engines operating in parallel; and wherein each rules-based session engine handles one of the plurality of calls.

“17. The method of claim 10, wherein the action comprises at least one of: playing a message during the call, presenting a plurality of menu options available for selection during the call, prompting for selection of one of the plurality of menu options, receiving a selection of one of the plurality of menu options, receiving information entered during the call, and routing the call to an extension.

“18. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, memory, and a communication interface, cause the computing device to: assign a first vector directory number to a call using a rules-based session engine; select, using the rules-based session engine, a call flow record from a plurality of call flow records stored at a call flow database table, the call flow record specifying the first vector directory number and a second vector directory number; assign the second vector directory number to the call; and access a vector using the second vector directory number.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 18 storing instructions that further cause the computing device to: create a session record for the call; and write the second vector directory number to the session record.

“20. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 19 storing instructions that further cause the computing device to: determine that the call is terminated; and responsive to determining that the call is terminated, populating a call log master table.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Roberts, Clay F. Systems and methods for automated call-handling and processing. U.S. Patent Number 11431845, filed August 11, 2020, and published online on August 30, 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=11431845.PN.&OS=PN/11431845RS=PN/11431845

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