Patent Issued for Voice And Speech Recognition For Call Center Feedback And Quality Assurance (USPTO 10,404,859)

2019 SEP 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventor Hernandez, Sylvia (Normal, IL), filed on October 3, 2018, was published online on September 16, 2019.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,404,859 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Recorded phone conversations between a customer calling a call center and a customer service representative are often utilized to evaluate the performance of the representative. A supervisor of the representative or manager may listen to at least a portion of one or more conversations in order to check for behavior that needs improvement, such as interrupting the customer, using improper language, using an inappropriate tone of voice, or the like. The supervisor may also listen for following proper protocols, positive interactions with customers, and behavior that should be rewarded and reinforced. However, in many cases, long periods of time may go by between the recorded conversations and the opportunity for the supervisor to listen to them. During this time, bad behavior of the representative may go uncorrected while positive actions may be unrecognized, leading to development of habits that are difficult to change.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “Embodiments of the present technology relate to computing devices, software applications, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable media for providing an evaluation to a customer service representative regarding his performance during an interaction with a customer. The embodiments may provide for receiving a data stream corresponding to a spoken conversation between a customer and a representative, generating a representative transcript from the conversation, comparing the representative transcript to a list of positive words and negative words, determining tone of voice characteristics from the representative and the customer, determining a response time between when the customer stops speaking and the representative starts speaking, and/or generating one or more scores that vary according to the representative’s word usage, tone of voice, and response time.

“In a first aspect, a computer-implemented method for providing an evaluation to a customer service representative regarding his performance during an interaction with a customer may be provided. The method may include: (1) receiving a digitized data stream corresponding to a spoken conversation between a customer and a representative; (2) converting the data stream to a text stream; (3) generating a representative transcript that includes the words from the text stream that are spoken by the representative; (4) comparing the representative transcript with a plurality of positive words and a plurality of negative words; and/or (5) generating a score that varies according to the occurrence of each word spoken by the representative that matches one of the positive words and the occurrence of each word spoken by the representative that matches one of the negative words to facilitate an objective evaluation of a customer interaction. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternative actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein, and/or may be implemented via one or more processors and/or via computer-executable instructions stored on non-transitory computer-readable medium or media.

“In another aspect, a computing device for providing an evaluation to a customer service representative regarding his performance during an interaction with a customer may be provided. The computing device may include a memory element and a processing element. The processing element may be electronically coupled to the memory element. The processing element may be configured to receive a digitized data stream corresponding to a spoken conversation between a customer and a representative, convert the data stream to a text stream, generate a representative transcript that includes the words from the text stream that are spoken by the representative, compare the representative transcript with a plurality of positive words and a plurality of negative words, and/or generate a score that varies according to the occurrence of each word spoken by the representative that matches one of the positive words and the occurrence of each word spoken by the representative that matches one of the negative words to facilitate an objective evaluation of a customer interaction. The computing device may include additional, fewer, or alternate components and/or functionality, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In yet another aspect, a software application for providing an evaluation to a customer service representative regarding his performance during an interaction with a customer may be provided. The software application may comprise a speech recognition component, a transcript comparison component, and a score generator. The speech recognition component may receive a digitized data stream corresponding to a spoken conversation between a customer and a representative. The speech recognition component may be configured to convert the data stream to a text stream and generate a representative transcript that includes the words from the text stream that are spoken by the representative. The transcript comparison component may receive the representative transcript. The transcript comparison component may be configured to compare the representative transcript with a plurality of positive words and a plurality of negative words, determine a positive count corresponding to a number of occurrences when the words of the representative transcript match one or more positive words, and/or determine a negative count corresponding to a number of occurrences when the words of the representative transcript match one or more negative words. The score generator may receive the positive count and the negative count. The score generator may be configured to generate a score which varies based upon the positive count and the negative count to facilitate an objective evaluation of a customer interaction. The software application may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“In yet another aspect, a computer-readable medium for providing an evaluation to a customer service representative regarding his performance during an interaction with a customer may be provided. The computer-readable medium may include an executable program stored thereon, wherein the program instructs a processing element of a computing device to perform the following steps: (1) receiving a digitized data stream corresponding to a spoken conversation between a customer and a representative; (2) converting the data stream to a text stream; (3) generating a representative transcript that includes the words from the text stream that are spoken by the representative; (4) comparing the representative transcript with a plurality of positive words and a plurality of negative words; and/or (5) generating a score that varies according to the occurrence of each word spoken by the representative that matches one of the positive words and the occurrence of each word spoken by the representative that matches one of the negative words to facilitate an objective evaluation of a customer interaction. The program stored on the computer-readable medium may instruct the processing element to perform additional, fewer, or alternative actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“Advantages of these and other embodiments will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the exemplary embodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present embodiments described herein may be capable of other and different embodiments, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“I claim:

“1. A computer-implemented method for providing an objective evaluation to a customer service representative regarding his performance during an interaction with a customer, the computer-implemented method comprising: comparing, via one or more processors, words which are spoken by the customer service representative during an oral conversation between the customer service representative and the customer with (i) positive words, and (ii) negative words; and calculating and displaying on a display, via the one or more processors, a first score that varies according to (a) each word spoken by the customer service representative that matches one of the positive words, and (b) each word spoken by the customer service representative that matches one of the negative words to facilitate an objective evaluation of the customer interaction such that the first score is increased corresponding to usage of positive words by the customer service representative, and decreased corresponding to usage of negative words by the customer service representative.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, via one or more processors, a digitized data stream corresponding to the oral conversation between the customer and the customer service representative; and converting, via the one or more processors, the data stream to a text stream.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising: generating, via the one or more processors, a plurality of voice prints, each voice print derived from one of a plurality of periods of time during the conversation, comparing, via the one or more processors, each voice print with a voice print of the customer service representative to determine an identity of the voice print, indicating, via the one or more processors, a first set of voice prints that are associated with the customer service representative and a second set of voice prints that are associated with the customer, matching, via the one or more processors, the first set of voice prints with words from the text stream that are spoken by the customer service representative, and displaying, via the one or more processors, on the display a list of words from the customer service representative transcript that match one or more positive words, and a list of words from the customer service representative transcript that match one or more negative words.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising: analyzing, via the one or more processors, the data stream to determine a plurality of tone of voice values for the customer service representative, each tone of voice value derived from one of a plurality of periods of time during the conversation; analyzing, via the one or more processors, the data stream to determine a plurality of tone of voice values for the customer, each tone of voice value derived from one of a plurality of periods of time during the conversation; and generating and displaying on the display, via the one or more processors, a second score that varies according to whether the customer service representative changed his tone of voice in response to a change in tone of voice of the customer to facilitate the objective evaluation of a customer interaction.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising determining, via the one or more processors, each occurrence when the customer’s tone of voice value is above a first threshold and determining, via the one or more processors, whether the tone of voice value for the customer service representative increases above a second threshold within a first time period after each occurrence.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising increasing, via the one or more processors, the second score for each occurrence when the tone of voice value for the customer service representative does not increase above the second threshold within the first time period; decreasing, via the one or more processors, the second score for each occurrence when the tone of voice value for the customer service representative does increase above the second threshold within the first time period; and displaying, via the one or more processors, on the display the second score and a list of occurrences when the customer service representative changed his tone of voice in response to a change in tone of voice of the customer.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying, via the one or more processors, a voice of the customer service representative and a voice of the customer; determining, via the one or more processors, when the customer stops talking; determining, via the one or more processors, when the customer service representative starts talking thereafter; determining, via the one or more processors, a response time corresponding to a period of time that elapses between when the customer stops talking and the customer service representative starts talking; generating and displaying, via the one or more processors, a third score that varies according to a value of the response time; decreasing, via the one or more processors, the third score for every occurrence when the response time is less than a lower threshold or greater than an upper threshold; and displaying, via the one or more processors, on the display a list of occurrences when the response time is less than a lower threshold or greater than an upper threshold.

“8. A computing device for providing an objective evaluation to a customer service representative regarding his performance during an interaction with a customer, the computing device comprising: a processing element in electronic communication with a memory element, the processing element configured to compare words which are spoken by the customer service representative during an oral conversation between the customer service representative and the customer with (i) positive words, and (ii) negative words, and calculate and display on a display a first score that varies according to (a) each word spoken by the customer service representative that matches one of the positive words, and (b) each word spoken by the customer service representative that matches one of the negative words to facilitate an objective evaluation of the customer interaction such that the first score is increased corresponding to usage of positive words by the customer service representative, and decreased corresponding to usage of negative words by the customer service representative.

“9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the processing element is further configured to receive a digitized data stream corresponding to the oral conversation between the customer and the customer service representative, and convert the data stream to a text stream.

“10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the processing element is further configured to generate a plurality of voice prints, each voice print derived from one of a plurality of periods of time during the conversation, compare each voice print with a voice print of the customer service representative to determine an identity of the voice print, indicate a first set of voice prints that are associated with the customer service representative and a second set of voice prints that are associated with the customer, match the first set of voice prints with words from the text stream that are spoken by the customer service representative, and display on the display a list of words from the customer service representative transcript that match one or more positive words, and a list of words from the customer service representative transcript that match one or more negative words.

“11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the processing element is further configured to analyze the data stream to determine a plurality of tone of voice values for the customer service representative, each tone of voice value derived from one of a plurality of periods of time during the conversation; analyze the data stream to determine a plurality of tone of voice values for the customer, each tone of voice value derived from one of a plurality of periods of time during the conversation; and generate and display on the display a second score that varies according to whether the customer service representative changed his tone of voice in response to a change in tone of voice of the customer to facilitate the objective evaluation of a customer interaction.

“12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the processing element is further configured to determine each occurrence when the customer’s tone of voice value is above a first threshold and determine whether the tone of voice value for the customer service representative increases above a second threshold within a first time period after each occurrence.

“13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the processing element is further configured to increase the second score for each occurrence when the tone of voice value for the customer service representative does not increase above the second threshold within the first time period, decrease the second score for each occurrence when the tone of voice value for the customer service representative does increase above the second threshold within the first time period, and display on the display the second score and a list of occurrences when the customer service representative changed his tone of voice in response to a change in tone of voice of the customer.

“14. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the processing element is further configured to identify a voice of the customer service representative and a voice of the customer, determine when the customer stops talking, determine when the customer service representative starts talking thereafter, determine a response time corresponding to a period of time that elapses between when the customer stops talking and the customer service representative starts talking, generate and display a third score that varies according to a value of the response time, decrease the third score for every occurrence when the response time is less than a lower threshold or greater than an upper threshold, and display on the display a list of occurrences when the response time is less than a lower threshold or greater than an upper threshold.

“15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium with an executable program stored thereon for providing an evaluation to a customer service representative regarding his performance during an interaction with a customer, wherein the program instructs a processing element of a computing device to perform the following: comparing words which are spoken by the customer service representative during an oral conversation between the customer service representative and the customer with (i) positive words, and (ii) negative words; and calculating and displaying on a display a first score that varies according to (a) each word spoken by the customer service representative that matches one of the positive words, and (b) each word spoken by the customer service representative that matches one of the negative words to facilitate an objective evaluation of the customer interaction such that the first score is increased corresponding to usage of positive words by the customer service representative, and decreased corresponding to usage of negative words by the customer service representative.

“16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the program further instructs the processing element to receive a digitized data stream corresponding to the oral conversation between the customer and the customer service representative, and convert the data stream to a text stream.

“17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the program further instructs the processing element to generate a plurality of voice prints, each voice print derived from one of a plurality of periods of time during the conversation, compare each voice print with a voice print of the customer service representative to determine an identity of the voice print, indicate a first set of voice prints that are associated with the customer service representative and a second set of voice prints that are associated with the customer, match the first set of voice prints with words from the text stream that are spoken by the customer service representative, and display on the display a list of words from the customer service representative transcript that match one or more positive words, and a list of words from the customer service representative transcript that match one or more negative words.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the program further instructs the processing element to analyze the data stream to determine a plurality of tone of voice values for the customer service representative, each tone of voice value derived from one of a plurality of periods of time during the conversation, analyze the data stream to determine a plurality of tone of voice values for the customer, each tone of voice value derived from one of a plurality of periods of time during the conversation, generate and display on the display a second score that varies according to whether the customer service representative changed his tone of voice in response to a change in tone of voice of the customer to facilitate the objective evaluation of a customer interaction, and determine each occurrence when the customer’s tone of voice value is above a first threshold and determine whether the tone of voice value for the customer service representative increases above a second threshold within a first time period after each occurrence.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the program further instructs the processing element to increase the second score for each occurrence when the tone of voice value for the customer service representative does not increase above the second threshold within the first time period, decrease the second score for each occurrence when the tone of voice value for the customer service representative does increase above the second threshold within the first time period, and display on the display the second score and a list of occurrences when the customer service representative changed his tone of voice in response to a change in tone of voice of the customer.

“20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the program further instructs the processing element to identify a voice of the customer service representative and a voice of the customer, determine when the customer stops talking, determine when the customer service representative starts talking thereafter, determine a response time corresponding to a period of time that elapses between when the customer stops talking and the customer service representative starts talking, generate and display a third score that varies according to a value of the response time, decrease the third score for every occurrence when the response time is less than a lower threshold or greater than an upper threshold, and display on the display a list of occurrences when the response time is less than a lower threshold or greater than an upper threshold.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Hernandez, Sylvia. Voice And Speech Recognition For Call Center Feedback And Quality Assurance. U.S. Patent Number 10,404,859, filed October 3, 2018, and published online on September 16, 2019. 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=10,404,859.PN.&OS=PN/10,404,859RS=PN/10,404,859

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