SpeechCycle Awarded Patent for Repeat Caller Process
SpeechCycle on Monday announced that it has been awarded a U.S. patent for its process on repeat caller handling. This patent is the latest in the company’s intellectual property portfolio, which covers key areas of customer interaction management and speech technology solutions.
The patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,041,019 B2), awarded for a "method and apparatus for call back disposition and re-evaluation in interactive voice response (IVR) cased customer care," enables organizations to personalize the caller experience based on the previous interaction history. A caller who previously chose to go directly to an agent to avoid the automated experience on a second call can be informed of the benefits of using the self-service speech application to rapidly resolve her issues. Alternatively, a caller with a repeated problem with his high-speed Internet service could be sent directly to an agent skilled in resolving those issues.
The patent was originally filed in 2007 by Zor Gorelov, SpeechCycle's CEO, and Roberto Pieraccini, its chief technology officer.
The steps in the patented process include the following:
- identifying a caller of an incoming call;
- determining athe reason for the call;
- searching for previous calls from the same caller for the same reason; and
- selecting a predetermined action and performing the predetermined action upon identification of the caller.
The process further involves determining if previous calls belong to a chain of repeat calls for the same reason and then configuring the interactive voice response to change a status of the previous call to non-completion if the reason for the call was not solved.
SpeechCycle will integrate this new methodology into its speech platform and LevelOne Agents speech application suite.
"This is an exciting patent, as it helps our customers deliver a personalized and superior customer experience by acknowledging previous calls to the automated system and changing the way the call is handled," Gorelov said in a statement. "It offers further proof of our commitment to enhancing the customer experience for service providers while at the same time reducing customer care costs."