US 11,095,775 B1Granted

Handling an outbound call reaching a voicemail service

AssigneeNoble Systems Corporation

InventorsChad Hitchcock, Christopher S. Haggerty

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Abstract

Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer-program products for handling a call reaching a party's voicemail. A predictive model is used to generate a first probability of an outcome occurring as a result of leaving a voicemail message and a second probability of the outcome occurring as a result of sending a text message. If the first probability is greater, an IVR uses DTMF tone(s) to bypass a greeting on the voicemail so that a message can be recorded with minimal time. If the second probability is greater, the call is ended and an email is sent to the party's service provider using an email address comprising a mobile number for the party and a domain portion specific to the provider. As a result, the provider delivers a text message to the party with the body of the message including the content of the email.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for automatically leaving a message for a called party associated with a telephone call originated by a predictive dialer to a called telephone number, the predictive dialer comprising at least one computer processor, the steps comprising:

retrieving a list of records comprising a plurality of telephone numbers to be called by the predictive dialer;
selecting a particular record from the list of records, the particular record comprising the called telephone number;
determine based on using the called party telephone number a particular telecommunications service provider terminating the telephone call to the called telephone number;
originating the telephone call by the predictive dialer to the called telephone number, wherein the telephone call is answered;
determining, while the telephone call is connected, a voicemail service has answered the telephone call and is providing a greeting message;
connecting an interactive voice response unit (“IVR”) to the telephone call by the at least one computer processor after determining the voicemail service has answered the telephone call;
determining by the IVR one or more dual-tone multiple frequency (“DTMF”) tones for use with the particular telecommunications service provider to terminate the greeting message provided by the voicemail service;
providing the one or more DTMF tones on the telephone call to the voicemail service to bypass the greeting message;
determining the voicemail service is ready to record the message;
playing the message to the voicemail service in response to detecting the voicemail service is ready to record;
and
ending up the telephone call after playing the message.

9 more elements

A non-transitory, computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for automatically leaving a message for a called party associated with a telephone call originated by a predictive dialer to a called telephone number, the at least one computer-executable instructions configured to cause the at least one computer processor to:

retrieve a list of records comprising a plurality of telephone numbers to be called by the predictive dialer;
select a particular record from the list of records, the particular record comprising the called telephone number;
determine based on using the called party telephone number a particular telecommunications service provider terminating the telephone call to the called telephone number;
originate the telephone call by the predictive dialer to the called telephone number, wherein the telephone call is answered;
determine, while the telephone call is connected, a voicemail service has answered the telephone call and is providing a greeting message;
connect an interactive voice response unit (“IVR”) to the telephone call after determining the voicemail service has answered the telephone call;
determine one or more dual-tone multiple frequency (“DTMF”) tones for use with the particular telecommunications service provider to bypass the greeting message provided by the voicemail service;
cause the IVR to provide the one or more DTMF tones on the telephone call to the voicemail service to bypass the greeting message;
determine the voicemail service is ready to record the message;
play the message to the voicemail service in response to detecting the voicemail service is ready to record;
and
disconnect the telephone call after playing the message.

9 more elements

A system for automatically leaving a message for a called party associated with a telephone call originated to a called telephone number, comprising at least one computer processor configured to:

retrieve a list of records comprising a plurality of telephone numbers to be called;
select a particular record from the list of records, the particular record comprising the called telephone number;
determine based on using the called party telephone number a particular telecommunications service provider terminating the telephone call to the called telephone number;
originate the telephone call to the called telephone number, wherein the telephone call is answered;
determine, while the telephone call is connected, a voicemail service has answered the telephone call and is providing a greeting message;
connect an interactive voice response unit (“IVR”) to the telephone call after determining the voicemail service has answered the telephone call;
determine one or more dual-tone multiple frequency (“DTMF”) tones for use with the particular telecommunications service provider to bypass the greeting message provided by the voicemail service;
cause the IVR to provide the one or more DTMF tones on the telephone call to the voicemail service to bypass the greeting message;
determine the voicemail service is ready to record the message;
play the message to the voicemail service in response to detecting the voicemail service is ready to record;
and
disconnect the telephone call after playing the message.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.