US 2014/0006292 A1 · DECISION PROCEDURE FOR CUSTOMER ISSUE RESOLUTION

Abstract

An improved technique involves providing a decision procedure to determine whether an unsolved customer problem goes to a public problem-solving forum or internal support. For example, when a support center receives a customer problem and determines that the problem does not have a known solution, it assigns a severity weight to the problem based on a description of the problem. Along these lines, suppose that the call center receives a customer problem regarding excessive down time. When the call center places the problem into a “downtime” classification, the call center counts how many other unsolved “downtime” problems are awaiting solution. If there are not many similar problems awaiting solution, then the call center assigns a high severity level and assigns the task of solving the problem to a public forum, such as a crowdsourcing application.

Claims20

Dependent claims

In a computer system within a customer support center supporting a product of a company, a method of providing, to a customer of the company, a solution to a customer problem concerning the product, the method comprising:

receiving, by a controller of the computer system, a message from the customer that includes a description of the customer problem;
assigning, by the controller, a metric to the customer problem, the metric being based on the description of the customer problem;
performing, by the controller, a decision procedure based on the metric, the decision procedure being configured to cause the controller to send the message to one of i) internal resources of the company, and ii) external resources outside of the company;
and
acquiring, by the controller, the solution of the customer problem from the one of the internal resources and the external resources.

2 more elements

A system constructed and arranged to provide, to a customer of a company, a solution to a customer problem concerning a product of the company, the system comprising:

a network interface;
memory;
and
a controller including controlling circuitry coupled to the memory, the controlling circuitry being constructed and arranged to:
receive, by a controller of the computer system, a message from the customer that includes a description of the customer problem;
assign, by the controller, a metric to the customer problem, the metric being based on the description of the customer problem;
perform, by the controller, a decision procedure based on the metric, the decision procedure being configured to cause the controller to send the message to one of i) internal resources of the company, and ii) external resources outside of the company;
and
acquire, by the controller, the solution of the customer problem from the one of the internal resources and the external resources.

6 more elements

A computer program product having a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium which stores code to provide, to a customer of a company, a solution to a customer problem concerning a product of the company, the code including instructions to:

receive, by a controller of the computer system, a message from the customer that includes a description of the customer problem;
assign, by the controller, a metric to the customer problem, the metric being based on the description of the customer problem;
perform, by the controller, a decision procedure based on the metric, the decision procedure being configured to cause the controller to send the message to one of i) internal resources of the company, and ii) external resources outside of the company;
and
acquire, by the controller, the solution of the customer problem from the one of the internal resources and the external resources.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Decision procedure for customer issue resolution

Life of this patent

Decision procedure for customer issue resolution

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20