Telephone on-hold response system
OwnerRichard M. Grossmaninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A telephone on-hold system (10) allows a calling party such as a consumer (20) to place the telephone call on-hold from the consumer's handset (18C) in response to dialing a number where the receiving end (R) put the call on-hold pending availability of an agent (22). While the call is on-hold from the consumer's end, a counter-message is played to alert the agent (22) to notify the consumer's handset (18C) that the agent (22) is available, such as by depressing touch-tone keys at the agent's end (18R). The system (10) recognizes the tones and provides an alert (40) to the consumer (20) so as to allow the consumer (20) to end the on-hold status of the call from the consumer's end and undertake normal conversation with the agent (22).
Claims38
In a telephone system wherein a caller's station is coupled via a telephone transmission link to a receiving station, a telephone on-hold response system for use by a caller in response to the receiving station being on-hold comprising:
- hold control means available to the caller and coupled to the telephone transmission link for placing a call on-hold by said caller;
- counter-message means for imposing a counter-message on the telephone transmission link whereby to be heard at the receiving station after the receiving station goes off-hold;
- and
- on-hold response detect means responsive to a characteristic signal indicating that the receiving station has gone off-hold for providing an indication to the caller thereof, whereby the caller may place the call off-hold for normal communication between the caller and the receiving station, the counter-message means further for imposing a counter-message on the telephone link after the on-hold response detect means responds to the characteristic signal indicating that the receiving station has gone off-hold whereby the receiving station will continue to hear a counter-message after going off-hold.
In a telephone system wherein a caller's station is coupled via a telephone transmission link to a receiving station, a telephone on-hold response system for use by a caller in response to the receiving station being on-hold comprising:
- hold control means available to the caller and coupled to the telephone transmission link for placing a call on-hold by said caller;
- a program controlled computer system programmed to (a) impose a counter-message on the telephone transmission link whereby to be heard at the receiving station after the receiving station goes off-hold, (b) provide an indication to the caller that the receiving station has gone off hold in response to a characteristic signal indicative thereof, whereby the caller may place the call off-hold for normal communication between the caller and the receiving station, and (c) to impose a counter-message on the telephone transmission link after providing the indication to the caller whereby the receiving station will continue to hear a counter-message after going off-hold.
A method of telephone on-hold response when a calling station is connected to a receiving station in an on-hold state, the method comprising:
- responsive to the calling station, placing the call in a caller on-hold state;
- emitting a counter-message to the receiving station in response to placing the call in the caller on-hold state;
- monitoring for the receiving station to terminate its on-hold state;
- detecting that the receiving station has terminated its on-hold state;
- emitting a counter-message to the receiving station after detecting that the receiving station has terminated its on-hold state;
- and
- terminating the caller on-hold state in response to the receiving station terminating its on-hold state whereby normal communications may be undertaken between the calling handset and the receiving station.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.