US 7,889,858 B2 · Method and system for telephone wait user interface selection

Abstract

In the method of the present invention, a customer of a service provider would be placed in hold while waiting to speak to a customer service representative. The method and system of the invention would recognize the telephone number of the caller using a “caller ID” system. If this call is the first time the caller has ever called, the caller would be presented with an audible listing of listening choices that would include but not be limited to the latest news, the weather (of the caller's location), financial headlines, or a selection of music stations (via cable radio, for example). The caller would then speak or type his/her preference into the keypad and the selection would be played. If the caller does not like the selection, the caller can then speak another selection or type the new selection as many times as the caller prefers. The caller selection is recorded in a caller preference database. Finally, when the same customer calls one or more additional times, the system would retain the caller's number and preferred listening selection, based on caller ID value. The listening selection would automatically be played on subsequent calls.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A method for creating a caller preference database for use in determining a listening preference of a caller, comprising the steps of:

receiving a call from the caller;
identifying the telephone number of the call;
determining whether it is necessary to place the caller in a hold queue;
determining whether the caller desires to hear listening options while in the hold queue;
when the caller desires to hear the listening options, determining whether the identified telephone number is currently in the database, and when the determination is that the identified telephone number is currently in the database, determining whether a listener with the identified telephone number currently in a listeners' record in the database desires to make changes to currently existing listener choices in the listeners' record and storing the changes in the listeners' record;
when the caller desires to hear the listening options and the identified telephone number is not currently in the database, creating a record for the identified telephone number, the record comprising fields for the area code of the identified telephone number, the identified telephone number, and the listening preference of the caller;
presenting the listening options to the caller;
detecting a listening option selected by the caller from the presented listening options;
recording the listening option selected by the caller in a caller listening preference field of the created record;
storing the created record in the database in a location based on the area code of the identified telephone number, the database having a set of sub-directories based on the exchange and extension code of the telephone numbers of callers and the listening options;
and
repeating said steps for each newly identified telephone number of received calls.

9 more elements

A method for creating a caller preference database for use in determining a listening preference of a caller, said method comprising:

receiving a call from the caller to a service provider;
identifying the telephone number of the call;
presenting listening options to the caller while the caller is in the hold queue;
detecting a listening option selected by the caller from the presented listening options;
creating a record for the identified telephone number, the record comprising fields for the area code of the identified telephone number, the identified telephone number, and a listening preference of the caller;
recording the listening option selected by the caller in the field for the listening preference of the caller in the created record;
and
storing the created record in the database in a location based on the area code of the identified telephone number, the database having a set of sub-directories based on the exchange and extension code of the telephone numbers of callers and the listening options.

5 more elements

A physically tangible computer readable storage medium storing computer-readable program instructions configured to be executed in a data processing system to implement a method for creating a caller preference database for use in determining a listening preference of a caller, said method comprising:

receiving a call from the caller to a service provider;
identifying the telephone number of the call;
presenting listening options to the caller while the caller is in the hold queue;
detecting a listening option selected by the caller from the presented listening options;
creating a record for the identified telephone number, the record comprising fields for the area code of the identified telephone number, the identified telephone number, and a listening preference of the caller;
recording the listening option selected by the caller in the field for the listening preference of the caller in the created record;
and
storing the created record in the database in a location based on the area code of the identified telephone number, the database having a set of sub-directories based on the exchange and extension code of the telephone numbers of callers and the listening options.

5 more elements

A data processing system, comprising a computer and a physically tangible computer readable storage medium storing computer-readable program instructions configured to be executed by the computer to implement a method for creating a caller preference database for use in determining a listening preference of a caller, said method comprising:

receiving a call from the caller to a service provider;
identifying the telephone number of the call;
presenting listening options to the caller while the caller is in the hold queue;
detecting a listening option selected by the caller from the presented listening options;
creating a record for the identified telephone number, the record comprising fields for the area code of the identified telephone number, the identified telephone number, and a listening preference of the caller;
recording the listening option selected by the caller in the field for the listening preference of the caller in the created record;
and
storing the created record in the database in a location based on the area code of the identified telephone number, the database having a set of sub-directories based on the exchange and extension code of the telephone numbers of callers and the listening options.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and system for telephone wait user interface selection

Life of this patent

Method and system for telephone wait user interface selection

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims13