Interactive voice response system and method with common interface and intelligent agent monitoring
AssigneeThe Plum Group, Inc.
InventorsMatthew J. Ervin, Matthew Jones, Andrew Kuan
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Abstract
A modular interactive voice recognition (“IVR”) overlay system and a method of processing calls. The system provides an application server, a plurality of agent workstations and a graphical user interface (“GUI”) to allow a hybrid approach to processing calls using an automated IVR and live agents. The system and method allow a single agent to process multiple calls simultaneously and is compatible with existing IVR systems and can be implemented as an add-on to existing IVR systems.
Claims14
A method for interactively processing calls in conjunction with an interactive voice response (“IVR”) system, comprising the steps of:
- providing at least one item of call-data associated with a respective one of a plurality of calls being processed by the IVR;
- assigning at least one of the plurality of call-data to one of a plurality of agent workstations;
- transmitting the at least one call-data to the assigned agent workstation;
- prioritizing the call-data presented to the agent;
- arranging the call-data in an order of decreasing priority;
- presenting the at least one call-data at the assigned agent workstation via a graphical user interface (“GUI”);
- playing an audio utterance associated with the call-data with highest priority that has not already been processed;
- receiving at least one of a plurality of agent commands through the GUI;
- and
- processing the at least one call-data based on at least one of the call-data provided by the IVR and the agent commands received from the GUI.
A modular interactive voice response (“IVR”) overlay configured to integrate with an IVR system, comprising:
- an application server configured to request at least one call-data from the IVR system and allocate the at least one call-data to at least one agent workstation, the at least one agent workstation being networked with the application server,
- wherein the application server is further configured to prioritize the at least one call-data allocated to the at least one agent station, to arrange the at least one call-data in an order of decreasing priority, and to present the at least one call-data at a graphical user interface (“GUI”) of the at least one agent workstation, wherein the GUI is configured to present the at least one call data and allow at least one of a processing and a manipulation of the at least one call-data;
- and wherein the GUI is further configured to receive agent commands including at least one agent command for playing an audio utterance of the at least one call data with the highest priority that has not been processed, and wherein the application server is further configured to process the at least one call-data based on the agent commands received from the GUI.
A programmed processor configured to process calls in conjunction with an interactive voice response (“IVR”) system, the processor configured to:
- provide at least one item of call-data associated with a respective one of a plurality of calls being processed by the IVR;
- assign at least one of the plurality of call-data to one of a plurality of agent workstations;
- transmit the at least one call-data to the assigned agent workstation;
- prioritize the call-data presented to the agent;
- arrange the call-data in an order of decreasing priority;
- present the at least one call-data at the assigned agent workstation via a graphical user interface (“GUI”);
- play an audio utterance associated with the call-data with highest priority that has not already been processed;
- receive at least one of a plurality of agent commands through the GUI;
- and
- process the at least one call-data based on at least one of the call-data provided by the IVR and the agent commands received from the GUI.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.