On-hold information service with caller-controlled personalized menu

[0001] 1. Technical Field

[0002] The present invention relates generally to telephone call on-hold information services and, in particular to techniques for enabling a caller to personalize a menu of information services that are made available when the caller is put on-hold in a telephone system.

[0003] 2. Description of The Related Art

[0004] It is well-known in the prior art to provide information to a caller who is placed on-hold in a telephone system. Typical call-on-hold systems provide music or other audio messages to the caller while he or she waits for the called party to answer the call. These types of systems are in widespread use in telephone call or contact centers. A call center is an organization of people, telecommunications equipment and management Software that efficiently handle telephone-based customer contact. A representative call center on-hold information service is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,439 to Walker et al. This patent teaches a system for entertaining a caller placed in a queue of a call center that allows the caller to access a plurality of entertainment options while on-hold. The entertainment options permit the caller who is on-hold to place a call to a third party, or to access one or more premium entertainment services. In this system, a private branch exchange/automatic call distributor (PBX/ACD) receives the calls destined for the call center and queues the calls when an appropriate call handling agent is not available. An interactive voice response unit (IVR) prompts a caller for specific information and forwards the collected information to the PBX/ACD. The IVR provides the caller with a menu of available information options, which can be accessed by the caller. After a selection is made, the PBX/ACD establishes a connection between the caller and the selected entertainment service.

[0005] The prior art provides other examples of telephone on-hold information services outside of the call center environment. Representative patents includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,875,231 and 5,946,378 to Farfan et al. These patents describe an on-hold telephone service that allows a subscriber to place a call on-hold and to make one or more information services available to the calling party. The on-hold service can be implemented on a central office switch or on an enhanced services platform connected to the switch. The on-hold service is accessed by the subscriber to the service through a transfer function that causes the call to be maintained by the onhold service. The party that is placed on-hold by the subscriber (i.e. the called party) can then interactively acquire the various types of information available from the service, e.g., news, weather, stock market information, and the like. The subscriber to the service can send a message to the calling party to cause the calling party to selectively reconnect to the subscriber upon receipt of the message or, later, when the calling party is ready to do so. Other on-hold telephone systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,444,774 and 5,920,616.

[0006] While on-hold systems such as described above are useful, the calling party has only limited control over the content he or she may select. That content is usually predetermined by the system provider. As a consequence, the calling party is often forced to listen to advertising or other informational messages that are likely to be of little interest to the user, who, in effect, is held hostage on the telephone line waiting for the called party. Systems like those disclosed in the '439 patent to Walker et al. provide somewhat more flexibility in that they allow the calling party more choices, however, few callers will want to make a third party call or will want to pay for premium entertainment services as is contemplated thereby.

[0007] The present invention addresses this deficiency in known on-hold information services.

[0008] A party who makes a telephone call (a calling party) is presented with a customized menu of information options which a maintainer of an on-hold information system, e.g., a called party, creates based on user data known about the calling party. User data may include user location data or relationship data between the calling party and a called party. The calling party sets up a personalized menu identifying a set of information options (from the customized menu) from which he or she desires to select when placed on-hold in a telephone system. The user's personal preferences are then saved. When the party later makes a call to a telephone system and is placed on-hold, the on-hold information system accesses the user's personalized menu and offers the one or more information options as defined in the menu. In an illustrative embodiment, the personalized menu options are voiced over the telephone line and the calling party then makes selections using keypad (i.e. DTMF signaling) or voice input. A response may be interrupted to make another menu selection, or to repeat the current response. If the response being played has not completed when the called party answers, that response is suspended and may be completed when the caller is placed back on-hold or the call is completed.

[0009] According to a further technical advantage of the invention, the particular options set forth in the calling party's menu may be reordered or prioritized from time-to-time depending on selections made by the calling party during prior on-hold sessions. This creates an active menu that more accurately reflects the calling party's preferences as the on-hold system is utilized. In a representative embodiment, more frequently selected items in the menu are played before less frequently selected items. The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects and features of the present invention. These objects and features should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner of modifying the invention as will be described. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the following Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment.

[0010] For a more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference should be made to the following Detailed Description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

[0011] For a more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference should be made to the following Detailed Description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

[0012] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the basic architecture of a telephone call center in which the present invention may be implemented;

[0013] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a preferred technique by which a user registers a personalized on-hold information service menu;

[0014] FIG. 3 is a representative web page at which a user may register his or her information option preferences to create a personalized active menu for use in the on-hold information service;

[0015] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the on-hold information service offering;

[0016] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a menu adjustment routine of the present invention;

[0017] FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a technique for generating a personalized menu as a function of a user profile or other identifying data.

[0018] FIG. 1 is an illustrative network call or contact center environment in which the present invention may be implemented. In this environment, one or more callers at station sets 102 are waiting in a queue of a call center. A station set may be embodied as a conventional wireline telephone, a wireless phone, a personal computer or other pervasive computing device configured with appropriate telephony software and Internet connectivity, or the like. A call is routed via the telephone network 105 to the call center 100. The call center 100 may include a PBX switch 110 with automatic call distribution capability. The PBX 110 may have an interactive voice response unit (IVR) 112 associated therewith. The PBX 110 and IVR 112 are well-known in the telephony art. The PBX is a switching system designed to receive telephone calls destined for call center 100 and to queue those calls when a call handling agent is not available. The IVR 112 is a voice information system that provides call prompting and DTMF tone or voice command detection, among other conventional functionality. Call handling agents at the attendant consoles 114 handle the calls following transfer from the hold queues.

[0019] The call center also includes an on-hold information system 116 comprising processor 118, disk storage 120, system memory 122, system software 124, and application software 126, among other conventional computer resources. According to the present invention, the onhold information system 116 provides a calling party with a personalized active menu 118 of information options that may be selected by the calling party when the party is placed on-hold by the call center 100. Unlike the prior art, a menu 118 preferably is defined by the calling party (as opposed to the system operator, a service provider, the called party, or the like), and this menu may be modified from time-to-time as the calling party uses the on-hold information system 116 and associated service offering. Although the on-hold information system 116 is illustrated as a standalone portion of the telephone call center 100, this is not a requirement of the present invention. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the inventive functionality may be built into the PBX, the IVR, or other apparatus or devices that comprise the call center. Moreover, the invention is not limited to use within a telephone call center environment; rather, the inventive caller-controlled menu functionality may be implemented within any on-hold information service regardless of the telephony environment. The call center environment of FIG. 1 is merely illustrative.

[0020] FIG. 2 is a flowchart of one illustrative method for registering a user to the on-hold information system. As used herein, a user or subscriber represents a calling party, i.e. a person that uses a station set to access the telephone call center (or other environment) in which the inventive on-hold information service is provisioned. Typically, the registration (or subscription) process is carried out off-line, i.e. before the user accesses the telephone call center and is placed within an on-hold queue. The routine begins at step 200 with the user accessing the information service to register his or her initial preferences for the onhold active menu. One convenient technique is for the user to access a web page supported on a web server. An illustrative web page 300 is shown in FIG. 3. At step 202, the user is provided with a menu describing the various information options that may be selected. The web page 300 in FIG. 3 illustrates various options including, for example: world news, business news, sports, local news, health news, entertainment, local weather, and the like. Each option has an associated radio button that may be selected. Some options, e.g., local news or weather, have an associated listbox that may be selected so that the user may select a particular city. One of ordinary skill will appreciate that any type of convenient user interface dialog may be used to enable the user to select a set of options and thus personalize his or her on-hold menu. In this example, the user has defined a personalized menu comprising world news, sports, and Austin weather. At step 204, the user saves the personalized menu, e.g., by selecting a SAVE button in the dialog. The personalized menu is then saved or stored within the on-line information system and service at step 206 to complete the process.

[0021] The personalized menu may be built or defined by the user in any other convenient manner. Thus, for example, a calling party may become a subscriber to the on-hold information service by registering over the telephone. Alternatively, the user may define his or her personalized menu manually and forward the menu selections to the service provider. Generalizing, a given menu option is composed of a static prompt and a dynamic response. For example, the static prompt may be Press 1 for my portfolio quotes while the dynamic response would be the calling party's current portfolio quotes. The on-hold information system has access to the information sources that are identified in the set of menu options that may be selected by the user. These sources may or may not comprise part of the on-hold information system.

[0022] FIG. 4 illustrates the operation of the on-hold information system. The routine begins at step 400 to test whether a calling party is to be directed to the onhold information system. Typically, a calling party is forwarded to the on-hold information system whenever the incoming call is placed in a hold queue (in the call center embodiment), although this is not a requirement of the invention. When the outcome of the test at step 400 indicates that the calling party is to be directed to the on-hold information system, the routine continues at step 402 to determine whether the calling party has a personalized menu. If the outcome of the test at step 402 is negative, the routine continues at step 404 to provide the user with a default menu of on-hold information options. This set of information options may be intelligent in the sense that the list of menu options is tailored to the user as a function of the user's originating telephone number. This functionality may be provided by analyzing the caller's originating telephone number using conventional caller ID techniques. The default menu provided in step 404 thus may include options (e.g., local weather, locale-based advertising, etc.) that may be relevant to the calling party given that the call originates from a given locality.

[0023] Rather than providing the default menu, the on-hold information system may default to a registration script to enable an unregistered or first-time caller to register a personalized menu as he or she is waiting for the given call to be completed. In particular, once the calling party is placed on-hold, he or she may be invited to register for the service. If the party desires to create a personalized menu, he or she is prompted to select a set of information options which then become the user's personalized menu for the current call and, optionally, future calls that are placed on-hold within the call center.

[0024] If the outcome of the test at step 402 indicates that the calling party has previously stored a personalized menu, the routine continues at step 406 to retrieve the calling party's menu that was previously stored within the system. At step 408, the personalized menu is played to the calling party. A test is then performed at step 410 to determine whether the calling party has made a selection. If not, the routine cycles. If, however, the calling party has made a selection, the routine continues at step 412 to provide the information option. Typically, the option is provided as a voiceover on the telephone line. The voiceover may be a live radio broadcast or other information service that was preselected by the calling party as indicated within the party's personalized menu. At step 414, a test is performed to determine whether the called party has answered. If not, the routine cycles. When the outcome of the test at step 414 indicates the called party has answered, the calling party is connected to the called party (e.g., a call handling agent). This is step 416. A test is then performed at step 418 to determine whether the call has been completed. If not, the routine cycles. If the outcome of the test at step 418 is positive, a test is performed at step 420 to determine if the calling party desires to continue with the information service. This test may be evaluated by providing a voice prompt to the calling party. The voice prompts may be provided, for example, using the IVR or some other voice prompting device. If the outcome of the test at step 420 is positive, the routine continues at step 422 to resume the information service, preferably at the point when the service offering was interrupted when the calling party was connected to the called party. If, however, the calling party does not wish to return to the information service, the routine terminates at step 424. This completes the processing.

[0025] The above-described processing, wherein the information service optionally is resumed when the call is completed, may also be a default operation when the calling party is placed on-hold during the call. According to another technical advantage of the present invention, a user's personalized menu is modified from time-to-time as a result of interactivity with the menu. This functionality is illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 5, which illustrates a menu adjustment routine. The routine preferably operates concurrently with the menu option selection routine described above with respect to FIG. 4. The menu adjustment routine begins at step 500 when the on-hold information system retrieves a user's personalized menu. At step 502, the routine monitors for a user's selection of a particular menu option. The routine then continues at step 504 to determine whether the particular on-hold session has been terminated (e.g., completely finished). If not, the routine cycles. If, however, the particular on-hold session has ended, the routine continues at step 506 to compare the user's selections during the session with prior selections that have been made from the menu. Any convenient correlation function may be used for this purpose. At step 508, a test is made to determine whether, as a result of the correlation, the user's personalized menu options should be reordered. If not, the routine branches to step 510 and saves the personalized menu unchanged. If, however, the result of the test at step 508 indicates that the menu should be modified, the routine continues at step 512 to modify the menu. Thus, for example, if the routine determines that a particular menu option (e.g., news about the stock market) is always selected by the user, the menu itself may be modified to list this option first when the menu is used in a future on-hold session. Of course, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the menu modifications will depend on the particular correlation function used by the routine as well as how often the user is placed on-hold. As more data is gathered, the menu choices may be conveniently altered to provide more relevant choices for the particular user. Preferably, more frequently selected items are prioritized over less frequently selected items. Returning now back to FIG. 5, after step 512, the modified menu is saved for future use at step 514. This completes the processing.

[0026] If desired, the personalized menu may be generated on-the-fly as the calling party is placed on-hold as a result of prior selections made by the user or other calling parties. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating this technique, which presumes that a database of each calling party's prior on-hold menu selections (or some portion thereof) has been saved. The routine begins at step 600 when a particular calling party is placed onhold. At step 602, a test is performed to determine whether the user has previously been on-hold. If not, the routine branches to step 604 and returns a default menu, optionally based on the user's originating telephone number. If, however, the user has previously been on-hold, the routine continues at step 606 to retrieve from the database the calling party's prior on-hold selections. From these selections, the routine continues at step 608 to generate a personalized menu for the user. This menu is then played to the calling party at step 610. At step 612, a test is performed to determine if the calling party has made a selection. If not, the routine cycles. Once a selection is made, the routine continues at step 614 to provide the information service. At step 616, a test is performed to determine whether the called party has answered. If not, the routine cycles. When the outcome of the test at step 616 indicates the called party has answered, the calling party is connected to the called party (e.g., a call handling agent). This is step 618. A test is then performed at step 620 to determine whether the call has been completed. If not, the routine cycles. If the outcome of the test at step 620 is positive, a test is performed at step 622 to determine if the calling party desires to continue with the information service. If the outcome of the test at step 622 is positive, the routine continues at step 624 to resume the information service, preferably at the point when the service offering was interrupted when the calling party was connected to the called party. If, however, the calling party does not wish to return to the information service, the routine terminates at step 626. This completes the processing.

[0027] To provide a calling party with the option of returning to the on-hold information service even after completing call, the on-hold information service preferably maintains status information indicating whether a particular calling party is on-hold or otherwise connected to the called party. Any convenient data structure (e.g., an array, a linked list, or the like) may be used for this purpose. When a call is received and the calling party is placed on-hold, the called party's PBX (or other switching system) sends an on-hold packet to the calling party's station set. When the called party answers the call, an off-hold packet is sent to the calling party station set. The calling party's station set uses these packets for synchronization.

[0028] In a call center environment, the on-hold information service will be handling a large number of calling parties. According to another feature of the present invention, it may be desirable to provide certain calling parties prioritized removal from call handling queues if such parties interact with certain menu options. In particular, a given calling party may be afforded faster access to a call handling agent if he or she selects a particular menu option (as compared to, for example, a calling party who does not have any personalized menu or who selects some other menu option). Alternatively, the on-hold information service may monitor the progress of a given on-hold session and retain the calling party connected to the information service (even if a call handling agent is then available) to ensure that given information is provided without interruption.

[0029] The on-hold information service provides numerous advantages over the prior art. With the present invention, a calling party is allowed to select options that are personally relevant to the caller when the caller is placed on-hold in a telephone system. By defining the personalized menu in advance, the caller knows that he or she will be provided with desirable information in the event of an on-hold situation. As described above, the caller can select from his or her own personalized active menu of options, which provide useful information, whenever the caller is placed on-hold. While on-hold during a telecommunications session, the caller can continue selecting useful menu options until the call is eventually answered, and he or she can elect to resume the on-hold information service even after the call is completed. The service provider saves the caller's prior selections in a profile that may then be used to determine which menu options are offered to the caller during subsequent on-hold sessions.

[0030] It is a further feature of the invention that the choices presented to the user prior to his own customization be preselected for relevancy to the user or calling party. One of the examples listed above was the use of caller ID to present the initial menu choices. Thus, the menu choices can be based on the incoming caller's telephone number. A party calling from a New York City phone (212)-555-1234, would get a different set menus while on hold, than a party calling from Boca Raton, Fla. (408) 555-1234. As an example, the current local headlines from New York City could be set in one of the on-hold menus, while the caller from Florida could be given the current beach conditions while on hold. As another example, menu choices offering front page articles from the New York Times be read aloud could be available to the New York caller, while the Florida caller would be presented choices from the local Boca Raton paper. One or all of the on-hold menu choices can be customized per caller using the caller ID information according to the invention.

[0031] Other information could be used to preselect the information presented to the user prior to his own customization of the menus. In addition, to caller ID or other location type information of the caller, the creation and preprocessing of the on-hold menu choices can be further customized to include the time-of-day as a relevant attribute. Callers during normal business hours would get different menu choices than callers after hours. Time and location data can be combined. Thus, for example, a San Francisco party requesting service from a business located in New York City, when placed on hold at 5 PM Pacific Time could also get different menu choices than a Miami caller requesting service at the same time (i.e. 8 PM Eastern Time). Again, in this example, the caller ID information is the cue that allows customization of the menu choices per caller.

[0032] The language of the calling party could be used for further on-hold menu customization. A French speaking caller, whether identified as such through caller ID as calling from France, or in a user database, would get different menu choices than a caller from Germany. The user database could also contain data on user capabilities. For example, if the caller has a certain impediment, e.g., a hearing impairment, the on-hold menu could be customized to present content and prompts using louder, or simpler options.

[0033] Another type of information which can be used to preprocess the initial menu choices is when the calling party has a prior relationship with the called party. For example, the calling party may be a customer of the called party. The calling party's caller's ID could be in the called party's database, to trigger access to the database. Alternatively, the caller could be prompted to input a customer number via the keypad. After the database is accessed, all the on-hold menu choices can be customized for that particular caller. Once a caller is identified, certain menu choices could be dropped as irrelevant to the caller. A caller who has no orders in transit would not hear a menu choice for tracking. As another example using caller ID, a caller that is placed on hold at an electronic stock trading company, if that caller is a registered client, when placed on hold that caller could be given menu choices to select 1-caller's current stock portfolio price, 2-caller's current balances, 3-current trades, etc., all specific to that caller, and without having to prompt the user for account numbers and passwords.

[0034] While some of the relationship data may be culled from phone interaction with the client, it is an important to note that the relationship data is not the same data which the caller inputs to customize his on-hold menu. The relationship data is something which exists prior to or at least separate from the customized menu itself. The data could be from telephone or Internet interactions, such as order taking, with the called party. Alternatively, the preprocessed list of initial personalized choices could be based on data collected from other sources such as mailing lists, surveys, memberships in organizations associated with the called party or referral information. Another option envisioned by the invention would be to present a typical set of menu choices to a caller with which the called party has no experience. As more knowledge of the caller is developed, i.e. relationship data, the caller could be presented with an option of going directly to the caller personalized menu which he has already built or hearing new options to create a new personalized menu, wherein the new options are based on the relationship data. Furthermore, relationship profiles for callers can be developed based on their interactions with the called party as well as other sources. A relationship profile might include the types of goods the caller buys, the frequency and amount of his orders and the way in which the caller wishes the goods to be delivered. The profiles could include personal data such as gender, age and household income. Callers with relationship profiles similar to other callers might be given new options to include in their personalized menu based on the choices made by the other callers with similar profiles.

[0035] The inventive on-hold information service takes advantage of existing technology. Conventional IVR devices may be used to provide voiceover prompts. Conventional voice recognition systems and devices may be used to recognize control commands issued by a calling party. The inventive routines preferably comprise computer software routines that may be written in any convenient programming language (e.g., Java, C, or the like) for any convenient hardware and operating system platform. As has been described, the inventive functionality may be provided as a standalone on-hold information service, or as an adjunct to an existing telephone switching system, PBX, PBX/ACD, or other information system, service, device or apparatus.

[0036] One of the preferred implementations of the invention is as a set of instructions (program code) in a code module resident in the random access memory of the computer. Until required by the computer, the set of instructions may be stored in another computer memory, for example, in a hard disk drive, or in a removable memory such as an optical disk (for eventual use in a CD ROM) or floppy disk (for eventual use in a floppy disk drive), or downloaded via the Internet or other computer network. In addition, although the various methods described are conveniently implemented in a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by software, one of ordinary skill in the art would also recognize that such methods may be carried out in hardware, in firmware, or in more specialized apparatus constructed to perform the required method steps.