Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis
Reissue Patent
1994-05-02
2001-02-27
Hong, Harry S. (Department: 2742)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
C379S084000, C379S142030, C379S157000, C379S209010, C379S214010, C379S266070, C379S309000
Reissue Patent
active
RE037073
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a system and method of answering incoming communication calls and more particularly to such a system and method for establishing an automatic callback for certain of the incoming calls.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A common telephone experience is dialing a number, only to be told to wait while the operators are handling other calls. This message is usually a prerecorded announcement informing the hapless caller that “all operators are busy. Please remain on the line and your call will be answered by the first available attendant.”
Wait or call back? A dilemma without answer. How long will the wait be? How important is the information (or the order for goods or services) to the caller? To add injury to the situation, often the called party takes this opportunity to play commercials to the captive listener! To add further insult, often the call is long distance and the caller is paying for the commercial!
From the called party's point of view there is lost business because some percentage of callers hang up and do not call back. In many situations, the incoming call is being paid for by the called party and this “holding time” is costly to the called party especially when many calls are placed on hold routinely. In either event, a great deal of inconvenience and frustration is involved for those who do not call back, especially because there is no guarantee that the second call can be completed either. This, then, is a no-win situation.
Thus, a need exists in the art for a system which eliminates the need for callers to decide whether to hold or hang up and which converts a no-win situation into one in which both parties can be satisfied.
A further need exists in the art for such a solution which does not cost either party time or effort or significant installation costs. It must also maximize the effective use of time by both the calling and the called parties, while reducing the communication cost to at least one of the parties.
In some situations, for example immediately after a commercial has been aired on TV, a business is inundated with a very large volume of incoming of calls. In this situation, all of the available operators, or other communication resources, become swamped. Usually, the incoming trunks to the business cannot handle the temporary calling volume and many callers get busy tone. This, again, is frustrating to the caller and is potential lost business to the called party.
Thus, a need exists in the art for a system which reduces to a minimum the trunk holding time during high volume periods, while still processing the calls in an orderly and efficient manner.
In still another context, many communications today are effected between computers, or between other electronic equipment, such as facsimile machines. These communications do not always require human intervention and thus often can be accomplished at off-hour times to take advantage of reduced traffic and reduced costs. This situation can also occur across wide time zones where data transfer which is convenient for one party is not convenient for the other.
Thus, a need also exists in the art for a system which allows a calling party, or a called party, to schedule the communication to take place at some time in the future which is mutually agreed upon. Such a system must be capable of operating without human intervention.
In a still further context, many callers call into a facility, get put on hold, and then after some period of time (for which someone is paying) reach an attendant (or other resource, only to find out that the transaction they desired, or the information they wanted was not available at the called facility. The calling party is then told to call some other number and the process of waiting on hold begins again.
Thus a need exists in the art for a system which allows a called facility to identify callers, establish a time of call back and then handle that call in an efficient manner for all parties, all without requiring the calling party to requeue at another called facility.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These objectives, as well as others, have been achieved by a system and method of operation which provides an electronic operator to process calls which cannot (or should not) be serviced immediately by either a live attendant or by other call servicing resources, such as computers, data bases, modems, facsimile machines, etc. In addition, the necessary resource need not be the call completion resource, but could be an intermediate call progress resource, such as a voice recognition module, a rotary dial translator or a DTMF decoder. The robot operator determines the call back identity of the caller and also establishes a time, or a range of time, when a resource will be available. This time for the callback is communicated to the caller so that the caller can go about his/her business and not be tied to the telephone listening to unwanted music or messages and paying for the same.
The robot can automatically ascertain the call back number, or can ascertain by interrogation of the caller the number at which the calling party desires to be called back.
A still further enhancement allows the robot to ascertain exactly the time the caller wishes to be called back in the event the time assigned by the robot is inconvenient. This then allows both the caller and the called party to schedule the time for the call Sack. The call back time can be set to be a few minutes, an hour, or even days later. The call back number can be the caller's current number or a different number, depending upon the calling party's schedule.
Both parties benefit under this scenario: the caller because he/she need not remain on the line waiting and can even go to another location and be available at a particular time; the called party because when the call is returned, it will be greeted by a receptive customer. The called party benefits because it can schedule its work force to accommodate the preplanned call back.
Further refinements allow the called party to ascertain the type of information the customer wishes and thus further tailor the call back response.
The called party can determine the call back number from some systems using automatic number identification (ANI) or the calling number can be identified by recording the digits entered by the calling party in response to prompts by the answering robot. Prompts can also be used to solicit other information from the caller which will be useful in returning the call.
The call back time can be predicted automatically on a statistical basis if the calling party does not establish a particular time for the call back. In addition, the answering robot, based on statistics or on other information, can tell the caller that the call back will be at a precise time or within a range of times. The system then sets the call back for the established time or on an availability basis within the established defined call back time limits.
For anticipated high volume call-in times, trunk time can be minimized by having the robot answer all calls with a greeting such as, “Hello, many calls are coming in to us now. We have identified your call back number as XXX XXXXXXX, we will call you at that number in YY minutes. If the call back identity is correct and if the time is acceptable please press the number 1 on your dial and then hang up the telephone. Please press 2 if a different call back number should be used or press number 3 if a different time is desired.”
Assume a situation in which a calling facility, for example a bank computer, wishes to transfer data with a called facility, such as another bank's computer, and also assume for a moment that the called bank's computer is busy, or worse, experiencing down time. Also, let us assume that this transaction can occur any time before the opening of business the next day. Under this scenario then, the calling computer places the calling connection to the called bank. A robot operator answers on a temporary basis and firs
Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.
Hong Harry S.
InterVoice Limited Partnership
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