Patent ID: 9652797
Date: 2017-05-16
CPC Classifications: G06F,G06Q

Claim:
1. A computer implemented method for making recommendations to a user, comprising: providing a processor configured for receiving a query from a user through a plurality of channels, said plurality of channels comprising at least two of the group of Web, mobile, interactive voice response (IVR), phone, automotive, and television; during a data fusion stage, said processor configured for using said customer's Web journey, multi-channel journeys, and activities that generate data from multi-channels to match the query received from the user with a previous query from any of said user and one or more other users; said processor configured for identifying a set of resources relevant to the received query and the previous query; said processor configured for combining data from said plurality of channels in real time to predict user intent in connection with said identified resources, wherein unique identifiers are created, captured, and/or passed between said plurality of channels to identify and tag the user and the user's context uniquely for any of history, past behavior, steps progressed, obstacles, and issues encountered; during an intent prediction stage, said processor configured for predicting in real time an outcome of a future selection by said user from a sequence of previous selections made by any of said user and from one or more frequent sequences of previous selections made by a plurality of users, said intent prediction being determined by application of an intent prediction function p said processor configured for using activities of a group of similar users to provide a basis for determining a current user's intent where insufficient information is available about said user or said user is a new visitor; during a recommendation stage, said processor configured for collecting and analyzing information gathered during previous visits of one or more users, including that of a current user, to determine in descending order a most frequent sequence of selections; said processor configured for ranking results of said predicting based on said user intent by application of a function comprising: where interest in a product comprises a weighted sum of interest in each intent class I expressed as f said processor configured for presenting a ranked order of recommended results to said user; said processor configured for displaying products or services having the highest scores through any of a plurality of channels, wherein each channel has a different setting for top products or services; said processor configured for proactively identifying a user need and initiating user contact and/or interaction through any of chat sessions and telephonic contact with a call center; said processor configured for, during user interaction, determining a specific type of user engagement mode based upon the intent of the user; and said processor configured for providing a recommendation to said user based on any of information gathered through said contact and/or interaction and past user activities.