Multi-channel end-to-end hosted call recording system for IVR-call center analytics

A telephone call is connected through a caller transfer point in a PSTN to a call recorder in a private hosted telephony network for making an audio recording of the telephone call. The telephone call is also connected from the caller transfer point through an IVR transfer point in the PTSN to a remote IVR server for dialog processing of the telephone call. At some point during the dialog process the connection between the call recorder and the IVR transfer point is placed on hold while maintaining a live connection between the call recorder and the caller transfer point. A human agent is then connected through the IVR transfer point to the telephone call for further handling of the telephone call, and the connection to between the IVR transfer point and the call recorder is restored to allow communication between the caller and the human agent.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to techniques for routing telephone calls to an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

BACKGROUND ART

A telephone call placed to a business organization commonly is handled by an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. The IVR system interacts with the caller via automated dialogs that present the caller with prompts that the caller responds to. The responses are automatically classified by the system (using automatic speech recognition, ASR) to determine how to handle the call. Some calls can be handled completely by automated responses of the IVR system, while other calls need to be referred to a human agent for completion.

To optimize the performance of an IVR system, it is helpful to record the individual telephone calls and analyze their details. But recording calls with multiple agent transfers as a single session in a hosted recording system is a problem. Depending on the type of transfer the calls could be dropped during a transfer. In order to do a complete end-to-end recording, a conventional IVR system has to do a bridge (trombone) transfer to the agents. This is expensive because it utilizes twice the telephony resources as would a simple blind transfer require.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to handling of a telephone call to an interactive voice response (IVR) system. A telephone call from a caller is connected through a caller transfer point in a public switched telephone network (PSTN) to a call recorder in a private hosted telephony network for making an audio recording of the telephone call. The telephone call is also connected from the caller transfer point through a IVR transfer point in the PTSN to a remote IVR server for dialog processing of the telephone call. At some point during the dialog process the connection between the call recorder and the IVR transfer point is placed on hold while maintaining a live connection between the call recorder and the caller transfer point. A human agent is then connected through the IVR transfer point to the telephone call for further handling of the telephone call, and the connection to between the IVR transfer point and the call recorder is restored to allow communication between the caller and the human agent.

Such embodiments may further include making an audio recording of the telephone call with the call recorder and providing the audio recording to an IVR call analytics application. The IVR server may be disconnected from the telephone call after the human agent has been connected. The step of placing on hold may include processing DTMF tones to maintain the live connection between the call recorder and the caller transfer point. And the dialog processing may use automatic speech recognition (ASR).

Embodiments of the present invention also include a computer program product in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium for handling a telephone call to an interactive voice response (IVR) system according to any of the foregoing methods.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention address the problem of dropping calls during call transfers in an IVR system having a call recorder. Two different transfer points are used to route the call: (1) a first caller transfer point in a public switched telephone network (PSTN) that routes a telephone call from a caller to a call recorder in a private hosted telephony network, and (2) a second IVR transfer point in the PSTN that routes the call from the call recorder to the remote IVR server. During an IVR dialog with caller when the IVR server transfers the call (e.g., to a human agent), the transfer signals transmitted from the IVR transfer point are detected and prevented from reaching the caller transfer point to thereby prevent the caller from being disconnected.

FIG. 1illustrates the standard call flow for making a telephone call. A telephone call106is routed from a caller101through a transfer point105in a PSTN cloud102to an IVR server103, which uses ASR to conduct a dialog with the caller101. Commonly during this dialog, the IVR server103determines that the telephone call106needs to be transferred, for example, to human agent to handle some aspect of the call beyond the capability of the automated dialog of the IVR server103.

FIG. 2A-Billustrates the standard call flow for a conventional blind transfer of the telephone call106from the IVR server103to a human agent104. That is, the IVR server103sends a transfer request signal to the transfer point105, which places its connection to caller101on hold, as shown inFIG. 2A. The transfer point105then connects the path of the telephone call106to the human agent104and disconnects the IVR server103, as shown inFIG. 2B. The human agent104then handles further dialog processing with the caller101and the IVR server is no longer needed.

In order to analyze the operation of an IVR system such as those described, operational data can be collected by recording individual phone calls to the system. To do that,FIG. 3Aillustrates the call flow use of a standard tap recorder in an IVR application with a conventional call transfer. A call recorder302in a private hosted telephony network301makes audio records of telephone calls to the IVR server103. Telephone calls106from callers101are connected through a first caller transfer point105in the PSTN cloud102to the call recorder302, and from there through a second IVR transfer point303in the PTSN102to the IVR server103. This allows the call recorder302to make audio recordings of the dialog processing of the telephone call106by the IVR server.

But this two transfer point call routing arrangement struggles when the IVR server103decides to transfer the telephone call106to a human agent104. To transfer the call106, the IVR server103sends transfer signals to the transfer points within the PSTN cloud106. As shown inFIG. 3B, both the IVR transfer point303and the caller transfer point105place the previous portion of the call106on hold while both transfer points wait for the transfer destination number. The IVR transfer point303receives the destination number from the IVR server103and dials it to make a connection with the human agent104, as shown inFIG. 3C. But the connection between the caller101and the caller transfer point105is still on hold. Eventually that connection will time out and the caller101will be dropped. Thus, the conventional arrangement for using a call recorder fails when a call must be transferred from the IVR server to a human agent for further dialog processing.

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to an improved arrangement for capturing audio recordings of telephone calls to an IVR dialog system using an intelligent call recorder which successfully handles transfers to a human agent. As shown inFIG. 4Awhen the IVR server103sends the transfer signals to the transfer points in the PSTN cloud102, the IVR transfer point303places on hold its incoming side of the call106. But the intelligent call recorder401filters out the transfer request to prevent it from reaching the caller transfer point105, thereby maintaining live the connection of the call106between the caller101and the intelligent call recorder401. Thus, the only the portion of the call106placed on hold during the transfer is the connection between the intelligent call recorder401and the IVR transfer point303. The IVR server103then sends the destination number of the human agent104to the IVR transfer point303which dials and makes the connection. The human agent104is then connected as shown inFIG. 4Bthrough the IVR transfer point303to the telephone call106, the intelligent call recorder401, and the caller101.

In addition to or instead of transferring a call from an IVR server to a human agent, some embodiments may advantageously transfer a call from one IVR server to another.

The methodology used to detect and suppress the transfer signals may vary to work across different telephone carriers. For example, a typical implementation may be based on converting in-band DTMF tones from the IVR server103to the caller transfer points303and105into out-of-band DTMF tones and suppressing the same as needed.

Embodiments of the present invention enable a recording arrangement to capture an entire phone call as a single session without interfering with the call audio path or compromising on call quality. This continuity and quality of recording is vital for call analysis applications. And the telephony resources required are no more than for a simple blind transfer and much less than in a bridge (trombone) call routing arrangement.

Embodiments of the invention may be implemented in whole or in part in any conventional computer programming language such as VHDL, SystemC, Verilog, ASM, etc. Alternative embodiments of the invention may be implemented as pre-programmed hardware elements, other related components, or as a combination of hardware and software components.