Abstract:
Disclosed herein are systems and associated methods for operating web interactive services in conjunction with communication services, linking the communication with the interaction by means of a session-specific identifier such as a telephone number. During the course of a web session, user interaction information may be collected, that information potentially indicating subjects of interest to a user associated with the session-specific identifier. In the event the user uses the identifier make a contact regarding the information, the identifier can be used to associate the interaction information and subjects of interest, such that the contact may have that information and those subjects available to assist a user making contact. Interaction and subject information may also be used to customize the interaction with a contacting user with regard to the routing of a telephone call, a greeting, a product or service offering, or other communication.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates generally to mapping web site interaction data to user communications and more particularly relates to means and methods for leveraging web site interaction data in responding to user communications. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Enterprises often have web pages where users can browse and view information related to their interests and needs. Such browsing may generate user initiated communication. However, enterprises are typically unaware of the interests and needs of a particular user when responding to user communications. In particular, enterprises have not had the ability to relate user communications to a user&#39;s web site interaction data. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention has been developed in response to the present state of the art, and in particular, in response to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully solved by currently available communication response and tracking systems and methods. Accordingly, the present invention has been developed to provide systems and methods for relating web site interaction data to user communications and optimizing responses to user communications that overcome shortcomings in the art. 
     In one aspect of certain embodiments of the present invention, a system to enhance communications with a user includes a web server that provides a web page to a user and collects web site interaction data during at least one browsing session. The web page may include a session-specific response address or response code that enables the system to associate web site interaction data with communications from the user. The response address may be a telephone number, email address, text messaging address, instant messaging address, or the like. In certain embodiments, the session-specific response address or code may be service-specific. For example, a response address for customer support may be different than a response address for the sales department. 
     The communication server may associate the communication from the user with the web site interaction data and select or adjust interaction with the user according to the web site interaction data. For example, the system may select or adjust a particular action such as routing the communication, providing a greeting to the user, selecting an ACD plan, selecting an IVR menu, offering a product to the user, offering a service to the user, conducting a survey, communicating a particular message to the user, and presenting user related data to an agent, based on the web site interaction data. 
     In another aspect of certain embodiments of the present invention, a method to enhance responses to user communications includes receiving a communication from a user via a session-specific response address that was provided to the user via a web page, and associating the communication with the user with web site interaction data collected for the user during one or more browsing sessions in which the user visited the web page. The method may also include selecting or adjusting interaction with the user according to the web site interaction data. The selected or adjusted interaction may include routing the communication from the user, selecting a response message, providing a greeting to the user, selecting an ACD plan, selecting an IVR menu, offering a product to the user, offering a service to the user, and conducting a survey. 
     The method may also include serving a web page with the session-specific response address or response code included within the web page. The session-specific response address may be a telephone number (which may include an extension number), an email address, a text-messaging address, an instant messaging address, or the like. The session-specific response code may be a session-identifier, a user identifier, or the like. The session-specific response address or response code may be returned to an available pool upon completion of the current browsing session and any associated communications with the user. 
     In certain embodiments, the method includes retrieving additional data for the user such as reverse lookup data, credit check data, web site data, web site rank information, do-not-call registry data, data from a CRM database, and background check data. 
     In another aspect of certain embodiments of the present invention, a method to provide enhanced user data includes receiving web site interaction data for a user collected during one or more browsing sessions in which the user visited a web page, and receiving user-specific data collected in conjunction with one or more communications by the user to a session-specific response address. The session-specific response address may be provided to the user via the web page during the session in which the user visits the web page. The method may further include merging the user-specific data with the web site interaction data to provide enhanced user data, and storing the enhanced user data. In one embodiment, the session specific response address is a telephone number. 
     The methods described herein may be embodied as a computer program product or computer readable medium bearing computer usable program codes executable to perform operations to accomplish the described methods. It should also be noted that references throughout this specification to features, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized with the present invention should be or are in any single embodiment of the invention. Rather, language referring to the features and advantages is understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, discussion of the features and advantages, and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, refer to the same embodiment. 
     Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the invention. 
     These features and advantages will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In order that the advantages of the invention will be readily understood, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a communication system in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a communication server in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating one embodiment of a communication response method in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a response plan manager in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating one embodiment of a response plan generation method in accordance with the present invention; and 
         FIG. 6  is a text diagram illustrating one embodiment of a response address dialog in accordance with the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Many of the functional units described in this specification have been labeled as modules, in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a module may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom VLSI circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices or the like. 
     Modules may also be implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. An identified module of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions which may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified module need not be physically located together, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module and achieve the stated purpose for the module. 
     Indeed, a module of executable code may be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustrated herein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices, and may exist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system or network. 
     Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment. 
     Reference to a signal bearing medium or computer-readable medium may take any form capable of generating a signal, causing a signal to be generated, or causing execution of a program of machine-readable instructions on a digital processing apparatus. A signal bearing medium may be embodied by a transmission line, a compact disk, digital-video disk, a magnetic tape, a Bernoulli drive, a magnetic disk, a punch card, flash memory, integrated circuits, or other digital processing apparatus memory device. 
     Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided, such as examples of programming, software modules, user selections, network transactions, database queries, database structures, hardware modules, hardware circuits, hardware chips, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention. 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic block diagram illustrating one particular embodiment of a communication system  100  in accordance with the present invention. As depicted, the communication system  100  includes various components such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN)  110 , user communication and/or computing devices  112 , a TDM gateway  120  connecting the PSTN to an internet  130 , remote agent stations  121 , workstations  128 , a call center  140 , an internet gateway  150  connecting a local area network  160  to the internet  130 , and various servers such as a web server  170 , a response server  180 , and a data server  190 , local agent workstations  192 , and control workstations  194 . In certain embodiments, the system  100  may also include an analytics server (not shown) that analyzes user interactions with websites, IVR menus, and the like, and assesses the user&#39;s needs and interests. The particular embodiment  100  is one example of components that can be operably interconnected to provide a communication response system wherein the components function collaboratively to improve response success rates. 
     In the depicted embodiment, the remote agent stations  121  include wireless phones  122 , wired phones  124 , wireless computing devices  126 , and workstations  128 . In certain embodiments, the wireless phones  122  or the wired phones  124  may be VOIP phones. In some embodiments, the computing devices  126  or the workstation  128  may be equipped with a soft phone. The remote agent stations  121  enable agents to provide services from remote locations similar to agents stationed at the workstations  192  and directly connected to the local area network  160 . 
     In one embodiment, the local area network  160  resides within a call center  140  that uses VoIP and other messaging services to communicate with users connected to the PSTN  110  and/or the internet  130 . The various servers in the call center  140  function cooperatively to receive communications from users, provide customer data to agents via agent terminals such as the local agent workstations  192  and the remote agent stations  121 , and connect the agents to the users. The users may be connected to the PSTN  110 , the internet  130 , or the like. 
     The web server  170  may provide one or more web forms  172  to users via browser displayable web pages. The web forms may be displayed to the users via a variety of communication and/or computing devices  112  including phones, laptop computers, desktop computers, media players, and the like that are equipped with a browser. In the depicted embodiment, the web forms  172  provide a session-specific response address or response code to the user that enables the communication system  100  to identify the user and associate web site interaction data collected during a during one or more browsing sessions in which the user visits the web page. The response address may be a telephone number. 
     The communication server  180  may associate communication from the user with the web site interaction data. In one embodiment, communication to the session-specific response address is automatically associated with the user. In another embodiment, the user provides a session-specific response code that enables the communication server to associate communication from the user with the web site interaction data. 
     The communication server may select or adjust interactions with the user based on the web site interaction data. In one embodiment, the communication server  180  selects a response plan to user communications based on the web site interaction data. The response plan may include initiating a variety of actions such as routing the telephone call, providing a greeting to the user, selecting an IVR menu, offering a product to the user, offering a service to the user, conducting a survey, communicating a particular message to the user, and presenting user related data to an agent. 
     The communication server  180  or the like, may deliver information on the user to an agent to enable the agent to achieve a particular objective such as establishing a relationship with the user, thanking the user for their interest in a product, answering questions from the user, informing the user of a product or service offering, selling a product or service, surveying the user on their needs and preferences, and providing support to the user. The communication server  180  may deliver the information to the agent using a variety of delivery services such as email services, instant messaging services, short message services, enhanced messaging services, text messaging services, telephony-based text-to-speech services, and multimedia delivery services. The agent terminals  121  or  192  may visually or sonically present the information on the user and enable the agent to communicate with the user. 
     The data server  190  or the like may retrieve additional data associated with the user such as additional web analytics data, reverse lookup data, credit check data, web site data, web site rank information, do-not-call registry data, data from a CRM database, and background check data. The data server may store the collected data in a datastore and associate the user data with web site interaction data provided by the web server  170 , a third party analytics service, or the like. 
       FIG. 2  is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a communication server  200  in accordance with the present invention. As depicted, the communication server  200  includes a response manager  210 , an IVR module  220 , a messaging module  230 , a PBX module  240 , and termination hardware  250 . The response server  200  enables an agent to communicate with a user in conjunction with a response plan. The response server  200  is one example of the response server  180  depicted in  FIG. 1 . 
     The response manager  210  responds to user communications. In one embodiment, responses occur according to a response plan. The response manager  210  may respond to user communications via the IVR module  220 , the messaging module  230 , or the like. The IVR module  220  enables interactive communications with a user without requiring agent interaction. In one embodiment, the response manager  210  directs the IVR module  220  to provide a selected menu to the user. The messaging module  230  sends and receives messages to agents and users. The messaging module  230  may conduct interactive communications with the user either with or without the use of an agent. The messaging module  230  may leverage one or more delivery or messaging services such as email services, instant messaging services, short message services, and enhanced messaging services. 
     The PBX module  240  connects a private phone network to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or the like. The response manager  210  may direct the PBX module  240  to connect a line on the private phone network with a number on the PSTN or internet. The termination hardware  250  routes calls from a local network to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In one embodiment, the termination hardware  250  interfaces to conventional phone terminals. The response manager  210  may use the PBX module  240  or the termination hardware  250  to connect a user to an agent. 
     The response manager  210  may include an automatic number identification (ANI) module  212  that identifies session-specific telephone numbers that were called by users. The response manager  210  may also include a response address or response code manager  214  that identifies session-specific responses addresses or codes used by users when communicating to the system  100  or the like. In certain embodiments, the session-specific telephone number, response addresses, and response codes may be returned by the modules  212  and  214  to an available pool of numbers, addresses, and codes when communications with a user are completed. 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating one embodiment of a communication response method  300  in accordance with the present invention. As depicted, the communication response method  300  includes providing  310  one or more web pages, monitoring  320  user interactions on the web pages, displaying  330  a session-specific response address or code, receiving  340  a communication from a user, associating  350  the communication with web site interaction data for the user, and adjusting  360  communication interaction with the user. The communication response method  300  improves responses to user communications. 
     Providing  310  one or more web pages may include serving web pages related to an enterprise such as information pages, product pages, customer support pages, event pages, and contact pages. Monitoring  320  user interactions on the web pages may include collecting data as to which pages and elements of the web pages the user interacts with. In one embodiment, user interactions are collected for the pages served by an enterprise as well as related pages such a competitor pages. The user interactions may be collected for a current browsing session and/or accumulated across multiple browsing sessions. In certain embodiments, the user interactions are collected by a third party service. 
     Displaying  330  a session-specific response address or code may include inserting a response address or code on a web page served to a particular user. Examples of a response address include an email address, a text-messaging address, an instant messaging address, and a telephone number. The response code may correspond to a session identifier. The response address or code may be session-specific in order to facilitate identification of a user that is communicating in response to a browsing session. The use of a session-specific response address or code enables identification of users while using a limited number of response addresses or codes. In certain embodiments, the response addresses or codes may be limited to a maximum number of anticipated browsers. 
     The depicted method continues by receiving  340  a communication from a user. The communication may be received via the session-specific response address provided to the user. In one embodiment, the session-specific response address is a telephone number. Associating  350  the communication with web site interaction data for the user enables selecting or adjusting  360  communication interaction with the user according to user interests or needs as captured by the web site interaction data. Examples of communication interaction that may be selected or adjusted include routing the communication, selecting a response message, providing a greeting, selecting an ACD plan, selecting an IVR menu, offering a product, offering a service, and conducting a survey. 
     In addition to associating communication with web site interaction data the method  300  may retrieve additional user data from a variety of sources that could enable improved selection of a response plan and/or improved success rates for achieving a particular purpose when responding to a user. Examples of additional data include additional web analytics data, reverse lookup data, credit check data, do-not-call registry data, data from a CRM database, and background check data. 
     In certain embodiments, the system  100  and method  300  may select a preferred response plan that directs responses to user communications and facilitates interactions that are known to improve user experiences and success rates. In one embodiment, selecting a preferred response plan includes correlating the web site interaction data and additional user data with statistical data associated with a variety of response plans and selecting the response plan with the highest correlation as the preferred response plan. 
     The preferred response plan may include a queuing strategy for handling communications with the user. For example, the queuing strategy may select an agent based on the demographic data of the user and the location of the user. Implementing a queuing strategy may improve response success rates. 
     In certain embodiments, communication interaction with the user includes presenting information regarding the user to an agent. The information may be visually or sonically presented. The information may include analytics information that indicates potential needs and interests of the user. The information presented to the agent may be delivered using a variety of delivery services such as email services, instant messaging services, short message services, enhanced messaging services, text messaging services, telephony-based text-to-speech services, and multimedia delivery services. In certain embodiments, additional interaction data that is manually or automatically collected during the user communications is provided to an analytics service or server. Providing such additional interaction data may improve the usefulness of the analytics data and associated service. 
       FIG. 4  is a schematic block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a response plan manager  400  in accordance with the present invention. As depicted, the response plan manager includes a data collection module  410 , a data analysis module  420 , a response plan generation module  430 , a plan selection module  440 , and a plan enhancement module  440 . The response plan manager facilitates generation and selection of a preferred response plan for responding to user communications. 
     The data collection module  410  may aggregate response records or other data corresponding to responses to user communications. The response records or other data may include information that specifies the time, manner, and outcome of the responses as well as user information and web site interaction information. The data analysis module  420  may analyze the response records to find correlations between the response outcome information and other information such as the time information, user information, web site interaction information, and response method information. 
     The response plan generation module  430  may receive the correlations and formulate a variety of response plans that reflect the statistical correlations between outcomes and the other information contained in the response records. In one embodiment, users with correlated data may be assigned to a group and a response plan is generated for that group along with mean and variance information for specific information fields that may be used to correlate and compare other users with the group. 
     The plan selection module  440  may receive web site interaction data for a particular user, correlate the data with statistical data associated with a number of available response plans and select a preferred response plan from the available response plans. A response plan datastore  460  may store the response plans and data associated with the response plans such as statistical data. 
     The plan enhancement module  450  may receive and analyze additional response records including associated customer data and determine if adjustments to the response plans may result in enhanced performance for the response system  100  or the like. In certain embodiments, the plan enhancement module  450  may randomize a response plan to increase response success, and/or partition the response plans into parts and combine the parts to create hybrid response plans. For example, the response plans may be partitioned into response methods and response purpose, each of which may be correlated to specific attributes from response records to create multiple subplans for various response methods and response purposes. The subplans for various response methods and response purposes may then be combined into a number of hybrid plans that each meet the needs of specific populations. One of skill in the art will appreciate that other forms of optimization not disclosed herein that are familiar to those of skill in the art may be conducted by the plan enhancement module  450 . 
       FIG. 5  is a schematic flow chart diagram illustrating one embodiment of a response plan generation method  500  in accordance with the present invention. As depicted, the response plan generation method  500  includes receiving  510  response records, analyzing  520  the response records, formulating  530  one or more response plans, receiving  540  additional data, and enhancing  550  the response plans. 
     Receiving  510  response records may include receiving response records corresponding to responses for one or more web forms. In certain embodiments, the response records include time information, user information, web site interaction information, response method information, and outcome information. 
     Analyzing  520  the response records may include finding correlations between the outcome information and the time information, user information, and response method information. Formulating  530  one or more response plans may include using the correlations to formulate a set of response plans intended to improve contact successes. 
     The method  500  may also include analyzing  540  additional response records and enhancing  550  the response plans. In certain embodiments, enhancing  550  includes randomizing response plans and/or partitioning the response plans to facilitate hybridization. In one embodiment, enhancing  550  includes detecting if a response plan is yielding substantially inferior results to a default plan, scrapping the plan if the results are substantially inferior to the default plan, and building a new response plan to replace the inferior response plan. The default plan may be a response plan that is used if little information is known about a user. 
       FIG. 6  is a text diagram illustrating one embodiment of a response address dialog  600  in accordance with the present invention. As depicted, the response address dialog  600  includes various session-specific response addresses  610  including a variety of telephone addresses or numbers  610   a  and a variety of email addresses  610   b . In the depicted embodiment, a current browsing session identifier of ‘ 327 ’ is embedded within each response address  610 . The session-specific response addresses  610  enables an enterprise to provide customized responses to user communications. In the depicted embodiment, the response addresses  610  are service-specific as well as session-specific. Using response addresses that are service-specific as well as session-specific enables an enterprise to provide highly customized responses to user communications with a limited number of response addresses or codes. 
     The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.