Abstract:
A system and method for extracting and presenting useful data from calls received by a client is disclosed. The resulting “telephone call inbox” is a way for a client view pay per call advertising as a stream of consumers with information available to understand the call activity of the consumers and for the client to navigate their call history. The system automatically filters non-consumer fraudulent calls, extracts the identity of a consumer, aggregates several calling entities into a single consumer, transcribes the call into a call stream using voice recognition software, extracts patterns and draws conclusions from the call stream, and presents a list of call streams in a user friendly set of web pages configured as the telephone call inbox. The telephone call inbox includes, for each call, the caller ID, one or more key words, phrases or major conclusions concerning the call, and the voice recognized call stream.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No. 61/229,820 filed Jul. 30, 2009, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention relates generally to telecommunications, and more particularly, to a method and system for creating an e-mail-like telephone call inbox of transcribed telephone calls between consumers and a business. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    When a business (hereinafter, the “client(s)”) uses pay per call advertising, the client may receive a number of calls from consumers seeking their products or services, etc. When business is good, the number of calls may be overwhelming and too time intensive to monitor. What is desirable to monitor includes determining the number of consumers and extracting significant data from consumer interactions, such as the number and type of products sold, the state or phase of a complicated transaction, or the type of consumer that is interested in a particular product or service. 
         [0004]    To keep track of telephone calls and their content (hereinafter, the “consumer(s)”), the client may subscribe to an audio recording and or transcription service. Unfortunately, if the client receives, for example, 30 phone calls a day, and playing the recorded phone messages takes on average five to ten minutes apiece (or a similar amount of time in transcribed form) it may take three hours to listen/read all of the calls, which becomes tedious. Moreover, the client may receive only the caller ID number and a short string identifying the name of the consumer on their telephone, which provides little information about the consumer. The client also needs to manually and mentally extract relevant information from each call, yet may have no tools for finding patterns in the calls that may affect their business. 
         [0005]    Accordingly, what would be desirable, but has not yet been provided, is and method and system that simplifies the management of call streams from consumers to a client. The method and system would be capable of providing useful data extracted from the call streams that is presented to the client in a user-friendly form. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    The above-described problems are addressed and a technical solution is achieved in the art by providing a method and system for extracting useful data from calls streams of consumers received by a client and presenting the data to the client in an e-mail-like “telephone call inbox.” As used herein, the term “client” may refer to any person or organization that may employ the method and/or system of the present invention, which may include, but is not limited to, an individual, a non-profit organization such as a university, and a for-profit business. As used herein, the term “consumer” may refer to any person or organization that may call into the system using the method of the present invention, which may include, but is not limited to, an individual, a non-profit organization such as a university, and a for-profit business. When a call is received from a potential consumer at a telephony server, the telephony server completes the call to a client, bridges the call, and begins recording the call. The identity of at least one consumer calling a client is extracted from the call. As part of the identification process, non-consumer fraudulent call data is automatically filtered out of the call (stream). A call is transcribed into a text call stream by voice recognition software on both the consumer and the client sides of the call stream. The current transcribed call stream is aggregated with at least one other call stream into one or more consumer entities. Patterns may be extracted from a call stream and/or across a plurality of call streams to indicate noteworthy activity and higher level conclusions may be drawn based on the appearance of one or more specific tags. 
         [0007]    The transcribed call stream, caller ID, and extracted pattern data are presented to a client in an e-mail-like “telephone call inbox.” A first telephone call inbox screen lists each call per line, which includes a caller ID string, key phrases and/or extracted patterns that are relevant to the client, followed by a partial transcription of the call. To view the entire transcription; the client double clicks on the partial transcription. The client is presented with a second screen that includes a listing of the consumer, the client, the key word(s) or conclusion as a heading or subject, and a line-by-line transcription of the client/consumer conversation, with key words highlighted. 
         [0008]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, a computer-implemented method for automatically extracting and presenting transcriptions of telephone calls from at least one consumer to a client is disclosed, comprising the steps of: extracting the identity of a caller from a call received by the client; transcribing the call; aggregating the identity of the caller into at least one consumer entity; extracting at least one pattern from the transcribed call; and distributing the at least one consumer entity and the at least one pattern to the client. The at least one consumer entity may a single consumer entity and the extracted identity is aggregated with at least one other identity of the same caller. At least one of the extracted identity and the other identity is based on at least one of a caller ID, a telephone number, and an identity found in the transcribed call. The call may be transcribed into at least a text-based call steam. Aggregating the identity of the caller into at least one consumer entity may further comprise aggregating a telephone number associated with the call with other telephone numbers associated with the at least one consumer such that multiple call streams are grouped as a single consumer entity. 
         [0009]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, the at least one pattern may be extracted from at least one call to draw higher level conclusions to apply a tag to the at least one pattern based on the appearance of at least one of a word and phrase. The pattern may be extracted based on an industry-specific pattern set. The industry-specific pattern set may be relevant to a business associated with the client. The state of a call may be updated based on at least one of the at least one pattern and higher level conclusions. 
         [0010]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, a content-based fraud detector rule set may be applied against the transcribed call to detect fraudulent calls. Alternatively, at least one of a telephone number and a caller ID associated with the call may be sent over the Internet to a Web site which maintains a record of customer complaints associated with the telephone number to detect fraudulent calls. 
         [0011]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, the call may be transcribed into a text call stream on both the consumer and the client sides of the call along with an audio waveform of the call, one channel of the audio waveform being associated with the consumer and the other channel being associated with the client. The call may be transcribed using voice recognition software. 
         [0012]    Data append services may be applied to at least one of a caller ID associated with the call and at least one phone number recognized during transcription of the call. 
         [0013]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, distributing the at least one consumer entity and the at least one pattern to the client may further comprise distributing the transcribed call, caller ID, and extracted pattern data to the client in a formatted call log. The formatted call log may have the format of an e-mail-like telephone call inbox. A partial transcription of the call may be provided with the at least one pattern highlighted. 
         [0014]    A Web server may receive a double clicks on the partial transcription from the client, causing a second screen to be transmitted to the client that includes a listing of the consumer entity, the client, the at least one pattern as a heading or subject, and a line-by-line transcription of a client/consumer conversation with key words highlighted. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0015]    The present invention will be more readily understood from the detailed description of an exemplary embodiment presented below considered in conjunction with the attached drawings, of which: 
           [0016]      FIG. 1  is a process flow diagram illustrating exemplary steps for extracting and presenting transcriptions of call streams from consumers to a client in an e-mail-like telephone call inbox, according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0017]      FIG. 2  depicts a system for extracting and presenting transcriptions of call streams from consumers to a client in an e-mail-like telephone call inbox, according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0018]      FIG. 3  is a screen shot of a formatted telephone call inbox web page, according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0019]      FIG. 4  is a screen shot of a second telephone call inbox web page displayed when a client double clicks on a specific call stream of the formatted telephone call inbox screen displayed in  FIG. 3 ; 
           [0020]      FIG. 5A  shows a consumer database table that lists the names and addresses of consumers associated with a client, according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0021]      FIG. 5B  shows a consumer to call match database table which maps call streams to consumers, according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0022]      FIG. 5C  shows a call database table that lists a high level summary of call streams to the client, according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0023]      FIG. 5D  shows a call data storage database table that lists low level details a single call stream, according to an embodiment of the present invention; and 
           [0024]      FIG. 6  is a process flow diagram illustrating the exemplary steps of  FIG. 1  in greater detail, according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
       [0025]    It is to be understood that the attached drawings are for purposes of illustrating the concepts of the invention and may not be to scale. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0026]      FIG. 1  is a process flow diagram illustrating exemplary steps for extracting and presenting transcriptions of call streams from consumers to a client in an e-mail-like telephone call inbox, according to an embodiment of the present invention. At step  10 , the identity of at least one consumer is extracted from a phone call. As part of the identification process, non-consumer fraudulent call data is automatically filtered out of the call. At step  12 , the call is transcribed into a text call stream on both the consumer and the client sides of the call. The audio waveform of a call stream is stored, with one (e.g., the left) channel being associated with the consumer and the other (e.g., the right) channel being associated with the client. Each of the channels is transcribed separately with timing data stored. A client may receive more than one telephone call from the same consumer, but the consumer may be associated with more than one telephone number. For example, the consumer may call from their business telephone, their home telephone, their cell phone, etc. Therefore, at step  14 , the current call stream may be aggregated with at least one other call stream into one or more consumer entities. Information on the identification of consumer entities is extracted and linked to a database of consumers. In this way, multiple call streams may be grouped as a single consumer entity in a data model. The aggregation of phone calls from a single consumer with different telephone numbers provides the client with a better understanding of the number of consumer entities with which the client is associated. At step  16 , patterns (&#39;tags&#39;) may be extracted from a call stream and/or across a plurality of call streams to indicate noteworthy activity and to draw higher level conclusions based on the appearance of one or more specific tags. For example, mentioning payment and the word ‘appointment’ may indicate the conclusion that an appointment was booked on a call. At step  18 , data append services may be applied to the caller ID associated with a call or to one or more phone numbers recognized during transcription of a call stream and linked and appended to a data record associated with the call stream. Data collected from a data append service may include the first and last name and billing address of the telephone number captured. At step  20 , the transcribed call stream, caller ID, and extracted pattern data are presented to a client in an e-mail-like “telephone call inbox.” 
         [0027]      FIG. 2  depicts a system  30  for extracting and presenting transcriptions of call streams from consumers to a client in an e-mail-like telephone call inbox, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system  30  includes a telephony server  32 , the telephony server  32  being associated with a data store  34 , an analysis server  36 , a web server  38 , and a data entry terminal/computer  40 . The telephony server  32  may be a traditional private branch exchange (PBX) or a voice-over-IP (VOIP) server. The telephony server  32  may be configured for intercepting calls from consumers  42   a - 42   n  via the public switched telephone network (PSTN)  44 , the Internet  46 , or both; for completing those calls to clients  48   a - 48   n  over the PSTN  44 , the Internet  46 , or both; for bridging calls between the consumers  42   a - 42   n  and the clients  48   a - 48   n , for extracting caller IDs belonging to the consumers  42   a - 42   n , for recording telephone calls received by the clients  48   a - 48   n ; and for logging the recorded calls and the caller IDs to the data store  34 . The analysis server  36  may be configured for transcribing received telephone calls into voice-recognized text call streams and converting caller IDs to physical names and addresses of the consumers  42   a - 42   n  either from information associated with the PSTN  44 , information extracted from web sites located on the Internet  46  and/or the telephony server  32 , or information extracted from the call streams. The analysis server  36  may be further configured for analyzing and extracting patterns within and among the call streams to produce key words or phrases that are relevant to a client  48   a - 48   n , such as completing the pattern tagging of calls and aggregation of calls into consumer entities as described in steps  14 - 18  of  FIG. 1  above. The data store  34  stores a number of tables needed for analysis and for storing and the retrieval of call streams to be described in connection with  FIGS. 5A-5D  hereinbelow. A domain analyst may enter typical key word patterns to be extracted from calls manually via the data entry terminal/computer  40 . Alternatively, key word patterns may be provided by third party software. The web server  38  is configured for presenting analyzed call streams comprising grouped consumers to the clients  48   a - 48   n  in the form of formatted call logs and telephone call inboxes to be described hereinbelow in connection with  FIGS. 3 and 4 , respectively. The telephony server  32 , the analysis server  36 , and the web server  38  may each comprise at least one processor, which may be included in a personal computer, a work station, a mainframe computer, or any other device having enough processing power for carrying out the present invention. Alternatively, one or more of the servers/computers  32 ,  36 ,  38  may be aggregated into one or more processors running on a single personal computer, a work station, or a mainframe computer. 
         [0028]    Each of the clients  48   a - 48   n  may have a voice line or VOIP telephone  48   a - 48   n  configured to receive inbound calls via the telephony server  32 . Each of the clients  48   a - 48   n  may have one or more terminals/personal computer/workstations  50   a - 50   n  for logging into the web server  38  in order to view their telephone call inbox. The client  48   a  may communicate with a consumers  42   a  over the PSTN  44  if the telephony server  32  is a PBX, the client  48   a  have a voice line phone, and the consumer  48   a  has a voice line phone; over the Internet  46  and the PSTN  44  if the telephony server  32  is a VOIP server, the client  48   n  has a VOIP phone, and the consumer  42   a  has a voice line phone; and, over the Internet  46  if the telephony server  32  is a VOIP server and the client  48   n  has a VOW phone. 
         [0029]      FIG. 3  is a screen shot of a formatted telephone call inbox  52 , according to an embodiment of the present invention. When a client  48   a  enters a URL corresponding to the Web server  38 , the client  48   a  is presented with a user login screen (not shown) which prompts the client  48   a  to enter a login and password. Once logged in, the client  48   a  is directed to the formatted telephone call inbox  52  assigned to the client  48   a , which displays call listings from the consumers  42   a - 42   n . The formatted telephone call inbox  52  contains a plurality of call entries  54 . Each of the call entries  54  includes a consumer name field  56 , which may be a personal name, a company name, or a telephone number. The consumer name field  56  may be extracted either from the caller ID, a third party name service, or from the call stream itself and is described in greater detail hereinbelow in connection with  FIG. 6 . Each of the call entries  54  also includes key words or tags  60 , which may include words or phrases of importance extracted from the call stream and which are significant to the business of the client  48   a  to be described in greater detail hereinbelow in connection with  FIG. 6 . Key words or tags  62  may also indicate a wrong or non-legitimate telephone number/call. A freeform transcription search box  64  permits filtering of the call entries  54  so as to display only those call entries  54  that contain entered key word(s) or consumer name fields  56 . 
         [0030]      FIG. 4  is a screen shot of a second call screen  68  that is displayed when the client  48   a  double clicks on a specific call entry  54  in the formatted telephone call inbox  52  of  FIG. 3 . Referring now to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the call screen  68  displays many of the same types of fields common to e-mail programs. A field  70  is populated by the consumer name field  56 , which may also include the calling telephone number. A field  72  is populated by the name of the client  48   a  and a telephone number. The message body  74  includes the transcription of the specific call, with alternating portions  76 ,  78  being a transcription of the client and consumer portions of the call stream, respectively. Key words or phrases  80  may be highlighted in the call stream 
         [0031]      FIGS. 5A-5D  show examples of tables located in the data store  34  for processing calls and the telephone call inboxes, according to an embodiment of the present invention. In  FIG. 5A , a consumer database table  90  includes a plurality of records  92 . Each of the records  92  corresponds to one of the consumers  42   a - 42   n  associated with a client  48   a - 48   n  and is derived from incoming phone calls. Each of the records  92  contains fields for at least an arbitrarily assigned consumer number  93 , the first name  94 , the last name  96 , the street address  98 , and the telephone number  100  associated with a consumer  42   a - 42   n , the street address being derived by methods to be described in connection with  FIG. 6  hereinbelow. It should be noted that the same client may have more than one record  92  corresponding to different telephone numbers  100  and street addresses  98 . 
         [0032]    In  FIG. 5B , a consumer to call match database table  102  maps call streams  104  to consumers  106 . The designation for a call stream  104  is a numerical value assigned in increasing order as calls are received. The designation for a consumer  106  corresponds to the consumer number  93  of  FIG. 5A . As shown in  FIG. 5B , there may be several call streams  104  associated with the same consumer  106 . 
         [0033]    In  FIG. 5C , a call database table  108  lists a high level summary of a call stream. Each record  110  in the call database table  108  includes at least a call ID number  112  corresponding to the designation for a call stream  104  of  FIG. 5B , a “From” field  114  indicating the telephone number of one of the consumers  42   a - 42   n  or an invalid caller ID, a “To” field  116  corresponding to one of the clients  48   a - 48   n , and a “length” field  118  indicating the length of time of the call corresponding to the call stream. 
         [0034]    In  FIG. 5D , a call data storage database table  120  lists low level details of each call stream associated with each client. The call data storage database table  120  lists, for each call stream, information concerning key words and phrases and the extracted pattern found in the call stream along with time stamps and pattern types. Each record includes at least a call ID number  124  corresponding to the designation for a call stream  104  of  FIG. 5B , a type field  126  listing the type of extracted key word or phrase, an offset field  128  indicating the relative time position in the call stream at which the key word or conclusion occurred, a length field  130  indicating the time length corresponding to the length of time needed to utter the key word or phrase, and a data field  132  listing the key word, phrase, or conclusion. 
         [0035]      FIG. 6  is a process flow diagram illustrating the exemplary steps of  FIG. 1  in greater detail. Although  FIG. 2  indicates several scenarios for interaction between the consumers  42   a - 42   n  and the clients  48   a - 48   n , for illustrative purposes, the following example shows interactions in which a client  48   a  has a VOIP telephone for communicating with a consumer  42   a  that has voice line phone. 
         [0036]    Referring now to  FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  5 A- 5 D, and  6 , at step  140 , a consumer  42   a  places a call to a client  48   a . At step  142 , the PSTN  44  and Internet  46  route the call to the telephony server  32 . According to an embodiment of the present invention, the PSTN  44  via the Internet  46  rings a telephone number assigned to the telephony server  32  on behalf of the client  48   a . As described above, at step  144 , the telephony server  32  completes the call to the client  48   a  over the Internet  46 , bridges the call, extracts the caller ID belonging to the consumer  42   a , and immediately begins recording the call even before the client  48   a  answers their telephone. Immediate recording is one method for detecting fraudulent calls, as a recoded telemarketing call may begin playing as soon as a receiving telephone is rung. The call is recorded on two channels, with one (e.g., the left) channel being associated with the consumer  42   a  and the other (e.g., the right) channel being associated with the client  48   a.    
         [0037]    At step  146 , fraud filters are applied to the call. The fraud filters may match the extracted caller ID against a database of known telemarketers. Additional rules are applied to detect fraudulent calls via phrases uttered in the call stream associated with the transcribed call to be discussed hereinbelow, or a signal indicating a fax machine. If, at step  148 , the fraud filters indicate a fraudulent call, then further processing terminates. 
         [0038]    If, at step  148 , the call is deemed to be legitimate, then at step  152 , the consumer database table  90  of  FIG. 5A  is searched for an existing consumer record. All of the fields of a record need to match an existing consumer. A first name, last name, and street address are derived from the caller ID of an incoming call based on techniques to be described hereinbelow and compared to the first name  94 , the last name  96 , and the street address  98  of each record  92  in the consumer database table  90 . The name and street address information derived from the caller ID of the incoming call may be derived from a number of sources. One source is Calling Name Delivery (CNAM) associated with a call that is located within the in-band signaling information within the call, which is a 15 digit name string. Other methods for obtaining name and address information are by consulting third party services such as Acxiom, InfoUSA and/or Accudata. Still other methods may include matching census collected common first and last names in a database available on the Internet  46  to a name that is partially truncated in the CNAM. If no name and address is matched, then the telephone number of the consumer  48   a  is displayed in the telephone call inbox depicted in  FIGS. 3 and 4 . 
         [0039]    If, at step  154 , an existing consumer record is found to match in the consumer database table  90 , then at step  155 , the call is linked to the consumer identified in the consumer record found. If, at step  154 , no existing consumer record is found to match the data in the incoming call, then at step  156 , a new consumer entity is created and stored in the consumer database table  90 , with the consumer linked to this record. At step  157 , data append services are run for the new consumer. At step  158 , for either an existing consumer or a new consumer, a new record is created in each of tables  102 ,  108 , and  120  for the new call. 
         [0040]    At step  160 , a transcription of the call between the client  48   a  and the consumer  42   a  is produced using voice recognition software and stored in the data store  34  along with the recording of the call, preferably in MP3 format. At step  162 , the call transcription is analyzed in real time or near real time to detect patterns using an industry-specific pattern set for the purpose of deriving the tags described above. The pattern set against which portions of the call are matched is provided by third party software or manually by a domain expert. The industry-specific set of patterns is relevant to the business associated with the client  48   a , such as information pertaining to chiropractors or automotive repair shops, etc. Some patterns may be extracted that are independent of an industry, such as the consumer&#39;s telephone number, which may be then be substituted in the consumer database table  90  for an existing telephone number if the consumer  42   a  called from a general number and the phone number mentioned in the call is a direct number (e.g., 973-515-2143 substituted for 973-515-2000). 
         [0041]    At step  164 , a content-based fraud detector rule set may be run against the transcribed call stream to further detect fraudulent calls, including patterns detected such as the word “sorry” or “wrong number.” If the time codes of the call recorded in table  120  indicate that during, say, the first 15 seconds of the call, the consumer  42   a  speaks continuously without the client  48   a  being allowed to speak, then this may be interpreted by the fraud detector as a sign of a telemarketer. Other pattern phrases in the call may be detected as fraudulent, such as “looking for a way out of credit card debt.” Alternatively, the telephone number or caller ID may be sent over the Internet  46  to a web site which maintains a record of customer complaints associated with the telephone number, which may be employed as another means of detecting fraudulent telephone calls. If, at step  165 , the fraud filters indicate a fraudulent call, then at step  166 , a tag indicating a fraudulent call is associated with the transcription of the call in the data storage database table  120 . 
         [0042]    If, at step  165 , the fraud filters indicate a valid call, then at step  167 , the telephone number, name, and address are linked to a new or existing consumer entity in the consumer database table  90 . At step  168 , the telephone number of the call stream is aggregated with other numbers associated with the same consumer  42   a  in the data store  34  such that multiple call streams may be grouped as a single consumer entity in the tables  90 ,  102 ,  108 , of  FIGS. 5A-5C , respectively. This permits aggregate information to be determined and linked (e.g., ‘what is the current status of this caller to this single client?’, ‘what is the current status of this caller across all clients?’). The linkage is typically created by linking a name and address of the consumer  42   a  in the consumer database table  90  to one or more phone numbers found in a caller ID or spoken aloud and extracted from the call transcription. As a result, a single name entity is displayed in the telephone call inbox of  FIGS. 3 and 4  for all telephone numbers associated with the name entity. 
         [0043]    At step  170 , an industry specific rule set is applied to the telephone call to draw conclusions concerning the patterns in the call stream. The industry specific rule set is provided by third party software or manually by a domain expert. A sample conclusion that may be drawn from a call stream is that the client  42   a  wishes to make an “appointment” to meet with the client  48   a . Another type of conclusion may be drawn by comparing patterns in a current call stream to patterns in other calls streams stored in the data store  34  from the same client  42   a  or across all clients  42   a - 42   n , so as to draw conclusions concerning, for example, total call volume per month for a given consumer  42   a . The pattern words or conclusions may be appended to the beginning of the transcription of the call stream in BOLD in the call entry  54  for the call as depicted in  FIGS. 3 and 4  and added as “type” and/or “data” entries in the call data storage database table  120  of  FIG. 5D . For example, a conclusion may be made in a “type” field for call number  2  for client  48   a  and consumer  42   a  which states that “an appointment was booked.” 
         [0044]    At optional step  172 , the “state” or “status” of the consumer  42   a  may be updated. For example, the state of calls for a consumer  42   a  may be regarded as passing through stages of a buying cycle. The first state may be reached after receiving a first call having a pattern that indicated “wanting to book an appointment” with the client  48   a . The second state may be reached when the pattern “doctor available” is detected. The third state may be reached when the pattern “appointment booked” is detected. The fourth state may be reached when the pattern “reschedule an appointment” is detected. The final state may be reached and noted in the data store  34  when the pattern “cancelled appointment” is detected. Thus, a “state” of a single consumer is tracked across a plurality of calls based on conclusions drawn on each call. Processing terminates. 
         [0045]    A new process begins when, at step  174 , the client logs in to the web site corresponding to the system  30  using their computer  50   a . Upon a successful login, at step  176 , the transcribed call stream, consumer name, and pattern data are extracted from tables  90 ,  102 ,  108 , and  120  and other data located in the data store  34  are presented to a client in the form of the e-mail-like telephone call inbox screens  52 ,  68  described above in connection with  FIGS. 3 and 4 , respectively. It would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that several programming techniques may be used for presenting the data in the tables  90 ,  102 ,  108 ,  120  in the format of the telephone call inbox screens  52 ,  68 . 
         [0046]    The telephone inbox screens  52 ,  68  provide advantages over existing transcription services. The client gains a deeper understanding of their consumer base to allow the client to plan inventories, track their business volume and revenues, etc. The client can filter invalid consumers from valid consumers. A client can better instruct executive assistants as to which consumers are of higher versus lower priority. The time needed for reviewing call transcriptions is greatly reduced. In this way, telephone call inboxes provides the client with a tool for increasing efficiency and reducing operating costs. 
         [0047]    It is to be understood that the exemplary embodiments are merely illustrative of the invention and that many variations of the above-described embodiments may be devised by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. It is therefore intended that all such variations be included within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.