Patent Publication Number: US-2021195028-A1

Title: Systems and methods for providing call center service with visual search

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is a non-provisional application claiming priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/950,282, filed Dec. 19, 2019, entitled “Call-Center Service Levels With Visual Search” and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     The subject invention generally relates to systems and methods for providing enhanced call center support and more particularly, to systems and methods for providing call center service with visual search. 
     BACKGROUND 
     In a traditional call center, a customer service agent is oftentimes tasked with answering a customer&#39;s service phone inquiry and upon obtaining all of the relevant material related to the customer&#39;s issue, providing an answer to the customer. In many instances, a customer service agent is provided with little or no advance information to assist the customer service agent in understanding the customer and/or the issue at hand, and what little information they are provided with is typically gleaned from the customer&#39;s caller identification number or inputted by the customer through a menu system, such as an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system or Automatic Number Identification (ANI) recognition. 
     Call routing logic has existed for decades. For example, call routing logic may rout a customer service call to a phone agent that has been idle for the longest period of time. As another example, a call may be routed to a customer service agent based upon a particular required skill. By knowing the context of a call, say through the IVR system or ANI recognition, a call may be routed to a phone agent who has the proper skill set to best work through the caller&#39;s reason for calling. 
     There is a limit, however, to the information that may be gleaned from these phone systems. In the situation when a caller does not have enough information or cannot provide enough information to the call center system before reaching a customer service agent, proper routing of the call may not be possible. Furthermore, it is known that forcing a customer to supply additional information through an interminable menuing system may actually be detrimental to the overall call center experience. 
     While the background systems and methods identified herein, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety, generally work for their intended purpose, the subject invention provides improvements thereto, particularly by providing a customer with the ability to connect to a service employee while providing additional relevant information based upon a visual search tool. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       For a better understanding of the present disclosure, reference may be had to various examples shown in the attached drawings. 
         FIG. 1  illustrates in block diagram form components of an example, computer network environment suitable for implementing the example visual search call center system disclosed. 
         FIG. 2  provides another illustration of the example visual search call center system in accordance with the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates an example user interface for implementing the example visual search call center system in accordance with the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates an example user interface for editing or further identifying image information for use with the example visual search call center system. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates an example user interface for displaying additional information to the user of the example visual search call center system. 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a detailed flowchart of an example method and system for processing a service center call request in accordance with the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 7  illustrates another example input for use with the example visual search call center system. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     An enhanced customer service system is disclosed hereinbelow. In general, a user having access to a computer or smart device, such as a smart phone, can provide additional visual information to a customer service call and based upon the provided visual information, a routing decision can be made and/or additional information can be displayed to the phone agent using database information associated with the provided call information. In one example, the additional information may be discerned through a user lookup and/or a visual search of the uploaded image, allowing the phone agent&#39;s system the ability to retrieve item information. 
     In one example of the present invention, the methods and systems disclosed provide the use of computer hardware and software, in combination with smart device applications, form factor independent devices (PC, tablets, smart devices and phones, etc.), and cloud based infrastructure to run all functionalities of the call center. In one example, the disclosure provides for a user call center that allows a caller using a mobile, smart device application to take and upload a picture of at least one item relevant to a customer service call. In addition, in still another example, the mobile app includes the capability of capturing sensor or other diagnostic data from a variety of smart device/appliance through Internet of things (IoT) connectivity allowing the caller to upload relevant information into a customer service center system. 
     As disclosed, once the user captures the relevant information, the caller may then initiate a call, either video or voice call, or a text chat with a phone center for further assistance. While the caller is in the queue for routing to a customer service agent, the system may perform a visual search of the image(s) uploaded by the caller to identify an item, SKU, SKU category, etc. In still other examples, an audio recording, sensor data, or an augmented reality object may be provided to the call center for a visual search. 
     Based upon caller information and/or any obtained visual search information, a customer service call may be routed to a particular agent or additional information such as product information, product recommendations, etc., may be provided to the agent, and/or may be pushed to the user&#39;s app for utilization during and/or after the call. Additional information may include caller buying history, operation and parts manuals (OIPMs), material safety data sheets (MSDSs), warranties, item reviews, vendor and manufacturing videos, item pricing, item recommendations, etc. 
     With reference to the figures, the following discloses various example systems and methods for providing an improved call-center service level with visual search. To this end, a processing device  20 ′, illustrated in the exemplary form of a customer service terminal computer system, and a processing device  20 , such as a smart phone or smart device, illustrated in schematic form, are provided with executable instructions to, for example, provide a means for a user, e.g., a customer, consumer, etc., to access a visual search server  68 , a user information system  67  and, among other things, be connected to a customer service agent operating the processing device  20 ′. Generally, the computer executable instructions reside in program modules which may include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processing devices  20 , and the processing device  20 ′ illustrated in  FIG. 1  may be embodied in any device having the ability to execute instructions such as, by way of example, a personal computer, mainframe computer, personal-digital assistant (“PDA”), cellular telephone, tablet, ereader, smart phone, smart device, mobile device, or the like. Furthermore, while described and illustrated in the context of a single processing device  20 , and processing device  20 ′ those of ordinary skill in the art will also appreciate that the various tasks described hereinafter may be practiced in a distributed environment having multiple processing devices linked via a local or wide-area network whereby the executable instructions may be associated with and/or executed by one or more of multiple processing devices. 
     For performing the various tasks in accordance with the executable instructions, the example processing device  20  includes a processing unit such as a processor  22  and a system memory  24  which may be linked via a bus  26 . Without limitation, the bus  26  may be a memory bus, a peripheral bus, and/or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. As needed for any particular purpose, the system memory  24  may include read only memory (ROM)  28  and/or random access memory (RAM)  30 . Additional memory devices may also be made accessible to the processing device  20  by means of, for example, a hard disk drive interface  32 , a magnetic disk drive interface  34 , and/or an optical disk drive interface  36 . As will be understood, these devices, which would be linked to the bus  26 , respectively allow for reading from and writing to a hard drive  38 , reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk  40 , and for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk  42 , such as a CD/DVD ROM or other optical media. The drive interfaces and their associated computer-readable media allow for the nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the processing device  20 . Those of ordinary skill in the art will further appreciate that other types of non-transitory computer readable media that can store data and/or instructions may be used for this same purpose. Examples of such media devices include, but are not limited to, magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital videodisks, Bernoulli cartridges, random access memories, nano-drives, memory sticks, and other read/write and/or read-only memories. 
     A number of program modules may be stored in one or more of the memory/media devices. For example, a basic input/output system (BIOS)  44 , containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the processing device  20 , such as during start-up, may be stored in ROM  28 . Similarly, the RAM  30 , hard drive  38 , and/or peripheral memory devices may be used to store computer executable instructions comprising an operating system  46 , one or more applications programs  48  (such as a smart device application (i.e., an App), an Internet browser, etc.), other program modules  50 , and/or program data  52 . Still further, computer-executable instructions may be downloaded to one or more of the computing devices as needed, for example via a network connection. 
     To allow a user to enter commands and information into the processing device  20 , input devices such as a keyboard  54  and/or a pointing device  56  are provided. While not illustrated, other input devices may include a microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a scanner, a camera, touchpad, touch screen, etc. These and other input devices would typically be connected to the processor  22  by means of an interface  58  which, in turn, would be coupled to the bus  26 . Input devices may be connected to the processor  22  using interfaces such as, for example, a parallel port, game port, firewire, HDMI, or a universal serial bus (USB). To view information from the processing device  20 , a display  60  or other type of display device may also be connected to the bus  26  via an interface, such as a video adapter  62 . In addition to the display  60 , the processing device  20  may also include other peripheral output devices, not shown, such as, for example, speakers, cameras, printers, or other suitable device. 
     As noted, the processing device  20  may also utilize logical connections via a network  12 , to one or more remote processing devices, such as the call center system  67 , which may include access to a visual search server  68  having an associated data repository  68 A (e.g., an item database including item information). In this regard, while the call center system  67  and the visual search server  68  have been illustrated in the example form of a computer, it will be appreciated that the either of the call center system  67  or the visual search server  68  may, like processing device  20 , be any type of device having processing capabilities. Again, it will be appreciated that the call center system  67  and the visual search server  68  need not be implemented as separate devices, but rather may be implemented as a single device or in a manner such that the tasks performed by either of the call center system  67  or the visual search server  68  are distributed amongst a plurality of processing devices/databases located at different geographical locations and linked through a communication network. Additionally, the call center system  67  and/or the visual search server  68  may have logical connections to other local or third party systems (not shown), such as product information systems, via the network  12 , such as, for example, the Internet, LAN, MAN, WAN, cellular network, public telephone network, cloud network, enterprise network, virtual private network, wired and/or wireless network, or other suitable network, and via such connections, will be associated with data repositories that are associated with such other third party systems. In the present example, the call center system data repository  67 A may include, without limitation, user data including goods and/or services history, personal information, financial information, etc. 
     For performing tasks as needed, the call center system  67  and/or the visual search server  68  may include many or all of the elements described above relative to the processing device  20 . In addition, the call center system  67  and/or the visual search server  68  each would generally include executable instructions for, among other things, receiving a request for a service call center connection, receiving visual search and/or user identification information, performing a visual search and/or a user lookup, routing the connection request and the retrieved visual search and/or user lookup information to the processing device  20 ′ via the network  12 , and providing a service call infrastructure for providing the requestor with an informed customer service experience. 
     Communications between the processing device  20  and the call center system  67  may be exchanged via a further processing device, such as a network router (not shown), that is responsible for network routing. Communications with the network router may be performed via a network interface component  73 . Thus, within such a networked environment, e.g., the Internet, World Wide Web, LAN, cloud, or other like type of wired or wireless network, it will be appreciated that program modules depicted relative to the processing device  20 , or portions thereof, may be stored in the non-transitory memory storage device(s) of the call center system  67  and/or the visual search server  68 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , there is illustrated an overview of an example call center system  200  with visual search capabilities in accordance with an example of the present disclosure. The call center system  200  is well-suited for operation on a distributed network system, such as, for example, the Internet, cloud, mobile network, cellular network, or other suitable wired and/or wireless network. The call center system  200  may be implemented in various other communication networks and/or mediums as desired including, for example, a localized, non-distributed network. 
     Generally speaking, the call center system  200  is operable to facilitate a call center service call between a user and a call center service agent. For instance, in the illustrated example, a user  210  (e.g., a customer, consumer, shopper, etc.), operating the processing device  20  and having need of user assistance, places a customer service call, such as a video and/or audio phone call, to a customer service server (e.g., the call center system  67 ) through any suitable network such as the network  12 . It will be appreciated that throughout this disclosure, user and customer may be used interchangeably to indicate a general user of the disclosed invention. In this example, the network  12  is coupled to the call center system  67  to distribute the call to one of a plurality of customer service agents  220  associated with the processing device  20 ′. 
     In this example, the user  210  remotely initiates a customer service call through any suitable processing device  20 , such as a tablet, a smart phone, a computer system, or any other suitable known or yet to be developed communication device. In the disclosed example, the processing device  20  is capable of taking, obtaining, and/or otherwise receiving images, such as pictures, and transmission of the images to the call center system  67 . 
     In the disclosed example, the user  210  may take or otherwise obtain an image of interest on the processing device  20  and initiate a service call, providing the image along with the service call. Once the service call is initiated, the call is routed through the network  12  to the call center system  67 . Upon receipt of the call the call center system  67  may perform a user lookup in the data repository  67 A (per any suitable user lookup) and concurrently perform a visual search on the provided image. A visual search may be performed via any suitable visual search process, including for instance the processes disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 10,698,946, and 9,613,283, each of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
     The service call will then be presented to the phone agent  220  who will answer the call. The processing device  20 ′ and thus the service agent  220  will be presented with all additional supporting information available, including user information, previous user call data, user history, etc., as well as the results of the image search, including product information, product identifiers, SKUs, product recommendations, etc. 
     For example, in one simplified use example, a user may want to order a part for a simple repair but may not appreciate the name of the part or recognize the item. In this instance, the user may take a picture of the item on the app associated with their smart device and initiate a service call. The call center system receives the user request and identifies the user based upon their caller identification. Meanwhile the call center system performs a visual search on the provided image and identifies the item in question. The call and the additional information (if available) are then provided to the customer service agent, who is provided with the user identification, all data associated with the user, including past pricing information, past purchases, shipping information, etc., and the item details. The customer service agent then simply needs to confirm the data and the call may be completed in short order. In still further examples, the user and phone agent interactions (e.g., voice recording of the call, mouse clicks, etc.), may be saved and used as input for deep learning and increase suture service levels by giving callers and phone agents more accurate information before and during the call. As a result, the reliability and/or accuracy of the visual search server  68  may be improved. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 3 , there is illustrated an example of a user interface for presentation on the display  60 , including user interface elements for conducting a call center service call with visual search capabilities in accordance with the teachings of the present disclosure. For example,  FIG. 3  illustrates an example user interface  300  which may be displayed on the processing device  20 , such as through a smart device app as is known to one of ordinary skill in the art. In the illustrated example, the user interface  300  utilizes a speaker and microphone of the smart device for audio calls, as well as a camera (e.g., a front and/or rear facing camera) of the smart device for image capturing and/or video calls. 
     The example user interface includes a keyword or item number search user interface element  310 , as well as an image user interface element  312 , such as a barcode scan, a visual search user interface element  314 , and a voice search user interface element  316 . The user interface  300  also comprises the display  60 , such as a display area  318  and a user interface bar  320  including a plurality of additional option, such as a “home” button, “cart” button, “account” button, etc. as is known in the art. 
     As will be disclosed in greater detail, in operation, a user will click or otherwise activate the visual search user interface element  314  to initialize the camera of the processing device  20  and allow the user to obtain one or more images of one or more products, SKUs, etc., which may be viewed by the user in an image display area  410  as illustrated in  FIG. 4 . Once the image is obtained, the user may interact with the image on user interface  300  to review and/or edit the image to better identify the item of interest. In the illustration of  FIG. 4 , the user has added a temporary “lasso”, such as the identification box  412  to identify the area of interest in the obtained image. 
     As is known in the art, once the image is obtained and/or modified, the app may perform a visual search, returning additional information, such as manuals, safety information, videos, product information, etc. As illustrated in  FIG. 5  the additional information is displayed in the display area  318  and comprises a user interface element  500  having a main document display area  506 . In the illustrated example, the user interface element  500  comprises a plurality of tabs  510 , such as an MSDS tab  512 , an OIPM tab  514 , and a videos tab  516 . It will be understood that less, additional, or alternative tabs may be displayed as desired. Consistent with known tab/display practices, selecting any one of the tabs  510  changes the information in the display area  506  to correspond to the chosen tab  510 . 
     As will be understood, in some instances, the provided additional information may be sufficient for the user&#39;s needs. In some instances, however, the user may have questions, necessitating a customer service agent. In these instances, a request user interface element such as a chat element  530  or a phone element  532  may be utilized to initiate a customer service call request. As is well known in the art, the example chat element  530  may initiate an online text chat session with a customer service agent. In addition, the example phone element  532  will initiate a customer service call request in accordance with the teachings of the present disclosure. 
     Referring to  FIG. 6 , there is illustrated a flowchart of an example customer service process  600  that may be implemented on a computer system and/or provided on a non-transitory computer readable medium to implement the service center call system with visual search disclosed herein. It will be appreciated that the disclosed processes and systems may be implemented in any suitable environment, including, for example, any service location, or other environment where a service call may be placed. 
     In the example of  FIG. 6 , the process  600  begins at block  610  when the user  210  initiates a service center call through the user interface phone element  532 , or any suitable user interface element. As previously noted, the call may be initiated through obtaining an image and selecting the visual search user interface element  314  or the call may be initiated through another application such as a website and/or suitable communication application. As previously described, the initiation of the service call provides a connection to the call center system  67  through the network  12 . At block  612 , the call center system  67  receives user information and visual search data from the user  210 . It will be understood that the user information may be obtained through any suitable data retrieval means, including an IVR system, ANI identification, etc., as is known in the art. In addition, as noted previously, the visual search information may be optionally forwarded to the call center system  67 . 
     At block  614 , the call center system  67  determines whether user information is provided. If the user information is provided, the user information is retrieved from the data repository  67 A at block  616  and the process proceeds to block  618  for further processing. At block  618 , and if user data is not provided, the system then determines whether visual search information, such as an image as described above, is provided. If the visual search information is provided, at block  620 , visual search results, if available, including relevant item information is retrieved from the visual search server  68 . 
     It will be understood that any suitable information may be utilized to perform a visual search in accordance with the present disclosure. For instance, caller information, including history, location, account type, etc., may be provided to the visual search server  68  to provide more relevant result information. In one case, the relevant information may be displayed and/or updated to the caller while the caller is awaiting routing to the caller agent. This information can help the caller make a buying decision or help the caller with the operation or application of the item. In some instance, the caller may not have to connect with the caller agent. Additionally, by knowing additional information regarding the caller, such as location (e.g., rural v. urban; cold climate v. warm climate, etc.) or work industry (e.g., metal ladders are not recommended for electricians, non-sparking tools are used in applications where sparks may ignite a fire, NSF items must be used in food handling applications, etc.) the caller agent may help make more informed recommendations to the user as needed. 
     Once the visual search data is retrieved, the results may be optionally transmitted to the processing device  20  for mirrored display to the user at block  622 . Upon retrieval of the visual search data, or if no visual search data is provided, the call is routed to the agent  220  at block  624 . As previously indicated, all of the available relevant information, e.g., the retrieved and/or provided user information and the retrieved and/or provided visual search data is routed displayed to the agent  220  and the service call may proceed as is known to one of ordinary skill in the art. It will be understood that prior too, during, or after the call, the data in the data repository  67 A, and the data repository  68 A may be edited, updated, or newly added as desired to improve the quality of the data within the data repositories. 
     As is illustrated in  FIG. 7 , an optional and/or additional method of providing data to the user interface  300  is shown. In this example, the processing device  20  may utilize any number of accessory features, including near field communication (NFC), WiFi, Bluetooth, microphones, video and/or image cameras, global positioning system (GPS), or other suitable feature to obtain smart appliance data, such as sensor data, video data, audio data, and/or diagnostic data from any of a plurality of smart devices  710 ,  712 ,  714 . In this instance, the obtained information from the smart devices  710 ,  712 ,  714 , may be utilized to supplant or supplement any data provided by the visual search. 
     Still further, it will be understood that during image procurement, the camera can be used to take one or more pictures of any of the relevant items of interest to the user. In addition, as is known in the art, the visual search server may provide additional feedback to the user, such as camera position and/or angle movement, etc. to improve the number and/or qualities of images provided to the visual search. Furthermore, more than one item may be provided and/or identified during the visual search process, and options may be presented to the user or the customer service representative to narrow the results to the relevant item of interest. 
     Although certain example methods and apparatus have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.