Abstract:
Associating customers of a contact center with their social media presence may provide mutual benefits to the customer and contact center. For example, a business operating a contact center can receive information about their current and potential customers and customers can receive additional information, incentives, or other perks by allowing access to their social media profile. When a customer initially calls a contact center, they are provided with a code and asked to post the code on a page or other aspect of the company&#39;s social media presence. The social media identity of the customer can then be associated with the customer placing the call. The call center can then access additional information about the customer and respond accordingly.

Description:
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 
       [0001]    The present disclosure is generally directed toward matching a node on a first electronic network to a node on a second electronic network. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    Contact centers and companies have an interest in acquiring as much context as possible about the individuals calling the contact center. The caller context can aid in call routing, issue resolution, on-call marketing, and beyond. One valuable source of caller context is social media because a caller&#39;s social media activity and profiles provide insights into the caller&#39;s persona (e.g., name, age, gender, education, interests, hobbies, etc.) as well as the caller&#39;s potential value to the business. For example, a caller who posts about their experiences with flights on various airlines on social media reveals a lot about their travel frequency, destinations, and preferences, thus providing valuable insights to an airline. The value of this information is particularly high if this caller is not yet known to the called business. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0003]    It is with respect to the above issues and other problems that the embodiments presented herein were contemplated. 
         [0004]    Customers are used to providing personal information to companies for free in return for better service, discounts, useful marketing, etc. Many customers, therefore, would not be opposed to sharing their social media profiles and activities with a business whose contact center they are calling. Social media can act as a valuable add-on channel to a primary conversation channel between a customer and a contact center agent or the business at large. The value of the add-on channel can extend to both the customer and the business. 
         [0005]    Embodiments disclosed herein provide an interactive voice response (IVR) adjunct that provides a code that can be posted thereby allowing the contact center to match the call/caller to a social media identity. This allows the sharing of social media information between a caller and a contact center. 
         [0006]    The system and methods described are operable to provide an IVR adjunct that provides postable codes thereby allowing the contact center to match the call/caller to a social media identity and appropriately analyze posts and route calls. 
         [0007]    In one embodiment, an IVR adjunct is disclosed facilitating the sharing of a customer&#39;s social media information between a customer and a contact center, such as via a series of steps, which may include the following: 
         [0008]    1. The customer calls the contact center. 
         [0009]    2. The IVR system responds with a series of prompts. The first IVR prompt consists of the following question: “To enhance our customer service to you, may we retrieve your XYZ username?” (where XYZ is one of a number of popular social networks). 
         [0010]    3. If the customer agrees, the IVR adjunct generates a code (e.g., 12345) that is unique during a configured time interval, for example, 10 minutes. 
         [0011]    4. The IVR system then asks the customer to post *12345* to XYZ and, optionally, include the reason for the call. Alternatively, the IVR system can encourage the use of a private message to the business instead of a publicly visible post. The IVR system may then play music on hold (MOH) or other on-hold presentation. 
         [0012]    5. The adjunct monitors all social media posts in its XYZ channel and its private message inbox (e.g., Facebook page, Twitter feed, etc.) for a post or private message containing *12345*. 
         [0013]    6. If no such post appears in a configured time interval, for example, 2 minutes, the IVR ends the MOH and re-prompts the customer or moves on to a traditional IVR menu. 
         [0014]    7. If such a post from a user C appears, the IVR adjunct now has the customer&#39;s social media identity on XYZ and can retrieve the customer&#39;s social media activity and profile (elements). 
         [0015]    8. If user C includes the reason for their call in the post containing *12345*, the IVR adjunct retrieves the reason from the post and routes the call to an appropriate agent. 
         [0016]    9. If user C does not include the reason for their call in the post, the IVR ends the MOH and continues with a traditional IVR menu. 
         [0017]    10. In both steps  8  and  9 , the IVR adjunct analyzes user C&#39;s social media activities and profile (elements) and uses the analysis results in the routing of the call as well as in agent scripting and agent screenpops. 
         [0018]    11. The IVR adjunct stores the tuple (user C&#39;s phone number, user C&#39;s XYZ identity) in a customer resource management (CRM) database. The next time user C calls the contact center, user C′s XYZ identity is known and the step requiring the generation and posting of the code (e.g., “12345” as above) can be skipped. The customer, however, can still post the reason for the communication, which will be used in the routing, agent scripting, and screenpop for that call. 
         [0019]    In another embodiment, the IVR adjunct is specifically absent functionality to directly request the user to provide their social media identity. Directly querying the user is likely to be counterproductive due to a high likelihood of accidental or deliberate misinformation on the part of the customer, in part, as certain social networks do not provide their users with easy to remember identities. 
         [0020]    In one embodiment, a system is disclosed, comprising: a communication interface to a network; a processor, upon accessing a communication from a customer via the network interface: prompts the customer to provide indicia on a social media website, monitors the social media website for the indicia, and upon identification of the indicia posted by a poster on the social media website, determines an interaction with the customer in accordance with a social media element of the poster. 
         [0021]    In another embodiment, a method is disclosed, comprising: accessing a communication from a customer via the network interface; prompting the customer to provide indicia on a social media website; monitoring the social media website for the indicia; and upon identifying the indicia posted by a poster on the social media website, determining an interaction with the customer in accordance with a social media element of the poster. 
         [0022]    In another embodiment, a means for associating a customer of a call with a social media profile is disclosed, comprising: accessing a communication from a customer via the network interface; prompting the customer to provide indicia on a social media website; monitoring the social media website for the indicia; and upon identifying the indicia posted by a poster on the social media website, determining an interaction with the customer in accordance with a social media element of the poster. 
         [0023]    The phrases “at least one,” “one or more,” and “and/or” are open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C,” “at least one of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” “one or more of A, B, or C,” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together. 
         [0024]    The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. As such, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more,” and “at least one” can be used interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” can be used interchangeably. 
         [0025]    The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers to any process or operation done without material human input when the process or operation is performed. However, a process or operation can be automatic, even though performance of the process or operation uses material or immaterial human input, if the input is received before performance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to be material if such input influences how the process or operation will be performed. Human input that consents to the performance of the process or operation is not deemed to be “material.” 
         [0026]    The term “computer-readable medium,” as used herein, refers to any tangible storage that participates in providing instructions to a processor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid-state medium like a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer can read. When the computer-readable media is configured as a database, it is to be understood that the database may be any type of database, such as relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or the like. Accordingly, the disclosure is considered to include a tangible storage medium and prior art-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which the software implementations of the present disclosure are stored. 
         [0027]    The terms “determine,” “calculate,” and “compute,” and variations thereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any type of methodology, process, mathematical operation, or technique. 
         [0028]    The term “module,” as used herein, refers to any known or later-developed hardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, or combination of hardware and software that is capable of performing the functionality associated with that element. Also, while the disclosure is described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciated that other aspects of the disclosure can be separately claimed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0029]    The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appended figures: 
           [0030]      FIG. 1  depicts a first system in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
           [0031]      FIG. 2  depicts a second system in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
           [0032]      FIG. 3  depicts an exchange in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
           [0033]      FIG. 4  depicts a contact center portion in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; and 
           [0034]      FIG. 5  depicts a process in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0035]    The ensuing description provides embodiments only and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims. Rather, the ensuing description will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing the embodiments. It will be understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. 
         [0036]    Any reference in the description comprising an element number, without a subelement identifier when a subelement identifier exists in the figures, when used in the plural, is intended to reference any two or more elements with a like element number. When such a reference is made in the singular form, it is intended to reference one of the elements with the like element number without limitation to a specific one of the elements. Any explicit usage herein to the contrary or providing further qualification or identification shall take precedence. 
         [0037]    The exemplary systems and methods of this disclosure will also be described in relation to analysis software, modules, and associated analysis hardware. However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present disclosure, the following description omits well-known structures, components, and devices that may be shown in block diagram form, and are well known or are otherwise summarized. 
         [0038]    For purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It should be appreciated, however, that the present disclosure may be practiced in a variety of ways beyond the specific details set forth herein. 
         [0039]    With reference now to  FIG. 1 , communication system  100  is discussed in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure. The communication system  100  may be a distributed system and, in some embodiments, comprises a communication network  104  connecting one or more communication devices  108  to a work assignment mechanism  116 , which may be owned and operated by an enterprise administering contact center  102  in which a plurality of resources  112  is distributed to handle incoming work items (in the form of contacts) from customer communication devices  108 . 
         [0040]    Contact center  102  is variously embodied to receive and/or send messages that are or are associated with work items and the processing and management (e.g., scheduling, assigning, routing, generating, accounting, receiving, monitoring, reviewing, etc.) of the work items by one or more resources  112 . The work items are generally generated and/or received requests for a processing resource  112  embodied as, or a component of, an electronic and/or electromagnetically conveyed message. Contact center  102  may include more or fewer components than illustrated and/or provide more or fewer services than illustrated. The border indicating contact center  102  may be a physical boundary (e.g., a building, campus, etc.), legal boundary (e.g., company, enterprise, etc.), and/or logical boundary (e.g., resources  112  utilized to provide services to customers for a customer of contact center  102 ). 
         [0041]    Furthermore, the border illustrating contact center  102  may be as-illustrated or, in other embodiments, include alterations and/or more and/or fewer components than illustrated. For example, in other embodiments, one or more of resources  112 , customer database  118 , and/or other component may connect to routing engine  132  via communication network  112 , such as when such components connect via a public network (e.g., Internet). In another embodiment, communication network  104  may be a private utilization of, at least in part, a public network (e.g., VPN); a private network located, at least partially, within contact center  102 ; or a mixture of private and public networks that may be utilized to provide electronic communication of components described herein. Additionally, it should be appreciated that components illustrated as external, such as social media server  130  and/or other external data sources  134  may be within contact center  102  physically and/or logically, but still be considered external for other purposes. For example, contact center  102  may operate social media server  130  (e.g., a website operable to receive user messages from customers and/or resources  112 ) as one means to interact with customers via their customer communication device  108 . 
         [0042]    Customer communication devices  108  are embodied as external to contact center  102  as they are under the more direct control of their respective user or customer. However, embodiments may be provided whereby one or more customer communication devices  108  are physically and/or logically located within contact center  102  and are still considered external to contact center  102 , such as when a customer utilizes customer communication device  108  at a kiosk and attaches to a private network of contact center  102  (e.g., WiFi connection to a kiosk, etc.), within or controlled by contact center  102 . 
         [0043]    It should be appreciated that the description of contact center  102  provides at least one embodiment whereby the following embodiments may be more readily understood without limiting such embodiments. Contact center  102  may be further altered, added to, and/or subtracted from without departing from the scope of any embodiment described herein and without limiting the scope of the embodiments or claims, except as expressly provided. 
         [0044]    Additionally, contact center  102  may incorporate and/or utilize social media server  130  and/or other external data sources  134  may be utilized to provide one means for a resource  112  to receive and/or retrieve contacts and connect to a customer of a contact center  102 . Other external data sources  134  may include data sources, such as service bureaus or third-party data providers (e.g., credit agencies, public and/or private records, etc.). Customers may utilize their respective customer communication device  108  to send/receive communications utilizing social media server  130 . 
         [0045]    In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, the communication network  104  may comprise any type of known communication medium or collection of communication media and may use any type of protocols to transport electronic messages between endpoints. The communication network  104  may include wired and/or wireless communication technologies. The Internet is an example of the communication network  104  that constitutes an Internet Protocol (IP) network consisting of many computers, computing networks, and other communication devices located all over the world, which are connected through many telephone systems and other means. Other examples of the communication network  104  include, without limitation, a standard Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) network, a Voice over IP (VoIP) network, a cellular network, and any other type of packet-switched or circuit-switched network known in the art. In addition, it can be appreciated that the communication network  104  need not be limited to any one network type, and instead may be comprised of a number of different networks and/or network types. As one example, embodiments of the present disclosure may be utilized to increase the efficiency of a grid-based contact center  102 . Examples of a grid-based contact center  102  are more fully described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0296417 Steiner, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. Moreover, the communication network  104  may comprise a number of different communication media, such as coaxial cable, copper cable/wire, fiber-optic cable, antennas for transmitting/receiving wireless messages, and combinations thereof. 
         [0046]    The communication devices  108  may correspond to customer communication devices. In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, a customer may utilize their communication device  108  to initiate a work item. Illustrative work items include, but are not limited to, a contact directed toward and received at a contact center  102 , a web page request directed toward and received at a server farm (e.g., collection of servers), a media request, an application request (e.g., a request for application resources location on a remote application server, such as a SIP application server), and the like. The work item may be in the form of a message or collection of messages transmitted over the communication network  104 . For example, the work item may be transmitted as a telephone call, a packet or collection of packets (e.g., IP packets transmitted over an IP network), an email message, an Instant Message, an SMS message, a fax, and combinations thereof. In some embodiments, the communication may not necessarily be directed at the work assignment mechanism  116 , but rather may be on some other server in the communication network  104  where it is harvested by the work assignment mechanism  116 , which generates a work item for the harvested communication, such as social media server  130 . An example of such a harvested communication includes a social media communication that is harvested by the work assignment mechanism  116  from a social media network or server  130 . Exemplary architectures for harvesting social media communications and generating work items based thereon are described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/784,369, 12/706,942, and 12/707,277, filed Mar. 20, 2010, Feb. 17, 2010, and Feb. 17, 2010, respectively; each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
         [0047]    The format of the work item may depend upon the capabilities of the communication device  108  and the format of the communication. In particular, work items are logical representations within a contact center  102  of work to be performed in connection with servicing a communication received at contact center  102  (and, more specifically, the work assignment mechanism  116 ). The communication may be received and maintained at the work assignment mechanism  116 , a switch or server connected to the work assignment mechanism  116 , or the like, until a resource  112  is assigned to the work item representing that communication at which point the work assignment mechanism  116  passes the work item to a routing engine  132  to connect the communication device  108 , which initiated the communication, with the assigned resource  112 . 
         [0048]    Although the routing engine  132  is depicted as being separate from the work assignment mechanism  116 , the routing engine  132  may be incorporated into the work assignment mechanism  116  or its functionality may be executed by the work assignment engine  120 . 
         [0049]    In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, the communication devices  108  may comprise any type of known communication equipment or collection of communication equipment. Examples of a suitable communication device  108  include, but are not limited to, a personal computer, laptop, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), cellular phone, smart phone, telephone, or combinations thereof. In general, each communication device  108  may be adapted to support video, audio, text, and/or data communications with other communication devices  108  as well as the processing resources  112 . The type of medium used by the communication device  108  to communicate with other communication devices  108  or processing resources  112  may depend upon the communication applications available on the communication device  108 . 
         [0050]    In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, the work item is sent toward a collection of processing resources  112  via the combined efforts of the work assignment mechanism  116  and routing engine  132 . The resources  112  can either be completely automated resources (e.g., Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units, processors, servers, or the like), human resources utilizing communication devices (e.g., human agents utilizing a computer, telephone, laptop, etc.), or any other resource known to be used in contact center  102 . 
         [0051]    As discussed above, the work assignment mechanism  116  and resources  112  may be owned and operated by a common entity in a contact center  102  format. In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism  116  may be administered by multiple enterprises, each of which has its own dedicated resources  112  connected to the work assignment mechanism  116 . 
         [0052]    In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism  116  comprises a work assignment engine  120 , which enables the work assignment mechanism  116  to make intelligent routing decisions for work items. In other embodiments, the work assignment engine  120  is configured to administer and make work assignment decisions in a queueless contact center  102 , as is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/882,950, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. In other embodiments, the work assignment engine  120  may be configured to execute work assignment decisions in a traditional queue-based (or skill-based) contact center  102 . 
         [0053]    The work assignment engine  120  and its various components may reside in the work assignment mechanism  116  or in a number of different servers or processing devices. In some embodiments, cloud-based computing architectures can be employed whereby one or more components of the work assignment mechanism  116  are made available in a cloud or network such that they can be shared resources among a plurality of different users. Work assignment mechanism  116  may access customer database  118 , such as to retrieve records, profiles, purchase history, previous work items, and/or other aspects of a customer known to contact center  102 . Customer database  118  may be updated in response to a work item and/or input from the resource  112  processing the work item. 
         [0054]    It should be appreciated that one or more components of contact center  102  may be implemented in a cloud-based architecture in their entirety, or components thereof (e.g., hybrid), in addition to embodiments being entirely on-premises. In one embodiment, customer communication device  108  is connected to one of resources  112  via components entirely hosted by a cloud-based service provider, wherein processing and data storage elements may be dedicated to the operator of contact center  102  or shared or distributed amongst a plurality of service provider customers, one being contact center  102 . 
         [0055]    In one embodiment, a message is generated by customer communication device  108  and received, via communication network  104 , at work assignment mechanism  116 . The message received by a contact center  102 , such as at the work assignment mechanism  116 , is generally, and herein, referred to as a “contact.” Routing engine  132  routes the contact to at least one of resources  112  for processing. 
         [0056]      FIG. 2  depicts system  200  in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, system  200  comprises contact center  102 . To avoid unnecessarily complicating the figure,  FIG. 2  illustrates a portion of the components of contact center  102  provided with respect to  FIG. 1 . In particular, interactive voice response (IVR)  206  and a processor  208 . IVR  206  and processor  208  may comprise automated resource  112  and/or a portion comprising or comprised by work assignment mechanism  116 , work assignment engine  120 , and/or routing engine  132 . 
         [0057]    In another embodiment, customer  202  places a call using telephone  204 . A resource  112  accepts the call, such as when resource  112  is embodied by IVR  206 . Contact center  102  may have certain information associated with customer  202 , such as information provided by customer  202  directly to IVR  206 , caller identification (e.g., CallerID), etc. accessing customer database  118  and/or other data sources. However, customer  202  may have a social media identity that is initially unknown to contact center  102 . Customer  202  may be an individual, or collection of individuals (e.g., group, organization, business enterprise, etc.) who initiates or receives a communication to or from contact center  102 . The reason for the communication may be to make a purchase, inquiry, marketing, or other and customer  202  may be a customer of contact center  102 , a user of contact center  102 , and/or a potential customer of contact center  102 . 
         [0058]    In other embodiments, telephone  204  comprises, is comprised by, or integrated with other forms of customer communication device  108 . For example telephone  204  may be an endpoint for SMS texts, text-chat, email, video chat, or other forms of communication. Accordingly, telephone  204  and computing device  210  may be the same customer communication device  108 . However, merely as an aid to clarity, the embodiment herein illustrates the use of telephone  204  to provide a voice-only call and computing device  210  is utilized for accessing social media server  130 . 
         [0059]    Customer  202  is prompted by IVR  206 , which may be further directed by processor  208 , to provide indicia on a social media website. Customer  202 , utilizing computing device  210 , accesses a social media server  130 , such as via a webpage or other interface associated with social media server  130 , and provides the indicia. Processor  208  monitors and/or receives updates from social media server  130 , such as via application programming interface (API) or other communication protocol. Processor  208 , upon detecting the indicia, may then access the profile of the poster and associate the poster with customer  202 . Processor  208  may then analyze content of social media server  130  associated with customer  202  to determine relevant aspects of customer  202  and/or identify a candidate reason for customer  202  to the place the call. 
         [0060]      FIG. 3  depicts exchange  300  in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, IVR  206  provides audio prompt  302  asking for permission to identify customer  202  on a specific social media website (socialmedia.com). Customer  202 , utilizing telephone  204 , provides response  304  indicating a granting of permission. Customer  202  may alternatively respond in the negative or not at all, which may be treated as a refusal to grant permission or a lack of presence on the specific social media website and/or any social media website. 
         [0061]    Upon receiving permission, IVR  206  presents prompt  306  comprising indicia  308 . Indicia  308  is accessed and/or generated, such as by processor  208 , to uniquely identify a poster on a social media website. Customer  202  accesses the social media website via computing device  210  and provides entered indicia  310 . IVR  206  may provide response  312  indicating that entered indicia  310  has been received on the social media website. In another embodiment, indicia  308  may be determined by customer  202 . For example, IVR  206  may prompt customer  202  to enter indicia  308  (e.g., “please select a key word, phrase, numeric sequence, etc. for entry into social media website.). Customer  202  then responds to IVR  206  (e.g., “I will enter ‘5555.’”). Customer  202  may then enter indicia  310  via computing device  210  and for detection by processor  208 . As a further embodiment, processor  210  and/or IVR  206  may validate a user selected indicia is unique and, if not, prompt the customer to select a different indicia  308 . 
         [0062]    While it may be preferable to make indicia  308  with as few characters as possible, to facilitate ease of use by customer  202 , fewer characters increases the frequency of reuse (e.g., using the same indicia for a subsequent customer  202 ). In one embodiment, indicia  308  is determined as being unique for a predetermined period of time. For example, it may be known that all past customers, when prompted to enter the indicia, do so within three minutes. Therefore, the volume of customers over a three minute period may be used to determine the period for which any one indicia is to be associated with a specific customer  202 . For example, three numeric digits would remain unique for one thousand customers over a three minute period. The indicia may incorporate additional characters to provide further assurance of uniqueness and/or error checking. In addition to numeric characters, other characters (e.g., letters, symbols, emoji, etc.) may be utilized as, or as a portion of, indicia  308  and subsequently entered as indicia  310 . 
         [0063]    In another embodiment, IVR  206  may be an automated text chat engine, email engine, or other automated response operable to provide indicia  308  to customer  202  via a customer communication device  108  configured to receive messages provided by the text, email, or other non-voice response means. In yet another embodiment, indicia  308  is provided by resource  112  as a human agent. In another embodiment, prompt  302  may be provided with a number of social media websites or without identifying any particular social media website. Customer  202  may then select any social media website and social media server  130  is one of a plurality of social media websites monitored for entered indicia  310 . Entered indicia  310  may be provided via a private message (e.g., private instant message, chat, etc.) or a publicly accessible post, wherein other users of the social media website may have access to a post, message, “Tweet,” or other message comprising entered indicia  310 . 
         [0064]      FIG. 4  depicts contact center portion  400  in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, a user, such as customer  202 , has provided the indicia to social media server  130 . Social media server  130  provides updates and/or responses to queries from processor  208  to determine the social media elements (e.g., profile elements, likes, shares, endorsements, relationships, interests, demographic data, etc.) from social media server  130 . 
         [0065]    In one embodiment, processor  208  provides interaction prompt  406  to agent  402 . Agent  402  may be one of resources  112  when embodied as a human agent. In another embodiment agent  402  may be an automated resource  112 . Agent  402  may receive interaction prompt  406  providing information gathered from social media server  130 . Interaction prompt  406  may provide background information on customer  202  and/or other information that may be utilized by agent  402  in the interaction with customer  202 . In another embodiment, script  408  provided to agent  402  may be expressly customized to customer  202  based upon social media elements obtained from social media server  130 . For example, customer  202  may place a call to speak with agent  402  regarding air travel. Social media server  130  may determine that the customer has an interest in Spain as well as in skiing and provide that information directly, such as via interaction prompt  406 , or when interaction prompt is integrated into script  408 . 
         [0066]      FIG. 5  depicts process  500  in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, process  500  begins at step  502  wherein the communication is received at a contact center. Step  504  determines if the customer&#39;s social media identity is known. If determined in the negative, process  500  continues to step  506 . If determined in the affirmative process  500  may continue to step  518 . It should be appreciated that in other embodiments the communication is placed by the contact center, such as via a callback mechanism, in response to a query or other contact medium. The communication may be voice call. In other embodiments, the communication may be any communication type, such as text, email, video chat, or other form of communication wherein the identity of the customer  202  on a social media website is initially unknown. 
         [0067]    Step  506  provides a prompt during the communication for the customer to enter identifying indicia via a social media channel. The prompt may be specific to a particular social media website, plurality of social media websites, or without identification of a particular social media website, such as when contact center  102  has monitoring abilities of enough social media websites to reasonably determine that the customer will pick a social media website to which contact center  102  may receive information therefrom associated with the indicia. 
         [0068]    Step  508  queries and/or receives social media updates from one or more social media websites and/or servers. Step  510  determines if the indicia has been found. If step  510  is determined in the negative, process  500  may continue to step  512 ; otherwise, process  500  may continue to step  516 . Step  512  determines if the timeout condition has occurred and, if yes, process  500  may proceed directly to step  524 . If step  512  is determined in the negative, delay  514  may be executed following which step  506  may be re-executed to re-prompt the customer to provide the indicia on the social media website. Alternatively step  506  may prompt for a different or alternative social media website. After which step  508  and  510  may be repeated until such time as steps  510  or  512  are determined in the affirmative. It should be appreciated that step  508  may be substantially perpetual and begin and/or and execute at times other than between steps  506  and  510 . For example, step  508  may be continually executing to receive indicia from a plurality of customers and subsequently match the indicia, and their associated social media profile, with a particular customer. 
         [0069]    Once step  510  has been determined in the affirmative, processing continues to step  516  wherein the poster of the indicia is associated with the customer, such as customer  202 . Step  516  may determine that the customer is associated with a plurality of people (e.g., couple, family, organization, etc.) or an entity (e.g., business, club, etc.) based upon the identity of the social media profile associated with the posting of the indicia. Next, step  518  may determine if a reason for the call is present as a social media element associated with the poster of the indicia. If yes, step  520  may modify an interaction, such as agent script  408 , in accord with the reason and/or route the call to a particular agent based upon the reason. If step  518  is determined in the negative, or in addition to step  520 , step  522  may modify the interaction in accordance with a social media element associated with the poster of the indicia. In another embodiment, step  520  and/or step  522  of the interaction may simply present social media elements to an agent for their use as they determine appropriate. Step  524  then enqueues the call and ultimately connects the call to a resource  112 , such as a human agent. Alternatively, the call may be already engaged by the agent and the interaction may be presented via a pop-up window, whisper channel communication, or other means to provide the interaction to cue, or instruct (e.g., script) the agent engaged in the call. 
         [0070]    In the foregoing description, for the purposes of illustration, methods were described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that in alternate embodiments, the methods may be performed in a different order than that described. It should also be appreciated that the methods described above may be performed by hardware components or may be embodied in sequences of machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purpose processor (GPU or CPU), or logic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the methods (FPGA). These machine-executable instructions may be stored on one or more machine-readable mediums, such as CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other types of machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronic instructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by a combination of hardware and software. 
         [0071]    Specific details were given in the description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments. 
         [0072]    Also, it is noted that the embodiments were described as a process, which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function. 
         [0073]    Aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer-readable medium may be a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. 
         [0074]    A computer-readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer-readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. 
         [0075]    A computer-readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer-readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer-readable signal medium may be any computer-readable medium that is not a computer-readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. Program code embodied on a computer-readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including, but not limited to, wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing. 
         [0076]    While illustrative embodiments of the disclosure have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may be otherwise variously embodied and employed and that the appended claims are intended to be construed to include such variations, except as limited by the prior art.