Patent ID: 8917862

Claim:
A communication system comprising: a response server storing an automated response heuristic for a vendor; and a database in communication with said response server; wherein said response server is configured to: provide, without the assistance of live support personnel, to users who initiate communications with the vendor, a series of menus according to the automated response heuristic during a plurality of initiated communications to the vendor, each of said menus including a group of selections, receive an input from one of the users in response to at least one of said menus for each of the plurality of initiated communications, automatically create, without the assistance of live support personnel, a record for each of the plurality of initiated communications, each said record including: a plurality of fields, each of said plurality of fields associated with one of said menus; and data in at least one of said plurality of fields, said data describing at least one characteristic of the input received in response to the menu with which said at least one of said plurality of fields is associated, said at least one characteristic of the input including at least one of: whether a user requested assistance, whether the user made a selection, whether the user selection matched the selections of a respective menu, and a duration of a time lapse before the user made a selection; and create a report about the automated response heuristic including diagnostic information about a given type of input received from the users in response to at least one of the menus, a characteristic of the given type of input including: a request for assistance was received in response to the respective menu, no selection was received in response to the respective menu, there was no match for a selection received in response to the respective menu, and a duration of a time lapse before a selection was received in response to the respective menu exceeded an allotted period of time.