Patent ID: 8296246

Claim:
A method for allocating customer service representatives in a virtual universe, the method comprising: in response to a customer avatar entering a virtual universe store that is defined in a virtual universe and that comprises an unavailable original customer service representative avatar, cloning via a processing unit the unavailable original customer service representative avatar and assigning the clone to the customer avatar; assigning by the processing unit a real-time experience rating value to the customer avatar as a function of parsing a real-time communication from the customer avatar by: assigning a first real-time experience rating value if the parsed customer communication indicates that the customer is complaining or is actively engaged in conversation with another customer avatar discussing a product item of the store; and assigning a second real-time experience rating value that is lower than the first real-time experience rating value if the parsed customer communication does not indicate that the customer is complaining or is actively engaged in conversation with another customer avatar discussing the product item of the store; assigning by the processing unit a historical shopping value to the customer avatar as a function of retrieving historical customer data from a data store by: assigning a first shopping value if the retrieved historical customer data comprises a total shopping purchase amount that meets a minimum threshold amount, and assigning a second shopping value that is lower than the first shopping value if the retrieved historical customer data comprises a total shopping purchase amount that is below the minimum threshold amount; creating by the processing unit a customer profile value for the customer avatar as a function of adding the assigned real-time experience rating value to the assigned historical shopping value; choosing by the processing unit a subavatar as a function of the created customer profile value by choosing a first subavatar that is controlled by a human if the created customer profile value meets a high-priority customer profile requirement threshold, and by choosing a second subavatar that is controlled by an automated artificial agent if the created customer profile value is below the high-priority customer profile requirement threshold; and populating by the processing unit the assigned clone with the chosen subavatar, wherein the populated clone engages the customer avatar.