Patent ID: 7400718

Claim:
For use by a call service facility in which a human call agent is in live voice communication with a calling or called party situated at a location other than said call agent, said call agent being equipped with and using a computer workstation, said computer workstation including a keyboard and visual display interface accessible to the call agent and coupled with a voice message storage and retrieval mechanism, said live voice communication being necessary to accomplish the primary purpose of a call, said primary purpose being the collection of information from said calling or called party that said call agent enters into a form containing a plurality of objects and displayed on said visual display interface through execution of a forms-based target application program, a method of automatically supplying one or more pre-recorded voice messages to said calling or called party, said method comprising the steps of: (a) storing one or more pre-recorded voice messages in said voice storage and retrieval mechanism that may be played back to said calling or called party in response to a voice message selection signal applied thereto; and (b) providing a target application enhancement mechanism that is linked with and executed as an enhancement to said forms-based target application program, said target application enhancement mechanism being operative, in response to said call agent performing, in association with said live voice communication with said calling or called party, a prescribed interaction by advancing from one object to another object displayed on said visual display interface of said computer workstation by said forms-based target application program, to automatically trigger one or more actions, in addition to the one or more actions performed by said forms-based target application program in response to such prescribed interaction, including automatic generation of said voice message selection signal, so as to cause automatic playback, by said voice message storage and retrieval mechanism to said calling or called party, of one or more of said pre-recorded voice messages, or other predefined action, at one or more appropriate junctures during said call.