MXPA97006329A

MXPA97006329A - Correlation information between the internet and call centers environments

Info

Publication number: MXPA97006329A
Application number: MXPA/A/1997/006329A
Authority: MX
Inventors: Samuel Brown Sanford; George Danyluk Oleh; V Grippo Ronald
Original assignee: At&T Corp
Priority date: 1996-08-23
Filing date: 1997-08-20
Publication date: 1998-02-01

Abstract

The coordination of information at the network-based level between connectable call centers in a telecommunications network, such as the telephone network and a packet network, such as the internet, which creates the improved integration of, and the link, is described. between a customer interaction with a network site and with a call center. Client information and customer interaction with the network are provided to the call center agent along with the call, which leads to increased productivity and efficiency in call handling as well as improved channeling of the call. call. The calls can be routed to the existing call centers based on the information of their experimentation with the network and information on the interaction with the network by the user, which is shared with the call center. Network interaction information is transferred to existing call centers by using the known methods of external control of the call center, such as DNIS (dial number identification service) signaling. Information about experimentation with the network can also be "whispered" to the call center agent and an agent can "push" certain web pages for review by the client. As a result, customer acquisition and sales tools, more powerful than just a push to call tool in response, can be made available with a combined marketing procedure when using the network and call centers.

Description

CORRELATION INFORMATION BETWEEN INTERNET AND CALL CENTER ENVIRONMENTS Technical Field This invention relates to the Internet and call center environments in general and more particularly to a way to correlate information between a packet network such as the Internet. and call centers connectable in a telecommunications network, such as the telephone network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The Internet is a dynamic packet network consisting of millions of interconnected computers which could execute various applications, such as the World Wide Web. The Internet is implemented by using a wide variety of connections among those millions of computers. Access to the Internet is easily available to individuals around the world. Several online service providers, such as America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, Netcom, etc., provide client connections over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) when using Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) modems or adapters. These online service providers maintain servers on the Internet that provide client access to the Internet. The global and exponential growth of the Internet is a common knowledge today. Recent developments in user interfaces with the World Wide Web and programming elements (software) navigation information such as the Netscape Web browser, coupled with a continuously growing number of providers of REF: 25368 public access, are making the Internet a fundamental component of the information age, if not the superhighway of the information itself. A World Wide Web site on the Internet commonly resides on a computer known as a server, which is accessed through the Internet by a user using a client computer. A web site consists of one or more pages of the network (World Wide Web) comprising scripts written in a hypertext markup language (HTML) and commonly hosted on a server compatible with the hypertext transport protocol (HTTP, a protocol for interconnection with the Internet). Commonly accessed pages on a network site can be viewed by the user through programming elements (software) called an explorer (or browser or browser) of the network, which commonly resides in the user's client computer. A network browser such as Netscape ei interprets HTML scripts from the network page to provide a graphical user interface, which allows easy access to various services on the Internet. The client computer is able to provide an output (or result) to display a page of the network to a user, for example by means of a video screen. Such output may take the form of at least one of a textual, graphic, animation, video, audio or virtual media means. The client computer is also capable of accepting a user's entries. Such input can be provided by means of a keyboard, a mouse, a telephone keypad or a TV remote control and so on. Users can browse the global network for virtually any kind of information, which includes information that has content derived from one or more media, such as words, sounds or images. Increasingly, companies are establishing network sites as a means to provide information for, and to attract, potential customers and sites on the network are emerging as a means to conduct business. Users can locate a network site of their company by using for example one of a variety of existing search engines available on the Internet or browse other sites on the network that contain links to the company's website or by directly entering the uniform resource locator (URL) which represents an "address" for the site. Commonly, the network browsing takes place in the context of an interactive communication session, where the user can, for example, direct the browsing session of the network by choosing to follow the hypertext links found on the network sites and / or can respond to information located in the various sites of the network. A vast number of companies and other organizations, such as educational and charitable institutions employ call centers to handle a variety of telecommunications tasks. Companies commonly establish or employ call centers that their customers, which may be other companies or individual consumers, can contact by dialing a free "800" number. Call centers are an important means to provide information to, and to attract, potential customers, as well as to conduct business. For example, call centers can be used to take orders for products or services, provide assistance or technical support for the customer and other sales, marketing and support activities. Call centers have found wide use in for example the travel industry to handle reservations and the bank and financial service for account service. A call center uses a telecommunication system that can be as simple as a single telephone handled by a single individual or can range from a group of agents running a telephone bank to an entire department or company that has interconnected telephone banks. in network by means of equipment of private power station (PBX) dedicated to handle hundreds or thousands of calls. A call center can be located in a single installation with a PBX or in multiple installations with multiple PBX. Call centers often employ interactive voice response (IVR) technology to help the user, for example, locate an available call center agent who is able to handle the user's request. An IVR system, is commonly a menu-driven system that asks a caller to press T for a first option, press "2" for a second option and so on, or alternatively ask the user to enter a telephone extension, a password, an account number or the like. Call centers also employ Signaling Number Identification Service (DNIS) techniques. DNIS signaling is a well-known and understood convention, which, in the context of the call center, typically involves passing a code to a call center along with a representative call from the telephone or communications number called; The DNIS code can be used by the call center to further channel the call where appropriate.

The call centers allow business to be carried out interactively, in real time. However, call centers commonly require many human resources to handle an expected volume of calls due to inefficiencies created by the need for agents to obtain information about the client and the subject of the client's request. Web sites provide another means to conduct business, although not in real time; The network sites also do not have the level of possible interaction with a direct telephone call from the client to the agent. However, network sites offer the ability to capture the client's study topic and provide the client with preliminary information. Network sites also allow a sales or marketing customer to "prequalify" a customer - such as by determining the type of consumer and the type and level of goods or services sought by the consumer - before it is carried out. made an additional contact with the consumer. That is, a network site can be used as a means to characterize the consumer and consumer interest, a task not easily carried out by the IVR systems present. As important as these mechanisms to get in touch with customers and carry out business, it is nevertheless nowadays that there is little relationship between the activities of people who make phone calls to call centers with the use of numbers "800" telephone numbers or other numbers and the activities of people who interact with Internet-based applications when using network browsers or other Internet-related applications. Commonly, a consumer who scans or browses a page on the network has no interaction with the call center environments. The information collected in the network environment does not correlate with a call that enters a call center environment and there is no attraction of network interaction data to the flow of the call. Any relationship between the call center and the browsing or browsing activities of the Internet, for the most part, is coordinated manually. For example, a consumer who uses an Internet browser registered on the Internet can view an HTML page of a company's network site. While browsing or browsing the web page, the consumer may find information regarding a product or service that they wish to buy, but the web page may not have enough information to satisfy the consumer's interest in the product or service. . The consumer wants to call the company to have more information regarding the product they have on their page. To obtain additional information about the desired product or service, the consumer can call the number "800" or another appropriate telephone number of the company, which can be listed on the website and contact a call center managed by the company. However, in the typical scenario where there is no information associated with the call entering the call center with respect to the consumer's interactions with the network site and what information, if any, the user has viewed. The consumer can verbally inform the agent of their findings on the website and what information they may be viewing or use other techniques of the traditional call center, such as automatic number identification (ANI), indications of IVR, etc., provided by call center environments to allow the call center agent to understand the reason for the incoming call.

There are common applications emerging in commercial applications that have some limited ability to coordinate customer interaction with a company's network site to a call center environment. Such applications, such as that of Scopus Technology, provide the ability to a customer who browses or explores a company's network site to initiate a response call from a call center agent to the company by clicking an icon or button on the site. the company. Other such installation-based applications include PageCall® by Edify Corporation, WebCall by Spanlink Communications and net. Vectoring by Genesys Labs. According to the information available on the Spanlik website (located at URL http://www.spanlink.com), "WebCall" asks the customer for information and notifies the customer when an answer call is expected; The call request to the customer is transferred to a row in the call center, from where an outgoing call is eventually initiated. The call center agent who receives the call request also has access to the customer's information as well as information about which pages the customer has viewed on the network site, either through a pop-up program on the screen, text synthesis when speaking or whispering a URL reference number that the agent can enter; such information is apparently stored in the call center or made available through interaction with the server hosting the network site. Spanlink has also announced a service called WebCall / RS which, apparently, will incorporate its WebCall application into a distant site operated by Spanlink for use with existing call centers.

According to the information available on the Genesys web site (located at http: / www.genesyslab.com), the Genesys net.Vectoring application joins the elements of telephony programming of genesis, the bi-directional video conference in time real and the Internet. When an Internet user presses a button to connect with an agent, a call is established from the agent to the user and the agent can visualize the page of the network that a user is viewing (also as account data and information about the user's previous interaction with the network page). The application can also pass data for signaling to the telephone network, to allow the network to establish the call. According to the information available on Edify's website (located at URL http://www.edify.com), PageCall® allows a call center agent to retrieve customer information and track which pages on the network On the web site a customer has selected. Although the applications described above represent an improvement over the non-integration or manual integration of the network and the experiences of the call center, there are still some disadvantages. With the possible exception of the WebCall / RS application, these applications are facility-based, which means they are linked to a specific call center environment; A site on the network must interact with the call center in a manner specific to the application and the call center must incorporate the technology to receive any customer identification or other information from the Internet. In general, these applications do not have the capacity to channel a call externally to any call center.

The disadvantages identified above result in increased expenses for the development of integrated solutions. The network site promoters need to be involved with respect to the requirements based on particular facilities for each system. The call center environments must incorporate the ability to make call routing decisions based on any information they receive about the interaction with the network by the customer. In addition, these applications do not provide the link to browsing sessions of the Internet and call center sessions at the time the call request is delivered to the call center. The link of the session in this context is the process of maintaining a continuous association between the session with the network by the client and the call between the client and the call center. The session link would, for example, allow the call center agent to pass information (such as visual information on a network page) over the Internet to the user, while at the same time speaking with the user in a telephone connection. To the extent that the applications referenced above provide some session link (for example, Edify's PageCall® application), such a link is carried out only from the call center to the customer and only with a specific interface of the application in the call center - which requires a strong coupling between the call center and the call center. client. This has the disadvantage of requiring the call center to include a mechanism to control the interaction between telephone and network communications. Such a control mechanism is not required in the environment of the call center, if the link is carried out externally to the environment of the call center.

The coordination of Internet exploration and call center activities can improve the ability to use existing call centers and the Internet to provide the desired services of marketing, sales and customer management. For example, judgments about initiation or call routing could be based on interaction data with the network. What is desired is a way to allow the coordination of information at the base level of the network between existing call centers and a packet network, such as the Internet, to create an improved integration of, and link between, the center calls and communication sessions based on the network, in order to increase productivity and efficiency and to allow better call routing, while supplying the call center agent with information about the call and the client along with the call. Such coordination and delivery of information related to the interactions of the person with the Internet along with the channeling of the calls would allow existing call centers to obtain the advantages of the interaction of the coordinated network while using physical elements and elements of communication. Standard call center programming without additional physical elements or additional programming elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention allows the coordination of information at the base level of the network between call centers that can be connected over a telecommunications network, such as the telephone network and a packet network, such as the Internet. , to create an improved integration of, and the link between, a customer interaction with a network site and with a call center. The invention provides the supply of information about the customer and the interaction with the network by the customer, the agent of the call center together with the call, which leads to increased productivity and efficiency in the handling of the calls, also as an improved channeling of calls. The present invention allows the channeling of calls to existing call centers based on the information of the network experience and participation of the information of the interaction with the network by the user, with the call center. The invention works with the existing call center technology which uses the known methods for the external control of the call center, such as DNIS signaling, to pass the interaction information with the network to the call center. The present invention also allows information about the network experience to be "whispered" to the call center agent and allows an agent to "push" the web pages for review by the client. As a result, more powerful tools for customer acquisition and sales than just a mouse button push tool for answering calls can be made available with a combined marketing procedure used by the network and call centers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1A shows a high-level diagram for an illustrative network-based client-server architecture that coordinates Internet activities and call center environments according to one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1B shows a detailed diagram for an illustrative, network-based client-server architecture, which coordinates the activities on the Internet and the call center environments according to one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 shows the message flows between the various participating components according to a modality of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview The basic operation of the present invention is initiated by a client (also denoted as a user herein) who is involved in a browsing or browsing session of the network. The user visits a network site associated with a subscriber. The subscriber uses a call center for the sales and marketing activity. A web page on the site interacts with a network-based service, implemented by the present invention, which results in a call between the consumer and the call center. The salient parts of the invention are now briefly described in the context of a network-based service platform implementation.mission of information data related to the network One or more pages on a site in the subscriber's network contain "talk to the agent" icons. A user who scans the network site can initiate a call with an agent by clicking (with the mouse button) one of the "talk to the agent" icons. Each of such "talk to agent" icons is associated, on a one-to-one basis, with data representing one or more features of the network site - user interaction, such as a theme code, an identification of the subscriber and optionally "whisper" codes of the network. The network site may also gather additional features of the network site - user interaction that may be desired, such as information about the user and what the user seeks; the information could include entries by the user as well as information gathered from the user's interaction with the network site. All this information provides the context of the interaction with the network by the user and will be referred to herein as "TAG_1_". Each "talk to agent" icon also contains a URL that points to a network-based platform. When a user clicks on one of the "talk to the agent" icons, the user's network browser will initiate a transmission to the corresponding URL (a server on or associated with the platform site) that requests the transmission of an HTML script to display on screen a page of the network, corresponding to the URL located on the site of the platform. Each URL stored with the "talk to the agent" icons is programmed in such a way that the TAG_1_information about the user's interaction with the network site is passed to the platform through the URL overload. URL overload involves the use of standard methods to append the data elements to the URL as a series of parameters. Using the URL overload in this way allows the platform to extract TAG_1_data from the overloaded URL when using known methods to extract data from the series of parameters that accompany the URL (since the platform will have access to the attached parameters). to the URL addressed in the platform. 2. Network context for selection / routing to the call center The TAG_1_data identifies the context of the user's interaction with the network site during the session with the user's network. Based on the identity element of the subscriber and optionally other information of TAG_1_, the platform will use the data of TAG_1_of the interaction with the network to select an appropriate existing call center. Then the platform will transform or convert the TAG_1_data to a useful way to generate a call to the selected call center along with the transmission of information about the interaction with the network by the user, which can be used by the call center . The converted data and the associated network interaction information transmitted to the call center together with the call will be referred to herein as TAG_2_. "In one example of the data conversion from TAG_1_to TAG_2_, the platform makes access to a base data that contains a network abstraction table that includes the identity of the TAG_1_subscriber and subject code elements, together with corresponding DNIS call center communication numbers, by using the subject code and identification TAG_1_elements of the subscriber, the platform can then obtain from the grid abstraction table, the DNIS routing data to make a call to an appropriate call center when using the DNIS codes, the use of the DNIS codes takes advantage of call routing capabilities based on standard DNIS call centers, to allow the call center to additionally channel the call when using the interaction information with the network extracted and converted. In addition to the standard DNIS codesples of TAG_2_information include ANI (which provides the user's telephone number), user-to-user information (UUI), user network information (NUI), pulse-tones ~ via dual tone multiple frequency reception ( DTMF), whisper and IP messaging. Thus, for example, the platform can take the identity of the subscriber and the code elements of the TAG_1_theme and ai use a database, represent these elements to a toll-free number representing the number for the call center and TAG_2_information consisting of a unique DNIS code representative of the subject. Then the platform can originate a call to the call center when using ef free number, with the DNIS code adjusted according to the DNIS database. Then the call center can channel the call to the appropriate agent according to the DNIS code. In this way, the use of TAG_2_information such as a DNIS code provides a basic method for passing information corresponding to the topic of interaction with the network site to the call center.rk context for the agent data transfer The TAG_2_information can also provide a means to transmit the interaction information with the network to a call center agent. For example, the optional whisper code of TAG_1_identifies the session data on the network site that will be transmitted to the call center agent. Thus, once the call center has routed the call to an agent and the agent answers the call, the network platform can "whisper" to the agent to inform the agent of the network context of the call and allow the agent associate the data collected in the network with the call. One way in which this can be accomplished is to transform the whisper code of TAG_1_to an audio message (eg, a pre-recorded message) which is then reproduced on the connection of the call to the agent. In addition to the pre-recorded messages, other audio messages that can be "whispered" to the agent include, for example, page identifiers of the network site or other information determined by the whisper code of TAG_1_. Optionally, the authority of the call center and / or the agent to receive the information concerning the session interaction with the network (which could include user information) could be verified before any information is provided to the call center or to the people. 4. Linking the voice call and data sessions with the network The network-based platform coordinates and controls the "talk to the agent" call flows. The platform captures the subject code, the optional "whisper" code, and the subscriber identification that is passed through the network site by URL overloading (as described above) for use in the call flow of the subscriber. connection of a user with a call center agent. The platform also contains "welcome" pages of the network for user input of a response call number for the user and optionally other user information.

While calls to the call center and the user are established, the platform can access a database to obtain URLs to display the pages to the user. These pages may be for information or for advertising purposes. Once the calls are established with the user and with the call center, the platform joins the calls, to allow the user and the call center agent to speak. Through the platform, the agent can also pass information to the user while they are talking.

. Transfer of agent data to the network The agent can send information to the user while the agent and the user are talking. An example of the transmission of information from the agent to the user involves a "push page" operation, wherein the call center agent presents information in the form of a page of the network to the user's network browser. Then the user's browser would show the network page to the user. The platform can allow the "push page" function by storing the network pages in a database and sending one or more selected network pages from the database to the user's browser. The "push page" function can be executed in response to a request from the call center agent. Such a request can be transmitted from the agent to the call center when using, for example, pulse-tones or IP messages from the call center to the platform. The "push page" function can be carried out by using message sending by pulse-tones in the following manner. The agent selects one or more "pages" of information to send and presses the tonepad on your phone. The pulse-tones, corresponding to the predefined network pages unique to the particular subscriber, are received by the platform. Then the platform causes the corresponding network pages to be transmitted to the user via the network session by the user. Note that the association between the user and the call center is applicable to any of a variety of potential voice communication channels, such as connections from the old telephone service (POTS) to POTS, Internet telephone connections to POTS, internet Internet telephone connections and other media permutations. All these could include wired or wireless connections.

Architecture A high-level block diagram for an architecture implementing the present invention is shown in Figure 1A. With reference to figure 1, the system is based on a client-server architecture. The client (also denoted as "user" hereby) 100 communicates with the Internet 110 via the communication link 120, which may include one or more of a variety of known channels, for example, a private connection, the public switched telephone network, a local area network (LAN) connection, a serial line Internet protocol (SLIP) or point-to-point protocol (PPP) connection, in a modem or in an ISDN gateway. Communications between the user 100 and the Internet 110 can be made through an Internet service provider. The communication link 120 preferably includes an IP-compatible interface. Thus, the user 100 can be linked via the communication link 120 to the Internet 110 in an interactive communications session, such as scanning the network. The information about a company subscribed to the network integration service - call center of the present invention is stored in a local network site available on the Internet 110 when using a network browser and standard URL designation. This network site associated with the subscriber is maintained at the network server 115. The network service integration platform 130 of the call center network has a processor unit 135 that implements the common characteristics of a computer system, that is, a processor, memory and one or more communication ports, etc. The platform 130 also has a telecommunications unit 140 which carries out functions commonly found in existing telecommunications equipment, such as, for example, network switching capability for initiating and channeling calls in a telecommunications network (e.g. PSTN), and interactive voice response capability, which includes, for example, text-to-speech transformation management and DTMF recognition (used to detect keystrokes on a pulse-tone keyboard). The network service platform 130 communicates with the Internet 110 over the communication link 145, which may include one or more of the known channels, for example a private connection, the public switched telephone network, an area network connection Local (LAN), a serial line internet protocol (SLIP) or point-to-point protocol (PPP) connection, on a modem or on an ISDN port. The communication link 145 as the link 120 preferably includes an IP-compatible interface.

The network service platform 130 also connects to the voice communication network 150 via the telecommunications link 160. Link 160 would normally include a network telecommunications interface, such as line T1. The voice telecommunications line 150 would typically include a long-distance telephone carrier network in the PSTN and is used to establish a telephone connection between the user 100 and a call center 170 which is associated with the subscriber. The voice network 150 is connected to the user 100 via the telecommunications link 180 and to the call center 170 via the telecommunications link 190. The telecommunications links 180 and 190 would normally each include a telecommunications network, such as a private telephone network or the PSTN. Figure 1B provides a more detailed description of the architecture, shown in Figure 1A, for one embodiment of the present invention. The user 100 has communication apparatuses that commonly consist of a computer-based workstation 101, such as a personal computer, to interact with the Internet and a voice communication device 102 (eg, a telephone) to interact with the voice communications network, such as the PSTN. A user at workstation 101 may interact with Internet 110 via communication link 120, which may include the public switched telephone network routed through an urban exchange (LEC) 121. As shown in Figure 1B , the processing unit 135 contained in the platform 130 may comprise one or more servers, such as: the database server 131, which controls the database 132, the page presentation server 133 for storing and coordinating the presentation of the network pages to the user 100ll manager server 134 for coordinating and controlling the operations of the network service platform 130. The servers 131, 133 and 134 are connected to each other by means of the local area network (LAN) 136. The LAN 136 connects to the Internet 110 via an IP compatible connection 145, such as PPP or SLIP, etc. . The database 132, which could be a single database or a set of multiple databases, contains data for selecting a call center and determining the interaction information with the "TAG_2_" network to carry out the call. The telecommunications unit 140 of the platform 130 comprises a telecommunications switching device 141, which is compatible with the PSTN and a voice response unit (VRU) 142, which can also be connected to the LAN 136. The switch 141 handles the function of establishing calls to the call center 170 and the user 100 by means of the voice network 150. Normally, a call can be established by instructing the telecommunications switch 141 to make a call to a number of communications, which number of communications could for example correspond to a DNIS code. The VRU 142 performs the "test-to-speech" conversion task which allows the whisper function. The VRU 142 can also perform other functions that are normally carried out by the telecommunications equipment, such as the reproduction of pre-recorded messages (which can be interspersed with whisper code speech and reproduced to the call center agent). ) and the interception and conversion of DTMF signals sent by the call center agent to the platform.

The switch 141 can be any of a variety of switching devices known in the telecommunications industry; the switch 141 can also be part of a variety of known telecommunications platforms including the functions of the VRU 142. The processing unit 135 and the VRU 142 are connected by means of the switch 141 and the link 160 to the communications network 150 . The voice communication network 150 normally includes a long-distance telecommunications network in the PSTN and is used to establish a voice connection between the user 100 and the call center 170 of the subscriber. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the functions carried out by the servers 131, 133 and 134 of the present invention, described above could also be effectively carried out by using a single processor unit or equivalently in any number of combinations of a processor (s) and / or server (s). The call center 170 of the subscriber typically contains an item 171 for automatic call distribution (ACD) to connect a call to the agent 172 via a telephone 173. The agent 172 may also have access to a workstation 174 ( such as a PC). The ACD 171 and the workstation 174 are normally connected via the LAN 175 to a database 176 which contains information of the company concerning the subscriber and his products or services. Once it is determined by the network service platform 130 that the user 100 must be connected by voice to the call center 170, the platform 130 causes a voice call to be made from the network 150 to the user (which can to be channeled through the LEC control panel 121) and from the network 150 to the call center 170; these calls are linked, to establish a voice call between the user 100 and the call center 170. It will be clear to those skilled in the art that there are many configurations for channeling a call from the platform 130 to the call center 170 by means of the voice network 150, which configurations could include, for example, the channeling of the call by means of an urban exchange, or by means of a packet network. Similarly, there are many configurations for channeling a call from platform 130 to user 100 via voice network 150. Any of these channeling configurations can be used to make calls to the call center and to the user in accordance with the present invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention is equally applicable to the Internet and other packet networks, such as company intranets, which are commonly supported IP networks that have functionality similar to that of the Internet. With reference to the architecture described above and shown in Figure 1A and with respect to the embodiment shown in Figure 1B, additional details of the present invention will now be summarized.

Normal call flow A classical session and the message flows between the various components, in the context of a network-based platform implementation of the present invention, are described below with reference to Figure 2.

References to the architecture are included with the use of the same numbered components as referenced in Figure 1B. Figure 2 shows the message flows between the user 100, the network server 115, which maintains the subscriber's network site, the network platform 130, the voice network 150 (such as a telephone network interconnected by means of quota switches) 4ESS®), the call center 170 and the call center agent 172. A predetermined scenario is assumed in which the user is called before the launch of a call to the call center. It is expected that the timing for making the calls will be configurable by the subscriber and defined by entry policies in the subscriber's database. The fundamental operation of the present invention is initiated by a user who is involved in a browsing or browsing session of the network. A network site associated with a subscriber contains a "talk to agent" icon on a network pagece. In step 201, a network session is on the way with a user exploring the Internet 110. The user locates the subscriber's network site and displays a subscriber's page on his or her network site. The subscriber's network site is maintained on the network server 115, which can be operated by the subscriber or by a third party. On this network page there is a "talk to the agent" icon with an associated overloaded URL. The overloaded URL specifies the network and information platform of "TAG_1_": a "welcome" page of the network platform, the identifier (SID) of the subscriber and a subject code (SC) related to the displayed network page. In addition, the subscriber application may embed a series of optional "whisper code" characters in the URL which contains information specific to the user's records in the call center 170 of the subscriber or other information used by the call center 170 If the subscriber's application captures the user's phone number, it can also be transmitted to the network platform at the overloaded URL. There may be several icons on a given network page corresponding to different theme codes. Step 202: The user selects a "talk to the agent" icon and the user's browser contacts the platform 130 of the network via the URL which points to the platform 130. By means of the URL overload, the Network platform URL identifies the SID elements of TAG_1_and SC associated with the network page that the user browses. The network platform 130 also captures a user's IP address (or the user's surrogate). Step 203: The platform 130 of the network can inspect the subscriber information contained in the database 132 to see if certain preconditions are present to establish a connection to a call center 170 (for example, do you accept the call center, network calls from the region where the user is calling at that time or day?). If the call is allowed, the network platform 130 sends a greetings page of "Welcome to network services" (or something similar), on Internet 110 via connection 145. The user's telephone number, to receive the call , may be determined in any of a variety of known ways, for example, by asking the user for the telephone number or information (such as a network user's identification, a password, or a customer code assigned to the user by the center). of calls) from which the platform 130 can determine the telephone number of the user. Optionally, the page of greetings can present information to the user and ask for confirmation.04: The user enters or confirms the required information (which may include a telephone number) on the network page and presents it via Internet 110 to the network platform 130. Step 205: The network platform 130 sends a "connection page" to the user on the Internet 110, to indicate that the call center is contacted and that the user must wait for a voice call in the future. The connection page may contain additional information or promotional content provided by the subscriber. The network platform 130 translates the SID elements of TAG_1_and the theme code to a telephone number for a call center specified by the subscriber and associated TAG_2_data, for example by consulting a database 132 (which can be be indexed according to the code of the subject and the identification of the subscriber). In the case where the telephone number for the call center is a toll-free number, the TAG_2_information may include a unique DNIS code (representative of the subject) corresponding to the expected DNIS codes in the call center associated with the The subscriber and the call to be established and originated at the call center 170 will use the toll-free number with the DNIS code established according to the database 132. Step 206: The network platform 130 initiates the calling process via the switch 141 of platform to make calls in the PSTN 150 to the user 100 and to the call center 170. A predetermined timing for making the calls could be first to call the user or alternatively, to the call center; the order and timing for making the calls can be specified in the database 132. Calls can be made simultaneously or after either end of the call has off-hook. If the user 100 is called before the call center 170, the network platform 130 will play a warning to the user indicating that the call center is contacted. The remainder of this description of the call flow will assume that the call center 170 is called after a connection is first established with the telephone line of the user 100. Step 207: The switch 141 of the network platform 130 initiates a call on the voice telephone network 150 to user 100, which makes the user's phone 102 ring. Step 208: The user answers, which generates a pick-up signal on the PSTN 150 finally received by the network platform 130 via the switch 141. Step 209: The network platform 130 reproduces a warning by means of the switch 141 and the PSTN 150 to user 100. Step 210: Switch 141 of network platform 130 initiates a call to call center 170 over voice telephone network 150 with network interaction data of TAG_2_accoying the call. The TAG_2_information that accoies the call may, in the case where the telephone number of the call center is free, include DNIS codes. Step 211: The voice telephone network 150 channels the call to the ACD 171 on the call center site 170, which includes the accoying TAG_2_data. Step 212: The call center ACD 171 connects the incoming call to the call center agent 172.

Step 213: The agent 172"signs" on the network platform 130 when sending, for example a sequence of single DTMF tones (such as # or *) over the PSTN network 150 via the ACD 171. If a sequence is used of DTMF tones, the sequence would be intercepted on platform 130 by VRU 142. Step 214: Network platform 130"whispers" user information to agent 172 via text-to-speech transformation when using VRU 142 which sends he whispers to the agent 172 about the voice network 150 via the ACD 171. The whispered information may correspond to a customer code assigned by the call center 170 to the user 100. Step 215: The network platform 130 joins the two ends of the voice connection, such that the user 100 and the call center agent 172 can start a voice conversation. Step 216: The agent 172 may suggest that the user 100 receive additional information on the Internet 110 via the link 120 to the network, from the user. If the user agrees, the agent 172 selects pages to "push" the user; this is carried out for example, by entering a sequence of one or more digits of DMTF which is captured by the VRU 142 on the network platform 130 and translated via the platform 130 to one or more pages of HTML stored in the network. page display server 133 of the platform 130. Step 217: The page display server 133 causes the HTML page (s) selected by the agent 172 to be sent to the server. user 100 via connection 145, Internet 110 and network link 120. The browser on the user's PC 101 causes the page of the network to be displayed on the screen. (Steps 216 and 217 may be repeated during the course of the session.) Step 218: The user and the call center agent can consummate any business to be transacted. By mutual consent, the user 100 and the agent 172 terminate the voice connection and disconnect signals are sent via the PSTN 150 to the network platform 130.

Then the voice connection is terminated. Step 219: The network platform 130 sends a final "disconnected network" page to the user 100, which terminates the interaction in the network between the subscriber and the user. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the above discussion represents only one possible embodiment of the present invention and that other modalities are possible. In particular the use of DNIS codes and "whisper" of user information to the call center agent are only two alternatives to pass information about the session with the network by the user's paret to the call center and that there are other known methods in the telecommunications industry to transfer such information to the call center. Such methods may include, for example, the use of ANI (which provides the user's telephone number), user-to-user information (UUI), network-to-user information (NUI), pulse-tones (via DTMF reception) and messaging of IP. Those skilled in the art will further recognize that some of the messaging and signaling described above, such as a welcome page, a connection page and advertisements reproduced to the user are optional and, where present, may vary in content and order of presentation without affecting the nature of the present invention. The present invention can be implemented by using components of physical elements and programming elements known in the industry to implement the required functionality as described above. Alternatively, the present invention could be implemented on a computer-based telephone network platform, such as Lucent's CONVERSANT® platform, which is well known in the telecommunications industry. In summary, a system and method for coordinating information at the network-based level between existing call centers and the Internet has been described, which creates an improved integration of, and link between, a customer interaction with a customer site. the network and with a call center. What has been described is only illustrative of the application of the principles of the present invention. Other arrangements and methods may be implemented by those skilled in the art without deviating from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention is that which is clear from the present description of the invention. Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following

Claims

Claims 1. A method for causing a call to be made to a call center associated with a subscriber, in response to an act performed by a user linked in an interactive communication session with a packet network, characterized in that it comprises the steps of : (a) receiving on the packet network information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session; (b) transform the information received into an appropriate form to make a call over a telecommunications network to the call center, the call is routable through the call center according to the information corresponding to at least one characteristic of the session of interactive communication; (c) initiate the call to the call center according to the transformed information.
2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the packet network comprises at least one of the Internet and an internal network.
3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the interactive communication session comprises a scan of the network.
4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one feature of the interactive communication session includes at least one of a subscriber identity and a theme associated with the interactive communication session.
5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of receiving information about the packet network includes receiving information transmitted over the packet network by using a uniform resource locator (URL).
6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of transforming the information into an appropriate form for making a call over a telecommunications network to the call center includes the step of using a database containing at least one entry for information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session and at least one entry corresponding to a number of communications for the call center.
7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that at least one entry corresponding to a number of communications for the call center comprises a code of the identification service of the dialed number (DNIS).
8. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that at least one feature of the interactive communication session includes at least one of a subscriber identity and a theme associated with the interactive communication session.
9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of transforming the received information into an appropriate form for making a call over a telecommunications network to the call center comprises transforming the received information into a code of the identification service of the dialed number. (DNIS).
10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that the step of initiating the call to the call center according to the transformed information comprises instructing a telecommunications switch coupled to the telecommunications network to make a call to a corresponding number of communications ai DNIS code.
11. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: (a) the packet network comprises at least one of the Internet and an internal network; (b) the interactive communication session comprises the exploration of the network; (c) the at least one feature of the interactive communication session includes at least one of a subscriber identity and a theme associated with the interactive communication session; (d) the step of receiving information about the packet network includes receiving information transmitted over the packet network by using a uniform resource locator (URL); (e) the step of transforming the received information into an appropriate form for making the call over a telecommunications network to the call center comprises transforming the received information into an identification service code of the dialed number (DNIS) by using a base of data containing at least one entry for information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session and at least one entry corresponding to a number of communications for the call center; and (f) the step of initiating a call to the call center in accordance with the transformed information comprises instructing a telecommunications switch coupled to the telecommunications network to make a call to a number of communications corresponding to the DNIS code (service of identification of the dialed number).
12. A method for sending, in response to a signal from a call center, a communication over a packet network to a user bound in an interactive communication session with the packet network, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: (a) receiving the signal from the call center over a telecommunications network; (b) determining from the received signal at least one page, which can be displayed to the user in a visual representation device, for sending to the user; (c) send the page, which can be displayed on the screen, to the user about the packet network.
13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that the signal received from the call center comprises at least one double tone multiple frequency code (DTMF).
14. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that the page that can be shown on the screen corresponds to a page that can be displayed on the screen, which uses a browser on the network.
15. A method for correlating the information between a call center associated with a subscriber and a packet network linked in an interactive communication session with a user, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: (a) receiving, on the packet network, information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session; (b) communicating the information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session to the call center over a telecommunications network; and (c) link a telecommunications session between the user and the call center together with the interactive communication session.
16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the packet network comprises at least one of the Internet and an internal network.
17. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the interactive communication session comprises scanning the network.
18. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the at least one feature of the interactive communication session includes at least one of a subscriber identity and a theme associated with the interactive communication session.
19. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the step of receiving information about the packet network includes receiving the information transmitted on the packet network by using a uniform resource locator (URL).
20. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the step of communicating the information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session to the call center over a telecommunications network includes the step of transforming the information into an appropriate form to make a call over a telecommunications network to the call center, the call is channeled through the call center according to the information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session.
21. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that the step of transforming the information into an appropriate form for making a call over a telecommunications network to the call center includes the step of using a database containing at least one entry by information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session and at least one entry corresponding to a number of communications for the call center.
22. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that at least one entry corresponding to a number of communications for the call center comprises a service code identifying the dialed number (DNIS).
23. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that at least one feature of the interactive communication session includes at least one of a subscriber identity and a theme associated with the interactive communication session.
24. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that the step of transforming the received information into an appropriate form for making a call over a telecommunications network to the call center comprises transforming the received information into a service code identifying the dialed number. (DNIS).
25. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the step of linking a telecommunications session between the user and the call center, together with the interactive communication session includes establishing a telecommunications connection to the user together with a telecommunications connection to the call center associated with the subscriber, to establish a telecommunications connection between the user and the call center, while the packet network remains linked in the interactive communication session with the user.
26. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that it further comprises the step of sending a communication to the user over the packet network.
27. The method according to claim 26, characterized in that the step of sending a communication to the user on the packet network includes sending a page that can be displayed on the screen to the user, on a visual representation device.
28. The method according to claim 27, characterized in that the page that can be displayed on the screen corresponds to a page that can be displayed on the screen when using a network browser.
29. The method according to claim 26, characterized in that the step of sending a communication to the user over the packet network is carried out in response to a signal from the call center.
30. The method according to claim 29, characterized in that the call center signal comprises at least one double tone multiple frequency code (DTMF).
31. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the step of communicating the information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication section to the call center over a telecommunications network includes the step of sending audio signals representing the information to the call center.
32. The method according to claim 31, characterized in that the step of sending the audio signals representing the information to the call center comprises: (a) transforming the information into audible sounds; and (b) reproduce the audible sounds over a telecommunications connection established with the call center.
33. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the step of communicating the information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session includes verifying the authority of the call center to receive the information.
34. A system for correlating the information between a call center associated with a subscriber and a packet network linked in an interactive communication session with a user, characterized in that it comprises: (a) a telecommunications unit coupled to a telecommunications network; and b. a processing unit coupled to the packet network and the telecommunications unit, wherein the processing unit is programmed to carry out the steps of controlling the correlation of information between the call center and the packet network, which stages they include: (i) receiving, in the packet network, information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session; (ii) instruct the telecommunications unit to communicate the information corresponding to at least one feature of the interactive communication session to the call center over a telecommunications network; and (iii) initiate the link of a telecommunications session between the user and the call center together with the interactive communication session.
35. The system according to claim 34, characterized in that the processing unit comprises: (a) a computer; (b) a database; and (c) at least one of: (i) a database server; (ii) a call manager server; and (iii) a page presentation server.
36. The system according to claim 34, characterized in that the telecommunications unit comprises a telecommunications switch and a voice response unit.
37. The system according to claim 34, characterized in that the packet network comprises at least one of the Internet and an internal network.
38. The system according to claim 34, characterized in that the interactive communication session comprises the scanning of the network.