WO2015061782A1

WO2015061782A1 - Method and apparatus for providing customer service using information captured by a wireless receive/transmit unit (wrtu)

Info

Publication number: WO2015061782A1
Application number: PCT/US2014/062419
Authority: WO
Inventors: Armin Gebauer; Ethan SETNIK; Rotan Hanrahan; Dominic ENDICOTT; Alain Charles Briancon
Original assignee: Mobileaware
Priority date: 2013-10-25
Filing date: 2014-10-27
Publication date: 2015-04-30

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing customer service using information captured by a wireless receive/transmit unit (WRTU) are described. According to a method, a WRTU generates context information associated with the WRTU or the user of the WRTU. The context information includes at least one of information regarding a location of the WRTU, a time, a velocity of the WRTU, an orientation of the WRTU, sounds, lighting, and extracted WRTU device parameters. The WRTU also transmits, to a customer service server associated with a service provider, the generated context information to enable the service provider to access the context information in connection with a customer service interaction with the user of the WRTU.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING CUSTOMER SERVICE USING INFORMATION CAPTURED BY A WIRELESS RECEIVE/TRANSMIT UNIT (WRTU)

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application

No. 61/895,641, which was filed on October 25, 2013, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Provision and receipt of excellent customer service are issues almost everyone must deal with at one time or another, whether it be from the standpoint of a business that hopes to gain and retain customers or from the standpoint of a consumer who hopes to interact with a business in an efficient, stress-free and value-added manner. However, the issue also tends to be a difficult one to manage from both perspectives. For example, business-owners are often trying to serve a wide variety of customer needs across different business entities, such as account renewal, change of payment information, and troubleshooting equipment or services, while also attempting to enhance the quality of service the consumer receives and provide relevant marketing material to those consumers who may be interested in receiving it. On the other end of the transaction, consumers generally do not want to receive what they perceive to be marketing materials that are not of interest and hope to receive service on the particular issue or issues they are having with a single phone call or electronic exchange. Designing a proper customer care system that meets all of these needs is an intricate process that also involves, for example, consideration of implementation cost, user-friendliness, increasing revenue/sales and consumer perception of quality of customer service.

SUMMARY

[0003] A method and apparatus for providing customer service using information captured by a wireless receive/transmit unit (WRTU) are described. According to a method, a WRTU generates context information associated with the WRTU or the user of the WRTU. The context information includes at least one of information regarding a location of the WRTU, a time, a velocity of the WRTU, an orientation of the WRTU, sounds, lighting, and extracted WRTU device parameters. The WRTU also transmits, to a customer service server associated with a service provider, the generated context information to enable the service provider to access the context information in connection with a customer service interaction with the user of the WRTU.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] A more detailed understanding may be had from the following description, given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

[0005] FIG. 1 is a system diagram of an example augmented care system

(ACS);

[0006] FIG. 2 is a system diagram of another example ACS or use with a context intensive augmented care federation (CIACF);

[0007] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an example of a CIACF method for consumer care and service management;

[0008] FIG. 4 is a system diagram of another example ACS;

[0009] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example method of receiving customer care service messages by a wireless receive/transmit unit (WRTU) using information captured by the WRTU;

[0010] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example multiple channel consumer care (MCCC) method for consumer care and service management; and

[0011] FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an example method for streamlining consumer care/service management using group manageable transactions (GMT).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0012] One customer service model encompasses a combination of interactive voice response (IVR) and live agents. This model tends to be relatively expensive, since it requires the business to train and pay live agents to interact with customers, and has the added difficulty of blending synthesized and human voice without the consumer noticing. Further, it may be difficult for live and synthesized agents to leverage consumer information that may be stored on a server or extracted through dialog to actively and efficiently market to the consumer in a value-added and positive manner. Further, this model often involves transferring a consumer call among different departments, which causes undue anxiety for both the consumer and the service-provider.

[0013] Another customer service model is a web-based model. This model may be cheaper than the IVR/live agent model, but it may provide limited improvement in terms of actual customer service. Web-based systems, for example, require constant connectivity and dedication on the part of the consumer, which may impact quality of customer service under conditions that are out of the ordinary, despite recent improvements such as the introduction of hypertext markup language 5 (HTML5) technology and Ruby on Rails data management. Purely web-based interactions may be time-consuming and awkward when, for example, a service provider's agent is actively seeking to interact with the consumer (e.g., to provide marketing materials) or a consumer has a question that needs to be addressed by an agent of the service provider.

[0014] Another limitation of both of the IVR/live agent and web-based models is handling active marketing, which is often done using telemarketing and is usually perceived as intrusive and disruptive to the person receiving the telephone call. Service providers may alternatively use text messaging to actively market to their customers. However, text messages may also be perceived as intrusive and disruptive if the customer is not interested in the information provided in the text message, particularly if the text message is received at an inconvenient time.

[0015] The ubiquitous use of wireless receive/transmit units (WRTUs), such as user equipment (UEs), mobile stations, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, netbooks, and any other type of mobile computing device, has brought heretofore unconceivable elements to the traditional design of customer care systems. In the past, WRTUs were used primarily to receive voice calls and carry voice traffic and text messages. Today, however, people commonly use WRTUs to access information while on the go from a variety of different sources, such as the World Wide Web, application stores, and corporate resources. Some WRTUs employ advanced operating systems and may be used for web surfing, receiving and displaying web pages written in HTML5, downloading applications, downloading mapping elements and other geographic data, streaming audio and video content, video conferencing, and accessing secure corporate networks.

[0016] Embodiments described herein may address some or all of the issues that service providers and their customers face with the IVR/live agent and web-based customer service models by leveraging information WRTUs have access to (generally referred to herein as attributes or metadata), such as historical context information about the transactions a user has engaged in via their WRTU and context information associated with the WRTU itself. Historical context information may include, for example, addresses of people the user corresponded with, the time when text/messaging exchanges took place between the user and users of other devices, dwell time at a specific tagged location (e.g., home or office) or untagged location (e.g., the waiting area at a specific corporate office or the line at an airport), key parameters regarding interactions with specific customer support centers (e.g., voice calls through meta-tagging, reverse lookups of the dialed number, web browsing or supported applications). Context information regarding the WRTU may include, for example, location, time, velocity, orientation, sound, lighting, extracted device parameters and application parameters, and may be gathered by the WRTU, other WRTUs in its proximity, servers connected to the Internet on a permanent or ad-hoc basis or a combination thereof. Context information associated with the WRTU (also known as situational attributes) may be stored on WRTUs or on one or more servers connected on an ad-hoc basis with mobile phones or other WRTUs. Context information regarding a WRTU may also be fuzzy. In an embodiment, fuzzy logic and fusion of context criteria may be used. An example of fuzzy context may be a situation where a consumer travels for both business and pleasure, but the amount of pleasure is unclear.

[0017] In an embodiment, additional metadata may be inferred from another source of information, such as the most recent error detected on the most recently used service, which may indicate the motivation for the consumer making contact.

[0018] Metadata may be dynamic. In an embodiment, the physical location of the consumer may be pertinent to the provision of support, and this may change over time. Agent software on a WRTU may supply updated metadata to the support provider whenever the relevant metadata changes or whenever the value of one or more attributes changes by a certain amount.

[0019] In one embodiment, a consumer may push the metadata. In another embodiment, agent software in the consumer's WRTU may push (or upload) the metadata to an external server such as cloud server. In another embodiment, the metadata may be pulled by a customer care provider (CCP).

[0020] Such metadata, if captured by the WRTU (and, in some embodiments described herein, stored in a database that is accessible by various service providers), may be usable, for example, to enable service providers to target customized messages to specific consumers who may be more likely to respond positively to receiving the communication and at times that the consumer would be more likely to respond positively to receiving the communication. This information may be referred to herein as consumer metadata, and the customer service that may be provided as a result of its use may be referred to herein as augmented care to contrast it with other customer service models, such as IVR/live agent and web-based models, that do not leverage consumer metadata.

[0021] A system that may be used to implement augmented care may be referred to herein as an augmented care system (ACS). An ACS is a consumer care system that may be directed, for example, by software stored in a memory of a WRTU or an external server. Using an ACS, interactions between consumers and CCPs may be augmented by one or more attributes (or metadata) collected or managed by one or more WRTUs or applications implemented on WRTUs, whether or not those applications are supported by one or more servers or services supported by the WRTUs.

[0022] The ACS may implement a series of algorithms to control CCPs' interactions with consumers. The CCPs' interactions with consumers may be conducted, for example, based on a series of steps that may be referred to herein as customer journeys or interaction flows.

[0023] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example ACS 100. The example ACS

100 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a WRTU 104 that supports a wireless network 103 over which the WRTU may communicate with an ACS server 101, which may be, for example, a cloud server. The WRTU 104 may include a privacy controlled context object (PCCO), which may be included, for example, in a memory of the WRTU, in which the contextual metadata 106 captured by the WRTU may be stored. The ACS server 101 may include logic 110 and a consumer database 107, which may be stored, for example, on a memory of the ACS server 101 and may include any contextual metadata 106 received from the WRTU 103 and any other WRTU from which the ACS server 101 obtains contextual metadata. The ACS server 101 may use information stored in the consumer database 107 to generate a consumer interaction flow 108, which is described in more detail below.

[0024] In an embodiment of an ACS, a consumer interaction flow may be computed dynamically based on the WRTU's history and context information. For example, a consumer interaction flow may involve retrieving context information about a user's phone usage (e.g. how many minutes he is using per month), retrieving historical context information regarding the velocity and geolocation of the phone at the present time, determining that it would cheaper for the user to upgrade his service contract with his cell phone provider to a plan with a larger number of minutes, determining that the user is likely driving his car on a highway at the present time, and generating a message to send/display to the user suggesting that he upgrade his cell phone plan to save him money at a later time (when he is no longer driving on the highway). [0025] In another embodiment, consumer interaction flows may be computed before a CCP begins an interaction with a consumer via his or her WRTU. The pre-computed consumer interaction flows may be stored as journey templates (e.g., on the WRTU or an external server). In an embodiment, the ACS 100 may assign one journey template when an interaction with a consumer is warranted or triggered. A consumer interaction flow may be organized as a graph with actions/linkages between points.

[0026] In another embodiment of an ACS, a new consumer interaction flow may be created, or an existing consumer interaction flow may be edited, by an agent of an operator. The agent of the operator may perform a query regarding a status of the consumer's WRTU, previous history, current context and/or previous context and create or edit a consumer interaction flow based on any information received as a result of the query. A non-limiting example of such editing may include the creation of an automotive insurance claim form. In this example, the interaction flow may provide for the consumer to take pictures of a fender bender from different angles. The original interaction flow may ask the user to take pictures of the front, the back, the sides and close ups of the damage. As smartphones capable of high quality video recording become prevalent and phones are provided with the ability to indicate how much memory is left, the operator or their agent may create a new interaction flow that directs the user to turn on video recording and carefully walk around the car to record the damage.

[0027] In another embodiment of an ACS, a transaction incentive may be used to control the choice of steps in a consumer interaction flow. The transaction incentive may be explicitly stated or implicitly communicated to a customer, and a transaction may include, for example, receipt of an incentive offer (such as the act of downloading an incentive offer, banking of credits, banking social network gamification rewards such as "likes" on Facebook or "hats" on Kitchology, or rendering an offer on a terminal or cellphone), presentation of an incentive offer at a retailer or online, redemption of an incentive offer, rating of a component and/or participation in a consumer survey. For example, when choosing options for purchasing customizable goods (such as hamburgers), a consumer may be told he will receive more loyalty points if he chooses preset items (such as house special cheeseburgers) rather than hand selected items (such as a burger with bacon, without onions, but with a salad cut to the edge of the bun).

[0028] Incentives may include any value provided to the customer in exchange for engaging in a transaction. The value may be, for example, a good, service or pecuniary interest including, for example, cash, check, credit, free service, rebate, access to specific files, and/or conditional credit. An incentive or transaction may be subject to incentive or transaction terms, which may include specifications of a transaction into which someone must enter be entitled to the incentive associated with the transaction incentive. In an embodiment, an incentive may be managed by an ACS. Alternatively, the incentive may be managed by an MCCCS (described in more detail below).

[0029] A transaction may be an exchange involving at least two parties, such as a purchase, a subscription, an exchange of information about a specific situation, a move from one mode (or channel) of interaction (e.g., audio) to another (e.g., browser), a move from one WRTU to another, a move from one WRTU of a user to the WRTU of another user, and/or usage or selection of a step in an interaction tree of customer journey. A transaction resource (TR) may be an entity that supports a transaction, such as a service provider, a CCP, a federation manager, a merchant, a consumer, or groups there. A purchase may be a transaction in which cash, check, charge or credit is exchanged for one or more goods and services.

[0030] In an embodiment of an ACS, a WRTU may use an agent, for example, to collect information, extract metadata and/or contextual metadata, and/or make local changes, including, for example, interacting with other mechanisms running on the client. In an embodiment, an agent may be a software routine located within a client (e.g., a device or application associated with the consumer) that acts on behalf of provider (e.g., middleware). In one embodiment, the agent may be passive and woken only when requested. In another embodiment, the agent may be active and may communicate with the provider whenever it deems necessary. Alternatively, an agent may interact directly with the consumer. In another embodiment, a WRTU may hold a certificate and act as a proxy, and access to metadata may be controlled through a proxy. In another embodiment, multiple devices may be used for two-factor authentication. In another embodiment, the agent may be integral to the operating system of the WRTU, and may provide access to contextual data associated with the WRTU via application programming interfaces (APIs) of the operating system.

[0031] The consumers themselves may further enhance an ACS. For example, users may further enhance an ACS by providing grouping information for services in a template. For another example, a user may enter linkages between events and locations associated with linkages between events using a library of templates.

[0032] Interactions with consumers may also be extended to enable transactions with other entities that are affiliated with the consumer and/or the service provider. For example, a mobile phone may be used to provide information related to an interaction to a local entity or individual. This may allow the subscriber to enlist a local facility to complete or enhance a transaction. This type of interaction may be referred to as a PCCO-enabled localized transaction (PCCOELC). In another embodiment, PCCOELCs may be enabled by one or more members of a context intensive augmented care federation (CIACF). CIACF's are described in more detail below. This structure may enable a remote service provider to leverage relationships and knowledge pertaining to a local remote service provider without requiring an agent relationship.

[0033] In one embodiment of PCCOELC, a file may be downloaded to a

WRTU from a CIACF-maintained server, and the file (or a fraction of the file) may be displayed using, for example, image, text, video, or code, or may be played using audio or music, or may be transferred using contact, infrared, optical, Radio-Frequency, near field communication (NFC), radio frequency identification (RFID) or other means. In an example embodiment, such an embodiment of PCCOELC may be used to provide instructions for a taxicab ride in a foreign language to an American tourist who has been rerouted. In another example embodiment, this embodiment of PCCOELC may be used to download a security code (such as a dynamic PIN) to enable a user to withdraw cash from a local money dispenser. This may be especially helpful if the cash dispenser is part of a network that the consumer card is not part of.

[0034] As consumers' mobile experiences become richer and more pervasive, it may become prohibitively difficult for a single service provider to develop complete, all-inclusive customer support using an ACS. Accordingly, it may be desirable for multiple service providers to aggregate their operations. However, the aggregation must be carefully architected in order to provide seamless support for consumers. In embodiments described herein, the one-to-one relationship between a CCP and a consumer described with respect to FIG. 1 may be readily expanded through the use of a context intensive augmented care federation (CIACF). A CIACF may be made up of a group of CCPs that are assigned a common federation community identification and are managed by a single federation manager.

[0035] FIG. 2 is a diagram of another example ACS 200 for use with a

CIACF. In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the ACS 200 includes all of the same entities as the ACS 100 of FIG. 1, but the ACS 200 also includes a federation manager 202 on which a federation communication identification 204 may be stored (e.g., in a memory). The federation manager 202 may manage the credentials of different entities, for example, in a manner similar to what a database administrator does for structured query language (SQL) databases.

[0036] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an example of a CIACF method 300 for consumer care and service management. In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, a set of associated WRTUs may be interfaced via autonomous networks 302. The autonomous networks may have independent infrastructure. A single point of contact may be provided to control all or part of consumer activity across each autonomous network each supported by one or more CCPs 304.

[0037] In an embodiment, an autonomous network may be selected based on a transaction incentive, such as an offer for a certain value in exchange for one or more goods and services, and/or based on one or more contextual metadata. If a transaction incentive is used, it may be between the consumer and the CIACF or between the CCPs in the group. In another embodiment, an autonomous network may be selected based on a point confidence index (PCI), which is described in more detail below.

[0038] In an embodiment, a CIACF may be a formal yet loosely coupled affiliation of CCPs whose members adhere to certain standards of social interaction and/or standards of commerce. Use of CIACFs may enable, for example, strong authentication, single sign-on, and role-based access control. In an embodiment, a CIACF may use the security assertion markup language (SAML) or another identity and attribute conveyance format for all consumer attributes. In another embodiment, the CIACF may use a conveyance format for only some of the consumer attributes, such as consumer history information, context of interaction, and status of interaction with a service provider that is part the CIACF. The status of the interaction may be the location on the interaction tree.

[0039] In an embodiment, sharing an interaction may allow a consumer who dropped, paused or was dropped during an interaction with one member of the CIACF to continue at the same logical point with another member of the CIACF, even if the interaction tree structure is not the same. This may be accomplished by mapping the level of knowledge of about consumer attributes into an abstracted information format. This information may be stored, for example, in the federation manager server or remotely on a cloud server.

[0040] As an example of CIACF, a consumer may arrive in a second consumer interaction flow (Journey 2) from a point in a first consumer interaction flow (Journey 1), and there may contextual metadata that accompanies that arrival. However, not all of the metadata may be available to enable the consumer to proceed along Journey 2, so it may be necessary to collect the missing contextual metadata before proceeding. In one embodiment, a series of queries may be sent to the WRTU or the federation manager to capture only the missing contextual metadata. In another embodiment, machine learning, collaborative filtering or analytics may be used to post-populate the contextual metadata.

[0041] In another embodiment, the CIACF may use an intermediate server, for example, to hand over the processing of a support request to other providers in the federation. In this embodiment, a customer may initially request information about data quotas and bandwidth consumption, but as the support sequence becomes more refined, it may become obvious that the customer needs to engage with billing support (which may involve multiple operators if the customer is roaming). The intermediate server may provide the means to seamlessly migrate the support operation between CCPs, and it may also facilitate conveyance and delivery of context metadata so that the receiving support provider may benefit from the information obtained by the sending CCP.

[0042] If there are multiple CCPs, it may be possible that each CCP will need different kinds of metadata. In one such embodiment, the metadata that is specific to the support provider may be requested during an initial interaction. This may be done without need for the consumer to answer any questions. In another embodiment, the consumer may be notified that the metadata has been uploaded or is being uploaded. This may allow opt-in and opt-out operations. For example, a consumer seeking support for multimedia messaging may be requested to provide details about the multimedia capabilities of the device or to allow that information to be collected automatically from the device. This data may be stored, for example, on the device, a set of servers or a combination thereof.

[0043] In the context of augmented care, it may be important to gauge the confidence the consumer has about the CCP's (or CIACF's) ability to handle a specific situation. This confidence may be measured using a point confidence index (PCI). A PCI may also be a measure of how far an interaction or previous interaction between a user and the service providers has proceeded. In an embodiment, the PCI may be measured by determining how deep within a set of menus the user has navigated. In another embodiment, the PCI may be measured by counting how many explicit choices (rather than default choices) a user has made in previous interactions with a provider or member of a CIACF.

[0044] In an embodiment, a federation manager 202 may use a PCI to decide when to switch from one provider to another provider. This switching may be decided on a location basis (such as if three CCPs support the same geographic area).

[0045] In an embodiment, a CIACF member may act as a proxy for another partner. Other partners within the same federation may rely on the consumer's identity provider for primary management of consumer authentication credentials. Participants in a federation may also continue to independently manage and operate their services with minimal change required to participate in the federation. A consumer may belong to one or more CIACF, and CIACFs may be organized around locations (or set of locations, such regional Telcos), activities (e.g., hotel, car rental, or airlines) or commerce (e.g., banking). Members of a CIACF may provide support for CIAFC members based on a multitude of service arrangements. Such service arrangements may include, for example, per transaction fee arrangements, monthly fee arrangements, credit arrangements, barter arrangements, commission arrangements and/or pay per conversion arrangements.

[0046] FIG. 4 is a diagram of another example ACS 300, providing more detail about the WRTU 104 and ACS server 101, which may be, for example, a cloud server. The example WRTU 104 includes a processing unit 414, a display 412, a memory 105 that may include a PCCO, a user interface 410, an operating system (OS) 406 and middleware 404 that may be run from one or more memories 404, and a transmit/receive unit 408 that may be configured to communicate with the ACS server 101 via a wireless network 416 using an antenna. The example ACS server 101 includes a transmit/receive unit 418 that may be configured to communicate with the WRTU 104 via the wireless network 416, a processing unit 416, a memory 430 that may include a PCCO, and an OS 424 and middleware 422 that may be run from one or more memories 420.

[0047] The example ACS 400 illustrates that captured context metadata and history information for the WRTU may either be stored locally on the WRTU 104, transmitted, retrieved by and/or stored on the ACS server 101, or a combination thereof. In an embodiment, PCCOs may be stored, managed, extracted, transformed and loaded like objects in any database. Further, the context information about the WRTU and the historical context information may be captured in response to an instruction from an application running on the WRTU 104, from middleware 404 or 422 and/or from the OS 406. In such an embodiment, the WRTU may establish a link to a service provider server (such as the augmented care system server 101) to provide the captured information to the service provider.

[0048] Consumers are becoming increasingly sensitive to privacy issues.

Accordingly, the delivery of individual metadata from a user WRTU (or any other entity within the environment that is capable of conveying metadata) may be viewed by a consumer as sharing potentially private information. For example, the physical location of the WRTU may be a privacy/security issue because it allows someone to track the whereabouts of the user, even if knowing that information could potentially improve the consumer support process. Accordingly, the metadata may be stored in a privacy controlled context object (PCCO), which may include a set of situational attributes (or contextual metadata) that affect options to be provided to a consumer (from the moment of capture forward). The PPCO may affect an ACS and a multichannel consumer care system (MCCS), regardless of whether they are managed by a single operator or multiple operators acting as a CIACF.

[0049] In an embodiment, PCCOs may be managed through a security framework. For example, the security framework may include a mechanism for ensuring the fidelity of the information (e.g., to prevent tampering), a mechanism to control access (e.g., so that the stored information is not revealed, even if the mechanism needs to inspect the information in order to decide not to reveal it), a mechanism to confirm the provenance of the information (e.g., to determine if it is trustworthy), and/or a mechanism to protect from repudiation. This may be especially helpful within a CIACF.

[0050] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram 500 of an example method of receiving customer care service messages by a WRTU using information captured by the WRTU. In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, a WRTU engages in interactions with at least one service provider (502). The WRTU may capture historical context information (504) and context information about the WRTU itself (506). The WRTU may communicate the captured information to at least one of a service provider server and an application running on the WRTU (508). And the WRTU may receive a message from at least one service provider based on the captured information (508).

[0051] In an embodiment, the context information about the WRTU may include at least one of information regarding a location of the WRTU, a time, a velocity of the WRTU, an orientation of the WRTU, sounds, lighting, and extracted device parameters. The WRTU may store the captured information in a software object that is managed based on a privacy policy and display the message received from the at least one service provider at a time that is based on the captured information about the context of the WRTU. The WRTU may receive the message as part of an interaction flow between the WRTU and the one of the plurality of service providers, and the interaction flow may be based on a transaction incentive. The transaction incentive may be, for example, an offer for a certain value in exchange for entering into a specified transaction.

[0052] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram 600 of an example multiple channel consumer care (MCCC) method for consumer care and service management. In the example illustrated in FIG. 6, a set of associated WRTUs are interfaced with independent channels for each WRTU associate 602. A single point of control may be provided for all or a part of client activity across each channel 604.

[0053] In an embodiment of MCCC, all or a part of the activity may be integrated from the WRTUs, and interaction flow of one or more consumers may be updated based upon history information and/or context metadata. In other embodiments, multiple channels may be used on multiple associated WRTUs, and/or the selection of a channel or step in an interaction flow may be driven by a transaction incentive, multiple channels may be concurrently used for interactions between consumers and consumer care/service management. In other embodiments, history, situation or context information may be encapsulated in a PCCO software object subject to a privacy policy and the PCCO may be used to navigate a consumer along one or more interaction flows, wherein two or more PCCOs and corresponding interactions at specific points of interaction flows may be used to generate a new interaction flow and/or one or more PCCOs may be used to resume interaction after failure, termination, pause or early termination.

[0054] In an embodiment, an ACS may be a multi-channel consumer care system (MCCCS) that supports multiple support channels to one or more devices. Examples of such channels may include voice, live video, streaming video, clips, audio, text messages, rich text messages, social media interaction, Web browsing and applets.

[0055] In one embodiment of an MCCCS, the selection of the channels may be performed by an application running on a WRTU based on logically derived criteria. In another embodiment, the selection of channels may be performed by software operating on a server connected to the Internet.

[0056] In another embodiment, multiple channels may also be used concurrently within a MCCCS. The change in the format of an interaction may be generated by an operator based on the context information. An example may be the switching from a mobile video call to an audio call to reduce bandwidth. Another example may be the push of a menu to a phone while the operator is on the line. Showing interaction options to a user may be more reassuring than forcing the user to sound options.

[0057] In another embodiment, a channel change may be concurrent with a device change. This may be especially useful where a consumer carries two devices, such as a smartphone and a tablet. The coordinated access to both devices may allow the consumer to interact with the service provider without need for removing the phone from her/his ear. [0058] When multiple associated consumers (each potentially with associated WRTUs) are conducting associated transactions, the transactions may be grouped together to be cared for as a whole. These types of transactions may be referred to herein as group manageable transactions (GMT).

[0059] FIG. 7 is a flow diagram 700 of an example method for streamlining consumer care/service management using GMT. In the example illustrated in FIG. 7, a set of WRTUs are organized into a single group 702 and a group ID is assigned to the group 704. Attributes of the WRTUs may be organized into reference attributes 706, and the references attributes may be assigned to one of the WRTUs designed as the reference device 708. A point of activity information may be provided to the reference device 710. In response to completion of interaction with a reference device, an interaction flow may be updated with WRTUs in the group 712 and the attributes of the WRTUs within the group may be updated 714.

[0060] To enhance the interaction between a consumer and CCP

(whether operating alone, as an MCCCS, as an ACS or as a part of a CIACF), analysis of the structure of interactions and their purposes may be performed, for example, by an analysis system. In an embodiment, contextual metadata may be managed using an ontology library to create a dynamic customer journey. This may be especially useful when integrating varied services that may require specialized subject matter or domain specific knowledge. A non-limiting example of this may be knowledge about a travel situation in a city where hours of operation of taxis may be dependent on local holidays. Because the knowledge about constraints is ontological in nature, it may be readily adapted to new information (such as a strike affecting public transportation) and new services.

[0061] In another embodiment, taxonomy of the metadata may be used to create a dynamic customer journey. The contextual metadata may be categorized to enable this usage. One non-limiting categorization may use hashtags or an equivalent mechanism for keyword identification. In another embodiment, machine learning may be used to create a dynamic customer journey.

[0062] Stress Management is akin to reputation management but has a short-term component that may change the timeframe of information gathering, action to be taken, and/or context information to be captured. Stress may be assessed from the WRTU itself. For example, a person running through the airport will have a phone that moves rapidly. A Stress Transaction Index (STI) may be used as a measure of stress.

[0063] Stress reduction may be achieved by reassuring the customer

(through a user interface) that should the call drop or the interaction be interrupted, the user's consumer journey will start at the point it was dropped. In one embodiment, an indicator that previous interaction has been saved may be showed to the user.

[0064] In an embodiment, stress may be reduced by communicating to one member that a member of their group is performing some action (e.g., changing a data plan). Stress may also be reduced by relating to a user that the action being proposed has been developed by someone like them.

[0065] Management of the collection of metadata may important to the proper management of the consumer experience. Accordingly, it should be ensured that the correct metadata is extracted, encoded and processed. In one embodiment, when a consumer begins interface with a CCP, the consumer may supply an initial collection of metadata. Examples of such metadata may include the mobile station international subscriber directory number (MSISDN), the type of browser, the type of device or devices being used and other information that may accompany the initiation of a network connection.

[0066] An intermediate server may be used as a one stop shop for all of the consumer support requirements. When a consumer requests support, the intermediate server may determine the nature of the support request and route that request to the appropriate CCP. For example, a request pertaining to billing may be quite different than a technical support request and, accordingly, may be resolved in a different manner. An intermediate server, having a full view of the consumer's journeys, success rates, number and nature of decisions made by the consumer, etc., may be well positioned to collect information from which to compute a PCI, as a measure of overall satisfaction and an indicator of pain points in the support services.

[0067] In addition to context information being used to enable and tailor ACSs, ACSs may use economic elements as triggers for different interactions. These new capabilities may integrate average revenue per unit (ARPU) and reduction in operational costs (OPEX) oriented objectives. In one embodiment, the transaction incentive may be a group incentive where a minimum subset of the WRTUs must accept a specific incentive for the incentive to take effect.

[0068] There are many real world examples in which augmented care as described herein may be utilized to enhance transactions between consumers and service providers. Three specific examples are provided below for illustration purposes only. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that are many different scenarios in which the embodiments described herein may be applied, based on the capture of different types of context and transactional information and its usefulness to different types of service providers in different circumstances.

[0069] In one example, a person may be engaging in an interacting with an airline to book a reservation for an upcoming business flight. The person's cell phone has captured context information about the cell phone and information from the person's previous transactions, which the airline has access to. Accordingly, the airline knows that user is a frequent business traveler to Japan with his co-workers Bob and Cindy. Based on that information, when the user logs on to the airline's website to book his flight, the airline can query the user as to whether he wants to book his upcoming flight to Japan, whether he wants to upgrade to business class, and whether the he wants to reserve seats for Bob and Cindy as well.

[0070] In another example, the same user is a frequent purchaser of fine wines. While he is running through the airport to catch his flight, he runs past an airport shop that sells fine wines. The shop knows that the user usually purchases a certain brand of wine that is available for sale in the shop based on his cell phone's captured interaction information, and it wants to send an advertisement to the user to let him know that the wine is available for purchase in the airport. However, the user's phone knows that he is running to catch a flight based on the phone's geolocation at the airport and its velocity, so it waits to the display the message until the user is no longer running. Having reached his gate 15 minutes before his flight boards, the user receives the message, is happy to receive the message at that time, and goes back and buys the wine before he gets on his flight.

[0071] Another example may involve the purchase of a shared minutes plan across multiple consumers. For example, a first consumer may decide to share gigabytes with other users. The user must then decide who he would like to share it with. A search for friends (e.g., determined from calling patterns or the user's address book) may identify others who have in the past attempted to do the same but abandoned their efforts. A query (e.g., a text message or message generated from within the ACS enabled application) may be used to query the identified parties about their willingness to participate in that program.

[0072] Although features and elements are described above in particular combinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that each feature or element can be used alone or in any combination with the other features and elements. In addition, the methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a computer- readable medium for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of computer-readable media include electronic signals (transmitted over wired or wireless connections) and computer-readable storage media. Examples of computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto -optical media, and optical media such as CD- ROM disks, and digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association with software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a WRTU, UE, terminal, base station, radio network controller (RNC), or any host computer.

Claims

CLAIMS What is Claimed is:

1. A method of providing customer service to a user of a wireless receive/transmit unit (WRTU), the method comprising:

generating, by the WRTU, context information associated with the WRTU or the user of the WRTU, wherein the context information includes at least one of information regarding a location of the WRTU, a time, a velocity of the WRTU, an orientation of the WRTU, sounds, lighting, and extracted WRTU device parameters; and

transmitting, by the WRTU to a customer service server associated with a service provider, the generated context information to enable the service provider to access the context information in connection with a customer service interaction with the user of the WRTU.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a communication from the service provider based on the generated context information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the transmitting, by the WRTU to the customer service server associated with the service provider, the generated context information further enables the customer service server to store historical context information associated with the WRTU, and wherein the communication received from the service provider is also based on the historical context information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the historical context information includes at least one of addresses of people the user corresponded with, a time when at least one messaging exchange took place between the user and a user of another WRTU, a dwell time at a specific tagged location or untagged location, or key parameters regarding interactions with specific customer support centers.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the WRTU storing the historical context information in a software object that is managed based on a privacy policy.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising the WRTU displaying the received communication at a time that is based on the generated context information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the WRTU receives the communication as part of an interaction flow between the WRTU and the customer service server.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the interaction flow is based on a transaction incentive.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the transaction incentive is an offer for a certain value in exchange for entering into a specified transaction.

10. A method of providing customer service to a user of a wireless receive/transmit unit (WRTU), the method comprising:

generating, by the WRTU, context information associated with the WRTU or the user of the WRTU, wherein the context information includes at least one of information regarding a location of the WRTU, a time, a velocity of the WRTU, an orientation of the WRTU, sounds, lighting, and extracted WRTU device parameters;

communicating, by the WRTU to an application running on the WRTU, the generated context information to enable a service provider associated with the application to access the context information in connection with a customer service interaction with the user of the WRTU.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving a communication from the service provider via the application based on the generated context information.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the communicating, by the WRTU to the application running on the WRTU, the generated context information further enables the customer service server to store historical context information associated with the WRTU, and wherein the communication received from the service provider is also based on the historical context information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the historical context information includes at least one of addresses of people the user corresponded with, a time when at least one messaging exchange took place between the user and a user of another WRTU, a dwell time at a specific tagged location or untagged location, or key parameters regarding interactions with specific customer support centers.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising the WRTU storing the historical context information in a software object that is managed based on a privacy policy.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising the WRTU displaying the received communication at a time that is based on the generated context information.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the WRTU receives the communication as part of an interaction flow between the WRTU and the customer service server.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the interaction flow is based on a transaction incentive.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the transaction incentive is an offer for a certain value in exchange for entering into a specified transaction.