Customer feedback acquisition and processing system

Abstract

A customer feedback acquisition and processing system is disclosed. Customer feedback, which may optionally include voice signals, is captured and stored in a database. The database can be searched to develop a subset of records pertaining to an area of interest. A data mining tool can then be used on the subset to identify trend(s) in the customer feedback records. The database tool assigns relevance scores to each word (“concept”) in one or more fields of the records in the subset. It then combines the concepts and develops new relevance scores for the combined concepts to identify trend(s) in the customer feedback records.

1 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system comprising: 
 a service representative terminal for receiving customer feedback messages;    a data acquisition processor in communication with the service representative terminal for developing electronic records including text representative of the customer feedback messages;    a database in communication with the data acquisition processor for storing the records developed by the data acquisition processor;    a data analyst terminal for receiving query inputs; and    a database processor in communication with the database and the data analyst terminal, the database processor being responsive to a query input received from the data analyst terminal to analyze the text in the records stored in the database to identify a trend in the customer feedback messages, the trend associated with a plurality of different customers for a product or service.    
   
   
       2 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system as defined in  claim 1  wherein the customer feedback messages comprise at least one of a voice signal received over a telephone, an audio signal, an email message, and data entered in a form from a web page.  
   
   
       3 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system as defined in  claim 1  wherein the data acquisition processor comprises a speech recognizer for translating audio signals to text.  
   
   
       4 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system as defined in  claim 1  wherein the data acquisition processor comprises a data formatter for determining whether a received customer feedback message includes at least one of a service representative comment, a customer comment, a product code, a reason code, a date and a time.  
   
   
       5 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system as defined in  claim 4  wherein the data acquisition processor stores at least one segment of the received customer feedback message in a corresponding one of a service representative field, a customer comment field, a product code field, a reason code field, a date field, and a time field in a record in the database.  
   
   
       6 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system as defined in  claim 5  wherein each of the records in the database corresponds to a customer feedback instance.  
   
   
       7 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system as defined in  claim 1  wherein the database processor further comprises a search engine and queue generator which is responsive to the query input to produce a search result identifying a subset of the records in the database.  
   
   
       8 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system as defined in  claim 7  wherein the database processor further comprises a relevance finder that computes a relevance score for each of a plurality of concepts in a search queue.  
   
   
       9 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system as defined in  claim 8  wherein the relevance finder comprises a counter that develops a set count at least approximating a number of records in the database and that develops a subset count.  
   
   
       10 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system as defined in  claim 9  wherein the relevance finder further comprises a frequency generator that generates a global frequency and that generates a local frequency.  
   
   
       11 . A customer feedback acquisition and processing system as defined in  claim 10  wherein the relevance finder further comprises a relevance calculator that calculates the relevance score for the given concept by dividing the local frequency by the global frequency.  
   
   
       12 . A method of acquiring and analyzing customer feedback comprising the acts of: 
 receiving customer feedback messages;    developing electronic records including text representative of the customer feedback messages;    storing the developed records in a database;    receiving a query input; and    responding to the query input by analyzing the text in the records to identify a trend in the customer feedback messages associated with a plurality of different customers for a product or service.    
   
   
       13 . A method as defined in  claim 12  wherein the act of developing electronic records further comprises determining whether a received customer feedback message includes at least one of a service representative comment, a customer comment, a product code, a reason code, a date and a time.  
   
   
       14 . A method as defined in  claim 13  wherein the act of storing the records further comprises storing at least one segment of the received customer feedback message in a corresponding one of a service representative field, a customer comment field, a product code field, a reason code field, a date field, and a time field in a record in the database.  
   
   
       15 . A method as defined in  claim 12  wherein the act of responding to the query input by analyzing the text in the records further comprises the acts of: 
 producing a search result identifying a subset of the records in the database; and    producing a first search queue from the search result.    
   
   
       16 . A method as defined in  claim 15  wherein the act of responding to the query input by analyzing the text in the records further comprises the act of computing a relevance score.  
   
   
       17 . A method as defined in  claim 16  wherein the act of computing a relevance score further comprises the acts of: 
 developing a set count; and    developing a subset count.    
   
   
       18 . A method as defined in  claim 17  wherein the act of computing a relevance score further comprises the acts of: 
 generating a global frequency; and    generating a local frequency.    
   
   
       19 . A method as defined in  claim 18  wherein the act of computing a relevance score further comprises the acts of calculating the relevance score by dividing the local frequency by the global frequency.  
   
   
       20 . A method as defined in  claim 16  further comprising the act of sorting based on the relevance scores.  
   
   
       21 . In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for use with a database comprising a plurality of records containing text data, the storage medium comprising instructions for the database mining tool comprising: 
 receiving customer feedback messages;    developing electronic records including text representative of the customer feedback messages; storing the developed records in a database;    receiving a query input; and    responding to the query input by analyzing the text in the records to identify a trend in the customer feedback messages associated with a plurality of different customers.