Real-time customer service assistance using collected customer life cycle data

Abstract

A computer-implemented method is performed during a single communication session between a customer service representative (CSR) of a merchant, and the merchant's customer. The conversation between the CSR and the customer is analyzed to determine an issue. Previously collected information about the customer is accessed, from a database that stores information about customers of the merchant. A tip is determined and sent to be displayed to the CSR. The tip is determined based on the mood and the accessed previously collected information. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 performing a)-c) during a single communication session between a customer service representative (CSR) of a merchant and the merchant's customer, by
 a) analyzing conversation between the CSR and the customer to determine an issue; 
 b) based on the determined issue, accessing previously collected information about the customer from a database that stores information about a plurality of customers of the merchant, the accessed previously collected information includes patterns of usage by customers of services offered by the merchant; and 
 c) determining and sending a tip to be displayed to the CSR, the tip having been determined based on the determined issue and the accessed previously collected information. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the conversation is analyzed by detecting a change in a time gap in the customer's speech. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the conversation is analyzed by detecting a change in a rate of the customer's speech. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the conversation is analyzed by detecting a change in volume of the customer's speech. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the accessed previously collected information further includes notes associated with the customer because of previous communications with a CSR, properties including age and gender of the customer, and account status including one of active, suspended and canceled. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the accessed previously collected information further includes a history of marketing communications made to the customer and the customer's reactions to the marketing communications, and results of analysis that has been performed off-line upon data points taken from said history and said usage patterns. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the results have been computed off-line and then stored in the form of a look-up table that is accessed during the communication session. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein the look-up table gives a next state value for the customer based on a current state value for the customer and based on a set of rules being applied to the current state value, the set of rules defining how a customer transitions from one state to another based on customer life cycle data that is collected for the merchant's customers. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the accessed previously collected information includes a list of different types of service offers from the merchant. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the previously collected information about the customer further includes one of the customer's history of payments made to the merchant, and the length of time the customer has been a paying subscriber as opposed to a free subscriber to the merchant's service. 
     
     
         11 . A computer system comprising:
 a processor and a machine-readable medium having stored therein instructions that include a real-time analysis tool, that is to be executed by the processor to analyze conversational text of an on-line chat session being performed over the Internet between a customer service representative (CSR) of a merchant and a merchant's customer to determine an issue concerning the customer; and   a database that stores previously collected information about a plurality of customers of the merchant, the previously collected information includes patterns of usage by customers of services offered by the merchant,   the real-time analysis tool to access the previously collected information about the customer from the database, and determine and send a tip to be displayed to the CSR during the chat session, the tip having been determined based on the determined issue and the accessed previously collected information.   
     
     
         12 . The computer system of  claim 11  wherein the accessed previously collected information includes a list of different types of service offers from the merchant. 
     
     
         13 . The computer system of  claim 11  wherein the previously collected information about the customer further comprises a history of marketing communications made to the customer and the customer's reactions to the marketing communications and one of a) the customer's history of payments made to the merchant, and b) the length of time the customer has been a paying subscriber as opposed to a free subscriber to the merchant's service.