Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130024277 | PLATFORM TO PROVIDE ADVERTISEMENTS TO USERS OF REGISTERED PRODUCTS - A service center identifies a first and a second users supported by the service center for products registered with the service center, where the service center is configured to provide support services to the users concerning the products on behalf of vendors that provide the products, wherein the first user and the second user have at least one common product registered with the service center. The service center determines whether the first user and the second user are members of a social community that is communicatively coupled to the service center via a first an application programming interface (API), where the social community is hosted by a third party over a network. A message is transmitted to a first mobile device associated with the first user to enable the first user to connect with the second user via the social community without requiring the first user directly accessing the social community. | 01-24-2013 |
20130024322 | PLATFORM FOR PROVIDING LIFE-CYCLE PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES - A service center receives a request for posting a message from a mobile device over a network, the request identifying a first discussion forum and a second discussion forum, the message pertaining to a product previously registered with the service center by a user. The message is transmitted to a first server hosting the first discussion forum over the network, together with first credentials retrieved from a database associated with the service center. The first credentials are to allow the first discussion forum to authenticate the user in order to post the message on the first discussion forum. The message is also transmitted to a second server hosting the second discussion forum over the network, together with second credentials retrieved from the database. The second credentials are to allow the second discussion forum to authenticate the user in order to post the message on the second discussion forum. | 01-24-2013 |
20130046571 | METHOD FOR PROACTIVELY PREDICTING SUBJECT MATTER AND SKILL SET NEEDED OF SUPPORT SERVICES - A service center receives information representing user interaction of a user with a presentation while navigating the presentation at a remote device, where the presentation describes a possible solution to a problem related to a product supported by the service center. The service center provides support services for various products on behalf of various product providers. A subject matter of the product is predicted that the user is likely interested in based on the user interaction and one or more skill sets are identified that are required to provide support services for the subject matter of the product, while the user is navigating the presentation. In response to a request received from the remote device requesting a live support, a communications session is established between the user and an agent who qualifies the skill sets to enable the agent to provide live support services to the user. | 02-21-2013 |
20130047232 | MULTIPLE AUTHENTICATION MECHANISMS FOR ACCESSING SERVICE CENTER SUPPORTING A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS - A service center receives first media data from a mobile device over a network, the first media data including at least one of an image and a voice stream presenting an identity of a user associated with the mobile device. The first media data was captured via at least one of a camera and a voice recorder of the mobile device. The user is authenticated by matching the first media data against second media data stored in the service center. The second media data has been previously registered with the service center, where the service center provides support services for a plurality of products on behalf of a plurality of product providers. Upon having successfully authenticated the user, support services are provided to the user for a product that has been registered with the service center by the user on behalf of a vendor. | 02-21-2013 |
20130073403 | METHOD FOR ACTIVATING SERVICES ASSOCIATED WITH A PRODUCT VIA A SERVICE CENTER SUPPORTING A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS - A service center receives a request for activating a subscribed service on a first device that has been registered with the service center, where the service center provides services to a plurality of products on behalf of a plurality of product providers. In response to the request, device information about the registered first device is retrieved from an internal database, where the device information was collected when the first device was registered with the service center. Subscription information including credentials of a user who has subscribed the subscribed service is obtained for authentication. The device information and the credentials are transmitted to a service provider that provides the subscribed service to allow the service provider to activate the subscribed service on the first device, without having the user to directly contact the service provider for activating the subscribed service. | 03-21-2013 |
20130173687 | METHOD FOR PROVIDING SUPPORT SERVICES USING CONSUMER SELECTED SPECIALISTS AND SPECIALIST RATINGS - A service center receives a request from a remote device for a live support session of a product supported by the service center, where the service center provides support services for a plurality of products on behalf of a plurality of product providers. In response to the request, the service center determines one or more preferred agents that are known to a user of the remote device and transmits information representing the preferred agents to the remote device to allow the user to select one of the preferred agents for the live support session. In response to a user selection of an agent, a communications session is established between the user and the selected agent to enable the selected agent to provide live support. | 07-04-2013 |
20130223614 | METHOD FOR PROVIDING SUPPORT SERVICES USING MULTI-CHANNEL NAVIGATOR AND ROUTE SEQUENCES - A service center receives a command from a remote device over a network, where the service center provides support services to users on products on behalf clients. Based on the command, a context element of a route sequence map associated with a user of the remote device is identified, where the identified context element is one of context elements of the route sequence map in a hierarchical structure. Each context element having one or more property values specifying at least one of an action to be performed by the service center and a link to one or more child context elements. It is determined whether the identified context element is an action context element or a navigation context element based on one or more property values associated with the identified context element. If so, an action specified by the identified context is performed. | 08-29-2013 |
20130268404 | PLATFORM FOR PROVIDING LIFE-CYCLE PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES - A support center receives a first request from a mobile device requesting a support service and establishing a communications session between the user of the mobile device and a support agent to allow the support agent to provide the support service to the product. The support center receives a message associated with the product from a vendor providing the product, the message identifying at least one of a promotion, a reward, a suggestion of an accessory, and a recall of the product. The support center accesses a set of rules associated with the product to determine whether the message associated with the product should be routed to the user, where the rules have been previously configured by the user and stored in the database, and transmits the message to the mobile device if the rules permit. | 10-10-2013 |
20130325726 | METHODS FOR PROVIDING CROSS-VENDOR SUPPORT SERVICES - According to one aspect, in response to a request from a mobile application running at a mobile device of a customer, a personalized page is transmitted to the mobile application, the personalized page including a list of products retrieved from a customer profile of the customer. Each of the products is associated with one or more communications channels preferred by an associated client, which are retrieved from the client database. A live support request is received from the mobile application initiated from a selected product of the personalized page, the live support request including a selection selecting one of the preferred communications channels listed on the personalized page. A live communication session is established between the customer and a support agent using a selected communications channel for live support services to the customer concerning the selected product. | 12-05-2013 |
20140033290 | MULTIPLE AUTHENTICATION MECHANISMS FOR ACCESSING SERVICE CENTER SUPPORTING A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS - According to one embodiment, a login page is displayed on a mobile device for logging onto a support center. In response to selecting a first login option, the user is requested to speak a predetermined phrase to a microphone of the mobile device and a first voice stream is captured using a voice recorder of the mobile device. The first voice stream is transmitted to the support center for authentication based on the voice. In response to selecting a second login option, a password is obtained and is transmitted to the support center to for authentication based on the password. Upon having been successfully authenticated by the support center based on at least one of the first and second login options, a communication session is established with a support agent of the support center for support services of a product associated with the user. | 01-30-2014 |
20140119531 | METHOD FOR PROVIDING SUPPORT USING ANSWER ENGINE AND DIALOG RULES - According to one embodiment, a self-service system is to provide self-support knowledgebase (KB) information to allow users to navigate the self-support KB. A monitor is to track user interaction with the self-support KB while a user navigates through the self-support KB. An answer engine is to receive a query from the user to ask a question and in response to the query, to identify a predefined response to the query in view of a set of dialog rules. The answer engine is to transmit one or more related questions that the user will likely ask based on the dialog rules and the user interaction. The answer engine further transmits an invitation to allow the user to initiate a live support session after a predetermined condition has been satisfied. | 05-01-2014 |
20150010139 | METHOD FOR PROVIDING SUPPORT SERVICES USING CONSUMER SELECTED SPECIALISTS AND SPECIALIST RATINGS - A general queue and priority queues corresponding to agents are maintained. In response to a user request from a remote device of a user regarding a content item of a content document displayed at the remote device, it is determined whether the user request includes an agent identifier (ID). If the user request includes a first agent ID, a first of the priority queues is identified based on the first agent ID and the user request is inserted into the first priority queue. If the user request does not include an agent ID, the user request is inserted into the general queue. A case manager the requests from the general queue and the priority queues to the agents that are available to enable the agents to establish live communication sessions with users associated with the requests. | 01-08-2015 |