Customizable Zip Tones for Contact Center Agent Audio Signals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current contact center systems rely on limited and often confusing zip tones for call events, which can slow down call handling, confuse agents, and lack customization options, while spoken announcements can be lengthy and difficult to understand, especially for non-native speakers, and updating audio files requires significant resources.
Innovation Solution
Implement a system that generates customizable zip tones based on call-related events, allowing agents to personalize tone duration, frequency, and playback speed, and concurrently transmits these tones with audio portions, using a standardized set of tone patterns and Morse Code-based sequences to represent queue actions, enabling real-time updates without extensive resource requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional zip tones are used for call events, then the system is simple to operate, but the tones are confusing and lack customization options
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows dynamic customization of zip tone parameters including duration, frequency, and playback speed. Agents can adjust these parameters in real-time based on their preferences and call situation, transforming static tones into dynamic, adaptable audio signals that can be tailored to individual needs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements parameter changes by allowing modification of key tone characteristics: duration (length of tone playback), frequency (pitch of tone), and playback speed. These parameter adjustments enable customization without requiring complete tone redesign, balancing versatility with manageable complexity.
2Loss of information
If spoken announcements are used to inform agents about call events, then detailed information can be conveyed, but the announcements are lengthy and difficult to understand
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments call event information into distinct, coded tone patterns rather than using continuous spoken announcements. Each call event type (queue join, transfer, wrap-up) is represented by a specific tone sequence, allowing agents to quickly distinguish between different events without processing lengthy verbal messages.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the essential information from spoken announcements and encodes it into concise tone patterns. By removing the verbal component and retaining only the critical event identification through distinctive tones, the system conveys necessary information faster while reducing comprehension barriers.
3Loss of information
If multiple tones are used to indicate different call events, then information can be differentiated, but agents may become confused by the complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by giving each call event type a unique tone characteristic (specific frequency, duration, or pattern) while maintaining consistency in the overall tone structure. This allows differentiation of events through localized variations in tone properties rather than complete structural changes, making patterns easier to recognize and remember.
4Adaptability or versatility
If audio files are updated to provide new zip tones, then customization is achieved, but significant resources are required
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of creating and storing new audio files for each customization, the system achieves tone variation by changing parameters (duration, frequency, playback speed) of existing base tone files. This parameter-based approach reduces storage requirements and simplifies updates, as customization is achieved through configuration rather than content creation.
Data Source
AI summary
Providing zip tones for a call includes receiving, by a computer of a contact center, a call-related event for the call; generating, by the computer of the contact center, one zip tone from among a plurality of different zip tones based on the call-related event, wherein the one zip tone is indicative of one or more attributes of the call-related event that are different than other call-related events; transmitting, by the computer of the contact center, the one zip tone to a device associated with a call participant of the call; and requesting, by the computer of the contact center, customization instructions for one or more of the plurality of different zip tones