Customer Support Conversation Handoff via Message Queue

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing customer-support systems face issues with handing off conversations between human agents and bots, leading to duplicative communications and conflicting instructions, which degrade the customer experience, and require significant modifications to business systems for interoperability.

Innovation Solution

A system that facilitates the passing of control between integrations responsible for customer-support conversations using pass-control, offer-control, and take-control commands, allowing seamless handoffs without the need for code changes, and maintains a default transfer path graph to manage these transitions.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If a front-line software bot is used to automate customer-support interactions, then customer-support costs are significantly reduced, but messages from human agents and bots interfere with each other, providing duplicative communications or conflicting instructions

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecustomer-support cost reductionVSAvoidmessage collision and duplication

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a message queue as an intermediary component between human agents and software bots. The message queue receives, manages, and distributes customer support messages, ensuring that only one entity (human or bot) responds to each customer message. This mediator prevents message collisions and duplicative communications by controlling the flow of interactions.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring integration mechanisms and message routing rules before customer interactions begin. The message queue is set up with predefined priorities and distribution logic, allowing seamless handoffs between humans and bots without requiring real-time coordination or code changes during actual support interactions.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Adaptability or versatility

If bots are configured to handle every communication channel and business system integration, then automation coverage is improved, but bots require reconfiguration for every channel and system, and business systems need heavy modifications

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveautomation coverage across channelsVSAvoidconfiguration and modification requirements

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a universal message queue interface that works across all communication channels (email, chat, SMS, etc.) and business systems without requiring channel-specific or system-specific configurations. The message queue serves as a multi-functional intermediary that standardizes interactions, allowing the same bot integration to handle diverse channels and systems through a common protocol.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The system segments the complex integration architecture into independent, manageable components: the message queue as a standalone service, the bot as a separate entity, and various channel adapters as modular plugins. This segmentation allows the bot to remain unchanged while new channels or systems are added by simply configuring additional adapters, eliminating the need for reconfiguration.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Adaptability or versatility

If business systems are heavily modified to interoperate with bots, then interoperability is achieved, but time-consuming programming operations are required

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem interoperabilityVSAvoidprogramming and integration time

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The message queue acts as an intermediary layer between business systems and bots, providing standardized interfaces for both sides. Business systems communicate with the message queue using predefined protocols, and the queue handles all bot interactions. This eliminates the need for time-consuming custom programming between bots and each business system, as the message queue provides a universal communication layer.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system creates standardized message templates and communication patterns that can be copied and reused across different business systems and channels. Instead of writing custom integration code for each system, developers can replicate proven message formats and routing logic, significantly reducing integration time and programming requirements.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentUS11503156B2Handing off customer-support conversations between a human agent and a bot without requiring code changes

Publication Date: 2022.11.15 ZENDESK INC

AI summary

A system and methods are provided for passing control of a customer-support conversation among integrations responsible for responding to a customer during the customer-support conversation. The system receives a message from a source integration, which is presently responsible for responding to the customer during the customer-support conversation, wherein the message includes a pass-control command that passes control of the customer-support conversation to a target integration. In response to the pass-control command, the system passes control of the customer-support conversation from the source integration to the target integration, so that the target integration becomes responsible for responding to the customer.