WO2007023498A2

WO2007023498A2 - A system and a method for generating evaluative information about commercial service providers

Info

Publication number: WO2007023498A2
Application number: PCT/IL2006/000983
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hanan Lifshitz; Erez Chocva
Original assignee: Spearcast Ltd.
Priority date: 2005-08-24
Filing date: 2006-08-23
Publication date: 2007-03-01
Also published as: WO2007023498A3

Abstract

Disclosed is a system and a method for identifying contact information of a business entity in a communication session for the purpose of providing the user with data relating to this entity, such as customer evaluations. The invention identifies at lease one parameter of the business entity and correlates this information with stored data that relates to the same business entity. The user is then presented with this aggregated information relating to the business entity in the context of a third party information resource in an independent GUI layer. For example, this information is presented to the user while looking in a business directory website or in the website of the business entity itself. Additionally, the proposed system and method provide the user with the ability to initiate a direct communication session with the business entity using known methods, such as using voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology.

Description

A System and a Method for Generating Evaluative Information about

Commercial Service Providers

Background

The present invention relates in general to systems and methods for estimating evaluations of commercial service providers and presenting them in context. More particularly, it relates to a system and a method for estimating evaluations of customers regarding commercial service providers by combining explicit evaluations with implicit telephony activity.

As the array of services offered to customers expands rapidly, the need of customers to receive reliable and accurate recommendations about service providers such as restaurants, shops or doctors becomes ever more essential. Yet in the age of the internet, where potential service providers are not necessarily in the same geographic region as the customer, traditional methods of receiving such information, such as by word of mouth or by using city guides, can no longer suffice.

Computerized evaluative and recommender systems are systems that can automatically suggest products and services to a user. These methods usually operate by analyzing explicit and implicit information. Explicit information includes any type of direct indication given by the user about his or her preferences, such as answering questionnaires or rating products and services. Implicit information is data gathered by the system that may give indications as to the preferences of the user such as the user profile, product selection, past acquisitions, and activity in the internet or in broadcast nethods. Known in the art are diverse means for collecting explicit and implicit information about preferences of users. Implicit evaluative information according to related art includes the following methods: recording selected television programs for gathering evaluations concerning broadcast television program preferences, monitoring the replay of media files when evaluating media content and gathering information about internet browsing patterns for e-commerce purposes.

Yet, since a large portion of commercial interaction is conducted outside the scope of the internet and broadcasting systems, such as by phone, it is very difficult for such systems to accurately monitor the commercial interactions of customers. There is, therefore, a need for a system and a method that would be able to more accurately evaluate commercial service providers by integrating implicit data from the telephony activity of customers. Moreover, there is also a need for a system and a method that could present evaluated information given by experts to the user in context - while searching for information about business entities anywhere in the network.

Summary

Disclosed is a method for providing aggregated information in the context of a predefined single business entity. The data is retrieved from various web-sites in which the user encounters details of a business throughout a communication session of a user within a data communication network. The method includes the step of identifying at least one parameter related to a specific business entity within at least one content page during a communication session of a specific user; the identified parameters are then correlated to at least one predefined business entity, and the user is provided with an indication relating to the identification information. Upon receiving a trigger from the user, the method retrieves aggregated information relating to the business entity from an independent designated server and provides the user with access to the information. The aggregated information may include additional information relating to the business entity. The user is provided with direct communication to said business entity.

The aggregated information may include evaluative information about commercial service providers. The evaluation process is based on aggregated information of implicit user data including communication activity of other users. The communication activity includes performance, content and characteristics of outgoing and incoming calls, contact list log and sharing of contact details with other users. The communication activity environment may relate to voice over internet protocol (VOIP) technology, a wireless phone network or a phone exchange configuration. The explicit data is analyzed in conjunction with the implicit data.

The aggregated information is displayed using an add-on independent GUI layer. The aggregated information is optionally collected by a crawler traversing through content data of the data communication network or prepared by experts of specific fields. The aggregated information is optionally customized in accordance with user profile or in accordance with social networking data.

Also disclosed is a system for providing aggregated information in the context of a predefined single business entity. The context data is retrieved from various content providers through out communication session of a user within a data communication network. The system is comprised of an add-on module for identifying at least one parameter related to a specific business entity within at least one content page during a communication session of a specific user, a query module for correlating the identified parameter to at least one predefined business entity and a GUI module providing user with indication of the identification data. The system also includes a database access module for retrieving aggregated information of respective predefined business entity from an independent designated server of the data communication network and providing the user with access to the information. The aggregated information includes additional information relating to the business entity.

The system optionally also includes an evaluation module for analyzing aggregated information based on implicit user data including communication activity of users. The communication activity optionally includes performance, content and characteristics of outgoing and incoming calls, contact list log and sharing of contact details with other users. The communication activity environment may relate to voice over internet protocol (VOIP) technology, wireless phone network or a phone exchange configuration.

The system optionally also includes an analysis module for processing explicit data in conjunction with the implicit data and a communication module for providing the user with direct communication to the business entity. The system optionally also includes an add-on independent GUI layer module for displaying aggregated information, a crawling module for collecting aggregated information by traversing through content data of the data communication network and an information processing module for aggregating information prepared by experts of specific fields. The aggregated information is optionally customized in accordance with user profiles or in accordance with social networking data.

Brief Description of the Drawings

These and further features and advantages of the invention will become more clearly understood in the light of the ensuing description of a preferred embodiment thereof, given by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein-

Figure i is a block diagram illustrating the preprocessing procedure in accordance with the present invention;

Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating the runtime processing procedure in accordance with the present invention

Figure 3 is an illustrative screenshot of an embodiment of the present invention.

The drawings together with the description make apparent to those skilled in the art how the invention may be embodied in practice.

No attempt is made to show structural details of the invention in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention.

It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments An embodiment of the present invention relates to a system and a method for identifying contact information of a business entity in a communication session for the purpose of providing the user with data relating to this entity, such as customer evaluations. The system and method preferably identify at lease one parameter of the business entity, such as the phone number, and correlate this information with stored data that relates to the same business entity. The user is then presented with this aggregated information relating to the business entity in the context of a third party information resource in an independent graphic user interface (GUI) layer. For example, this information, which possibly relates to rating this business entity received from other users, from experts or from other sources in the information network, is presented to the user while the user is looking in a business directory website or in the website of the business entity itself. The proposed system and method provide the user with the ability to initiate a direct communication session with the business entity using known methods, such as using voice over internet protocol (YoIP) technology.

An embodiment is an example or implementation of the inventions. The various appearances of "one embodiment," "an embodiment" or "some embodiments" do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiments. Although various features of the invention may be described in the context of a single embodiment, the features may also be provided separately or in any suitable combination. Conversely, although the invention may be described herein in the context of separate embodiments for clarity, the invention may also be implemented in a single embodiment.

Reference in the specification to "one embodiment", "an embodiment", "some embodiments" or "other embodiments" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments is included in at least one embodiments, but not necessarily all embodiments, of the inventions. It is understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is not to he construed as limiting and are for descriptive purpose only.

The principles and uses of the teachings of the present invention may be better understood with reference to the accompanying description, figures and examples. It is to be understood that the details set forth herein do not construe a limitation to an application of the invention. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the invention can be carried out or practiced in various ways and that the invention can be implemented in embodiments other than the ones outlined in the description below.

It is to be understood that the terms "including", "comprising", "consisting" and grammatical variants thereof do not preclude the addition of one or more components, features, steps, or integers or groups thereof and that the terms are to be construed as specifying components, features, steps or integers. The phrase "consisting essentially of, and grammatical variants thereof, when used herein is not to be construed as excluding additional components, steps, features, integers or groups thereof but rather that the additional features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof do not materially alter the basic and novel characteristics of the claimed composition, device or method.

If the specification or claims refer to "an additional" element, that does not preclude there being more than one of the additional element. It is to be understood that where the claims or specification refer to "a" or "an" element, such reference is not be construed that there is only one of that element. It is to be understood that where the specification states that a component, feature, structure, or characteristic "may", "might", "can" or "could" be included, that particular component, feature, structure, or characteristic is not required to be included. Where applicable, although state diagrams, flow diagrams or both may be used to describe embodiments, the invention is not limited to those diagrams or to the corresponding descriptions. For example, flow need not move through each illustrated box or state, or in exactly the same order as illustrated and described.

Methods of the present invention may be implemented by performing or completing manually, automatically, or a combination thereof, selected steps or tasks. The term "method" refers to manners, means, techniques and procedures for accomplishing a given task including, but not limited to, those manners, means, techniques and procedures either known to, or readily developed from known manners, means, techniques and procedures by practitioners of the art to which the invention belongs. The descriptions, examples, methods and materials presented in the claims and the specification are not to be construed as limiting but rather as illustrative only.

Meanings of technical and scientific terms used herein are to be commonly understood as by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention belongs, unless otherwise defined. The present invention can be implemented in the testing or practice with methods and materials equivalent or similar to those described herein.

The terms "bottom", "below", "top" and "above" as used herein do not necessarily indicate that a "bottom" component is below a "top" component, or that a component that is "below" is indeed "below" another component or that a component that is "above" is indeed "above" another component. As such, directions, components or both may be flipped, rotated, moved in space, placed in a diagonal orientation or position, placed horizontally or vertically, or similarly modified. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the terms "bottom", "below", "top" and "above" may be used herein for exemplary purposes only, to illustrate the relative positioning or placement of certain components, to indicate a first and a second component or to do both.

Any publications, including patents, patent applications and articles, referenced, or mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated in their entirety into the specification, to the same extent as if each individual publication was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated herein. In addition, citation or identification of any reference in the description of some embodiments of the invention shall not be construed as an admission that such reference is available as prior art to the present invention.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the proposed system and method collect information from three types of sources. All collected information is presented to the user in context, when encountering data regarding a business entity or when searching for information about specific business types in predefined locations. The first type of data relates to information collected from the users themselves, the second relates to information given by experts and the third relates to information gathered from the internet. An extensive description relating to the information gathered from the users is provided below. The method possibly includes employing people who are known to have extensive and reliable information concerning specific topics and collecting information from them in relation to business entities in their fields of expertise. For instance, provided that a person is an acclaimed restaurant critic in Chicago, the method may gather information relating to restaurants in Chicago directly from him or her. The information of the expert may be entered directly into the system or it may be stored elsewhere and communicated to the system through an application program interface (API). Additionally, the method may use web crawlers to gather information about the business entities from websites such as city guides, customer review websites and the like.

The information gathered from the users themselves comprises explicit and implicit information. The proposed system and method derive implicit data from telephony activity in conjunction with explicit reviews. The telephony activity includes outgoing and incoming calls, call characteristics, contact list logs and sharing of contact details with other users. The telephony activity environment preferably relates to VoIP technology but can also be implemented, within legacy phone operators and cellular networks.

The method gathers explicit user evaluations of a service provider through conventional questionnaires, scoring or rating methods and correlates this data with a wide range of implicit information. In addition to common methods of collecting implicit data, which are well known to persons skilled in the art, the method records and analyzes any communication conducted between the user and the service provider, primarily communication conducted using any type of telephony methods. In addition, the method also monitors any activities performed by the user regarding the contact information of the service provider. Such activity may include saving the contact information in a local database, sharing the contact information with other users or deleting the contact information from the local database.

Based on this information, the method can estimate the evaluation of the service provider by the user. If, for instance, a user regularly calls a barber shop over a long period, the method may deduce that the user is a regular client of the barber shop. Similarly, if after establishing an initial connection with a dentist, the user saves the number of the clinic in the local database and shares this number with other users, the method may conclude that the user was pleased with the treatment he or she received by the dentist. As mentioned above, the implicit data may be correlated to explicit satisfaction indications given by the customer or by other customers.

Additional information about the communication between the customer and the service provider may be gathered to improve the evaluative abilities of the method and avoid false positive registrations. Since low quality of service on the part of the service provider may result in high number of phone conversations initiated by the customer - to complain, to demand refunds or to repeatedly request technical support - simply recording the volume of conversations may give the wrong impression. For this purpose, the method may analyze the nature of phone conversations between the customer and the service provider to better estimate the level of satisfaction of the customer. By using tools that are well known in the art for analyzing the level of stress in the voices of the parties of a conversation, the system may distinguish between conversations that are conducted in a businesslike tone, conversations where one party expresses high levels of satisfaction, and argumentative or angry conversations.

The system may also employ predetermined criteria to estimate the quality of service of service providers. Such criteria may include responsiveness time, such as the length of time it takes for the service provider to return a call to the customer, the amount of time customers are put on hold during a conversation and the length of conversations. This data may be used for a general classification of the service provider, which does not relate to a specific user.

Other service provider related user activity may also be registered by the system as implicit information. Such activities may include, but are not limited to, counting the amount of times the customer entered the website of the service provider, recording the amount of time spent on particular web pages, monitoring downloads performed by the customer from the website of the service provider, registering e-commerce transactions performed by the customer, and counting emailing interactions between the customer and the service provider or between the customer and third parties, which mention the service provider. This information is then combined with the telephony activities registered by the system to produce a more comprehensive profile of the interactions between the customer and the service provider.

Explicit customer satisfaction data may be collected directly by the system in response to different interactions between the customer and the service provider. For instance, the system may ask the customers to provide an evaluation of the service they received after conducting a conversation with the service provider, after submitting a query or after making a commercial transaction. The explicit reviews may include a simple thumbs up/thumbs down indication, selecting a rating from i to 5, answering a few questions or submitting a free text evaluation. The customer may be asked to evaluate the service provider in general or a particular interaction with the service provider. The system can then distinguish, for instance, between the quality of service given by a restaurant to customers who come to eat and the service given to customers making a delivery order. In addition, the system may extract explicit evaluations of the particular service provider given by the customer or by other customers in other systems such as at e-commerce websites, at customer reviewing websites or by professional critics.

Embodiments of the present invention include an ongoing accumulative Preprocessing procedure, described in general terms above, and a runtime procedure. Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating the Preprocessing procedure 130. Three types of information are collected by the system: information relating to the customer context 100, information relating to the service provider context 120 and information relating to the interactions between the customer and the service provider no. Customer information ioo mainly contains customer details 105 supplied by the customer as a user of the system and information about the customer collected automatically by the system. Similarly, the information relating to the service provider 120 contains its business details 125.

The third type of information, the customer-service provider context 110, relates to any information about explicit or implicit interactions between the customer and the service provider. Such information may include exploration data ill, any web-based or telephony enquiries performed by the customer about the particular service provider; retention data 112, which includes any data about the service provider the customer chooses to save, such but not limited to, the contact information of the service provider and details about its products; sharing data 113, which is information that the customer transfers to other customers; call data 114, recording all telephony activity between the customer and the service provider; and editing data 115, which includes any changes the customer performs in the information saved by him or her about the service provider.

The data from the customer context ioo and from the customer-service provider context no are combined .to create a smart profile 135 of the customer, and the information from the service provider context 120 and the customer-service provider interactions context no are combined to create a smart profile of the service provider 145. This data is collected over time to create a clustering for the customer 140 and a clustering for the service provider 150.

The smart profile of the customer 135 collects information about the customer, including but not limited to, information supplied explicitly by the customer such as personal details, fields of interest, preferences and social group. In addition, the system collects implicit information about the customer that may help classify the customer's preferences and priorities. As mentioned above, the system collects information regarding the customer's web browsing patterns and interactions with service providers and identifies patterns of interest and consumption, e.g. the customer goes out for dinner every weekend, prefers Chinese food, goes to the movies at lease twice a month, usually to action or science fiction movies and has a subscription to one business magazine and one magazine about hiking. Based on this information the system can put together a basic implicit profile of the customer's preferences and lifestyle.

Based on the data collected by the system, the runtime execution modes of the system are implemented. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the users of the system are the customers and the system produces evaluations, recommendations and rating of service providers. Evaluations are sets of scores given to a particular service provider for different aspects of the business, e.g. a restaurant may be given different scores to its quality of service, the food and the decor. The rating gives indications as to the popularity of a given service provider in comparison to competing service providers, it is a scale showing the relative position of each service provider in a given field. Recommendations are generated by the system for the user. The recommendations integrate customer data and preferences with service provider information and quality of service estimations. Evaluations may be given to users who are trying to decide whether or not to select a particular service provider, ratings may be presented to users who are trying to choose between different service providers in a particular field and recommendations are given to users when they select a particular field but no specific service provider. All evaluations, rating and recommendations are calculated based on the explicit and implicit customer estimation of a service provider, rating given by experts and data collected from the information network, as described above. In addition, the profiles of service providers may be determined by their similarity to other service providers in their field.

The information network may be any type of data network. For example, the network may include, but is not limited to, a wide area network CWAN), local area network (LAN), a global communication network such as the internet; a wireless communication network such as a wireless LAN (WLAN) communication network, a wireless virtual private network (VPN), a Bluetooth network, a cellular communication network, for example, a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) network, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) cellular communication network, a Frequency Domain Duplexing (FDD) network, and the like.

The information is provided to the user in context, according to the identifier of the business entity. The user may choose to receive ratings, evaluations and recommendations of service providers in a given field according to different criteria. The user may choose to receive information based on generalized assessments of the service provider (x is an Italian restaurant which is most recommended), based on the preferences of his or her social group (x is the restaurant which most of your friends like), based on preferences of people with similar customer profile (x is the restaurant most of the people who are similar to you prefer), based on the preference of other customers with the same preferences as the user (x is a restaurant which got a high rating by people who like your favorite restaurant), or on surveys conducted by other people (most people who called x, y and z chose x).

The system exercises learning algorithms and, based on the feedback given by the user about the ratings, evaluations and recommendations the system, can fine-tune its calculations and outputs. The learning algorithm may not only improve the customer preference classifications of the user, but also adjust the algorithm that determines how much weight is given to each parameter to achieve an optimal result. The system may also utilize authority recognition algorithms to identify trend-setters and experts for different fields. The explicit and implicit evaluations given by the experts are then given greater weight in comparison to other customers.

Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating the operation of the runtime processing procedure. The Runtime procedure 200 receives all information from the Preprocessing procedure 130, illustrated in Figure 1. The Preprocessing procedure 130 is designed to optimize the calculations performed by the system to minimize the response delay of the runtime procedure. Referring back to Figure 2, in addition, the Runtime procedure 200 also receives real-time data from the current user 210. This real-time data 210 may include online activities and queries submitted by the user to the system. This information is then combined with pre-calculated data about the social group and social categories of the customer 215 and this information is received by the calculation engine 230 of the Runtime processor 200. Provided that a specific service provider is selected, real-time information from the service provider 220 is also integrated by the calculation engine 230 of the Runtime processor 200 of the system. As mentioned above, the system may then output rating scores 240, recommendations 250 and evaluations 260, and in addition, the system also identifies the experts 270. The data aggregated by the system may also be used to give businesses a service evaluation and business tips 280 that may help improve the overall estimation of the service provider and ensure an overall better quality of service for its customers.

Figure 3 is an illustration of a screenshot of an embodiment of the present invention. In this example, the application is embodied in pop-up window 330 that appears at the user's request in the context of a third party webpage 300. While browsing a webpage 300, the user may encounter business details 310 of different business entities. By selecting one of these business entities, the application presents pop-up window 330 that includes additional data. This data may include information regarding the selected business entity, and additional information that relates to the type of business to which the business entity belongs. For instance, the data displayed on pop-up window 330 may include the average rating the business entity received from other users 350, information about similar businesses that were found to be recommended 370 or that were selected by other users who selected this business entity 360, a link to reviews written by other users or by experts relating to the selected business entity or any other relevant information collected by the system. According to some embodiments of the present invention, users may customize the information presented in pup-up window 300 according to their preferences. Additionally, according to some embodiments of the present invention, pup-up window 330 may include button 340 for establishing an immediate voice communication link, such as a VoIP call between the user and the business entity.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather as exemplifications of some of the embodiments. Those skilled in the art will envision other possible variations, modifications, and applications that are also within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should not be limited by what has thus far been described, but by the appended claims and their legal equivalents. Therefore, it is to be understood that alternatives, modifications, and variations of the present invention are to be construed as being within the scope and spirit of the appended claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing aggregated information in the context of a predefined single business entity, wherein said context data is retrieved from various web-sites in which the user encounters business, throughout a communication session of a user within a data communication network, said method comprising the steps of: identifying at least one parameter related to a specific business entity within at least one content page during a communication session of a specific user; correlating said identified parameter to at least one predefined business entity;

- providing user with indication of said identification;

- upon receiving user trigger retrieving aggregated information of respective predefined business entity from an independent designated server of said data communication network and providing said user with access to said information, wherein said aggregated information includes additional information relating to said business entity.

2. The method of claim i wherein the aggregated information includes evaluative information about commercial service providers, wherein the evaluation process is based on aggregated information of implicit user data including communication activity of users.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said communication activity includes performance, content and characteristics of outgoing and incoming calls, contact list logs and sharing of contact details with other users.

4- The method of claim l wherein the communication activity environment relates to voice over internet protocol (VOIP) technology.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication activity environment relates to a wireless phone network.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication activity environment relates to a phone exchange configuration.

7. The method of claim 1 further including analysis of explicit data in conjunction with the implicit data.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of providing said user with direct communication to said business entity.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of displaying aggregated information using an add-on independent GUI layer.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the aggregated information is collected by a crawler traversing through content data of the data communication network.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the aggregated information is prepared by experts of specific fields.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the aggregated information is customized in accordance with a user profile.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the aggregated information is customized in accordance with social networking data.

14. A system for providing aggregated information in the context of a predefined single business entity, wherein said context data is retrieved from various web-sites in which the user encounters business throughout a communication session of a user within a data communication network, said system comprised of: - an add-on module for identifying at least one parameter related to a specific business entity within at least one content page during a communication session of a specific user;

- a query module for correlating said identified parameter to at least one predefined business entity;

- a GUI module providing user with indication of said identification;

- a database access module for retrieving aggregated information of respective predefined business entities from an independent designated server of said data communication network and providing said user with access to said information, wherein said aggregated information includes additional information relating to said business entity.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising an evaluation module for analyzing aggregated information based on implicit user data including communication activity of users.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein said communication activity includes performance, content and characteristics of outgoing and incoming calls, contact list log and sharing of contact details with other users.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the communication activity environment relates to voice over internet protocol (VOIP) technology.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the communication activity environment relates to wireless phone network.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the communication activity environment relates to a phone exchange configuration.

20. The system of claim 14 further including an analysis module for processing explicit data in conjunction with the implicit data.

21. The system of claim 14 further comprising a communication module for providing said user with direct communication to said business entity.

22. The system of claim 14 further comprising an add-on independent GUI layer module for displaying said aggregated information.

23. The system of claim 22 further comprising a crawling module for collecting aggregated information by traversing through the content data of said data communication network.

24. The system of claim 14 further comprising an information processing module for aggregating information prepared by experts of specific fields.

25. The system of claim 14 wherein the aggregated information is customized in accordance with a user profile.

26. The system of claim 14 wherein the aggregated information is customized in accordance with social networking data.