System and method for providing a social customer care system

Abstract

The present invention relates to customer relationship management systems integrated with social media and social networks. More particularly, the invention provides a social customer care platform system to allow customer care functions, and in particular to allow customer service agents to identify, prioritize, match and triage customer support requests that may arise through a social network and may be serviced using a social network. It manages and tracks a high-volume of customer interactions and provides for monitoring of Internet social network posts relevant to a business's products or services along with the ability to capture, monitor, filter, make sense of and respond to, in real-time, tens of thousands of social interactions. It comprises role specific user-interface and functionality to match customer service environments, automated prioritization and matching for increased agent productivity, and an automated enterprise workflow to align social media support with existing business processes.

1 . A computer-implemented method for automatically locating, identifying and unifying user profiles, the method implemented by computer-executable instructions being executed by a computer processor comprising the steps of:
 inputting a user profile and designating the user profile as a search subject;   extracting user-identifying data attributes from the user profile;   searching at least one Internet-based social network website for users with profiles containing data attributes similar to the search subject user-identifying data attributes;   identifying a social network site profile for a third party from the social network website based on a closeness of a match of social network site profile attributes for the third party to the search subject user-attributes;   using the social network site profile attributes for the third party and the user-identifying attributes, running a scoring algorithm to produce a likelihood score that the third party and the search subject from the user profile is the same person; and   if the likelihood score meets a certainty threshold criteria, using the social network site profile attributes for the third party and the user-identifying attributes in the user profile for the search subject to search additional Internet-based social network websites for data for the search subject based on the social network site profile attributes user profiles and the user-identifying data attributes running a scoring algorithm to produce a likelihood score that the third party and the search subject from the user profile is the same person.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising computing a relationship indicator that links the user profile for the search subject with the social network site profile for the third party. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the user-identifying attributes are selected from the group consisting of: email, phone, first name, last name, date of birth and address. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the likelihood score is a total match score that uses scores selected from the group consisting of: an attribute score, a fuzzy match score, a friend overlap score and a concept overlap score. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising repeating the searching, identifying and using steps for multiple Internet-based social network websites resulting in a total match score for each social network site profile identified on the respective Internet-based social network. 
     
     
         6 . A computer-implemented method for automatically locating, identifying and unifying user profiles, the method implemented by computer-executable instructions being executed by a computer processor comprising the steps of:
 inputting a user profile and designating the user profile as a search subject;   extracting user-identifying data attributes from the user profile;   searching at least one database for data for the search subject based on user profiles containing data attributes similar to the search subject user-identifying data attributes;   identifying a third party profile from the database based on a closeness of a match of third party profile attributes for the third party to the search subject user-attributes;   using the third party profile attributes and the user-identifying attributes, running a scoring algorithm to produce a likelihood score that the third party and the search subject from the user profile is the same person; and   if the likelihood score meets a certainty threshold criteria, using the third party profile attributes for the third party and the user-identifying attributes in the user profile for the search subject to search additional databases for data for the search subject based on the third party profile attributes and the user-identifying data attributes, running a scoring algorithm to produce a likelihood score that the third party and the search subject from the user profile is the same person.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising computing a link relationship indicator that links the user profile for the search subject with the third party profile. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the likelihood score is a total match score that uses scores selected from the group consisting of: an attribute score, a fuzzy match score, a friend overlap score and a concept overlap score. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising repeating the searching, identifying and using steps for multiple databases resulting in a total match score for each third party profile identified on the respective database. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the database is a customer relationship management database. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the database is a profile-type database. 
     
     
         12 . A computer system comprising:
 a processor;   a memory coupled to the processor;   a display device;   wherein the memory stores a program that automatically locates, identifies and unifies user profiles across Internet-based social network websites, when executed by the processor causes the processor to:   input a user profile and designating the user profile as a search subject;   extract user-identifying data attributes from the user profile;   search at least one Internet-based social network website for users with profiles containing data attributes similar to the search subject user-identifying data attributes;   identify a social network site profile for a third party from the social network website based on a closeness of a match of social network site profile attributes for the third party to the search subject user-attributes;   use the social network site profile attributes for the third party and the user-identifying attributes, running a scoring algorithm to produce a likelihood score that the third party and the search subject from the user profile is the same person; and   if the likelihood score meets a certainty threshold criteria, use the social network site profile attributes for the third party and the user-identifying attributes in the user profile for the search subject to search additional Internet-based social network websites for data for the search subject based on the social network site profile attributes user profiles and the user-identifying data attributes running a scoring algorithm to produce a likelihood score that the third party and the search subject from the user profile is the same person.   
     
     
         13 . The computer system of  claim 12  wherein the likelihood score is a total match score that uses scores selected from the group consisting of: an attribute score, a fuzzy match score, a friend overlap score and a concept overlap score. 
     
     
         14 . The computer system of  claim 12  further comprising repeating the searching, identifying and using steps for multiple databases resulting in a total match score for each social network site profile identified on the respective Internet-based social network. 
     
     
         15 . A computer system comprising:
 a processor;   a memory coupled to the processor;   a display device;   wherein the memory stores a program that automatically locates, identifies and unifies user profiles across databases, when executed by the processor causes the processor to:   input a user profile and designating the user profile as a search subject;   extract user-identifying data attributes from the user profile;   search at least one database for data for the search subject based on user profiles containing data attributes similar to the search subject user-identifying data attributes;   identify a third party profile from the database based on a closeness of a match of third party profile attributes for the third party to the search subject user-attributes;   use the third party profile attributes and the user-identifying attributes, running a scoring algorithm to produce a likelihood score that the third party and the search subject from the user profile is the same person; and   if the likelihood score meets a certainty threshold criteria, use the third party profile attributes for the third party and the user-identifying attributes in the user profile for the search subject to search additional databases for data for the search subject based on the third party profile attributes and the user-identifying data attributes, running a scoring algorithm to produce a likelihood score that the third party and the search subject from the user profile is the same person.   
     
     
         16 . The computer system of  claim 15  wherein the likelihood score is a total match score that uses scores selected from the group consisting of: an attribute score, a fuzzy match score, a friend overlap score and a concept overlap score. 
     
     
         17 . The computer system of  claim 15  further comprising repeat the search, identify and use for multiple databases resulting in a total match score for each third party profile identified on the respective database. 
     
     
         18 . The computer system of  claim 15  wherein the database is a customer relationship management database. 
     
     
         19 . The computer system of  claim 15  wherein the database is a profile-type database. 
     
     
         20 . The computer system of  claim 15  further comprising compute a link relationship indicator that links the user profile for the search subject with the social network site profile for the third party.