System and method for assisting customers in accessing appropriate customer service options related to a company's products or services

Abstract

A system and method for assisting customers in accessing appropriate customer service options related to a company's products or services, comprising a configuration portal that allows manual input of customer service options, or automatically retrieves and analyzes company contact information and historical customer information to build an information tree that is then used by an interaction widget to guide a user through a GUI to an optimum customer service action.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for assisting customers in accessing appropriate customer service options related to a business' products or services, comprising:
 a configuration portal comprising at least a plurality of programming instructions stored in the memory of, and operating on at least one processor of, a computer system, wherein the plurality of programming instructions, when operating on the processor, cause the computer system to:
 allow manual configuration of customer service options based on a business' customer service contact information; or 
 automatically configure customer service options based on a business' customer service contact information by: 
 analyzing website data of the business to identify the business' customer service options; 
 generating an information tree of context-appropriate customer service options based on the identified options; and 
 sending the information tree and rules information to an interaction widget; and 
   an interaction widget comprising at least a plurality of programming instructions stored in the memory of, and operating on at least one processor of, a computer system, wherein the plurality of programming instructions, when operating on the processor, cause the computer system to:
 generate a graphical user interface that provides context-appropriate information whenever a customer interacts with a link to customer service information on the company's website; 
 provide visual and textual information within the graphical user interface to the customer to guide the customer to relevant customer service options; and 
 implement the appropriate customer service action with the company after the customer has been guided to, and selects, a customer service option. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein a representative of the business may access a rules interface that allows the representative to modify what customer service options are available to through the interaction widget. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein machine learning algorithms are used to optimize the information provided to the customer based on interactions with other customers over time. 
     
     
         4 . A method for assisting customers in accessing appropriate customer service options related to a business' products or services, comprising the steps of:
 configuring the customer service options either manually, or automatically by:
 loading, at a website analyzer, company information describing customer options offered by a company; 
 analyzing the information to generate an information tree of context-appropriate customer service options based on the company information; and 
   parsing the information tree, using an interaction widget, to generate a graphical user interface that provides context-appropriate information whenever a customer interacts with a link to customer service information on the company's website;   providing visual and textual information within the graphical user interface to the customer to guide the customer to relevant customer service options; and   implementing the appropriate customer service action with the company after the customer has been guided to, and selects, a customer service option.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein a representative of the company may access a rules interface that allows the representative to modify what customer service options are available to through the interaction widget. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein machine learning algorithms are used to optimize the information provided to the customer based on interactions with other customers over time.