TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to messaging mechanisms. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing customer notifications.

BACKGROUND

Enterprises may provide notifications to customers for a variety of reasons, such as for example, to draw customer's attention towards a product or a service, to provide information about an event of customer interest, to offer incentives and discounts, to solicit feedback, to provide billing related information, and the like. In conventional mechanisms, the notifications are configured for mass consumption and do not take a customer's individual preferences into account. More specifically, the conventional mechanisms are not configured to be responsive to a customer's preference for a type of content, a presentation of content, a notification medium, a time for receiving notification, and the like.

In an example scenario, a customer may receive notifications regarding weather forecasts, whereas the customer may prefer receiving notifications regarding news and sports related activities.

In another example scenario, the customer may receive a notification for an event of customer interest over email, whereas the customer may prefer receiving such notifications over the phone.

In yet another example scenario, the notifications may be sent to a customer at a time that is inconvenient for a customer to view the received notifications. For example, a notification regarding an offer on a product or a service may be sent to a customer when the customer is driving a vehicle or is engaged in an important professional activity, and the customer may miss out on the notification.

Notifications sent to customers in such a manner may fail to serve their intended purpose. Moreover, the customers may also miss out on important communication, which may negatively influence the customer's mood and even may result in adverse customer reaction towards the enterprise. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to take the customer's preference into account prior to sending notifications to the customers.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment of the invention, a computer-implemented method includes detecting, by a processor, the presence of a customer in one or more interaction channels from among a plurality of interaction channels. The presence of the customer in the one or more interaction channels is stored as presence information. The method determines, by the processor, attention information corresponding to the customer in connection with the presence information. The attention information is indicative of a current attention of the customer. The method provides, by the processor, a notification to the customer on an interaction channel from among the plurality of interaction channels over which the customer is identified to be active or most likely to be active, based on the presence information and the attention information.

In another embodiment of the invention, an apparatus for providing customer notifications includes at least one processor and a memory. The memory stores machine executable instructions therein that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to detect the presence of a customer in one or more interaction channels from among a plurality of interaction channels. The apparatus stores the presence of the customer in the one or more interaction channels as presence information. The apparatus determines attention information corresponding to the customer in connection with the presence information. The attention information is indicative of a current attention of the customer. The apparatus provides a notification to the customer on an interaction channel from among the plurality of interaction channels over which the customer is identified to be active or most likely to be active, based on the presence information and the attention information.

In another embodiment of the invention, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores a set of instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to perform a method for providing customer notifications. The method executed by the computer detects the presence of a customer in one or more interaction channels from among a plurality of interaction channels. The presence of the customer in the one or more interaction channels is stored as presence information. The method determines attention information corresponding to the customer in connection with the presence information. The attention information is indicative of a current attention of the customer. A notification is provided to the customer on an interaction channel from among the plurality of interaction channels over which the customer is identified to be active or most likely to be active, based on the presence information and the attention information.

