An approach to customer-centered interfaces

An approach is presented for management of the customer´s service subscription information, etc. in a manner that is easily understood and readily manipulated by the customer. Support of logical names, called labels, is provided for referral by the customer to such entities as groups of people and their numbers, and to periods of time during which certain services and features are requested. The customer is able to associate labels with any information that he/she can provide. The label subsystem supports multiple representations of a label, such as a text-string for displays, a voice-print for voice activated service interactions, etc. This subsystem, implemented in a service independent manner, provides the basis for user interface support to any service. Used in conjunction with system-defined labels, this subsystem provides the foundation for the implementation of multi-lingual, scripting, and natural language interfaces for the management of customer services