Determining expected call waiting time in a call center queue

Details Determining expected call waiting time in a call center queue Determining expected call waiting time in a call center queue

2000-12-29

2004-04-27

Matar, Ahmad F. (Department: 2642)

Telephonic communications

Centralized switching system

Call distribution to operator

C379S266070, C379S067100, C370S902000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06728363

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to call centers. Particularly, the present invention relates to determination of expected call waiting time for a caller.
II. Description of the Related Art
When a caller calls into a call center, they may be placed on hold for an indefinite period of time due to other calls in a queue or not enough employees to answer calls. A call center can be any location that has a number of agents to handle incoming calls such as a product help line, a sales center, or an information center.
Once placed in a main queue, the caller may be bounced to another queue after determining that there is a need for an employee with a different set of skills to assist the caller.
Most callers desire to know the length of time that they will be required to hold in order to be assisted. Sometimes, due to heavy call volume, the caller may be on hold for an extended period. If the caller hangs up and calls at another time, they will start over in the queue and still not know the call volume and whether their particular call will be answered soon.
Due to dynamic call traffic patterns and the variation in agent availability, it is difficult to accurately determine the length of time that the caller will be waiting on hold for an agent. There is a resulting unforeseen need for an accurate estimate of call center call wait time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To overcome the shortcomings of the prior systems and their operations, the present invention encompasses a process for determining an estimated call waiting time for a call made to a call center. The call center may comprise a multitude of call queues, each assigned to a group of agents having a specific skill set. A call center server controls the switching of calls through a private branch exchange to the call queues.
The process determines an instantaneous call count of the calls in a queue. The number of calls served by the agent during a predetermined time (the call service rate) is then generated.
In the preferred embodiment, the predetermined time over which the number of calls serviced is counted is a dynamically sized sample window. The size of the window changes as the call traffic to the call center and the agent availability change.
The estimated call waiting time is generated by dividing the instantaneous call count by the call service rate. This time is announced to each caller.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5214688 (1993-05-01), Szlam et al.
patent: RE36416 (1999-11-01), Szlam et al.
patent: 6157655 (2000-12-01), Shtivelman
patent: 6449358 (2002-09-01), Anisimov et al.

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