Telephonic communications – Centralized switching system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-06
2003-06-03
Hong, Harry S. (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Centralized switching system
C379S207030, C379S084000, C379S088090, C379S067100, C379S205010, C370S902000, C370S902000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06574329
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an incoming call processing method, an incoming call processing apparatus, and a computer-readable recording medium having an incoming call processing program recorded thereon.
2) Description of the Related Art
In the field of telephone reception tasks which involve reception of a large number of incoming calls, such as complaints from clients, or a telemarketing operation, there is often introduced automatic call distribution service (hereinafter referred to as “ACD service”) in which an electronic exchanger automatically distributes incoming calls to individual operator terminals in order to efficiently receive the incoming calls.
In the ACD service, ACD groups, each group comprising a plurality of operator terminals, are divided according to tasks. A single ACD group usually constitutes a single unit, and receive-only operators of individual operator terminals answer incoming calls one after another. Since a limited number of operator terminals are available for the ACD service, a large number of incoming calls are efficiently received by equalization of loads exerted on the respective operator terminals and by efficiently bringing the operator terminals in operation.
In the ACD service, incoming calls are in principle received according to a queuing (or FIFO: first-in-first-out) scheme. If all the limited number of operator terminals are busy in answering incoming calls, the calling parties are required to wait while hearing announcements until they are serviced by available operator terminals.
The ACD service is based on the premise that the calling parties have to wait in order to realize efficient receipt of calls. Although the telephone operators can receive calls efficiently, the calling parties must frequently wait for answers and are apt to feel frustrated. In some cases, the calling parties complain that they must wait for a very long period of time until they are finally serviced by the telephone operators.
Depending on the type and form of tasks, the number of calls the ACD service receive usually varies from one time to another.
FIG. 31
shows the relationship between variations in the number of incoming calls and the number of calls answered by operators in the ACD service.
FIG. 31
shows the result of simulation of the operator terminals answering incoming calls provided in an “incoming call” section.
First, numerals entered in individual columns in
FIG. 31
will be described.
The horizontal axis of the table shows time T. For the sake of simplicity, time T is divided into time segments ranging from 0 through 40 and corresponds to service hours during which calls are serviced. Numerals provided in the “Incoming call” section, which is denoted by reference code (a) in
FIG. 31
, each represent incoming calls (calls from clients) at each segment of time T. For instance, calls
1
and
2
are received at time T=1, and calls
3
,
4
, and
5
are received at time T=2.
Numerals provided in a “Queued call” section, which is denoted by reference code (b) in
FIG. 31
, represent incoming calls which are queued because no operator terminals are available to answer them. These incoming calls are placed in a waiting status until an operator terminal becomes able to answer. For example, call
14
which is received at time T=4 is queued and as a result is waiting in the queue. During the wait, the calling party of call
14
hears a ringing tone or announcements offered by the ACD service.
The queue fulfils a queuing scheme, and a value or pointer is stored in order of arrival and calls are serviced in the sequence of value or point. In short, an early-arriving call is not serviced at a later or earlier time but is inevitably serviced according to sequence of arrival.
For the sake of explanation, a call that is waiting in the queue of telephone calls will be hereinafter often referred to as a “queued call.” The queued call corresponds to one of calls stored in a callback queue in sequential order and has the function of making a request for an ACD system to make a callback at a callback time by way of any of the operator terminals. Because of such a function, the queued call declares a callback to the ACD system at a callback time by setting an appointment flag.
Numerals provided in a “Operator terminals A through G” section, which is denoted by reference code (c) in
FIG. 31
, represent that the individual operators are receiving incoming calls. In this case, seven operators (from A to G) are receiving telephone calls. For example, from time T
1
to time T
3
, the operator A is talking with the calling party of call
1
. From time T
6
to T
8
, the operator G is talking with the calling party of call
14
. Further, from time T
17
to T
19
, the operator C is idle (inactive).
Numerals provided in a “Call immediately serviced by the operator” section, which is denoted by reference symbol (d) in
FIG. 31
, represent calls which are received at respective points in time and are immediately answered by respective operators, who immediately start talking with the respective callers. For instance, at time T=1, the operator A immediately starts talking with the calling party of the call
1
, and the operator B immediately starts talking with the calling party of the call
2
.
Numerals provided in a “call serviced by the operator terminal after a wait” section, which is denoted by reference code (e) in
FIG. 31
, represent calls which have been waiting in the queue and are answered at respective times by operators, who then start talking with the respective calling parties. For instance, at time T=4 calls
8
and
9
, which have been waiting, are answered by the operators A and B, respectively, who then start talking with the respective calling parties.
Finally, numerals provided in a “Call unserviced and aborted (disconnected by the calling parties)” section, which is denoted by reference code (f) in
FIG. 31
, represent calls which are aborted by the calling parties because of a long waiting time and cannot be serviced by the operators.
For the sake of simplicity, the following model applies to the simulation.
Upon occurrence of an incoming call, if any operator can answer, the operator talks with the calling party of the call. The duration of a call corresponds to three time segments of time T. For instance, when call
1
is received at time T
1
, the operator A can answer (or is idle). Therefore, the operator A answers the call
1
. Here, “the operator A talking with the calling party of the call ” is represented by entering number
1
in a block defined by the column of time T
1
and the row of the operator A in the section “Operator terminals A through G.” Further, the calling party of the call
1
is talking with the operator A during a time period from T
1
to T
3
. The “duration of the call
1
” is indicated by number
1
entered in the blocks defined by columns of time T
1
to T
3
and the row of the operator A in the section “Operator terminals A to G.”
If no operator is able to answer (i.e., no operator is available) at the time of arrival of an incoming call, i.e., if the blocks defined by the column of a certain time segment and the rows of operator terminals A through G are already filled in, the incoming call is queued. For example, when call is connected at time T
4
, there is no available operator table; hence, the call
15
is queued. This is represented by numeral
15
entered in the column of time T
4
in the “Queued call” section. Numerals representing calls are continuously written in the column of corresponding time in the “Queued call” section until one of the operators answers the call.
When the queued call is waiting for the time corresponding to three time segments T, the call is aborted (or disconnected by the calling party) at a subsequent time, thereby rendering the call unserviced. For example, the previously-described call
15
is waiting in the queue of telephone calls from time T
4
to T
6
and is disconnected (or aborted)
Mukaihara Masataka
Takeuchi Tatsuyuki
Hong Harry S.
Katten Muchin Zavis & Rosenman
Knowlin Thjuan P
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