Telephonic communications – Centralized switching system – Call distribution to operator
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-24
2004-04-20
Bui, Bing (Department: 2742)
Telephonic communications
Centralized switching system
Call distribution to operator
C379S265020, C379S265060, C379S266100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06724887
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to contact centers for customer communications and more particularly to contact centers which provide a method and system for analyzing a customer's experience in communicating with the contact center.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telephone call centers are facilities for receiving incoming telephone calls and for responding to the calls by taking messages, interactively directing the caller to a preferred service or information provider, or providing advertising or informational messages on behalf of a sponsoring client. For example, a caller dialing into the customer service department of a particular home appliance manufacturer may initially be presented with a recorded voice menu from which the caller may respond by entering the appropriate number on a telephone key pad for the desired department, service, or information. Such menus are included in automated attendant systems to provide multiple options to the caller to accommodate the anticipated needs or inquiries of each caller. The caller could also be queried to provided information, such as the caller's account number or the last name of a sought person. Such systems are known as Interactive Voice Response (hereinafter referred to as “IVR”) systems. Both systems generally also offer the caller the option of speaking with a real person, in which case the call is often placed in a queue and answered by the first available agent. Systems for controlling the queuing and routing of such live calls to agents are known as Automatic Call Distribution (hereinafter “ACD”) systems. Telephone call centers may be as simple as an alternative answering service for an individual during the hours the person is out of the office, in which case the individual can periodically contact the call center for messages. At the other end of the spectrum are call centers through which the caller can inquire about product information and ultimately order a product, charging the purchase to a credit account, all without ever having to enter a store. Call centers can also provide out-bound services in which the call center agents initiate calls to prospective customers and respond to earlier calls and inquiries. Such telephone call centers are generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,869 to Brooks et al., which is incorporated herein by reference.
As used herein, the term, “customer,” refers to both the individual calling into the call center for information or to access the available services and the individual who is called by the call center. An “agent” is the call center individual responsible for answering the customer's inquiries and directing the customer to the appropriate individual, department, information source, or service as required to satisfy the customer's needs, regardless of whether the customer or the agent initiated the call. A “monitor” or “supervisor” is the individual responsible for listening to the conversation between the customer and the agent, either in real time or after the end of the call while using a recording of the call, to review the agent's performance and to improve the quality of the customer's experience. The monitor may be a call center employee or may be a third party individual responsible for monitoring agent and call center compliance with certain procedures and standards. A “client” is the individual or entity that contracts the call center to receive or initiate telephone calls on behalf of and directed to the individual or entity. For simplicity, call centers are hereinafter described in terms of handling in-bound calls, even though they can also handle out-bound calls.
While large manufacturers, service providers, and information providers have provided in-house call centers to respond to the inquiries of their customers and potential customers, third party telephone call centers have been established whereby calls to several target companies may actually ring and be answered within a third party call center for providing a response, rather than in the locations or offices of the companies themselves. The company the caller is desiring to contact is identified to the call center agent by the telephone number and/or menu response entered by the caller. As such, the call centers may be located thousands of miles away from the actual sought manufacturer or individual.
The monitoring of incoming calls, along with the verbal responses of the call center agents, is a well-known quality monitoring and enhancement practice within telephone call centers. The transactions are reviewed, and the agents being monitored are counseled to improve the quality of the service they provide to the customer. Additionally, some of the conversations are recorded to comply with the requirements certain agencies and businesses face regarding the recording and archiving of transaction information, e.g., stock market trades. This monitoring can occur in real time, while the conversation or telephone contact is occurring, or the verbal data and information entered through the telephone key pads can be logged or stored for subsequent review. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,951 to Bentley et al., which is incorporated herein by reference.
Specialized devices have been developed for the full time and selective recording or logging of calls to a call center. Such an apparatus has been manufactured by Comverse Infosys, Inc. of Woodbury, N.Y., under the product name ULTRA. The ULTRA system provides for full time recording of all calls, on-demand and event-driven recording for transaction verification (such as for sales centers), archival of voice data, and instant playback. The ULTRA equipment is installed within the call center, offers a variety of audio compression and archive storage options, and is accessible for audio data retrieval across a local area network (hereinafter referred to as “LAN”). Comverse Infosys, Inc. also markets its MENTOR software package for capturing call center data, including audio data and agent screen data, and for monitoring and scoring call center agents.
Referring now to
FIG. 1
, there is illustrated an exemplary telephone call center system. Incoming telephone calls from customers
100
are received via the public switched telephone network (PSTN)
101
and processed by the PBX/ACD
102
. The IVR portion (not shown) of the PBX/ACD
102
interacts with the customer to determine the nature of the call and the service or information requested by the customer. Although not shown in
FIG. 1
, the PBX/ACD
102
may include audio databases for directly responding to the customer's inquiries as entered by the customer speaking into his or her telephone or making entries through the telephone keypad. Should the customer indicate a desire to speak with an agent, the PBX/ACD
102
selectively routes the call to available agents operating agent workstations
104
. The conversations between the customers
100
and the agents are selectively recorded by a monitor module
106
in a monitoring system
111
, and stored in a database
108
together with data corresponding to the agents PC screens (provided via line
105
). While all conversations may be recorded in their entirety, typically only a small portion of the calls (e.g., 4-10%) are recorded to save space on the call center database
108
; and, of those recorded calls, only a portion of the conversation may subsequently be reviewed. In a rules-based recording system, such as the one displayed in
FIG. 1
, the recording rules reside in a rules database
110
and control the recording of the conversations by the monitor module
106
. Personnel responsible for monitoring the calls may access the information stored on database
108
through their respective supervisor workstations
112
for evaluation of the performance of an agent at one of the workstations
104
.
The information gleaned from the telephone call is used by the supervisor or monitor to monitor the performance of the call center agents for iden
Bodner Dan
Boudreau Lou
Eilbacher Robert
Jakobsche George
Lubowsky Ted
Bui Bing
Staas & Halsey , LLP
Verint Systems Inc.
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