Telephonic communications – Centralized switching system – Call distribution to operator
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-15
2003-05-13
Matar, Ahmad F. (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Centralized switching system
Call distribution to operator
C379S265110, C379S265120, C379S265140, C379S265010, C379S265030, C379S265060
Reexamination Certificate
active
06563920
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to call centers or other call processing systems in which voice calls, e-mails, faxes, voice messages, text messages, Internet service requests or other types of communications are distributed among a number of service agents for handling.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Call centers distribute calls and other types of communications to available service agents in accordance with various predetermined criteria. Existing call centers suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, as will be described in greater detail below, such centers are generally unable to provide satisfactory techniques for variable rest periods, many-to-many work assignments, just-in-time (JIT) delivery of work, and next opportunity for service (NOS).
With regard to variable rest periods, a call center must be attentive to both the needs of callers and the needs of agents. In some situations, the needs of a caller outweigh the needs of the agent and in other situations the needs of the agent outweigh the needs of the caller. It is therefore necessary that the call center have a convenient way to represent and activate rules that protect an agent from burn-out or heavy workload while also protecting a caller from long wait times.
It is well known that the overall performance of a call center is highly dependent upon the efficiency and effectiveness of the agents. Efficiency and effectiveness are believed to improve in call centers where workload is distributed fairly and situations that create burn-out are minimized. Nonetheless, a typical practice used in conventional call centers is to assign a given available agent to a waiting call, even if the given agent has been carrying a far greater workload than other agents in the same peer group, and even if the call in queue could wait longer and still be considered well served.
Some existing call centers can provide variable agent rest periods using a feature known as “Timed ACW,” which puts an agent into an After Call Work (ACW) state for a specified period of time. However, in implementing such a rest period using this feature there is generally no consideration of the current performance conditions of the call center or a particular skill at the time the rest period takes place.
With regard to work assignment, call centers have typically utilized either a one-to-many process or a many-to-one process. In a one-to-many process, a single call arrives and the process chooses among “many” agents currently available to handle that call. In a many-to-one process, a single agent becomes available when many calls are in queue, and the process chooses which one of the “many” calls the agent should take. Existing call centers can evaluate the consequences of each work assignment, taking into account predictions on how the calls not taken from queue will fare or how the various available agents compare in workload so that fairness is taken into account. However, such centers are generally unable to provide a more efficient many-to-many work assignment, i.e., a process in which a set of multiple calls are considered simultaneously for distribution to multiple agents.
With regard to JIT delivery of work, in a call center operating in a distributed work environment, e.g., a business enterprise that includes multiple geographically-dispersed sites, the information and communication elements needed to perform a particular task are often stored or waiting in locations distant from an agent who has been assigned the task. For example, a call assigned to an agent may need to be transferred to the agent from a remote or centralized site and the data associated with the call may need to be retrieved from a remote or centralized server. It is known from the operation of call centers in such distributed environments that significant delays can result when calls and data held in one location are delivered to agents in another location. For example, it may take up to several seconds for an agent to establish the necessary connections and obtain the data required to handle the call. This type of delay is clearly undesirable, and represents a significant loss of productivity.
NOS represents knowledge of upcoming and scheduled availability of agents who are presently on a break or other rest period of defined duration. With regard to NOS, call centers are generally moving from a reactive operation based on historical metrics or measurements to predictive operations based on the ability to predict future events and evaluate consequences of individual operational decisions. Certain call centers now include software enabling the calculation of a predictive outlook for a head call in any queue in order to determine when the call might be handled by an agent other than the one currently available. For example, some call centers use a metric known as Predicted Wait Time (PWT). The PWT measure incorporates a Weighted Advance Time (WAT), which is a predictive outlook on when a call will likely be served by an agent. Although such predictive outlooks can be made more accurate if based on better information regarding agent availability, existing call centers are generally unable to provide such information, and are therefore deficient in terms of NOS capability.
As is apparent from the foregoing, a need exists for improved techniques for providing features such as variable rest periods, many-to-many work assignment, JIT delivery of work, and NOS indicators in a call center.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides methods and apparatus which improve the processing of calls or other communications in a call center. More particularly, the invention in an illustrative embodiment provides techniques for implementing variable rest periods, many-to-many work assignment,just-in-time (JIT) delivery of work, and next opportunity for service (NOS) indicators.
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a call center is configured to determine variable rest periods for one or more agents, based at least in part on factors such as call center service state and agent occupancy. The call center service states may include a number of designated service states associated with a particular skill or type of communication supported by one or more agents of the call center. A particular one of the states represents a branded service level, while other states represent over-service and under-service conditions. For example, the service states may include an over threshold state, a current jeopardy state, a future jeopardy state, a within-range state, an over served state, a queue empty state and an agents idle state, wherein the within range state is representative of the particular service level. The agent occupancy levels may include, e.g., a below target range level, a within range level, and an above target range level.
In an illustrative embodiment, the rest period is determined for the given agent based on both the agent occupancy level and a worst-case one of the service states for one or more skills supported by the agent. More particularly, a different set of rest periods is associated with each of the service states for each of plurality of agent occupancy levels, such that the rest period is determined for the given agent by determining a particular agent occupancy level and a worst-case service state among the service states corresponding to skills supported by the agent. The determined rest period for the given agent provides a precise time of future availability of that agent.
In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, the rest period determined for one or more of the agents can be used to implement a many-to-many work assignment feature in which multiple agents are each considered simultaneously for handling multiple waiting communications.
In accordance with a third aspect of the invention, a JIT delivery of work feature is provided in which the precise time of future availability of the agent as determined based on the rest period is used to schedule at least one event prior to delivery of a particular communication to t
Flockhart Andrew Derek
Foster Robin H.
Kohler Joylee E.
Mathews Eugene P.
Taylor John Z.
Avaya Technology Corp.
Le Karen
Matar Ahmad F.
Ryan & Mason & Lewis, LLP
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