Telephonic communications – Centralized switching system – Call distribution to operator
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-13
2002-02-05
Smith, Creighton (Department: 2742)
Telephonic communications
Centralized switching system
Call distribution to operator
C379S211020, C379S212010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06345093
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention concerns the field of computer telephony integration (CTI). Specifically, the invention provides an automated Take Back and Transfer (TBX) system and method that facilitates the transfer of connected parties between call center agents located at different call centers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many businesses and customer service organizations utilize telephone call centers to place outbound telephone calls and receive inbound telephone calls to and from customers or potential customers, for example, for credit collection or telemarketing. Computer telephony integration (CTI) has allowed telephone call centers to more efficiently handle both outbound telephone calls and inbound telephone calls. These computerized telephony systems typically include an automated dialer that automatically places outbound telephone calls and an automatic call distributor (ACD) that handles large volumes of inbound telephone calls. These, and other components of the telephony system, are controlled by a telephone call center management system. One example of a system and method for integrating outbound and inbound telephone calls is disclosed in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,179 issued Dec. 17, 1996, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.
Telephone call centers also include a number of audio head sets and data terminals used by agents or operators to communicate with the called parties and calling parties. Using the data terminal, such as a PC, an agent can view and/or enter call record data pertaining to the party (e.g., the customer or potential customer) and the transaction being made. The telephone call center management system typically controls the allocation of the agents to the inbound and/or outbound telephone calls and the management of the data presented to the agents and entered by the agents. The processing of a series of telephone calls (inbound or outbound) in a telephone call center is often referred to as a call campaign.
To initiate an outbound call campaign, the telephone call center management system generates a predefined, sorted customer call list having a number of customer call records (CCRs) including, for example, a telephone number to be called, a name, address, account number, and other information pertaining to the customer and the transaction. The call records pertaining to an outbound call campaign are typically downloaded from a call record source, such as a host computer, and are organized, e.g., according to the calling time, into the call lists. The telephony system reads a call record from the predefined call lists, displays the information from that call record on a display at a terminal of an available agent, and dials the telephone number, either automatically or at the request of the agent. The system monitors the call and if an answer is detected, the called party is connected to the agent. The agent can then enter additional information and the call record in the call list will be updated accordingly upon completion of the outbound telephone call.
Outbound telephone calls are typically grouped according to a particular application. One example of an outbound telephone call campaign is in the field of telemarketing where the agents or telemarketing service representatives (TSRs) market products and/or services to the called party and take orders for the products and/or services. In this example, the telephone calls may be grouped according to the type of product or service that is being marketed.
Typically, for every outbound call application there is also an inbound call application. Customers or potential customers that have been called or are scheduled to be called in the outbound call campaign often place an inbound telephone call pertaining to that application. For example, a customer may be calling regarding an order placed during an outbound call made earlier in the day, or a potential customer may be calling back to place an order.
For an inbound telephone call campaign, the ACD or other similar device receives the inbound telephone calls and distributes the inbound telephone calls to the appropriate available agent. Typically, the call center management system determines the appropriate agent(s) and allocates the agent accordingly. Upon requesting information from the calling party, such as a name, address, telephone number, or account number, the agent can obtain additional information pertaining to the calling party, if any exists, from the host computer. Alternatively, a Voice Response Unit (VRU) can be used to request the information from the calling party and automatically transfer any additional information from the host computer to the agent. Such a system is described in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,981 issued Nov. 17, 1992, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.
Once a call (either an inbound or an outbound call) is connected to a particular agent and interactive communications are conducted between the call center agent and the called or calling party (hereinafter the connected party), the agent may determine that an agent from a different call center is better suited to assist the connected party. In the past, when an agent determined that a different agent, from a different call center, would be better suited to handling a matter, the agent would need to place the call on hold, access a separate trunk line and, using that trunk, contact an agent at a remote site. If the remote agent is able to assist the connected party, then the agent at the first call center must connect the call to the remote agent. As can be seen, this process requires the use of two trunks associated with the first call center and another trunk associated with the second call center. Tying up this amount of trunk lines adversely affects the efficiency of call centers.
Recently, telephone companies have provided call centers with an enhanced feature, known as take back and transfer (TBX) . TBX provides a call center with the means of transferring a call to a remote call center without tying up trunk lines in both call centers. TBX is implemented by sending DTMF tones on an active call. These tones are made up of a combination of an initialization tone sequence followed by digit tones that define the transfer destination. The digit tones are not the actual phone number that would be dialed to make a call. Rather, the transfer digits are codes, which are set up by the telephone company central office (CO) to define the trunk/device of a desired destination. Accordingly, TBX can not be used to transfer a call to an arbitrary device.
A prior art TBX event is shown in
FIGS. 1A-1D
. In
FIG. 1A
a connected party
10
is connected to a call center agent at a first call center
20
via a telephone central office
30
. The call connection includes a connected party connection
12
, which connects the connected party and the CO and a first call center connection
14
, which connects the CO and the first call center agent
20
. Once connected, the connected party
10
and first call center agent
20
can interact.
During the call, if the first call center agent
20
determines that an agent at a remote call center
40
(
FIG. 1B
) may be better equipped to handle the needs of the connected party
10
, the first call center agent
20
would send the TBX tones to the CO
30
, followed by the destination digit tones that would identify the desired destination agent
40
. This would cause the CO
30
to suspend the connected party connection
12
′. However, the suspended connected party connection
12
′ is maintained to allow the connected party
10
to be either reconnected to the first call center agent
20
or to the second call center agent
40
.
While the connected party connection
12
′ is suspended at the CO, the first call center agent
20
is connected to the second call center agent via the first call center agent connection
14
, which connects the first call center agent to the CO
30
, a
Badenhorst Duane J.
Lee Gene W.
Bourque & Associates PA
Davox Corporation
Smith Creighton
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