Telephonic communications – Centralized switching system – Call distribution to operator
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-25
2003-08-05
Smith, Creighton (Department: 2742)
Telephonic communications
Centralized switching system
Call distribution to operator
C379S088250
Reexamination Certificate
active
06603854
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the field of call centers, and more particularly, this invention relates to the field of call centers having automatic call distributors and interactive voice response units.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Calls centers that use digital switching systems have become commonplace in businesses and institutions throughout the United States and the world. Often these call systems use separate and functionally different automatic call distributor (ACD) servers and interactive voice response (IVR) servers. The ACD allows routing of calls received via a switch to a plurality of different agents, depending on the predetermined standards defined by the call center system. Examples of these standards include routing based on DNIS or ANI. Some call center systems also have skills based routing on a limited scale.
In these prior art call centers, the IVR script is separately established under one control system, generally run on a processor that is operative and associated with the IVR server. On the other hand, ACD operation is scripted and controlled via a computer and processor that are associated with the ACD, but separate from any association with the IVR server. This is a complicated prior art system, and the lack of integration among any ACD and IVR servers and components makes for complicated call center administration. Additionally, the lack of functional integration among the ACD and IVR components, especially with scripting functions, makes call center set up time consuming, and makes real time reporting of call center operation and agent efficiency difficult. Also, this type of prior art call center system makes agent evaluation and call center evaluation less reliable.
In some prior-art call center systems, the user sets up call routing first, and then pushes skills into the call routing. This type of routing and associated scripting is inefficient. Also, many call center systems use proprietary report generation software packages having different prepackaged report templates that cannot be customized with standard office products, such as commercially available SQL or other database products. “Snap shot” reports are thus not available or reliable enough to evaluate a call center performance in any complicated call center system using IVR and ACD servers. Thus, these call center systems are not dynamic, and do not effectively provide service to customers and callers. They also do not respond quickly to changing conditions in a manner to allow adequate real time report generation and the control and tracking of calls within the call center, whether in queue or being responded to by an agent. Any custom applications also are not readily exchangeable across different platforms and are not scalable for different solutions and thus, cannot meet diverse current and future call center demands.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and system that monitors agent performance in a call center and allows transfer of a call to a supervisor in the event that an agent evaluation is poor, while also allowing supervisor retrieval of historical statistics and real time monitoring of the agent and call center.
In accordance with the present invention, a call is received within a call center having a plurality of agents, an automatic call distributor (ACD) server for routing calls to individual agents based on the proficiency skills of the agents, and an interactive voice response (IVR) server. In one aspect of the present invention, a structured query language (SQL) server is also included, and has an associated historical database. The requested type of service for the call is determined, such as for determining what skills are required for answering the call. The call is routed to an agent based on the requested type of service, and in one aspect of the present invention, a call is routed to an agent that has the highest proficiency level for the skills required for answering a call. After the call between an agent and caller is completed, the caller is transferred to the IVR server, which solicits responses to allow the caller to rate the performance of the call center and agent. In the event that a response is indicative of a poor rating of an agent or call center, the caller can be transferred to a supervisor at a supervisor's station for personal questioning.
In another aspect of the present invention, the caller responses are numerical entries in response to the rating queries generated by the IVR. When the numerical entry is a predetermined value indicative of a poor rating of an agent or call center, the caller is transferred to a supervisor.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a supervisor computer is located at a supervisor station and receives status data at predetermined time intervals from the ACD server relating to the real time status changes of agents and incoming calls for real time analysis by the supervisor in generating real time reports. The real time reports can include reports concerning calls answered, calls abandoned, talk time, agent status, calls in queue or agents in queue. The real time reports can be displayed for viewing the performance of groups of agents that are categorized by teams of agents, agents, DNIS, or agent skills. The requested type of service for the call to determine what skills are required for answering the call can be determined by receiving the call within the IVR server and soliciting responses from the caller to determine a requested type of service and what skills are required for answering a call. The predetermined time intervals for forwarding status data from the ACD server is about three seconds in one aspect of the present invention.
In a system aspect of the present invention, a call center system monitors agent performance and includes a call center switch for receiving incoming calls and a plurality of agents for receiving incoming calls. An interactive voice response (IVR) server solicits responses from a caller relating to a requested type of service and for caller rating of an agent in the call center. An automatic call distributor (ACD) server is connected to the call center switch for routing calls to the plurality of agents. A supervisor station is in communication with the ACD server and SQL server.
After a call is completed between an agent and caller, the call is transferred to the IVR server for soliciting responses to allow the caller to rate the performance of the call center and agent. In the event that a response is indicative of a poor rating, the call is transferred to the supervisor station for personal questioning of the caller by the supervisor and generating real time reports.
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Judkins J. Andrew
Peterson David
Shelton Michael
Smith Creighton
Teltronics, Inc.
Whittle Jeffrey S.
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