Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
379265120 | Based on agent's skill (e.g., language spoken by agent) | 87 |
20080205629 | Methods and Apparatus for Processing Foreign Accent/Language Communications - Techniques for improving the efficiency of foreign accent/language communications processing are disclosed. For example, in one aspect of the invention, a technique for processing a call received by a call center, includes the following steps/operations. A call is obtained. Then, at least one of an accent and a language spoken by a caller making the call is identified. The call is then directed to an appropriate operator at a first level of the call center based on at least one of the automatically identified accent and the automatically identified language. The techniques may also include multiple-purpose editing, automated translation, and restating methodologies. | 08-28-2008 |
20080226058 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXPEDITED RESOLUTION OF INQUIRIES FOR AN AUTOMATED AGENT - An automated agent system and method includes an action classifier which scores a representation of a portion of a user inquiry based on a knowledge bank. A comparing device compares a running score of the representation to a threshold to determine if enough information has been collected to respond early to the inquiry. An action mechanism provides an early response to the user prior to the user completing the inquiry if the threshold has been exceeded. | 09-18-2008 |
20090110182 | Methods and apparatus for contact center agent selection - A system receives a request for the service. The system selects an agent to deliver the service, based on an evaluation of the agent. In response to the request for service, the system evaluates the service delivered by the agent after the agent has delivered the service, and updates the evaluation of the service of the agent. | 04-30-2009 |
20090122972 | INDEPENDENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENTS - Aspects of systems and methods for maintaining and operating agent nodes are provided. In some embodiments, calls, contacts, and other work units may be routed to individual customer service agents via a centralized queue based on a variety of factors. Some embodiments may provide market-based call pricing and customer service agent compensation. | 05-14-2009 |
20090154688 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED CALL DISTRIBUTION - Aspects of systems and methods for maintaining and operating agent nodes are provided. In some embodiments, calls, contacts, and other work units may be routed to individual customer service agents via a centralized queue based on a variety of factors. Some embodiments may provide market-based call pricing and customer service agent compensation. | 06-18-2009 |
20090180607 | SKILLS-BASED COMMUNICATION ROUTING - A skills-based method for routing an incoming communication includes determining a task associated with the incoming communication. The method also includes routing the incoming communication, based on the task, to be serviced by a pool of selected agents. The pool of selected agents includes agents from a first virtual group. The method further includes adding agents from a second virtual group to the pool of selected agents when the incoming communication has not been serviced before a waiting time exceeds a predetermined time. | 07-16-2009 |
20090190746 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ROUTING CALLERS TO AN AGENT IN A CONTACT CENTER - Methods are disclosed for routing callers to agents in a contact center, along with an intelligent routing system. One or more agents are graded on achieving an optimal interaction, such as increasing revenue, decreasing cost, or increasing customer satisfaction. Callers are then preferentially routed to a graded agent to obtain an increased chance at obtaining a chosen optimal interaction. In a more advanced embodiment, caller and agent demographic and psychographic characteristics can also be determined and used in a pattern matching algorithm to preferentially route a caller with certain characteristics to an agent with certain characteristics to increase the chance of an optimal interaction. | 07-30-2009 |
20090190747 | CALL ROUTING METHODS AND SYSTEMS BASED ON MULTIPLE VARIABLE STANDARDIZED SCORING - Systems and methods are disclosed for routing callers to agents in a contact center, along with an intelligent routing system. An exemplary method includes combining multiple output variables of a pattern matching algorithm (for matching callers and agents) into a single metric for use in the routing system. The pattern matching algorithm may include a neural network architecture, where the exemplary method combines output variables from multiple neural networks. The method may include determining a Z-score of the variable outputs and determining a linear combination of the determined Z-scores for a desired output. Callers may be routed to agents via the pattern matching algorithm to maximize the output value or score of the linear combination. The output variables may include revenue generation, cost, customer satisfaction performance, first call resolution, cancellation, or other variable outputs from the pattern matching algorithm of the system. | 07-30-2009 |
20090232296 | Identifying Caller Preferences Based on Voice Print Analysis - A call directing system receives an incoming call from a caller. The caller is prompted to speak, thus enabling a prosody analyzer to generate an analysis of a prosody of the caller's voice. This analysis provides a basis for generating a caller profile that describes caller preferences of the caller. Based on the analysis of the prosody of the caller's voice and the generated caller profile, the call is directed to a particular call recipient. | 09-17-2009 |
20090323921 | PROBABILITY MULTIPLIER PROCESS FOR CALL CENTER ROUTING - Systems and processes are disclosed for routing callers to agents in a contact center based on similar probabilities for an outcome variable. An exemplary probability multiplier process includes determining agent performance of a set of agents for an outcome variable (e.g., sales) and determining caller propensity of a set of callers for the outcome variable (e.g., the propensity or statistical chance of purchasing). Callers and agents are matched based on corresponding agent performance and propensity for the outcome variable of the caller, e.g., matching callers and agents having similar relative performance for the outcome variable, such as matching the highest ranked caller to the highest ranked agent, the worst ranked caller to the worst ranked agent, and so on. The performance and propensity of the callers and agents may be converted to percentile rankings, and callers and agents can be matched based on a closest match of percentile rankings. | 12-31-2009 |
20100020961 | ROUTING CALLERS TO AGENTS BASED ON TIME EFFECT DATA - Systems and methods are disclosed for routing callers to agents in a contact center, along with an intelligent routing system. Exemplary methods include routing a caller from a set of callers to an agent from a set of agents based on a performance based routing and/or pattern matching algorithm(s) utilizing caller data associated with the caller and the agent data associated with the agent. For performance based routing, the performance or grading of agents may be associated with time data, e.g., a grading or ranking of agents based on time. Further, for pattern matching algorithms, one or both of the caller data and agent data may include or be associated with time effect data. Examples of time effect data include probable performance or output variables as a function of time of day, day of week, time of month, or time of year. Time effect data may also include the duration of the agent's employment. | 01-28-2010 |
20100054453 | SHADOW QUEUE FOR CALLERS IN A PERFORMANCE/PATTERN MATCHING BASED CALL ROUTING SYSTEM - Methods and systems are disclosed for routing callers to agents in a contact center, along with an intelligent routing system. A method for routing callers includes routing a caller, if agents are available, to an agent based on a pattern matching algorithm (which may include performance based matching, pattern matching based on agent and caller data, computer models for predicting outcomes of agent-caller pairs, and so on). Further, if no agents are available for the incoming caller, the method includes holding the caller in a shadow queue, e.g., a set of callers. When an agent becomes available the method includes scanning all of the callers in the shadow queue and matching the agent to the best matching caller within shadow queue. | 03-04-2010 |
20100086120 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CALL CENTER ROUTING - Systems and methods for routing calls received by a call center are provided. One or more performance metrics for ranking call center agents may be determined, and a plurality of call center agents may be ranked based at least in part on the one or more performance metrics. A call may be received and a determination may be made of one of the plurality of call center agents to route the received call to. The determination may be based at least in part on the rankings and respective utilization of the plurality of call center agents. The received call may be routed to the one of the plurality of call center agents. | 04-08-2010 |
20100111286 | SELECTIVE MAPPING OF CALLERS IN A CALL CENTER ROUTING SYSTEM - Systems and methods are disclosed for routing callers to agents in a contact center, along with an intelligent routing system. An exemplary method includes mapping a first portion (or fraction) of callers to agents according to a performance and/or pattern matching algorithm based on comparing caller data associated with the callers and agent data associated with the agents. The method further includes mapping a second portion of the callers (e.g., the remaining portion or fraction of all callers) to agents differently than the first portion of the callers (e.g., mapping based on queue order or performance based), which may provide a control group for monitoring or analyzing the effect of the pattern matching algorithm. The method may further include displaying the effect of the routing on at least one outcome variable, which may include revenue generation, cost, customer satisfaction, first call resolution, cancellation, or other variable outputs from the pattern matching algorithm of the system. | 05-06-2010 |
20100158238 | System for Routing Interactions Using Bio-Performance Attributes of Persons as Dynamic Input - A system for routing an interaction has a queue for staging the interaction, a router running a routing strategy for routing the interaction, and a number of object models maintained for a number of agents, the object models defining one or more agent skills, the values of the object models dynamically affected by real-time bio-metrics of the agents obtained through ongoing monitoring of voice and input actions of the agents. The routing strategy routes the interaction based on comparison of the dynamically-affected skill values of the agents, as evidenced in the object models. | 06-24-2010 |
20100254527 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MATCHING SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES WITH CUSTOMERS - Systems and methods of providing customer support are disclosed. An exemplary embodiment compares a plurality of customer attributes associated with corresponding ones of a plurality of service representative attributes to identify a “best match” service representative. | 10-07-2010 |
20100266115 | Management of Transaction Routing to Enterprise Agents - A system is provided for routing transactions to individual ones of a group of agents, comprising, a queue wherein transactions to be routed are placed, a transmission facility sending invitations to interact with a transaction from the queue to agents, and a router routing transactions from the queue to individual agents who accept the invitation. | 10-21-2010 |
20110096919 | SERVICE REQUEST ROUTING USING PASSIVE SKILL CERTIFICATION - In a data processing system coupled for communication to a plurality of agent terminals, a message is received indicating that an agent associated with the agent terminal handled a service request utilizing a skill in which the agent is not indicated as certified by an agent database of the data processing system. In response to receipt of the message, the data processing system updates in the agent database an agent skill record indicative of an amount of utilization of the skill by the agent in handling service requests. The data processing system compares the amount of utilization of the skill by the agent to a threshold. In response to a favorable comparison, the data processing system updates the agent skill record to indicate certification of the agent in the skill. The data processing system performs skill-based routing in a contact center by reference to the agent skill record. | 04-28-2011 |
20120008763 | System And Method For Balancing Call Session Assignments On An Agent Console - A system and method for balancing call session assignments on an agent console is provided. Incoming call sessions and one or more agent consoles, each managed by an agent, are monitored. An absolute upper limit on a number of the call sessions allowed at each agent console at any given time is assigned. A load of call session assignments is balanced on each agent console. Objective conditions regarding call sessions already assigned to each agent are collected. Subjective conditions regarding the agent's opinion of a current call session are also collected. The objective and subjective conditions are evaluated against the absolute upper limit to determine a load factor. Each incoming call session is assigned to one such agent console based on the load factor. | 01-12-2012 |
20120134487 | PREDICTED PERCENT SERVICE LEVEL - A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to calculate short-term predictor metrics for achieving particular percent service level objectives in a plurality of skills, determine an optimal skill based on the comparison of short-term predictor metrics, and assign an agent to the optimal skill to increase the contact center's overall operational efficiency and performance. | 05-31-2012 |
20120183131 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELIVERING A CONTACT TO A PREFERRED AGENT AFTER A SET WAIT PERIOD - A method for assigning a contact to undifferentiated agents is provided, comprising: describing substantially each undifferentiated agent using at least one agent attribute to produce a set of agent attribute values; describing a contact using at least one contact attribute to produce a set of contact attribute values; relating the sets of agent and contact attribute values to produce at least one preferred agent; determining an expected wait time for substantially each of the at least one preferred agent to produce a set of expected wait times; determining a wait tolerance for the contact; if the expected wait time for at least one preferred agent is less than the wait tolerance, then assign the contact to the at least one preferred agent; and if the expected wait time for the at least one preferred agent is greater than the wait tolerance, then assign the contact to an undifferentiated agent. | 07-19-2012 |
20120183132 | RECEPTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD OF HANDLING TRANSACTIONS - A reception management system for handling transactions includes a plurality of ACMs (Automated Contract/Consulting Terminals) for receiving procedure requests for predetermined transactions from customers, a plurality of ROTs (Remote Operation Terminals) to be employed by an operator for handling the procedure requests, a server for storing information for managing the operators for each transaction skill, and information about queues formed for each transaction skill upon a procedure request accepted from an ACM, and a queue monitoring terminal for monitoring the queues by receiving information from the SACD server. | 07-19-2012 |
20120189115 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEGMENTING WORK IN A CONTACT CENTER - Provided herein is a method and system for segmenting work implemented in a contact center server. The method may include: creating a plurality of common skill options; creating a service skill definition tree comprising a plurality of service skill options, wherein each of the plurality of common skill options is associated with the service skill definition tree; receiving a contact from a customer; obtaining a common skill option selection, wherein the common skill option is selected from the plurality of common skill options by the customer; transmitting the plurality of service skill options to the customer, and receiving a service skill option selection from the customer, wherein the service skill option selection is selected from the plurality of service skill options; and segmenting the contact to an agent associated with the common skill option selection and service skill option selection. | 07-26-2012 |
20120224680 | PREDICTED CALL TIME AS ROUTING VARIABLE IN A CALL ROUTING CENTER SYSTEM - Systems and processes are disclosed for routing callers to agents in a contact center based on predicted call handle times. An exemplary process includes using predicted call handle time as a variable for call routing along with a performance matching and/or psychodemograhpic matching process of caller-agent pairs to maximize sales, customer satisfaction, and so on. The process may allocate the highest performing agents and/or the most “demographic matchable” agents to those callers that are predicted have the shortest duration. The process may further allocate the lowest performing agents and or the least “demographic matchable” agents to those callers that are predicted have the longest duration, or may not allocate the lowest performing agents to any callers at all. | 09-06-2012 |
20120250850 | CALL PROCESSING METHOD, APPARATUS AND SYSTEM - Embodiments of the present invention provide a call processing method, apparatus and system. According to the embodiments of the present invention, under the precondition that the target put-through rate of the alternative skill queue is ensured, all call skill queues are dynamically adjusted. Therefore, according to the embodiments of the present invention, the operator may be taken full advantage of to improve quality of service of all call skill queues. | 10-04-2012 |
20120263293 | DYNAMIC UPDATE OF SKILLS DATABASE - A device may include a communication interface to receive messages, a skills database that includes a skills schedule table, and one or more processors. The one or more processors may detect an event based on one of the messages, determine whether the event satisfies a condition for changing a schedule associated with a skill of a call agent of a call center, modify the schedule in the skills schedule table when the event satisfies the condition for changing the schedule associated with the skill of the call agent, and send a request, based on the modified schedule associated with the skill of the call agent, to an automatic call distribution (ACD) device to change the skill of the call agent from a database of the ACD device. | 10-18-2012 |
20120300921 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SEARCH-BASED WORK ASSIGNMENTS IN A CONTACT CENTER - Provided herein is a system and method for assigning a service contact from a customer to a service agent. The method may include: generating a customer information record from the service contact; producing a result set of eligible service agents by use of the customer information record; sorting the result set of eligible service agents based upon a predetermined criterion, to produce a sorted result set of eligible service agents; assigning a service agent from the sorted result set of eligible service agents, to produce an assigned service agent; and monitoring a communication channel for a refusal message from the assigned service agent. If a refusal message is received from the assigned service agent, then the method may further include: classifying the assigned service agent as ineligible; and assigning another service agent from the sorted result set of eligible service agents, to produce an assigned service agent. | 11-29-2012 |
20120321072 | ROUTING OF CONTACTS IN CONTACT CENTERS - Contacts are routed to contact center agents handling multiple concurrent contacts by determining, for each of a plurality of agents, a historical average measure of time taken by that agent to handle one more contact than they are currently handling, and making a routing decision which is at least partially based on this historical average measure of time. | 12-20-2012 |
20130003959 | RECEPTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD OF HANDLING TRANSACTIONS - A reception management system for handling transactions includes a plurality of ACMs (Automated Contract/Consulting Terminals) for receiving procedure requests for predetermined transactions from customers, a plurality of ROTs (Remote Operation Terminals) to be employed by an operator for handling the procedure requests, a server for storing information for managing the operators for each transaction skill, and information about queues formed for each transaction skill upon a procedure request accepted from an ACM, and a queue monitoring terminal for monitoring the queues by receiving information from the SACD server. | 01-03-2013 |
20130058475 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING SERVICE BY A FIRST AGENT WHILE WAITING FOR A SECOND AGENT - System and method for servicing a contact by a first agent while searching for a second agent to service the contact is provided. At least one agent attribute is used to produce a set of agent attribute values, and at least one contact attribute is used to produce a set of contact attribute values; relating agent attribute values to contact attribute values in order to search for at least one available first agent having at least a first predetermined level of matching attributes; delivering the contact to the first agent; relating agent attribute values to contact attribute values in order to search for at least one second agent having at least a second predetermined level of matching attributes, wherein the second predetermined level is greater than the first predetermined level; waiting until the second agent is available; and replacing the first agent with the second agent to service the contact. | 03-07-2013 |
20130083916 | ANALYTICS FEEDBACK AND ROUTING - A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, dynamically and in real-time utilize contact center analytics feedback mechanisms to adjust parameters that are used in making work assignment decisions. The adjusted parameters may correspond to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for agents of the contact center rather than skill values for the agents. | 04-04-2013 |
20130156179 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ROUTING CALLS BASED ON A LANGUAGE PREFERENCE - A method processes and conditionally routes a call. The method includes receiving a call from a caller, determining a telephone number of the caller, and determining if the telephone number of the caller is a telephone number assigned to a specific individual. The method also includes accessing an electronic database to determine a stored language preference of the specific individual when the telephone number of the caller is determined to be assigned to a specific individual, prompting the caller to select a language preference when the specific individual does not have a stored language preference, and storing the language preference selected by the caller based on the prompting in an electronic database. The method further includes routing the call to a predetermined destination based on the stored language preference of the specific individual in the electronic database. | 06-20-2013 |
20130163745 | SYSTEM FOR INDICATING PRIORITY LEVELS FOR TRANSACTION AND TASK ENGAGEMENT IN A CALL CENTER - A call center system has a computerized server executing software (SW) from a machine-readable medium, a data collection function of the SW enabled for collecting data regarding incoming transactions, a data processing function coupled to the data collection engine and enabled for processing the data collected against a set of business rules, the data processing function determining a priority level for individual ones of the incoming transactions, and a distribution function enabled for distributing a priority indication determined by the data processing function to one or more presentation interfaces accessible to agents, at or near the time the associated transaction is engaged by the agent. | 06-27-2013 |
20130216037 | TRAINING OPTIMIZER FOR CONTACT CENTER AGENTS - The present disclosure describes various ways of monitoring the needs of a contact center in real-time and pushing training to a number of agents to address those needs. In determining to push training to agents, the short-term efficiency of the agent is balanced with the long-term efficiency of the contact center. When agents receive and then complete training events designed to address the monitored contact center needs the attributes associated with the agents are updated to allow them to handle the contacts requiring training. | 08-22-2013 |
20130236002 | USING FACTOR ANALYSIS TO IMPROVE WORK ASSIGNMENT PERFORMANCE - In the next generation contact center, a plethora of attributes may be used to describe incoming work requests as well as agents able to handle the work. A work assignment engine may have to sort through hundreds of combinations of attributes in order to identify the optimal or a close-to-optimal solution. One of the problems is how to process this amount of information quickly, as discussed above, at times on systems that do not have the computational horsepower to analyze complex data in a timely manner. This can create a tremendous, unmanageable computational burden for the contact center. One exemplary embodiment reduces the computational burden, and provides additional benefits, by employing a contact center-optimized extension of factor analysis techniques. In general, factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables, e.g., attributes, in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved, uncorrelated variables called factors. | 09-12-2013 |
20130243179 | CONTACT CENTER AGENT FILTERING AND RELEVANCY RANKING - Methods and systems for supporting the monitoring and control of an automatic call distribution system are provided. In particular, a ranked list of candidate agents that can be assigned to handle contacts for a selected queue associated with an automatic call distribution system is presented to a supervisor. The supervisor can make agent assignments from the ranked list at the discretion of the supervisor. The assignment or reassignment can be effected by the supervisor through control inputs entered through the user interface. These control inputs can include reconfiguring agent and/or queue attributes. In addition, assignments can be effected through communications to agents made by the supervisor that are initiated through the user interface. | 09-19-2013 |
20130251138 | CALL MAPPING SYSTEMS AND METHODS USING BAYESIAN MEAN REGRESSION (BMR) - A method, system and program product, the method comprising: determining a distribution of real agent performance from previous real agent performance data; determining a set of hypothetical agents with respective hypothetical agent performances AP | 09-26-2013 |
20130287202 | WORK ASSIGNMENT DEFERMENT DURING PERIODS OF AGENT SURPLUS - A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, support deferring work item routing decisions for a predetermined amount of time even when agents that are technically qualified to handle the work item are available. The deferment of work item routing decisions helps to achieve better matching and, therefore, increases contact center efficiency even though decisions are delayed. | 10-31-2013 |
20130329881 | OPERATOR SELECTING DEVICE, RECORDING MEDIUM, AND OPERATOR SELECTING METHOD - An operator selecting device ( | 12-12-2013 |
20140029745 | Universal Queuing for Inbound Communications - Exemplary systems and methods for queuing an inbound communication are provided. In exemplary embodiments, the inbound communication is received by a communication server associated with a communication type of the inbound communication. Communication statuses of one or more agents over a plurality of communication types are reviewed to determine available agents. One or more profiles are reviewed to assess applicability of one or more agents to receive the inbound communication, whereby an agent may be applicable to handle more than one inbound communication concurrently as determined by their profile. An appropriate agent is then selected based on the availability and applicability of the one or more agents to which the inbound communication is forwarded. | 01-30-2014 |
20140044254 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DISTINGUISHING CALLERS AND INITIATING OR SCHEDULING CALLS - Methods and systems for distinguishing callers and initiating or scheduling a call based, for example, on the reason for their calls are disclosed. The methods and systems receive one or more input selections from an input apparatus. In addition, the methods and systems determine a set of characteristics representative of one or more customer service representative skills. The methods and systems output the set of characteristics to a server. In addition, the methods and systems receive data regarding a target customer service representative associated with the set of characteristics. In addition, communication with the target customer service representative is enabled by the methods and systems using the received data. | 02-13-2014 |
20140044255 | CALL MAPPING SYSTEMS AND METHODS USING VARIANCE ALGORITHM (VA) AND/OR DISTRIBUTION COMPENSATION - Method, system and program product, comprising: obtaining agent parameter data; percentiling agents based on the agent parameter data, to obtain an agent distribution of agent percentiles; partitioning callers based on criteria into partitions; obtaining caller propensity data; percentiling the callers based on propensity for an outcome to obtain a caller distribution; performing distribution compensation using one algorithm selected from an edge compensation algorithm applied to the distribution of agent percentiles or the distribution of the caller percentiles, near at least one distribution edge to provide edge compensation, and a topology altering algorithm applied to either or both of the agent distribution and the caller distribution to change one or more of the distributions to a different topology; and matching an agent to a caller in one of the partitions with a closest respective percentile, where one of the caller percentile or the agent percentile has been distribution compensated. | 02-13-2014 |
20140050314 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ROUTING A CALL TO A SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT VIA A PACKET NETWORK - A method and apparatus for routing a call to a subject matter expert via a packet network is described. In one embodiment, a request to route said at least one call to the SME is received. A predefined location associated with the SME is also obtained. The call is then routed to a foreign Internet Protocol gateway associated with the predefined foreign location to communicate with the SME. | 02-20-2014 |
20140064475 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ROUTING CALLS - An IP-based call center is able to route video and audio calls. The call routing is skills-based, and can be configured to give preference first to representatives or agents associated with an entity, and then to representatives or agents within a network associated with that entity. If no representative is available in-house or in-network, the call can be transferred to an external representative or agent. In other embodiments, an entity can configure prioritized layers for routing calls, in order to favor specific service providers. | 03-06-2014 |
20140079210 | RISKS FOR WAITING FOR WELL-MATCHED - A contact center which provides the ability to, among other things, support deferring work assignment decisions while simultaneously assessing the risks associated with such a deferred decision. The intelligent deferment of work assignment decisions helps to achieve better matching without losing the opportunity to timely assign work to an agent. | 03-20-2014 |
20140086404 | MATCHING USING AGENT/CALLER SENSITIVITY TO PERFORMANCE - A method, system and program product, the method comprising: obtaining for calls in one set of calls a respective pattern representing one or multiple different respective data fields; obtaining performance data for the respective patterns of the calls; performance data for agents in a set of agents; determining pattern performance sensitivity to agent performance comprising the pattern performance data correlated to agent performance data; matching a respective one of the agents from the set of agents to one of the calls based at least in part on the performance data for the one agent and on the pattern performance sensitivity to agent performance for the respective call. | 03-27-2014 |
20140093062 | METHOD OF BOOTSTRAPPING CONTACT CENTER - Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method to generate skill information. The method includes retrieving information relating to an agent of a contact center, wherein the information includes document and information repositories, knowledge sharing reports, mail repositories, and customer, supervisor, and peer feedbacks. The information may also include information from external sources including social network. The method further includes determining keywords from the retrieved information, and generating skill information for the at least one agent. | 04-03-2014 |
20140093063 | METHOD, CALL CENTER, AND SYSTEM FOR AGENT TERMINAL TO ANSWER CALL - A method for an agent terminal to answer a call includes: sending, by a call center, a request ring notification to all agent terminals whose skills meet a customer requirement and whose states are non-idle ( | 04-03-2014 |
20140093064 | COMMUNICATION PROCESSING SYSTEM, COMMUNICATION PROCESSING METHOD, COMMUNICATION PROCESSING DEVICE, AND CONTROL METHOD AND CONTROL PROGRAM OF COMMUNICATION PROCESSING DEVICE - A communication processing system according to the present invention is a communication processing system including user communication terminals each operated by a user and responder communication terminals each operated by a responder responding to an inquiry from the user. The communication processing system includes: a responder communication terminal information storing means for associating and storing each of the responder communication terminals and a responder attribute of the responder operating the responder communication terminal; and a connection controlling means for controlling to search the responder attribute corresponding to a user attribute of the user by referring to the responder communication terminal information storing means and connect the responder communication terminal associated with the responder attribute to the user communication terminal. | 04-03-2014 |
20140146961 | WORKLOAD DISTRIBUTION WITH RESOURCE AWARENESS - A method for workload distribution for a contact center includes identifying a work item for distribution based on an assigned distribution criteria; identifying a target for routing the work item; determining availability of the target; in response to determining that the target is available, transmitting a routing request for the work item to a routing server, and in response to the request, the routing server is configured to independently determine availability of the work item for routing the work item to the target; and in response to determining that the target is not available, refraining from transmitting the routing request for the work item to the routing server. | 05-29-2014 |
20140146962 | METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR PROVIDING HUMAN-ASSISTED NATURAL LANGUAGE CALL ROUTING - Techniques for routing a telephone call are provided. A call interface device of an interactive voice response system is configured to receive the telephone call from a caller. A level one agent processing module routes the telephone all to a level one agent for an agent interview of the caller when level three and level two agents are not available. A level two agent processing module handles the telephone call when the level three agent is not available. A level three agent processing module facilitates the handling of the telephone call when the level three agent is available. | 05-29-2014 |
20140161248 | QUALIFIER SET CREATION FOR WORK ASSIGNMENT ENGINE - A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, define, in real-time, qualifier set combinations for work items. Thus, the contact center can create a dictionary of combinations of work item attributes that may be defined as work items are introduced to the system. The definition of the combinations allows for large qualifier sets without the large expenditure of resources to define all possible combinations of attributes for the contact center. | 06-12-2014 |
20140205079 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND PROGRAM FOR SETTING WAGE FOR CALL CENTER PERSONNEL - System, method and program product for dynamically setting a wage offered to a multiplicity of inactive call center personnel. First program instructions automatically estimate a wait time for calls to a call center. The calls are handled by a plurality of active call center personnel. Second program instructions automatically determine and set a wage, based in part on the estimated wait time, offered to inactive call center personnel to induce them to become active call center personnel to handle calls. Third program instructions, responsive to a request by an inactive call center person to become active at said wage, automatically designate the requesting inactive call center person as active at the wage and assign a call to the requesting inactive call center personnel that was designated as active. Program instructions also set a renewal wage paid to active call center personnel, based in part on the estimated wait time, to induce the active call center personnel to remain active. | 07-24-2014 |
20140219439 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATING SKILLSET ADDITIONS - Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for updating customer service agent skillset definitions within a customer relationship management system. According to one embodiment, updating a skillset definition for an agent in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can comprise defining an initial skillset for the agent including indications of areas of expertise for which the agent is available to handle related customer requests. A request can be received from the agent to update the initial skillset definition to indicate a new area of expertise for which the agent wishes to be considered qualified. A determination can be made as to whether the agent is qualified for the new area of expertise. In response to determining the agent is qualified, the skillset for the agent can be updated to indicate the agent is qualified to begin handling customer requests related to the new area of expertise. | 08-07-2014 |
20140270143 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SERVING CUSTOMERS IN A CONTACT CENTER - A contact center for processing a work request is provided. The contact center includes a queuing module operable to add a contact of a customer in a first work queue for processing of the work request received. Further, the contact center includes an interactive module to prompt the customer for receiving inputs corresponding to additional skill or an additional work request of the customer, while the customer is waiting in the first work queue for availability of an agent for processing of the work request. Furthermore, the queuing module may add the contact of the customer in a second work queue for serving the customer by processing of at least one of the work request and the additional work request based on the inputs. The customer is served when an agent is available through at least one of the first work queue and the second work queue. | 09-18-2014 |
20140270144 | PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT LANGUAGE DETECTION - A Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) is disclosed. The PSAP is configured to enable the detection of language preferences, capabilities, or inabilities and, based on such detection, assist the PSAP agent in assisting the PSAP caller. The PSAP may additionally or alternatively utilize the detection of language information to assist in the decision to route or re-route the PSAP caller to appropriate PSAP resources. | 09-18-2014 |
20140334619 | ACTIVITIES ASSIGNMENT OPTIMIZATION FOR MULTI-SKILL CONTACT CENTER - A system and method for setting agent cross skill enablement levels in a contact center. In one embodiment, a series of simulations is performed to determine optimum cross skill enablement levels for various circumstances, e.g., the number of agents, the proficiency of each agent at each of a number of skills, and the rates of incoming interaction requests requiring each of various skills. A lookup table is created which is subsequently used, during configuration of the contact center prior to operation, or in real time during operation, to adjust agent cross skill enablement levels. | 11-13-2014 |
20150023490 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED CALL DISTRIBUTION - Aspects of systems and methods for maintaining and operating agent nodes are provided. In some embodiments, calls, contacts, and other work units may be routed to individual customer service agents via a centralized queue based on a variety of factors. Some embodiments may provide market-based call pricing and customer service agent compensation. | 01-22-2015 |
20150036815 | REAL-TIME PREDICTIVE ROUTING - The methods, apparatus, and systems described herein are designed to route customer communications to the best agent or best available agent The methods include receiving a customer communication, predicting a personality type of the customer associated with the customer communication, and providing a routing recommendation to route the customer to an agent based on the personality type prediction and historical customer data. | 02-05-2015 |
20150043726 | CONDITIONAL ATTRIBUTE MAPPING IN WORK ASSIGNMENT - A contact center, methods, and mechanisms are provided for assigning work items to resources using attributes that conditionally expand a selectable pool of resources. The work item is first analyzed for any required, preferred, and conditional attributes and then queued in multiple resource attribute sets for work assignment. Work items are assigned to resources by considering a match between the analyzed attributes of a work item and a resource while observing alternative assignment conditions. When met, the alternative assignment conditions cause the work item to be queued in additional resource attribute sets thereby expanding the pool of selectable resources. Once assigned, the work item may be removed from queues not selected in the work assignment. | 02-12-2015 |
20150055772 | FACILITATING A CONTACT CENTER AGENT TO SELECT A CONTACT IN A CONTACT CENTER QUEUE - The system and method enable an agent to be able to select a contact (e.g., a voice call or email from a customer) from a contact queue in a contact center. As contacts come into a contact center, the contacts are placed in the contact queue. An agent in the contact center is presented with the contacts along with a profile that is associated with each of the contacts. The profile may contain information about the contacts such as an attitude of the contact, a conversation style of the contact, a sentiment of the contact, and the like. The agent selects one of the contacts in the contact queue. The selected contact is then sent to the agent for handling. | 02-26-2015 |
20150086004 | SELECTIVE MAPPING OF CALLERS IN A CALL CENTER ROUTING SYSTEM - Systems and methods are disclosed for routing callers to agents in a contact center, along with an intelligent routing system. An exemplary method includes mapping a first portion (or fraction) of callers to agents according to a performance and/or pattern matching algorithm based on comparing caller data associated with the callers and agent data associated with the agents. The method further includes mapping a second portion of the callers (e.g., the remaining portion or fraction of all callers) to agents differently than the first portion of the callers (e.g., mapping based on queue order or performance based), which may provide a control group for monitoring or analyzing the effect of the pattern matching algorithm. The method may further include displaying the effect of the routing on at least one outcome variable, which may include revenue generation, cost, customer satisfaction, first call resolution, cancellation, or other variable outputs from the pattern matching algorithm of the system. | 03-26-2015 |
20150092938 | METHOD, APPARATUS, AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING RIPPLE REDUCTION USING NEAR TERM SIMULATION FOR OPTIONAL SEQUENCING - A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. A ripple reduction mechanism is disclosed that provides an interval and evaluates and matches work items that come in until the interval expires. Once the interval expires, the ripple reduction mechanism in concert with a work assignment engine may finalize matches and optimally assign work items to minimize or eliminate a ripple effect. | 04-02-2015 |
20150117632 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMANCE-BASED ROUTING OF INTERACTIONS IN A CONTACT CENTER - A system and method for performance-based routing of interactions in a contact center. A routing server receives information on an interaction to be routed, and identifies a call reason for the interaction. The identification of the call reason may be based, for example, speech analytics. The routing server identifies one or more agents having experience in handling the topic. The routing server further determines a proficiency level of the identified agents in handling the topic, and selects one of the identified agents having at least a minimum level of proficiency. The routing server transmits a message for routing the interaction to the selected agent. | 04-30-2015 |
20150124954 | STRATEGY PAIRING - A contact center is described as having the ability to simultaneously consider a plurality of different work assignment strategies. Specifically, a work assignment engine in the contact center is enabled to create merged strategies from work-finding-agent strategies and agent-finding-work strategies to determine if one such strategy contradicts the other strategy. | 05-07-2015 |
20150124955 | CALL MAPPING SYSTEMS AND METHODS USING VARIANCE ALGORITHM (VA) AND/OR DISTRIBUTION COMPENSATION - Method, system and program product, comprising obtaining agent performance data; ranking, agents based the agent performance data; dividing agents into agent performance ranges; partitioning callers based on criteria into a set of partitions; determining for each partition an outcome value for a first agent performance range and a second agent performance range; calculating for the partitions a respective outcome value difference indicator based on the outcome value for the first agent performance range and the outcome value for the second agent performance range for the partition; matching a respective agent to a respective caller in one of the partitions, based on the outcome value difference indicators for the partitions. | 05-07-2015 |
20150139416 | PSEUDO AGENT MATCHING - Contact centers employ agents to provide services to customers. In particular, artificial agents are provided that have a rich background and continuing life with the realm of social media. The artificial agent's profile is selected in accord with the profiles of current or prospective customers. As the customers age and progress in life, the artificial agent profile is updated in accord with the customers' changing profiles and similarly ages and progresses in life. When a customer desires to interact with artificial agent, for a purpose provided by a contact center, a human agent may be provided the profile and/or history of the artificial agent so as to impersonate the artificial agent and promote the relationship with the customer. | 05-21-2015 |
20150326724 | CALL MAPPING SYSTEMS AND METHODS USING VARIANCE ALGORITHM (VA) AND/OR DISTRIBUTION COMPENSATION - Method, system and program product, comprising obtaining agent performance data; ranking, agents based the agent performance data; dividing agents into agent performance ranges; partitioning callers based on criteria into a set of partitions; determining for each partition an outcome value for a first agent performance range and a second agent performance range; calculating for the partitions a respective outcome value difference indicator based on the outcome value for the first agent performance range and the outcome value for the second agent performance range for the partition; matching a respective agent to a respective caller in one of the partitions, based on the outcome value difference indicators for the partitions. | 11-12-2015 |
20150334239 | CALL ROUTING TO SUBJECT MATTER SPECIALIST FOR NETWORK PAGE TOPIC - Disclosed are various embodiments for location based call routing to a subject matter specialist. A call request is received from a computing device which includes an identifier of a network page. A topic specialist for the network page is identified from the contents of the network page. The call request is completed by establishing a call between the computing device and another computing device which is operated by the topic specialist. | 11-19-2015 |
20150350445 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTACT CENTER ROUTING OF A CUSTOMER BASED ON MEDIA CAPABILITIES - A system for selecting an agent during initial routing based on all the media capabilities associated with a customer and their current device. The system includes a data mining module to mine one or more media capabilities on a device of a customer. The system further includes a customer profile module to build a customer profile based on the one or more mined media capabilities on the device. The system further includes a mapping module to map the customer profile with an agent profile. The system further includes a selection module to select an agent for the customer based on the mapping. | 12-03-2015 |
20150358468 | OPTIMIZATION IN WORKFORCE MANAGMENT USING WORK ASSIGNMENT ENGINE DATA - Contact centers strive to match the demands and preferences of their customers with the skills and abilities of the agents who process work items associated with the customers (e.g., contacts). However, the preferred agent may be unavailable, non-existent, backlogged or otherwise ineligible to accept the work item. An agent who is non-preferred but still qualified may be utilized to process the work item, such as an agent with adequate skills with respect to a particular attribute of the work item. Reports for the selection of the non-preferred but qualified agents are provided herein. A contact center may then utilize such reporting to identify underserved areas of their customer base. | 12-10-2015 |
20150358469 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMIC JOB ALLOCATION BASED ON ACOUSTIC SENTIMENTS - The present disclosure relates to methods of systems for allocating a call from a user to an agent. Embodiments of the disclosure may determine a set of sentiment indicators associated with the user from one or more acoustic parameters of the call. In addition, embodiments of the disclosure may select a candidate agent to handle the call based on the set of sentiment indicators and a sentiment handling capability associated with the candidate agent. Moreover, embodiments of the disclosure may allocate the call to the candidate agent. | 12-10-2015 |
20160028893 | ACTIVITIES ASSIGNMENT OPTIMIZATION FOR MULTI-SKILL CONTACT CENTER - A system and method for setting agent cross skill enablement levels in a contact center. In one embodiment, a series of simulations is performed to determine optimum cross skill, enablement levels for various circumstances, e.g., the number of agents, the proficiency of each agent at each of a number of skills,, and the rates of incoming interaction requests requiring each of various skills. A lookup table is created which is subsequently used, during configuration of the contact center prior to operation, or in real time during operation, to adjust agent cross skill enablement levels, | 01-28-2016 |
20160028894 | Customer Service Controller - Information about a request from a caller is provided in a customer service call center. In one embodiment, a customer service processor selects an agent based on the type of request and routes the call to the agent. The types of requests including one or more of cancelling all orders by a firm, canceling all orders by a trader, cancelling specific orders by a trader for more than one product, cancelling orders by more than one trader for a specific product, cancelling individual orders, changing the quantity of an individual order, and changing the quantity of a set of orders for a trader or a firm. Statistics may be collected regarding the call and stored for later use in a database. | 01-28-2016 |
20160036980 | System and Method for Addressing Hard-To-Understand for Contact Center Service Quality - A system and method include a processor and a memory, where the memory stores instructions, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to determine whether a session is hard-to-understand. When the session is hard-to-understand the processor provides an adjustment for the session. | 02-04-2016 |
20160036981 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CASE-BASED ROUTING FOR A CONTACT - A system and method for case-based routing as opposed to atomic interaction routing. A processor opens a case in a customer database. The case is associated with a workflow that has steps anticipated to be executed for the case. The processor identifies first and second steps of the workflow, and further identifies an agent with skills for handling the first and second steps. The processor generates a task for handling at least the first step of the workflow, and transmits instructions to route the task to the identified agent. | 02-04-2016 |
20160036983 | ADAPTABLE BUSINESS OBJECTIVE ROUTING FOR A CONTACT CENTER - A system and method for enhanced interaction processing in a contact center that includes routing interactions based on adaptable business objectives. A processor detects a pending interaction with a customer. The processor identifies first and second objectives of the contact center in response to detecting the pending interaction, where the first objective is identified as more important to the contact center than the second objective. The processor identifies a first agent for handling the first objective, and determines a likelihood of success of the first agent in achieving the first objective. The processor identifies a second agent for handling the second objective, and determines a likelihood of success of the second agent in achieving the second objective. In the event that the likelihood of success in achieving the second objective by the second agent is higher than the likelihood of success of achieving the first objective by the first agent, the processor transmits instructions to route the pending interaction to the second agent. The processor also prompts the second agent to pursue the second objective. | 02-04-2016 |
20160044173 | METHOD FOR CONNECTING USERS WITH AGENTS BASED ON DYNAMIC USER INTERACTIONS WITH CONTENT - User interactions with content presented during a particular browsing session are monitored in real-time during the browsing session. In response to different user interactions, content type of the content being interacted by the user is determined dynamically. A skill set is determined based on the content type within the same browsing session. Subsequently during the same browsing session, in response to a request from the user for connecting with an agent, a list of agents who possess the skill set is identified. A live communication session is established between a user device of the user and an agent device of an agent selected from the list. | 02-11-2016 |
20160044174 | METHOD FOR CONNECTING USERS WITH AGENTS USING USER SELECTED AGENTS AND AGENT RATINGS - A content type of content interacted by a user is determined and a skill set is determined based on the content type. A first set of preferred agents is identified based on the skill set, where the preferred agents have a prior relationship with the user. A second set of recommended agents is identified based on the skill set, where the recommended agents have no prior relationship with the user. The first and second set of preferred agents and recommended agents are transmitted to a user device of the user to allow the user to select one of the preferred and recommended agents. The transmitted information include information indicating whether any of the preferred and recommended agents is available the point in time. A live communication session is established between the user device and an agent device of a selected agent. | 02-11-2016 |
20160065741 | SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATED AGENT ROUTING - A system and method for interacting with a contact center system. A processor in the apparatus transmits, over a data channel to the contact center system, a message relating to a product a service. The processor receives, from the contact center system, identification of first and second agents with skills for handling inquiries relating to the product or service. The processor receives, from the contact center system, availability of the first and second agents for engaging in an interaction. In response to receipt of the identification of the first and second agents, the processor retrieves ratings for the first and second agents, where the rating of the first agent is higher than the rating of the second agent. The processor launches an interaction with the first agent. | 03-03-2016 |
20160127557 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AGENT SELECTION IN AN ENTERPRISE - A resource selection management computer system and method for selecting at least one agent for at least one communication session in an enterprise is disclosed. The resource selection management computer system includes a monitoring module for monitoring one or more parameters of the at least one communication session involving the at least one agent; a database for storing the one or more monitored parameters; a computing module for computing at least one data value based on the one or more monitored parameters by using at least one fuzzy logic; a determination module for determining at least one attribute of the agent based on the at least one computed data value; and an agent selection module for selecting at least one agent based on the at least one determined attribute. | 05-05-2016 |
20160134755 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PREDICTIVE PERSONALIZATION AND INTELLIGENT ROUTING - Systems and methods for intelligently routing a member of an organization to a single point-of-contact within an optimized, secure network to address all the member's healthcare needs are described. The disclosed intelligent routing configurations transform and process, in real-time, vast amounts of member data to generate specialized effort scores specific to each member's household. The effort scores, among other things, are used to determine an appropriate tier within the organization to route the member, and its account file containing real-time member and household level data. | 05-12-2016 |
20160182722 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LANGUAGE SPECIFIC ROUTING | 06-23-2016 |
20160191712 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS FOR CONTACT CENTER BASED ON AGENT PROXIMITY - In a method for managing customer interactions for a customer contact center, the method includes: receiving, by a processor, information on an interaction to be routed; identifying, by the processor, a context associated with the interaction; receiving, by the processor, first proximity information relating to a proximity between an electronic device and a first proximity device; adjusting, by the processor, a proficiency level of an agent corresponding to the context associated with the interaction to a first value in response to the receiving of the first proximity information; determining, by the processor, whether or not the agent is qualified to handle the interaction based on the proficiency level; and transmitting, by the processor, a message for routing the interaction to the agent in response to determining the agent is qualified to handle the interaction based on the proficiency level. | 06-30-2016 |
20160198046 | SKILL MANAGEMENT APPARATUS, METHOD AND PROGRAM | 07-07-2016 |
20160198048 | LIMITING CONTACT IN A NETWORKED CONTACT CENTER ENVIRONMENT | 07-07-2016 |
20170237856 | Predictive Resource Scheduling for Efficient Sales and Marketing Acceleration | 08-17-2017 |