Patent Grant
7949121
The present invention is directed generally to servicing a contactor in a contact center and specifically to allocating work items among contact center resources.
Contact centers, such as Automatic Call Distribution or ACD systems, are employed by many enterprises to service customer contacts. A typical contact center includes a switch and/or server to receive and route incoming packet-switched and/or circuit-switched contacts and one or more resources, such as human agents and automated resources (e.g., Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units), to service the incoming contacts. Contact centers distribute contacts, whether inbound or outbound, for servicing to any suitable resource according to predefined criteria. In many existing systems, the criteria for servicing the contact from the moment that the contact center becomes aware of the contact until the contact is connected to an agent are customer-specifiable (i.e., programmable by the operator of the contact center), via a capability called vectoring. Normally in present-day ACDs when the ACD system's controller detects that an agent has become available to handle a contact, the controller identifies all predefined contact-handling skills of the agent (usually in some order of priority) and delivers to the agent the highest-priority oldest contact that matches the agent's highest-priority skill. Agents with a higher skill are normally preferred over agents with lower skill levels when assigning an agent to a contact. When agents have multiple skills, the controller is more likely to select a contact for which the agent has a high skill level over a contact for which the agent has a lesser skill level. Generally, the only condition that results in a contact not being delivered to an available agent is that there are no contacts waiting to be handled.
Most present-day contact-distribution algorithms focus on being “fair” to contactors and to agents. This fairness is reflected by the standard first-in, first-out contact to most-idle-agent assignment algorithm. Skills-based routing improves upon this basic algorithm in that it allows each agent to be slotted into a number of agent groups based on the agent's skill types and levels.
An ongoing problem in skills-based routing contact centers is how to handle multiple contacts from a customer efficiently and effectively. Today, contact centers allow customers to communicate with an enterprise at any time and over any media channel of their choosing and seek to provide a consistent interface to customers regardless of what enterprise representative or media channel is involved. For example, a customer can communicate with the contact center using any combination of circuit-switched voice calls, Voice over IP or VoIP, email, Web chat, instant messaging, and the like. As a result, when a contact is delivered to an agent, contact center queuing structures can contain additional contacts from that customer, which are waiting to be serviced and which may or may not be relevant to the delivered contact. By way of illustration, a customer might place an order by email, follow the order up by a second email requesting a change to the quantity ordered, follow up the second email with a third email to change the shipping address, and follow up the third email with a voice call to confirm the status of the changed order. Notwithstanding such events, resource allocation systems typically deliver customer contacts to agents one-at-a-time. Multiple customer contacts can thus be handled inconsistently or, possibly, even in a conflicting manner by multiple company representatives. This is not only an inefficient way for the company to operate but also a frustrating experience for customers.
Some systems allow agents to have multiple simultaneous work assignments and/or provide the ability for an agent to view or search for such unprocessed contacts. Such systems, however, neither allow the agent to process simultaneously the additional pending contacts nor provide for the simultaneous delivery of the contacts to the same agent as a related grouping of work items.
These and other needs are addressed by the various embodiments and configurations of the present invention. The present invention is directed generally to a resource allocation system and method that allows the agent to process simultaneously the additional pending contacts and/or provides for the simultaneous delivery of the contacts to the same agent as a related grouping of work items.
In a first embodiment, a method for servicing work items in a contact center is provided. The steps of the method include:
(a) selecting a first work item for servicing by a contact center resource;
(b) determining whether the first work item is related to a second work item; and
(c) when the first and second work items are related, creating, for servicing by the contact center resource, a first work item grouping including the first and second work items.
The work item can be any item of work for a contact center resource. Typically, a work item is a contact, such as a voice call, an email, a facsimile, a voice message, an instant message, and Web chat.
The servicing resource can be any contact center resource, such as a human agent, an automated attendant, and an Interactive Voice Recognition unit or IVR.
The determination of whether the first and second work items are related is commonly made using one or more selected qualifiers. When the first and second work items have the qualifier(s) in common, they are deemed to be related. Exemplary qualifiers include customer identity, intent, media type, subject, and transaction identifier.
In one configuration, a work item grouping table is maintained to facilitate grouping of related work items. The work item grouping table maps grouping or sets of pending work items against one or more designated qualifiers, such as a customer identifier.
In an exemplary configuration, when a work item is delivered to an agent additional unprocessed related contacts, typically from the same customer, are also delivered simultaneously to the agent. Contacts having the same intent are deemed to be related. By way of illustration, an enterprise has, from the same customer, a voice call concerning auto insurance, two emails concerning auto insurance, and two emails concerning vacation packages. When the call is delivered to an agent, the agent will also get, at the same time, the two emails concerning auto insurance. The agent may then choose to process the additional contacts or return them to their original queues if he feels that they should be processed separately.
The present invention can have a number of advantages relative to the prior art. For example, the present invention, by delivering all related contacts to the same agent for processing, can ensure that the customer transaction is handled in a consistent, effective, and much more efficient manner. The invention addresses in a meaningful way the contact center operational problems associated with the multi-media nature of today's contact centers.
These and other advantages will be apparent from the disclosure of the invention(s) contained herein.
The above-described embodiments and configurations are neither complete nor exhaustive. As will be appreciated, other embodiments of the invention are possible. utilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features set forth above or described in detail below.
The invention will be illustrated below in conjunction with an exemplary communication system. Although well suited for use with, e.g., a system having an ACD or other similar contact processing switch, the invention is not limited to use with any particular type of communication system switch or configuration of system elements. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosed techniques may be used in any communication application in which it is desirable to provide improved contact processing.
The term “switch” or “server” as used herein should be understood to include a PBX, an ACD, an enterprise switch, an enterprise server, or other type of telecommunications system switch or server, as well as other types of processor-based communication control devices such as media servers, computers, adjuncts, etc.
Referring to
The switch 130 and/or server 110 can be any architecture for directing contacts to one or more telecommunication devices. Illustratively, the switch and/or server can be a modified form of the subscriber-premises equipment disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,192,122; 6,173,053; 6,163,607; 5,982,873; 5,905,793; 5,828,747; and 5,206,903, all of which are incorporated herein by this reference; Avaya Inc.'s Definity™ Private-Branch Exchange (PBX)-based ACD system; MultiVantage™ PBX, CRM Central 2000 Server™, Communication Manager™, S8300™, IP600™ or S8700™ media server, and/or Avaya Interaction Center™. Typically, the switch/server is a stored-program-controlled system that conventionally includes interfaces to external communication links, a communications switching fabric, service circuits (e.g., tone generators, announcement circuits, etc.), memory for storing control programs and data, and a processor (i.e., a computer) for executing the stored control programs to control the interfaces and the fabric and to provide automatic contact-distribution functionality. The switch and/or server typically include a network interface card (not shown) to provide services to the serviced telecommunication devices. Other types of known switches and servers are well known in the art and therefore not described in detail herein.
Referring to
Referring to
The first telecommunication devices 134-1, . . . 134-N are packet-switched and can include, for example, IP hardphones such as the Avaya Inc.'s, 4600 Series IP Phones™, IP softphones such as Avaya Inc.'s, IP Softphone™, Personal Digital Assistants or PDAs, Personal Computers or PCs, laptops, packet-based H.320 video phones and conferencing units, packet-based voice messaging and response units, and packet-based traditional computer telephony adjuncts.
The second telecommunication devices 138-1, . . . 138-M are circuit-switched. Each of the telecommunication devices 138-1, . . . 138-M corresponds to one of a set of internal extensions Ext1, . . . ExtM, respectively. These extensions are referred to herein as “internal” in that they are extensions within the premises that are directly serviced by the switch. More particularly, these extensions correspond to conventional telecommunication device endpoints serviced by the switch/server, and the switch/server can direct incoming contacts to and receive outgoing contacts from these extensions in a conventional manner. The second telecommunication devices can include, for example, wired and wireless telephones, PDAs, H.320 video phones and conferencing units, voice messaging and response units, and traditional computer telephony adjuncts.
It should be noted that the invention does not require any particular type of information transport medium between switch or server and first and second telecommunication devices, i.e., the invention may be implemented with any desired type of transport medium as well as combinations of different types of transport medium.
The packet-switched network 162 can be any data and/or distributed processing network, such as the Internet. The network 162 typically includes proxies (not shown), registrars (not shown), and routers (not shown) for managing packet flows.
The packet-switched network 162 is in communication with an external first telecommunication device 174 via a gateway 178, and the circuit-switched network 154 with an external second telecommunication device 180. These telecommunication devices are referred to as “external” in that they are not directly supported as telecommunication device endpoints by the switch or server. The telecommunication devices 174 and 180 are an example of devices more generally referred to herein as “external endpoints.”
In a preferred configuration, the server 110, network 162, and first telecommunication devices 134 are Session Initiation Protocol or SIP compatible and can include interfaces for various other protocols such as the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol or LDAP, H.248, H.323, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP, IMAP4, ISDN, E1/T1, and analog line or trunk.
It should be emphasized that the configuration of the switch, server, user telecommunication devices, and other elements as shown in
As will be appreciated, the central server 110 is notified via LAN 142 of an incoming contact by the telecommunications component (e.g., switch 130, fax server, email server, web server, and/or other server) receiving the incoming contact. The incoming contact is held by the receiving telecommunications component until the server 110 forwards instructions to the component to forward or route the contact to a specific contact center resource, such as the IVR unit 122, the voice mail server 118, and/or first or second telecommunication device 134, 138 associated with a selected agent. The server 110 distributes and connects these contacts to telecommunication devices of available agents based on the predetermined criteria noted above. When the central server 110 forwards a voice contact (or first work item) to an agent, the central server 110 also forwards customer-related information from databases 114 to the agent's computer work station for viewing (such as by a pop-up display) to permit the agent to better serve the customer. Depending on the contact center configuration, the central server may forward a list of work items and/or groupings of work items to an available agent to preview before forwarding the contact itself and the data associated therewith to the agent. The agents process the contacts or work items sent to them by the central server 110. This embodiment is particularly suited for a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) environment in which customers are permitted to use any media to contact a business. In a CRM environment, both real-time and non-real-time contacts must be handled and distributed with equal efficiency and effectiveness.
Agent and customer profiles are typically maintained and updated by a profile generator (not shown). Upon the completion of handling a contact, the generator collects selected metrics for the contact. These metrics include the skill involved in servicing the contact, the identifier of the servicing agent, the contact duration, the transaction or contact type (e.g., catalog sale, information request, complaint, etc.), the time-of-day, the result (e.g., the type of sale, the number of units sold, revenue generated, service ticket closure or escalation, the information provided, etc.), a self-rating of the servicing agent respecting the agent's proficiency in handling the contact, the rating of the customer of the agent's proficiency in handling the contact, the rating of another party, such as the agent's supervisor or another observer, of how the contact was serviced, whether the agent requested assistance, and whether the agent's training was completed, and stores the information in the database 114, such as CMS 228. The metrics over a selected period of time are typically stored under each agent's profile. Each agent profile typically includes metrics associated with a plurality of contacts serviced by the agent for each agent skill, and each customer profile includes metrics associated with a plurality of contacts by the customer.
According to the invention, included among the programs executing on the server 110 are an agent and work item selector 220 and work item grouping agent 232. The selector 220 and grouping agent 232 are stored either in the main memory or in a peripheral memory (e.g., disk, CD ROM, etc.) or some other computer-readable medium of the center 100. The selector 220 and agent 232 collectively effect an assignment between sets of related work items and available agents in a way that tends to maximize contact center efficiency. The grouping agent 232 can assist the work item vector 216 in routing sets of related work items to the appropriate queue 208 and/or the selector 220 in routing a set of related work items to a most desirable agent in the queue 212. The grouping agent 232, in particular, selects one or more work item qualifiers as defining relatedness and groups, into the same set, the work items having the same shared qualifier. Although not always the case, a typical set of work items contains at least one real-time contacts and/or non-real-time contacts. For example, the shared qualifier can be customer identity and/or the purpose or intent of the work item. The purpose or intent of the work item can be determined by techniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art, such as by identifying a transaction identifier (such as ticket or matter number, order number, and the like), using an automated attendant such as an IVR, using text searching through a text communication such as email, using the electronic address or telephone number inputted by the customer, and using the Web page Universal Resource Locator or URL from which the customer requested contact center servicing or otherwise initiated the pending contact with the contact center. The selector 220 uses predefined criteria and/or a routing algorithm in selecting an appropriate agent to service individual work items and/or sets of work items.
The agent 232 may group related work items when a work item is received, during the time that a work item is enqueued and waiting to be serviced, when a work item is at the head of a queue and ready to be assigned to an agent, and/or when an agent becomes available to service the work item. At any of these points, the agent 232 determines if the work item is already part of a set of work items and, if not, whether the work item should be part of a set of work items.
The instances of sets or groupings of work items are typically tracked using a work item grouping table (stored in the database 114) of the type shown in
The term “stored list” or “table” should be understood to include any ordered set of information or data stored in memory or other storage device accessible to the switch and/or server. The invention does not require that the information be stored in any particular length or format, e.g., a tabular format, a closed- or open-set, and numerous suitable storage formats will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.
As will be appreciated, though a pending work item is, at any one time, typically a member of only one work item set or grouping the present invention is not so limited. It is possible that the same work item is simultaneously a member of two or more work item sets or groupings. This can result, for example, when multiple different work item grouping tables are maintained, each having a different set of shared qualifiers. This may happen when differing agent queues 212 or enterprise business segments use differing sets of shared qualifiers. For example, a first agent queue 212 or enterprise business segment may use customer identity in identifying work item groupings while a second agent queue 212 or enterprise business segment may use work item intent in identifying work item groupings. The latter situation is particularly appropriate where a group of different customer contacts will be serviced simultaneously by the same agent, such as in a group chat or chat room setting. When a work item is simultaneously a member of multiple work item sets, it is commonly removed as a member from other work item sets when the first work item set of which it is a member is assigned to an agent for servicing.
The operation of the agent 232 will now be described with reference to
In step 400, a predetermined event occurs. This event may be the receipt by the contact center 100 of a new contact or work item (which is the preferred configuration). It may be the placement of a new work item in a work item queue 208. It may be the arrival of a work item at the head of a work item queue 208. It may be the availability of an agent in an agent queue 212 to service a work item at the head of a work item queue 208.
In step 402, the agent 232 selects a work item for analysis. When the event is the receipt by the contact center 100 of a new contact or work item, the work item selected is the new work item. When the event is the placement of a new work item in a work item queue 208, the work item selected is the placed work item. When the event is the arrival of a work item at the head of a work item queue 208 or the availability of an agent in an agent queue 212 to service a work item at the head of a work item queue 208, the work item selected is the work item at the head of the work item queue 208.
In step 404, the agent 232 analyzes the selected work item. Typically, the analysis is performed by searching for one or more selected qualifiers from among the plurality of qualifiers previously assigned by the vector 216 to the work item.
In step 408, the agent 232 uses the results of step 404 to identify related work items on the same and/or different channels. When the search of step 404 identifies one or more selected qualifiers, the work item is identified as being a member of the existing grouping of work items sharing the selected qualifiers. When the search of step 404 fails to identify a selected qualifier, the work item is not placed in an existing grouping of work items. In one configuration, when no existing grouping is identified the agent 232 searches other pending enqueued contacts for the selected qualifier(s). If located, the selected work item and other identified work items are placed in a new grouping of work items.
In step 412, the work item grouping table is updated to reflect the results of step 408.
As will be appreciated, work items can be terminated by a customer before servicing by a contact center resource. In that event, the agent 232 will receive an interrupt from another contact center component or module to remove that work item from the grouping table.
The agent 232 then returns to step 400 to await the next occurrence of the predetermined event.
The operation of the selector 220 will now be described with reference to
In decision diamond 500, the selector 220 waits for an agent in an agent queue 212 to become available to service a pending work item.
In step 504, the selector 220, when an agent becomes available, selects a best work item for the agent to service. This selection process can be done according to any suitable selection algorithm known to those of ordinary skill in the art.
In step 508, the selector 508 determines the customer associated with the selected work item.
In step 512, the selector 220 looks up the work item grouping table and finds all additional work items, if any, from the customer associated with the selected work item
In optional step 516, the selector 220 eliminates all work items from the work item grouping that do not have the same intent. This step is not performed in contact center configurations that wish the same agent to handle all existing pending work items associated with a given customer. Work item filtration criteria other than or besides intent can be employed to remove work items from the grouping. For example, work items on selected media can be removed in the event that the agent is neither configured nor trained to handle certain media types.
In step 520, the work items remaining in the work item grouping are simultaneously or near simultaneously delivered to the selected agent for servicing.
In step 524, the selector 220 causes the agent 232 to remove the delivered work item grouping from the grouping table 300 and each individual member of the grouping as a member of any other work item grouping in the grouping table 300. For example if the delivered first work item grouping includes a first work item that is also a member of a pending (unserviced) second work item grouping, the agent 232 removes the first work item from the listing of work items corresponding to the second work item grouping.
The selector 220 then returns to step 500 to await the next agent becoming available.
Although the steps of
A number of variations and modifications of the invention can be used. It would be possible to provide for some features of the invention without providing others.
For example, the server and/or switch can be a software-controlled system including a processing unit (CPU), microprocessor, or other type of digital data processor executing software or an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) as well as various portions or combinations of such elements. The memory may be a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), or combinations of these and other types of electronic memory devices.
In another embodiment, the existence and/or characteristics of the pending work item groupings is/are considered in step 504 when the selector 220 selects the “best” work item for servicing by the available agent. The existence and/or characteristics can be a factor among many factors used in assigning work items to available agents. Examples of relevant characteristics of a work item grouping used in step 504 include the number and type(s) of work items in a grouping, the queue priorities of the members of the grouping, and the like. To illustrate this embodiment assume that first and second work items are available at the heads of different queues for servicing by the same multi-skilled agent, that the first work item is part of a first work item grouping having seven members, and that the second work item of no work item grouping. The most efficient and cost effective work item assignment is to assign the first work item to the same agent along with the other members of the first work item grouping.
In yet another embodiment, one or more work item attributes other than qualifier can be employed in addition to or in lieu of qualifiers.
In yet another alternative embodiment, a number of work items from different customers are placed in a same grouping. The grouping is used as the basis of a group chat when the agent is available. A group chat is similar to a chat room in which a single agent services simultaneously communications from multiple customers.
The present invention, in various embodiments, includes components, methods, processes, systems and/or apparatus substantially as depicted and described herein, including various embodiments, subcombinations, and subsets thereof. Those of skill in the art will understand how to make and use the present invention after understanding the present disclosure. The present invention, in various embodiments, includes providing devices and processes in the absence of items not depicted and/or described herein or in various embodiments hereof, including in the absence of such items as may have been used in previous devices or processes, e.g., for improving performance, achieving ease and\or reducing cost of implementation.
The foregoing discussion of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. The foregoing is not intended to limit the invention to the form or forms disclosed herein. In the foregoing Detailed Description for example, various features of the invention are grouped together in one or more embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into this Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate preferred embodiment of the invention.
Moreover, though the description of the invention has included description of one or more embodiments and certain variations and modifications, other variations and modifications are within the scope of the invention, e.g., as may be within the skill and knowledge of those in the art, after understanding the present disclosure. It is intended to obtain rights which include alternative embodiments to the extent permitted, including alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions, ranges or steps to those claimed, whether or not such alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions, ranges or steps are disclosed herein, and without intending to publicly dedicate any patentable subject matter.
This application claims the benefits under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/613,995, filed Sep. 27, 2004, of the same title and to the same inventors, which is incorporated herein by this reference.
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