TREA

Outbound calling system in a contact center

Follow

Information

  • Patent Grant
  • 6707906
  • Patent Number
    6,707,906
  • Date Filed
    Monday, March 13, 2000
    25 years ago
  • Date Issued
    Tuesday, March 16, 2004
    21 years ago
Information
Abstract
An integrated contact center capable of generating outbound calls in a plurality forms including at least one instant online communication form for instantly communicating with a customer when he is online. A priority scheme or communication forms is preset for each customer so that the contact center may try the outbound calls according to the scheme until one succeeds. The contact center detects whether the target customer is online or not before an online communication form is tried.
Description




TECHNICAL FIELD




This invention relates to call centers, and in particular, to an inbound/outbound calling system and method used in an integrated contact center.




BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION




Most large service oriented companies have a call center for communicating with customers to sell services or products as well as to provide customer services. Customers may call, usually by dialing a toll-free number, into the call center to talk with the agents or representatives. In addition to the inbound calls initiated by the customers, the agents or representatives also initiate outbound calls for selling their products to potential customers, for calling back a customer who called earlier or to alert the customer of any required issue. Traditional forms of the calls, either inbound calls or outbound calls, usually include phone calls and facsimiles.




New communications techniques are continuously being developed following the boom of the Internet. Internet telephony, video conference and web chat are becoming more and more feasible and practical methods for people to communicate with each other because of its unique features and lower costs. There is a trend to evolve call centers into integrated contact centers that can communicate with customers not only by traditional methods, but also by internet-based newly developed communications techniques. However, there exists only the crudest methods to allow interaction between customers and company agents over the Internet. A customer may engage in a web chat, for example. There is however, no known technique of integrating an inbound/outbound call center with Internet media to produce a comprehensive contact center.




SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION




An object of the invention is to provide a technique with which a contact center can process and generate inbound/outbound contacts in a variety of forms that integrate Internet and telephony media.




The contact center of the invention is provided with means for generating outbound contacts in a plurality forms including at least one instant online communication form that is capable of instantly communicating with a customer when he or she is online. The online form may include instant web chat, internet audio and/or video telephony, etc.




A priority scheme of the call forms may be preset for each customer and an outbound contact will be tried in one form after another according to this priority scheme until one succeeds.




In a preferred embodiment, means is provided for detecting whether the targeted customer is online or not before the contact center tries a form of instant online communication method.




In one embodiment, an Internet address is used by the contact center to initiate an outbound contact over the Internet. The address of the contacted party is sent to an agent, and the online contact is established.




The above and further features and advantages of the present invention will be further explained with the preferred embodiment.











BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS





FIG. 1

is a typical arrangement of an integrated contact center.











DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT




A typical state-of-the-art contact center of today is shown in

FIG. 1

which includes a Gateway


1


connected with both PSTN and Internet for communicating with customers in a form of either analogue data or packet data. Through an ATM or Ethernet Switch


2


, the Gateway


1


is also connected with other parts of the contact center including Applications Servers


3


, Database Servers


4


, Blended Agent


5


, Supervisor


6


and Unified System Administration and Management


7


. Blended Agent


5


is a group of professional agents or representatives for communicating with customers through their respective terminals. Selected activities are under monitoring by the Supervisor


6


. The CCPRO system, available from the assignee of the present invention, implements most of the foregoing.




Equipped with proper hardware and software, an agent in the contact center shown in

FIG. 1

can answer an inbound call from a customer in different forms, either traditional one such as telephone and facsimile, or a newly developed telecommunications techniques on packet switched data network such as email, web chat and internet telephony. The conversation between the agent and the customer may be accomplished synchronously such as by telephone or Internet telephony, or asynchronously such as by email or fax.




In the present invention, the contact center can also initiate an outbound contact to a customer who is online. In particular, the contact center is provided with means for generating an outbound call to customer in different forms in which at least one kind of instant online communication form is included. This instant online communication form may include web chat, PC-to-PC Internet telephony, video conference, etc.




In preferred embodiment, a priority scheme in the call forms is preset for each customer and the contact center, while being desired to generate an outbound call to a customer, will try one form after another according to the preset priority scheme until one succeeds.




The priority scheme may be preset following the commands from the customer received over the Internet. For example, while requesting a call back, the customer may specify what form of call is preferred and shall be tried first. The customer may present his own priority scheme over the Internet, advising the contact center in which order he/she wishes to be contacted. The customer may determine at what times or days he wishes to be contacted in what orders, and may specify same via a password. The customer may complete a table with columns for different times or days, indicating a different priority for each. Thus, a graphical user interface (GUI) will be provided. From the GUI, the user may “click” on various media types, drag, and then drop them in order.




The priority scheme may also be preset by the contact center on its own initiative. For example, for saving cost, the contact center may try packet data communications methods first, e.g., email or web text chat.




An important feature of the present invention is in that instant online communications techniques are incorporated in the contact center for generating outbound contacts to its customers. This is advantageous in many aspects, especially when the targeted customer is online, which is now often the situation.




Before the contact center tries an instant online communication form, it may detect whether the targeted customer is online or not. There are known a plurality of techniques and services providing monitoring of whether a particular user is online or not (such as AOL ICQ and Microsoft Instant Messenger, etc.). Usually the customer is required to have a piece of small software running on its computer so that others can find he is online. If the targeted customer is found not online, the contact center will skip trying the online communications forms, and try telephone communications.




If the targeted customer is found online, the contact center may, according to the preset priority scheme, send a message to the customer informing him that a conversation is requested. The message will be shown to the customer immediately and the customer may accept the request or deny it. If the targeted customer accepts the request, a contact between the customer and the contact center is thus successfully established, and then the contact may be transferred to an available agent to begin the “conversation”. The agent will be sent a message indicating the customer e-mail address and/or name. The transfer could be dependent on contact type. For example some agents could get chat contacts but not voice (perhaps they have a poor speaking voice); others could get voice but not chat (poor typing skills), etc.




Alternatively, the customer may request that the contact be changed to a different media or time. (e.g. Please contact me by telephone instead). Thus, if the customer sees the message from the contact center on the screen, he may respond by overriding the chosen form of communication and requesting a different form of contact. This would be particularly useful if the user is online while traveling. He could respond with a telephone number where he can be reached which the contact center would utilize to recontact the user.




Generating outbound calls in an instant online communications form brings numerous advantages to the contact center. It cannot only easily locate customers, many of whom are often online now, but also save substantial expenditures in long distance calls and agent time.




Furthermore, the intrinsic advantageous features of instant online communications forms are also incorporated in the outbound calls. For example, the web text chat can exchange more clear and precise contents between an agent and a customer, especially where important facts such as numerals and names that requires confirmative recognition. Web text chat is also very helpful to customers who are not comfortable to communicate with the contact center using voice because of a deficiency in speaking or listening, e.g., a foreigner visiting the United States. With the globalization of internet, this will become more common. Besides, asynchronous interactions like email and slightly asynchronous interactions like chat are more efficient for agent productivity than synchronous communication like voice because agents can serve multiple interactions simultaneously.




Different from text chat, internet telephony has it own advantage in providing voice conversation and even visual presentation.




While the above describes the preferred embodiment in the invention, various modifications or additions would be apparent to those of skill in the art. Such modifications are intended to be covered by the following claims.



Claims
  • 1. A method of generating outbound contacts from a contact center to a customer, comprising the steps of:presetting for a customer a priority scheme that in which order shall a plurality of forms of outbound contact be tried, said plurality forms including at least one generally instant online communication form; and generating an outbound contact to said customer by trying one form after another according to said priority scheme preset for said customer until one form succeeds.
  • 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said step or presetting priority scheme comprising a step of receiving a command from said customer in which said priority scheme is requested.
  • 3. The method of claim 2 wherein said command is provided in an inbound contact from said customer.
  • 4. The method of claim 3 wherein said inbound contact is in an instant online communication form.
  • 5. The method of claim 4 wherein a call back is requested in said inbound contact.
  • 6. The method of claim 1 wherein said priority scheme for said customer varies in different time periods.
  • 7. The method of claim 1 further including a step of transferring an outbound contact to an available agent after said outbound contact is successfully generated.
  • 8. The method of claim 1 wherein said instant online communication form includes web chat, audio internet telephony, video internet telephony and their combination.
  • 9. The method of claim 1 further including a step of, before trying said generally instant online communication form, detecting whether said customer is online or not.
  • 10. The method of claim 9 further including a step of, upon finding said customer being online, sending an instant message to inform said customer that an contact is being requested.
  • 11. The method of claim 9 wherein said instant online communication form will not be tried if by said step of detecting said targeted customer is found not online.
  • 12. A contact center for communicating with its customers comprising:means for presetting, for one or more specified customers, an outbound contact priority scheme that controls in which order a plurality of forms of outbound contact shall be tried; and means for generating outbound contact to the customer in the plurality forms of contact, wherein said plurality forms include at least one generally instant online communication form that is capable of generally instantly communicating with said customer when said customer is online.
  • 13. A contact center for communicating with its customers comprising:means for generating an outbound contact to a customer in a plurality of forms of contact, wherein said plurality of forms of contact include at least one generlly instant online communication form that is capable of generally instantly communicating with said customer when said customer is online; and means for keeping a priority scheme of forms of contact for said customer according to which said forms of contact shall be tried one after another in a preset time period until one succeeds.
  • 14. The contact center of claim 13 wherein said priority scheme is preset according to a command from said customer.
  • 15. The contact center of claim 14 wherein said command is given in a call back request from said customer.
  • 16. The contact center of claim 12 wherein said instant online communication form includes web chat, audio internet telephony, video internet telephony and their combination.
  • 17. The contact center of claim 12 further comprising means for detecting whether said particular customer is online or not.
  • 18. The contact center of claim 12 further comprising means for instantly informing said customer when he is online that an instant online communication is requested.
  • 19. The contact center of claim 12 wherein said plurality forms further include phone call, email and facsimile.
  • 20. The method of claim 1 wherein said customer may override said priority scheme after being successfully contacted with an outbound contact.
  • 21. The method of claim 7 further comprising transferring an e-mail address of said customer to an agent after said contact is complete.
US Referenced Citations (116)
Number Name Date Kind
3333271 Robinson et al. Jul 1967 A
4066847 Giordano Jan 1978 A
4286118 Mehaffey et al. Aug 1981 A
4356348 Smith Oct 1982 A
4392129 Mehaffey et al. Jul 1983 A
4408100 Pritz et al. Oct 1983 A
4477698 Szlam et al. Oct 1984 A
4494229 Jolissaint Jan 1985 A
4510351 Costello et al. Apr 1985 A
4540855 Szlam et al. Sep 1985 A
4593273 Narcisse Jun 1986 A
4599493 Cave Jul 1986 A
4600814 Cunniff et al. Jul 1986 A
4677663 Szlam Jun 1987 A
4692858 Redford et al. Sep 1987 A
4694483 Cheung Sep 1987 A
4720853 Szlam Jan 1988 A
4742537 Jesurum May 1988 A
4742538 Szlam May 1988 A
4742539 Szlam May 1988 A
4757267 Riskin Jul 1988 A
4782463 Sanders Nov 1988 A
4782510 Szlam Nov 1988 A
4792968 Katz Dec 1988 A
4797911 Szlam et al. Jan 1989 A
4811240 Ballou et al. Mar 1989 A
4829563 Crockett et al. May 1989 A
4858120 Samuelson Aug 1989 A
4866638 Cosentino et al. Sep 1989 A
4881261 Oliphant et al. Nov 1989 A
4894857 Szlam et al. Jan 1990 A
4896345 Thorne Jan 1990 A
4933964 Girgis Jun 1990 A
4939771 Brown et al. Jul 1990 A
4939773 Katz Jul 1990 A
4988209 Davidson et al. Jan 1991 A
5021976 Wexelblat et al. Jun 1991 A
5041992 Cunningham et al. Aug 1991 A
5062103 Davidson et al. Oct 1991 A
5070525 Szlam et al. Dec 1991 A
5115501 Kerr May 1992 A
5119072 Hemingway Jun 1992 A
5119475 Smith et al. Jun 1992 A
5121477 Koopmans et al. Jun 1992 A
5175761 Khalid et al. Dec 1992 A
5179657 Dykstal et al. Jan 1993 A
5179700 Aihara et al. Jan 1993 A
5181236 LaVallee et al. Jan 1993 A
5206903 Kohler et al. Apr 1993 A
5214688 Szlam et al. May 1993 A
5276731 Arbel et al. Jan 1994 A
5309505 Szlam et al. May 1994 A
5309513 Rose May 1994 A
5335269 Steinlicht Aug 1994 A
5345589 King et al. Sep 1994 A
5357254 Kah Oct 1994 A
5386412 Park et al. Jan 1995 A
5428827 Kasser Jun 1995 A
5430792 Jesurum et al. Jul 1995 A
5440616 Harrington et al. Aug 1995 A
5490211 Adams et al. Feb 1996 A
5500891 Harrington et al. Mar 1996 A
5511112 Szlam Apr 1996 A
5511117 Zazzera Apr 1996 A
5519773 Dumas et al. May 1996 A
5533109 Baker Jul 1996 A
5535270 Doremus et al. Jul 1996 A
5546456 Vilsoet et al. Aug 1996 A
5553133 Perkins Sep 1996 A
5568544 Keeler et al. Oct 1996 A
5579368 Berkum Nov 1996 A
5581602 Szlam et al. Dec 1996 A
5586178 Koenig et al. Dec 1996 A
5588045 Locke Dec 1996 A
5594781 Kozdon et al. Jan 1997 A
5594791 Szlam et al. Jan 1997 A
5619557 Berkum Apr 1997 A
5623540 Morrison et al. Apr 1997 A
5675637 Szlam et al. Oct 1997 A
5689240 Traxler Nov 1997 A
5696818 Doremus et al. Dec 1997 A
5714932 Castellon et al. Feb 1998 A
5715307 Zazzera Feb 1998 A
5722059 Campana Feb 1998 A
5722064 Campana Feb 1998 A
5729600 Blahal Mar 1998 A
5742233 Hoffman et al. Apr 1998 A
5815565 Doremus et al. Sep 1998 A
5825283 Camhl Oct 1998 A
5825869 Brooks et al. Oct 1998 A
5828731 Szlam Oct 1998 A
5832059 Aldred et al. Nov 1998 A
5832070 Bloom et al. Nov 1998 A
5857014 Sumner et al. Jan 1999 A
5864615 Dezonno Jan 1999 A
5940494 Rafacz et al. Aug 1999 A
5963635 Szlam et al. Oct 1999 A
RE36416 Szlam et al. Nov 1999 E
5991394 Dezonno et al. Nov 1999 A
6044146 Gisby et al. Mar 2000 A
6044355 Crockett et al. Mar 2000 A
6118763 Trumbull Sep 2000 A
6134530 Bunting et al. Oct 2000 A
6157655 Shtivelman Dec 2000 A
6269153 Carpenter Jul 2001 B1
6272347 Griffith et al. Aug 2001 B1
6314089 Szlam et al. Nov 2001 B1
6359892 Szlam Mar 2002 B1
6359982 Foster et al. Mar 2002 B1
6362838 Szlam et al. Mar 2002 B1
6493447 Goss et al. Dec 2002 B1
20020047859 Szlam et al. Apr 2002 A1
20020067822 Cohen et al. Jun 2002 A1
20020143878 Birnbaum et al. Oct 2002 A1
20020145624 Szlam et al. Oct 2002 A1
20020161896 Wen et al. Oct 2002 A1
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number Date Country
0855826 Jul 1998 EP
Non-Patent Literature Citations (3)
Entry
M2 Presswire, 3COM: Cell IT launches breakthrough multimedia call center solution based on high speed 3Com systems; Mar. 4, 1998; 1-3 webpages; Coventry.
AT & T Technology; In The Forefront With Integrated Call Centers; Winter 1992; 1-7 webpages; New York.
Telemarketing & Call Center Solutions; How a Travel-Industry Call Center Excels; Sep. 1997; 1-2 webpages; Norwalk.