Systems and methods for distributing and routing calls in a call center
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving a call on a first server at a first call center site of a call center;
updating a queue with information about the call;
selecting an agent at a second call center site to handle the call, the second call center site being at a different location than the first call center site;
sending the agent a request to accept the call;
receiving an indication of acceptance by the agent at the first call center site; and
routing the call from the first call center site to the agent at the second call center site in response to said receiving.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A computer system and method is disclosed that includes a call queue server that receives incoming calls and routes the calls to a telephone at the agent'"'"'s workstation only after the agent accepts the request to take the call. A system and method is disclosed that includes a plurality of call queue servers, a queue monitor server, and a plurality of agent workstations, for distributing calls across multiple call center locations. Each call queue server receiving an incoming call sends a notification to the queue monitor server that in turn notifies each of the remaining call queue servers about the call. Each call queue server is thus able to maintain a current view of all activity across multiple call centers.
55 Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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receiving a call on a first server at a first call center site of a call center;
updating a queue with information about the call;
selecting an agent at a second call center site to handle the call, the second call center site being at a different location than the first call center site;
sending the agent a request to accept the call;
receiving an indication of acceptance by the agent at the first call center site; and
routing the call from the first call center site to the agent at the second call center site in response to said receiving. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method comprising:
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operating a call center including one of a number of call center servers;
receiving an incoming call with a corresponding one of the call center servers;
sending a first notification about the incoming call from the corresponding one of the call center servers to a queue monitor server; and
sending a second notification about the incoming call from the queue monitor server to each of the number of call center servers. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A system comprising:
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a plurality of call center servers, each of the plurality of call center servers including a call queue; and
a queue monitor server coupled to each of the plurality of call center servers over a network, the queue monitor server receiving a call status update from one of the plurality of call center servers and sending a notification to each of the plurality of call centers in response to the call status update to maintain the call queue of each of the plurality of call center servers with an updated list of call activity across the plurality of call center servers. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A system comprising:
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a plurality of call center servers, each of the plurality of call center servers including means for queuing calls; and
a queue monitor server coupled to each of the plurality of call center servers over a network, the queue monitor server including means for receiving a call status update from one of the plurality of call center servers and means for sending a notification to each of the plurality of call centers in response to the call status update to maintain the queuing means of each of the plurality of call center servers with an updated list of call activity across the plurality of call center servers.
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26. A method, comprising:
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receiving a call with a first server;
updating a queue with information about the call;
selecting an agent to receive the call;
sending the agent a request to accept the call;
receiving an indication of acceptance of the request from the agent; and
directing the call to the agent after said receiving. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
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- 29. An apparatus, comprising a computer-readable device carrying logic operable to select an agent for handling an incoming call, the logic being further operable to send an acceptance request to the agent and to route the incoming call to the agent only if the agent accepts the request.
Specification