Using business rules for determining presence

• US 20050187781A1
• Filed: 02/25/2004
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Christensen, Tore L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,398,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5141 Details of processing calls and other types of contacts in an unified manner unified messaging in packet-switching networks H04L51/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet

Abstract

The present invention provides various contact center embodiments for interacting with customers using instant messaging. In one embodiment, the contact center is configured to receive instant message notifications from a customer when the customer is available for contact by instant messaging. In another embodiment, the contact center is configured to route sessionless instant messages only to a selected agent for a specified period of time. In another embodiment, the contact center is configured to provide to customers presence information for administered instant message addresses before the customers contact the contact center. In another embodiment, the contact center is configured to perform an outbound instant messaging campaign or alert with customers.

Claims

1. A method for interacting with a customer in an contact center, comprising:

receiving an instant message notification from an instant messaging service associated with a customer that the customer is available to receive instant messages at a customer communication device; and

in response to the instant message notification, forwarding to the customer communication device an instant message containing an invitation to the customer to interact with the contact center.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing to a customer at least one instant message address associated with the contact center, wherein the customer adds the instant message address to a list of instant message addresses in a buddy list associated with the customer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising before the forwarding step:

determining whether the customer is eligible to participate in a campaign or to receive an alert.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein, when the customer is not eligible, the forwarding step is not performed.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating a workflow for the instant message notification to determine a contact center resource to perform the forwarding step.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a contact center resource to respond to the instant message notification.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the resource is an interactive instant messaging response device.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the resource is an agent.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the providing step comprises:

emailing the at least one instant message address to the customer communication device, whereby the customer adds the at least one instant message address to the list of instant message addresses in the customer'"'"'s buddy list by clicking on the at least one instant message address.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the providing step comprises:

causing a Web page containing the at least one instant message address to be displayed on the customer communication device, whereby the customer adds the at least one instant message address to the fist of instant message addresses in the customer'"'"'s buddy list by clicking on the at least one instant message address.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when a response to the instant message is not received within a predetermined period of time, terminating the instant messaging session.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning an electronic data unit to record the instant message text exchanged between the contact center and the customer

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding an instant message address of the customer communication device to a list of instant message addresses in a buddy list maintained by the contact center and/or a resource thereof.

14. A computer readable medium comprising instructions to perform the steps of claim 1.

15. A logic circuit operable to perform the steps of claim 1.

16. A method for servicing an instant message received from a customer by a contact center, comprising:

receiving an instant message from a communication device associated with a customer, the instant message requesting service by a resource associated with the contact center and the communication device having an instant messaging address;

selecting an agent to service the instant message;

providing the instant message to the selected agent;

forwarding at least one instant message from the selected agent to the customer'"'"'s communication device; and

for a selected period of time, routing any instant message received from the communication device'"'"'s instant message address to the selected agent.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein an instant message address of the selected agent is withheld from the customer'"'"'s communication device.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

assigning an electronic data unit to record the instant message text exchanged during the instant message session.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

after the terminating step, forwarding an electronic copy of the session transcript to the customer'"'"'s communication device by email.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

setting up a telephone call with the customer using a second communication device associated with the customer, wherein the telephone call is placed during the instant message session.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the agent conducts the telephone call simultaneous with the instant message session.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

the selected agent terminating the instant message session; and

thereafter the contact center not forwarding to the selected agent further instant messages received from the customer as part of the terminated instant message session.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein, in the forwarding step, the customer'"'"'s communication device is provided with an instant message address administered by the contact center, the provided instant message address being different from the selected agent'"'"'s instant message address.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the routing step comprises:

maintaining a listing of customer instant messaging addresses and session identifiers;

when a second instant message is received from the customer'"'"'s communication device, mapping the instant message address of the customer'"'"'s communication device against the listing to determine a corresponding session identifier; and

generating a message to the selected agent comprising the corresponding session identifier and text of the received second instant message.

25. A computer readable medium comprising instructions to perform the steps of claim 16.

26. A logic circuit operable to perform the steps of claim 16.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein the determining step (b) comprises:

1 interacting with a workflow server to initiate a workflow for the at least one instant message address.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein, in response to the initiation of a workflow, the workflow server performs the following steps:

determining a contact center state;

applying business rules to the determined contact center state to select a set of presence information from among a plurality of predetermined sets of presence information, wherein the selected set of presence information is provided by the presence notification agent to the presence server.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the contact center state corresponds to one or more of agent staffing levels for the at least one instant message address, queue lengths for the at least one instant message address, actual wait times to service instant messages sent to the at least one instant message address, and estimated wait times to service instant messages enqueued for the at least one instant message address.

27. A method for interacting with a customer in a contact center, comprising:

(a) providing to a customer at least one instant message address associated with the contact center, wherein the customer adds the instant message address to a list of instant message addresses in a buddy list associated with the customer;

(b) a presence notification agent determining, for the at least one instant message address, corresponding presence information;

(c) the presence notification agent providing the presence information to a presence server associated with the contact center; and

(d) the presence server providing the presence information to a communication device with the customer.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the providing step (a) comprises:

emailing the at least one instant message address to a customer communication device, whereby the customer adds the at least one instant message address to the list of instant message addresses in the customer'"'"'s buddy list by clicking on the at least one instant message address.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the providing step (a) comprises:

causing a Web page containing the at least one instant message address to be displayed on a customer communication device, whereby the customer adds the at least one instant message address to the list of instant message addresses in the customer'"'"'s buddy list by clicking on the at least one instant message address.

33. The method of claim 27, wherein the presence information comprises one or more of agent staffing levels for the at least one instant message address, queue lengths for the at least one instant message address, actual wait times to service instant messages sent to the at least one instant message address, and estimated wait times to service instant messages enqueued for the at least one instant message address.

34. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

determining whether to update the presence information provided to the presence server associated with the contact center; and

when the presence information is to be updated, repeating steps (b)-(d).

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the presence is to be updated when at least one of the following events has occurred since the providing step (d):

(i) a selected amount of time has passed, (ii) queue lengths have changed by at least a selected number of items;

(iii) agent staffing levels have changed by at least a selected level; and

(iv) at least one of actual and estimated wait times have changed by at least a selected time increment.

36. A computer readable medium comprising instructions to perform the steps of claim 27.

37. A logic circuit operable to perform the steps of claim 27.

38. A method for conducting an outbound instant message campaign in a contact center, comprising:

providing a list of instant message addresses;

determining whether an entity associated with each of the instant message addresses is available to receive and respond to an instant message; and

when an entity associated with an instant message address is not available within a selected period of time, contacting the unavailable entity by a communication medium other than instant messaging.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the determining step comprises:

querying a presence server associated with each entity to determine the entity'"'"'s availability by instant messaging; and

when an entity is not currently available by instant messaging, setting an alert to repeat the determining step at a later time.

40. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

when an entity associated with an instant message address is available within the selected period of time, forwarding an instant message to the respective entity'"'"'s instant message address.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

when the respective entity fails to respond to the instant message for a selected period of time, contacting the respective entity by a medium other than instant messaging.

42. A computer readable medium comprising instructions to perform the steps of claim 38.

43. A logic circuit operable to perform the steps of claim 38