Contact-center routing based on incentives and/or agent preferences
First Claim
1. An apparatus for routing incoming service requests to agents, comprising:
- a database that associates at least one agent preference with a corresponding agent among a plurality of agents; and
a routing system, coupled to the database, that receives incoming service requests and agent preferences from the database and determines to which agent to route service requests based on the agent preferences.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A new routing protocol for routing service requests in a contact center is provided that takes into account agent preferences. Agents identify their preferences for handling particular types of service requests. The routing protocol takes account of those preferences while still routing calls in a systematic, coordinated and efficient manner. Additionally, management may communicate incentives dynamically to agents to incentivize agents to change their preferences in ways that corresponds to management priorities. Management may further influence routing by adjusting management preferences, which may be taken into account along with agent preferences when routing calls. By incorporating agent preferences in the routing scheme, agents are given more control over their work, thus tending to increase job satisfaction and therefore agent retention and contact-center performance.
68 Citations
96 Claims
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1. An apparatus for routing incoming service requests to agents, comprising:
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a database that associates at least one agent preference with a corresponding agent among a plurality of agents; and
a routing system, coupled to the database, that receives incoming service requests and agent preferences from the database and determines to which agent to route service requests based on the agent preferences. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An apparatus for affecting service request routing by a routing system, comprising:
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a database for storing agent preferences associated with agents; and
a server capable of communication with the database and a routing system and being capable of receiving preferences from agent terminals and storing the preferences in the database;
wherein the server provides preference information corresponding to the agent preferences to the routing system to permit service request routing by the routing system based on the preference information. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 47)
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41. A method for routing incoming service requests to agents, comprising:
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associating at least one preference of at least one agent with a corresponding agent among a plurality of agents;
receiving service requests; and
determining to which agent to route the service requests based on the agent preferences. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
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59. A computer program product having computer program logic stored therein, comprising:
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associating logic for causing a computer to associate at least one preference with a corresponding agent among a plurality of agents;
receiving logic for causing the computer to receive information about service requests; and
determining logic for causing the computer to determine to which agent to route the service requests based on the information and the agent preferences. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77)
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78. An apparatus for affecting service request routing performed by multiple ACDs, comprising:
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a database for storing agent preferences for agents, wherein each agent is associated with a particular organization and wherein the database stores agent preferences for a plurality of organizations; and
a server capable of communication with the database and a plurality of ACDs corresponding to a plurality of organizations and being capable of receiving preferences from agent terminals and storing the preferences in the database;
wherein the server provides the preference information for each agent to each ACD to permit service request routing by a plurality of ACDs to be performed based on the agent preferences. - View Dependent Claims (79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95)
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96. A method of rewarding agents in real time, comprising:
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identifying calls handled by each agent based on agent preferences;
assigning points to each agent based on calls handled by the agent; and
storing a point total for each agent.
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Specification