Contact-center routing based on games or contests involving the agents
First Claim
1. An apparatus for routing incoming service requests to agents, comprising:
- a database that associates game information with a corresponding agent among a plurality of agents; and
a routing system, coupled to the database, that receives incoming service requests and game information from the database and determines to which agent to route service requests based on the game information.
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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 the results of games played by the agents and the game actions of the agents. The system communicates the game to the agent. Agents in turn select game actions. The results of the agent games and the agent actions in these games help determine which agents handle the different types of service requests. The routing protocol takes account of those game results and actions while still routing calls in a systematic, coordinated and efficient manner. Additionally, by dynamically restructuring the game, management may communicate incentives dynamically to agents to incentivize agents to change their game actions in ways that lead to call routing following management priorities. Management may further influence routing by adjusting management preferences, which may be taken into account along with agent game results and game actions when routing calls. By incorporating agent game results and game actions in the routing scheme, agents are engaged and entertained, so that their work is less boring and monotonous. The agents are also given more control over their work, thus tending to increase job satisfaction and therefore agent retention and contact-center performance.
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Citations
101 Claims
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1. An apparatus for routing incoming service requests to agents, comprising:
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a database that associates game information with a corresponding agent among a plurality of agents; and
a routing system, coupled to the database, that receives incoming service requests and game information from the database and determines to which agent to route service requests based on the game information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. An apparatus for affecting service-request routing by a routing system, comprising:
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a database for storing game information associated with agents; and
a server capable of communication with the database and a routing system and being capable of receiving agent game actions from agent terminals and storing the agent game actions in the database;
wherein the server provides the game information to the routing system to permit service-request routing by the routing system based on the game information. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A method for routing incoming service requests to agents, comprising:
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associating game information 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 game information. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63)
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64. A computer program product having computer program logic stored therein, comprising:
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associating logic for causing a computer to associate game information 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 game information. - View Dependent Claims (65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82)
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83. An apparatus for affecting service-request routing performed by multiple ACDs, comprising:
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a database for storing game information, wherein each agent is associated with a particular organization and wherein the database stores the game information 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 the game information from agent terminals and storing the game information in the database;
wherein the server provides the game information for each agent to each ACD to permit service-request routing by a plurality of ACDs to be performed based on the game information. - View Dependent Claims (84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100)
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101. A method of rewarding agents in real time, comprising:
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identifying calls handled by each agent based on the game information;
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