Working skill estimating program

• US 20060210052A1
• Filed: 07/27/2005
• Published: 09/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Yanase, Takashi, Yamanaka, Hideki, Namba, Isao
• Granted Patent: US 8,341,012 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.60
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/14 Delay circuits; Timers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution

Abstract

A working skill estimating program is provided for estimating working skills of each agent in the state of separating a disturbance factor from response records (incidents). A large category classifier is supplied with the incidents within a predetermined time and classifies the incidents according to classification rules, for creating the topic-classified incidents. A small category generator collects the analogous incidents for each task type of the topic-classified incidents and generates a small category. A disturbance distinguisher distinguishes if the incidents belonging to each small category are common response records that appear regularly over time or disturbances whose frequency exhibits a significant time dependency. Then, a skill estimator estimates the working skills of each agent for each task type by using only common incidents determined as the common information.

Claims

1. A working skill estimating program for estimating working skills of an agent based on response records collected during a predetermined period, each response record containing information about an inquiry from a customer, a response thereto, and time spent therefor, the program making a computer function as:

large category classifying means for classifying the response records into large categories according to predetermined classification rules based on topics of inquiries and responses;

small category generating means for generating small categories by further classifying the response records belonging to each of the large categories according to a predetermined definition of similarity between individual response records;

disturbance distinguishing means for distinguishing whether the response records belonging to each of the small categories generated by the small category generating means are construed to be common response records that are produced constantly over time or disturbances whose frequency exhibits a significant time dependency; and

skill estimating means for estimating working skills of the agent in each of the large categories by using the common response records identified by the disturbance distinguishing means.

2. The working skill estimating program according to claim 1, wherein the small category generating means uses a hierarchical clustering to collect similar response records, the small category generating means comprising:

hierarchy building means for building a hierarchical structure of clusters by repetitively producing a new upper cluster from two lower clusters having the highest similarity at present which are selected from among the clusters each containing at least one response record, based on the definition of similarity; and

stop determining means for determining when to stop the process of building the hierarchical structure by the hierarchical building means, according to a predetermined stop condition, so as to finalize the hierarchical structure of clusters.

3. The working skill estimating program according to claim 2, wherein:

the hierarchy building means evaluates the similarity between two clusters, based on a combination of first and second similarities thereof;

the first similarity is defined as an absolute difference between a ratio of the response records created during a first half of the predetermined period and a ratio of the response records created during a second half of the predetermined period; and

the second similarity is similarity in content between every two response records belonging to the two clusters in question.

4. The working skill estimating program according to claim 3, wherein the first similarity is higher as the absolute difference between the ratios is smaller.

5. The working skill estimating program according to claim 3, wherein:

the small category generating means compares every possible pair of response records each belonging to the two clusters in question, so as to evaluate similarity in terms of words contained therein; and

a higher value of the second similarity is given to the two clusters if a higher minimum similarity is observed in the words contained therein.

6. The working skill estimating program according to claim 2, wherein:

the stop determining means determines whether the stop condition is met each time a new cluster is created; and

the stop condition specifies either or both of a maximum number of response records that each cluster is allowed to contain and a minimum similarity requirement that every two clusters to be coupled should satisfy.

7. The working skill estimating program according to claim 1, wherein:

the classification rules each give a particular large category name in association with a set of keywords that are supposed to appear in response records of that large category; and

the large category classifying means retrieves the keywords contained in the response records and, based on the classification rules, allocates to the response records the large category name associated with the retrieved keywords.

8. The working skill estimating program according to claim 7 wherein:

each response record comprises an inquiry content field containing details of an inquiry and a response content field containing details of a response to the inquiry; and

the large category classifying means retrieves the keywords from either or both of the inquiry content field and the response content field.

9. The working skill estimating program according to claim 1, further causing the computer to function as disturbance analyzing means for calculating how much the disturbances have influenced productivity of the agent, by using the response records distinguished as the disturbance information or the common information by the disturbance distinguishing means.

10. The working skill estimating program according to claim 9, wherein:

the predetermined period is divided into first and second half periods; and

the disturbance analyzing means calculates the influence of the disturbances, based on a relative productivity influenced by the disturbance in the first half period, a relative productivity influenced by the disturbances in the second half period, a ratio of common response records to the whole response records in the first half period, and a ratio of common response records to the whole response records in the second half period.

11. A working skill estimating apparatus for estimating working skills of an agent based on response records collected during a predetermined period, each response record containing information about an inquiry from a customer, a response thereto, and time spent therefor, the apparatus comprising:

large category classifying means for classifying the response records into large categories according to predetermined classification rules based on topics of inquiries and responses;

small category generating means for generating small categories by further classifying the response records belonging to each of the large categories according to a predetermined definition of similarity between individual response records;

disturbance distinguishing means for distinguishing whether the response records belonging to each of the small categories generated by the small category generating means are construed to be common response records that are produced constantly over time or disturbances whose frequency exhibits a significant time dependency; and

skill estimating means for estimating working skills of the agent in each of the large categories by using the common response records identified by the disturbance distinguishing means.

12. A working skill estimating method for estimating the working skills of an agent based on response records collected during a predetermined period, each response record containing information about an inquiry from a customer, a response thereto, and time spent therefor, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) classifying the response records into large categories according to predetermined classification rules based on topics of inquiries and responses;

(b) generating small categories by further classifying the response records belonging to each of the large categories according to a predetermined definition of similarity between individual response records;

(c) distinguishing whether the response records belonging to each of the small categories generated in the step (b) are construed to be common response records that are produced constantly over time or disturbances whose frequency exhibits a significant time dependency; and

(d) estimating working skills of the agent in each of the large categories by using the common response records identified by the disturbance distinguishing means.