QUEUING AND ROUTING TELEPHONE CALLS

• US 20080037763A1
• Filed: 07/26/2006
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jain, Mukul, Kumar, Sanjeev, Patel, Labhesh, Shaffer, Shmuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,068,601 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/266.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42187 Lines and connections with preferential service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42348 Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing

Abstract

A method and system to process communications in an automatic communication distributor is described. The method may comprise receiving a communication and identifying an originating location from which the communication originates. Thereafter, a determination is made when the originating location corresponds to a predefined high priority geographical area and a priority to the communication is assigned based on the originating location. The call may be assigned a higher priority when the originating location corresponds to the high priority geographical area than when the originating location does not correspond with the high priority geographical area. The communication is queued based on the assigned priority. A method is also provided to assign an agent using an automated call distributor based on a distance between the originating location of the communication and the determined geographical locations of the potential respondents.

Claims

1. A method of processing communications, the method comprising:

receiving a communication;

identifying an originating location from which the communication originates;

determining when the originating location corresponds to a predefined high priority geographical area;

assigning a priority to the communication based on the originating location, the communication being assigned a higher priority when the originating location corresponds to the high priority geographical area than when the originating location does not correspond with the high priority geographical area; and

queuing the communication in a queue based on the assigned priority.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, which comprises defining the high priority geographical area in response to establishing during an earlier communication that more information on an event in the high priority geographical area is required.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, which comprises modifying at least one of a geographical position and a size of the high priority geographical area in response to a further communication during which more information on the event is obtained.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, which includes automatically without human intervention modifying at least one of the geographical position and the size of the high priority geographical area.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3, which comprises terminating the definition of the high priority geographical area if sufficient information about the event has been obtained so that further communications originating from a previously assigned high priority geographical area are not assigned the higher priority.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, which comprises:

identifying an event associated with the communication; and

accessing a database including a plurality of predefined events to identify the size of the high priority geographical area associated with the event.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which the communications are telephone calls, the method comprising conferencing at least two telephone calls together if the originating locations of those telephone calls are proximate each other.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, which comprises:

modifying a priority of the high priority geographical area; and

modifying the priority of all queued communications associated with the high priority geographical area in response to modifying the priority of the geographical area.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication is one of a telephone call, an email message, an Instant Message and a video call.

10. A method of assigning an agent using an automated communication distributor, the method comprising:

receiving an incoming communication;

identifying an originating location from which the communication originates;

determining geographical locations of potential respondents to the communication;

selecting at least one respondent based on a distance between the originating location of the communication and the determined geographical locations of the potential respondents; and

assigning the selected at least one respondent to respond to the communication.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the potential respondents are mobile respondents.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, which comprises identifying an availability status of the potential respondents, and selecting the at least one respondent based on an associated availability status.

13. The method as claimed in claim 10, in which selecting the at least one respondent based on the distance comprises automatically without human intervention:

comparing the originating location of the communication with the determined geographical locations of the potential respondents; and

assigning a respondent closest to the originating location as the at least one respondent.

14. The method as claimed in claim 10, which comprises:

identifying skills of potential mobile respondents required to respond to the communication;

accessing a skills database identifying actual skills of the respective potential mobile respondents; and

selecting the at least one mobile respondent based on the skills required and the actual skills.

15. The method as claimed in claim 10, in which the communication is a telephone call, the method comprising conferencing at least two telephone calls together if the originating locations of the at least two telephone calls are proximate each other.

16. A method of assigning an agent to respond to a communication, the method comprising:

monitoring geographical locations of a plurality of potential mobile respondents;

receiving the communication;

identifying an originating location from which the communication is received;

identifying a group of potential respondents from the plurality of potential mobile respondents, the group potential respondents being dynamically changed based on the geographical location of each respondent in the group; and

selecting the at least one respondent from the dynamic group.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, which comprises receiving an input from the at least one respondent to perform at least one of queuing the communication, transferring the communication to another respondent, modify the priority of the communication, and modify the identified skills required.

18. The method as claimed in claim 16, which comprises routing the communication to the at least one respondent to act as an agent.

19. A method of assigning a respondent, the method comprising:

monitoring geographical locations of a plurality of potential mobile respondents;

receiving a plurality of respondent requests;

identifying an originating location from which the respondent requests are received;

identifying a group of potential respondents from the plurality of potential mobile respondents, the group of potential respondents being dynamically changed based on a geographical location of each respondent in the group relative to the originating location; and

instructing at least one respondent from the group of potential respondents to change his location based on at least one originating location.

20. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

receive a communication;

identify an originating location from which the communication originates;

determine when the originating location corresponds to a predefined high priority geographical area;

assign a priority to the communication based on the originating location, the call being assigned a higher priority when the originating location corresponds to the high priority geographical area than when the originating location does not correspond with the high priority geographical area; and

queue the communication in a queue based on the assigned priority.

21. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

receive an incoming communication;

identify an originating location from which the communication originates;

determine geographical locations of potential respondents to the communication;

select at least one respondent based on a distance between the originating location of the communication and the determined geographical locations of the potential respondents; and

assign the selected at least one respondent to respond to the communication.

22. An automatic communication distributor to process communications, the communication distributor comprising:

a network interface to receive a communication;

a location arrangement to identify an originating location from which the communication originates;

a prioritizer to;

determine when the originating location corresponds to a predefined high priority geographical area; and

assign a priority to the communication based on the originating location, wherein the communication is assigned a higher priority when the originating location corresponds to the high priority geographical area than when the originating location does not correspond with the high priority geographical area; and

queue to queue the communication based on the assigned priority.

23. The communication distributor as claimed in claim 22, wherein a high geographical priority area is defined in response to establishing during an earlier communication that more information on an event in the high priority geographical area is required.

24. The communication distributor as claimed in claim 23, wherein at least one of a position and a size of the high priority geographical area is modified in response to a further communication during which more information on the event is obtained.

25. The communication distributor as claimed in claim 24, wherein at least one of the position and the size of the high priority geographical area is modified automatically without human intervention.

26. The communication distributor as claimed in claim 22, wherein the prioritizer is configured to:

identify an event associated with the communication; and

access a database including a plurality of predefined events to identify the size of the high priority geographical area associated with the event.

27. The communication distributor as claimed in claim 22, in which the communication is a telephone call, and the communication distributor is configured to conference at least two telephone calls together if the originating locations of those telephone calls are proximate each other.

28. An automatic communication distributor to assign an agent, the automatic communication distributor comprising:

a network interface to receive an incoming communication;

a location arrangement to;

identify an originating location from which the communication originates; and

determine geographical locations of potential respondents to the communication; and

a processor to

select at least one respondent based on a distance between the originating location of the communication and the determined geographical locations of the potential respondents; and

assign the selected at least one respondent to respond to the communication.

29. The communication distributor as claimed in claim 28, wherein the potential respondents are mobile respondents.

30. The communication distributor as claimed in claim 28, wherein an availability status of the potential respondents is identified and the at least one respondent is selected based on an associated availability status.

31. The communication distributor as claimed in claim 28, wherein the processor is configured to:

dynamically change a group potential respondents based on the geographical location of each respondent in the group; and

select the at least one respondent from the dynamic group.

32. The communication distributor as claimed in claim 28, wherein the communication is routed to the at least one respondent to act as a agent.

33. An automatic communication distributor to process communications, the automatic communication distributor comprising:

means for receiving a communication;

means for identifying an originating location from which the communication originates;

means for determining when the originating location corresponds to a predefined high priority geographical area;

means for assigning a priority to the communication based on the originating location, the call being assigned a higher priority when the originating location corresponds to the high priority geographical area than when the originating location does not correspond with the high priority geographical area; and

means for queuing the communication in a queue based on the assigned priority.

34. An automatic communication distributor to process communications, the automatic communication distributor comprising:

means for receiving an incoming communication from a caller;

means for identifying an originating location from which the incoming communication originates;

means for determining geographical locations of potential respondents to the communication;

means for selecting at least one respondent based on a distance between the originating location of the communication and the determined geographical locations of the potential respondents; and

means for assigning the selected at least one respondent to respond to the communication.