METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING RECEIVED CALLS

• US 20080175374A1
• Filed: 01/24/2007
• Published: 07/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Seacat, Lisa Anne, Salem, Loulwa F., Patel, Sushma Bharat, Lauridsen, Christina Karen
• Granted Patent: US 7,940,917 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/266.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/551 Call history recording a computer conference H04L12/1831
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42187 Lines and connections with preferential service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and computer usable program product for managing received calls. In response to receiving a first call from a user, the process stores a record of the first call in a table of received calls. Thereafter, in response to receiving a second call from the user within a predefined period of time after the first call was prematurely disconnected, the process identifies a second call as a prematurely terminated call. The process then places the prematurely terminated call in a queue of calls according to a set of configurable criteria and updates the record of the first call with a progress of the prematurely terminated call.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for managing received calls, the computer implemented method comprising:

responsive to receiving a first call from a user, storing a record of the first call in a table of received calls;

responsive to receiving a second call from the user within a predefined period of time after the first call was prematurely disconnected, identifying the second call as a prematurely terminated call;

placing the prematurely terminated call in a queue of calls according to a set of configurable criteria; and

updating the record of the first call with a progress of the prematurely terminated call.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the set of configurable criteria further comprises at least one of a length of the first call, a status of the user, an occurrence of an error, and the progress of the first call.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the step of updating the record of the first call with the progress of the prematurely terminated call further comprises at least one of identifying a stage at which the first call was prematurely disconnected and identifying an operator with whom the user was speaking at the time the first call was prematurely disconnected.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the step of updating the record of the first call with the progress of the prematurely terminated call further comprises:

assigning a priority ranking value to the record according to the configurable criteria.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the record of the first call further comprises at least one of the user'"'"'s information, the user'"'"'s calling number, a dropped call identifier, a stage identifier, and an employee identifier.

6. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium including computer usable program code for managing received calls, the computer program product comprising;

computer usable program code for storing a record of the first call in a table of received calls in response to receiving a first call from a user;

computer usable program code for identifying a second call as a prematurely terminated call in response to receiving the second call from the user within a predefined period of time after the first call was prematurely disconnected;

computer usable program code for placing the prematurely terminated call in a queue of calls according to a set of configurable criteria; and

computer usable program code for updating the record of the first call with a progress of the prematurely terminated call.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the set of configurable criteria further comprises at least one of a length of the first call, a status of the user, an occurrence of an error, and the progress of the first call.

8. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the computer usable program code for updating the record of the first call with the progress of the prematurely terminated call further comprises computer usable program code for at least one of identifying a stage at which the first call was prematurely disconnected and identifying an operator with whom the user was speaking at the time the first call was prematurely disconnected.

9. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the computer usable program code for updating the record of the first call further comprises:

computer usable program code for assigning a priority ranking value to the call record according to the configurable criteria.

10. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the record of the first call further comprises at least one of the user'"'"'s information, the user'"'"'s calling number, a dropped call identifier, a stage identifier, and an employee identifier.

11. A system for managing received calls, the system comprising:

a memory for storing at least one of a table of received calls, a call queue, and a set of configurable criteria; and

prioritization logic for storing a record of a first call in a table of received calls in response to receiving the first call from a user;

identifying a second call as a prematurely terminated call in response to receiving the second call from the user within a predefined period of time after the first call was prematurely disconnected;

placing the prematurely terminated call in a queue of calls according to a set of configurable criteria; and

updating the record of the first call with a progress of the prematurely terminated call.