INDEPENDENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENTS

• US 20090122972A1
• Filed: 08/14/2008
• Published: 05/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pratt, Jeffrey C., Inglis, Adrian, Nicholson, A. Lorraine, Darrow, John E., Weiland, Thomas J., Jay, Jon R., Kaufman, Donald L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,542,816 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.120
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/405 Competitive bidding for work items
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/551 Call history
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6018 Subscriber or terminal logon/logoff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5125 with remote located operators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems

Abstract

Aspects of systems and methods for maintaining and operating agent nodes are provided. In some embodiments, calls, contacts, and other work units may be routed to individual customer service agents via a centralized queue based on a variety of factors. Some embodiments may provide market-based call pricing and customer service agent compensation.

Claims

1. A system for automatically distributing contacts, the system comprising:

a contact distribution component that;

routes an incoming contact to a remote agent having a profile indicating the remote agent'"'"'s capability of processing the incoming contact; and

enables the remote agent to reject the incoming contact;

a pricing component in communication with the contact distribution component that determines a price for one or more of the incoming contacts that will be paid to the remote agent for processing the incoming contact; and

a revenue component in communication with the contact distribution component that initiates payment to the remote agent of the price determined by the pricing component.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the price is a fixed price or a variable price.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote agent belongs to an agent node.

4. A computer-implemented method for automatically distributing contacts, the method comprising:

selecting a remote agent to process an incoming contact, wherein the remote agent is associated with a profile that indicates that the agent is capable of processing the incoming contact; and

routing the incoming contact to the identified agent, wherein the identified agent is enabled to reject the incoming contact.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising determining a price for processing the incoming contact.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the price is a fixed price or a variable price.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 further comprising notifying the remote agent regarding the price.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the remote agent is notified that the price has met or exceeded a threshold.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 further comprising receiving an indication from the remote agent regarding the price.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the indication is an acceptance.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the indication is a price desired by the remote agent.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the remote agent belongs to an agent node.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the agent node includes one or more agents physically grouped together.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein agent node includes one or more agents logically grouped together.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the one or more agents are logically grouped together based at least in part by profile.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising gathering metrics related to the incoming contacts and then remote agent.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising assigning incoming contacts to a routing queue associated with the centralized queue, wherein the routing queue is assigned to an agent.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising associating feedback regarding the incoming contact with the identified agent.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising determining a training regimen based at least in part upon the routing of the incoming contact to the identified agent.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the incoming contact is at least one of a telephone call or electronic message.

21. A system for automatically distributing contacts, the system comprising:

a contact distribution component that directs an incoming contact to a remote agent having a profile that indicates the agent is capable of processing the incoming contact, wherein the remote agent is enabled to reject the incoming contact; and

a pricing component in communication with the contact distribution component that determines a price for the incoming contact that will be paid to the remote agent for processing the incoming contact.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the price is a fixed price or a variable price.

23. The system of claim 21 further comprising a revenue component in communication with the contact distribution component that initiates payment to the remote agent of the price determined by the relationship manager.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the remote agent is one of one more agents in an agent node.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the contact distribution component obtains feedback regarding contacts and agents and routes the incoming contact based at least in part on the feedback.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the contact distribution component obtains training information regarding agents and routes the incoming contact based at least in part on training information obtained about the remote agent.

27. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components for automatically distributing contacts directly to agents capable of processing the contacts, the computer-executable components comprising:

a contact distribution module that directs an incoming contact to a remote agent having a profile associated with the agent that indicates the agent is capable of processing the incoming contact; and

a user interface module that enables the remote agent to indicate the remote agent'"'"'s desire to process the incoming contact.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 further comprising a pricing module that determines a price for one or more of the incoming contacts that will be paid to the remote agent for processing the incoming contact.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the price is fixed.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the price is variable.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the price is dependent on the contact answering ability of the remote agents capable of processing the incoming contact.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the price is dependent on information specific to the remote agent.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the price is dependent on contact answering ability.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the user interface component further enables the remote agent to accept the price for the incoming contact.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 further comprising a metric component that gathers metrics related to the incoming contacts and the agent.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 further comprising a feedback module operative to store feedback regarding contacts and agents, wherein the contact distribution module routes the incoming contact based at least in part on the feedback.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 further comprising a training module operative to store training information regarding agents, wherein the contact distribution module routes the incoming contact based at least in part on training information known about the remote agent.