CALL QUEUING FOR LOCATION-AWARE MOBILE DEVICES

• US 20100128867A1
• Filed: 11/18/2009
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Inventors: Young, Bruce, Elpiner, Boris, Shmunis, Vladimir, Shah, Praful, Vendrow, Vlad
• Granted Patent: US 8,885,813 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/266.10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/28 Services making use of subscriber schedule information
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42246 where the subscriber uses a multi-mode terminal which moves and accesses different networks with at least one network having a wireline access including cordless PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4234 Remote access to features of PBX or home telephone systems-teleworking in a PBX
• 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 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5234 Uniform load distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A mobile device can be assigned to an extension configured as a Queue Agent (“QA”) in a call-queuing enabled virtual private branch exchange (vPBX). This and other mobile or fixed devices can be interconnected to form a virtual call center. Each extension can be assigned various rules, which specify how the incoming calls are answered at the extension and how calls in the call queue are selected for answering by the QA. As part of the rules, the vPBX system forwards calls from a call queue to the QA based on QA'"'"'s availability status. If a location-aware mobile device is associated with the QA, the vPBX system can determine the QA'"'"'s availability status based on a geographic location of the mobile device. A most geographically proximate agent can be selected for answering the call.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving one or more calls in a call queue;

determining an availability status of one or more queue agents associated with the call queue including determining a geographic location associated with the one or more queue agents; and

selecting an available queue agent to answer a call in the call queue based on the availability status and the determined geographic location.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prioritizing the one or more calls in the call queue,

where selecting the available queue agent to answer a call includes selecting an available queue agent suitable to answer a call with the highest priority.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a geographic location associated with a caller of the call,

where selecting an available queue agent includes;

determining a distance between each queue agent and the caller based on the geographic location associated with each queue agent and the caller; and

identifying a suitable queue agent as the available queue agent based on the distance.

4. The method of claim 3, where determining a distance includes determining a shortest distance between the geographic location associated with each queue agent and the caller.

5. The method of claim 1, where determining the availability status of the one or more queue agents includes determining whether the geographic location of the one or more queue agents is outside a predetermined area.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dispatching the call to the available queue agent; and

updating the availability status of the available queue agent from available to unavailable.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

updating the availability status of the available queue agent from unavailable to available after a predetermined period upon completing the call.

8. The method of claim 1, where selecting the available queue agent to answer a call further includes selecting an available queue agent based on a movement speed associated with a mobile device of the queue agent.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating the availability status of the one or more queue agents including;

transmitting a status update message to the one or more queue agents;

receiving a status response from the one or more queue agents; and

updating the availability status of the one or more queue agents based on the status response.

10. A method comprising:

designating a call extension as a queue agent extension;

specifying an agent profile for the queue agent extension;

associating one or more devices to the queue agent extension; and

dispatching a call to one of the one or more devices based on the specified agent profile.

11. The method of claim 10, where the one or more calls are dispatched to the mobile device after authenticating a queue agent associated with the device.

12. The method of claim 10, where specifying an agent profile for the queue agent extension includes specifying one or more time periods during which the queue agent extension is available to receive one or more calls.

13. The method of claim 12, where associating one or more devices includes associating two or more devices to the queue agent extension;

and

where specifying an agent profile includes specifying a different agent profile for each device.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining an availability status associated with each of the one or more associated devices,

where dispatching the call includes dispatching the call to an associated device determined to be available based on the availability status.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining a geographic location associated with the device,

where specifying an agent profile for the queue agent extension includes specifying one or more call forwarding actions for forwarding the call to be performed based on the determined geographic location.

16. A device comprising:

a queue manager configured to;

receive one or more calls from one or more callers;

prioritize the one or more calls in a call queue;

identify one or more available call agents from a list of call agents where availability is determined based at least on a geographic location associated with each call agent; and

dispatch a prioritized call in the call queue to a suitable call agent selected from the one or more identified available call agents, where suitability is based at

least in part on proximity of a caller and the one or more identified available call agents.

17. The device of claim 16, where the queue manager is further configured to:

remove the prioritized call in the call queue after the prioritized call is answered by the suitable call agent; and

update the list of call agents to identify the suitable call agent as unavailable.

18. The device of claim 17, where the queue manager is further configured to update the list of call agents to identify the suitable call agent as available after completing the prioritized call.

19. The device of claim 16, further comprising:

determining a geographic location associated with the prioritized call,

where proximity of a caller and the one or more identified available call agents is based on a nearest location selection rule, where the nearest location selection rule is determined using the geographic location associated with the prioritized call and the geographic location associated with the suitable call agent.

20. The device of claim 16, where selection of the suitable call agent is further based on a movement speed associated with a mobile device of the suitable call agent in comparison to other available call agents.

21. The device of claim 16, where the list of call agent includes information associated each call agent, the information including a call time of availability and a call counter for each call agent.

22. The device of claim 16, where the queue manager is configured to identify a call agent as unavailable if the call agent has reached a predetermined call threshold based on the call counter, a call time associated with the prioritized call is outside the call time of availability of the call agent, or the geographic location of the call agent is outside a predetermined area.

23. The device of claim 16, where the queue manager includes:

a telephony answering machine to handle the one or more calls in the call queue and to generate one or more requests for dispatching the one or more calls in the call queue to one or more available queue agents; and

a telephony gateway server to execute the one or more requests and to route the one or more dispatched calls to the one or more available queue agents.