AUTOMATED SCHEDULING OF CONTACT CENTER AGENTS USING REAL-TIME ANALYTICS

• US 20180091651A1
• Filed: 09/28/2016
• Published: 03/29/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zoom International A.S.
• Original Assignee: ZOOM International s.r.o
• Inventors: Slovacek, Vaclav
• Granted Patent: US 10,326,881 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/402 Agent or workforce management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements

Abstract

A system for automatically scheduling contact center agents using real-time analytics, comprising an analytics server that receives and analyzes interaction information, a scheduling server that produces scheduling events based on the analysis, and a queueing server that modifies a current state of agent workstations based on the scheduling events, and a method for system for automatically scheduling contact center agents using real-time analytics.

Claims

1. A system for automatically scheduling contact center agents using real-time analytics, comprising:

an analytics server comprising at least a plurality of programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of a network-connected computing device and configured to receive at least a plurality of interaction-specific information from a plurality of contact center systems, and configured to analyze at least a portion of the plurality of interaction-specific information, and configured to provide at least a portion of the analysis results to a scheduling server;

a scheduling server comprising at least a plurality of programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of a network-connected computing device and configured to maintain a schedule for each of a plurality of contact center agents, the schedule comprising at least a plurality of work items and a plurality of time-based scheduling information, and configured to receive a plurality of analysis information from an analytics server, and configured to produce a plurality of scheduling events based at least in part on at least a portion of the received analysis information, and configured to operate on at least an agent schedule based at least in part on a portion of the plurality of scheduling events; and

an agent queueing server comprising at least a plurality of programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of a network-connected computing device and configured to receive at least a plurality of agent-specific information from a plurality of agent workstations, the agent-specific information comprising at least an agent'"'"'s current status, and configured to operate on at least a portion of a plurality of agent workstations to configure at least an agent'"'"'s current status, the configuration being based at least in part on an agent schedule;

wherein the agent queuing server, on receipt of a notification from the scheduling server, places an agent'"'"'s current status to an unavailable state within a call queue and schedules immediate training for the agent;

wherein the notification is based on a recognized pattern, by the analytics server, from the plurality of interaction-specific information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the agent queueing server is further configured to receive a plurality of scheduling events from the scheduling server, and to operate on at least a portion of a plurality of agent workstations to configure at least an agent'"'"'s current status, the configuration being based at least in part on at least a portion of the plurality of scheduling events.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of interaction-specific information comprises at least a plurality of speech-based audio data.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the analytics server is configured to perform speech analysis on at least a portion of the plurality of speech-based audio data.

5. A method for automatically scheduling contact center agents using real-time analytics, comprising the steps of:

receiving, at an analytics server comprising at least a plurality of programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of a network-connected computing device and configured to receive at least a plurality of interaction-specific information from a plurality of contact center systems, and configured to analyze at least a portion of the plurality of interaction-specific information, and configured to provide at least a portion of the analysis results to a scheduling server, a plurality of interaction-specific information;

analyzing at least a portion of the interaction-specific information;

producing, using a scheduling server comprising at least a plurality of programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of a network-connected computing device and configured to maintain a schedule for each of a plurality of contact center agents, the schedule comprising at least a plurality of work items and a plurality of time-based scheduling information, and configured to receive a plurality of analysis information from an analytics server, and configured to produce a plurality of scheduling events based at least in part on at least a portion of the received analysis information, and configured to operate on at least an agent schedule based at least in part on a portion of the plurality of scheduling events, a plurality of scheduling events based at least in part on at least a portion of the analysis results;

receiving, at an agent queueing server comprising at least a plurality of programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of a network-connected computing device and configured to receive at least a plurality of agent-specific information from a plurality of agent workstations, the agent-specific information comprising at least an agent'"'"'s current status, and configured to operate on at least a portion of a plurality of agent workstations to configure at least an agent'"'"'s current status, the configuration being based at least in part on an agent schedule, at least a portion of the plurality of scheduling events; and

modifying the current state of at least a portion of a plurality of agent workstations, the modification being based at least in part on at least a portion of the plurality of scheduling events;

wherein in the modifying step comprises the agent queuing server, on receipt of a notification from the scheduling server, placing an agent'"'"'s current status to an unavailable state within a call queue and scheduling immediate training for the agent;

wherein the notification is based on a recognized pattern, by the analytics server, from the plurality of interaction-specific information.