Automatic call returning method for call distributor with message record capability
First Claim
1. In a call switching system having an automatic call distributor for selectively switching incoming calls from callers to a group of agent stations and with means for recording messages from the callers in the event a selected group of agent stations is not available to receive the incoming calls, a method for return of calls to callers who have recorded a message, comprising the steps of:
- indicating to the automatic call distributor when an agent is available to receive a recorded message;
automatically connecting through the automatic call distributor, as an incoming call, a recorded message to the agent station indicated as available to receive a recorded message;
enabling an agent to transcribe the recorded message at the agent station; and
providing the telephone number of the caller who left the recorded message to facilitate a return call.
15 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of automatically returning calls to callers (18) who have recorded a message in an ACD mail (22C) controlled message bin (22D) of a voice response unit (22) in response to a stored announcement in an announcement table (22B) selected in accordance with call statistics in a statistics table (22A) from an automatic call distributor (12) to provide the caller with queue information when no agent stations (14) are available. In one mode of operation (FIG. 4), the recorded voice message in queue is automatically provided to an agent when one becomes available in the same manner as an incoming call except an indication is given to the agent station (14) that the incoming call is, in fact, a prerecorded message which requires a cell back. The agent must obtain the telephone number from the recorded voice message and then input the multidigit number to place a return call. In other modes of operation (FIGS. 5 and 6), DTMF tones (D) recorded with the voice message are employed to enable the agent to auto dial the return call in response to the recorded message. In one of these other modes of operation (FIG. 6), the calls are automatically placed by an ACD control computer (20) and connected to an available agent station (14) the same as an original incoming call when answer detection occurs. If no answer detection occurs within a predetermined time limit, then the recorded message is returned to the queue on a preselected priority basis, and after a preselected number of unsuccessful attempts, the number and related information is printed on a printer (32) and removed from storage in the message bin (22D).
167 Citations
24 Claims
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1. In a call switching system having an automatic call distributor for selectively switching incoming calls from callers to a group of agent stations and with means for recording messages from the callers in the event a selected group of agent stations is not available to receive the incoming calls, a method for return of calls to callers who have recorded a message, comprising the steps of:
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indicating to the automatic call distributor when an agent is available to receive a recorded message; automatically connecting through the automatic call distributor, as an incoming call, a recorded message to the agent station indicated as available to receive a recorded message; enabling an agent to transcribe the recorded message at the agent station; and providing the telephone number of the caller who left the recorded message to facilitate a return call. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification