Telephone call handling system
First Claim
1. A system for automatically handling incoming telephone calls comprisingmeans for receiving an incoming call arriving at an incoming line,means for receiving telephony information about said incoming call,means for assigning said incoming call to be controlled by one of a plurality of possible application programs based upon said information, each said application program including a set of user defined steps for handling an incoming call, said means for assigning including a call discrimination subsystem that is separate and distinct from said application programs,at least one of said application programs including queries for obtaining further information about said call, andmeans for returning control of said incoming call to said call distribution subsystem when said incoming call is controlled by said at least one application program and said at least one application program obtains said further information, said call discrimination subsystem reassigning said call to be controlled by one of a plurality of possible application programs based upon said telephony information and said further information.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for automatically handling incoming telephone calls. The system receives an incoming call and telephony information about the incoming call, and, using a call discrimination subsystem and based on the telephony information, assigns control of the call to one of a plurality of possible application programs. At least one application program includes queries for obtaining further information about the call and returns control of the call to the call discrimination subsystem to reassign the call based on the telephony information and the further information. The system selects an application program by comparing telephony information about the call with telephony digit patterns that correspond to different types of telephony information and that have been input by a user to be associated with an application program. Other features of the system are directed to selecting agents to handle incoming calls based on a list of quantitative agent performance values that are continuously updated by a monitoring system. In some cases, multiple, user-selectable lists are maintained. Also, offset values are used to modify the agent performance values when selecting an agent. When an agent is selected, the system provides on command of a plurality of possible commands regarding the handling of the incoming call depending upon which agent has been selected. The system also counts the number of incoming calls and handles a preselected number of the calls in a different manner than the remainder of the calls.
600 Citations
49 Claims
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1. A system for automatically handling incoming telephone calls comprising
means for receiving an incoming call arriving at an incoming line, means for receiving telephony information about said incoming call, means for assigning said incoming call to be controlled by one of a plurality of possible application programs based upon said information, each said application program including a set of user defined steps for handling an incoming call, said means for assigning including a call discrimination subsystem that is separate and distinct from said application programs, at least one of said application programs including queries for obtaining further information about said call, and means for returning control of said incoming call to said call distribution subsystem when said incoming call is controlled by said at least one application program and said at least one application program obtains said further information, said call discrimination subsystem reassigning said call to be controlled by one of a plurality of possible application programs based upon said telephony information and said further information.
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7. A system for automatically handling incoming telephone calls comprising
means for receiving an incoming call arriving at an incoming line, means for receiving telephony information about said incoming call, means for assigning said incoming call to be controlled by one of a plurality of possible application programs based upon said telephony information, each said application program including a set of user defined steps for handling an incoming call, said means for assigning including a call discrimination subsystem that is separate and distinct from said application programs, and input means for a user to enter telephony digit patterns that are associated with respective said application programs, said digit patterns including patterns for plural fields corresponding to different types of telephony information, wherein said call discrimination subsystem compares said telephony information with said digit patterns when assigning said incoming call.
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21. A system for automatically handling incoming telephone calls comprising
means for receiving an incoming call, means for maintaining a list of quantitative agent performance values for possible agents for receiving said incoming call, said agent performance values relating to the performance of respective, individual said agents in achieving performance goals relating to success of a business, input means for a user to enter data describing the success of an agent in achieving said business performance goals on incoming calls, means for monitoring respective performances of said individual agents based upon said data describing success and updating said performance values, and means for selecting one of said possible agents to receive said incoming call based upon said performance values.
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23. A system for automatically handling incoming telephone calls comprising
means for receiving an incoming call, means for maintaining a list of quantitative agent selection values for possible agents for receiving said incoming call, said quantitative agent selection values relating to respective, individual said agents, means for modifying said selection values for individual agents based upon respective offset values assigned to said agent selection values, and means for selecting one of said possible agents to receive said incoming call based upon said selection values in the list.
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24. A system for automatically handling incoming telephone calls comprising
means for receiving an incoming call, means for maintaining a plurality of lists of quantitative agent selection values for possible agents for receiving said incoming call, said quantitative agent selection values relating to respective, individual said agents, each said list corresponding to a different criteria of agent selection, input means for a user to select which said list is to be employed in selecting an agent for said call, and means for selecting one of said possible agents to receive said incoming call based upon said selection values in the list selected via said input means.
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29. A system for automatically handling incoming telephone calls comprising
means for receiving an incoming call, means for selecting one agent of a plurality of possible agents to receive said incoming call, said means including queuing before a plurality of agents and selecting an agent of said plurality after said agent becomes available, and means for providing one command of a plurality of possible user defined commands regarding how said incoming call is handled apart from the routing to said agent, the selection of said one command being dependent upon which agent has been selected.
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44. A system for automatically handling incoming telephone calls comprising
means for receiving an incoming call, means for selecting one agent of a plurality of possible agents to receive said incoming call, means for providing a command regarding the handling of said incoming call, and means for counting the number of incoming calls in order to select a percentage of incoming calls out of the total number of incoming calls and for providing a command for handling the selected percentage of incoming calls in a different manner than the remainder of the incoming calls.
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49. A system for automatically handling incoming telephone calls comprising
means for receiving an incoming call, means for selecting one agent of a plurality of possible agents to receive said incoming call, means for providing a command regarding the handling of said incoming call, and means for counting the number of incoming calls that have reached a specified step in the handling of said incoming calls in order to select a percentage of incoming calls out of the total number of incoming calls that have reached said specified step and for providing a command for handling the selected percentage of incoming calls in a different manner than the remainder of the incoming calls.
Specification