Expected wait-time indication arrangement
First Claim
1. A method of estimating a waiting time of a particular item in a queue of items, comprising the steps of:
- determining, for each of a plurality of items in the queue, an amount of time that the item takes to advance a position in the queue;
averaging the determined amounts of time for at least a predetermined number of the items to obtain an approximate amount of time that any item in the queue takes to advance a position in the queue toward a head of the queue;
multiplying the approximate amount of time by a number of the position in the queue that the particular item does or would occupy to obtain an estimated waiting time in the queue of the particular item; and
reporting the obtained estimated waiting time to a requestor.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In an automatic call distribution (ACD) system, an improved estimated waiting time arrangement derives a more accurate estimate of how long a call that is or may be enqueued in a particular queue will have to wait before being serviced by an agent, by using the average rate of advance of calls through positions of the particular queue. For a dequeued call, the arrangement determines the call'"'"'s individual rate of advance from one queue position to the next toward the head of the queue. It then uses this individual rate to recompute a weighted average rate of advance through the queue derived from calls that preceded the last-dequeued call through the queue. To derive a particular call'"'"'s estimated waiting time, the arrangement multiplies the present weighted average rate of advance by the particular call'"'"'s position number in the queue. The arrangement may be called upon to update the derivation at any time before or while the call is in queue. Also, the arrangement performs the estimated waiting time derivation separately and individually for each separate queue. The arrangement advantageously takes into consideration the effect of ACD features that affect the estimated waiting time, including changes in the numbers of agents that are serving the queue due to agent login and logout, multiple split/skill queuing, agents with multiple skills or in multiple splits, priority queuing, interflow, intraflow, and call-abandonment rates.
309 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of estimating a waiting time of a particular item in a queue of items, comprising the steps of:
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determining, for each of a plurality of items in the queue, an amount of time that the item takes to advance a position in the queue; averaging the determined amounts of time for at least a predetermined number of the items to obtain an approximate amount of time that any item in the queue takes to advance a position in the queue toward a head of the queue; multiplying the approximate amount of time by a number of the position in the queue that the particular item does or would occupy to obtain an estimated waiting time in the queue of the particular item; and reporting the obtained estimated waiting time to a requestor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of estimating a waiting time of a particular call in any of a plurality of queues of calls, comprising the steps of:
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in response to each of a plurality of calls being enqueued in any corresponding queue, recording a time at which the call was enqueued in the corresponding queue and a number of an initial position of the call in the corresponding queue; in response to each of said plurality of calls being dequeued from any corresponding queue, noting a time at which the call was dequeued from the corresponding queue; for each of said dequeued calls, subtracting the recorded time at which the call was enqueued from the noted time at which the call was dequeued to obtain a corresponding difference; for each of said dequeued calls, dividing the obtained corresponding difference by the number of the initial position of the call in the corresponding queue to obtain the amount of time that the call took to advance one position in the corresponding queue; for each individual one of said dequeued calls, multiplying an average amount of time that it took to advance one position in the corresponding queue, determined for calls that have been dequeued from the corresponding queue prior to the individual call, by a weighting factor smaller than one, to obtain a corresponding first result; for each individual one of said dequeued calls, multiplying the amount of time that the individual call took to advance one position in the corresponding queue by a difference of the weighting factor from one, to obtain a corresponding second result; for each individual one of said dequeued calls, summing the corresponding first and the corresponding second results to obtain an up-to-date average amount of time that it takes to advance a position in the corresponding queue for calls including the individual dequeued call; in response to a request for an estimated waiting time of the particular call in a corresponding queue, multiplying the up-to-date average amount of time for the corresponding queue by a number of the position that the particular call does or would occupy in the corresponding queue to obtain the estimated waiting time of the particular call; and reporting the obtained estimated waiting time to the requestor. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. An arrangement for estimating a waiting time of a particular item in a queue of items, comprising:
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means for determining, for each of a plurality of items in the queue, an amount of time that the item takes to advance a position in the queue; means for averaging the determined amounts of time for at least a predetermined number of the items to obtain an approximate amount of time that any item in the queue takes to advance a position in the queue toward a head of the queue; means for multiplying the approximate amount of time by a number of the position in the queue that the particular item does or would occupy to obtain an estimated waiting time in the queue of the particular item; and means for reporting the obtained estimated waiting time to a requestor. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An arrangement for estimating a waiting time of a particular call in any of a plurality of queues of calls, comprising:
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means responsive to each of a plurality of calls being enqueued in any corresponding queue, for recording a time at which the call was enqueued in the corresponding queue and a number of an initial position of the call in the corresponding queue; means responsive to each of said plurality of calls being dequeued from any corresponding queue, for noting a time at which the call was dequeued from the corresponding queue; means for subtracting, for each of said dequeued calls, the recorded time at which the call was enqueued from the noted time at which the call was dequeued to obtain a corresponding difference; means for dividing, for each of said dequeued calls, the obtained corresponding difference by the number of the initial position of the call in the corresponding queue to obtain the amount of time that the call took to advance one position in the corresponding queue; means for multiplying, for each individual one of said dequeued calls, an average amount of time that it took to advance one position in the corresponding queue, determined for calls that have been dequeued from the corresponding queue prior to the individual call, by a weighting factor smaller than one, to obtain a corresponding first result; means for multiplying, for each individual one of said dequeued calls, the amount of time that the individual call took to advance one position in the corresponding queue by a difference of the weighting factor from one, to obtain a corresponding second result; means for summing, for each individual one of said dequeued calls, the corresponding first and the corresponding second results to obtain an up-to-date average amount of time that it takes to advance a position in the corresponding queue for calls including the individual dequeued call; means responsive to a request for an estimated waiting time of the particular call in a corresponding queue, for multiplying the up-to-date average amount of time for the corresponding queue by a number of the position that the particular call does or would occupy in the corresponding queue to obtain the estimated waiting time of the particular call; and means for reporting the obtained estimated waiting time to the requestor. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification