Call distributor with automatic preannouncement system and method

• US 5,544,232 A
• Filed: 06/08/1995
• Issued: 08/06/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Firstpoint Contact Technologies, LLC (Alvaria Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell International Corporation
• Inventors: Steinlicht, Joseph C., Baker, Daniel F., Holtaway, Thomas S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hofsass, Jeffery
• Assistant Examiner(s): TSANG, FAN S
• Application Number:
  US08/488,709
• Time in Patent Office: 425 Days
• Field of Search: 379/67, 379/88, 379/89, 379/210, 379/211, 379/212, 379/265, 379/266, 379/309, 379/214
• US Class Current: 379/88.25
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/306 Prerecordings to be used during a voice call
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/22 Automatic class or number identification arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42042 Notifying the called party of information on the calling party details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5235 Dependent on call type or called number [DNIS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/70 Identification of class of calling subscriber

Abstract

An automatic call distributor (20) connected with a plurality of agent telephonic sets (12) for audio communication with customers at customer telephonic sets (16) of an external telephonic switching system (18), visual displays (32) on the agent telephonic sets (12) for display of information concerning customers with an automated preannouncement system (10) having a hard disk (25) for storing preannouncement voice messages in a voice of a particular agent, a sign-in code stored in a main memory (24) of the automatic call distributor (20) associated with the particular agent, a key pad (34) at the agent sets (12) for entering in a sign-in code, and a digital audio source card circuit (30) for playing a preannouncement voice message received from the hard disk (25) in the voice of the particular agent associated with the sign-in code to a customer at a customer set (16) connected by the automatic call distributor (20) to the agent set (12) at which the sign-in code of the particular agent has been entered.

Claims

1. In an automatic call distributor having a plurality of agent sets each with a telephone to communicate with incoming telephone calls from customers at customer sets of an external telephonic switching system and a visual display for displaying information concerning customers, the improvement being an automated preannouncement system, comprising:

means for storing preannouncement voice messages in different voices of a plurality of different agents respectively;

means for associating a sign-in code with a particular agent of the plurality of different agents;

means at the plurality of agent sets for entering in the sign-in code; and

means responsive to the sign-in code entered at any one of the plurality of agent sets to enable at least one of the preannouncement voice messages in the voice of the particular agent associated with the sign-in code to BE automatically played to incoming telephone calls from customers which have been connected by the automatic call distributor to the one of the agent sets at which the sign-in code of the particular agent has been entered and in which the at least one of the preannouncement voice messages is played in the voice of the particular agent connected to the incoming telephone calls upon the initial connection of the incoming telephone calls by the automatic call distributor to the one of the agent sets.

2. The automatic call distributor of claim 1 in which the storing means includes means for digitally storing the preannouncement voice messages in a hard disk associated with a central processing unit in the automated preannouncement system.

3. The automatic call distributor of claim 1 in which the storing means includes means for storing different preannouncement voice messages respectively associated with different types of customers.

4. The automatic call distributor of claim 3 including means for correlating different preannouncement voice messages to different types of customers upon receipt of an incoming call from a different type of customer.

5. The automatic call distributor of claim 1 including means for correlating the preannouncement voice messages with the information concerning the customers that is displayable on the visual display of the agent sets.

6. The automatic call distributor of claim 1 including means for automatically playing a preannouncement voice message while the information concerning customers is visually displayed at the visual display of the one of the agent sets.

7. The automatic call distributor of claim 1 including means for storing multiple preannouncement voice messages in a plurality of different agent voices.

8. The automatic call distributor of claim 7 in which the multiple voice messages storing means includes means for storing a plurality of identically worded message announcements in the different agent voices.

9. The automatic call distributor of claim 8 including

means for selecting one of the preannouncement voice messages in the voice of the particular agent with the sign-in code of the particular agent, and

means for playing to one of the customer sets connected through the automatic call distributor the one of the preannouncement voice messages in the voice of the particular agent associated with the sign-in code entered at the one of the agent sets.

10. In an automatic call distributor having a plurality of agent sets each with a telephone to communicate with customers at customer telephone sets of an external telephonic network, the improvement being an automated preannouncement system, comprising:

a voice message memory accessible to the plurality of agent sets;

means for internally storing in the voice message memory a plurality of different preannouncement voice messages respectively associated with different types of customers each of the voice messages being generated in a voice of each of a plurality of different agents wherein the preannouncement voice messages are played to the customer sets upon initial connection of incoming calls to the agent sets;

means for determining the type of a customer making an incoming call from one of the customer telephone sets;

means for connecting an incoming call to one selected agent of a plurality of different agents; and

means responsive to the determining means and the connecting means for automatically selectively playing to the customer and to the one selected agent one of the plurality of different preannouncement voice messages associated with the type of the customer making the incoming call and in voice of the one selected agent connected to the incoming call upon the initial connection of the incoming call to the one agent.

11. The automatic call distributor of claim 10 in which the storing means includes means for digitally storing the different preannouncement voice messages in a hard disk associated with a central processing unit in the automated preannouncement system.

13. The automatic call distributor of claim 10 in which the selectively playing means includes means for associating a sign-in code with the particular agent,

means at the agent sets for entering in the sign-in code, and

means responsive to the sign-in code entered at the agent set to enable the preannouncement voice message in the voice of the particular agent associated with the sign-in code to be played to the customer connected through the automatic call distributor to the particular agent.

12. The automatic call distributor system of 10 in which the automated preannouncement system includes means for visually displaying on one of the agent sets information concerning the customer calling from one of the customer telephone sets while the one of the plurality of different preannouncement voice messages is played to the customer and to the one agent upon initial connection of a incoming call to the agent.

14. In an automatic call distributor having a plurality of agent sets each with a telephone to communicate with customers and a display screen to obtain visual information relating to customer types of said customers, the improvement being an automated preannouncement system, comprising:

means for automatically identifying one of a plurality of different customer types for each incoming telephone call, at least one of the plurality of different customer types associated with each of the customers;

means for storing a plurality of preannouncement voice messages and a plurality of associated display screen messages respectively associated with the plurality of different customer types, each of the preannouncement voice messages being in a voice of one of a plurality of different agents and are to be played prior to the one of the agents talking to the customer;

means for connecting an incoming telephone call from one of the customers to one of the agents; and

means responsive to the customer type identifying means and the incoming telephone call connecting means for automatically providing one of the plurality of display screen messages to the display screen of one of the agent sets associated with the one of the customer types connected thereto and for automatically playing one of the plurality of preannouncement voice messages to a customer associated with the one of the customer types in the voice of the one of the agents connected to the incoming telephone call upon the incoming telephone call being initially connected to the one agent set and prior to the one agent talking to the customer.

15. The automatic call distributor of claim 14 in which the automated preannouncement system includes means for digitally storing the voice messages in an announcement memory associated with a central processing unit in the automated preannouncement system.

16. The automatic call distributor of claim 14 in which the automated preannouncement system includes means for automatically playing one of the plurality of voice messages in response to the one message associated with the type of customer visually appearing on the display screen of an agent set.

17. The automatic call distributor of claim 14 in which the selectively playing means includes

means for associating a sign-in code with a particular agent,

means at the agent sets for entering in the sign-in code, and

means responsive to the sign-in code entered at one of the plurality of agent sets to enable one of the plurality of voice messages which is in the voice of the particular agent associated with the sign-in code to be played to the customer connected by the automatic call distributor with the particular agent at the one of the agent sets.

18. In an automatic call distributor having a plurality of agent sets each with a telephone to communicate with incoming telephone calls from customers at customer sets of an external telephonic switching system and a visual display for displaying information concerning customers, the improvement being a method of automatically playing preannouncement messages, comprising the steps of:

storing preannouncement voice messages in different voices of a plurality of different agents respectively;

associating a sign-in code with a particular agent of the plurality of different agents;

entering the sign-in code at one of the plurality of agent sets; and

automatically playing one of the preannouncement voice messages in the voice of the particular agent associated with a sign-in code entered at any one of the plurality of agent sets to incoming telephone calls from the customers which have been connected by the automatic call distributor to one of the agent sets at which the sign-in code of the particular agent has been entered and in which the one of the preannouncement voice messages played in the voice of the particular agent is played upon an initial connection of an incoming telephone call by the automatic call distributor to the one agent set at which the sign-in code is entered.

19. The method of claim 18 in which the step of storing preannouncement voice messages includes the step of digitally storing the preannouncement voice messages in a hard disk associated with a central processing unit of the automatic call distributor.

20. The method of claim 18 in which the step of storing preannouncement voice messages includes the step of storing different preannouncement voice messages respectively associated with different types of customers.

21. The method of claim 20 including the step of correlating different preannouncement voice messages to different types of customers upon receipt of an incoming call from a different type of customer.

22. The method of claim 18 including the step of correlating the preannouncement voice messages with the information concerning each of the customers that is displayable on the visual displays of the plurality of agent sets.

23. The method of claim 18 including the step of automatically playing the one of the preannouncement voice messages while the information concerning customers is visually displayed at the visual display of the one of the agent sets in which the sign-in code is entered.

24. The method of claim 18 including the step of storing multiple preannouncement voice messages in a plurality of different voices corresponding to a plurality of different agents.

25. The method of claim 24 in which the step of storing multiple voice messages includes the step of storing a plurality of identically worded message announcements in the plurality of different voices corresponding to the different agents.

26. The method of claim 25 including the steps of

selecting one of the preannouncement voice messages in the voice of the particular agent, and

playing to one of the customer sets connected to an agent set through the automatic call distributor the one of the preannouncement voice messages in the voice of the particular agent associated with the sign-in code at the agent set.

27. In an automatic call distributor having a memory accessible to a plurality of agent sets each with a telephone to communicate with incoming telephone calls from customers at customer telephone sets of an external telephone network, the improvement being a method of automatically playing preannouncement messages, comprising the steps of:

internally storing in the memory accessible to the agent sets a plurality of different preannouncement voice messages respectively associated with different types of customers, each of the preannouncement voice messages being in a voice of an agent is played to customer telephone sets upon initial connection of incoming calls to an agent set;

determining a type of a customer placing an incoming call from one of the plurality of customer telephone sets;

determining which one of a plurality of different agents will answer the incoming call; and

selectively playing to the customer calling from one of the plurality of customer telephone sets, one of the plurality of different preannouncement voice messages associated with the type of customer in the voice of the agent who is determined to answer the incoming call upon the initial connection of the incoming call to the agent prior to the agent talking to the customer.

28. The method of claim 27 in which the step of internally storing different preannouncement voice messages includes the step of digitally storing the different preannouncement voice messages at a hard disk associated with a central processing unit in the automatic call distributor.

29. The method of claim 27 including the step of visually displaying on the agent set information concerning the customer making the incoming call while the preannouncement message is played to the customer.

30. The method of claim 27 in which the step of selectively playing includes the steps of

associating a sign-in code with a particular agent,

entering in the sign-in code at one of the agent sets, and

playing one of the preannouncement voice messages in the voice of the particular agent associated with the sign-in code entered at the one of the agent sets to the customer connected through the automatic call distributor to the particular agent.

31. In an automatic call distributor having a plurality of agent sets each with a telephone to communicate with incoming telephone calls from customers and a display screen to obtain visual information relating to customer types, a plurality of agents being associated with the plurality of agent sets to answer the incoming telephone calls, the improvement being a method of automatically playing preannouncement messages, comprising the steps of:

identifying one of a plurality of different customer types of an incoming call;

storing a plurality of preannouncement voice messages and corresponding display screen messages respectively associated with the plurality of different customer types, each of the preannouncement voice messages being in a voice of one of the plurality of agents respectively;

connecting an incoming call from one of the customers to one of the agents;

automatically providing one of the plurality of display screen messages to the display screen of one of the agent sets associated with the type of customer connected thereto, the one of the agent sets having a particular one of the agents associated therewith; and

playing to the customer connected to the one of the agent sets one of the plurality of preannouncement voice messages which corresponds to the one of the plurality of display screen messages being provided to the agent set which is associated with the identified customer type of customer connected thereto and which is in the voice of the particular one of the agents upon the incoming call being initially connected to the one agent set and prior to the one agent talking to the customer.

32. The method of claim 31 including the step of correlating and playing a different voice message to a different type of customer upon receipt of an input from a different type of customer.

33. The method of claim 31 including the step of digitally storing the voice messages in a hard disk associated with a central processing unit in the automated preannouncement system.

34. The method of claim 31 including the step of automatically playing one of the plurality of voice messages in response to the one voice message associated with the type of customer visually appearing on the display screen of an agent set.

35. The method of claim 31 further includes the steps of

associating a sign-in code with the particular agent;

entering in the sign-in code at one of the agent sets, and

playing the voice message in the voice of the particular agent associated with the sign-in code entered at the one of the agent sets to the customer connected by the automatic call distributor with the particular agent at the one of the agent sets.