Method and apparatus for queuing a call to the best backup split
First Claim
1. A call-distribution arrangement for a call-handling system that has, for each one of a plurality of calls, a primary call-handling facility and a plurality of backup call-handling facilities, comprising:
- first means responsive to an inability of a call'"'"'s primary call-handling facility to expeditiously handle the call, for determining which one of considered ones of the plurality of backup call-handling facilities for the call will handle the call most expeditiously; and
second means responsive to a determination by the first means, for directing the call to the considered backup call-handling facility that will handle the call most expeditiously.
13 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A call-center ACD switch and queuing method are modified either to respond to a call that overflows the call queue of its primary agent split by determining which backup split in which call center is the best backup split for the call, and enqueuing the call in the call queue of the best backup split, or to respond to an arriving call by determining, for those splits that could handle the call, the present values of a parameter that defines what is a best split for handling the call, determining from those present values which split is the best split for handling the call, and then enqueuing the call in the call queue of the best split. Any desirable criteria may be used to determine the best split or the best back-up split. A preferred criterion is queue waiting time: the best split or the best backup split is the one whose call queue offers the shortest in-queue waiting time. The waiting time may be either the real estimated waiting time (EWT), or the EWT weighted for other factors (WEWT). A programmable queuing control function directs the ACD switch to obtain, for each overflow call, the EWTs of its backup splits, to weight these EWTs in order to obtain the corresponding WEWTs, to compare the WEWTs with each other in order to find the backup split with the shortest WEWT (the best backup split), and then to enqueue the call in the queue of this best backup split.
221 Citations
36 Claims
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1. A call-distribution arrangement for a call-handling system that has, for each one of a plurality of calls, a primary call-handling facility and a plurality of backup call-handling facilities, comprising:
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first means responsive to an inability of a call'"'"'s primary call-handling facility to expeditiously handle the call, for determining which one of considered ones of the plurality of backup call-handling facilities for the call will handle the call most expeditiously; and second means responsive to a determination by the first means, for directing the call to the considered backup call-handling facility that will handle the call most expeditiously. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A call-center system comprising:
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a plurality of agent splits for handling calls, one of the splits being a primary split for handling an individual call and a plurality of others of the splits being backup splits for handling the individual call; a plurality of call queues corresponding to different ones of the splits, each for holding calls for handling by the corresponding split; first means responsive to the individual call overflowing the call queue of the primary split, for determining which one of considered ones of the backup splits for the individual call will handle the individual call most expeditiously; and second means responsive to a determination by the first means, for enqueuing the individual call in the call queue of the considered backup split that will handle the individual call most expeditiously. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method of distributing calls in a call-handling system that has, for each one of a plurality of calls, a primary call-handling facility and a plurality of backup call-handling facilities, comprising the steps of:
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in response to an inability of a call'"'"'s primary call-handling facility to expeditiously handle the call, determining which one of considered ones of the plurality of backup call-handling facilities for the call will handle the call most expeditiously; and in response to a determination of which one of the backup call-handling facilities will handle the call most expeditiously, directing the call to the considered backup call-handling facility that will handle the call most expeditiously. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method of distributing overflow calls in a call-center system comprising a plurality of agent splits for handling calls, one of the splits being a primary split for handling an individual call and a plurality of others of the splits being backup splits for handling the individual call, and a plurality of call queues each corresponding to a different one of the splits, each for holding calls for handling by the corresponding split, the method comprising the steps of:
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in response to the individual call overflowing the call queue of the primary split, determining which one of considered ones of the backup splits for the individual call will handle the individual call most expeditiously; and in response to a determination of the backup split that will handle the individual call most expeditiously, enqueuing the individual call in the call queue of the considered backup split that will handle the individual call most expeditiously. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification