Customer queuing arrangement
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A call queuing system comprising:
- switch means having a plurality of input ports for connection to incoming telephone lines and a plurality of primary output ports for connection to telephone handling servers,control means responsive to calls on the input ports to selectively effect connections through the switch means to one of the output ports,the control means also being arranged to determine which, if any, of the output ports is not currently connected to an input port and to effect connections sequentially to the output ports,the switch means further having at least one secondary output port to which calls arriving at the input ports are switched if none of the primary output ports are available,said secondary output port(s) being connected to an announcement system arranged to transmit a message to calling but unanswered customers;
the control means allocating each unanswered customer to the next position in a queue, calculating an approximate time for which the customer may be expected to wait prior to connection to a telephone handling server and causing voice announcement means to transmit the calculated time to the customer;
the control means calculating an approximate time from service data defining the average service time for each of a multiplicity of previously connected calls, server data defining the number of servers currently in operation and the number of customers in the queue ahead of the customer currently connected to the voice announcement means;
wherein each time a call is connected to the voice announcement means, the control means causes data defining the calculated waiting time to be stored together with the actual time of connection and upon connection of such call to a telephone handling server determines the difference, between the calculated waiting time and the actual waiting time such that a weighting factor maybe applied in subsequent call waiting time calculations.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A customer queuing system receives telephone calls on one port of a switching system for handling by servers attached to output ports of the switching system. The queuing system estimates the waiting time which may be expected by each customer arriving at an input port and utilizes a voice announcement system to inform callers during the queue of the estimated waiting period prior to connection to one of the servers.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A call queuing system comprising:
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switch means having a plurality of input ports for connection to incoming telephone lines and a plurality of primary output ports for connection to telephone handling servers, control means responsive to calls on the input ports to selectively effect connections through the switch means to one of the output ports, the control means also being arranged to determine which, if any, of the output ports is not currently connected to an input port and to effect connections sequentially to the output ports, the switch means further having at least one secondary output port to which calls arriving at the input ports are switched if none of the primary output ports are available, said secondary output port(s) being connected to an announcement system arranged to transmit a message to calling but unanswered customers; the control means allocating each unanswered customer to the next position in a queue, calculating an approximate time for which the customer may be expected to wait prior to connection to a telephone handling server and causing voice announcement means to transmit the calculated time to the customer; the control means calculating an approximate time from service data defining the average service time for each of a multiplicity of previously connected calls, server data defining the number of servers currently in operation and the number of customers in the queue ahead of the customer currently connected to the voice announcement means; wherein each time a call is connected to the voice announcement means, the control means causes data defining the calculated waiting time to be stored together with the actual time of connection and upon connection of such call to a telephone handling server determines the difference, between the calculated waiting time and the actual waiting time such that a weighting factor maybe applied in subsequent call waiting time calculations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of estimating waiting time for a caller in a queue of callers waiting for service from a server in a pool of servers, said method comprising the steps of;
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determining a position of each caller in a queue of callers; determining an average time for a server to serve a caller; determining, for each active server, an anticipated time at which each said active server will become available to serve a caller; and estimating the waiting time for each caller in the queue based on the position of each caller in the queue, the average time for a server to serve a caller, the number of active servers, and the anticipated time at which each active server will become available. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A call queuing system, comprising:
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a switch, said switch including a plurality of input ports for connection to incoming telephone lines and a plurality of output ports for connection to telephone servers; a controller responsive to calls on said input ports, said controller selectively effecting connections between said input ports and said output ports through said switch, said controller further being arranged to determine which of said output ports is not connected to an input port and to effect connections sequentially to said output ports; said switch further comprising at least one secondary output port to which calls arriving as said input ports are switched if no primary output ports are available; an announcement system connected to said secondary output port, said announcement system being arranged to transmit a message to calls that are switched to said secondary output port; said controller allocating each call connected to said secondary port to a position in a queue and calculating an estimated waiting time for which each call in said queue may be expected to wait prior to connection to a server, and causing said announcement system to transmit the respective estimated waiting time to each call in the queue; wherein said estimated waiting times are based on an average service time for each of a plurality of previously connected calls, server data defining the number of servers in operation, the number of calls in the queue ahead of the calls currently connected to the announcement system and an anticipated time at which an active server will become available to service a call. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of estimating an approximate time for which a designated customer in a queue of customers connected through a telephone system may be required to wait for connection to a server comprising the steps of:
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determining the number of customers in the queue ahead of the designated customer; calculating an average handling time for each of a plurality of servers to handle a customer connection to provide a mean service time; multiplying the number of customers by the mean service time and dividing by the number of active servers; and determining a weighting factor from an originally estimated waiting time and an actual waiting time of at least one previously handled customer call; and applying said weighting factor to each estimate of approximate waiting time. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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Specification