Multimedia managing and prioritized queuing system integrated with intelligent routing capability
First Claim
1. In a multimedia call center having a switching apparatus for receiving and switching media requests including connection-oriented, switched telephony (COST) telephone calls, and Internet protocol network telephony (IPNT) calls to telephony apparatus at connected agent stations, a queuing system comprising;
- an interactive voice response (IVR) system advising a COST caller, or an IPNT caller of expected wait time in queue and enabling the caller to leave a callback request; and
a queue controller;
wherein a call back request from either the COST or IPNT call is queued at the same point in the queue the call would be if originally placed in queue when the call was initially received, before interaction with the IVR or server, a call back is placed such that connection with the caller is achieved by the time the call back request reaches the head of queue, and after establishing a live call with the original caller via the call-back the queuing system places the resulting live call at or near the head of the queue for quick distribution to an appropriate agent.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A queueing system in a call center is adapted to queue voice mails as well as live telephone calls. In a preferred embodiment the calls include both connection-oriented switched telephony (COST) calls and Data Network Telephony (DNT) calls. Callers are enabled to leave voice mail as an alternative to waiting, and records of the voice mails are queued, preferably in the same queue processing the live calls. In some embodiments the call center is enabled to process e-mails, video mails and facsimile messages as well as live calls and voice mail messages, and all types of multimedia communication can be queued in the same queue according to prestored routing rules and priority rules.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. In a multimedia call center having a switching apparatus for receiving and switching media requests including connection-oriented, switched telephony (COST) telephone calls, and Internet protocol network telephony (IPNT) calls to telephony apparatus at connected agent stations, a queuing system comprising;
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an interactive voice response (IVR) system advising a COST caller, or an IPNT caller of expected wait time in queue and enabling the caller to leave a callback request; and
a queue controller;
wherein a call back request from either the COST or IPNT call is queued at the same point in the queue the call would be if originally placed in queue when the call was initially received, before interaction with the IVR or server, a call back is placed such that connection with the caller is achieved by the time the call back request reaches the head of queue, and after establishing a live call with the original caller via the call-back the queuing system places the resulting live call at or near the head of the queue for quick distribution to an appropriate agent. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A multimedia call center comprising:
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a switching apparatus receiving connection-oriented, switched telephony (COST) telephone calls, and a server interacting with Internet protocol network telephony (IPNT) calls, and switching said calls to telephony apparatus at connected agent stations;
an interactive voice response (IVR) unit interacting with the COST calls and the server interacts with the IPNT calls to the call center, including advising callers of expected wait time in queue and allowing callers to leave call back requests; and
a queuing system queuing call back requests at the same point in the queue the call would be if originally placed in the queue when initially received, and before the call back request reaches the head of the queue the call back is placed to enable connection with the caller by the time the call back request reaches the head of the queue and the resulting live COST or IPNT call is placed at or near the head of the queue for immediate routing to an available agent. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for distributing multimedia communications, including connection-oriented, switched telephony (COST) telephone calls, and Internet protocol network telephony (IPNT) calls in a call center, the communications including call back requests, comprising steps of,
(a) enabling a caller of a COST call or IPNT call to leave a call back request optionally as an alternative to waiting a predetermined time in a live-call queue for an agent; -
(b) queuing a record of the call back request alternatively to a live call in the same position in the queue the live call would have been if originally queued;
(c) placing a call back as a result of the call back request before the call back request reaches the head of the queue such that connection with the caller is achieved by the time the call back request reaches head of queue; and
(e) placing a live call resulting from the call back at or near the head of the queue for immediate routing to an available agent. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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Specification