Telephone call centre performance evaluation

• US 6,741,697 B2
• Filed: 10/20/1998
• Issued: 05/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Benson, Paul, Impey, Alan Adrian
• Primary Examiner(s): BUI, BING Q
• Application Number:
  US09/175,527
• Publication Number:
  US 20020067821A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,044 Days
• Field of Search: 379/93.12, 379/127, 379/93.23, 379/201, 379/265, 379/266, 379/267, 379/265.01, 379/266.01
• US Class Current: 379/265.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42323 PBX's with CTI arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements

Abstract

A method of monitoring the performance of a CTI enabled business application for a call center is described. The method comprises the steps of acquiring telephony network information such as an Automatic Number Identification from the telephony network when a telephone call is made to the call center and searching for information stored by the business application such as the customer name which is associated with the ANI from the telephony network. This search is made at the beginning of the call and the customer name is stored with ANI in a call log. Additional information associated with the call such as an order taken during the call is searched for after the call is completed and this additional business information is also stored with said telephony information in the call log.

Claims

1. A method for a monitor business application of automatically creating a record of the performance of business applications at a computer telephony integrated (CTI) call centre for use in monitoring the performance of said call centre, said call centre being connected to a telephony network and including a customer record database storing customer records, a daily report database, a daily archive database, a report parameter database, a custom report call log storing call records, and at least one business information database comprising business information and call centre performance information stored by said business application and associated with said plurality of call records and customer records, said method comprising the steps of:

automatically acquiring call identification information from the telephony network for a telephone call made by the customer to the call centre;

automatically updating the daily report database and said daily archive database with said call identification information;

automatically searching with said call identification information the customer record database and said business information database for all stored records and call centre performance information associated with the call identification information;

automatically creating a custom call record associated with the call in the custom report call log in accordance with parameters specified in said report parameter database;

automatically storing the acquired call identification information and the number of records found during the searching step in the created custom call record; and

repeating the acquiring, updating, searching, creating and storing steps for each new call;

whereby, for a plurality of calls, the call records in the call log will represent a performance history of the call centre for that plurality of calls.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising storing an identifier in the call log, said identifier associated with a telephony application processing the call.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising presenting a view on the call log whereby the call records are grouped by telephony application identifier.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein a customer database hit report is produced from the call log and updated with every new call.

5. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the caller identification information and the number of located customer records are archived regularly.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein a report is produced from the archived caller identification information and the number of located customer records.

7. A system of creating a record of the performance of a computer telephony integrated (CTI) call centre for use in automatically monitoring the performance of said call centre, said call centre being connected to a telephony network comprising:

a customer record database storing customer records;

a custom report call log storing call records;

at least one business information database comprising business information and call centre performance information stored by said business application and associated with said plurality of call records and customer records;

a daily report database;

a daily archive database;

a report parameter database;

an acquisition component for automatically acquiring call identification information from the telephony network for a telephone call made by the customer to the call centre;

search component for automatically searching with said call identification information the customer record database and said business information database for all stored records and call centre performance information associated with the call identification information;

record component for automatically creating a custom call record associated with the call in the call log in accordance with the parameters specified in the report parameter database and for updating the daily report database and daily archive database with the call identification information;

storage for storing the acquired call identification information and the number of records found during the searching step in the created call record of the custom report call log; and

processing means for initiating the acquiring, searching, updating, creating and storing steps for each new call;

whereby, for a plurality of calls, the call records in the call log will represent a performance history of the call centre for that plurality of calls.

8. A system as claimed in claim 7 further comprising means for storing an identifier in the call log, said identifier associated with a telephony application processing the call.

9. A system as claimed in claim 8 further comprising a component for presenting a view on the call log whereby the call records are grouped by telephony application identifier.

10. A system as claimed in claim 9 further comprising a reporting component for producing a report from the call log and updating the report with every new call.

11. A system as claimed in claim 10 further comprising an archiving component for regularly archiving the call log.

12. A system as claimed in claim 11 further comprising a report component for producing a report from the archived call log.

13. A computer program product readable by machine tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine for performing a method for a monitor business application of automatically creating a record of the performance of business applications at a computer telephony integrated (CTI) call centre for use in monitoring the performance of said call centre, said call centre being connected to a telephony network and including a customer record database storing customer records, a daily report database, a daily archive database, a report parameter database, a custom report call log storing call records, and at least one business information database comprising business information and call centre performance information stored by said business application and associated with said plurality of call records and customer records;

said method comprising the steps of;

automatically acquiring call identification information from the telephony network for a telephone call made by the customer to the call centre;

automatically updating the daily report database and said daily archive database with said call identification information;

automatically searching with said call identification information the customer record database and said business information database for all stored records and call centre performance information associated with the call identification information;

automatically creating a custom call record associated with the call in the custom report call log in accordance with parameters specified in said report parameter database;

automatically storing the acquired call identification information and the number of records found during the searching step in the created custom call record; and

repeating the acquiring, updating, searching, creating and storing steps for each new call;

whereby, for a plurality of calls, the call records in the call log will represent a performance history of the call centre for that plurality of calls.