Wait time prediction arrangement for non-real-time customer contacts

• US 6,754,333 B1
• Filed: 08/17/2000
• Issued: 06/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Technology Corporation Miami Lakes FLA US
• Inventors: Flockhart, Andrew D., Harris, Michael Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Deane, Jr., William J.
• Application Number:
  US09/641,403
• Time in Patent Office: 1,405 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265-1-2, 379/266-1-2
• US Class Current: 379/266.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5238 with waiting time or load prediction arrangements

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a contact center and methodology for servicing non-real-time contacts. The advance time for the non-real-time contacts is determined by subtracting the time of service for an earlier item from the time of service for a later item. Items that are serviced immediately after certain types of predetermined events, e.g., the queue containing the non-real-time contacts has no working agents; the queue is empty; the system clock is changed; and the system is rebooted are ignored in estimating the wait time for enqueued items. Using this methodology, accurate wait-time predictions are provided for more efficient management of the contact center.

Claims

1. A method for estimating a waiting time of at least one item in a queue, comprising:

providing a first item in the queue for servicing at a first time, wherein at least one of the following conditions exists with respect to the first item;

(a) the first time follows the occurrence of a predetermined type of event, the predetermined type of event being at least one of (i) the queue containing the first item has no working agents;

(ii) the queue containing the first item was empty immediately before the first item was placed in the queue, (iii) a contact center associated with the queue containing the first item is not operational; and

(iv) a working agent of the contact center elects not to service the first item; and

(b) a time associated with the first item exceeds a predetermined time; and

excluding a time interval associated with the first item from an estimation of a wait time associated with the queue.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first item is a non-real-time contact.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a second item in the queue for servicing at a second later time;

determining that neither of the conditions (a) and (b) exist with respect to the second item; and

computing a time interval for the second item by subtracting from the second time a service time associated with a third item preceding the second item in the queue, wherein the service time associated with the third item is the time at which the third item was serviced.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the time interval for the second item is determined independent of an ordering of the second item in the queue.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the following conditions includes only the conditions identified in (a) above.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

setting an indicator when the at least one of the following conditions is found to exist with respect to an item in a queue.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the first item is the preceding item and further comprising:

in response to the first item being dequeued at the first time, noting the first time; and

in response to the second item being dequeued at the second time, noting the second time.

8. A method for estimating a waiting time of at least one item in a queue, comprising:

providing a first item in the queue for servicing at a first time, the first time following the occurrence of a predetermined type of event;

excluding timing information associated with the first item from an estimation of a wait time associated with the queue, the timing information being related to the duration of the placement of the first item in the queue;

providing a second item in the queue for servicing at a second time, wherein both of the first and second items were in the queue when the predetermined type of event occurred; and

using timing information associated with the second item in the estimation of a wait time associated with the queue.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first and second items are non-real-time contacts.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the using step includes:

computing timing information for the second item by subtracting from the second time a service time associated with a third item preceding the second item in the queue, wherein the service time associated with the third item is the time at which the third item was serviced and the timing information for the second item is related to duration of the placement of second item in the queue.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the predetermined type of event is at least one of (a) a change to a system clock;

(b) a contact center associated with the queue containing the first item is nonoperational; and

(c) a working agent of the contact center elects not to service the first item.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

setting an indicator when the predetermined type of event occurs.

13. A method for estimating a waiting time of at least one item in a queue, comprising:

providing a queue of items;

filtering an item in the queue based upon at least one predetermined criterion to form a filtered set of items, wherein at least a first item in the queue is excluded from the filtered set of items; and

determining an advance time for a selected item in the filtered set of items by subtracting from a service time associated with the selected item a service time associated with a second item preceding the selected item in the queue; and

determining an estimated waiting time in the queue for a third item based on the advance time.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the all of the items in the queue are non-real-time contacts.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the advance time is determined independent of an ordering of the second item in the queue.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the predetermined criterion is at least one of the following:

(a) a service time of an item follows the occurrence of a predetermined type of event, the predetermined type of event being at least one of;

(i) the queue has no working agents;

(ii) the queue was empty immediately before the at least one item was placed in the queue, (iii) a contact center associated with the queue is not operational;

(iv) a working agent of the contact center elects not to service the at least one item; and

(v) a system clock of the contact center is changed; and

(b) a time associated with the item exceeds a predetermined time.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

setting an indicator when the predetermined criterion is found to exist.

18. A method for handling contacts in a contact center, comprising:

determining at least one of a first advance and wait time associated with a first enqueued item in at least one queue using, respectively at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm; and

determining at least one of a second advance and wait time associated with a second enqueued item in the at least one queue using, respectively at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm;

wherein the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm differs from the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm and wherein the first enqueued item differs from the second enqueued item.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one queue comprises first and second queues, wherein the at least a first advance time and a first wait time is associated with the first queue and the at least a second advance time and second wait time is associated with the second queue, and wherein the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm includes ordering information associated with the first queue and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm excludes ordering information associated with the second queue.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one queue comprises first and second queues, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is associated with the first queue and the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is associated with the second queue, and wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is an advance time and the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is an advance time, and further comprising:

excluding from a wait-time prediction associated with at least one of the first and second queues timing information of an item in the at least one of the first and second queues, wherein the item follows a predetermined type of event.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one queue comprises first and second queues, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time is associated with the first queue and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time is associated with the second queue, and wherein the first enqueued item is a non-real-time contact and the second enqueued item is a real-time contacts.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time are associated with differing queues.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one queue comprises first and second queues, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is associated with the first queue and the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is associated with the second queue, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is the first advance time and the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm is the first advance time computational algorithm, wherein the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is the second advance time and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm is the second advance time computational algorithm, wherein the second advance time computational algorithm determines advance time for the second enqueued item by the following equation:

$\frac{\begin{array}{c}\text{(time <br><br> <br><br>the <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item <br><br> <br><br>is <br><br> <br><br>serviced}-\\ \text{time <br><br> <br><br>the <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item <br><br> <br><br>was <br><br> <br><br>originally <br><br> <br><br>queued)}\end{array}}{\text{(original <br><br> <br><br>queue <br><br> <br><br>position <br><br> <br><br>of <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item)}}$

and wherein the second advance time computational algorithm determines advance time for the first enqueued item by the following equation;

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the predetermined type of event is at least one of (i) the queue containing the first item has no working agents;

(ii) the queue containing the first item was empty immediately before the first item was placed in the queue, (iii) a contact center associated with the queue containing the first item is not operational; and

(iv) a working agent of the contact center elects not to service the first item.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one queue comprises first and second queues, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is associated with the first queue and the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is associated with the second queue, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is the first wait time and the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm is the first wait time computational algorithm, wherein the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is the second wait time and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm is the second wait time computational algorithm, wherein the first wait time algorithm determines the first wait time by the following equation:

(Current queue position of first item)(new average wait time), wherein new average wait time is as follows;

(old average wait time*0.97)+((time the first item is serviced−

time a preceding enqueued item is serviced)*0.03), with the old average wait time being the average wait time before application of the algorithm, and wherein the second wait time algorithm determines the second wait time by the following equation;

(Current queue position of first item)(new average wait time), wherein new average wait time is as follows;

(old average wait time*0.97)+(average advance time*0.03), wherein the average advance time is;

$\frac{\begin{array}{c}\text{(time <br><br> <br><br>the <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item <br><br> <br><br>is <br><br> <br><br>serviced}-\\ \text{time <br><br> <br><br>the <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item <br><br> <br><br>was <br><br> <br><br>originally <br><br> <br><br>queued)}\end{array}}{\text{(original <br><br> <br><br>queue <br><br> <br><br>position <br><br> <br><br>of <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item)}}.$

43. The contact center of claim 39, The contact center of claim 18, wherein the at least one queue comprises first and second queues, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is associated with the first queue and the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is associated with the second queue, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is the first advance time and the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm is the first advance time computational algorithm, and wherein the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is the second advance time and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm is the second advance time computational algorithm.

26. An arrangement for estimating a waiting time of a particular item in a queue of items, comprising:

directing means for directing a first item in a queue for servicing by a working agent at a first time, wherein at least one of the following conditions exists with respect to the first item;

(a) the first time follows the occurrence of a predetermined type of event, the predetermined type of event being at least one of (i) the queue containing the first item has no working agents;

(ii) the queue containing the first item was empty immediately before the first item was placed in the queue, (iii) a contact center associated with the queue containing the first item is not operational; and

(iv) a working agent of the contact center elects not to service the first item; and

(b) a time associated with the first item exceeds a predetermined time; and

filtering means for excluding timing information associated with the first item from an estimation of a wait time associated with the queue containing the first item, wherein the timing information being related to a duration of the placement of the first item in the queue.

27. The arrangement of claim 26, wherein the first item is a non-real-time contact.

28. The arrangement of claim 26, further comprising:

directing means for directing a second item in the queue for servicing at a second time, wherein the filtering means determines that neither of the conditions (a) and (b) exist with respect to the second item; and

computing means for computing timing information for the second item by subtracting from the second time a service time associated with a third item preceding the second item in the queue, wherein the service time associated with the third item is the time at which the third item was serviced.

29. The arrangement of claim 26, wherein the timing information is determined independent of an ordering of the second item in the queue.

30. The arrangement of claim 26, further comprising:

setting means for setting an indicator when the at least one of the following conditions is found to exist with respect to an item in a queue.

31. An arrangement for estimating a waiting time of a second item in a queue of items, comprising:

directing means for directing a first item in a queue for servicing at a first time, wherein the queue contains first and second items;

filtering means for excluding a first time interval associated with the first item from an estimation of a wait time associated with the queue and including a second time interval associated with the second item in the estimation of the wait time associated with the queue;

determining means for determining the second time interval associated with the second item by subtracting from the first time a service time associated with a third item preceding the second item in the queue; and

wait time estimation means for estimating a waiting time in the queue for a particular item using the second time interval.

32. The arrangement of claim 31, wherein each of the items in the queue is a non-real-time contact.

33. The arrangement of claim 31, wherein the filtering means filters based on one or more predetermined criteria that is at least one of the following:

(a) a service time of an item follows the occurrence of a predetermined type of event, the predetermined type of event being at least one of;

(i) the queue has no working agents;

(ii) the queue is empty, (iii) a contact center associated with the queue is not operational;

(iv) a working agent of the contact center elects not to service the item; and

(v) a system clock of the contact center is changed; and

(b) a time associated with the item exceeds a predetermined time.

34. An arrangement for estimating a waiting time of a second item in a queue of items, comprising:

at least one queue of items, wherein first and second items are contained in a first queue;

a memory containing the at least one queue of items;

a processor in communication with the memory for advancing enqueued items in the at least one queue of items;

a filter for filtering items to be serviced in the first queue to form a set of filtered items, the filtering being based on whether a selected item was enqueued in the first queue after at least one of the following types of events occurred;

(i) the first queue had no working agents;

(ii) the first queue was empty immediately before the selected item was placed in the first queue, (iii) a contact center associated with the first queue was not operational; and

(iv) a working agent of the contact center elected not to service the selected item; and

a waiting time predictor for predicting, based on a time associated with a first filtered item in the set of filtered items, a waiting time of a second filtered item in the first queue.

35. The arrangement of claim 34, wherein the first and second items are non-real-time contacts.

36. The arrangement of claim 34, wherein the waiting time predictor computes an advance time by subtracting from a service time associated with the second item a service time associated with the first item.

37. The arrangement of claim 34, wherein the at least one of the following types of events includes only conditions (i), (ii), and (iii).

38. The arrangement of claim 34, further comprising:

an indicator of when the at least one of the following types of events is found to exist.

39. A contact center, comprising:

at least one queue to hold items for servicing by at least one resource;

a first function operable to determine at least one of a first advance and wait time associated with a first enqueued item in the at least one queue using, respectively, at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm; and

a second function operable to determine at least one of a second advance and wait time associated with a second enqueued item in the at least one queue using, respectively, at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm;

wherein the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm differs from the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm and wherein the first enqueued item differs from the second enqueued item.

40. The contact center of claim 39, wherein the at least one queue comprises first and second queues, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time is associated with the first queue and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time is associated with the second queue, and wherein the first enqueued item is a non-real-time contact and the second enqueued item is a real-time contacts.

41. The contact center of claim 39, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time are associated with differing queues.

42. The contact center of claim 39, wherein the at least one queue comprises first and second queues, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is associated with the first queue and the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is associated with the second queue, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is the first advance time and the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm is the first advance time computational algorithm, wherein the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is the second advance time and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm is the second advance time computational algorithm, wherein the second advance time computational algorithm determines advance time for the second enqueued item by the following equation:

$\frac{\begin{array}{c}\text{(time <br><br> <br><br>the <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item <br><br> <br><br>is <br><br> <br><br>serviced}-\\ \text{time <br><br> <br><br>the <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item <br><br> <br><br>was <br><br> <br><br>originally <br><br> <br><br>queued)}\end{array}}{\text{(original <br><br> <br><br>queue <br><br> <br><br>position <br><br> <br><br>of <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item)}}$

and wherein the second advance time computational algorithm determines advance time for the first enqueued item by the following equation;

44. The contact center of claim 39, wherein the at least one queue comprises first and second queues, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is associated with the first queue and the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is associated with the second queue, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is the first wait time and the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm is the first wait time computational algorithm, wherein the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is the second wait time and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm is the second wait time computational algorithm, wherein the first wait time algorithm determines the first wait time by the following equation:

(Current queue position of first item)(new average wait time), wherein new average wait time is as follows;

(old average wait time*0.97)+((time the first item is serviced−

time a preceding enqueued item is serviced)*0.03), with the old average wait time being the average wait time before application of the algorithm, and wherein the second wait time algorithm determines the second wait time by the following equation;

(Current queue position of first item)(new average wait time), wherein new average wait time is as follows;

(old average wait time*0.97)+(average advance time*0.03), wherein the average advance time is;

$\frac{\begin{array}{c}\text{(time <br><br> <br><br>the <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item <br><br> <br><br>is <br><br> <br><br>serviced}-\\ \text{time <br><br> <br><br>the <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item <br><br> <br><br>was <br><br> <br><br>originally <br><br> <br><br>queued)}\end{array}}{\text{(original <br><br> <br><br>queue <br><br> <br><br>position <br><br> <br><br>of <br><br> <br><br>second <br><br> <br><br>item)}}.$

45. The contact center of claim 39, wherein the at least one queue comprises first and second queues, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is associated with the first queue and the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is associated with the second queue, wherein the at least one of a first advance time and wait time is the first wait time and the at least one of a first advance time and first wait time computational algorithm is the first wait time computational algorithm, wherein the at least one of a second advance time and wait time is the second wait time and the at least one of a second advance time and second wait time computational algorithm is the second wait time computational algorithm.