Staged predictive dialing system

• US 6,804,346 B1
• Filed: 07/13/2000
• Issued: 10/12/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Interactive Intelligence Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Inventors: Mewhinney, Brian E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Deane, Jr., William J.
• Application Number:
  US09/616,083
• Time in Patent Office: 1,552 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265-1-2, 379/266.01, 379/266.1, 379/309, 379/201
• US Class Current: 379/265.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/36 Statistical metering, e.g. recording occasions when traffic exceeds capacity of trunks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5158 in combination with automated outdialling systems devices for signalling identity of wanted subscriber H04M1/26
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and system places outbound calls using a predictive dialer at a call center and, optionally, receives inbound calls. The predictive dialing components use information about the substantive stage of the active calls at a given point in time to decide whether to begin to dial another outbound call. The calls that are considered may be inbound or outbound. In one form of the invention, statistics are maintained regarding each agent'"'"'s passage through the various stages of an active call, then the statistics are used to control the predictive dialer.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of communication channels;

a linking means for predictively establishing communication links via said plurality of communication channels;

a telecommunication device linkable with two or more of said plurality of communication channels;

wherein said telecommunication device is linked with a first remote party on a first active call via a first one of said plurality of communication channels; and

a feedback means for communicating to said linking means a feedback signal that indicates the substantive progress of said first active call;

wherein said linking means is operative, based at least in part on the substantive progress indicated by said feedback signal, to attempt to establish a second call to a second remote party via a second one of said plurality of communication channels.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

said plurality of communication channels comprises one or more telephone lines; and

said telecommunication device is an audio communication device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said telecommunication device comprises an interactive voice response system.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said telecommunication device comprises an agent station comprising:

an audio communication device linked to at least one of said plurality of communication channels;

a video display; and

an input device in communication with said feedback means.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein said input device allows an agent to send any of a plurality of predetermined status signals to said linking means.

6. A system, comprising a computer-readable medium encoded with programming instructions that are executable by a processor in communication with a predictive dialer, to:

connect an agent with an outside party to establish a first active call;

generate a first progress signal that reflects the state, among a plurality of states, of a discussion between the agent and the outside party as determined with reference to the content of the discussion, on a first one of the plurality of communication channels; and

control the predictive dialer as a function of the first progress signal.

7. The system of claim 6, said programming instructions being further executable by said processor to:

generate a second progress signal that reflects the substantive progress of a second active call on a second one of the plurality of communication channels; and

control the predictive dialer as a function of the first progress signal and the second progress signal.

8. The system of claim 6:

said programming instructions being further executable by said processor to accept status input from the agent; and

wherein said first progress signal is generated responsively to the status input.

9. The system of claim 6:

wherein said programming instructions are further executable by said processor to;

accept script navigation input from the agent; and

control the display of script information responsively to the script navigation input; and

wherein said first progress signal is generated responsively to the script navigation input.

10. The system of claim 9, said programming instructions being further executable by said processor to generate a third progress signal based on the passage of time after generation of the first progress signal.

11. The system of claim 6, said programming instructions being further executable by said processor to generate a fourth progress signal that reflects further substantive progress of the first active call.

12. A method of controlling a predictive dialer in a communications center, comprising:

connecting an agent to an outside party to create an active call in which the agent and the outside party engage in a discussion;

determining a current state, among a plurality of states, of the discussion between the agent and the outside party, as determined with reference to the content of the discussion; and

controlling the predictive dialer based on the current state of the active call.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the plurality of states is an offer phase of the discussion.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the plurality of states is a question-and-answer phase of the discussion.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the plurality of states is a closing phase of the discussion.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the plurality of states is an acceptance phase of the discussion.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining step comprises inferring the current state from data entry by the agent.

18. The method of claim 12,

further comprising associating each of the plurality of states with one of a plurality of predetermined progress values; and

wherein the determining step comprises selecting a current value from the plurality of predetermined progress values that indicates the current phase of the active call.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating a duration value related to the length of time that the active call is in a particular one of the plurality of states.

20. The method of claim 19:

further comprising analyzing the duration value for each call in a plurality of calls to yield an accumulated duration output value; and

wherein said controlling is based on the accumulated duration output value.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of calls are handled by the same agent among a plurality of agents.

22. The method of claim 20:

further comprising collecting the duration values for a plurality of calls handled by a plurality of agents to yield a collective duration output value; and

wherein said controlling is also based on the collective duration output value.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein said duration output value is the average, over the plurality of calls, of the length of time that the call is in a particular one of the plurality of the predetermined call phases.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein said duration output value is the standard deviation, over the plurality of calls, of the length of time that a call is in a particular one of the plurality of predetermined call phases.

25. The method of claim 12, further comprising accepting inbound calls, and placing the inbound calls into one or more queues;

wherein said controlling is also based on one or more dynamic properties of the one or more queues.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising, when the predictive dialer connects an outbound call to a third party, but no agent is available to handle the outbound call, placing the outbound call in at least one of the one or more queues.

27. A scripting system for use in an agent workstation in a call center having a predictive dialing system, the workstation comprising:

a means for receiving telephone calls, each connected to a telephone respondent by the predictive dialing system; and

a display means;

the scripting system comprising;

a means for providing signals effective to cause the display means to display a script for prompting an agent in a telephone call with the telephone respondent;

a means for producing status signals representative of the progression of the agent through the script; and

a means for sending said status signals to the predictive dialing system.

28. In a system having a predictive dialer and a plurality of agent stations, the improvement comprising:

a signal from a first one of the agent stations that indicates the substantive content of the discussion between an agent at the first one of the agent stations and a third party;

wherein the predictive dialer determines whether to dial additional calls as a function of the signal.