Call center administration manager with rules-based routing prioritization

• US 7,039,176 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2001
• Issued: 05/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Telephony@Work (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Ezerzer, Ran, Borodow, Eli Ben, Margulies, Edwin Kenneth
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Harry S.
• Application Number:
  US09/902,069
• Publication Number:
  US 20020101979A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,758 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.02, 379/309, 379/266.02, 379/265.13, 379/265.12, 379/265.09, 705/14
• US Class Current: 379/265.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• 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 multi-media call center provides an interface tool for enabling non-technical personnel of a company running the call center to provision and configure the call center from available resources. The calls received by the call center are identified and their attributes useful in queuing the calls are determined. Based on the attributes, priority ratings are computed for the calls by applying a predetermined function to the attributes, and the calls are queued in accordance with their respective priority ratings. The weights to be given to the various priority attributes and the initial values of the customer-specific priority attributes are set through the interface tool during the provisioning and configuring process. The attributes are linked to the call center'"'"'s live database, and the values of the customer-specific priority attributes are dynamically updated, so that events relevant to call prioritization that occur after the initial configuration has been completed can affect call queuing.

Claims

1. A call center capable of receiving a plurality of calls, each received call of the plurality of calls being associated with at least one priority attribute from a plurality of priority attributes, comprising:

a plurality of agents capable of servicing the received calls of the plurality of calls;

a database for storing information related to a customer associated with each received call, the information comprising;

a plurality of customer priority attribute weights, each of the customer priority attribute weights being associated with a different priority attribute of the plurality of priority attributes, and

a plurality of customer priority attribute values, each of the customer priority attribute values also associated with a priority attribute of the plurality of priority attributes; and

an administration manager configured to determine a priority rating for each of the plurality of received calls based on one or more of the customer priority attribute values associated with each of the received calls and the customer priority attribute weights associated with each of the received calls, prioritize servicing of the plurality of received calls based on the determined priority ratings for each of the plurality of received calls, and update the plurality of customer attribute values stored in the database based on the priority attributes associated with each of the plurality of received calls.

2. A call center according to claim 1, wherein the information stored in the database further comprises names of the priority attributes.

3. A call center according to claim 1, further comprising a linking mechanism that dynamically links the customer priority attribute values entered via the interface to a live database.

4. A call center according to claim 3, wherein the live database is the database configured to store the information related to the customers associated with each of the plurality of received calls.

5. A call center according to claim 1, wherein the administration manager is further configured to update the customer priority attribute values substantially in real time.

6. A call center according to claim 4, wherein the linking mechanism links the customer priority attribute values entered via the interface using a views methodology.

7. A call center according to claim 3, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include a length of time a customer has been doing business with the call center'"'"'s company.

8. A call center according to claim 3, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include a dollar amount spent within a first predetermined period by an originator of each of the received calls.

9. A call center according to claim 3, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include a frequency of transactions engaged in by a customer.

10. A call center according to claim 3, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include the kinds of products purchased and services requested by a customer.

11. A call center according to claim 3, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include an amount owed by a customer.

12. A call center according to claim 3, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include a contractual relationship associated with a customer.

13. A call center according to claim 1, further comprising an interface configured to allow customer priority attributes to be defined and information related to each defined customer priority attributes to be entered and stored in the database, wherein the information related to the customer priority attributes comprises customer priority weights and customer priority values for a plurality of customers.

14. A call center according to claim 5, further comprising an interface configured to allow customer priority attributes to be defined and information related to each defined customer priority attribute to be entered and stored in the database, wherein the information related to the customer priority attributes comprises customer priority weights.

15. A call center according to claim 14, wherein the administration manager is further configured to dynamically established the customer priority attribute values in substantially real-time after an initial call associated with certain customer is received.

16. A call center according to claim 15, wherein administration manager is further configured to subsequently update the customer priority attribute values based on priority information associated with the plurality of received calls.

17. A call center according to claim 16, wherein the interface is further configured to allow customer priority attribute values to be input or updated in non-real-time.

18. A call center according to claim 17, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include a length of time a customer has been doing business with the call center'"'"'s company.

19. A call center according to claim 16, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include a dollar amount spent within a first predetermined period by an originator of each of the received calls.

20. A call center according to claim 16, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include a frequency of transactions engaged in by a customer.

21. A call center according to claim 16, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include the kinds of products purchased and services requested by a customer.

22. A call center according to claim 16, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include an amount owed by a customer.

23. A call center according to claim 16, wherein the defined customer priority attributes include a contractual relationship associated with a customer.

24. A call center according to claim 1, wherein the administration manager is further configured to prioritize the plurality of received calls based on other information.

25. A call center according to claim 24, wherein the other information includes information related to the skills or expertise of the plurality of agents.

26. A call center according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of received calls comprises facsimile transmissions.

27. A call center according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of received calls comprises email messages.

28. A call center according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of received calls comprises web based contacts.

29. A call center according to claim 1, wherein the call center is a distributed, virtual call center.