Call processing system
First Claim
1. A call processing system that is configured for:
- receiving an incoming call;
estimating an expected lifetime value that is predicted to be derived from a caller associated wit said incoming call;
assessing a priority of said incoming call based, at least in part, on said expected lifetime economic value;
determining whether to route said incoming call to an automated call processing system based on said assessed priority; and
in response to determining to route said incoming call to said automated call processing system, routing said incoming call to said automated call processing system.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system that is configured for determining the value of one or at least one incoming call and routing the call for processing based on this determined value. In one embodiment, the system routes very low value calls to an automated system for processing, and directs all other calls to human operators for processing. In another embodiment, the system assigns at least one agent to one or more of a plurality of groups of agents based on the agent'"'"'s past performance in executing a particular task. For example, the highest performing agents at handling a particular type of call are assigned to a first group, and the second highest performing agents at handling this type of call are assigned to a second group. In one embodiment, the most important calls are routed to the first, “highest performing” group for processing, and less important calls are routed to the second group for processing.
285 Citations
48 Claims
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1. A call processing system that is configured for:
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receiving an incoming call; estimating an expected lifetime value that is predicted to be derived from a caller associated wit said incoming call; assessing a priority of said incoming call based, at least in part, on said expected lifetime economic value; determining whether to route said incoming call to an automated call processing system based on said assessed priority; and in response to determining to route said incoming call to said automated call processing system, routing said incoming call to said automated call processing system. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A call processing system that is configured for:
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receiving data related to an in coming call; assigning a priority value to said incoming call based on said data; and using said priority value to determine whether to route said incoming call to a live agent or to an automated call processing system for handling, wherein said call processing system is further configured for; estimating an expected lifetime value that is predicted to be derived from a caller associated with said incoming call; and determining said priority value based, at least in part, on said expected lifetime economic value. - View Dependent Claims (4)
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5. A call processing system that is configured for:
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receiving data related to an incoming call; assigning a priority value to said incoming call based on said data; and using said priority value to determine whether to route said incoming call to a live agent or to an automated call processing system for handling, wherein said call processing system is further configured for; estimating an expected lifetime value that is predicted to be derived from an account associated with said incoming call; and determining said priority value based, at least in part, on said expected lifetime economic value. - View Dependent Claims (6)
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7. A call processing system that is configured for:
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receiving a call from a customer, said call being related to the cancellation of a first service; determining whether it would be beneficial to attempt to persuade said customer to replace said first service with a particular product or second service; and at least partly in response to determining that it would not be beneficial to attempt to persuade said customer to replace said first service wit a particular product or second service, routing said call to an automated call processing system. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. A call processing system that is configured for:
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processing calls from one or more customers related to a debt cancellation contract; and for at least a particular one of said calls, allowing a customer associated with said particular call to cancel said debt cancellation contract, via said particular call, substantially without the assistance of a human operator.
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12. A call processing system that is configured for:
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processing calls from one or more customers related to a debt deferment contract; and for at least a particular one of said calls, allowing a customer associated with said particular call to cancel said debt deferment contract, via said particular call, substantially without the assistance of a human operator.
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13. A call processing system that is configured for:
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receiving information related to an incoming call; using said information to determine whether it would be beneficial to have a human representative handle said incoming call; and in response to determining that it would not be beneficial to have a human representative handle said incoming call, routing said call to an automated call processing system, wherein; said incoming call is a first incoming call that is in a queue with at least a second incoming call; said step of determining whether it would be beneficial to have a human representative handle said first incoming call comprises; using at least one statistical model to estimate the expected future profitability of a first caller, said first caner being associated with said first incoming call and said at least one statistical model being based on a plurality of variables; using said at least one statistical model to estimate the expected future profitability of a second caller, said second caller being associated with said second incoming call; and comparing said expected future profitability of said first caller with said expected future profitability of said second caller; at least partially in response to determining that said expected future profitability of said second caner is greater than said expected future profitability of said first caller, determining that it would not be beneficial to have a human representative handle said first incoming call. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A call processing system that is configured for:
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assessing the importance of an incoming call, said incoming call being made by a particular customer; and routing said incoming call to a particular group of agents for processing based on said importance of said incoming call, wherein; at least one particular agent within said group of agents has been assigned to said group of agents based on said particular agent'"'"'s past performance in completing one or more particular tasks, and said call processing system is configured for; calculating an estimated value of future profits to be generated from said particular customer if an agent performs said one or more particular tasks successfully in regard to said incoming call; and determining said importance of said incoming call based, at least in part, on said estimated value of future profits. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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17. A call processing system that is configured for:
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assessing the importance of an incoming call, said call being made by a particular customer; and routing said incoming call to a particular group of agents for processing based on said importance of said incoming call, wherein; at least one particular agent within said group of agents has been assigned to said group of agents based on said particular agent'"'"'s past performance in completing one or more particular tasks, and wherein said call processing system is configured for; determining the estimated probability that said one or more particular tasks will be successfully performed by an agent; and determining said importance of said incoming call based, at least in part, on said estimated probability. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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19. A call processing system that is configured for:
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assessing the importance of an incoming call, said incoming call being made by a particular customer; and routing said incoming call to a particular group of agents for processing based on said importance of said incoming call wherein; at least one particular agent within said group of agents has been assigned to said group of agents based on said particular agent'"'"'s past performance in completing one or more particular tasks, and said one or more particular tasks comprises persuading one or more customers not to cancel a service.
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20. A call processing system that is configured for:
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assessing the importance of an incoming call, said call being made by a particular customer; and routing said incoming call to a particular group of agents for processing based on said importance of said incoming call, wherein; at least one particular agent within said group of agents has been assigned to said group of agents based on said particular agent'"'"'s past performance in completing one or more particular tasks, and said one or more particular tasks comprises persuading one or more customers to purchase an insurance policy.
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21. A call processing system that is configured for:
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assessing the importance of an incoming call, said incoming call being made by a particular customer; and routing said incoming call to a particular group of agents for processing based on said importance of said incoming call, wherein; at least one particular agent within said group of agents has been assigned to said group of agents based on said particular agent'"'"'s past performance in completing one or more particular tasks, and said one or more particular tasks comprises persuading one or more customers to purchase a debt protection contract.
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22. A call processing system that is configured for:
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assessing the importance of an incoming call, said incoming call being made by a particular customer; and routing said incoming call to a particular group of agents for processing based on said importance of said incoming call, wherein; at least one particular agent within said group of agents has been assigned to said group of agents based on said particular agent'"'"'s past performance in completing one or more particular tasks, and said one or more particular tasks comprises persuading one or more customers to purchase an alternative service or product.
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23. A call processing system that is configured for:
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assessing the importance of an incoming call, said incoming call being made by a particular customer; and routing said incoming call to a particular group of agents for processing based on said importance of said incoming call, wherein; at least one particular agent within said group of agents has been assigned to said group of agents based on said particular agent'"'"'s past performance in completing one or more particular tasks, said one or more particular tasks comprises persuading one or more customers to purchase an alternative service or product; said one or more particular tasks comprises persuading one or more customers to retain a service or product; and said system is configured to assess said particular agent'"'"'s past performance in persuading customers to retain or purchase a product or service based on said particular agent'"'"'s sold revenue value for one of more days in the past.
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24. A call processing system that is configured for:
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assessing the importance of an incoming call, said call being made by a particular customer; and routing said incoming call to a particular group of agents for processing based on said importance of said incoming call, wherein; at least one particular agent within said group of agents has been assigned to said group of agents based on said particular agent'"'"'s past performance in completing one or more particular tasks, and said one or more particular tasks comprises persuading one or more customers to retain a service or product. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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28. A call processing system that is configured for:
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assessing the importance of an incoming call; and routing said incoming call to a particular group of agents for processing based on said importance of said incoming call, wherein at least one particular agent within said group of agents has been assigned to said group of agents based, at least in part, on said particular agent'"'"'s saved revenue rate performance.
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29. A method of routing a call for processing, said method comprising:
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identifying, from a plurality of agents, a group of one or more highest performing agents who are among the highest performing agents within said plurality of agents at performing at least one task; assessing the value of a particular call; determining whether to route said particular call to said group of highest performing agents for processing based on said assessed value of said particular call; identifying from said plurality of agents, a group of one or more “
lowest performing”
agents who are among the lowest performing agents within said plurality of agents at performing one or more tasks; anddetermining whether to route said particular call to said group of “
lowest performing agents”
for processing based on said assessed value of said particular call.
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30. A method of routing a call for processing comprising:
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identifying, from a plurality of agents, a group of one or more “
lowest performing”
agents who are among the lowest performing agents within said plurality of agents at performing one or more tasks;assessing the value of a particular call; and determining whether to route said particular call to said group of “
lowest performing agents”
for processing based on said assessed value of said particular call. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A method of routing calls comprising:
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assigning a first performance rating to a first agent; assigning a second performance rating to a second agent; assigning a third performance rating to a third agent; in response to said first performance rating being above a pre-determined first threshold value, assigning said first agent to a first group of agents; in response to said second performance rating being below a pre-determined second threshold value, assigning said second agent to a second group of agents; in response to said third performance rating being below said first threshold value and above said second threshold value, assigning said third agent to a third group of agents; determining a value of a call; and routing a call to a selected one of said first, second, third groups of agents based, at least in part, on said value of said call, wherein; at least one of said first, second, or third performance ratings corresponds to an agent'"'"'s past performance in persuading a customer not to cancel a service.
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37. A method of routing a correspondence for processing, said method comprising:
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identifying, from a plurality of agents, a group of one or more “
higher performing”
agents who are among the highest performing agents within said plurality of agents at performing at least one task;assessing the value of a particular correspondence; determining whether to route said particular correspondence to said group of “
higher performing agents”
for processing based on said assessed value of said particular correspondence;identifying, from said plurality of agents, a group of one or more “
lower performing”
agents who are among the lowest performing agents within said plurality of agents at performing one or more tasks; anddetermining whether to route said particular call to said group of “
lower performing”
for processing based on said assessed value of said particular call.
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38. A method of routing a call for processing, said method comprising the steps of:
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(A) assessing the past performance of a first agent in performing one or more tasks; (B) assessing the past performance of a second agent in performing said one or more tasks; (C) comparing said past performance of said first agent with said past performance of said second agent; (D) for a first call in a queue of calls, assessing a first estimated benefit associated with attempting to persuade a first customer associated with said first call not to cancel a particular service; (E) for a second call in said queue of calls, assessing a second estimated benefit associated with attempting to persuade a second customer associated with said second call not to cancel a particular service; and (F) routing said first call to said first agent for handling in response to determining;
(1) that said first estimated benefit is greater than said second estimated benefit;
(2) that said past performance of said first agent is better than said past performance of said second agent; and
(3) that said first agent is available to handle said first call. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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45. A call processing system that is configured for:
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receiving a call from a customer, said call being related to the purchase of a product or service or potential purchase of a product or service; determining whether it would be beneficial to attempt to persuade said customer to purchase said product or service; and in response to determining that it would not be beneficial to attempt to persuade said customer to purchase said product or service, routing said call to an automated call processing system. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48)
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Specification