System and method for distributing and routing calls in a call center

• US 7,110,523 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2003
• Issued: 09/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Interactive Intelligence Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Inventors: Schmidt, Michael, Gagle, Michael D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tieu, Benny Quoc
• Application Number:
  US10/449,249
• Publication Number:
  US 20040240659A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,208 Days
• Field of Search: 37926501-2661, 379/309, 379/211.01, 379/211.02, 379/212.01
• US Class Current: 379/265.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems

Abstract

A computer system and method is disclosed that includes a call queue server that receives incoming calls and routes the calls to a telephone at the agent'"'"'s workstation only after the agent accepts the request to take the call. A system and method is disclosed that includes a plurality of call queue servers, a queue monitor server, and a plurality of agent workstations, for distributing calls across multiple call center locations. Each call queue server receiving an incoming call sends a notification to the queue monitor server that in turn notifies each of the remaining call queue servers about the call. Each call queue server is thus able to maintain a current view of all activity across multiple call centers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a call on a first server at a first call center site of a call center;

updating a queue with information about the call;

selecting an agent at a second call center site to handle the call, the second call center site being at a different location than the first call center site;

sending the agent a request to accept the call;

receiving an indication of acceptance by the agent at the first call center site; and

routing the call from the first call center site to the agent at the second call center site in response to said receiving.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the agent accepts the request by taking a telephone off hook.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the agent accepts the request by selecting an option on a computer screen.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said routing includes communicating between the first server at the first call center site and a second sewer at a second call center site.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the agent did not accept the request;

selecting an alternate agent to handle the call;

sending the alternate agent a request to accept the call; and

directing the call from the first call center site to the alternate agent at a third call center site if the alternate agent accepts the request.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said determining that the agent did not accept the request, said selecting an alternate agent, and said sending the alternate agent a request is repeated until the call is accepted by and routed to the alternate agent.

7. A method comprising:

operating a call center including one of a number of call center servers;

receiving an incoming call with a corresponding one of the call center servers;

sending a first notification about the incoming call from the corresponding one of the call center servers to a queue monitor server; and

sending a second notification about the incoming call from the queue monitor server to each of the number of call center servers.

8. The method of claim 7, farther comprising:

selecting an agent from the call center to handle the incoming call;

detecting the availability of the agent to handle the incoming call; and

routing the incoming call to the agent if the agent is available.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said detecting the availability of the agent and said routing the incoming call to the agent comprises:

sending the agent a request to accept the incoming call; and

routing the incoming call to the agent if the agent accepts the request.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the agent accepts the request by picking up a telephone.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the agent accepts the request by selecting an option on a computer screen.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein said detecting the availability of the agent and said routing the incoming call to the agent comprises:

detecting whether a telephone associated with the agent is in use; and

only routing the incoming call to the agent if the telephone associated with the agent is not in use.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

routing the incoming call to an agent who views a call queue of one of the number of call center servers and then selects an option to pick-up the incoming call.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the call center is located at multiple geographic locations.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein the number of call center servers are in multiple, remotely spaced apart locations.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein the incoming call is a voice call.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein the incoming call is a web chat.

18. The method of claim 7, wherein the incoming call is an e-mail.

19. A system comprising:

a plurality of call center sex-vets, each of the plurality of call center servers including a call queue; and

a queue monitor server coupled to each of the plurality of call center servers over a network, the queue monitor server receiving a call status update from one of the plurality of call center servers and sending a notification to each of the plurality of call centers in response to the call status update to maintain the call queue of each of the plurality of call center servers with an updated list of call activity across the plurality of call center servers.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the queue monitor server initially receives a notification of current call activity on each of the plurality of call center sewers, and notifies each of the plurality of call center servers with an initial list of call activity across the plurality of call center servers.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the plurality of call center servers are located at a number of geographic locations.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the queue monitor server and one of the plurality of call center servers are the same server.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein each of the plurality of call center servers contain logic for detecting the availability of a plurality of agents and routing an incoming call to a particular available agent.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the logic sends an acceptance request to one of the plurality of agents to detect availability.

25. A system comprising:

a plurality of call center servers, each of the plurality of call center servers including means for queuing calls; and

a queue monitor server coupled to each of the plurality of call center servers over a network, the queue monitor server including means for receiving a call status update from the of the plurality of call center servers and means for sending a notification to each of the plurality of call centers in response to the call status update to maintain the queuing means of each of the plurality of call center servers with an updated list of call activity across the plurality of call center servers.

26. A method, comprising:

receiving a first call with a first server;

updating a queue with information about the first call;

receiving a second call with a second server located at a different geographic location from said first server;

updating said queue with information about the second call;

selecting an agent to receive the first call;

sending the agent a request to accept the first call;

receiving an indication of acceptance of the request from the agent; and

directing the first call to the agent after said receiving.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the first server and the agent are at different call center sites.

28. The method of claim 26, which includes communicating between the first server and a third server, the third server being a queue monitor that is operable to provide updated call queues of each of a plurality of call queue servers, the first and second server being one of the call queue servers.