Post-termination contact management

• US 7,729,490 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2004
• Issued: 06/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Hemm, Thomas L., Thomson, Rodney A., Kohler, Joylee E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz; Curtis
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZENATI, AMAL S
• Application Number:
  US10/778,960
• Publication Number:
  US 20050182672A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,301 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.01, 379/265.02, 379/309, 379/265.13, 379/266.06, 379/210.01, 379/266.03, 379/210.02, 379/252, 379/352
• US Class Current: 379/265.02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5022 by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5064 Customer relationship management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/551 Call history recording a computer conference H04L12/1831
• 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 3/5231 with call back arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method for servicing a transaction in a contact center. When a communication associated with a transaction is terminated prematurely, special treatment may be provided to the transaction initiator. The special treatment includes: (a) maintaining, relative to other transactions, the assigned service priority for the transaction while the communication is disconnected and assigning the assigned service priority to a subsequent inbound communication from the transaction initiator; (b) scheduling a subsequent outbound communication to an external endpoint associated with the transaction initiator; (c) assigning to the transaction initiator a favored service priority when the subsequent inbound communication is received by the contact center; and (d) when, during the first communication, the transaction initiator selected at least one item as part of an electronic order and the first communication was terminated before the electronic order was completed, maintaining the item(s) in memory and providing the item(s) to the transaction initiator when the transaction initiator makes a further communication with the contact center.

Claims

1. A method for servicing a work item in a contact center, comprising:

(a) assigning, by a processor, a service priority to a first transaction, wherein the first transaction corresponds to a first inbound communication, wherein the first inbound communication corresponds to a first external endpoint associated with a first transaction initiator;

(b) determining, by a processor, that the first inbound communication is disconnected by the first transaction initiator after the service priority is assigned to the first transaction and before servicing of the first transaction is completed, the assigned service priority not entitling the first transaction to current service by a contact center resource;

(c) determining, by a processor executable contact manager, an assumed reason for the discontinuance of the first inbound communication, the assumed reason being a poor Quality of Service (“

QoS”

) of the first inbound communication, when one or more QoS characteristics are outside of an acceptable QoS threshold;

(d) in response to step (c), determining, by the processor executable contact manager, to provide special treatment to the first transaction initiator for the first transaction, wherein special treatment is one or more of;

(D1) providing the first transaction initiator, upon call back for the first transaction, with a higher service priority for the first transaction than the first transaction initiator would otherwise be entitled to at the time of call back in the absence of special treatment;

(D2) providing the first transaction initiator, upon call back for the first transaction, with a wait time allowance; and

(D3) scheduling an outbound communication to the first transaction initiator to service the first transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the discontinuance of the first inbound communication was without receipt of an option from the first transaction initiator for special treatment, wherein the first inbound communication is a cellular telephone call, and wherein the discontinuance was a result of at least one of an airtime cost to the first transaction initiator of the first inbound communication, a lost connection of the first communication, and a dropped connection of the first inbound communication.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein special treatment is option (D1), wherein, relative to other later received transactions, the assigned service priority for the first transaction is maintained after discontinuance, wherein the assigned service priority corresponds to a queue position, and wherein the assigned queue position is maintained by being advanced towards the head of the queue.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein special treatment is option (D1), wherein the first transaction initiator later reconnects by a second inbound communication with the contact center, wherein the assigned service priority corresponds to a queue position, wherein the assigned service priority is assigned to the second inbound communication, and wherein the queue position corresponding to the assigned service priority is closer to the head of the queue than a service priority that would be assigned to the second inbound communication in the absence of the discontinued first inbound communication.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein special treatment is option (D2), wherein the first transaction initiator later reconnects by a second inbound communication with the contact center, wherein the assigned service priority is a wait time for servicing, and wherein the wait time corresponding to the assigned service priority is shorter than a service priority that would be assigned to the second inbound communication in the absence of the discontinued first inbound communication.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein special treatment is option (D1), wherein the first transaction initiator is a customer and the first inbound communication is between an external endpoint of the customer and an internal endpoint of the contact center, and further comprising:

(e) receiving a second inbound communication from the external endpoint and wherein the second inbound communication is assigned the priority assigned to the first transaction.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the assumed reason is at least one of a lost and dropped connection of the first inbound communication, wherein special treatment is option (D3), wherein the first inbound communication is between an external endpoint of the first transaction initiator and an internal endpoint of the contact center, and further comprising, before the first transaction is eligible to be delivered to an agent for servicing:

(e) initiating a second outbound communication from the contact center to the external endpoint and wherein the second outbound communication is assigned the priority assigned to the first transaction.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the assumed reason is a function of at least one of the following:

a channel used for the first inbound communication,

a communication medium used for the first inbound communication, and

a contact Quality of Service metric for the first inbound communication.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the special treatment is at least one of:

after discontinuance, holding the first inbound communication'"'"'s position in queue and scheduling a call back before the queue position is eligible for delivery to a resource for servicing,

providing the first transaction initiator with a favored position in queue if the first transaction initiator calls back within a selected period of time of the discontinuance,

providing the first transaction initiator with a wait time allowance if the first transaction initiator calls back within a certain period of time of the discontinuance, and

contacting the first transaction initiator on another channel.

10. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

(e) retarding further advancement of the assigned queue position in the queue for an administrable time to afford the first transaction initiator more time to reclaim the assigned queue position.

11. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

(e) upon maturation to a specified queue position, the assigned queue position is moved backwards in the queue.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein QoS metric is at least one of available bandwidth, maximum end-to-end delay (packet latency), maximum end-to-end delay variation (jitter), and packet/cell loss.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

(f) synchronizing placement of the second outbound communication so that a selected resource is available to service the second outbound communication so that the first transaction initiator need not wait for service in a queue prior to delivery of the second outbound communication to the selected resource.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein, at a selected time, special treatment is possible for discontinued communications only on specific types of media and not on others, whereby a first set of transactions on a first media type is offered special treatment and a second set of transactions on a second media type is not offered special treatment, wherein at least some members of the first and second sets were enqueued by the contact center at the same time.

15. A computer readable medium encoded with processor executable instructions to perform the steps of claim 1 and wherein special treatment is offered to the first transaction without first being offered to the first work requestor.

16. A contact center, comprising:

an input operable to receive a first transaction for servicing by a contact center resource, the first transaction corresponding to a first communication with a first external endpoint associated with a first transaction initiator; and

a processor operable to;

(a) assign a service priority to the first transaction;

(b) determine that the first communication is disconnected by the first transaction initiator after the service priority is assigned to the first transaction and before servicing of the first transaction is completed, the assigned service priority not entitling the first transaction to current service by a contact center resource;

(c) determine an assumed reason for the discontinuance of the first communication, the assumed reason being a poor Quality of Service (“

QoS”

) of the first communication, when one or more QoS characteristics are outside of an acceptable QoS threshold;

(d) in response to operation (c), determine to provide special treatment to the transaction initiator for the first transaction, wherein special treatment is one or more of;

(D1) provide the first transaction initiator, upon call back for the first transaction, with a higher service priority for the first transaction than the first transaction initiator would otherwise be entitled to at the time of call back in the absence of special treatment;

(D2) provide the first transaction initiator, upon call back for the first transaction, with a wait time allowance; and

(D3) schedule an outbound communication to the first transaction initiator by a different communication medium to service the first transaction.

17. The contact center of claim 16, wherein the special treatment is option (D1), wherein the assigned service priority corresponds to a queue position and wherein, after disconnection of the first communication, the assigned queue position is advanced towards the head of the queue.

18. The contact center of claim 17, wherein the special treatment is one or more of options (D1) and (D2), wherein the first transaction initiator later reconnects by a second communication with the contact center, wherein the assigned service priority is assigned to the second communication, and wherein the queue position corresponding to the assigned service priority is closer to the head of the queue than a service priority that would be assigned to the second communication in the absence of the discontinued first communication.

19. The contact center of claim 16, wherein the special treatment is option (D2), wherein the first transaction initiator later reconnects by a second communication with the contact center, wherein the second communication is assigned a wait time for servicing, and wherein the wait time is shorter than a wait time that would be assigned to the second communication in the absence of the disconnected first communication.

20. The contact center of claim 16, wherein, in operation (c), it is determined that the disconnection was for a reason meriting assignment of special treatment to the transaction initiator, and wherein the reason is at least one of a loss of a connection of the first communication, a dropped connection of the first communication, and a poor quality of contact in the first communication.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein QoS metric is at least one of available bandwidth, maximum end-to-end delay (packet latency), maximum end-to-end delay variation (jitter), and packet/cell loss.

22. The contact center of claim 16, wherein the special treatment is providing the first transaction initiator with a wait time allowance if the transaction initiator calls back within a certain period of time of the discontinuance.

23. The contact center of claim 16, wherein, in determining whether the disconnection was for a reason meriting special treatment, at least a plurality of the following factors are considered:

a channel used for the first communication,

a communication medium used for the first communication, and

a contact Quality of Service metric for the first communication; and

wherein, at a selected time, special treatment is possible for discontinued communications only on specific types of media and not on others.