Systems and methods for predicting wait time for service transactions
First Claim
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1. An automated method for managing personal service transactions, comprising:
- continuously collecting and storing current service information in real-time with regard to service transactions provided to customers at a service establishment,processing the current service information to determine a current service throughput data for each unit time period in a given day and storing current service throughput data;
processing the stored current service throughput data collected over a period of days, months and years to determine historical service throughput data; and
in response to a customer request to obtain a service, providing the customer with an estimate of a waiting time for obtaining access to the service based on the customer'"'"'s position in a waiting list queue,wherein providing an estimate of the waiting time comprises estimating a first waiting time using the stored current service throughput data for a previous unit time period, estimating a second waiting time based on the stored historical service throughput data and estimating the waiting time based on a weighted percentage of the first and second estimated waiting time values,wherein the estimated first waiting time is computed by employing the relation TAh=(MTs*C*K)/N where TAh is the estimated first waiting time, MTs is the average time in which a service transaction is completed during the previous unit time period, C is a current number of customers in the waiting list queue, K estimates a number of customers that fail to respond to a call to engage in a corresponding service transaction, and N is a total number of agents available to perform service transactions, andwherein said automated method is implemented in and executed by a computing device employing at least one storage device.
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Abstract
Systems and methods are provided to automatically predict wait times for customers to obtain service transactions at a service establishment, wherein wait times are estimated based on a combination of wait time values determined from current and historical service information that is collected, stored and processed over time.
57 Citations
1 Claim
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1. An automated method for managing personal service transactions, comprising:
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continuously collecting and storing current service information in real-time with regard to service transactions provided to customers at a service establishment, processing the current service information to determine a current service throughput data for each unit time period in a given day and storing current service throughput data; processing the stored current service throughput data collected over a period of days, months and years to determine historical service throughput data; and in response to a customer request to obtain a service, providing the customer with an estimate of a waiting time for obtaining access to the service based on the customer'"'"'s position in a waiting list queue, wherein providing an estimate of the waiting time comprises estimating a first waiting time using the stored current service throughput data for a previous unit time period, estimating a second waiting time based on the stored historical service throughput data and estimating the waiting time based on a weighted percentage of the first and second estimated waiting time values, wherein the estimated first waiting time is computed by employing the relation TAh=(MTs*C*K)/N where TAh is the estimated first waiting time, MTs is the average time in which a service transaction is completed during the previous unit time period, C is a current number of customers in the waiting list queue, K estimates a number of customers that fail to respond to a call to engage in a corresponding service transaction, and N is a total number of agents available to perform service transactions, and wherein said automated method is implemented in and executed by a computing device employing at least one storage device.
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Specification
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Current AssigneeLinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
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Original AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
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InventorsLandi, Luca, Ferrara, Filomena
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Primary Examiner(s)Weiss; John G
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Assistant Examiner(s)Bahl; Sangeeta
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Application NumberUS12/116,584Publication NumberTime in Patent Office832 DaysField of SearchNoneUS Class Current705/304CPC Class CodesG06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human...G06Q 30/016 After-salesG06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation...
