Provide a graceful transfer out of active wait treatment

• US 7,835,514 B1
• Filed: 09/18/2006
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Snyder, Robert, Taylor, Robin D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; Creighton
• Application Number:
  US11/523,402
• Time in Patent Office: 1,520 Days
• Field of Search: 379/266.01, 379/266.06
• US Class Current: 379/266.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4285 Notifying, informing or entertaining a held party while on hold, e.g. Music On Hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends

Abstract

The present invention provides a graceful transfer of a contact from a queue to another party. More particularly, exit points are defined within a given wait treatment for the contact. While the contact is in queue waiting for service the initiator of the contact is able provided with the wait treatment. When the contact is ready to be removed from the queue (e.g., because a servicing agent is ready to available to service the contact), the contact is kept in the queue and continues to be provided the wait treatment until an exit point has been reached.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a contact in a contact queue;

assigning an agent to the contact;

choosing a wait treatment for the contact having at least one exit point corresponding to a predetermined time;

providing the chosen wait treatment to the contact;

after assigning the agent to the contact one of;

(i) waiting for the predetermined time to commence connecting the agent to the contact;

(ii) waiting until after the predetermined time to commence connecting the agent to the contact; and

after waiting, connecting the agent to the contact.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the wait treatment is chosen from a set of possible wait treatments.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the choice of a wait treatment is based on at least one of an estimated time the contact will remain in the contact queue, a type of the contact, and a type of customer associated with the contact.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one exit point is located within the wait treatment based on a context of the wait treatment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the context comprises at least one of an end of a survey, an end of a question in a survey, an end of an advertisement, a predetermined amount of time after a start of an advertisement, and a predetermined amount of time after the contact enters the contact queue.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one exit point comprises a first and a second exit point only one of which corresponds to an end of the wait treatment.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that an agent is available to service the contact;

identifying that the contact has reached the at least one exit point in the wait treatment;

stopping the wait treatment; and

removing the contact from the contact queue.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact comprises at least one of a phone call, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a video call, and a chat.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing customer information to the agent assigned to the contact while the agent is assigned to the contact.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the customer information is provided to the agent prior to connecting the agent to the contact.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein customer information comprises data received from a customer associated with the contact through the wait treatment.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions for performing the steps of claim 1.

13. A system for servicing a contact received in a contact center, comprising:

a queue for temporarily holding contacts received in a contact center until an agent becomes available to service the contact;

at least one wait treatment selectively assignable to contacts in the queue, wherein the at least one wait treatment comprises at least one predefined exit point; and

wherein the at least one wait treatment remains assigned to a contact in the queue until the at least one predefined exit point is reached regardless of whether an agent is available to service the contact.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one wait treatment is chosen from a set of possible wait treatments.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the choice of a wait treatment is based on at least one of an estimated time the contact will remain in the contact queue, a type of the contact, and a type of customer associated with the contact.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one predefined exit point is located within the wait treatment based on a context of the wait treatment.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the context comprises at least one of an end of a survey, an end of a question in a survey, an end of an advertisement, a predetermined amount of time after a start of an advertisement, and a predetermined amount of time after the contact enters the contact queue.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the contact comprises an interactive contact.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the contact comprises at least one of a phone call, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a video call, and a chat.

20. The system of claim 13, further comprising a server capable of providing customer information to an agent assigned to the contact while the agent is assigned to the contact.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the customer information is provided to the assigned agent prior to connecting the agent to the contact.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein customer information comprises data received from a customer associated with the contact through the wait treatment.