System and method for performance based call distribution

• US 7,913,063 B1
• Filed: 06/03/2008
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Lyerly, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): PAN, DANIEL H
• Application Number:
  US12/132,259
• Time in Patent Office: 1,022 Days
• Field of Search: 712/30, 379/265.12
• US Class Current: 712/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms

Abstract

A first performance indicator associated with a first agent is received from a workforce management system. A second performance indicator associated with a second agent is also received from the workforce management system. The first agent and the second agent are ranked in a queue of available agents based upon at least the first performance indicator and the second performance indicator. This produces a first queue rank associated with the first agent. An incoming call directed to the queue of available agents is received. An agent to service the incoming call is selected from the queue of available agents based upon the first queue rank.

Claims

1. A method of assigning calls to agents, comprising:

providing a skill queue for each possible agent skill;

for each of the agents, receiving a performance indicator for each skill associated with the agent from a workforce management system;

for each of the agents, receiving an availability of the agent from the workforce management system;

for each available one of the agents, classifying the available agent with a skill queue corresponding with each skill associated with the available agent, wherein at least one available agent is classified with multiple skill queues simultaneously;

for each skill queue, ranking the available agents classified with the skill queue based upon at least the performance indicators for the available agents for the skill corresponding with the skill queue;

receiving an incoming call directed to one of the skill queues based on a characteristic of the incoming call; and

selecting one of the available agents classified with the one of the skill queues to service the incoming call based upon the ranking of the available agents classified with the one of the skill queues.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance indicators are based on quality monitoring evaluation scores.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance indicators are based on customer feedback surveys.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance indicators are based on lesson assessments.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance indicators are based on weighted sums comprising at least two of a quality monitoring evaluation score, a customer survey feedback score, and a lesson assessment score.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranking of the available agents classified with the skill queue is also based on an idle time of each of the available agents classified with the skill queue.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance indicators are based on weighted sums comprising at least two of a quality monitoring evaluation score, a customer survey feedback score, a lesson assessment score, and an idle time.

8. A call distribution system, comprising:

a workforce management system interface configured to receive a performance indicator associated with each skill possessed by each agent of a plurality of agents, and to receive an availability of each agent of the plurality of agents;

a memory device configured to store multiple agent priority lists concurrently, wherein each of the agent priority lists corresponds to a possible skill, wherein each of the agent priority lists comprises a ranking of each of the available agents associated with the skill corresponding with the agent priority list based upon at least the performance indicator associated with each of the available agents with respect to the skill corresponding with the agent priority list, wherein at least two of the agent priority lists are associated with the same available agent; and

a call distributor configured to direct an incoming call to one of the agent priority lists based on a characteristic of the incoming call, and to select one of the available agents associated with the one of the agent priority lists to service the incoming call based on the ranking of the available agents associated with the one of the agent priority lists.

9. The call distribution system of claim 8, wherein the performance indicators are based on quality monitoring evaluation scores.

10. The call distribution system of claim 8, wherein the performance indicators are based on customer feedback surveys.

11. The call distribution system of claim 8, wherein the performance indicators are based on lesson assessments.

12. The call distribution system of claim 8, wherein the performance indicators are based on weighted sums comprising at least two of a quality monitoring evaluation score, a customer survey feedback score, and a lesson assessment score.

13. The call distribution system of claim 8, wherein the agent priority of each of the available agents is also based on an idle time of the each of the available agents.

14. The call distribution system of claim 8, wherein the performance indicators are based on weighted sums comprising at least two of a quality monitoring evaluation score, a customer survey feedback score, a lesson assessment score, and an idle time.

15. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for assigning calls to agents, the method comprising:

providing a skill queue for each possible agent skill;

for each of the agents, receiving a performance indicator for each skill associated with the agent from a workforce management system;

for each of the agents, receiving an availability of the agent from the workforce management system;

for each available one of the agents, classifying the available agent with a skill queue corresponding with each skill associated with the available agent, wherein at least one available agent is classified with multiple skill queues simultaneously;

for each skill queue, ranking the available agents classified with the skill queue based upon at least the performance indicators for the available agents for the skill corresponding with the skill queue

receiving an incoming call directed to one of the skill queues based on a characteristic of the incoming call; and

selecting one of the available agents classified with the one of the skill queues to service the incoming call based upon the ranking of the available agents classified with the one of the skill queues.

16. The program storage device of claim 15, wherein the performance indicators are based on quality monitoring evaluation scores.

17. The program storage device of claim 15, wherein the performance indicators are based on customer feedback surveys.

18. The program storage device of claim 15, wherein the performance indicators are based on lesson assessments.

19. The program storage device of claim 15, wherein the performance indicators are based on weighted sums comprising at least two of a quality monitoring evaluation score, a customer survey feedback score, and a lesson assessment score.

20. The program storage device of claim 15, wherein the performance indicators are based on weighted sums comprising at least two of a quality monitoring evaluation score, a customer survey feedback score, a lesson assessment score, and an idle time.