Systems and methods for workforce optimization

• US 8,112,298 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2006
• Issued: 02/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Bourne, John, Murray, Ed, Iannone, Jeff, Keren, Shimon, McLean, Nick, Bourke, Mike, Fama, Jason, Watson, Joseph, Nies, James Gordon, Lyerly, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Jasmin, Lynda
• Assistant Examiner(s): WALKER III, GEORGE H
• Application Number:
  US11/359,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20070198322A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,176 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.13, 705/7.38
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/20 Education

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for an integrated process for optimizing operations at a contact center. In one embodiment, the method comprises: defining contact center business goals; planning at least one campaign to implement the goals; scheduling and deploying a workforce in accordance with the campaign to produce agent-customer interactions; measuring agent performance on the interactions to produce quality metrics; analyzing the metrics to produce a rating; combining quality metrics to produce performance indicators; and using the performance indicators in the planning step of a second campaign or another iteration of the first campaign.

Claims

1. An integrated process for optimizing operations at a contact center, the method comprising the steps of:

defining contact center business goals at an administrative component executing on a computing device of the contact center;

planning at least one campaign at the administrative component of the contact center to implement the goals;

scheduling and deploying a workforce at a work force manager component executing on the computing device of the contact center in accordance with the campaign to produce a plurality of agent-customer interactions in accordance with a workload forecast;

analyzing an agent-customer interaction at an analytics function executing on the computing device to categorize and score the interaction based on content of the interaction, the analytics function further analyzing the interaction against an expected call pattern and reporting exceptions to the call pattern, and the analytics function providing a visualization layer for recorded interactions to display data attributes and agent activities coincident with events associated with the interaction;

measuring performance of a plurality of agents on at least a portion of the agent-customer interactions at a quality monitoring component executing on the computing device of the contact center to produce a set of quality metrics for the agents comprising recording the portion of the agent-customer interactions, the measuring including the score of the interactions and assessing agent skills in the recorded interactions to produce the set of quality metrics, wherein the portion of the agent-customer interactions recorded for each agent is proportional to an experience level of the agent;

analyzing the quality metrics at a performance manager component executing on the computing device of the contact center to produce a rating of the measured interactions;

combining at least a portion of quality metrics to produce performance indicators; and

using the performance indicators in the planning step of a second campaign or another iteration of the at least one campaign.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining a root cause of a measured interaction having a low rating; and

adapting an operational aspect of the contact center that is identified with the root cause.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the business goals are defined in terms of metrics which describe how the contact center is expected to perform.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the metrics relate to expected revenue.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the metrics relate to service level.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing step rates interactions from a customer point-of-view.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing step rates interactions from a contact center point-of-view.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium having a program for integrating a contact center business process, the program when executed by a computing device performing the method comprising the steps of:

defining contact center business goals at an administrative component executing on a computing device of the contact center;

planning at least one campaign at the administrative component of the contact center to implement the goals;

scheduling and deploying a workforce at a work force manager component of the contact center in accordance with the campaign to produce a plurality of agent-customer interactions in accordance with a workload forecast;

analyzing an agent-customer to categorize and score the interaction based on content of the interaction, the analytics function further analyzing the interaction against an expected call pattern and reporting exceptions to the call pattern, and the analytics function providing a visualization layer for recorded interactions to display data attributes and agent activities coincident with events associated with the interaction;

measuring performance of a plurality of agents on at least a portion of the agent-customer interactions at a quality monitoring component of the contact center to produce a set of quality metrics for the agent comprising recording the portion of the agent-customer interactions, the measuring including the score of the interactions and assessing agent skills in the recorded interactions to produce the set of quality metrics, wherein the portion of the agent-customer interactions recorded for each agent is proportional to an experience level of the agent;

analyzing the quality metrics at a performance manager component of the contact center to produce a rating of the measured interactions;

combining at least a portion of quality metrics to produce performance indicators; and

using the performance indicators in the planning step of a second campaign or another iteration of the at least one campaign.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the program when executed by the computing device further performing the method comprising the steps of:

determining a root cause of a measured interaction having a low rating; and

adapting an operational aspect of the contact center that is identified with the root cause.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the business goals are defined in terms of metrics which describe how the contact center is expected to perform.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the metrics relate to expected revenue.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the metrics relate to service level.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the analyzing step rates interactions from a customer point-of-view.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the analyzing step rates interactions from a contact center point-of-view.