Agent driven work item awareness for tuning routing engine work-assignment algorithms

• US 8,116,446 B1
• Filed: 10/03/2005
• Issued: 02/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Kalavar, Rajeev P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Aubaidi, Rasha Al
• Application Number:
  US11/243,435
• Time in Patent Office: 2,325 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.02, 379/265.13, 379/265.01
• US Class Current: 379/265.13
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/404 Collaboration among agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/551 Call history recording a computer conference H04L12/1831
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/552 Call annotations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms

Abstract

Architecture for providing deductive context to a contact center routing engine is provided. Specifically, when a first interaction or set of interactions is received by a first agent and that agent cannot handle part or all of those interactions, before sending those interactions back to the routing engine, the agent can provide additional information enabling the routing engine to use the information when determining the next optimal resource for the grouped interactions.

Claims

1. A method for servicing a customer work item, comprising:

a processor executing a routing engine;

the routing engine assigning a first work item to a first agent and a second work item to a second agent, wherein the assigning of the first work item to the first agent is based on a first routing decision made by the routing engine;

the routing engine creating a first data structure for the first work item and a second data structure for the second work item, wherein the first data structure references the second data structure and the second data structure references the first data structure;

the routing engine sending the first data structure to the first agent and the second data structure to the second agent;

in response to assigning, the routing engine receiving, from the first agent, a request to re-route the first work item;

the routing engine receiving, from the first agent, a deductive context associated with the first work item, the deductive context determined at least in part by the first work item being related to the second work item;

the routing engine analyzing the deductive context;

the routing engine adjusting the first routing decision to a second routing decision based at least in part on the deductive context associated with the first work item;

based on the second routing decision, the routing engine automatically re-routing the first and second work items to a common agent.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second work items are on first and second media types, respectively, and wherein the first and second media types are different.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a third data structure, wherein the third data structure references both of the first and second data structures.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first data structure comprises a relationship pointer identifying the second data structure, wherein the first data structure comprises at least one attribute of the relationship pointer, and wherein the at least one attribute is a reason for the requested re-routing of the first work item.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the second data structure comprises a relationship pointer identifying the first data structure, wherein the second data structure comprises at least one attribute of the relationship pointer, and wherein the at least one attribute is a reason for the requested re-routing of the first work item.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the second data structure comprises a relationship pointer identifying the first data structure, wherein the second data structure comprises at least one attribute of the relationship pointer, and wherein the at least one attribute is a reason for the requested re-routing of the first work item.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the common agent is one of the second agent or a third agent.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the first agent, a logical grouping comprising the first and second work items.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the logical grouping is received with the re-route request.

10. A tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions operable, when executed by a processor, to perform the steps of claim 1.

11. In a contact center, a tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions, the instructions operable to execute:

a routing engine operable to;

assign a first work item to a first agent and a second work item to a second agent, wherein the assigning of the first work item to the first agent is based on a first routing decision made by the routing engine;

create a first data structure for the first work item and a second data structure for the second work item, wherein the first data structure references the second data structure and the second data structure references the first data structure;

in response to assigning the first and second work items, send the first data structure to the first agent and the second data structure to the second agent;

a relation awareness agent operable to;

receive re-route requests from agents prior to the agents initiating servicing of the requests;

receive a relatedness determination from an agent;

based on the relatedness determination, generate at least one relatedness pointer in at least the first data structure associated with at least the first work item, the at least one relatedness pointer indicating relatedness between the first and second work items; and

based on the at least one relatedness pointer, automatically change re-route decisions made by the routing engine;

wherein at least one of the following is true;

(i) the first data structure comprises a relatedness pointer to the second data structure;

(ii) the second data structure comprises a relatedness pointer to the first data structure; and

(iii) a third data structure comprises first and second relatedness pointers to the first and second data structures, respectively.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first and second work items are on different media types, wherein the relatedness pointer is an identifier, and wherein the relatedness pointer comprises an attribute, the attribute indicating a reason why the first and second work items are related.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein (i) is true.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein (ii) is true.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein (iii) is true.

16. A method for servicing customer work items, comprising:

a routing engine, executed by a processor, receiving a first work item and a second work item;

the routing engine assigning a first work item to a first agent;

the routing engine creating a first data structure for the first work item, wherein the first data structure references the second work item;

the routing engine sending the first data structure to the first agent;

receiving a determination, from the first agent, that the first work item is related to the second work item;

receiving an assignment, by the first agent, of a deductive context to at least one of the first and second work items indicating the relationship between the first and second work items;

receiving again, at the routing engine, the first work item, the first work item having the deductive context assigned thereto; and

the routing engine re-routing both the first and second work items to a second agent based at least in part on the deductive context assigned thereto.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the deductive context comprises a description of the relationship between the first and second work items.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the relationship is at least one of a common source, a common subject, a desired agent, and a request of a customer.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

the first agent assigning the deductive context to the first work item by grouping the first and second work items together.

20. A tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions to perform, when executed by a processor, the steps of claim 16.