Method and apparatus for the automated delivery of notifications to contacts based on predicted work prioritization

• US 8,577,015 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2005
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Flockhart, Andrew, Taylor, John Z., Mathews, Eugene P.
• Primary Examiner(s): AL AUBAIDI, RASHA S
• Application Number:
  US11/229,265
• Publication Number:
  US 20070071222A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,972 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.02, 379/265.06, 379/265.12, 379/266.07
• US Class Current: 379/265.06
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/402 Agent or workforce management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution

Abstract

In one embodiment, a contact center is provided that includes:

• (a) a work item queue 208, 250 comprising an intra-enterprise contact associated with at least first and second internal endpoints of an enterprise; and
• (b) a selector operable to select and assign a work item to an agent. In selecting the work item, the selector considers both a customer contact and the intra-enterprise contact. The intra-enterprise contact, for example, can be a training notification.

Claims

1. A method for operating a contact center, comprising:

(a) enqueuing, in a work item queue, an intra-enterprise contact associated with at least first and second internal endpoints of an enterprise network, wherein the intra-enterprise contact is automatically generated when a monitoring agent determines upon collecting and analyzing events compared against a norm that a process violation or improvement is required, wherein the work item queue comprises both customer contacts and intra-enterprise contacts and wherein at least one of the intra-enterprise contacts is between at least two of the customer contacts in the work item queue;

(b) automatically selecting a work item for assignment to an agent, wherein, in selecting the work item, the intra-enterprise contact and a customer contact are both considered as work items; and

(c) assigning the selected work item to the agent.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the intra-enterprise contact is addressed to multiple agents and wherein the intra-enterprise contact is delivered to each of the multiple agents at different times.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, the assigning step comprises:

(c1) determining whether a current contact center state is suitable for assigning to the agent the intra-enterprise contact;

(c2) when the current contact center state is not suitable for assigning the intra-enterprise contact to the agent, assigning the customer contact to the agent; and

(c3) when the current contact center state is suitable for assigning the intra-enterprise contact to the agent, assigning the intra-enterprise contact to the agent.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the current contact center state is not suitable for assigning the intra-enterprise contact to the agent when at least one of the following is true:

(i) a number of agents on duty in the contact center servicing the work item queue is less than a selected number,

(ii) a number of intra-enterprise contact recipients is more than a selected number,

(iii) a recipient of the intra-enterprise contact has a skill and a number of agents currently on duty having that skill is less than a selected minimum number,

(iv) the recipient of the intra-enterprise contact has a skill, the work item queue is associated with that skill, and the work item queue is failing to meet a selected service level target, and

(v) the recipient of the intra-enterprise contact has a skill, the work item queue is associated with that skill, and the work item queue is in jeopardy due to noncompliance with a target service time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the intra-enterprise contact is for one or more of agent training, agent guidance, product inventory state notification, contact center state notification, and product-related notification.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the intra-enterprise contact and customer contact are associated with one or more of a work item priority level and target service time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of a plurality of agents has multiple skills and wherein at least one of the skills includes servicing intra-enterprise contacts.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(d) comparing selected customer contact information against a plurality of agent performance templates, each template defining one or more of acceptable and unacceptable agent performance; and

(e) when a template matches the selected contact information, generating the intra-enterprise contact respecting the event defined by the template, the intra-enterprise contact being addressed to an agent identified in the selected customer contact information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the intra-enterprise contact comprises at least one of recorded voice, video, and text, wherein the intra-enterprise contact is not real time, and wherein the intra-enterprise contact is between two or more agents or a supervisor and one or more agents.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions to perform the steps of claim 1.

11. A method for operating a contact center, comprising:

(a) providing an intra-enterprise contact between internal endpoints of an enterprise network via a work item queue, wherein the intra-enterprise contact is automatically generated when a monitoring agent determines upon collecting and analyzing events compared against a norm that a process violation or improvement is required, and wherein at least one of the following is true;

(i) the intra-enterprise contact is addressed to multiple agents; and

(ii) the intra-enterprise contact comprises multiple related contacts, each contact being addressed to a different one of the multiple agents; and

(b) wherein, when each of the multiple agents is available, the intra-enterprise contact is delivered to each of the multiple agents at a different time, wherein the work item queue comprises both customer contacts and intra-enterprise contacts, and wherein at least one of the the intra-enterprise contacts is between at least two of the customer contacts in the work item queue.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein (i) is true.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein (ii) is true.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

(c) enqueuing, in the work item queue, the intra-enterprise contact;

(d) selecting a work item for assignment to each of the multiple agents, wherein, in selecting the work item for each of the agents, a customer contact and the intra-enterprise contact are considered.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions to perform the steps of claim 11.

16. A contact center, comprising:

(a) a work item queue comprising an intra-enterprise contact associated with at least first and second internal endpoints of an enterprise, wherein the intra-enterprise contact is automatically generated when a monitoring agent determines upon collecting and analyzing events compared against a norm that a process violation or improvement is required, wherein the work item queue comprises both customer contacts and intra-enterprise contacts, and wherein at least one of the one of the intra-enterprise contacts is between at least two of the customer contacts in the work item queue; and

(b) a selector operable to automatically select a work item for assignment to an agent, wherein, in selecting the work item, the selector considers the intra-enterprise contact and a customer contact and automatically assigns the selected work item to the agent, wherein in selecting the work item, the intra-enterprise contact and a customer contact are both considered as work items by the selector.

17. The contact center of claim 16, wherein the intra-enterprise contact is addressed to multiple agents and wherein the intra-enterprise contact is delivered to each of the multiple agents at different times.

18. The contact center of claim 16, wherein the selector is further operable to determine whether a current contact center state is suitable for assigning to the agent the intra-enterprise contact, when the current contact center state is not suitable for assigning the intra-enterprise contact to the agent, assigning the customer contact to the agent, and when the current contact center state is suitable for assigning the intra-enterprise contact to the agent, assigning the intra-enterprise contact to the agent.

19. The contact center of claim 18, wherein the current contact center state is not suitable for assigning the intra-enterprise contact to the agent when at least one of the following is true:

(i) a number of agents on duty in the contact center servicing the work item queue is less than a selected number,

(ii) a number of intra-enterprise contact recipients is more than a selected number,

(iii) a recipient of the intra-enterprise contact has a skill and a number of agents currently on duty having that skill is less than a selected minimum number,

(iv) the recipient of the intra-enterprise contact has a skill, the work item queue is associated with that skill, and the work item queue is failing to meet a selected service level target, and

(v) the recipient of the intra-enterprise contact has a skill, the work item queue is associated with that skill, and the work item queue is in jeopardy due to noncompliance with a target service time.

20. The contact center of claim 16, wherein the intra-enterprise contact is for one or more of agent training, agent guidance, product inventory state notification, contact center state notification, and product-related notification.

21. The contact center of claim 16, wherein each of the intra-enterprise contact and customer contact are associated with one or more of a work item priority level and target service time.

22. The contact center of claim 16, wherein each of a plurality of agents has multiple skills and wherein at least one of the skills includes servicing intra-enterprise contacts.

23. The contact center of claim 16, further comprising:

(c) an audit engine operable to compare selected customer contact information against a plurality of agent performance templates, each template defining one or more of acceptable and unacceptable agent performance and, when a template matches the selected contact information, generating the intra-enterprise contact respecting the event defined by the template, the intra-enterprise contact being addressed to an agent identified in the selected customer contact information.

24. The contact center of claim 16, wherein the intra-enterprise contact comprises at least one of recorded voice, video, and text, wherein the intra-enterprise contact is not real time, and wherein the intra-enterprise contact is between two or more agents or a supervisor and one or more agents.