Interrupting auxiliary agents

• US 8,577,017 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Flockhart, Andrew D., Kohler, Joylee, Steiner, Robert C.
• Primary Examiner(s): HONG, HARRY S
• Application Number:
  US13/250,506
• Publication Number:
  US 20130083915A1
• Time in Patent Office: 767 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 379/265.11
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/402 Agent or workforce management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution

Abstract

A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, selectively interrupt a contact center agent in an AUXILIARY state. This enables the contact center to accommodate sudden influxes of work items without substantially increasing customer wait time.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a contact center, a contact from a customer;

generating, in the contact center, a work item representation of the contact in the contact center, the contact being a work item of the contact center;

determining, by a work assignment engine operating in the contact center, processing requirements of the work item;

generating, by the work assignment engine, a modified pool of eligible agents, wherein the modified pool of eligible agents comprises;

agents in the contact center that are eligible to process the work item;

a first agent having a status of AUXILIARY to process the work item; and

a second agent having a status of AVAILABLE to process the work item;

determining, by the work assignment engine, that the first agent is an optimal agent for processing the work item based on the first agent'"'"'s attributes meeting the processing requirements of the work item better than any other agent in the modified pool of eligible agents;

determining, by the work assignment engine, that the second agent is a best AVAILABLE agent for processing the work item based on the second agent'"'"'s attributes meeting the processing requirements of the work item better than any other AVAILABLE agent in the modified pool of eligible agents; and

selecting, by the work assignment engine, an agent from the modified pool of eligible agents to process the work item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected agent processes the work item, and wherein the selected agent comprises the first agent.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

providing the first agent with AUX credits for processing the work item.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the AUX credits are automatically provided to the first agent when the first agent begins processing the work item within a predetermined amount of time and wherein the AUX credits comprise an incentive that is not given to agents when they receive a work item while having a status of AVAILABLE.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the AUX credits comprise increased AUX time.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing a cost associated with assigning the work item to the first agent to a cost associated with assigning the work item to the second agent;

determining that the cost of assigning the work item to the second agent is greater than the cost of assigning the work item to the first agent; and

causing the first agent to be the selected agent.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining that the first agent has at least one of (i) declined to process the work item and (ii) failed to process the work item within a predetermined amount of time after the work item is routed to the first agent;

replacing the first agent with the second agent as the selected agent; and

routing the contact associated with the work item to a resource operated by the second agent.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified pool of eligible agents is generated in response to the work assignment engine determining that the contact center is in an emergency state.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that cause a computing system to execute a method, the instructions comprising:

instructions configured to determine processing requirements of a work item in a contact center;

instructions configured to generate a modified pool of eligible agents, wherein the modified pool of eligible agents comprises;

agents in the contact center that are eligible to process the work item;

a first agent having a status of AUXILIARY to process the work item; and

a second agent having a status of AVAILABLE to process the work item;

instructions configured to determine that the first agent is an optimal agent for processing the work item based on the first agent'"'"'s attributes meeting the processing requirements of the work item better than any other agent in the modified pool of eligible agents;

instructions configured to determine that the second agent is a best AVAILABLE agent for processing the work item based on the second agent'"'"'s attributes meeting the processing requirements of the work item better than any other AVAILABLE agent in the modified pool of eligible agents;

instructions configured to compare a cost associated with assigning the work item to the first agent to a cost associated with assigning the work item to the second agent;

instructions configured to determine that the cost of assigning the work item to the second agent is greater than the cost of assigning the work item to the first agent; and

instructions configured to select an agent from the modified pool of eligible agents to process the work item, wherein the selected agent is the first agent.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first agent has a status of PREDICTED AVAILABLE.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the status of the first agent is determined by analyzing presence information about the first agent.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first agent is currently logged-out.

13. A contact center, comprising:

a plurality of contact-processing resources, at least some of the contact-processing resources being operated by human agents; and

a work assignment engine configured to determine processing requirements of a work item in a contact center, determine a state of the contact center, and, in response thereto, determine whether to generate a pool of eligible agents or generate a modified pool of eligible agents, wherein the pool of eligible agents comprises only human agents with a status of AVAILABLE, wherein the modified pool of eligible agents comprises human agents that are eligible to process the work item, wherein the modified pool of eligible agents comprises a first human agent having a status other than AVAILABLE to process the work item, wherein the modified pool of eligible agents comprises every human agent that would be in the pool of eligible agents in addition to the first human agent, and wherein the pool of eligible agents or the modified pool of agents are generated without regard for whether or not the human agents are skilled to process the work item.

14. The contact center of claim 13, wherein the first agent has a status of AUXILIARY.