Work assignment deferment during periods of agent surplus
First Claim
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1. A method performed by a processor, the method comprising:
- dividing a group of contact center agents into at least two tiers, the at least two tiers including a first tier and a second tier;
receiving a work item at a first time, wherein agents from the group of contact center agents including both first and second tier agents are qualified to process the received work item;
determining that no first tier agent is available to receive the work item at the first time; and
deferring a work assignment decision for the work item regardless of whether or not a second tier agent is available to receive the work item at the first time, wherein the work assignment decision is deferred until a second time that is a predetermined amount of time after the first time, wherein agents in the first tier are predicted to complete processing of the work item within a first processing time, wherein agents in the second tier are predicted to complete processing of the work item within a second processing time, and wherein the second processing tune is greater than the first processing time by an amount that exceeds the predetermined amount of time.
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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, support deferring work item routing decisions for a predetermined amount of time even when agents that are technically qualified to handle the work item are available. The deferment of work item routing decisions helps to achieve better matching and, therefore, increases contact center efficiency even though decisions are delayed.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method performed by a processor, the method comprising:
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dividing a group of contact center agents into at least two tiers, the at least two tiers including a first tier and a second tier; receiving a work item at a first time, wherein agents from the group of contact center agents including both first and second tier agents are qualified to process the received work item; determining that no first tier agent is available to receive the work item at the first time; and deferring a work assignment decision for the work item regardless of whether or not a second tier agent is available to receive the work item at the first time, wherein the work assignment decision is deferred until a second time that is a predetermined amount of time after the first time, wherein agents in the first tier are predicted to complete processing of the work item within a first processing time, wherein agents in the second tier are predicted to complete processing of the work item within a second processing time, and wherein the second processing tune is greater than the first processing time by an amount that exceeds the predetermined amount of time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A tangible and non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that cause a computing system to execute a method, the instructions comprising:
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instructions configured to divide a group of contact center agents into at least two tiers, the at least two tiers including a first tier and a second tier; and instructions configured to determine, at a first time, that a work assignment decision for a received work item should be deferred until a second time regardless of whether or not a second tier agent is available to process the work item at the first time because there are no first tier agents available to process the work item at the first time, wherein agents from the group of contact center agents including both first and second tier agents are qualified to process the received work item, and wherein the second time is a predetermined amount of time after the first time, wherein agents in the first tier are predicted to complete processing of the work item within a first processing time, wherein agents in the second tier are predicted to complete processing of the work item within a second processing time, and wherein the second processing time is greater than the first processing time by an amount that exceeds the predetermined amount of time. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A contact center, comprising:
a processor comprising a work assignment mechanism including; a work assignment engine including at least one set of work assignment rules configured to divide a group of contact center agents into at least two tiers, the at least two tiers including a first tier and a second tier and, at a first time, determine that a work assignment decision for a received work item should be deferred until a second time regardless of whether or not a second tier agent is available to receive the work item at the first time because there are no first tier agents available to receive the work item at the first time, wherein agents from the group of contact center agents including both first and second tier agents are qualified to process the received work item, and wherein the second time is a predetermined amount of time after the first time, wherein agents in the first tier are predicted to complete processing of the work item within a first processing time, wherein agents in the second tier are predicted to complete processing of the work item within a second processing time, and wherein the second processing tune is greater than the first processing time by an amount that exceeds the predetermined amount of time. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
Specification