Estimating agent performance in a call routing center system

• US 8,724,797 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2010
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2010
• Status: Expired

• Current Assignee: Afiniti Ltd
• Original Assignee: Satmap International Holdings, Ltd.
• Inventors: Chishti, Zia, Spottiswoode, S. James P.
• Primary Examiner(s): ISLAM, MOHAMMAD K
• Application Number:
  US12/869,645
• Publication Number:
  US 20120051536A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,356 Days
• Field of Search: 3792651-2661
• US Class Current: 379/265.11
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/401 Performance feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for estimating and assigning agent performance characteristics in a call routing center. Performance characteristics (e.g., sales rate, customer satisfaction, duration of call, etc.) may be assigned to an agent when the agent has made few calls relative to other agents or otherwise has a large error in their measure of one or more performance characteristics used for matching callers to agents (e.g., via a performance based or pattern matching routing method). A method includes identifying agents of a plurality of agents having a number of calls fewer than a predetermined number of calls (or an error in the performance characteristic exceeding a threshold), assigning a performance characteristic to the identified agents (that is different than the agent'"'"'s actual performance characteristic), and routing a caller to one of the plurality of agents based on the performance characteristics of the plurality of agents.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for estimating agent performance in a call-center routing environment, the method comprising:

identifying, by one or more computers, one agent from a plurality of agents, wherein the one agent identified has a number of calls fewer than a predetermined number;

computing and assigning, by the one or more computers, a respective assigned outcome performance characteristic to the one identified agent, wherein the assigned outcome performance is different from an actual outcome performance characteristic for the identified agent, and is based at least in part on the performance of one or more other of the agents; and

routing, by the one or more computers, a caller to an agent of the plurality of agents based on respective outcome performance characteristics of the plurality of agents, the outcome performance characteristics including the assigned outcome performance characteristic to the one identified agent.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigned outcome performance characteristic is an average outcome performance characteristic of the plurality of agents.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigned outcome performance characteristic is based at least in part on an average outcome performance characteristic of the plurality of agents.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigned outcome performance characteristic for the one identified agent is based at least in part on agent outcome performance data of one or more agents having similar demographic data as the respective agent.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing and assigning step comprises computing, by the one or more computers, an adjustment to an actual outcome performance characteristic of the one identified agent based on one or more criteria.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing step comprises determining an interpolation between an actual outcome performance characteristic value of the one identified agent and an outcome performance characteristic of the plurality of agents based at least in part on the criterion of a number of calls received by the one identified agent.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined number of calls is determined relative to an average number of calls for the plurality of agents.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined number of calls is associated with an error threshold in the outcome performance characteristic of the agents.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the agent outcome performance characteristic comprises a sales rate.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein routing the caller is based on an outcome performance based matching algorithm.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein routing the caller is based on a pattern matching algorithm, and the assigned agent outcome performance characteristic is input into the pattern matching algorithm.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined number of calls is determined based at least in part on a conversion rate for the plurality of the agents.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing, by the one or more computers, a boost of performance based at least in part on a representative number for agent outcome performances of the agents that were selected and based at least in part on the representative number for the agent outcome performances of the agents that would have been selected based on their actual agent performances.

12. A computer implemented method for estimating agent outcome performance in a call-center routing environment, the method comprising:

determining, by one or more computers, respective actual outcome performance characteristics for each of a plurality of agents;

determining, by the one or more computers, an outcome performance characteristic representative of the plurality of agents;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a respective one of the agents having an error in the respective agent'"'"'s outcome performance characteristic greater than a predetermined threshold;

assigning, by the one or more computers, an outcome performance characteristic for the identified agent which assigned outcome performance is different from the actual outcome performance characteristic for the one identified agent and which is based at least in part on the representative outcome performance characteristic for the plurality of agents; and

routing, by the one or more computers, a caller to one of the plurality of agents based on the outcome performance characteristics, the outcome performance characteristics including the assigned outcome performance characteristic to the identified agent.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the error comprises a fractional error.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the assigned outcome performance characteristic is an average outcome performance characteristic of the plurality of agents.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the assigned outcome performance characteristic is based at least in part on an average outcome performance characteristic of the plurality of agents.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the assigning step comprises computing, by the one or more computers, an adjustment to an actual outcome performance characteristic of the identified agent.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the computing step comprises determining an interpolation between an actual outcome performance characteristic value of the respective identified agent and an average outcome performance characteristic of the plurality of agents.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the predetermined threshold is based on a fractional error of the outcome performance characteristic.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the agent outcome performance characteristic comprises a sales rate.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein routing the caller is based on an outcome performance based matching algorithm.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein routing the caller is based on a pattern matching algorithm, and the assigned agent outcome performance characteristic is input into the pattern matching algorithm.

22. A system for routing callers to agents in a call center routing environment, the system comprising:

one or more computers configured with computer-readable program code, that when executed, will cause performance of the steps;

identifying, by the one or more computers, one agent from a plurality of agents, wherein the one agent identified has a number of calls fewer than a predetermined number;

computing and assigning, by the one or more computers, a respective outcome performance characteristic to the one identified agent, wherein the assigned outcome performance is different from an actual outcome performance characteristic for the respective identified agent, and is based at least in part on the performance of one or more other of the agents; and

routing, by the one or more computers, a caller to an agent of the plurality of agents based on respective outcome performance characteristics of the plurality of agents, the outcome performance characteristics including the assigned outcome performance characteristic to the one identified agent.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein the predetermined number of calls is determined based at least in part on a conversion rate for the plurality of the agents.

29. The system of claim 22, where the one or more computers are further configured with computer-readable program code, that when executed, will cause performance of the step:

computing, by the one or more computers, a boost of performance based at least in part on a representative number for agent outcome performances of the agents that were selected and based at least in part on the representative number for the agent outcome performances of the agents that would have been selected based on their actual agent performances.

30. The system of claim 22, wherein the assigned outcome performance characteristic for the one identified agent is based at least in part on agent outcome performance data of one or more agents having similar demographic data as the respective agent.

31. The system of claim 22, wherein the assigned outcome performance characteristic is based at least in part on an average outcome performance characteristic of the plurality of agents.

32. The system of claim 22, wherein the computing and assigning step comprises computing, by the one or more computers, an adjustment to an actual outcome performance characteristic of the one identified agent based on one or more criteria.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the computing step comprises determining an interpolation between an actual outcome performance characteristic value of the one identified agent and an outcome performance characteristic of the plurality of agents based at least in part on the criterion of a number of calls received by the one identified agent.

23. A system for routing callers to agents in a call center routing environment, the system comprising:

one or more computers configured with computer-readable program code, that when executed, will cause performance of the steps;

determining, by the one or more computers, respective actual outcome performance characteristics for a plurality of agents;

determining, by the one or more computers, an outcome performance characteristic representative of the plurality of agents;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a respective one of the agents having an error in the respective agent'"'"'s outcome performance characteristic greater than a predetermined threshold;

assigning, by the one or more computers, an outcome performance characteristic for the identified agent which assigned outcome performance is different from the actual outcome performance characteristic for the one identified agent and which is based at least in part on the representative outcome performance characteristic for the plurality of agents; and

routing, by the one or more computers, a caller to one of the plurality of agents based on the outcome performance characteristics, the outcome performance characteristics including the assigned outcome performance characteristic to the identified agent.

24. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions for carrying out, when executed by one or more computers, the method:

identifying, by the one or more computers, one agent from a plurality of agents, wherein the one agent identified has a number of calls fewer than a predetermined number;

computing and assigning, by the one or more computers, a respective assigned outcome performance characteristic to the one identified agent, wherein the assigned outcome performance is different from an actual outcome performance characteristic for the identified agent, and is based at least in part on the performance of one or more other of the agents; and

routing, by the one or more computers, a caller to an agent of the plurality of agents based on respective outcome performance characteristics of the plurality of agents, the outcome performance characteristics including the assigned outcome performance characteristic to the one identified agent.

25. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions for carrying out, when executed by one or more computers, the method:

determining, by the one or more computers, respective actual outcome performance characteristics for a plurality of agents;

determining, by the one or more computers, an outcome performance characteristic representative of the plurality of agents;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a respective one of the agents having an error in the respective agent'"'"'s outcome performance characteristic greater than a predetermined threshold;

assigning, by the one or more computers, an outcome performance characteristic for the identified agent which assigned outcome performance is different from the actual outcome performance characteristic for the one identified agent and which is based at least in part on the representative outcome performance characteristic for the plurality of agents; and

routing, by the one or more computers, a caller to one of the plurality of agents based on the outcome performance characteristics, the outcome performance characteristics including the assigned outcome performance characteristic to the identified agent.