Processing communications for increased handling efficiency

• US 8,843,563 B1
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Hartman, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): DENNISON, JERRY B
• Application Number:
  US10/955,592
• Time in Patent Office: 3,645 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/204, 709/224, 715/752
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing

Abstract

Messages for processing by a user are analyzed before being presented to the user. Where multiple messages require substantially the same response or action, they are presented in aggregate to the user so that the user can review a single message, prepare a single response, and this response can be distributed to the original message senders, resulting in improved message handling efficiency. Automated servers for responding to client requests can similarly store such requests for a period of time, match all identical or similar requests received during this time period, and generate a single response to the multiple requests, thereby reducing the duplication of system resource uses.

Claims

1. A computer implemented contact center message processing system of the type which presents messages to a contact center agent and enables the contact center agent to respond to the messages, the system comprising:

a) a processor for analyzing a plurality of messages before said messages are presented to said contact center agent, whereby the processor determines a subset of said messages sharing a common characteristic;

b) an aggregate message generator for generating information which is representative of said subset of messages, wherein said information comprises at least one of i) a summary of said messages in said subset of messages and ii) concatenated text of at least two of said messages in said subset of messages; and

for creating an aggregated message having a header and a body, wherein said information is provided in the body of the aggregated message;

c) a queuing system configured to generate an aggregate contact for the aggregated message and locating said aggregate contact into a queue of contacts;

the aggregated message being assigned a priority which determines the position of the aggregate contact in the queue of contacts;

d) an output for presenting said aggregate message to said contact center agent once said aggregate contact reaches the top of the queue;

e) a response generator for receiving a single response to said aggregate message formulated by the contact center agent and generating therefrom one or more response messages addressed to one or more source(s) of said subset of messages; and

f) a communications module for communicating said one or more response messages to said source(s).

2. A computer implemented message processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processor is programmed to identify the origin of a message and to assign messages to a subset according to their origin.

3. A computer implemented message processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processor is programmed to analyze the content of a message and to group messages according to their content.

4. A computer implemented message processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processor is programmed to determine a timestamp of a message and to group messages according to their timestamp.

5. A computer implemented message processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processor is programmed to determine the language of a message and to group messages according to their language.

6. A computer implemented message processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said aggregate message generator operates to concatenate some or all of the content of messages in the subset and the output presents the concatenated message content in a single message.

7. A computer implemented message processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said message processing system is selected from:

i) a voicemail system and said user is a user of the voicemail system; and

ii) an email system and said user is a user of the email system.

8. A computer implemented message processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said messages are selected from voice messages, video messages, text messages, emails, web-based forms, scanned correspondence items, voice calls and video calls.

9. A computer implemented message processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein an interface with the queuing system enables the message processing system to remove from the queuing system a contact relating to an existing message upon determining that said existing message can be included in said subset of messages, and said interface enabling the message processing system to update the queuing system with a contact relating to the aggregate message generated from said subset.

10. A computer-implemented method of processing messages of the type which are presented to a contact center agent of a contact center for a response, the method comprising:

a) analyzing a plurality of messages before said messages are presented to said contact center agent, and thereby determining a subset of said messages sharing a common characteristic;

b) generating information which is representative of said subset of messages, wherein said information comprises at least one of i) a summary of said messages in said subset of messages and ii) concatenated text of at least two of said messages in said subset of messages; and

creating an aggregated message having a header and a body, wherein said information is provided in the body of the aggregated message;

c) generating an aggregate contact for the aggregated message and locating said aggregate contact into a queue of contacts;

the aggregated message being assigned a priority which determines the position of the aggregate contact in the queue of contacts;

d) presenting said aggregate message to said contact center agent once said aggregate contact reaches the top of the queue;

e) receiving a single response to said aggregate message formulated by the contact center agent and generating therefrom one or more response messages addressed to one or more source(s) of said subset of messages; and

f) communicating said one or more response messages to said source(s).

11. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium for storing or recording instructions in machine readable form which when executed in a computer implemented message processing system cause said system to:

a) analyze a plurality of messages before said messages are presented to a contact center agent, and thereby determining a subset of said messages sharing a common characteristic;

b) generate information which is representative of said subset of messages, wherein said information comprises at least one of i) a summary of said messages in said subset of messages and ii) concatenated text of at least two of said messages in said subset of messages; and

creating an aggregated message having a header and a body, wherein said information is provided in the body of the aggregated message;

c) generating an aggregate contact for the aggregated message and locating said aggregate contact into a queue of contacts;

the aggregated message being assigned a priority which determines the position of the aggregate contact in the queue of contacts;

d) present said aggregate message to said contact center agent once said aggregate contact reaches the top of the queue;

e) receive a single response to said aggregate message formulated by the contact center agent and generate therefrom one or more response messages addressed to one or more source(s) of said subset of messages; and

f) communicate said one or more response messages to said source(s).

12. A contact center comprising a queuing system for queuing contacts and assigning said contacts to agents, one or more agent workstations providing an interface to communications corresponding to said contacts, said communications including messages requiring a response, and a computer implemented message processing system for processing messages before they are presented to said agents, said computer implemented message processing system comprising:

a) a processor for analyzing a plurality of messages before said messages are presented to said agents, whereby the processor determines a subset of said messages sharing a common characteristic;

b) an aggregate message generator for generating information which is representative of said subset of messages, wherein said information comprises at least one of i) a summary of said messages in said subset of messages and ii) concatenated text of at least two of said messages in said subset of messages; and

for creating an aggregated message having a header and a body, wherein said information is provided in the body of the aggregated message;

whereby the queuing system is configured to generate an aggregate contact for the aggregated message and locate said aggregate contact into a queue of contacts;

the aggregated message being assigned a priority which determines the position of the aggregate contact in the queue of contacts; and

c) an output for presenting said aggregate message to selected one of the agents once said aggregate contact reaches the top of the queue;

d) a response generator for receiving a single response to said aggregate message formulated by the selected agent and generating therefrom one or more response messages addressed to one or more source(s) of said subset of messages; and

e) a communications module for communicating said one or more response messages to said source(s).