Interruptible work reassignment

• US 8,964,964 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2013
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Steiner, Robert C., Uba, Gene
• Primary Examiner(s): AL AUBAIDI, RASHA S
• Application Number:
  US13/764,504
• Publication Number:
  US 20140226810A1
• Time in Patent Office: 743 Days
• Field of Search: 37926501-26502, 379/265.12
• US Class Current: 379/265.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/402 Agent or workforce management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/404 Collaboration among agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5238 with waiting time or load prediction arrangements

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, mark a work item as interruptible. The work item may receive an interruptible marking when the work item is assigned to an adequately-matched agent rather than a well-matched. Processing of the work item by the adequately-matched agent may be interrupted if the well-matched agent becomes available prior to the work item being completed by the adequately-matched agent.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a contact in a contact center;

generating a work item to represent the contact within the contact center;

determining processing requirements for the work item;

analyzing resources within the contact center to determine which among the resources is qualified for processing the work item based on the processing requirements determined for the work item;

based on the analysis of the resources, identifying a well matched agent and an adequately matched agent as being qualified for processing the work item, the well matched agent being better qualified to process the work item than the adequately matched agent;

assigning the work item to the adequately matched agent instead of the well matched agent in response to determining that the well matched agent is not currently available to process the work item;

determining, in response to assigning the work item to the adequately matched agent, that the work item is interruptible, such that the assignment of the work item to the adequately matched agent may be interrupted by an assignment of the work item to the well matched agent, and marking the work item as interruptible; and

routing the work item to the adequately matched agent.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the well matched agent has become available after the work item has been routed to the adequately matched agent; and

determining whether to assign the well matched agent to a second work item not yet assigned to an agent or to interrupt the adequately-matched agent and reassign the work item to the well matched agent.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

considering potential work item processing success by analyzing at least one of the following factors;

projected profits associated with having the adequately-assigned agent process the work item, projected costs associated with having the adequately-assigned agent process the work item, projected profits associated with having the well-assigned agent process the work item, and projected costs associated with having the well-assigned agent process the work item; and

based on the consideration of potential work item processing success, determining to re-assign the work item to the well matched agent.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

informing the adequately matched agent that the work item has been re-assigned to the well matched agent.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein informing the adequately matched agent comprises providing the adequately matched agent with an opportunity to be at least one of passively and actively involved in completion of processing of the work item by the well matched agent.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein a customer associated with the contact is not informed of the re-assignment of the work item from the adequately matched agent to the well matched agent.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein marking the work item as being interruptible comprises assigning a bit in a work item data structure a predetermined value.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein marking the work item further comprises providing information regarding training opportunities within the data structure.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the work item is interruptible includes determining that the work item corresponds to at least one of a near-real time and non-real time contact.

10. 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 that a contact has been received in a contact center;

instructions configured to generate a work item to represent the contact within the contact center;

instructions configured to determine processing requirements for the work item;

instructions configured to analyze resources within the contact center to determine which among the resources is qualified for processing the work item based on the processing requirements determined for the work item;

instructions configured to, based on the analysis of the resources, identify a well matched agent and an adequately matched agent as being qualified for processing the work item, the well matched agent being better qualified to process the work item than the adequately matched agent;

instructions configured to assign the work item to the adequately matched agent instead of the well matched agent in response to determining that the well matched agent is not currently-available to process the work item; and

instructions configured to determine, in response to assigning the work item to the adequately matched agent, that the work item is interruptible, such that the assignment of the work item to the adequately matched agent may be interrupted by an assignment of the work item to the well matched agent, and marking the work item as interruptible.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions further comprise:

instructions configured to determine that the well matched agent has become available after the work item has been routed to the adequately matched agent; and

instructions configured to determine whether to assign the well matched agent to a second work item not yet assigned to an agent or to interrupt the adequately matched agent and reassign the work item to the well matched agent.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise:

instructions configured to consider potential work item processing success by analyzing at least one of the following factors;

projected profits associated with having the adequately-assigned agent process the work item, projected costs associated with having the adequately-assigned agent process the work item, projected profits associated with having the well-assigned agent process the work item, and projected costs associated with having the well-assigned agent process the work item; and

instructions configured to, based on the consideration of potential work item processing success, determine to re-assign the work item to the well matched agent.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions configured to re-assign the work item are further configured to inform the adequately matched agent that the work item has been re-assigned to the well matched agent.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein informing the adequately matched agent comprises providing the adequately matched agent with an opportunity to be at least one of passively and actively involved in completion of processing of the work item by the well matched agent.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein a customer associated with the contact is not informed of the re-assignment of the work item from the adequately matched agent to the well matched agent.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein marking the work item as being interruptible comprises assigning a bit in a work item data structure a predetermined value.

17. A contact center, comprising:

a processor to execute programming instructions stored in memory; and

memory comprising a work assignment engine, the work assignment engine comprising re-assignment logic instructions that, when executed by the processor, determine that an agent has become available, identify at least one work item already assigned to an adequately matched agent as being interruptible by referring to a marking of the at least one work item indicating that the at least one work item is interruptible and eligible to receive re-assignment decisions, determine that the agent is a well matched agent for the at least one interruptible work item such that the well matched agent is better qualified to process the at least one interruptible work item than the adequately matched agent, and re-assign the at least one interruptible work item to the well matched agent.

18. The contact center of claim 17, wherein the re-assignment logic is further configured to assess at least one of potential profits and costs associated with re-assigning the at least one interruptible work item to the well matched agent prior to re-assigning the at least one interruptible work item.

19. The contact center of claim 18, wherein during an assessment of at least one of potential profits and costs, the re-assignment logic is configured to analyze at least one of the following factors:

projected profits associated with having the adequately-assigned agent process the work item, projected costs associated with having the adequately-assigned agent process the work item, projected profits associated with having the well-assigned agent process the work item, and projected costs associated with having the well-assigned agent process the work item.

20. The contact center of claim 17, wherein identifying the at least one work item already assigned to an adequately matched agent as being interruptible includes analyzing a single bit value in a work item data structure.