Interactive call processor to facilitate completion of queued calls
First Claim
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1. A method for operating a call processor in conjunction with a telecommunication switching system which has no calling party queuing facilities to achieve automatic call distribution functions, comprising the steps of:
- receiving by the call processor incoming calls from calling parties, which incoming calls are directed to the switching system;
receiving from the calling parties, by the call processor, destination information;
in response to each respective incoming call, requesting service of the switching system by the call processor;
in response to an acknowledgment of the respective requests for service by the switching system, transmitting by the call processor to the switching system the respective destination information;
determining by the call processor whether any of the respective destinations associated with the destination information are busy or unavailable;
for calling parties unserviced by an attendant, and who had input destination information associated with respective destinations determined by the call processor to be busy or unavailable, placing such unserviced calling parties in a queue; and
periodically transmitting destination information by the call processor to the switching system to determine whether or not a respective destination is busy or unavailable, and if a respective destination is available, causing a respective queued calling party to be connected by a speech path through the switching system to the available destination.
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Abstract
Call processing apparatus for queuing calling parties waiting to be connected to a service position, and for calculating queue position data or wait time data and transmitting the queue data to the calling parties. The queued calling parties can also reach alternate destinations by inputting digit information for routing queued calling parties to such destinations.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. A method for operating a call processor in conjunction with a telecommunication switching system which has no calling party queuing facilities to achieve automatic call distribution functions, comprising the steps of:
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receiving by the call processor incoming calls from calling parties, which incoming calls are directed to the switching system; receiving from the calling parties, by the call processor, destination information; in response to each respective incoming call, requesting service of the switching system by the call processor; in response to an acknowledgment of the respective requests for service by the switching system, transmitting by the call processor to the switching system the respective destination information; determining by the call processor whether any of the respective destinations associated with the destination information are busy or unavailable; for calling parties unserviced by an attendant, and who had input destination information associated with respective destinations determined by the call processor to be busy or unavailable, placing such unserviced calling parties in a queue; and periodically transmitting destination information by the call processor to the switching system to determine whether or not a respective destination is busy or unavailable, and if a respective destination is available, causing a respective queued calling party to be connected by a speech path through the switching system to the available destination. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for operating a telecommunication system comprising a call processor in conjunction with the telecommunication system, comprising the steps of:
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configuring said call processor to process incoming calls from a plurality of calling parties, which incoming calls are directed to a switching system; receiving from said calling parties, by said call processor, destination information; configuring said switching system to identify to said call processor whether any of respective destinations associated with the destination information received from said calling parties are available; for any of said calling parties unserviced by an attendant and who had input destination information associated with a respective destination determined by said call processor to not have an attendant available at that time, forming at least one calling party queue for each respective destination and placing any unserviced calling party in said at least one queue of said respective destination associated with said destination information input by said any unserviced calling party; and periodically transmitting destination information by said call processor to said switching system to determine whether or not said respective destinations associated with said destination information input by said any unserviced calling parties are available, and if available, causing said respective queued unserviced calling parties to be connected to the available respective destinations, and if unavailable, causing at least one message relating to a parameter of said at least one queue to be transmitted to said respective queued calling parties, wherein said at least one message may be different for each of said respective queued unserviced calling parties..Iaddend..Iadd. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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Specification