System and method of managing calls to a customer service call center

• US 20070041551A1
• Filed: 08/10/2005
• Published: 02/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zoom Video Communications, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Whitecotten, Daniel, Mrachek, Karen, Goodell, Joshua
• Granted Patent: US 7,783,029 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/212.10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution

Abstract

A method of managing calls at a call service center is disclosed and includes monitoring a plurality of calls that are received at the call service center. Further, the method includes monitoring service transactions that are handled by a plurality of customer service agents. The method also includes determining a sales success metric of each of the plurality of customer service agents for each of a plurality of services offerings and ranking the customer service agents in terms of the service success metric for each of the plurality of service offerings. Additionally, the method includes recording the customer service agent rankings for each of the service offerings.

Claims

1. A method of managing calls at a call service center, the method comprising:

monitoring a plurality of calls received and monitoring service transactions handled by a plurality of customer service agents;

determining a sales success metric of each of the plurality of customer service agents for each of a plurality of services offerings;

ranking the customer service agents in terms of the service success metric for each of the plurality of service offerings; and

recording the customer service agent rankings for each of the service offerings.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a telephone call;

determining whether the call is related to sales of a service;

determining a service of interest when the call is determined to be related to sales of a service; and

determining whether a top ranked customer service agent based on the sales success metric for the service of interest is available to take the call.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising transferring the telephone call to the top ranked customer service agent.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising transferring the telephone call to a next highest ranked customer service agent for the service of interest.

5. A method of managing telephone calls at a customer call center, the method comprising:

receiving a telephone call;

determining whether the telephone call is a repeat telephone call related to a prior call;

determining a reason for the telephone call;

determining whether the reason for the telephone call is a reason that is similar to or the same as a reason for the prior call; and

routing the telephone call to a call agent with specific skills to support calls with the reason.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining whether the telephone call is resolved via an integrated voice response server when the telephone call is not a repeat telephone call.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining an estimated wait time when the telephone call is not resolved via the integrated voice response server.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining whether the estimated wait time is less than a threshold.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising transferring the call to a primary call agent when the estimated wait time is less than the threshold.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining a number of idle secondary agents when the estimated wait time is not less than the threshold.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining whether the number of idle secondary agents is greater than a threshold.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising transferring the call to a secondary call agent when the number of idle secondary agents is greater than the threshold.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising transferring the call to a next available call agent when the number of idle secondary agents is not greater than the threshold.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the primary call agent has skills to handle more call issues than the secondary call agent.

15. A system for managing calls at a customer call center, the system comprising:

a call server;

a processor within the call server;

a memory accessible to the processor;

a computer program embedded within the memory, the computer program comprising;

instructions to determine whether the telephone call is a repeat telephone call related to a prior call;

instructions to determine a reason for the telephone call;

instructions to determine whether the reason for the telephone call is a reason that is similar to or the same as a reason for the prior call; and

instructions to route the telephone call to a call agent with specific skills to support calls with the reason.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions to determine whether the telephone call is resolved via an integrated voice response server when the telephone call is not a repeat telephone call.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions to determine an estimated wait time.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising a plurality of customer service agent computers associated with a plurality of customer service agents.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the plurality of customer service agents are divided into a plurality of skills groups.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the plurality of customer service agent computers includes a set of primary customer agent computers associated with a set of primary customer agents having a first set of skills and a set of secondary agent computers associated with a set of secondary agents having a second set of skills.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the second set of skills is greater than the second set of skills.

22. A call agent server comprising:

a processor;

a memory accessible to the processor; and

a computer program embedded within the memory, the computer program comprising;

instructions to monitor a plurality of calls received at a plurality of customer service agents; and

instructions to rank the customer server agents in terms of sales success for each service offered.

23. The server of claim 22, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions to determining a sales success metric of each of the plurality of customer service agents for each of a plurality of services offerings when a sales call is received for a particular service.

24. The server of claim 23, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions to transfer the telephone call to the top ranked customer service agent for the particular service.

25. The server of claim 24, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions to transfer the telephone call to a next highest ranked customer service agent for the particular service.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the computer program further comprises instructions to transfer the telephone call to a group of customer service agents having a rank above a threshold for a particular service.