SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPTIMIZING TIMING OF RESPONSES TO CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20070198871A1
• Filed: 04/25/2007
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nelken, Yoram
• Granted Patent: US 9,584,665 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/502
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5238 with waiting time or load prediction arrangements

Abstract

A system and method for optimizing timing of responses to customer communications comprises a contact center and an operations center. The operations center includes a decision module that receives each communication and determines whether a partial response, such as an acknowledgement that the communication was received, is required. If a partial response is required, a response module sends a partial response to the sender that indicates the communication was received and preferably includes an estimate of the time required for a full response to the communication. All received communications are forwarded to a queue to await processing by an agent. The decision module determines whether a partial response is required based on an estimate of the amount of time required for a full response. If the time estimate is less than a predetermined threshold, a partial response is not sent and the communication is forwarded to a queue for processing.

Claims

1. A system for optimizing timing of responses to communications, comprising:

a contact center configured to receive a communication from a sender;

a decision module configured to determine whether a partial response to the communication is required, wherein the decision module determines whether the communication requires the partial response according to an estimated time required for a full response to the communication; and

a response module configured to send the partial response to the sender, if required.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein, when the estimated time required for the full response to the communication is lower than a threshold, then the decision module determines that the partial response is not required.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the decision module monitors an actual time elapsed for a full response to be sent to learn what type of communications require a response time less than the threshold.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the threshold is adjusted to decrease or increase the number of partial responses.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the decision module is a rule-based system that analyzes the communication and applies one or more rules to determine the estimated time required for the full response to the communication.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the decision module learns from feedback which communication requires the partial response.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the decision module monitors queues to identify the communication whose estimated time required for the full response has been exceed.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the decision module determines a new estimated time required for the full response to the communication after response module sends the partial response.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the response module sends a new partial response indicating that the communication is still being processed after the new estimated time required has been exceeded.

10. A method for optimizing timing of responses to communications, comprising:

receiving a communication from a sender at a contact center;

determining whether the communication requires a partial response in a decision module, wherein the decision module determines whether the communication requires the partial response according to an estimated time required for a full response to the communication; and

sending the partial response to the sender, if required, from a response module.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein, when the estimated time required for the full response to the communication is lower than a threshold, then the decision module determines that the partial response is not required.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the decision module monitors an actual time elapsed for a full response to be sent to learn what type of communications require a response time less than the threshold.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the threshold is adjusted to decrease or increase the number of partial responses.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the decision module is a rule-based system that analyzes the communication and applies one or more rules to determine the estimated time required for the full response to the communication.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the decision module learns from feedback which communication requires the partial response.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the decision module monitors queues to identify the communication whose estimated time required for the full response has been exceed.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the decision module determines a new estimated time required for the full response to the communication after response module sends the partial response.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the response module sends a new partial response indicating that the communication is still being processed after the new estimated time required has been exceeded.