Multilocation queuing for telephone calls
First Claim
1. A method of completing calls from a caller to a destination customer served by a plurality of agent teams, comprising:
- accessing a database for obtaining data to route a call to first ones of said teams;
determining whether a circuit to any of said first teams is available;
upon determining that no circuit is available to any of said first teams, placing said routed call in a queue for second ones of said teams, said second ones of said teams being located in at least two geographically separated locations served by different communication switching systems; and
upon subsequently determining that a circuit is available to one of said second teams, extending a call in said queue toward said determined available circuit;
wherein said first ones and said second ones of said teams may be different groups of teams.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for queuing calls to a multilocation service provider having a plurality of automatic call distributors (ACDs). If all circuits to the ACDs are unavailable, a call is queued in one of a plurality of queues. One or more of these queues will allow call completion to any ACD of the service provider as soon as an agent of that ACD becomes available. Advantageously, the average waiting time for customers to that service provider is reduced, thereby improving service. In accordance with one feature of the system, the caller can select one of a plurality of choices of music on hold as offered by the service provider.
302 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method of completing calls from a caller to a destination customer served by a plurality of agent teams, comprising:
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accessing a database for obtaining data to route a call to first ones of said teams; determining whether a circuit to any of said first teams is available; upon determining that no circuit is available to any of said first teams, placing said routed call in a queue for second ones of said teams, said second ones of said teams being located in at least two geographically separated locations served by different communication switching systems; and upon subsequently determining that a circuit is available to one of said second teams, extending a call in said queue toward said determined available circuit; wherein said first ones and said second ones of said teams may be different groups of teams. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of completing a call from a caller to a destination customer served by at least one agent team, comprising:
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accessing a database for obtaining data to route the call to one of said at least one teams of the destination customer; determining whether a circuit to one of the at least one teams is available; if no circuit to one of the at least one teams is available, placing the call on hold while waiting for the availability of a circuit to one of the at least one teams; returning an announcement requesting an indication of a preference of type of music to said caller; receiving from said caller an indication of the preferred request; and responsive to said indication, connecting said preferred type of music to said caller. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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18. Database means comprising:
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a plurality of queues; means for maintaining circuit availability data for a plurality of agent teams; means, responsive to a request message from a switching system for routing data for a call to a destination, for identifying a first plurality of agent teams for serving said call, for determining whether any of said first plurality has an available circuit, and for placing said call in a queue for a second plurality of agent teams if none of said first plurality has an available circuit;
said second ones of said teams being located in at least two geographically separated locations served by different communication switching systems; andmeans responsive to receipt of a disconnect message making a circuit of a specific one of said plurality of agent teams available, sending a routing message to said switching system to route a call in the queue to said specific agent team.
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19. A method of completing a call from a caller to a destination customer served by a plurality of agent teams comprising:
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accessing a database shared by a plurality of switching systems, using a number dialed by said caller and an indication of the geographic source of a call to access said database, for obtaining data to route the call to one of a first plurality of the teams of the destination customer; in said database, determining whether a circuit to any of the first plurality of teams is available by checking circuit availability data of said first teams in a predetermined order; if no circuits are available in any of the first teams, placing the call in a queue of said database for a second plurality of teams of the destination customer;
said second ones of said teams being located in at least two geographically separated locations served by different communication switching systems; andwhen a circuit becomes available for one of the second plurality of teams, sending a routing message to one of said switching systems to extend a call in the queue toward a circuit of the team having the available circuit; wherein said first and said second plurality may contain different agent teams; wherein said database comprises a plurality of queues for said destination customer and wherein calls are entered into one of said plurality of queues, according to said indication of geographic source of a call or a type of said call or both, and wherein said type of said call is determined based on a number dialed by said caller or by information supplied by said caller after the completion of dialing; wherein one of said plurality of queues is a priority queue, wherein said call is entered in said priority queue if said type of class is one of a class of priority calls, and wherein calls from said priority queue are extended to an available circuit of a team served by the priority queue before calls from another queue are extended to said available circuit.
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20. A method of completing a call from a caller over a public switched network to a destination customer served by at least one agent team, comprising:
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determining that no circuits are available for completing the call to said destination customer; returning an announcement from the public switched network requesting an indication of a preference of type of music to said caller; responsive to receiving an indication of a preference from said caller, connecting said preferred type of music to said caller. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. A method of completing a call from a caller over a public switched network to a destination customer served by at least one agent team, comprising:
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determining that no circuits are available for completing the call to said destination customer; connecting a type of music, prespecified by said caller, to said caller. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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Specification