System and method for automatic task prioritization

• US 7,849,044 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2005
• Issued: 12/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nelken, Yoram
• Primary Examiner(s): Sparks; Donald
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran; Mai T
• Application Number:
  US11/262,522
• Publication Number:
  US 20060080267A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,866 Days
• Field of Search: 706/55, 370/412, 370/395, 370/352, 379/265.06, 718/102, 718/103
• US Class Current: 706/55
• 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 automatic task prioritization comprises one or more task queues, a monitoring module, and a decision engine. The decision engine receives tasks and assigns a priority code to each task. Each task is inserted into one of the task queues according to its priority code and the priority codes of other tasks which may be present in the task queues. Agents select tasks to perform from the task queue according to priority guidelines established by a system user. The monitoring module may monitor the order of the tasks selected by the agents and each task'"'"'s priority code. The monitoring module feeds this information back to the decision module. In one embodiment, the decision module is a learning system that updates stored data using feedback from the monitoring module to determine priority of each task.

Claims

1. An electronic interaction system for automatically prioritizing electronic communications received from other parties, comprising:

a contact center, performed by an electronic system, for receiving the communications;

a monitoring module, performed by an electronic system, for monitoring an order of the communications selected by each agent according to a judgment of priority made by each agent, wherein the agent performs one or more actions in responding to the selected communications and the actions are determined by the communications'"'"' type;

a decision engine, performed by an electronic system, for determining a priority code for each of the received communications, wherein the decision engine is a learning system that uses feedback from the monitoring performed by the monitoring module to adjust how the priority code is determined, so that the priority code for each of the received communications is determined automatically from the judgment of priority made by each agent; and

at least one queue, in an electronic system, for storing the prioritized communications in order of their priority code to allow the agents to more efficiently identify and process the communications having higher priority codes;

thereby automatically prioritizing the electronic communications received from other parties by the electronic interaction system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the decision engine comprises a parser configured to analyze content of the received communications.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications comprise text communications and the decision engine comprises a parser configured to parse text of the text communications.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications are received by the contact center via a text-based communication channel.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications are voice communications and the decision engine comprises a parser configured to analyze content of the voice communications.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein an agent having a judgment of priority selects prioritized communications from the queue according to the judgment of priority.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the decision engine comprises a parser configured to parse the received communications and a priority module configured to receive parsed communications from the parser and determine the priority code for each of the parsed communications.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the priority code is determined in accordance with priority guidelines established by a user of the system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein changes to the priority guidelines are communicated to the agents, and the judgment of priority made by each agent is adjusted in accordance with the changes to the priority guidelines, which results in changes to one or more of the priority codes via the feedback from the monitoring performed by the monitoring module, thereby altering the electronic interaction system'"'"'s operation.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more new types of the communications are received by electronic interaction system, and the priority codes of the new types of the communications are determined by the judgment of priority made by each agent, thereby altering the electronic interaction system'"'"'s operation.

11. An electronic interaction system for automatically prioritizing electronic tasks received from other parties, comprising:

a contact center, performed by an electronic system, for receiving the tasks;

a monitoring module, performed by an electronic system, for monitoring an order of the tasks selected by each agent according to a judgment of priority made by each agent, wherein the agent performs one or more actions in responding to the communications and the actions are determined by the communications'"'"' type;

a decision engine, performed by an electronic system, for determining a priority code for each of the tasks, wherein the decision engine is a learning system that uses feedback from the monitoring performed by the monitoring module to adjust how the priority code is determined, so that the priority code for each of the tasks is determined automatically from the judgment of priority made by each agent; and

at least one queue, in an electronic system, for storing the tasks in order of their priority code to allow the agents to more efficiently identify and process the tasks having higher priority codes;

thereby automatically prioritizing the electronic tasks received from other parties by the electronic interaction system.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the decision engine comprises a parser configured to analyze content of the tasks.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the decision engine comprises a parser configured to parse text of the tasks.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the tasks are received by the contact center via a text-based communication channel.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the tasks are voice tasks and the decision engine comprises a parser configured to analyze content of the voice tasks.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein an agent having a judgment of priority selects tasks from the queue according to the judgment of priority.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the decision engine comprises a parser configured to parse the tasks and a priority module configured to receive parsed tasks from the parser and determine the priority code for each of the tasks.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the priority code is determined in accordance with priority guidelines established by a user of the system.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein changes to the priority guidelines are communicated to the agents, and the judgment of priority made by each agent is adjusted in accordance with the changes to the priority guidelines, which results in changes to one or more of the priority codes via the feedback from the monitoring performed by the monitoring module, thereby altering the electronic interaction system'"'"'s operation.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein one or more new types of the tasks are received by electronic interaction system, and the priority codes of the new types of the tasks are determined by the judgment of priority made by each agent, thereby altering the electronic interaction system'"'"'s operation.

21. A method for automatically prioritizing communications received from other parties in an electronic interaction system, comprising:

receiving the communications at a contact center performed by an electronic system;

monitoring, in a monitoring module performed by an electronic system, an order of the communications selected by each agent according to a judgment of priority made by each agent, wherein the agent performs one or more actions in responding to the communications and the actions are determined by the communications'"'"' type;

determining, in a decision engine performed by an electronic system, a priority code for each of the received communications, wherein the decision engine is a learning system that uses feedback from the monitoring performed by the monitoring module to adjust how the priority code is determined, so that the priority code for each of the received communications is determined automatically from the judgment of priority made by each agent; and

storing the prioritized communications in at least one queue, in an electronic system, in order of their priority code to allow the agents to more efficiently identify and process the communications having higher priority codes;

thereby automatically prioritizing the electronic communications received from other parties by the electronic interaction system.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of determining a priority code comprises analyzing content of the received communications.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of determining a priority code comprises parsing text of the received communications.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the communications are received via a text-based communication channel.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the communications comprise voice communications and the step of determining a priority code comprises analyzing content of the voice communications.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein an agent having a judgment of priority selects communications from the queue according to the judgment of priority.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein changes to priority guidelines are communicated to the agents, and the judgment of priority made by each agent is adjusted in accordance with the changes to the priority guidelines, which results in changes to one or more of the priority codes via the feedback from the monitoring performed by the monitoring module, thereby altering the electronic interaction system'"'"'s operation.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein one or more new types of the communications are received by electronic interaction system, and the priority codes of the new types of the communications are determined by the judgment of priority made by each agent, thereby altering the electronic interaction system'"'"'s operation.