Method and system for distributing outbound telephone calls

• US RE46,420 E1
• Filed: 03/03/2015
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alvaria Cayman
• Original Assignee: Noble Systems Corporation
• Inventors: Rodenbusch, Jr., Richard, Duncan, Daniel N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wassum, Luke S
• Application Number:
  US14/636,242
• Time in Patent Office: 819 Days
• Field of Search: 37926607, 37926505
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5158 in combination with automated outdialling systems devices for signalling identity of wanted subscriber H04M1/26

Abstract

A method and system is provided for the distribution of outbound telephone calls. This method and system includes dialing devices receiving call records and providing telephone calls to one or more agents. Interfaced with the dialing device is a distribution module including pools and queues. The distribution module places the call records into the pools and transfers less than all of the call records to the queues to allow for calling by the dialing devices at peak efficiency. The distribution module transfers the queues to the dialing devices so that the dialing device can place telephone calls. The distribution module monitors the queues to determine when to send additional call records to the queues. In addition, distribution module monitors the results of the call records and updates the call records in the pools so that call records with unsuccessful outcomes can be safely called again later in the day.

Claims

1. A system for distributing outbound telephone calls, the system comprising:

one or more dialing devices, eacha dialing device associated with plurala plurality of agents and operable, wherein the dialing device is configured to receive a plurality of call records associated with a campaign and to provide a plurality of telephone calls to the pluralplurality of agents associated with the dialing device; and

a distribution module server interfaced with at least one of the dialing devices the dialing device, the distribution module server having a plurality of pools and a plurality of queues,

the distribution module operable server configured to place the plurality of call records into the plurality of pools,

transfer a set of call records comprising less than all of the plurality of call records from at least the one of the plurality of pools to at least one of the plurality of queues, and

transfer at least the one of the plurality of queues to the at least one dialing device,

monitor contact attempt results comprising at least one of a right party contact, a wrong party contact, a no answer, and a detection of an answering machine associated with the plurality of call records to determine that a predetermined number of the less than all of the plurality of call records have been contacted by the dialing device, and

in response to determining that the predetermined number of the set of call records have encountered at least one of the right party contact, the wrong party contact, the no answer, and the detection of an answering machine by the dialing device, automatically transfer additional call records from the plurality of call records from the one of the plurality of pools to the one of the plurality of queues.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the distribution module is further operable to transfer additional call records from the at least one pool to the at least one queue if the at least one dialing device has contacted predetermined of the call records.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the distribution module comprises a server that server supports TCP/IP, the distribution module transferring and is configured to transfer the set of call records to the one of the plurality of queues with TCP/IP.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one dialing device comprises a predictive dialer.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the distribution module is further operable to monitor the at least one dialing device to determine contact results associated with the call records and to transfer additional call records to the at least one queue based at least in part on the contact results.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the distribution module server is further operable configured to redistribute the plurality of call records between plural the plurality of queues based at least in part upon the contact attempt results associated with the set of call records at the at least one dialing device.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a scheduling module interfaced with the distribution module, the scheduling module operable to schedule call records for ordered contact attempts by the at least one dialing device according to one or more factors.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the distribution module manages call records in plural pools, the distribution module further operable server is configured to transfer a first subset of the plurality of call records to a queue from a first pool from the plurality of pools and transfers transfer a second subset of the plurality of call records to the queue from a second pool from the plurality of pools when the first subset of the plurality of call records in the first pool are depleted.

9. A method for distributing outbound telephone calls, the method comprising:

transferring a plurality of call records of a calling campaign to a distribution module server;

organizing the plurality of call records into a plurality of pools;

transferring less than all of the plurality of call records from the plurality of pools to a plurality of queues;

transferring at least one of a queue from the plurality of queues to at least one a dialing device, the dialing device having plural associated agents;

and

dialing at the dialing device the a set of call records of the transferred queue transferred to the queue;

to connectconnecting agents associated with the dialing device tousing the set of call records contacted by the dialing device;

monitoring call attempt results comprising at least one of a right party contact, a wrong party contact, a no answer, and a detection of an answering machine of the outbound telephone calls at the dialing device;

communicating the call attempt results to the server; and

automatically distributing additional call records to the queue of the dialing device based on at least one of the right party contact, the wrong party contact, the no answer, and the detection of the answering machine.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

monitoring the results of outbound telephone calls at the dialing device;

communicating the results to the distribution module; and

distributing additional call records to the at least one queue of the dialing device based in part on the results.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein organizing the plurality of call calling records at the distribution module server further comprises:

determining a priority between the plurality of call records based on one or more factors; and

ordering the plurality of call records in the plurality of queues based on the priority.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the priority is based on the a likelihood of a successful contact for each of the plurality of call record records.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the priority is based on a location associated with each call record of the plurality of call records.

14. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

uploading a plurality subset of the call attempt results from the dialing device to the distribution module server; and

analyzing the subset of the call attempt results to determine the a number of call records remaining to be called in the at least one queue and a depletion rate at which the dialing device calls the set of call records in the at least one queue.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

determining a number of additional call records for the at least one queue based upon the number of call records remaining to be called and the depletion rate; and

distributing the determined number of additional call records to the at least one queue.

16. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

redistributing the less than all of the plurality of call records between plural the plurality of queues based on the call attempt results associated with each of plural dialing devices the dialing device.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein transferring at least one of the queues the queue to at least one the dialing device further comprises:

transferring plural queues to plural dialing devices;

locking the set of call records to each dialing device the dialing device;

creating a plurality of contingency files file specific for each the dialing device; and

updating the contingency files file with the call attempt results.