Abstract: A system and method for receiving information from a caller without the information being accessed by an agent handling the call. A call is received and routed to an agent, who may be remote. When predetermined information (e.g., credit card number, social security number) is to be provided by the caller, an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) unit or media server is bridged into the call. The caller's input is received by the IVR unit, but not by the agent. If the information is entered as DTMF tones, those tones may be muted or altered for the agent. The agent's voice connection may remain open, however, to receive and answer questions from the caller. If the information is provided verbally, the audio connection to the agent may be muted. The agent is signaled when the information is complete, at which time the IVR unit is disconnected and the call proceeds normally.

Abstract: A method for performing results-based routing of telephone calls. Agents handle telephone calls seeking or inquiring into a product or service. Agents are distributed among agent pools, with each pool being defined by one or more criteria, on a real-time and/or batch basis. Such criteria may reflect an agent characteristic (e.g., age, geographical location, language, hobby, skill), a level of agent performance (e.g., number or amount of sales, speed or efficiency in providing a service) or some other factor. When a call is received at a call manager, a pool of best agents or some other pool is selected (e.g., by weighting, by statistical distribution). The best available agent in that pool is identified and the call is routed to that agent. The call manager, or other entity, may record some or all of the call (e.g., voice conversation, the agent's computer input during the call).

Abstract: A system and method for facilitating transcription of an audio recording, with auditing. An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) unit makes a set of audio recordings of a caller's input during a call. The set of audio recordings is stored in a database and queued for transcription by remote agents. The recordings are forwarded to a first agent who listens to the audio and completes a form with text corresponding to the audio. The system then determines whether to audit the first agent's transcription by having another agent transcribe the same set of recordings. The recordings may be re-queued and transcribed multiple times, until two (or more) of the transcriptions match, or until some threshold number of transcriptions have been obtained. An agent may contact the caller (e.g., via telephone or electronic mail) if a recording cannot be fully transcribed.