Abstract: Exemplary systems and methods for queuing an inbound communication are provided. In exemplary embodiments, the inbound communication is received by a communication server associated with a communication type of the inbound communication. Communication statuses of one or more agents over a plurality of communication types are reviewed to determine available agents. One or more profiles are reviewed to assess applicability of one or more agents to receive the inbound communication, whereby an agent may be applicable to handle more than one inbound communication concurrently as determined by their profile. An appropriate agent is then selected based on the availability and applicability of the one or more agents to which the inbound communication is forwarded.

Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods to connect a call. The systems and methods provide techniques to receive a call from a caller and determine a calf path for the call. The call path is used to connect the caller to a call path destination. The call path destination may vary depending on factors in addition to the call path, such as, for example, a classification of the caller and a classification of the representative to whom the caller is to be connected.

Abstract: An apparatus and methods for a call routing system is disclosed whereby the call routing service provider is associated with a series of partners. By providing a system supporting not only the main user, but also the partners, efficiencies are gained through cost-spreading. Agents can be qualified to field calls for multiple business entities. Cross-selling and proactive servicing based on caller demographic and profile data can be effectuated. The system employs a centralized or global bank of shared Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units so that unnecessary post-routing and call site interflow are reduced. The system comprises a central server system that interfaces with a long distance provider so that route requests are received, caller data is retrieved from one or more databases, routing and handling strategies are developed, load balancing is effectuated, and calls are appropriately routed to one of a plurality of geographically separated call center systems with queues staffed by agents.

Abstract: A system and method for establishing contact between a customer contact center agent and a customer based on customer availability information. A plurality of communication channels that may be used to communicate with the customer is monitored by the contact center. The availability of the customer is identified for each of the plurality of communication channels and user availability data is dynamically adjusted for each of the plurality of communication channels. The user availability data is provided to a contact center agent handling, for example, an offline task involving the customer. The contact center agent may use the availability data to establish contact with the customer to better handle the offline task.

Abstract: A contact is received in a contact center. For example, an incoming voice call or email is received by the contact center. A complexity of the contact is determined. The complexity of the contact is how difficult the contact will be to process by an agent. For instance, the agent may have to do additional work outside the call based on the type of contact. In response to determining the complexity of the contact, the contact is routed to an agent of the contact center and a compensation of the agent is adjusted for servicing the contact. The systems and methods can also work for multiple contacts that are processed by multiple agents. In addition, the systems and methods will work with outbound contacts.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for operating a call order center, comprising: obtaining voice training data for a call center service representative (CCSR) for phrases associated with an ordering process or products associated with the call order center; receiving customer call for an order by the CCSR on a telephone; activating a voice recognition system that accesses the CCSR voice training data via a switch; during a telephone call, issuing commands and providing data by the CCSR associated with the order to the voice recognition system that are translated and entered into an ordering system by the voice recognition system; and deactivating the voice recognition system via the switch. A role can be assigned to or deassigned from an employee based on their location relative to a particular location point within a work area.

Abstract: The present invention relates to the assignment of calls to groups of call handlers in a call center environment. According to certain aspects, the present invention achieves an optimal balance between the level of service and overall cost by assigning a “common” pool skill to all call handlers in the system and by secondarily assigning one or more additional “rare” pool skills to each call handler. In this configuration, any call handler may receive calls (or other multiple media work assignments) from the states in the common pool while also receiving calls from the states in their additional rare pool(s). According to other aspects, a method according to the invention optimizes the selection of the skills to be included in each of the pools.

Abstract: A method for automatically routing a telephonic communication to at least one of a plurality of communication destination addresses is provided. The method is implemented by a computer readable medium having a plurality of code segments. The method comprises the step of receiving customer identifier and communicating with a customer history database configured to store historic data. The method also includes determining whether the received customer identifier corresponds to a stored customer identifier in the customer history database. Historic data corresponding to the stored customer number is identified based on the comparison of the received customer identifier and the stored customer identifier. The telephonic communication is associated with a predetermined communication destination based on the identified historic data. The associated communication data is transmitted to a switching signal.

Abstract: A system, method, apparatus, means, and computer program code is provided wherein a telephone call is received. A telephone call routing matrix is accessed, from a relational database platform, to select a service representative for the received telephone call. It may then be arranged for the received telephone call to be routed in accordance with the selected service representative.

Abstract: A system for assuring agent connection for outbound calls placed in an automated outbound calling campaign includes an outbound dialing server, a digital data repository coupled to the outbound dialing server, the data repository storing outbound dialing records for automated outbound dialing, and software executing on the outbound dialing server from a non-transitory physical medium, the software providing a first function for determining for a specific outbound dialing record if the connection to a live agent must be an assured connection, a second function for dialing and engaging an agent via an internal call for reservation of the agent, and a third function for bridging the call connections forged between the system and the agent and the system and the outbound party upon answer of the outbound call.

Abstract: A method and system for enhancing problem resolution at a call center based on speech recognition of a caller includes, receiving an incoming call and generating call data based on speech recognition of the incoming call using a computer. The method generates and associates annotated metadata about the call data. A historical record is created which includes the call data and the annotated metadata. The historical record may be stored in a storage medium communicating with the computer. Context data is generated for the incoming call by analyzing the historical record to identify: a caller, a topic, a date and a stress level of the caller. The method compares the context data to historical records of previous calls. A topic probabilities analysis is conducted by comparing the context data to the historical records of previous calls, and a solution is determined for the topic based on the probabilities analysis.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for initiating a voice communication to a best-determined target includes associating a plurality of workers in a worker list with a skills profile for each worker. Upon receiving an assistance request for a task, the worker list can be searched automatically for target contacts having the skill profile best-matching the assistance request. Further search criteria can be compared between the task and the matched target contacts to facilitate the proper selection of the best-matched target contacts. Upon a match, a voice communication is automatically initiating between the requestor to the best-determined target contact.

Abstract: External queue monitoring of contact center queues is provided as a means that may better service the customer and measure service level objectives. External queue monitoring provides the opportunity for real-time monitoring of the queue and modification of contact center operations, such as devices routing queue members, in response to queuing or enqueued customers.

Abstract: Management of call center call routing is provided. Service calls directed to a call center may be routed for processing based on an identification of a service node of a caller. The service node may be identified by parsing a database for a calling customer's node ID, determining a format of the node ID, and converting the node ID into a numeric value that represents the node ID associated with the calling customer. If the numeric node ID value meets a predetermined criterion, the service call may be processed according to a priority call routing instruction.

Abstract: Techniques for message forwarding based on a relationship between a sender and a recipient are described herein. In one embodiment, a process includes, but is not limited to, in response to a message from a sender over a network, identifying a list of candidate recipients to handle the message based on roles of the candidate recipients within an organization in view of the sender, and forwarding the message to a recipient selected from the list of the candidate recipient to enable the selected recipient to handle the message. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

Abstract: A system for making outbound calls includes a first node connected to a network for placing outbound telephone calls, a second node connected to the network and accessible to the first node for reporting agent status relative to busy, ready, and time to ready, a number of agent appliances connected to the network and accessible to the second node, and a number of agent activity applications installed one per on the agent appliances. In a preferred embodiment outbound calls are predicted based on the number of agents reported ready to accept a call plus the number of agents predicted to be ready to accept a call within a specified time window.

Abstract: We disclose a concierge device that can be configured to register, control and support a consumer device. It can alternatively or redundantly connect to a home management bridge and/or cloud-based management servers. It can accept menus that allow a single concierge device to provide a wide range of functions for various consumer devices. The concierge device allows the user in a single action to initiate a support session, automatically identifying the consumer device. The concierge device can be configured for voice or video support calls. The concierge device in conjunction with a home management bridge or gateway can manage on boarding of components of an automated home, such as switches and lamps. Implementations of the concierge device that include a display can show supplemental information, such as advertising, optionally in coordination with media being played on a consumer device coupled in communication with the concierge device.

Abstract: According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of allocating calls coming into a call center from a caller location remote from the call center, receiving a call from a caller which includes information from an RFID chip located in close proximity to the caller location; decoding the information from the RFID chip to determine one or more parameters relating to the information; using said one or more parameters to allocate the call from the caller at the call center to ensure calls are handled in accordance with the parameters. This has the advantage of much more efficient management of the of the calls within the call center and ensures that the calls are sent to the agent with the most appropriate skill set.

Abstract: A system for handling customer interactions with a contact center for an enterprise includes an intelligent automated agent that includes a processor, a non-transitory storage device configured to store customer profile data, and a memory. The memory has instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to: run an artificial intelligence engine configured to learn knowledge about a customer from past interactions between the contact center and the customer, and to apply the learned knowledge to future interactions; and maintain the customer profile data on the storage device. The maintaining of the customer profile data includes retrieving the customer profile data at a beginning of a new interaction, using the retrieved customer profile data to decide how to handle the new interaction, and updating the customer profile data after completion of the new interaction to reflect the new interaction as one of the past interactions.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a system for enhancing user interaction with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) destinations, the system comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising: data encoding a database, the database comprising a list of telephone numbers associated with one or more destinations implementing an IVR; instructions executable by the processor for automatically communicating with at least one user; and instructions executable by the processor to pull at least one menu from the database and display the menu to the at least one user, wherein the menu is associated with a telephone number dialed by the at least one user, and wherein the menu comprises at least one icon.

Abstract: The methods, apparatus, and systems described herein are designed to route customer communications to the best available agent. The methods include predicting a personality type of the customer, determining the occupancy level of agents to provide a list of available agents, providing a routing recommendation based on the predicted personality type of the customer and agent data such as proficiency in handling customers with the predicted personality type, and/or analyzing real-time customer-agent interactions.

Abstract: Systems and methods for providing estimated wait times are provided. More particularly, an estimated wait time is calculated based at least in part on agent availability information entered by the agent. The agent availability information may be obtained from the agent through a user interface provided by a contact center communication device. The user interface may include soft keys. In addition, the estimated wait time can be provided to client communication devices.

Abstract: An operator network is capable of routing incoming customer care calls to specific customer care representatives based on a subscriber profile and customer service representative (CSR) skill set. The device profile is retrieved from the mobile handset while the incoming customer care call is in a queue waiting to be connected to a CSR. The retrieved device profile is also used to determine an appropriate CSR to handle an incoming customer care call.

Abstract: Routing communications at a communications center includes servicing a first communication concurrently with receiving a second communication, at the communications center. It is determined, using a tangible first processor, whether a sender of the first communication and a sender of the second communication are associated with a common account. The second communication is routed to an agent based on the determining.

Abstract: A back office services of an intelligent automated agent for a contact center is provided. The back office services is configured to run on a processor coupled to a non-transitory storage device. The back office services includes: a customer profile module configured to access a profile of a customer from a customer profile database stored on the storage device, the profile of the customer including interaction data from interactions involving the customer and the contact center, and analysis results from analyzing the interaction data between the interactions involving the customer and the contact center; and a content analysis module configured to generate new analysis results by performing the analyzing of the interaction data between consecutive interactions of the interactions involving the customer and the contact center, and update the analysis results of the profile of the customer on the storage device to reflect the new analysis results.

Abstract: A system can determine a best routing of a customer contact based on analysis of one or more automatically generated answers. A customer may provide an inquiry through a social media contact. The contact center can analyze the inquiry to generate one or more automated answers. The system then analyzes the automated answers. The analysis may include studying various attributes of the answer, either in relation to the inquiry or based in historical data. From the analysis, the system can modify the answers and/or provide a different or improved pool of agents to handle the contact. Thus, an improved set of answers and agents is provided for managing the contact.

Abstract: A contact center is provided that includes a plurality of agents for servicing incoming contacts and an evolutionary routing mechanism that is capable of dynamically testing and analyzing the performance/skills of each agent. As the evolutionary routing mechanism detects that the skills of the agent have sufficiently changed, the evolutionary routing mechanism may cause the skills of that agent to be updated, thereby altering the routing algorithm.

Abstract: A method for interfacing a customer with a call center. Information obtained from a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag is transmitted to the call center to provide additional information about the customer and allow the session to be accurately routed within the call center. The call center may be accessed by telephone, computer, or other type of customer premises equipment over a voice or data network. The RFID tag may be an identification tag provided to the customer for access to the call center or may be a tag associated with the customer and not specific to the call center. The call center may route calls based on routing information contained in the RFID tag information, customer identity and previous sessions with that customer, personal and demographic information and statistical support records for other sessions involving customers with similar personal and demographic information, and according to agent statistical support records.

Abstract: An apparatus for evaluating an audio communication comprises a data store for storing a plurality of digital units representing a plurality of characterized aspects of historical audio communications. The characterized aspects include words and sets of words. The apparatus further comprises an associative memory unit coupled with the data store to create associations between entities representing the characterized aspects, and relate the entities and the frequency of occurrence of the entities to identify relationships with call handling categories and priorities requiring intervention, and an assessing unit coupled with the associative memory unit to indicate whether the audio communication contains any associative memory associations related to a call handling category and call handling priority requiring intervention.

Abstract: The solution described herein provides an innovative use of remote services technology integrated with service personnel onsite at the point of service, such as a consumer repair outlet, to provide a pool of technical support resources to service a widely distributed resource need, such as support and repair resource needs of a chain of consumer outlets or an aggregated group of single proprietor consumer outlets. With this solution, qualified technical resources are provided from a central location to service a widely distributed retail environment. This is on-demand online remote support service is called or referred to as “support from a spigot.” The distribution method enables the delivery of higher quality, more reliable and overall lower cost services. Instead of requiring dedicated technical resources at each location, lower skilled labor may be deployed at the location to enable the remote technical support services process.

Abstract: The present solution is directed to a hybrid customer support model for providing remote online support service in conjunction with local onsite support service. A local technician provides on site support service for a device at a premise for a predetermined amount of time. The onsite support by the local technician may be limited to a subset of the tasks for resolving an issue with the device or otherwise be limited to applying a subset or scope of skills to resolving the issue. In one embodiment, the local technician has a first type of skill from a plurality of skills. The local technician identifies an issue with the device and sends the issue to a centralized service. The centralized service receives an identification of the issue—the resolution of which may include a plurality of tasks. In one embodiment, each of the plurality of tasks is performed by one or more remote technicians having a skill type corresponding to the task.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for obtaining and providing data about a phone call to a representative. A data repository can be used as transient storage while a phone call is ongoing (and possibly for some time afterwards). Data can be retrieved and stored in the data repository, as well as sent to external systems that a representative might use. A data interface can handle communications between the data repository and the external systems in a controlled manner so that exchanges of particular pieces of data can occur efficiently. A graphical user interface (GUI) can be provided for setting up rules for treating a call. The GUI can provide a convenient interface for specifying a mechanism for exchanging data with an external system. A central control can sent voice, data, and control commands across various channels to various devices when processing an incoming call.

Abstract: A system, method, apparatus, means, and computer program code is provided wherein a telephone call is received. A telephone call routing matrix is accessed, from a relational database platform, to select a service representative for the received telephone call. It may then be arranged for the received telephone call to be routed in accordance with the selected service representative.

Abstract: The present system and method comprises an improved marketplace for providing and consuming services. Using the present system, generally via one or more APIs, comprises a method for integrating value added services within a network of participants, for instance, a payment network. The network can use service switching capabilities to route service calls to and from the service consumers and providers using routing elements defined in a message specification. Network participants can be both consumers and providers of services. The network can route service messages to the appropriate provider depending on details in the message.

Abstract: Obtaining expert advice on-demand includes maintaining a substantially real-time list of available experts in selected fields, in an electronic database. The system receives a request from a customer for expert advice in one or more of the selected fields maintained in the electronic database. The system then electronically identifies one or more available experts to the customer in response to the request received and routes the request for expert advice to at least one of the available experts.

Abstract: The present system and method comprises an improved marketplace for providing and consuming services. Using the present system, generally via one or more APIs, comprises a method for integrating value added services within a network of participants, for instance, a payment network. The network can use service switching capabilities to route service calls to and from the service consumers and providers using routing elements defined in a message specification. Network participants can be both consumers and providers of services. The network can route service messages to the appropriate provider depending on details in the message.

Abstract: A system and method for providing call-back options is disclosed. The method comprises receiving a call in a call routing system, providing at least one call-back option for a caller to receive a call-back, re-allocating resources in the call routing system based at least in part on the at least one call-back option, and calling the caller based on the at least one call-back option. The caller may specify a specific time, a relative time, or a time range when a call-back is preferred. The caller may also specify one or more telephone numbers in combination with the time preferences. The call-back may be initiated by a voice response unit (VRU) and additional call-back options may be presented to the customer who responds to the call-back.

Abstract: A method and system to optimally route telephone calls between shared service centers is presented. Using a combination of service tiers, Agent Directory, Instant Messaging (IM), and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provides optimal routing of incoming calls for assistance. The method utilizes different protocols during normal operations, transitional operations, and emergency operations, and addresses Shared Service Center (SSC) planning and management.

Abstract: In a contact center, agents are assigned to support customers using various media, such as audio, video, and/or text communications. The various media types have a related application. The mediums that an agent can support are determined. In addition, an agent has devices that are available for use by the agent. For example, the agent may have a cellular telephone and a tablet device available for use. The related application(s) are associated with the devices available for use by the agent based on a capability of at least one device. This is done in relation to the medium(s) supported by the agent. For example, an audio application can be associated with a cellular telephone and a text application can be associated with a tablet device. As the devices or mediums supported by the agent changes, the system can re-associate the related application(s) based on the new configuration.

Abstract: A system and method for processing a call between a caller and a live agent is provided. A stream of verbal speech utterances is received from the caller and converted into text. Text messages are received from the agent in response to the stream of verbal speech utterances and converted into synthesized speech utterances. The synthesized speech utterances are provided to the caller. A record of the call is processed and presented to a further live agent for manipulation. The manipulated record is stored.

Abstract: A method, system and apparatus for processing a call in a call center using information stored in the LIDB. A call center which has been configured in accordance with a preferred aspect of the present invention can include at least one phone handset coupled to a gateway to a PSTN. An enterprise application can be associated with the handset and a data terminal coupled to the enterprise application. A view to the enterprise application further can be disposed in proximity to the handset. A database of caller information can be coupled to the enterprise application. Each record in the database can have a configuration for location based upon a searching key.

Abstract: A method for arranging an agent of a call center includes: receiving a video call request sent by a user, and determining an agent capable of providing a service for the user according to the video call request; calculating video quality of the agent capable of providing a service for the user, and obtaining a requirement of the user corresponding to the video call request; if the calculated video quality of the agent meets the requirement of the user, allocating the agent with the video quality meeting the requirement of the user to the user; otherwise, putting the user into a queue for queuing.

Abstract: A method and system for providing automated call center services, operating by identifying a caller, accessing the caller's account information, determining the likely reason for the call, identifying an agent skill group based on the likely reason for the call, and providing an available agent with access to the caller's account information, together with a script based on the likely reason for the call. Data and voice access to agents is combined with specialized methods and systems for determining agent optimization capabilities, thereby allowing multiple call centers located in geographically different areas to operate as a seamless virtual call center, having the capability to dynamically reorganize the structure of available agents, regardless of where located. Real time statistics allow determination of how many agents should be available and what skill sets those agents should have, thereby facilitating management decisions.

Abstract: A method for routing activities in a contact center to contact center agents includes: concurrently selecting, by a processor, N activities, wherein N is an integer greater than 1; concurrently identifying, by the processor, N contact center agents; identifying, by the processor, one or more sets of preferences associated with the N activities and the N contact center agents; matching, by the processor, the N activities and the N contact center agents based on the one or more sets of preferences; and routing, by the processor, one or more of the N activities to the matched contact center agents.

Abstract: A method may include receiving a call from a caller and determining whether the caller has previously called a call center. The method may also include identifying, in response to determining that the caller has previously called the call center, an agent that handled the previous call from the caller, and forwarding the call to the agent that handled the previous call.

Abstract: A communications center supports sales and/or customer support services corresponding to a plurality of business affiliations. Operator terminals within the communications center are configurable. A management module manages the allocation of the operator terminals between the plurality of different business affiliations being supported by the communications center. The management module loads a set of configuration information into an operator terminal to match a determined business affiliation with a customer's communications device capabilities. At different times, e.g. corresponding to an initial communications session and a follow-on communications session, the same customer may be connected to different physical operator terminals and be communicating with different actual operators; however, from the perspective of the customer, the customer is made to think that the communication is with the same operator terminal and same operator.

Abstract: Provided is a system and method that identifies a characteristic associated with a resource. A resource can be, for example, an agent in a contact center. An identifier, representing the characteristic is associated with the resource (e.g., a bit) is stored in a first memory location. A characteristic associated with a work item is identified. The characteristic associated with the work item can be for example, a type of communication (e.g., email, voice, video, etc.), a company represented by the work item, and the like. The identifier representing the characteristic associated with the work item is stored in a second memory location. The first memory location is bit masked and compared with the second memory location to determine if the resource should process the work item. In response to determining that the resource should process the work item, the work item is routed to the resource, such as an agent.

Abstract: A communication processing system according to the present invention is a communication processing system including user communication terminals each operated by a user and responder communication terminals each operated by a responder responding to an inquiry from the user. The communication processing system includes: a responder communication terminal information storing means for associating and storing each of the responder communication terminals and a responder attribute of the responder operating the responder communication terminal; and a connection controlling means for controlling to search the responder attribute corresponding to a user attribute of the user by referring to the responder communication terminal information storing means and connect the responder communication terminal associated with the responder attribute to the user communication terminal.

Abstract: An apparatus and methods for a call routing system is disclosed whereby the call routing service provider is associated with a series of partners. By providing a system supporting not only the main user, but also the partners, efficiencies are gained through cost-spreading. Agents can be qualified to field calls for multiple business entities. Cross-selling and proactive servicing based on caller demographic and profile data can be effectuated. The system employs a centralized or global bank of shared Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units so that unnecessary post-routing and call site interflow are reduced. The system comprises a central server system that interfaces with a long distance provider so that route requests are received, caller data is retrieved from one or more databases, routing and handling strategies are developed, load balancing is effectuated, and calls are appropriately routed to one of a plurality of geographically separated call center systems with queues staffed by agents.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes various ways of monitoring the needs of a contact center in real-time and pushing training to a number of agents to address those needs. In determining to push training to agents, the short-term efficiency of the agent is balanced with the long-term efficiency of the contact center. When agents receive and then complete training events designed to address the monitored contact center needs the attributes associated with the agents are updated to allow them to handle the contacts requiring training.