Abstract: A system and method for balancing call session assignments on an agent console is provided. Incoming call sessions and one or more agent consoles, each managed by an agent, are monitored. An absolute upper limit on a number of the call sessions allowed at each agent console at any given time is assigned. A load of call session assignments is balanced on each agent console. Objective conditions regarding call sessions already assigned to each agent are collected. Subjective conditions regarding the agent's opinion of a current call session are also collected. The objective and subjective conditions are evaluated against the absolute upper limit to determine a load factor. Each incoming call session is assigned to one such agent console based on the load factor.

Abstract: A call center system has a computerized server executing software (SW) from a machine-readable medium, a data collection function of the SW enabled for collecting data regarding incoming transactions, a data processing function coupled to the data collection engine and enabled for processing the data collected against a set of business rules, the data processing function determining a priority level for individual ones of the incoming transactions, and a distribution function enabled for distributing a priority indication determined by the data processing function to one or more presentation interfaces accessible to agents, at or near the time the associated transaction is engaged by the agent.

Abstract: A method and system for automated incident response that includes receiving a call from a caller about an incident, such as an emergency, obtaining information from the caller about the incident, selecting one or more appropriate screens in sequence via a presentation device based on the information provided from the caller, wherein the sequence of appropriate presentations corresponds to an appropriate response to the emergency, and providing response instructions to the caller or other parties based on information presented, wherein the one or more presentations are stored in an accessible data repository.

Abstract: A system and method for monitoring an automated voice response (AVR) system is provided. An audio communication from a caller is processed by executing an AVR script with a plurality of instructions. A visual representation of the audio communication is presented to an agent substantially simultaneously with the audio communication based on the AVR script. The visual representation includes at least one field to be populated with information obtained from the caller and the information populated in the field can be updated by the agent.

Abstract: A design interface is described for maintaining call information for creating a voice user interface. An initial set of sample call paths is defined for a dialog application. Each sample call path has associated call information including a sequence of system prompts and caller responses that model a user interaction through the dialog application for the sample call path. A call design database stores the call information. A set of subsequent call paths is defined for the dialog application using the call information in the call design database. The call information in the call design database is updated to reflect current versions of the call information for all the call paths.

Abstract: A method for controlling and correcting abandonment rate in an automated contact center that uses a predictive dialing method for determining a number of calls to generate for dialing. When abandonment rate is close to zero, the method determines a mean agent occupancy that is used by the predictive dialing method. Empirical data is collected on agent occupancy while the predictive dialing method uses the mean agent occupancy to determine a number of calls to generate. The method determines a target abandonment rate and a target agent occupancy, wherein a proportion of the agent occupancy empirical data having an agent occupancy equal to or higher than the target agent occupancy is within a predetermined range of the target abandonment rate. The target agent occupancy is used to adjust the mean agent occupancy used by the predictive dialing method.

Abstract: Systems and methods for adapting an existing call flow wherein the call flow further comprises an associated data set, comprising: activating the existing call flow, the existing call flow generating a series of questions designed to obtain information from a caller; determining if an exception condition has occurred; allowing a user to activate an exception call flow in response to the exception condition; retaining the data set associated with the call flow when the exception condition occurred; adapting the data set such that the call flow addresses the exception condition; analyzing the adapted data set to determine if it is unique; and, modifying the existing call flow to incorporate the adapted data set if the adapted data set is unique.

Abstract: In one embodiment, method can include: receiving an address in a call agent, the address being associated with a call; triggering a trunk group selection algorithm in response to at least a portion of the received address, the trunk group selection algorithm providing a selection result from among a trunk group placeholder and a plurality of trunk groups; and forwarding the call to a trunk group determined by a caller-associated attribute when the selection result comprises the trunk group placeholder.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for generating an outbound forecast. In particular embodiments, campaign parameters are defined for at least two outbound call campaigns that include for each campaign a time period over which the campaign is to be carried out, a target value identifying a number of an outbound communication result to occur over the time period, and sources for handling outbound communications. Further, a historical dataset is selected that includes historical data on the corresponding outbound communication result for each campaign based on past outbound communications. In various embodiments, an outbound forecast is generated based on the historical dataset and campaign parameters for the outbound call campaigns. The forecast provides a number of the outbound communication result forecasted to be achieved over the time period for each campaign in an attempt to meet the target value for the corresponding campaign.

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: Methods, devices, and systems are provided for monitoring and reporting various metrics associated with objects of interest. The present invention is adapted to monitor objects of interest, such as contact center agents, to determine whether a triggering event has occurred and, if so, report metrics associated with the object of interest in a dynamic, customized, and real-time fashion.

Abstract: A web-based hosted solution through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a third party call center. A web interface is provided to enable a business entity customer to create a set of one or more rules that, when triggered during the campaign, cause the hosted solution to take certain control actions in real-time, based on campaign performance. Preferably, this “campaign performance” is measured indirectly, i.e. without requiring a direct connection to an on-premises call center ACD. Rather, preferably all information about the call center's performance during the campaign is derived from information (gathered by the hosted solution) about calls delivered, or attempted to be delivered, to the call center. In effect, the call center performance is inferred, and this performance is then exposed to the business entity customer through a web-based interface.

Abstract: A system for determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call includes an automated telephone calling device for placing a telephone call to a location having a telephone number at which a target person is listed, upon the telephone call being answered, initiating a prerecorded greeting which asks for the target person and receiving a spoken response from an answering person and a speech recognition device for performing a speech recognition analysis on the spoken response to determine a status of the spoken response. If the speech recognition device determines that the answering person is the target person, the speech recognition device initiates a speech recognition application with the target person.

Abstract: A system for enabling collaboration between two or more customer contact campaigns running within a call center environment includes at least one outbound contact server (OCS) resident on a digital medium, the OCS including an automated dialer application resident on a digital medium thereon or accessible thereto for dialing contact numbers from contact records assembled for the running campaigns, a call monitoring and recording system executing from software on a digital medium, for monitoring call dialing progress and business results of completed calls, a central data repository for storing dialing progress and business results data collected by the running outbound campaigns, and a data sharing mechanism executing from software resident on a digital medium, accessible to each campaign running on the OCS for sharing collected data among the running campaigns.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for routing a contact with a client to one of a plurality of automatic contact distributors, each having a plurality of agents, by a network router. The method includes the step of determining by each automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributors a largest relative difference between a target occupancy and actual occupancy of each agent among the plurality of agents of the automatic contact distributor and for each contact type processed by the automatic contact distributor.

Abstract: A system and method for managing customer communications over communication channels are disclosed. A method may include (1) determining a contact mode for contacting a customer based on at least one of a campaign strategy, a customer account attribute, a phone number attribute, a previous contact outcome, a previous call outcome, an email address attribute, a time of day, a customer contact preference, a customer availability, and a customer contact consent; (2) initiating contact with the customer; and (3) interacting with the customer.

Abstract: A communications system for placing a plurality of calls with a common message to a plurality of subscribers via a public switched telephone network is provided. The communications system includes an end office switch disposed in an end office and in communication with the public switched telephone network. The communications system further includes an auto-dialer disposed in the end office and interconnected with the end office switch for placing the plurality of calls to the plurality of subscribers via the end office switch.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining a call from a caller, and determining whether to offer a first callback time to the caller. The first callback time is a future time for a contact between the caller and the call center. The method also includes providing the first callback time to the caller, obtaining a response from the caller, and scheduling the contact at the first callback time if the response indicates that the caller desires a contact at the first callback time. Providing the first callback time to the caller includes soliciting the response from the caller which indicates whether the caller desires the contact at the first callback time.

Abstract: In a web-based hosted environment, agent interactions with contacted persons (call recipients) are recorded by the system for administration and training purposes. According to this disclosure, permitted users are afforded the ability to remove or redact sensitive information from those agent recordings. By this feature, the agent, the service provider customer (or an entity associated with one or both) is afforded the option to selectively erase given sensitive information that has been collected or that otherwise has been made available during the agent-call recipient interaction. Typically, such information includes, without limitation, identity information (e.g., personally identifiable information (PII), credit card information (e.g., such as PCI-related data), health care information (e.g., such as HIPAA-related data), finance information (e.g., such as GLBA-related data), intellectual property (e.g., documentation, other proprietary information) and the like.

Abstract: A system and method for handling calls at one or more call centers. In an exemplary method of the invention, it may be determined whether a call should be transferred from the VSS to an agent of a call center based on, for example, agent availability or queue wait times. When it is determined to transfer the call to the agent, it may be determined whether a callback call should be offered to the caller. When it is determined to offer the callback call, the method may include providing one or more time blocks to which the caller can initiate the callback call to receive higher priority routing. Upon calling back into the system within one of the time blocks, the call may receive preferential routing treatment.

Abstract: A process identifies multiple campaign activation points associated with a voice-based menu hierarchy such that the voice-based menu hierarchy is accessed by multiple callers. The process continues by identifying a campaign associated with the voice-based menu hierarchy and determining a campaign value associated with the campaign. Additionally, the process determines an opt-in rate associated with the campaign and determines a likelihood that callers will reach each campaign activation point. A score associated with the campaign is then calculated for each campaign activation point.

Abstract: A web-based hosted solution (a managed service or system) through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a call center. To reduce latency of customer-to-agent connections, the system implements an agent stay-on-line function by which a persistent telephony connection is established and maintained between the system infrastructure and an available agent. In this manner, the agent may handle multiple customers while avoiding an ACD hold queue. In addition, preferably a service-side hold queue also is established and maintained on the service-side of the infrastructure. This hold queue maintains calls that are waiting to be connected to available agents. It ensures that any customer abandons (on the service side) do not impair the connections that are being established and maintained to the agents. The managed service carries out a communications campaign on behalf of a client.

Abstract: A web-based hosted solution (a managed service or system) through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a call center. To reduce latency of customer-to-agent connections, the system implements an agent stay-on-line function by which a persistent telephony connection is established and maintained between the system infrastructure and an available agent. In this manner, the agent may handle multiple customers while avoiding an ACD hold queue. In addition, preferably a service-side hold queue also is established and maintained on the service-side of the infrastructure. This hold queue maintains calls that are waiting to be connected to available agents. It ensures that any customer abandons (on the service side) do not impair the connections that are being established and maintained to the agents. The managed service carries out a communications campaign on behalf of a client.

Abstract: Exemplary embodiments relate to methods, systems, user devices and computer program products for providing human-assisted natural language call routing. Systems include a call interface device on an IVR system for receiving a telephone call from a caller. The system also includes a level one agent processing module for facilitating the handling of the telephone call when it is not directed by the IVR system after an initial interaction and a second interaction between the caller and the IVR system. The system further includes a level two agent processing module for facilitating the handling of the telephone call when it is not directed by the IVR system after the initial interaction and when a level two agent is available. In addition the system includes a level three agent processing module for facilitating the handling of the telephone call when a level three agent is available.

Abstract: A system manages inbound and outbound transactions in a contact center that executes software, and one or more data repositories. The software provides a function designating in agent profiles stored in a data repository, individual agents or groups of agents as capable of operating in either the inbound or outbound campaign, a function monitoring activity in both the inbound and the outbound campaign via software executing on one or more servers in the contact center, a function identifying a change in activity in one of the campaigns that qualifies for reassignment of one or more agents, a function selecting an agent or a group of agents to transfer, a function notifying the agent or group of agents of the pending transfer and the time that the transfer will be accomplished, and a function transferring the agent or the group of agents from the one campaign to the other campaign.

Abstract: Systems and methods for managing calls, both inbound and outbound, for available agents over a plurality of lines, where each call received or placed is pre-identified to be connected to one specific agent and upon the automatic detection of the call being received or answered, the call is either connected to the specific agent or placed in a queue for that specific agent.

Abstract: This document discusses, among other things, limiting contact to a networked contact center that is a host to multiple tenants. In an example embodiment, a communication is received by a networked contact center. In determining whether to allow the communication to reach contact center resources, a contact rate value may be examined. The contact rate value may represent an allowable quantity of contact within a time interval. For some example embodiments, a determination of whether the network contact center is to accept or reject the communication is made based on the contact rate value.

Abstract: An online and offline communication processing and tracking using data processing and data/voice networks is described. A phone address from a phone address number pool is automatically assigned to a first entity. A call quality rating is determined and recorded. A call from a caller directed to the phone address is received at a call bridging system coupled to at least one network, wherein the call is associated with call signaling information. Based at least in part on the call quality associated with the caller call, the caller call is assigned to a first location in a call queue. An outbound call is generated from the call bridging system and the inbound and the outbound calls are bridged. One or more parameters of the bridged call are compared to the call quality rating. An indication is recorded regarding the successful bridging of the calls in association with an entity identifier.

Abstract: Systems and methods for managing calls, both inbound and outbound, for available agents over a plurality of lines, where each call received or placed is pre-identified to be connected to one specific agent and upon the automatic detection of the call being received or answered, the call is either connected to the specific agent or placed in a queue for that specific agent.

Abstract: A system and method employed in a call center provide a memory structure for use in maintaining a call queue including data representing a plurality of calls to be serviced, and the data is structured so as to represent an order in which the plurality of calls are to be serviced. The call queue data further indicates whether each call is to be handled as an inbound or an outbound call. When an incoming call is received by the call center and no service representative is currently available to service the call, the caller is prompted to elect to either wait on-line for a next available service representative or to disconnect the call and receive a call back at a later time. An aspect of this technology is that the caller does not lose his or her place in the queue and is not stuck on hold.

Abstract: A method includes receiving a telephone call at a network device and forwarding the telephone call to a proxy device. The method also includes forwarding the telephone call, from the proxy device, to a first voice portal and determining that telephone call should be transferred to a second voice portal. The method further includes forwarding, by the first voice portal, a transfer request to the network device and forwarding, by the network device, the telephone call to a second voice portal.

Abstract: A system and a computer-implemented method for monitoring and guiding agents of call centers are described. The method includes receiving during an interaction call between an agent and a and a customer, real-time data associated with the interaction; retrieving by the call analysis system, a performance profile of the agent; using the performance profile of the agent and the real-time data associated with the interaction to determine whether a corrective action alert should be sent to the agent and generating and transmitting the alert to a terminal of the agent during the interaction if so determined.

Abstract: An access-frequency estimating apparatus includes a storage unit that stores hours outside operating hours and for which a second-degree derivative of access frequency distribution for contact centers whose business is similar to that of a contact center subject to estimation is nearly 0, and a coefficient indicating relation between access frequency during operating hours of the other contact centers and access frequency outside the operating hours; an acquiring unit that acquires past access frequencies for operating hours of the contact center; an extracting unit that extracts, from the storage unit, a coefficient expressing relation between the access frequencies for the operating hours and an arbitrary hour outside the operating hours; a first calculating unit that calculates an estimated access frequency for the arbitrary hour of the contact center, based on the past access frequencies acquired and the coefficient; and an output unit that outputs the estimated the access frequency calculated.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improving call yields and reducing redundant calls while contacting patients who have not responded to reminders to schedule a return appointment, or who are due for a visit according to accepted standards of care or office policies, but have not scheduled an appointment. The patient reactivation system is queried for the next patient on the contact list, and queried again to find all patients sharing one or more phone numbers with this patient. Information required for contacting these patients to invite them to make an appointment is displayed. The user is presented one phone number at a time, and prompted to call this number and invite all listed patients to make an appointment. Results are collected, and when multiple patients are displayed, the program may prompt the user for clarification regarding which patients a given result applies to.

Abstract: The disclosure provides a CTIEX, system and method for implementing channel associated data transmission between an agent and an automatic service, wherein the CTIEX comprises a message module and a processing module; the message module receives a channel associated data request message transmitted by a cross-platform automatic service and transmits the channel associated data organized by the processing module to the cross-platform automatic service; the processing module is configured to analyze a call serial number in the channel associated data request message received by the message module to search out agent-associated information and organize channel associated data. The disclosure is capable of implementing channel associated data transmission between an agent and a cross-platform automatic service.

Abstract: A system and method for managing telephone calls is disclosed. The method discloses: calling a contact; presenting the contact with a predetermined out-calling dialog; translating the contact's vocal responses to the dialog into textual words using selected interactive voice response algorithms; connecting the contact to a human operator after a predetermined portion of the out-calling dialog with the contact is completed; and providing the operator with the textual words. In one embodiment, the system discloses all means for implementing the method. In another embodiment, the system discloses: a contact database for storing information on the contact; a dialog database containing a predetermined out-calling dialog; a call manager for calling the contact and presenting the contact with the dialog; and an interactive voice response module for translating the contact's vocal responses to the dialog into textual words and storing the words in the contact database which are accessible to the operator.

Abstract: A method for managing calls includes allocating a plurality of agents among a plurality of queues, receiving a plurality of calls each for connection with at least one of the plurality of agents, and assigning each of the plurality of calls to a queue of the plurality of queues. The method further includes monitoring a dynamic value profile for each of the plurality of queues. The dynamic value profile for a queue is calculated based on one or more financial attributes of the current calls in the queue. The method includes determining that the dynamic value profile for a first queue is greater than the dynamic value profile for a second queue. In addition, the method comprises reallocating one or more of the plurality of agents, among the plurality of queues in response to determining that the dynamic value profile for the first queue is greater than the dynamic value profile for the second queue.

Abstract: An interactive voice response (IVR) system which allows a caller to barge-in on all prompts, yet still allows the caller to receive important information contained in the prompts. When a caller barges-in on a prompt that contains important information, the IVR system interrupts the prompt to play a short announcement with the goal of re-enforcing the importance of listening to the entire prompt. The IVR system then resumes playback of the prompt, from the beginning or of a modified version.

Abstract: A method and system is provided for common account based distribution of contact records. A comparison engine analyzes call record accounts to identify and tag related call records, such as call record accounts related to the same individual. A common account tag detector detects related accounts and communicates with a common account controller of a distribution module that distributes contact attempts in pools and queues. The common account controller locates related accounts, such as by searching for accounts having the same tag, to prevent additional contact attempts to the individual associated with the related accounts. The related accounts are forwarded to the operator who made the successful contact to coordinate resolution of the related accounts along with the account that originated the contact attempt.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to message response systems for customer service environments and provide a method, system and computer program product for dynamic message context driven application assembly in a customer service agent productivity suite of applications. In one embodiment of the invention, a message context driven application assembly method for a customer service agent productivity suite can be provided. The method can include determining a context of an inbound message in a message list of an agent user interface for the customer service agent productivity suite; selecting at least one application based upon the determined context; providing an activatable reference to the at least one application in the agent user interface; and, displaying the agent user interface to provide access to the at least one application through the activatable reference.

Abstract: An electronic device that is connected to an external interface of a computer and has a memory unit that stores a program to be executed by the computer and data. The program includes a first operating unit that causes the computer to perform an operation of acquiring conference information containing at least one of image data and audio data as to a conference and storing the conference information in a predetermined memory area.

Abstract: A skill-value computing apparatus classifies inquiries into groups of easy and difficult inquiries, and computes a total skill value of an agent by taking into account the difficulty level of each inquiry.

Abstract: Tools and techniques for performing life cycle management of user-selected applications on wireless communications devices are described herein. In part, the tools provide machine-readable media for presenting to the subscriber a list of available applications for installation on the device, and for receiving selections from the subscriber of one or more of the applications. Additionally, the tools provide methods for selling advertising space on the devices.

Abstract: Systems, methods and computer-readable media for scheduling outbound agents are provided. A representative system incorporates a user interface and scheduling software that receives scheduling data, at least some of which is provided via the user interface, and generates scheduling constraints. The scheduling data includes historical call connect rates related to time intervals for which a schedule is to be generated and information corresponding to a desired service goal for the schedule. The desired service goal indicates a level of service to be provided by the schedule. The search engine uses the scheduling constraints to generate potential schedules for outbound agents. The push forward discrete modeler analyzes the potential schedules to compute at least one of overstaffing and understaffing with respect to the potential schedules.

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: Provided is a method for operating a server computer to provide an interactive application to enable a plurality of client-specific protocols for a remote call center, the remote call center configured to receive a plurality of calls for a plurality of clients. The method includes linearly administering a plurality of states defined in a process map of client-specific protocols for a plurality of call types expected to be received for each client; displaying the process map at the remote call center via a graphical user interface; and enabling a client to remotely alter the process map over an internet connection in near real-time.

Abstract: A system for enabling collaboration between two or more customer contact campaigns running within a call center environment includes at least one outbound contact server (OCS) resident on a digital medium, the OCS including an automated dialer application resident on a digital medium thereon or accessible thereto for dialing contact numbers from contact records assembled for the running campaigns, a call monitoring and recording system executing from software on a digital medium, for monitoring call dialing progress and business results of completed calls, a central data repository for storing dialing progress and business results data collected by the running outbound campaigns, and a data sharing mechanism executing from software resident on a digital medium, accessible to each campaign running on the OCS for sharing collected data among the running campaigns.

Abstract: A method of routing a communication request of a first party to one of a plurality of second parties uses a distribution system. The method has a first step including transmitting the communication request by the first party to the distribution system. A second step includes transmitting a first party identification information by the first party to the distribution system. A third step includes unambiguous mapping of the first party identification information onto a particular one of the plurality of second parties via the distribution system using a deterministic algorithm that includes a hash algorithm. The deterministic algorithm stochastically distributes a plurality of differing first party identification information among the plurality of second parties. The third step includes calculating a hash value from the first party identification information using the hash algorithm.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided to integrate disparate media services and applications across an organization. The media services are connected to an interoperable media services bus by creating a connector API for each service, thereby enabling the media services to exchange messages in a standardized format related to transactions to be performed involving media assets and/or metadata associated with media assets. Also connected to the interoperable media services bus are one or more centralized services that can be used to improve uniformity of behavior across the media services. Examples of centralized services include searching of media asset metadata, management of access rights to media services and/or media assets, accounting functions related to use of the media services, transformations (such as encoding or digital-rights management wrapping) of media assets, and the like.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and system of a campaign in a geo-spatial environment is proposed. In one embodiment, a method includes populating each profile of a geo-spatial social network with an address data, forming a group in support of a campaign in the geo-spatial network when a particular user creates the group in support of the campaign and automatically communicating media to a physical location of a member of the group based on the address data associated with each profile of the geo-spatial network. The method may also include automatically creating the group based on a public data associated with each profile of the geo-spatial social network even prior to certain users associated with each profile registering geo-spatial social network by applying the public data to the each profile.