Presence awareness agent

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a customer contact 100 in which a agent service function 136 to collect predetermined types of information regarding the contact and / or the contact center 100 and interface with the contact. The interface can include presenting service options to the contact. A mood detector 152 can be used to collect information about the customer's state of mind.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] Cross reference is made to U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09 / 756,955, filed Jan. 9, 1999, entitled “Customer Service by Batch”, and Ser. No. 09 / 416,737, filed Oct. 13, 1999, entitled “Multi-Tasking, Web-Based Call Center”, which are incorporated herein by this reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to contact centers and specifically to customer relationship management in contact centers. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] A customer contact center typically must balance the quality of service that it provides against the cost of providing such service. When personalized service is needed, an automatic call distribution system (or ACD) typically connects a customer to a contact center agent who has the skills that are needed to service the customer. The agent serves only one customer at a time. This personalized treatment generally leads to a high quality of service, with the main limitation o...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007] The agent service function can maximize the level of service to the customer and utilization of contact center resources while minimizing the impact on the contact center. Because the contact center typically does not know the customer's entire context, the customer is allowed to select from or among the top service options.

[0010] The agent service function can provide a number of benefits relative to conventional ACDs. For example, the agent function can customize the experience of each customer interaction with the contact center, thereby providing increased levels of customer satisfaction while realizing continued operational efficiencies at acceptable, and often much lower, costs. In contrast, conventional ACDs segment groups of customers that are similar and provide the different groups separate treatment. The agent service function permits the ACD replicate the experience that a customer has when entering a store. As will be appreciated, this experience is familiar and typically enjoyable for most customers.

Problems solved by technology

This personalized treatment generally leads to a high quality of service, with the main limitation on the quality of service being the number of available agents, but it can be very expensive.

In some applications (particularly applications involving long queue wait times), ACD's can lead to customer frustration and dissatisfaction.

The cost of providing service via the IVR system is generally substantially lower, but a desirable quality of service is not always achieved, as the IVR system is not as flexible and responsive as a human agent.

Moreover, some customers are reluctant to use such systems.

ACDs fail to consider the customer's preferences.

This failure has lead to a high rate of customer dissatisfaction and concomitant business losses.

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