2061 results about "Call centre" patented technology

A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for collaborative installation management in a network-based supply chain environment. According to an embodiment of the invention, telephone calls, data and other multimedia information are routed through a network system which includes transfer of information across the internet utilizing telephony routing information and internet protocol address information. The system includes integrated Internet Protocol (IP) telephony services allowing a user of a web application to communicate in an audio fashion in-band without having to pick up another telephone. Users can click a button and go to a call center through the network using IP telephony. The system invokes an IP telephony session simultaneously with the data session, and uses an active directory lookup whenever a user uses the system. Users include service providers and manufacturers utilizing the network-based supply chain environment.

A system that tracks the current and historical locations of a GPS locator device carried by a person provides widely available access to data referencing these locations, so that a parent can easily and frequently monitor the location of a child. Monitoring of a child's location may be conducted via a Web site, which provides graphical maps of location data, or via calling into a call center. The present invention also provides a means for a parent to trigger the automatic transmission of the device's location, via a Web site or call placed to a call center agent or a VRU. The present invention also provides a process of auto-notification of a device's movement that exceeds a pre-specified threshold. The present invention also includes a capability to function as a proximity alert device.

A multimedia telecommunication automatic call distribution center which allows access to the call center via a plurality of access means, including telephone and data networks to provide simultaneous voice, data, and video access, and ensures effective transparent spreading of agents over different geographical locations. The automatic call distribution center of the present invention uses a multimedia automatic call distribution server acting as connection manager for data network callers and provides for automatic caller identification.

A system and method for generating revenue from providing pages of voice content when users input a voice code corresponding to that content. Voice codes (“VCodes”) have content stored corresponding thereto and when users view publicly displayed VCodes in proximity to an object, attraction or subject, the users may selectively access the stored content via telephone by calling a central number and entering the VCode or verbally describing the object, attraction or subject, in which case the verbal description is associated with a VCode or collection of VCodes. A fee is collected based on the information retrieved and may be distributed between participants within the voice network access provider system.

A system and method for predicting the wait time of a caller to a call center is disclosed. The call center associates a set of agents to which the caller may be queued. This set of agents selected may depend on the skills that each agent possesses, the type of service request made by the caller, caller priority, time of day, day of week and other conditions. An initial wait time estimate may then be given to the caller who is just queued. As a caller's conditions may dynamically change, a caller's position in the queue may also change as well as the pool of available agents. Periodic wait time estimate updates may also be given to the queued caller. A caller's wait time may be estimated based upon mean inter-arrival times for recently past calls into the call center. An average inter-arrival time may be calculated for the last several calls. Alternatively, a caller's wait time may be estimated based upon calls that are recently queued and dequeued. A table of values, Wnj, are maintained wherein each such value denoting the jth recent wait time of calls arriving with n calls already in the queue. An average value, Wn, for each n among all such Wnj, is thus calculated and a caller's estimated wait time is thus given, depending on how many calls are in the queue at the time of calling.

Selection of a suitable call-center agent (106-108) to handle a call is based on which available suitable agent's handling of the call will tend to optimize call wait times. When a call needing a particular skill becomes available (200), all skills of agents in the agent queue (131-139) corresponding to the particular skill are determined (202, 204). The agent queues corresponding to the determined skills are checked (206) to determine which ones identify only one agent. For each available agent having the particular skill, the number of agent queues which identify this agent as their only agent is computed (208). The available agent having the lowest computed number is selected (210) to handle the call. This minimizes the number of skills that will be left without an available agent to handle subsequent calls, and thus tends to maximize the probability that a next call will also have a suitable agent already available and not have to wait for one to become available, thereby optimizing call wait times.

A user may utilize a communication device, e.g., a wireless phone, mobile device or personal digital assistant (PDA), to contact an information / call center where an operator provides personalized information and communications services to the user in accordance with the invention. Such services include, e.g., providing listing information, contacts information, appointments information, etc. To provide effective connectivity, for example, when a user locates a phone number in his / her private directory using a web browser, the user may utilize a direct connect feature of the invention to initiate a phone call to the desired number over the Internet. In addition, the invention allows for delivery of the appointments information to the user not only via voice connection, but also SMS, email, facsimile, PDA, etc. It also allows for rendering a calendaring service in combination with such services as a TeleConcierge® service which helps the user to plan a future event, e.g., making a restaurant reservation. An appointment record concerning the future event is automatically incorporated into the user's calendar once it is successfully planned. To personalize the services, at least one profile associated with the user is used which specifies the subscribed services and the preferred ways of receiving them. For example, the profile may specify use of a special skilled operator, methods of delivery of information to the user, etc.

A Web-based call routing management workstation application which allows authorized customers to control toll free routing and monitor call center status. An architecture including one or more web servers located in a firewalled demilitarized zone (DMZ) as communications medium between the customer workstations at the customer sites and the enterprise back-end applications providing the call routing management services, provides a secure infrastructure for accessing the enterprise applications via the otherwise insecure public Internet. The present invention enables creation and management of call by call routing rules by a customer with a workstation having an Internet access and a supported Web browser. The customized rules may be tested and / or debugged via the Web-enabled workstation, using a debugger / tester which runs the routing rules under a simulated environment. In addition, customers may provision hierarchies for their business; create, modify or delete agent pools; manipulate capacity tables; and define quota schemes, value lists and schedule tables, all at the customer site via the Web-enabled workstation. The present invention also enables the customers to view near real-time displays of call center ACD statistics and peg counts based on routing rules, as well as, run provisioning and statistical reports on provisioning and statistical data and also to extract the data for further analysis. Additionally, the present invention supports foreign language and branding features on a graphical user interface. An infrastructure is provided which enables secure initiation, acquisition, and presentation of the call manager functionalities to customers from any computer workstation having a web browser and located anywhere in the world.

A call center server architecture supporting service transactions between service customers and service agents who can be either local to or in geographic distributed locations relative to the call center. The call center server architecture includes an inbound voice packetizer providing a PSTN line interface to the call center, a call center server system, coupled to said inbound voice packetizer, that provides for the execution of call center server control applications, and a router, coupled among said inbound voice packetizer, the call center server system, and, through a network interface to any combination of intra- and extranets, to service agent terminal equipment. The call center server control applications dynamically determine the routing and distribution of service requests received from service customers to service agents and are dynamically responsive to determinations of inadequate quality of service for individual communications channels. The call center server control applications provide for the controlled interruption of a predetermined service transaction while establishing a new communications channel having an adequate quality of service.

The invention discloses a system and method for filling out a form from a dialog between a caller and a call center agent. The caller and the caller center agent can have the dialog in the form of telephone conversation, instant messaging chat or email exchange. The system and method provides a list of named entities specific to the call center operation and uses a translation and transcription minor to filter relevant elements from the dialog between the caller and the call center agent. The relevant elements filtered from the dialog are subsequently displayed on the call center agent's computer screen to fill out application forms automatically or through drag and drop operations by the call center agent.

The present invention provides a robust customer service environment employing “Key Performance Indicators” (KPIs), which represent both customer interaction experiences and also the overall efficacy of agent performance on an interaction-by-interaction basis. A KPI can be any metric for measuring a category of information related to a call center interaction, e.g., customer satisfaction or agent ability / performance. Input from customer experiences, whether originating from the customer, agent, or agent supervisor, is catalogued and linked to one or more KPIs. Key performance indicators are associated with a key performance indicator template, which is linked with a project comprising routing rules, triggers, and specific actions that are driven as a result of the key performance indicator template. The project may be a phone / IVR project, Web CallBack project, email project, or a Chat project. Execution of the key performance indicator template triggers pre-, during, and / or post-call, -chat, -CallBack, or -email input from a call center user.

A telephone call distribution system for determining destination for an incoming telephone call in a telephony network including a service control point (SCP) operates with a plurality of workstations each comprising a telephone coupled to the telephony network and a proximate computer station having a video display unit (PC / VDU), the PC / VDO connected to the SCP via a wide area network (WAN), and a personal router associated with each PC / VDU. The SCP broadcasts data pertaining to the incoming telephone call and a request for a destination to individual ones of the PC / VDUs via the WAN, and the personal routers negotiate a destination based on individual routing rules and the data pertaining to the call. At least one of the individual routers responds to the SCP with a destination for the call. In some instances the workstations are associated with a call center, and the call center may be CTI-enhanced. Individual routers in this instance may be executed on a server on a local area network connecting workstations at the call center, the server providing individual routers to workstations in a client-server relationship.

A multimedia telecommunication automatic call distribution center which allows access to the call center via a plurality of access means, including telephone and data networks to provide simultaneous voice, data, and video access, and ensures effective transparent spreading of agents over different geographical locations. The automatic call distribution center of the present invention uses a multimedia automatic call distribution server acting as connection manager for data network callers and provides for automatic caller identification.

A cable network repair control system including a server communicating with multiple call-handling clients in a trouble call center. The databases are used to automatically determine an associated network device for the customer who makes a trouble call. When a second call is received for a particular network device, an inferencing engine automatically operates to identify potential repairs crews and to control communication with them to ensure that optimum use of the repair crew time and quick repair. Various tables are generated dynamically and are used to update management status tables for reviewing of network repair status.

A call-management method and system for distributing calls to agents, wherein each agent has a profile, e.g., defining agent skills, efficiency, etc. The call center management system implements an algorithm for selecting an agent to receive a call to optimize caller utility, call center efficiency, and agent training. Therefore, the algorithm does not seek to necessarily route a call to the agent having the skill set most suited to the call; rather, the call may be routed to an agent who needs experience in the area of the call, and thus serves as a training exercise. Skilled agents may be made available to shadow the training agent when available.

A method for distributing calls of an automatic call distributor system includes determining location information for agents at a call center. The method further includes routing a request for connection with one of the agents to one of the agents based at least in part on the location information. A method for managing agents in a call center includes determining location information for a plurality of agents in a call center. The method further includes communicating a message to at least one of the agents requesting the agent to move to a new location in response to at least one request for connection with one of the agents.

A method and system for call processing to assist call center agents at a call center, where a call in the form of an unstructured voice signal is received from a caller at the call center, the received call is transcribed into readable text data, and keywords are identified in the readable text data to determine a context for the voice signal based on the identified keywords, based on the context identifying and extracting matching entities from a data store, and presenting the extracted entities and possible new queries to the call center agent based on the set of most relevant entities.

A method, system, and program for allowing callers to adjust in position within a hold queue are provided. An advancement token earned by a caller while waiting in a hold queue is detected. The advancement token is stored for redemption in a future call by the caller according to an authenticated identifier for the caller, wherein future redemption of the advancement token will cause adjustment of a waiting position. In particular, a caller in the call hold queue may earn advancement tokens by answering questions posed by other callers in the call hold queue, where the questions are answered in a manner such that the other callers do not need additional aid from a representative. In addition, a caller may redeem advancement tokens earned in a previous hold queue while waiting in current hold queue, where the redeemable advancement tokens are accessible across multiple call centers according to the caller identification.

A telecommunications network that handles call center calls by providing advanced interactive voice response (IVR) services using a next generation service node (NGSN). The NGSN nodes combine with several other interacting network components to provide a scaleable architecture which allows several different, customized and flexible call center services to be performed for telecommunications service provider customers. In addition the network includes virtual call routers, parking managers, host connect gateways, report servers, advanced network databases, data access points, and data gateways to deliver calls to customer call centers with various features enabled.

A method, system, and program for managing caller profiles across multiple hold queues according to authenticated caller identifiers are provided. An identity of a caller of a call received at an on hold system is authenticated. The call is then placed in a hold queue. A caller profile associated with the identity of the caller is retrieved, such that services available to the caller while on hold are specified according to the caller profile. In particular, the caller profile is preferably retrieved from at least one caller profile server according to the caller identifier, where the at least one caller profile server is accessible to multiple on hold systems. Further, the identity of a caller may be authenticated by authenticating a voice sample received from the caller, such that a single identity for the caller may be authenticated at multiple call centers.

The present invention is related to the delivery of requests for emergency service initially handled by an emergency service call center to a public safety answering point. The invention additionally allows for enhancement information to be provided to a public safety answering point operator visually in connection with calls routed to that public safety answering point. This information may include caller identification, and additional information, such as information regarding the location of the caller and the nature of the emergency. Furthermore, the routing of requests for emergency service to an appropriate public safety answering point can be accomplished for requests received over a wide geographic area. In particular, requests can be appropriately routed even though they may originate from locations encompassed by different E9-1-1 tandems. The present invention is particularly well suited for use in connection with automatic collision notification and personal alarm monitoring call centers serving areas encompassed by more than one E9-1-1 tandem.

Methods and systems are provided for routing callers to agents in a call-center routing environment. An exemplary method includes identifying caller data for a caller in a queue of callers, and jumping or moving the caller to a different position within the queue based on the caller data. The caller data may include one or both of demographic data and psychographic data. The caller can be jumped forward or backward in the queue relative to at least one other caller. Jumping the caller may further be based on comparing the caller data with agent data via a pattern matching algorithm and / or computer model for predicting a caller-agent pair outcome. Additionally, if a caller is held beyond a hold threshold (e.g., a time, “cost” function, or the like) the caller may be routed to the next available agent.

A call center includes functionality for dynamically positioning newly received calls within an established call queue. The calls are positioned within the queue based on predefined service objectives for call types supported by the call center and a length of time that other calls have already been waiting in the queue. In a preferred embodiment, when a new call is received by the call center, an analysis is performed for individual queue positions within the queue until a queue position is identified that meets a predetermined selection criterion. The new call is then placed within this queue position and subsequent calls within the queue are moved accordingly.

A security system for monitoring a premises. Alarm information, including a near real-time feed of video and / or audio data, is collected at the premises and retrieved by a remotely located monitoring computer workstation over a data network. If desired, a remotely located emergency response computer workstation coupled to the data network may be authorized, by the monitoring computer workstation, to retrieve the collected alarm information over the data network. The emergency response computer workstation may also be granted control of the alarm information collecting devices located at the monitored premises.

Methods and systems are provided for routing callers to agents in a call-center routing environment. An exemplary method includes routing a caller from a pool of callers based on at least one caller data associated with the caller, where a pool of callers includes, e.g., a set of callers that are not chronologically ordered and routed based on a chronological order or hold time of the callers. The caller may be routed from the pool of callers to an agent, placed in another pool of callers, or placed in a queue of callers. The caller data may include demographic or psychographic data. The caller may be routed from the pool of callers based on comparing the caller data with agent data associated with an agent via a pattern matching algorithm and / or computer model for predicting a caller-agent pair outcome. Additionally, if a caller is held beyond a hold threshold (e.g., a time, “cost” function, or the like) the caller may be routed to the next available agent.

Methods and systems are provided for routing callers to agents in a call-center routing environment. An exemplary method includes identifying caller data for a caller of a plurality of callers in a queue, and routing the caller from the queue out of queue order. For example, a caller that is not at the top of the queue may be routed from the queue based on the identified caller data, out of order with respect to the queue order. The caller may be routed to another queue of callers, a pool of callers, or an agent based on the identified caller data, where the caller data may include one or both of demographic and psychographic data. The caller may be routed from the queue based on comparing the caller data with agent data associated with an agent via a pattern matching algorithm and / or computer model for predicting a caller-agent pair outcome. Additionally, if a caller is held beyond a hold threshold (e.g., a time, “cost” function, or the like) the caller may be routed to the next available agent.

A call-management method and system for distributing calls to agents, wherein each agent has a profile, e.g., defining agent skills, efficiency, etc. The call center management system implements an algorithm for selecting an agent to receive a call to optimize caller utility, call center efficiency, and agent training. Therefore, the algorithm does not seek to necessarily route a call to the agent having the skill set most suited to the call; rather, the call may be routed to an agent who needs experience in the area of the call, and thus serves as a training exercise. Skilled agents may be made available to shadow the training agent when available.

The present system relates to systems and methods for providing delivery of goods purchased through electronic commerce. An embodiment of the present invention allows a user to purchase an item from a vendor or merchant in an e-commerce environment and have the item shipped to a selected Will-Call Center for pick up by a recipient. The recipient can be the user or some other designated party. The Will-Call Center further automatically notifies the recipient of the availability of the item to be picked up.

A converged call center is provided. The converged call center provides a switch connectable to a customer through a telephone network. The switch connects to a converged container comprising a plurality of applications necessary for the call center functionality. The converged container is connected to a voice platform to facilitate communication between the applications, the customer, and a customer service representative.