Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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APPARATUS FOR SUPERVISING AN AUTOMATIC
CALL DISTRIBUTION TELEPHONE SYSTEM
FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to telephone systems, and
particularly to an agent supervising system and method for
use in a call distribution environment.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Modern telephone systems are invariably computer
controlled; i.e. computers and computer processors perform
functions such as call switching, respond to calls
automatically, generate error messages on detecting
malfunctions, and otherwise implement stored programs and
subroutines to operate the telephone system. Other features
may be added to enhance the use of the telephone system to
be convenient or user friendly. For example, the telephone
system may be menu driven by inputs from a telephone keypad
to provide user selected functions such as obtaining one's
credit card balance or one's telephone bill balance over a
touch tone capable telephone.
Some telephone systems automatically distribute
incoming or inbound calls among a plurality of telephone
stations. These automated call distribution (ACD) systems
have been applied, for example, to route inbound telephone
calls to telephone stations assigned to specific personnel
or inbound agents. In other applications, outbound
telephone calls may be initiated by an ACD using automated
dialers and predictive dialing techniques, and the ACD then
transfers the established calls to outbound agents. ACDs
may employ call queues and various distribution algorithms
and methods, implemented in software, to enhance performance
of the overall telephone system.
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ACD telephone systems also may implement monitor
or supervisor features; i.e. facilities allowing a
supervisor to track the ACD in the telephone system and to
evaluate the performance of the personnel or agents in the
telephone system. For example, in a telemarketing system
such as described in the above incorporated U.S. patent
application, a system administrator may display information
on a display screen to show the status of the telemarketing
campaign and the performance and status of each agent.
To insure proper operation of these computerized
telephone systems, such supervising systems are employed
separately or as part of the telephone system to allow a
system supervisor or administrator to access the information
processed by the telephone system, to setup or reconfigure
its operation, and to interact with users of the system;
i.e. callers or telephone system personnel.
Although agents are assigned to individual
telephone stations, individual agents may not be present at
their corresponding telephone stations at all times. To
avoid automatically distributing an inbound call to an
unoccupied telephone station and thus delaying the response
to a waiting call, it would be advantageous to integrate the
monitoring system with an automated personnel locating
system, such as the locating system described in commonly
assigned U.S. Patent No. 5,455,851. The aforesaid locating
system includes a plurality of remote units such as badges
which may be worn by people, attached
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to objects, or incorporated in equipment. The badges
wirelessly transmit information including badge
identification (ID) information to a nearby stationary
transceiver. The stationary transceiver further transmits
the badge information to a central computer for processing
and identifying the badge and its location. For example, in
a hospital environment, staff and patients may be located
and audio, video, or data communications may be transmitted
throughout the hospital facility; i.e. to a nurse control
station, to selected patient stations, and/or to staff
stations to achieve enhanced patient care.
In an agent supervising system for an ACD
environment for inbound and/or outbound calls, it would be
advantageous for an automated locating system operatively
coupled to the ACD to provide the agent supervising system
with location and information of the agents. The system
according to the present invention provides such an
integrated supervising system for use in conjunction with a
locating system. The system according to the present
invention also provides a visual map on the supervisor
display to graphically locate each agent and telephone
station for a supervisor to efficiently locate specific
personnel and objects during ACD operation.
ACD systems having supervising monitoring
capabilities have been described. For example, U.S. Patent
No. 5,101,425 to Darland et al. discusses a system for
monitoring the operation of an automated dialing system.
Menus, windows, and icons in a graphical computer interface
are employed to permit a supervisor to select various
options and to display further information.
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Given the available monitoring systems including
the system described in U.S. Patent No. 5,101,425, there is
a need for an ACD system having improved data and status
collection in conjunction with enhanced conveyance
techniques for an ACD supervisor. The system according to
the present invention provides an ACD supervisor with
enhanced display of status information including the
graphical display of agent locations. Greater efficiency in
supervising and conducting the ACD operations is also
achieved using predictive abandonment to predict the pending
loss of calls to react accordingly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, in one aspect of the present
invention there is provided an agent supervising apparatus
for a telephone system having a plurality of telephone
stations assigned to a plurality of agents and call
distribution to said telephone stations, the agent
supervising apparatus comprising:
an agent supervising station including a display
and an input device; and
a processing unit including:
associated memory and stored programs for
storing agent identification, call status information, and a
plurality of telephone station designations, said associated
memory including a queue of queued inbound calls;
means for predicting potential loss of at
least one of said queued inbound calls; and
signalling means, responsive to said means
for predicting, for signalling said agent supervising
station of said potential loss.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The features of the present invention will become
more readily apparent and may be better understood by
referring to the following detailed description of an
illustrative embodiment of the present invention, taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings, where:
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the supervising
system of the present invention;
FIG. 2 shows a group activity screen;
FIG. 2A shows a Dynamic Screen Profile Edit
Screen;
FIG. 3 shows an agent directory screen;
FIG. 4 illustrates an alternative agent directory
screen;
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FIG. 5 illustrates a main supervisor menu screen;
FIG. 5A shows a System Maintenance Screen;
FIG. 5B shows a Time Interval for Color Alarm
screen;
FIG. 6 shows a map screen having agent and office
information;
FIG. 7 shows a map screen showing agent status
information and agent locations;
FIG. 8 illustrates a directory screen listing
agent locations;
FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of the
operation of the system according to the present invention;
FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of a
supervisor monitoring subroutine;
FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of a
subroutine implementing display commands selected by the
supervisor;
FIG. 12 illustrates a block diagram of a
predictive abandonment subroutine; and
FIG. 13 illustrates the elements of the locating
network according to the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring now in specific detail to the drawings,
with like reference numerals identifying similar or
identical elements, the present invention comprises an agent
supervising system 10 for use with a telephone system
employing ACD and optionally for use with a locating system.
As shown in FIG. 1, the agent supervising system 10 includes
a supervisor station 20 interacting with programs executed
by a private branch exchange (PBX) 30 controlling automatic
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call distribution (ACD) in a telephone system having a
plurality of telephone stations 40 and also interacting with
programs executed by an applications processor 50. The
supervisor station 20 includes a display and input devices
15 such as a keyboard and/or a mouse. The display is
preferably a color monitor capable of outputting a plurality
of distinct colors for text in foregrounds and various
background palettes to highlight the text. In a preferred
embodiment, the supervisor station 20 and the agent
telephone stations include an ISOETECTM terminal available
from EXECUTONE Information Systems, Inc., but other
terminals having equivalent display characteristics may
alternatively be employed. Separate telephone devices
having handsets and/or headsets may also be included in the
supervisor station 20 and in each agent telephone station 40
for telephone operations.
The PBX 30 is a digital telephone switching
system which handles call processing, call queueing, call
routing, voice announcements and other voice related
functions. The PBX may be 68000 processor based and
includes a real time clock, EPROM memory to store the
operating system of the PBX 30 and battery-backed static RAM
software routines to store operational data and information
including system configuration and location information.
The PBX 30 preferably utilizes time division
switching techniques and pulse code modulation (PCM) and
provides a capacity of 432 ports which may be configured as
420 phones and 12 trunks, or 12 phones and 420 trunks or any
combination in between. The capacity is upgradable with
additional PBXs. The PBX 30 has a voice data bus divided
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into time slots with each port provided a time slot. This
time slot arrangement provides a telephone system which is
non-blocking between ports. In addition, the PBX 30 has a
user data bus independent and parallel of the voice data
bus, allowing for simultaneous voice and user data
operation.
The PBX 30 preferably provides four I/O ports on
a main distribution frame (MDF). Ports 1 and 2 are
configured for RS-232 type connections and each of ports 1
and 2 has a default baud rate of 9600 baud. Data
information can be switched through the PBX 30 at speeds
from 300 to 38.4K baud. The PBX 30 is preferably
transparent to the connected devices, and no protocol or
data speed conversion is necessary; i.e. any compatible
serial data communications devices can communicate through
the PBX 30. In the present invention, the PBX 30 is
preferably an IDST" telephone system available from
EXECUTONE Information Systems, Inc.
The applications processor 50 generates and
stores data reflecting call activity of the agent telephone
stations 40 assigned to agents operating within the ACD.
The applications processor 50 executes application software
with a UNIX based operating system. The applications
processor 50 performs storage, coordination and control
functions such as providing menus and graphic windows for
accessing and generating statistical reports, and the
applications processor 50 responds to commands from the
supervisor station 20 to display the statistical reports to
the supervisor.
The applications processor 50 includes, in the
preferred embodiment, an INTEL 386-based central processing
unit (CPU). For memory, the applications processor 50 has 8
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Megabit (MB) RAM, a 540 MB hard or fixed disk drive, a 3.5
inch 1.44 MB floppy disk drive, and a 120 MB internal tape
drive. The capacity of each of the memory devices is
expandable. Disk drive and tape drive controllers are
provided. A VGA video board included in the applications
processor 50 operates the video graphics of the supervisor
station 20 and the agent telephone stations 40 in the
telephone system. Alternatively, each agent telephone
station and the supervisor station 20 includes an individual
VGA video board to generate graphical displays such as user
menus for facilitating the use of the telephone system by
the agents and by the supervisor.
The applications processor 50 is coupled through
an interface board including an RS-232 type connection to
the MDF of the PBX 30. The interface board is preferably a
16 channel serial interface I/O driver board designed to
connect multiple terminals including the supervisor station
20, printers, modems, or other RS-232 compatible peripheral
devices.
The agent telephone stations 40 are assigned to
each agent and include at least a telephone. The ACD system
in the telephone system accordiny to the present invention
is suitable for operation in telemarketing environments.
The.agent telephone stations 40 may further include a
computer terminal with a display and an input device such as
a keyboard for inputting and displaying information
regarding the calls being handled or to be handled. Such
agent telephone stations 40 may further include a telephone
headset to free the agents' hands for inputting data.
The agents are grouped in ACD groups; i.e. groups
of agents having predetermined instructions or manner of
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addres s ing inbound or outbound calls. For example, as
inbound calls arrive, they may be queued until an agent
becomes available to address the queued calls. Some agents
may be further assigned to "splits", which are sets of
agents having a predetermined manner for handling an inbound
call when other groups of agents are unavailable to address
the inbound call. The agents may also alternate between
handling inbound and outbound calls, and inbound/outbound
call management and predictive dialing techniques may be
implemented. The status of the calls and the agents can be
monitored bythe supervisor station 20, and the supervisor may
also answer or conduct inbound or outbound calls through the
supervisor station 20.
FIG. 2 shows an activity/group dynamic'display
screen 80 which may be accessed by the supervisor, through
the supervisor station 20 upon the supervisor's entering an
input command for selecting the Dynamic Displays when the
Main Menu Screen 130, shown in FIG. 5, is displayed on the
supervisor's display. This display provides information in
a Group Area 85, an Agent Area 90, and a Summary Area 95 on
the.display. The upper right portion of the screen is
allocated as the Group Araa 85 to display up to 16 groups.
The following information is available for each group:
GROUP A-line of information is represented for each
group.
WAIT The number of calls waiting to be answered by an
agent is listed for each group. This number
should be kept as close to zero as possible. As
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the number of calls begins to rise, the
supervisor should make certain that as many
agents as possible are addressing the inbound ACD
calls. If all agents are in fact on available
inbound ACD calls, and the number of calls
waiting to be answered is still high, the
supervisor may consider temporarily assigning
more agents to the group.
PRIM The number of agents available within the
displayed group.
SEC The number of agents available from other groups.
AVL The number of agents who are free to receive
inbound ACD calls. This number should be kept as
close to zero as possible; i.e. all agents should
be handling calls. An available agent is waiting
for a call to arrive, or performing work that can
be interrupted.
BUSY The number of agents that are on inbound ACD
calls. This number should be kept as close as
possible to the number of agents logged in. If
the number of busy agents plus the number of
available agents does not equal the number of
agents logged=on, a quick look at the Agent area
(or the Agent Detail Dynamic Display described
below) shows which agents are unavailable to take
calls and also shows the reasons why the agents
are unavailable.
LNGST The amount of time the oldest ACD call has been
waiting to be answered. This number should be as
low as possible. This number reflects how long
the customers have been kept waiting.
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The left portion of the Group Dynamic Screen 80
is allocated as the Agent Area 90 to display the current
state of each agent in the displayed group, using the
following format:
NUM The information on each line corresponds to the
agent number listed in this column. The agents
are listed sequentially by agent number beginning
with the lowest number.
AGENT The name of the agent assigned to each of the
Agent Numbers is listed in this column. This
name is entered during system setup on an ACD
Agent Setup screen.
EXT The extension number of the telephone where the
agent is currently logged in. Only the last 3
digits of the extension number are displayed.
GR (or a number) Indicates the primary group currently
being viewed or the number of the agent list
displayed.
TIME This column is used in conjunction with the STATE
column to indicate the amount of time an agent
has been in the STATE listed.
PRI or P Indicates the agent is in a primary SPLIT call.
STATE The current activity of the ACD agent's telephone
is listed as text in a light blue foreground in
this column.
The lower right portion of the Group Dynamic
Screen 80 shows the Summary Area 95 which is devoted to the
same group and displays:
Avg Hold The average time calls were on hold
after being answered by an agent.
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Avg Talk The average time agents spent talking
on ACD calls.
Avg Wait The average time calls waited in queue.
Recorder The Recorder field lists the total
number of calls sent to a recording.
Wait Lists how many calls are in queue for
each of the above four priorities; i.e.
Avg Hold, Avg Talk, Avg Wait, and
Recorder.
Lngst Lists how long the oldest call in queue
has been waiting for each of the above
four priorities.
The agents are further categorized into agent
lists; i.e. independent collections of specified agents
separate from the ACD groups for customized monitoring by
the supervisor. Therefore, an agent may be assigned to an
ACD group as well as an agent list. For example, agent
lists may be composed of marketing agents, agents solely
dedicated to handie a blood drive, inbound agents for
inbound calls, outbound agents for outbound calls,
inexperienced or rookie agents for specialized supervision
by the supervisor, etc.
Referring to FIG. 2A, a Dynamic Screen Profile
Edit screen 106 is displayed on the supervisor's display
upon input of a predetermined input command from the
supervisor; for example, when a supervisor enters a system
maintenance command through the Main Menu screen 130 shown
in FIG. 5 by moving a cursor by keyboard inputs or by mouse,
to the words "System Maintenance" and pressing the Return
key or pressing an appropriate mouse button.
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Using the Dynamic Screen Profile Edit screen 106,
a supervisor selects and customizes groups to be displayed
on the left side portion of the activity/group dynamic
screen 80 shown, for example, in FIG. 2. Upon displaying
the Dynamic Screen Profile Edit screen 106, the supervisor
may add, change, or delete the groups displayed in FIG. 2
and then save the changed group settings in memory.
Similarly, from the Dynamic Screen Profile Edit
screen 106, the supervisor may add, edit, or delete agents
in agent lists. in the preferred embodiment, up to four
agent lists may be defined for each supervisor, and each
agent list may have up to 24 agents assigned for dedicated
duties; for example, blood drives as described above. FIG.
5A shows a System Maintenance screen 131 for accessing, for
example, the Dynamic Screen Profile Edit screen 106 shown in
FIG. 2A. '
In addition, the agent supervising system of the
present invention further includes "Exception Color
Graphics"; i.e. color graphics which change as new states or
thresholds are attained to alert the supervisor of the
status of the agents and the handling of ACD calls. The
various distinct colors thus provide the supervisor with
visual indications of the agents' status which are more
readily apparent than the status indicated by the text. The
"Exception Color Graphics" are implemented in software which
stores agent and call information in memory to track each
agent and call to respond to the states or thresholds as
configured by the supervisor or as set by default.
Through the Dynamic Screen Profile Edit Screen
.30 106 shown in FIG. 2A, the thresholds for the "Exception
Color Graphics" for the groups displayed on the left side
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portion of FIG. 2 may be set and changed by selecting WAIT
(the number of calls waiting for an agent to address the
call). or LONGEST (the length of the oldest call waiting in a
call queue).
Referring again to FIG. 2, each agent state in
the STATE column in the Group Area is displayed in a screen
section, which is herein defined as a portion of the screen
containing text and backgrounds having various colors. Each
screen section for a corresponding agent state has its own
background color according to the following color codes:
Avail green background. The agent is
available for a call.
Unavail magenta background. The UNAVAILABLE
key on an agent's telephone has been
activated. The system does not attempt
to route ACD calls to this agent.
AcdRng white background. An ACD call ringing
an agent's extension.
Wrap Up yellow background. The agent has
completed a call, and is now in the
programmed wrap up time. This time is
usually set aside to complete any work
pertaining to the previous call.
FrcWrap yellow background. The agent has
completed a call, and is now in the
programmed wrap up time. The system is
waiting for the agent to enter a
qualification code. The system keeps
the agent in this state until a
qualification code is entered. No ACD
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calls are routed to the agent in this
state.
BusyAcd black background. The agent is
currently talking on an ACD call.
BusyOut light blue background. The system
attempted to route a call to this
agent, but the agent did not answer the
call within the prescribed time on an
ACD Group Setup screen. The agent
position remains in this state for the
time specified on the ACD Group Setup
screen.
Login yellow background. This state appears
briefly while an agent is in the
process of logging in.
Icm In magenta background. The agent received
an internal call.
Coin light blue background. The agent
received an outside line (non-ACD)
call.
IcmRng magenta background. An internal call
is ringing the agent's telephone.
CoRng black background. An inbound non-ACD
call is ringing the agent's telephone.
Dnd magenta background. The agent is in
the work (ACD DND) state. ACD calls
are not routed to an agent in this
state.
Split yellow background. The agent is
performing a task in an ACD group other
than the one displayed. Split is
followed by a number indicating the ACD
group in which the agent is active.
The display must be switched to this
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group in order to determine the exact
state of the agent.
IcmOut magenta background. The agent placed
an intercom call.
Coout light blue background. The agent
placed an outgoing outside line call.
Referring again to FIG. 2, the displayed Group
Dynamic Screen 80 has rows 100, 105 of screen sections
constituting headings with text in these rows 100, 105
displayed as a dark blue foreground against a white
background. Except as noted below, the remainder of the
screen has text displayed in a light blue foreground against
a dark blue background. As per the color coding listed
above, a screen section in the STATE column has a yellow
background further indicating that Kevin is in split 7, and
other screen sections in the STATE column have white
backgrounds further indicating that Alex and Mort have ACD
calls ringing with other screen sections similarly
indicating the status of each agent listed according to the
above color coding.
Therefore, a supervisor may readily identify the
agents who are unavailable, who are busy with an ACD call,
etc. by scanning for the distinctive colors of each color
code. Also, scanning for specific colors provides the
supervisor with a rough estimate of the number of agents
within a specific state according to the corresponding
color. Thus, an inordinate amount of magenta screen
sections reflecting many unavailable agents alerts the
supervisor to act accordingly.
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The "Exception Color Graphics" of the present
invention also includes color alarms to monitor the
activities of a group, a split, or a collection of agents in
near real-time. These color alarms have two alarm states:
yellow and red; and the color alarms are set by default
which may be reconfigured by the supervisor. Using color
alarm setup menus, various TIME thresholds for the system
and for each agent group and agent list may be set between 0
seconds and 3600 seconds (1 hour). When a threshold has
been exceeded, the background of a screen section within the
TIME column in the Group Area shown in FIG. 2 changes to the
corresponding color. Each agent state may be programmed
separately, and each group, split, or list of agents may
also be programmed separately. For example, a first alarm
threshold of 180 seconds (3 minutes) and a second alarm
threshold of 240 seconds (4 minutes) may be set to highlight
an agent's duration in an indicated state with the agent's
duration listed in the TIME column. The highlighting is
displayed by time durations which exceed these set
thresholds having yellow or red backgrounds, respectively in
corresponding screen sections. Thus, in FIG. 2, the screen
section showing Kevin's time in the WrapUp state would have
a yellow background and the screen section showing the time
that George I. is unavailable would have a red background.
Also, thresholds may be set independent of the
TIME thresholds for the oldest call in a queue exceeding a
specified time, thus color highlighting the corresponding
time in the LNGST column to alert the supervisor of
excessively delayed responses to waiting calls. For
example, a first alarm threshold of 180 seconds (3 minutes)
and a second alarm threshold of 300 seconds (5 minutes) may
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be set to highlight longest call times exceeding these
thresholds with yellow or red backgrounds, respectively.
Thus, in FIG. 2, the screen sections in the LNGST column
showing 3:09 minutes would have yellow backgrounds and the
screen section showing 5:18 minutes would have a red
background.
When 50% of the value entered for each threshold
is reached, the background color of the corresponding screen
section or field on the Group Dynamic Screen 80 changes to
yellow. When the value entered for each threshold is
exceeded, the corresponding background color changes from
yellow to red.
For the state of each agent in each group or
agent list, color alarms are also available to highlight the
duration of each agent in the displayed state. Each
threshold may be'individually customized by the supervisor
through a Time Intervals for Color Alarms screen 132 shown,.
for example, in FIG. 5B which is accessed by selecting "Time
Intervals for Color Alarms" at the System Maintenance screen
131 shown in FIG. 5A. As shown in FIG. 5B, time intervals
for color alarms may be configured for each group, for each
agent list, or for the entire system, and the configured
color alarm settings are saved in memory. Default
thresholds having a default yellow/red transition at 50% are
shown in the right side portion of the exemplary screen in
FIG.SB.
The group, split, or agent list displayed on the
supervisor's display determines the thresholds controlling
the display of the color alarms. For example, for a first
group, WrapUp may be programmed to change the displayed
agent's time to have a yellow background in 10 seconds and a
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red background in 20 seconds, while for a first agent list,
WrapUp may be programmed to.have the agent's time turn
yellow in 30 seconds and red in 60 seconds. The first agent
list may be used to view, for example, rookie agents. In
this example, if an agent in the first group and also in the
first agent list is in WrapUp for 25 seconds, a supervisor
viewing the first group shows the agent's time in WrapUp as
having a red backqround. However, if the supervisor views
the first agent list, the same agent's time is shown with a
normal blue background, and the background color of the
agent's time will not change to a yellow background for
another 5 seconds.
The combination of the display lists as in the
exemplary screen in FIG. 2 and the "Exception Color
Graphics" for state changes and color alarms allow a
supervisor to tailor their display to accomplish multiple
tasks. For example, a number of relatively new agents may
be placed in a separate agent list and the corresponding
color alarms for their agent list may be set relatively high
compared to the more experienced agents in other lists,
allowing the inexperience of the newer agents to be taken
into account automatically by the agent supervising system
programmed by the supervisor.
In another example, for a telemarketing campaign
having both inbound and outbound agents addressing inbound
and outbound calls, respectively, the present supervising
system using the above described "Exception Color graphics"
and color alarms visually alerts the supervisor to
redesignate agents from being outbound to inbound or vice
versa dynamically according to the current needs of the
telemarketing campaign. For example, if the number of
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inbound calls increases and the supervisor using the present
supervising system sees that the inbound agents are
unavailable or=busy with other calls, the supervisor may
change some outbound agents to inbound agents to address the
excess inbound calls.
The agents may be listed in a directory view
screen 110 as in FIG. 3 showing their telephone extension
and the designation of their assigned agent telephone
station. Such designations may include a telephone station
identification number unique to each agent telephone
station; a type of agent telephone station, such as
"supervisor", "inbound", or "outbound"; a location
description or location code corresponding to the position
of each agent telephone station in the facility or
equivalent visual designations. In addition, referring
again to FIG. 2, their current status may be displayed on
the directory view screen 110 in FIG. 3 and automatically
updated using color alarms and "Exception Color Graphics" as
described above. Thus, screen sections in the STATE column
have light blue text and background colors according to the
color coding described above.
In an additional embodiment illustrated in FIG.
4, the directory view screen 122 may provide an agent search
facility to access and display a specified agent. A
supervisor enters the agent's name at screen section 122 and
the agent supervisor system displays a screen section 124
having the accessed agent's name, phone extension, and
location with white text and with a dark blue background to
distinguish the accessed agent from other listed agents.
The various display screens, statistical and
historical report screens, and other functions available to
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the supervisor are accessible through the main supervisor
menu 130 as shown in FIG. 5. Software routines generate and
manage the various menus and displays as shown in FIGS. 2-4,
allowing the supervisor to access the desired information.
The operation of the telephone system and other software
implemented routines are described in more detail below with
reference to accompanying FIGS. 9-11.
The present invention alternatively includes a
map display generator accessible from the main supervisor
menu 130 shown in FIG. 5 for allowing a supervisor to
generate a map representation of the office or facility td
show where the agents and their assigned telephone stations
are located.
FIG. 6 shows an example of a map screen or map
view of a graphic representation 140 of the ACD facility.
The map view screen is essentially a bit-map representation
of the ACD facility. The bit-map data is preferably stored
in associated memory during initialization of the supervisor
system. Once the map representation 140 is generated to
provide a substantially accurate depiction of the ACD
facility; for example, an office, the supervisor may then
list the agents at their corresponding telephone station
locations on the map screen by agent name, abbreviation, or
other designation, such as icons or figures, as shown in
FIG. 6. The final map representation 140 having agent
designations is then saved in memory in the applications
processor 50. Changes in personnel or modification of agent
locations may be edited at any time.
The information shown in the group activity
screen of FIG. 2 and the directory view screens of FIGS. 3-4
including the agents' call status information may be
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displayed in respective agents' map area; i.e. a portion of
the map view screen in which each agent is represented by
their name or other designation. "Exception Color Graphics"
may be employed in a map view screen as illustrated in FIG.
7 according to the color codes described above. Thus, using
the map view screen and "Exception Color Graphics", the
supervisor may efficiently monitor the call operations of
the ACD and the agents at the supervisor station.
In another preferred embodiment, the agent
supervising system is alternatively coupled to a locating
system. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 13, the locating system
comprises a plurality of remote transmitting units 60 such
as transmitting badges which are attachable to personnel 61
or objects 63. Each remote transmitting unit 60 is assigned
to each agent and is therefore associated with a
corresponding agent telephone station 40 of each respective
agent, as represented by the dotted line in FIG. 1. As
shown in FIG. 13, each agent telephone station 40 may have
an associated telephone 41. The badges transmit information
including badge identification through a communications
channel to a central receiver of the locating system, which
is preferably the PBX 30. The applications processor 50 may
be a central computer operatively connected to a local area
network (LAN) 51 which in turn may be connected to the agent
telephone stations 40. The communications channel may
include transceivers 70 which receive the badge
transmissions and relay the badge signals. In the preferred
embodiment, the transceivers 70 and remote transmitting
units 60 communicate using infrared (IR) signals. The
transceivers 70 may further communicate with the central
receiver via dedicated wires or cables. Alternatively, the
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individual telephone stations may include a sensor for
receiving the badge transmissions and circuitry for relaying
the badge information to the PBX 30.
The plurality of transceivers 70 or sensors are
disposed spatially apart throughout the ACD facility. Each
transceiver 70 receives signals transmitted by the remote
units such as badges which are within the transceiver's
range of reception. Each transceiver 70 is identifiable by
PBX 30. The remote transmitting units 60 are worn by
facility personnel and may be attached to objects such as
facility equipment which may be mobile, commonly used, but
in short supply; for example, hand held computers. Each of
the remote transmitting units 60 transmits signals including
an individually unique identification at selected intervals.
The signals are received by the most proximal transceiver
and the transceiver in turn communicates the received
information to the PBX 30. The PBX 30 includes in its
memory data identifying each remote transmitting unit 60 in
operation and information regarding the object or person
associated with each remote transmitting unit 60. The PBX
receives messages from each transceiver at selected
intervals. The messages include information last received
by each of the transceivers 70. The PBX 30 processes the
messages received from the transceivers 70 and substantially
25 continually updates the location of each remote transmitting
unit 60 and its associated person or object within the
facility. Location identification information may be
retrieved from the PBX 30 by inquiring by badge
identification, personnel name, and/or receiver
30 identification. The PBX 30 may respond with the most
recently updated information or respond with a history of
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location information from its memory. For example, a report
on who visited a room, when and for how long.
The locating system updates the location
information preferably every one second, and the remote
transmitting units 60 may be set to transmit an
identification signal nearly continuously or at regular
intervals for the locating system to update their locations
in near real time. The identification information is sent
from the transceiver 70 of the locating system to the PBX 30
of the agent supervising system. The applications processor
50, using the stored programs in response to the choices of
the supervisor input at the supervisor station 20,
determines what information to present on the display of the
supervisor station 20.
The PBX 30 couples to the plurality of
transceivers 70 and to a plurality of agent telephone
stations 40 throughout the facility, e.g., telephones and
agent terminals. The system configuration as shown in FIG.
1 facilitates direct communication of the transceivers 70
with the PBX 30. The transceivers 70 may also communicate
with the applications processor 50 through the PBX 30 or
communicate with the PBX 30 through the applications
processor 50. The system as configured allows the
flexibility of processing and transferring the information
received from the-transceivers 70 by the PBX 30 or shared
processing and transferring responsibilities between the
applications processor 50 and the PBX 30. For example, the
PBX 30 may store the information such as the identity and
location of each transceiver 70. When a message is received
by the PBX 30 from a transceiver, the PBX 30 adds the
transceiver identity or location information to the message.
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Another exemplary use of the system is the
location of personnel with the telephones. For example, one
may locate personnel by dialing the ID of personnel on a
telephone at an agent telephone station or anywhere in the
facility. The PBX 30 receives the call from the telephone
and inquires as to the location of personnel by retrieving
the location information of personnel and identifies that
the located personnel are at the location associated with
transceiver 70. The PBX 30 responds to the call with the
location information. The PBX 30 in turn dials the
telephone of the person accessing the personnel location
information, which may be equipped with a display and a
speaker for announcing or displaying the name of personnel.
Additional features are described in more detail in U.S.
Patent No. 5,455,851.
Using the map generating facility accessed
through the main supervisor menu shown in FIG. 5, the
supervisor can modify the generated map in FIG. 6 to
position depictioris of the transceivers 70 on the map screen
as shown in FIG. 7 corresponding to the actual positions of
the transceivers 80. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 7,
each transceiver or sensor may be shown as an "S" in a box,
but any other icon or description may be used to depict the
transceivers 70. Other facility designations such as room
numbers or names are also entered in the map view screen.
The supervisor then separately specifies transceiver
information indicating the position of each transceiver
relative to the locations in the facility; i.e. a specific
transceiver is in a specific room number, room name, or
facility area; e.g. in a hallway near room 303. The.
applications processor 50 stores the transceiver positions
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in memory and correlates the transceiver positions and agent
identification information with the location information
provided by the locating system. The transceiver depictions
and agent representations are positioned on the map screen
to display the general agent location relative to each
transceiver.
When the map view screen is accessed by the
supervisor from the main supervisor menu, the applications
processor 50 uses the regularly updated location information
of each remote transmitting unit to generate representations
of each agent assigned to the corresponding remote
transmitting unit on the map view screen. For example, as
shown in FIG. 7, the agents may be shown by name, where the
location of each agent is indicated by the position of the
agent's name on the map view screen. Alternatively, agent's
initials, distinctive icons, and/or colored icons may be
used to identify each agent and each agent's location.
The agent supervising system 10 of the present
invention may also provide a directory screen as shown in
FIG. 8 showing updated location information of the agents
assigned to each remote transmitting unit 60 using the
regularly updated location information provided by the
locating system. The information concerning an accessed
agent may be highlighted as shown in FIG. 4.
In use, the telephone system of the present
invention operates according to the method shown in FIGS. 9-
11. The present invention includes a method of operation of
the telephone system, with the steps of operation shown in
FIG. 9 including the steps of beginning system operations in
step 200; performing automatic call distribution in step
205; performing locating system subroutines in step 210;
performing supervising subroutines in step 215; collecting
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status information from ACD and location from locating
system in step 220; and responding to supervisor commands in
step 225. The-steps 205-225 are performed concurrently
during overall operation of the present invention. Step 225
further includes the steps of generating map graphics in
step 230; configuring system and agent groups in step 235;
and monitoring system operations in step 240, with each of
steps 230-240 performed upon command from the supervisor
through supervisor station 20 using the main supervisor menu
shown in FIG. 5.
As shown in FIG. 10, step 240 of monitoring
system operations includes the steps of beginning monitor
subroutines in step 300; waiting for a supervisor display
command to be entered in step 305; implementing entered
display commands in step 310; and otherwise updating status
and location information at predetermined intervals in step
315.
As shown in FIG. 11, the implementation of
display commands in step 310 includes the steps of beginning
a display command subroutine in step 330; accessing stored
status and location information in step 335; and waiting for
a display command to be entered in steps 340 and 350. If a
STATUS ONLY command has been entered in step 340 (i.e. a
command showing only agent and call status without location
information), a status screen as shown in FIG. 4 is
displayed in step 345 at the supervisor station 20 with
status information. Otherwise, if a location command has
been entered in step 350, it is either a map screen command
or a directory screen command for displaying agent
locations. if a map screen command was not entered in step
355, the directory screen as shown in the example screen in
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FIG. 8 has been chosen by the supervisor and is displayed in
step 360. Otherwise, a map representation screen as
illustrated in FIG. 7 is displayed using stored map graphics
in step 365.
In response to receiving the map screen command
in steps 350-355 in FIG. il, the supervisor system executes
step 365 to initiate a map view subroutine in the
applications processor 50 to access the stored bit-map data
in the associated memory of the applications processor 50.
The map view is then displayed using bit-map display
techniques known in the art to depict a map representation
of the ACD agent area on the display.
For status update, the map view subroutine sends
a message to the PBX 30 of the supervisor system requesting
location and/or status information for each agent or
personnel member, including designations corresponding to
specific locations in the facility. The PBX 30 also
functions as a server of the supervisor system and responds
to the message by accessing the requested location and/or
20,status information in associated memory in the PBX 30 and
then sends the requested information to the applications
processor 50.
Upon receiving the status information, the map
view subroutine inserts the recejLved status information
relating to each agent at respective areas on the display
corresponding to the agent's respective assigned stations.
Referring again to FIG. 11, for both the map
screen and the directory screen, location information is
displayed at appropriate locations on the selected screen in
step 370. Until an exit command is entered by the
supervisor in step 375, the subroutine receives updated
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status and location information from the PBX 30 at
predetermined time intervals in step 380, and regularly
updates the currently displayed screen in step 385.
For agent location update, the map view
subroutine uses the received location information to display
agent designations or agent icons at areas on the display
corresponding to the location in the facility detected by
the locating system.
The agent location update subroutine may be
implemented by an object oriented technique. The objects of
importance to the map view are: Monitor, MapView,
SensorView, Sensor, Person, Area, and PersonGroup. The
Monitor object is responsible for monitoring MapView
objects, e.g., when a badge appears, disappears or moves. A
Monitor object may have its view of the world restricted by
associating a query string with that Monitor object. The
restrictions may be, for.example, one particular area or
group of areas, one particular agent or group of agents, or
any combination of the previous including multiple
requirements such as agents on another floor and exclusions
such as hiding display of equipment. The Monitor object may
act only to pass the query string to the server. Upon
initialization, a Monitor object sends a message to the
server telling the server that it wants to know when any
occurrences that match the query string occur. The server
may respond to update requests with one of three possible
responses: a valid badge has appeared in a valid location,
a valid badge has left a valid location, or a valid badge
has disappeared from a valid location. These messages are
passed on to the Monitor object's display object.
Preferably, the Monitor object requests an update from the
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server about every one second. If the query changes, the
Monitor object closes the old monitor request to the server
and creates a new one. When the Monitor object is destroyed
the old monitor request to the server is closed.
The MapView object is the display object that
manages the Map View window. It is associated on startup
with an area ID for the map to be displayed and the area to
be monitored. It creates a query string that restricts the
monitor's view of the world to all badges seen within the
area covered by the reception range of the transceivers.
The MapView object collects the information received from
the transceivers and displays the collected information in
accordance with the badges within the area covered by the
transceivers. The MapView object also creates one
SensorView object for each transceiver contained within the
area or sub area and adds to a list of SensorViews. When a
BADGE APPEARED message arzives the MapView object finds the
SensorView object that represents the transceiver which has
last reported the detection of the badge transmissions and
tells the SensorView object to add the badge to its list of
associated badges. When a BADGE MOVE message arrives the
MapView object finds the SensorView object that used to
contain the badge, and tells the SensorView object to remove
the badge from its list of badges. The MapView object then
finds the SensorView object that represents the transceiver
of latest detection of the badge termination and tells the
SensorView object to add the badge to its list of associated
badges. The MapView object also handles the translation
between the size and location of the area viewed and the
size of the bit map used to display it. The same
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translation is also used by the SensorView objects for the
placement of the transceivers on the map.
Each SensorView object represents one transceiver
in the real world system. Each SensorView object contains a
list of badges that are currently located at its associated
transceiver. SensorView objects draw the transceiver icon
on the map and tells the Person object where to draw the
badge icons. The SensorView object also handles the right
mouse button press. On a right mouse button press, one of
three actions can occur: if the button press is not on
either a person or transceiver icon, nothing happens; if the
button press is on a transceiver icon then the SensorView
object builds a pop up menu and displays the associated
transceiver's address and a list of all phones associated
with that transceiver; if the button press is on a badge
icon then'the SensorView object builds a pop up menu and
displays the name of the badge, the time last seen and how
long ago that was. Other associated information includes
the badge's home extension, and a list of all the person
groups that badge belongs to.
The Person object displays the bit map
corresponding to the person type, such as an agents, to
which the badge is assigned. ThP Sensor, Area and
PersonGroup objects provide an interface to the database for
data storage and/or update.
Referring again to FIG. 11, after displaying the
location and/or status information, the applications
processor 50 checks for the input of an exit command in step
375. If no exit command has been entered by the supervisor,
the map view subroutine executes steps 380-385 to update the
displayed map view screen as described above until an exit
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command is entered. According to the preferred embodiment
of the invention, the map view screen is updated nearly
periodically, about every one second by having the map view
subroutine send to the PBX 30 a message requesting updated
location and/or status information for each agent or
personnel member. Upon the PBX 30 sending and the
applications processor 50 receiving the updated location
and/or status information, the map view subroutine again
redisplays the map representation from the map graphic data
and displays the updated status information on the map
representation. As described similarly above, the map view
subroutine may alternatively or additionally display the
agent designations at correspondingly updated locations,
with the updated status information displayed adjacent the
agent designations.
Referring again to FIG. 11, at any display
screen; i.e. the status screen, the map screen, or the
directory screen, entering an exit command causes the
subroutine to exit the display command subroutine in step
390 to return to step 305 in FIG. 10 to update the status
and location information until the supervisor chooses
another display command.
In other alternative embodiments, the location
displaying screens may show current calling status of each
agent by default, or separate commands may be provided for
the supervisor to have specific status information
displayed. For example, the supervisor may enter a command
to have only agents grouped in a specified agent list
displayed on the map representation to show each agentts
location and/or status in near real time. Similarly, agents
from a specified group or split may be selectively
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displayed. In the above example with rookie agents grouped
in a first agent list, the supervisor may thus monitor the
status and location of only the rookie agents by selectively
viewing all agents in the first agent list, allowing the
supervisor to note each rookie agent's activities.
Similarly, the selective viewing of agents by agent list,
group, or split in the map representation may employ the
"Exception Color Graphics" and color alarms as described
above. Similarly, another agent list of agents in a
marketing group may be independently displayed with location
and/or status information. In conjunction with the
independently customized color alarm thresholds, the near
real time monitoring capability of the supervisor using
independently configured agent lists is greatly enhanced.
In an alternative embodiment, the supervisor
system implements predictive abandonment; i.e. call
processing for determining and indicating potential
abandonment of queued inbound calls. Such predictive
abandonment is performed concurrent with other functions of
the supervising system 10, allowing the supervisor to
minimize lost calls.
Each agent in a group is in a direct call
processing work state for the period generally defined as:
TIME AVAILABLE + TALK TIME + WRAPUP TIME
which is the average transaction time in seconds
from when the agent greets a first caller, conducts and
completes the call, and is available to when the agent
greets the next caller.
For example, with ten agents in a group
addressing active (i.e. non-waiting) calls, for an average
transaction time of 200 seconds, each agent of the group
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becomes available for the next call at least once in any 200
second period. The average agent availability per group is
one agent every 200 sec./10 = 20 seconds. Increasing the
number of agents in a group or combining two or more groups
increases the average availability; i.e. reduces the time
between agent availability.
If the average waiting threshold of a group is 60
seconds before abandonment of a caller waiting in a call
queue, then the abandonment is considered predictable; i.e.
one can predict that, on average, at 60 seconds a queued
caller abandons the call.
In the above example, for a group of ten agents,
the logical waiting call queue limit is 60 seconds before
abandonment divided by 20 seconds availability of agents to
address a queued call; i.e. 3 calls per group. That is, an
average of 3 calls may wait in a call queue before
predictable abandonment within 60 seconds. Therefore, the
maximum capacity of the group prior to predictable
abandonment is 13 calls which is 10 calls addressable by the
10 actively available agents plus the call queue limit of 3
calls before predictable abandonment.
In operation, as shown in the block diagram in
FIG. 12, the supervising system begins the predictive
abandonment subroutine in step 400 which may operate
concurrently with other functions of the supervising system
10. As each inbound call is queued, the status of the
queued call is evaluated with respect to the status of the
other queued calls and the NO-RISK capacity of the queue.
In step 405, for each queued call within the NO-RISK
capacity, NO-RISK status is assigned to these queued calls
up to the NO-RISK capacity. In the above example, the first
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13 queued calls are in a NO-RISK state and should be
answered prior to attainment of the abandonment threshold.
Referring again to FIG. 12 and the above example,
when more than 13 calls arrive for service by the group of
10 agents, the calls in excess of the 13 call NO-RISK
capacity are AT-RISK of abandonment and are assigned the AT-
RISK status as in step 410. These excess AT-RISK calls may
be answered if some of the 13 calls are answered and
completed below the 20 second avcrage availability cycle.
After one call becomes AT-RISK, all subsequently queued
calls and any new calls arriving in the queue become AT-
RISK.
The wait time of each queued call is tracked by
the supervisor system 10 in step 415, and the answering of
any AT-RISK call by an agent is detected in step 420. Once
an AT-RISK call in the queue is answered, the status of the
answered call is changed to NO-RISK in step 425 until it is
removed from the call queue, and the status of the remaining
AT-RISK calls is reevaluated in step 440, where some queued
calls may change to NO-RISK. If no AT-RISK call is answered
in step 420, and the wait time of the AT-RISK calls are
detected to be within the average availability cycle, the
status of each call is reevaluated in step 440. However,
after the 20 second average availability cycle has passed,
and the wait times of any AT-RISK call exceeds the
availability cycle in step 430, if a call which is AT-RISK
does not change to NO-RISK status, then the status of such
an AT-RISK call changes to LOSS PENDING in step 435; i.e.
the call is predicted to become abandoned, necessitating
.30 reevaluation of the status of each queued call in step 440.
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The supervising system thus maintains the state
of each queued call as:
NO-RISK which should be answered prior to the
abandonment threshold;
AT-RISK which may become abandoned; and
LOSS PENDING which is predicted to become
abandoned.
After step 440, the supervising system 10 then
displays the number of queued calls in step 445 according to
their call status, and the supervising system 10 continues
to assign call status to newly queued calls in steps 405-410
and update the call status in steps 415-440.
As described above, the supervisor system allows
the supervisor to add agents to groups. Thus, as the number
of inbound calls to one group increases, the supervisor may
reassign inbound agents and/or outbound agents from other
groups to address the queue inbound calls to forestall call
abandonment. Entire groups may also be combined to address
increasing numbers of queued calls to minimize abandonment.
The supervisor system is initially set to have a
default AVERAGE WAIT TO ABANDON of 60 seconds, which the
supervisor may change; for example, to a lower or higher
value to accelerate or retard, respectively, the predictive
abandonment test. For example, the supervisor may increase
the AVERAGE WAIT TO ABANDON setting to allow the supervisor
additional time to reassign agents to the group having an
increasing number of AT-RISK or LOSS PENDING calls.
it is also contemplated that the reassignment of
agents between groups may be performed automatically by the
supervisor system, where outbound agents may be
automatically logged out and redesignated as inbound agents
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as described in commonly assigned U.S. Patent No. 5,815,566.
In addition, as the AVERAGE WAIT TO ABANDON
setting and/or the number of agents in a group using such
predictive abandonment techniques are changed, the
supervisor system may automatically reevaluate the AT-RISK
and LOSS PENDING status of the queued calls to reflect the
impact of such changes to prevent call abandonment.
In the alternative embodiment of the predictive
abandonment facilities, the supervisor system preferably
displays the number of NO-RISK, AT-RISK, and LOSS PENDING
calls for each group displayed on the activity/group dynamic
screen shown in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2, group 1 is
displayed, as indicated by the reverse color display of "1"
on the upper right of the activity/group dynamic screen. As
indicated in FIG. 2, there are 12 agents in group 1 and 5
agents available in other groups. Also, in group 1, 5
agents are busy, no agents are available, and 3 calls are
queued and waiting to be answered.
As shown, for example, in the lower left side
portion of the activity/group dynamic screen, there are six
NO-RISK calls (i.e. the five busy calls plus one queued call
waiting to be answered), one AT-RISK call, and one LOSS
PENDING call. That is, in this example, of the three calls
waiting in the queue, one call is in each of the NO-RISK,
AT-RISK, and LOSS PENDING states.
In a further alternative embodiment shown in step
445 in FIG. 12, the supervisor system 10 implements color
alarms and "Exception Color Graphics", as described above,
to indicate to the supervisor, for example, that there is at
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least one AT-RISK call which has exceeded a predetermined
time threshold waiting in the queue. That is, although the
AT-RISK calls are not predicted to be abandoned (i.e. LOSS
PENDING), the supervisor is alerted to pending predicted
abandonment of at least one AT-RISK call.
For example, if the AVERAGE WAIT TO ABANDON time
for group 1 is 20 seconds, the number of AT-RISK calls may
be set to have its background color of the screen section
turn yellow when at least one AT-RISK call has been waiting
in the queue for 10 seconds, and the background color turns
red after 15 seconds. Thus, when the background color turns
red, the supervisor is alerted that at least one AT-RISK
call is predicted to be abandoned in 5 seconds. As
described in detail above, the color alarm time thresholds
for these predictive abandonment features may have default
setting which are reconfigurable by the supervisor.
Referring again to FIG. 12, additional features
of the supervising system 10 implementing the predictive
abandonment subroutine include the display of the financial
impact of abandoned (i.e. lost) calls on the activity/group
dynamic screen by step 450, as shown, for example, in the
lower left side portion in FIG. 2. For example, in a pizza
takeout franchise selling pizza ?t $ 10 per pie (including
tax and delivery), the one call shown in FIG. 2 having a
LOSS PENDING status is predicted to cost the franchise $ 10.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the revenue of $ 10 is in
danger or at risk of being lost. The total losses of the
franchise by the displayed group may also be displayed, as
shown in FIG. 2. As the status of calls is updated in steps
400-445, the predicted loss is updated and displayed in step
450 of FIG. 12.
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The supervising system may further store in
memory a compilation of the costs per lost call based on
prior statistics from a telemarketing campaign or vendor
franchise and/or estimates or default settings provided by
the supervisor. In the franchise example above, as
determined by historical statistics of sales, a successful
call may sell an average of 1.2 pizza pies, drinks, garlic
bread, and the like, and the average amount of tax and
shipping for a sale may be determined from previous sales.
Therefore, the average cost per lost call may be determined
to be, for example, $ 25, and the current cost of the LOSS
PENDING calls, if lost, would be the number of LOSS PENDING
calls multiplied by the average cost per lost call which is
displayed accordingly. In furthser embodiments, the
supervisor system is capable of generating financial reports
based on the statistics of the activities of each group of
agents.
In further embodiments, audio alarms may be used
in conjunction with or instead of the above described color
alarms; i.e. upon the exceeding of a threshold indicating
predetermine state changes, such as a LNGST time exceeding 3
minutes, a message or warning sound may be transmitted by
the supervisor system over an intercom or a telephone
headset.
It is also contemplated that other audio
facilities may be employed by the supervisor system of the
present invention, such as paging over intercoms, agent
telephone headsets, or the like. For example, a supervisor
alerted by a color alarm of a threshold being exceeded may
initiate a page to an available agent to answer inbound
calls. The supervisor system may maintain, for example, 10
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paging zones and implement the paging facilities as
described in commonly assigned U.S. Patent;No. 5,341,412.
Furthermore, other communication systems such as automated
voice response units (VRU), interactive voice response (IVR)
systems, and automatic attending may also be employed by the
present supervisor system.
While the invention has been particularly shown
and described with reference to the preferred embodiments,
it will be understood by those skilled in the art that
various modifications and changes in form and detail may be
made without' departing from the scope and spirit of the
invention. Accordingly, modifications such as those
suggested above, but not limited thereto, are to be
considered within the scope of the invention.
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