Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ANTICIPATORY DYNAMIC CUSTOMER
SEGMENTATION FOR A CONTACT CENTER
This application is divided from Canadian Patent Application Serial No.
2,960,043
filed on July 30, 2015.
BACKGROUND
[0001]
A customer-centric organization needs to seamlessly integrate its
operations
with its customer intelligence to ensure a complete and actionable 360-degree
view of the
customer. Every interaction is generally treated as an opportunity to improve
the customer
experience through superior service, resulting in higher satisfaction,
loyalty, and retention.
Done correctly, these lead to increased success in both profit-based and non-
profit-based
businesses and services.
[0002]
To this end, it is known in the art to provide a cloud-based, premise-based
or
hybrid (cloud-premise) customer interaction management platform that handles
various types
of inbound and outbound interactions (e.g., traditional voice, voice-over-IP,
email, web
chat/IM, SMS/MMS, video, fax, self-service other work items, etc.) to various
types of
resources (e.g., a contact center agents, a back office, an expert/knowledge
worker, a branch
office, a self-service operation, an outsourced operation, etc.).
Customers may interact
through the platform with different types of individuals (e.g., contact center
agents, knowledge
workers, back-office workers, etc.) and across multiple channels (e.g.,
contact center/IVR,
proactive engagements, web, social media, mobile, etc.).
[0003]
In one embodiment, a customer interaction management platform integrates a
contact center, agent stations, and, optionally, a customer relation
management (CRM) server.
Typically, the contact center, the agent station(s), and the customer relation
management server
are coupled over one or more networks, which may be the Internet, a private
network, or a
telephone network. The customer relation management server may be physically
located
within the contact center and maintained by a third party, or located remote
from the contact
center and still operated thereby. End user interactions that call for
management are routed,
e.g., from the CRM server, for handling by the contact center agents. In one
representative
operating scenario, the contact center implements and maintains an object-
based agent status
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
model that contains such data as agent identification, workflow assignments,
media capability
descriptions, and status elements related to communication and media elements.
The elements
of this agent state model are dynamic and updated in real-time as an agent
proceeds to receive
or initiate interactions and to communicate with the end user using one or
more multimedia
applications.
[0004] Routing of interactions traditionally involves sending control
signaling (as
opposed to the media portion of the interaction itself, which typically does
not get routed) to
one or more agent queues. There may be queues associated with particular types
of
interactions, and there may be dedicated queues associated with skills or
other characteristics of
the agents. Typically, routing logic assigns interactions to agents based on
configured logic,
such as longest-idle agent, least occupied agent, skill level, etc. In an
alternative
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1 scenario, an interaction is routed to an agent queue, where it is picked
up by an available
agent associated therewith and who has the appropriate skill level and
availability to provide
the needed communication with the customer. A hybrid approach may be
implemented
wherein an agent has associated therewith a personal workbin into which
deferrable
interactions (e.g., email or other tasks such as answering.a customer letter,
proactively
contacting a customer, etc.) may be placed; in such a mode, the agent
typically has some
freedom to decide which of his or her tasks to do next. Agents use workbins to
store
interactions that they have started working on and wish to continue working on
at a later
time. Interactions can also be distributed to workbins by a muting server.. A
workbin is like
a queue in that it holds interactions, although a workbin typically is
associated with a
particular agent. A shared group workbin may be used by multiple agents in a
group or
place. Agents can view the contents of the workbin and pull interactions from
it in any order.
Thus, in a scenario in which agents have flexibility in selecting
interactions, typically the
agent can view some details (e.g., statistics such as number of interactions
in queue, or
average wait time, or service level, etc.) about a queue containing all of the
interactions they
are assigned to handle. Processing of interactions in queue usually is
automated, although an
agent may have an opportunity to interact with the identified or viewable
interactions. In the
latter case, and when given a choice (possibly constrained by service level or
other policieS),
an agent may elect to pick. the interactions that are most easy to resolve, or
the contacts with
which he or she is most familiar. Typically, an agent is trained flar certain
activities/tasks,
some of which the agent may be scheduled to handle based, for example, on a
designated
"skill" attribute that may be enabled or disabled at a given point in time.
Further, as a
particular customer interaction proceeds, the customer may be handed off from
one agent to
another, either as dictated by business process workflow, because a first
agent is unable to
address the customer's need, or .for other reasons. Although agent switching
is sometimes
required, it is desirable to avoid or reduce the impact of a context switch,
especially if a given
agent is aware of a prior contact history and can also handle anticipated.
follow-up steps,
[00051 In a traditional interaction, the contact center agent assignment
logic preferably
routes an inbound interaction to what the system determines is a "best" or
target agent. The
agent typically is selected, or defined based on one or more criteria, such as
availability,
occupancy, static customer segment, priority, required skills to handle an
interaction of a
given media type, agent capacity, customer interaction history(e.g., last
agent routing), and
other criteria, such as up- or eross-sell opportunities. agent skills, and the
like.
(0006) While these techniques work well, it is desirable to provide
enhanced contact
center routing strategies.
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SUMMARY
100071 Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system and
method for
case-based routing in a contact center. A processor opens a case in a customer
database. The
ease is associated with a workflow that has steps anticipated to be executed
for the case. The
processor identifies first and second steps of the workflow, and further
identities an agent
with skills for handling the first and second steps. The processor generates a
task for
handling at least the first step of the workflow, and transmits instructions
to route the task to
the identified anent.
[00081 According to one embodiment, the case is a record including a
history of
interactions occurring in the case.
[00091 According to one embodiment, the case is associated with a case
ID, and the
instructions to route the task include the case ID.
100101 According to one embodiment, the processor retrieves a history of
interactions
associated with the case based on the ease ID, and displays the history of
interactions on an
agent device for the identified agent.
[00111 According to one embodiment, the processor generates a second task
for handling
the second step of the workflow, and transmits instructions to route the
second task to the
identified agent.
100121 According to one embodiment, the processor monitors for a trigger
event, where
the generating of the task is based on detecting occurrence of the trigger
event.
[00131 According to one embodiment, the trigger event is lapse of a set
time period
between two workflow steps.
100141 According to one embodiment, the trigger event is a preset date.
100151 According to one embodiment, the processor retrieves
identification of a first
customer segment to which a customer associated with the case belongs. The
.first customer
segment is associated with a first objective of the contact center. The
processor predicts an
outcome of handling the task by the agent according to the first customer
segment. The
processor also identifies a second customer segment based on the predicted
outcome, and re-
associates the customer to the second customer segment. According to one
embodiment, the
second customer segment is associated with a second objective of the contact
center different
from the first objective. The task is then handled according to the second
objective instead of
the first objective.
100161 According to one embodiment, the processor identifies first and
second objectives
of a contact center, where the first objective is identified as more important
to the contact
center than the second objective. The processor determines that the agent has
skills for
achieving the first objective, and determines a likelihood of success of the
first agent in
achieving the first objective. The processor also identifies a second agent
for handling the
second objective, where the second agent also has skills for handling the
first and second
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
steps of the workflow associated with the case. The processor determines a
likelihood of
success of the second agent in achieving the second objective, where the
likelihood of
success in achieving the second objective by the second agent is higher than
the likelihood of
success of achieving the first objective by the agent. The processor transmits
instructions to
route the task to the second agent, and prompts the second agent to pursue the
second
objective.
100.171 These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present
invention will be
more fully understood when considered with respect to the following detailed
description,
appended claims, and accompanying drawings. Of course, the actual scope of the
invention
is defined by the appended claims.
100181 Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system and
method for
enhanced interaction processing in a contact center. in this regard, a
processor detects a
pending interaction with a customer. The processor retrieves, in response to
detecting the
pending interaction, identification of a first customer segment to which the
customer belongs.
The first customer segment is associated with a first objective of the contact
center. The
processor predicts an outcome of the pending interaction, and identifies a
second customer
segment based on the predicted outcome. The processor re-associates the
customer to a
second customer segment, where the second customer segment is associated with
a second
objective of the contact center different from the first business objective.
The processor
handles the pending interaction according to the second objective instead of
the first
objective.
100191 According to one embodiment, the predicting the outcome athe
pending
interaction includes predicting, by the processor, an outcome of a business
opportunity
presented to the customer. The business opportunity may be a cross-sell or up-
sell
opportunity of a product or service.
[00201 According to one embodiment, the processor evaluates a plurality
of factors
associated with the pending interaction, where identification of the second
customer segment
is based on the evaluated factors.
100211 According to one embodiment, the predicted outcbme of the pending
interaction
matches a criteria set for the second customer segment.
[90221 According to one embodiment, the predicted outcome relates to the
second
Objective of the contact center.
(00231 According to one embodiment, the second objective includes a
business
opportunity not included in the first objective.
(0024) According to one embodiment, the pending interaction is for
achieving a step of a
workflow associated with a case, where an agent selected for handling the
pending interaction
is an agent with skills to handle a next step of the workflow.
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1 100251 According to one embodiment, the second customer segment is
also associated
with a third objective, where the second objective is identified as more
important to the
contact center than the third objective. The processor identifies a first
agent for handling the
second objective, and determines a likelihood of success of the first agent in
achieving the
second objective. The processor identifies a second agent for handling the
third objective, and
determines a likelihood of success of the second agent: in achieving the third
objective. In the
event that the likelihood of success in achieving the third objective by the
second agent is
higher than the likelihood of success of achieving the second objective by the
first agent, the
processor transmits instructions to route the pending interaction to the
second agent The
processor also prompts the second agent to pursue the second objective.
100261 These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present
invention will be
more fully understood when considered with respect to the following detailed
description,
appended claims, and accompanying drawings. Of course, the actual scope of the
invention
is defined by the appended claims.
[00271 Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system and
method for
enhanced interaction processing in a contact. center. A processor detects a
pending
interaction with a customer. The processor identifies first and second
objectives Of the
contact center in response to detecting the pending interaction, where the
first objective is
identified as more important to the contact center than the second objective.
The processor
identifies a first agent for handling the first objective, and determines a
likelihood of success
of the first agent in achieving the first objective. The processor identifies
a second agent for
handling the second objective, and determines a likelihood of success of the
second agent in
achieving the second objective. In the event that the likelihood of success in
achieving the
second objective by the second agent is higher than the likelihood of success
of achieving the
first objective by the first agent, the processor transmits instructions to
route the pending:
interaction to the second agent. The processor also prompts the second agent
to pursue the
second objective.
[00281 According to one embodiment, the first objective is associated
with a first
business outcome determined to be more desirable to the contact center than a
second
business outcome associated with the second objective.
[00291 According to one embodiment, the business outcome relates to
profit, revenue, or
sales of the contact center.
100301 According to one embodiment, the business outcome relates to
customer
satisfaction.
100311 According to one embodiment, the likelihood ache first or second
agent in
achieving the first or second objectives is determined based on analysis of
historical
performance of the first or second agents relating to the .first and second
objectives.
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[0032] According to one embodiment, the second objective is associated
with a business
opportunity to be presented to the customer. The business opportunity may be a
cross-sell or
up-sell opportunity of a product or service.
[0033] According to one embodiment, the pending interaction is for
achieving a step of a
workflow associated with a case, and an agent selected for handling the
pending interaction is
an agent with skills to handle a next step of the workflow.
[0034] According to one embodiment, the processor retrieves, in
response to detecting the
pending interaction, identification of a first customer segment to which the
customer belongs,
where the first customer segment is associated with a third objective of the
contact center. The
processor predicts an outcome of the pending interaction and identifies a
second customer
segment based on the predicted outcome. The processor re-associates the
customer to a second
customer segment. According to one embodiment the second customer segment is
associated
with the second objective.
[0034a] Accordingly, there is described a method for case-based routing
in a contact
center, the method comprising: opening, by a processor, a case in a customer
database, wherein
the case is associated with a workflow having steps anticipated to be executed
for the case;
identifying, by the processor, first and second steps of the workflow, where
the second step is
anticipated to be executed subsequent to the first step in the workflow;
identifying, by the
processor, a first agent based on both a skill level of the first agent for
handling the first step
and a skill level of the first agent for handling the second step; generating,
by the processor, a
first task for handling at least the first step of the workflow; transmitting,
by the processor,
instructions to route the first task to the identified first agent;
generating, by the processor, a
second task for handling the second step of the workflow; and in response to
detecting that the
first task is completed, transmitting instructions to route the second task to
the first agent.
10034b1 There is also described a system for routing one or more tasks
associated with a
case, the system comprising: processor; memory, wherein the memory stores
instructions that,
when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: open a case in a
customer database,
wherein the case is associated with a workflow having steps anticipated to be
executed for the
case; identify first and second steps of the workflow, where the second step
is anticipated to be
executed subsequent to the first step in the workflow; identify a first agent
based on both a skill
level of the first agent for handling the first step and a skill level of the
first agent for handling
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the second step; generate a first task for handling at least the first step of
the workflow; transmit
instructions to route the first task to the identified first agent; generate a
second task for
handling the second step of the workflow; and in response to detecting that
the first task is
completed, transmit instructions to route the second task to the first agent.
[0034c] There is also described a system for routing one or more tasks
associated with a
case, the system comprising: processor; memory, wherein the memory stores
instructions that,
when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: open a case associated
with a customer
in a customer relationship management server, wherein the case is associated
with a workflow
having steps anticipated to be executed for the case; identify a first step
and a subsequent
second step of the workflow; concurrently perform analysis of the first and
second steps for
determining agent skill sets for handling each of the first and second steps;
identify, based on
the analysis, an agent with the skills for handling the first and second
steps; generate a first task
for handling the first step of the workflow; transmit instructions to route
the first task to the
identified agent; retrieve case data from the customer relationship management
server; generate
a second task for handling the subsequent second step of the workflow; and
transmit
instructions to route the second task to the identified agent at a later time
than the first task,
wherein the routing of the second task is without invoking logic for making
skill determinations
for identifying a best agent for handling the second task; wherein the
instructions further cause
the processor to: monitor for a trigger event, wherein the generating of the
first or second task
is based on detecting occurrence of the trigger event.
[0035] These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present
invention will be
more fully understood when considered with respect to the following detailed
description,
appended claims, and accompanying drawings. Of course, the actual scope of the
invention is
defined by the appended claims.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0036] For a more complete understanding of the disclosed subject
matter and the
advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken
in conjunction
with the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0037] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a customer interaction management
platform in
which the techniques described herein may be practiced;
[00038] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a contact center system according
to one embodiment
of the invention.
[00039] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a telephony-based computing
infrastructure, such as a
contact center, in which the techniques described herein may be practiced;
[0040] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an alternative SIP-based
environment in which the
customer interaction management platform is used;
[0041] FIG. 5 is a detailed block diagram of a hybrid @remises-cloud)
environment in
which the techniques of this disclosure may be practiced in one embodiment;
[0042] FIG. 6 is detailed block diagram of another hybrid cloud-based
communications
system in which the disclosed techniques may be implemented;
[0043] FIG. 7 is a process flow diagram illustrating a dynamic
customer segmentation
routing scheme according to this disclosure;
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 100441 FIGS. 8A-SB are flow diagrams of a process ter adaptive
business objective
routine according to this disclosure;
[00451 FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a case routing scheme according
to this disclosure;
[00461 FIG. 10 is a process flow illustrating how two or more of the
routing schemes may
be carried out concurrently or sequentially to enhance contact centeragent
assignment logic;
[00471 FIG 1. IA is a block diagram of a computing device according to an
embodiment
of the present invention;
100481 FIG. 118 is a block diagram of a computing device according to an
embodiment.
of the present invention;
[00491 FIG. 11C is a block diagram of a computing device according to an
embodiment
of the present invention;
100501 FIG. 11D is a block diagram of a computing device according to an
embodiment
of the present invention; and
100511 FIG. I IE is a block diagram of a network environment including
several
computing devices according to an embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
100521 In general terms, embodiments of the present invention are
directed to a customer
interaction management platform that uses a set of one or more interaction
routing strategies
to determine which agents should receive and handle particular contacts. The
platform
includes an agent assignment mechanism, which is augmented to implement one or
more of a
set of routing schemes. A first routing scheme proactively adjusts a customer
service level
against which the agent assignment mechanism is executed. A. second routing
scheme
operates during a given interaction using the agent, assignment mechanism to
automatically
adjust. which of a set of business objectives should be addressed by an
available agent. A
third routing scheme provides the agent assignment. mechanism one or more
parameters.
associated with a case to facilitate the assignment These routing strategies
may be carried
out in whole or in part concurrently or sequentially.
100531 The one or more routing strategies may include a "dynamic customer
segmentation" strategy that provides an assessment or a-priori re-assessment
of a customer's
existing customer segmentation (e.g., gold, silver, bronze, etc.) and then
determines, based on
this analysis and an anticipated outcome of processing a given customer
interaction, whether
the customer's customer segment association (for new interactions) should be
promoted or
demoted. If, for example, this-anticipated outcome would promote the customer
to a next
higher segment, then the current interaction may be treated in accordance with
the policies of
this higher-level segment. The promotion or demotion of the customer segment
association
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
may be context-dependent and carried out on a per interaction basis or over
some time period
for multiple interactions.
100541 Another routing strategy implements an "adaptive business
objective" strategy by
which agent assignments are based in part on adjusting a business objective
(BO) during the
agent assignment process instead of relying upon a fixed or static business
objective that is
predefined or configured. In this approach, the business objective is composed
of two
elements: a reason for interaction (as potentially refined through an IVR
dialog), and a set of
business opportunities (e.g., cross-lup-sell ofkrs) that vary based on a known
customer
profile. Given these factors, a set of business objectives are then defined
for the customer.
During the agent selection process, the routing logic seeks to find a best
matching agent for
addressing both elements and begins with a first (best) business objective. If
no such agent
can be found, a next best BO is used, and so on until an appropriate agent is
fband to handle
the interaction according to the (potentially-adjusted) BO. The I30-agent
pairs are then
ranked based on probability of success of the particular agent in handling the
particular BO.
According to one embodiment, an agent with the highest rank is selected and
the interaction
routed to that agent for handling the associated 80.
100551 Yet another routing strategy implements a "case routing" strategy
determined at
least in part on a "case record" associated with an interaction, such as (but
not limited to) a
CRM-sourced interaction. A CAM system or server , or any other customer
database system
(collectively referred to as CRM system), which may a component of the contact
center or
associated therewith, models a customer support interaction (between one of
its customers
and the system) as a "case." A case (or "ticket") has an associated case
record having given
information identifying the case, its type, an anticipated workflow (through a
set of defined or
ordered steps) to potential resolution, anticipated timing, escalation paths,
and the like.
Depending on the CRM system from which the case originates, a case may be
associated with
a particular template depending on the nature of the customer support issue.
in case routing,
a case record associated with a case is used to influence which agent in a set
of agents in a
contact center should be identified to work the case. Without limitation, a
best or target
agent is selected based on one or more factors, such as an identity of a
particular next
interaction or step in the processing of the case (as defined by the case
workflow), one or
more anticipated future interactions for the Riven case (e.g., based on
predefined steps
according to a workflow, and/or dynamic adjustments according to an
anticipated outcome of
a particular step, etc.) and that should preferably be handled by a same
agent, the existence of
one or more previously-performed interactions for the case, including whether
any such
interactions have been re-opened, remaining completion time for the case, and
the like.
100561 According to a feature of this disclosure, the above-described
muting techniques
may be used either alone or together. Thus, in one embodiment, the dynamic
customer
segmentation strategy is implemented in association with the adaptive business
objective
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
strategy or with case routing. In another athodiment, the adaptive business
objective
strategy is implemental in association with case routing. Yefanother
alternative is to
associate (combine) all three of the above-described strategies. These routing
strategies may
be carried out in whole or in part concurrently (synchronously) or
sequentially
(asynchronously).
100571 PIG. 1. illustrates a customer interaction management platform
100 that may be
cloud-based, premises-based, or a hybrid implementation. The platform may be
operated by
a dedicated service provider, but this is not a requirement. In general, the
platform 100
handles all types of interactions, whether inbound or outbound. As
illustrated, these
interactions include, without limitation, voice, e-mail, web, chat/1M, SMS,
video, fax/work
items, and others. Interactions are directed to various resources such as a
call center,
outsourcer, back office, an expert (knowledge worker), a branch office, a self-
service
function, or the like. Preferably, the platform implements a framework. that
comprises a set
of operational layers, such as a configuration layer that provides for
configuration, data
integrity control, access control and runtime notifications, a management
layer that allows a.
customer to monitor the behavior and status of applications executing in the
platform (e.g.,
solution control, alarm processing, troubleshooting and fault management), a
media layer that
provides external interfaces, enables switch-independence for the
applications, and provides
for data distribution, and a services layer that provides status and
statistics.
[00581 FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a system for supporting a
contact center in
providing contact center services according to one exemplary embodiment of the
invention.
The contact center may be an in-house facility to a business or corporation
for serving the
enterprise in performing the functions of sales and service relative to the
products and
services available through the enterprise. In another aspect, the contact
center may be a third-
party service provider. The contact center may be deployed in equipment
dedicated to the
enterprise or third-party service provider, and/or deployed in a remote
computing
environment such as, for example, a private or public cloud environment, with
infrastructure
for supporting multiple contact centers for multiple enterprises. The various
components of
the contact center may also be distributed across various geographic locations
and computing
environments and not necessarily contained in a single location, computing
environment, or
even computing device.
[00591 According to one exemplary embodiment, the contact center
includes resources
(e.g. personnel, computers, and telecommunication equipment) to enable
delivery of services
via telephone or other communication mechanisms. Such services may vary
depending on
the type of contact center, and may range from customer service to help desk,
emergency
response, telemarketing, order taking, and the like.
[0060j Customers, potential customers, or other end users (collectively
referred to as
customers desiring to receive services from the contact center may initiate
inbound calls to
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the contact center via their end user devices 10a-10c (collectively referenced
as 10). Each of
the end user devices 10 may be a communication device conventional in the art,
such as, for
example, a telephone, wireless phone, smart phone, personal computer,
electronic tablet,
and/or the like. Users operating the end user devices 10 may initiate, manage,
and respond to
telephone calls., emails, chats, text messaging, web-browsing sessions, and
other multi-media
transactions.
100611 Inbound and outbound calls from and to the end users devices 10
may traverse a
telephone, cellular, and/or data communication network 14 depending on the
type of device
that is being used. For example, the communications network 14 may include a
private or
public switched telephone network 0>sTN), local area network (LAN), private
wide area
network (WAN), and/or public wide area network such as, for example, the
Internet. The
communications network 14 may also include a wireless carrier network
including a code
division multiple access (CDMA) network, global system for mobile
communications (GSM)
network, and/or any 36 or 46 network conventional in the art.
[00621 According to one exemplary embodiment, the contact center includes a
switch/media gateway 12 coupled to the communications network 14 for receiving
and
transmitting calls between end users and the contact center. The switch/media
gateway 12
may include a telephony switch configured to function as a central switch for
agent level
routing within the center. In this regard, the switch 12 may include an
automatic call
distributor, a private branch exchange (PI3X), an I Phased software switch,
and/or any other
switch configured to receive Internet-sourced calls and/or telephone network-
sourced calls.
According to one exemplary embodiment of the invention, the switch is coupled
to a call
server 18 which may, for example, serve as an adapter or interface between the
switch and
the remainder of the routing, monitoring, and other call-handling components
of the contact
center.
[00631 The contact center may also include a multimedia/social media
server for
engaging in media interactions other than voice interactions with the end user
devices 10
and/or web servers 32. The media interactions may be related, for example, to
email, vmail
(voice mail through email), chat., video, text-messaging, web, social media,
co-browsing, and
the like. The web servers 32 may include, for example, social interaction site
hosts for a
variety of known social interaction sites to which an. end user may subscribe,
such as, for
example, Faceboek, Twitter, and the like. The web servers may also provide web
pages for
the enterprise that is being supported by the contact center. End users may
browse the web
pages and get information about the enterprise's products and services. The
web pages may
also provide a mechanism for contacting the contact. center, via, for example,
web chat, voice
call, email, web teal time communication (WebRTC), or the like.
100641 According to one exemplary embodiment of the invention, the switch
is coupled
to an interactive media response (IMR) server 34, which may also. be referred
to as a self-help
-10-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 system, virtual assistant, or the like. The IMR server 34 may be similar
to an interactive
voice response (IVR) server, except that the IMR. server is not restricted to
voice, but may
cover a variety of media channels including voice. Taking voice as an example,
however, the
[MR server may be configured with an [MR script for querying calling customers
on their
needs. For example, a contact center for a bank may tell callers, via the [MR
script, to "press
1" if they wish to get an account balance. If this is the case, through
continued interaction
with the IlvIR, customers may complete service without. needing to speak with
an agent. The
1MR server 34 may also ask an open ended question such as, for example, "How
can I help
you?" and the customer may speak or otherwise enter a reason lbr contacting
the contact
center. The customer's response may then be used by the routing server 20 to
route the call to
an appropriate contact center resource.
100651 If the call is to be routed to an agent, the call is forwarded to
the call server 18
which interacts with a routing server 20 for finding an appropriate agent for
processing the
call. The call server 18 may be configured to process psm calls, VolP calls,
and the like.
For example, the call server I-8 may include a session initiation protocol
(SIP) server for
processing SIP calls. According to some exemplary embodiments, the call server
18 may, for
example, extract data about the customer interaction such as the caller's
telephone number,
often known as the automatic number identification (AN 1) number, or the
customer's internet
protocol (lip) address, or email address.
[00661 In some embodiments, the routing server 20 may query a customer
database,
which stores inforination about existing clients, such as contact:
information, service level
agreement (S LA) requirements, nature of previous customer contacts and
actions taken by
contact center to resolve any customer issues, and the like. The database may
be managed by
any database management system conventional in the art, such as Oracle, IBM
DB2,
Microsoft SQL server, Microsoft Access, PostgreSQL., MySQI., FoxPro, and
SQLite, and
may be stored in a mass storage device 30. The routing server 20 may query the
customer
information from the customer database via an ANI or any other information
collected by the
IMR 34 and forwarded to the routing server by the call server 18.
100671 Once an appropriate agent is available to handle a. call, a
connection is made
between the caller and the agent device 38a-38c (collectively referenced as
38) of the
identified agent. Collected information about the caller and/or the caller's
historical
information may also be provided to the agent device for aiding the agent in
better servicing
the call. In this regard, each agent device 38 may include a telephone adapted
for regular
telephone calls, Von) calls, and the like. The agent device 38 may also
include a computer
for communicating with one or more servers of the contact center and
performing data
processing associated with contact center operations, and for interfacing with
customers via
voice and other multimedia communication mechanisms.
-1 I -
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
100681 The selection of an appropriate agent for routing an inbound call
may be based,
for example, on a muting strategy employed by the routing server 20, and
further based on
infOrmation about agent availability, skills, and other routing parameters
provided, for
example, hya statistics server 22.
[00691 The contact. center may also include a reporting server 28
configured to generate
reports from data aggregated by the statistics server 22. Such reports may
include near real-
time reports or historical reports concerning the state of resources, such as,
for example,
average waiting time, abandonment rate, agent occupancy, and the like. The
reports may be
generated automatically or in response to specific requests from a requestor
(e.g.
agent/administrator, contact center application, and/or the like).
[00701 According to one exemplary embodiment of the invention, the
routing server 20 is
enhanced with functionality for managing back-officefoffline activities that
are assigned to
the agents. Such activities may include, for example, responding to emails,
responding to
letters, attending training seminars, or any other activity that does not
entail real time
communication with a customer. Once assigned to an agent, an activity an
activity may be
pushed to the agent, or may appear in the agent's workbin 26a-26c
(collectively referenced as
26) as a task to be completed by the agent. The agent's workbin may be
implemented via any
data structure conventional in the art, such as, for example., a linked list,
array, and/or the like.
The workbin may be maintained, for example, in butler memory of each agent
device 38.
[00711 According to one exemplary embodiment of the invention, the mass
storage
device(s) 30 may store one or more databases relating to agent data (e.g.
agent profiles,
schedules, etc.), customer data (e.g. customerprofiles), interaction data
(e.g. details of each
interaction with a customer, including reason for the interaction, disposition
data, time on
hold, handle time, etc:), and the like, According to one embodiment, some of
the data (e.g.
customer profile data) may be provided by a third party database such as, for
example, a third
party customer relations management (CRM) database. The mass storage device
may take
form of a hard disk or disk array as is conventional in the art.
[00721 The various servers of Fla 1 may each include one or more
processors executing
computer program instructions and interacting with other system components for
performing
the various functionalities described herein. The computer program
instructions are stored in
a memory implemented using a standard memory device, such as, for example, a
random
access memory (RAM). The computer program instructions may also be stored in
other non-
transitory computer readable media such as, for example, a CD-ROM, .flash
drive, or the like.
Also, although the functionality of each of the servers is described as being
provided by the
particular server, a person of Skill in the art. Should recognize that the
functionality of various
servers may be combined or integrated into a single server, or the
functionality of a particular
server may be distributed across one or more other servers without &patting
from the scope
of the embodiments of the present invention.
-12-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
100731 in the various embodiments, the term interaction is used generally
to refer to any
real-time and non-real time interaction that uses any communication, channel
including,
without limitation telephony calls (PSTN or VOW calls), emails, vmails (voice
mail through
email), video, chat, screen-sharing, text messages, social media messages, web
real-time
communication (e.g. WebRIC calls), and the like.
100741 PIG. 3 illustrates a traditional customer interaction management
platform 250 that
interoperates with telephony infrastructure, such as PSTN 252, according to
another
embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the platform 250 comprises
switch 254.
1VR 256, a telephony server 258, and a set of agent desktops 260.
[00751 FIG. 4 illustrates a Voice-over-IP embodiment wherein the customer
interaction
management platform 300 interopemtes with the PSTN 302 and a VolP gateway 304,
and
comprises SIP server 306, IVR 308, and 1P-based hard phones 309, or 1P-based
son phones
310, according to one embodiment of the invention..
100761 Although not shown, typically the customer interaction management
platform
includes nafive support for all types of standard media, such as voice
(TDM/VolP), email,
chat, co-browse, web forms, and others.
100771 FIG. 5 illustrates hybrid on-premises and cloud-based
implementation of the
customer interaction management platform. In this embodiment, there are three
(3) premises
locations 402, 404 and 406, and each of these locations is associated with a
control server 408
to which agents associated with the platform can connect Customers interlace
to the
platform via a network switch 410. A control server 408 is associated with the
network
switch and interfaces to a global router 414 that executes a routing strategy
for interaction
routing. A database server 416 provides an interface to one or more databases
418. An
interactive voice response (IVR) unit 412 is associated with the network
switch 410, and IVR
may be controlled by its own control server 415. A central network routing
element
typically is located within router 414, which may then instruct the network
switch (via server
408) to send the call to IVR; once the IVR has finished the call, it could
either be terminated
or transferred to an agent. However, it is also possible that the call is sent
to the IVR
unconditionally, in which case the IVR control server 415 decides whether to
terminate it or
transfer to an agent. The former scenario is sometimes referred to as IVR-
behind switch,
while the latter is referred to as IVR-in-front. Each control server 408
typically provides
various control functions such as agent telephony state propagation, call
control and
monitoring, call model unification, inter-site session negotiation (e.g., call
transfers,
conferences, etc.) and provides for a common message bus for other
applications. The
routing engine in the global router 414 provides strategy-driven interaction
flow control,
which are referred to herein as routine strategies. Each premise may have
associated
therewith a "state" server 420 that provides the platform global agent
state/capacity data, and
real-time metrics calculations. A configuration server 424 provides dynamic
configuration
-13-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 management. A management layer 426 provides for application monitoring
and control,
centralized logging, alarms, and the like. Although this figure illustrates
direct network level
routing to agents, this is not a requirement: as there may he multi-step
routing (e.g., from
network to site, and at the site level to agents through a site level muter).
[00781 FIG. 6 is a more detailed architectural overview of a communications
environment
in which the techniques of this disclosure may be practiced. In this
embodiment, a system is
provided that integrates a contact center, an agent station, and a customer
relation
management (CRM) server. This is just a representative environment and should
not be
taken as limiting. In this embodiment, communications environment 200 includes
a public-
switched-telephone-network (PSTN) 202, an Internet network 20.7, and a
communications or
contact center 210. PSTN network 202 may be another type or configuration of'
telephone
network. For example, network 202 may be a wireless network or a combination
of wireless
and wired networks. Likewise, network .202 may be a private or public
telephone network.
If the network is the public PSTN network, it may include a switch 203 which
may function
as a service control point (Sri'). If the network is a private network, it may
include a local
telephone switch (LSW) 203 for receiving and routing telephone calls in the
network. The
LSW 203 may be an automated call distributor (Ad)), a private branch exchange
(PBX) or
some other call switching hardware, which may also function as a service
control point
(SCP). In this example, LSW 203 has connection to communication center 210 by
way of a
telephony trunk 205. Also, in this example. I.SW 203 is enhanced with a
computer-
telephony-integration (CT1) processor 204 running an instance of a telephony
server (T-S).
Processor 204 provides intelligent telephony and interaction capabilities to
LSW 203.
Examples include intelligent peripherals live interactive voice response
systems, and other
like capabilities. The instance of the telephony server TS running on
processor 204 provides
an array of intelligent routing services, which may be integrated with CT1 and
intelligent
peripheral functions.
[00791 Communication center 210 has a switch (CSW) 211 (such as a PBX or
ACD)
provided therein and adapted to receive incoming telephone calls from MTh 202
for the
purpose of internal routing to communication center personnel and automated
help or Service
systems. CSW 211 is, of course, also adapted for outbound calling. CSW 211 may
be a PBX
or other type of telephone switch as mentioned above with reference to LSW
203. CSW 211
is connected to LSW by telephone trunk 205. CSW 211, like LSW 203, is also
connected to a
CTI processor 215 running an instance of the -rs server.
100801 Processor 215 preferably uses a separate data network 206 for
communicating
with processor 204. In this way, intelligent routing routines may be created
and implemented
at the PSTN level thereby enabling performance of internal call routing at the
network level.
Data solicited from a caller may be transferred into center 210 ahead of the
actual telephone
-14-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
call with the use of network 206 and the connected cri processors and TS
instances. Agent
level routing may then be performed at network level and may be controlled by
center 210.
[00811 Center 210 preferably has a local-area-network (LAN) 218 provided
therein and
utilized to connect multiple workstations and systems together for
communication. In this
example, an agent workstation 522 and an agent workstation 523 are
illustrated. having LAN
connectivity. Workstation 522 contains typical agent equipment for
communication. not
limiting to a personal LAN-connected computer 227 with a video display unit
(VDU) such as
a. computer monitor and an agent. telephone 226. Telephone 226 has
connectivity to CSW
211 via internal telephone wiring 217. Workstation 523 is adapted fur
communication in a
like, but not necessarily identical, manner as is station 522 by way of a LAN-
connected
computer 225 and by way of an agent telephone 224. Additional communication
equipment
types may be represented within stations 523 and 522; these include, without
limitation, fax
machines, automated answer systems, other processing terminals, and other such
network-
capable equipment types. An agent may be a home agent (a person that works
from his or
her home) and connects to the contact center, e.g,., via voice-over-1P
connecfions. In one
embodiment, telephones 224 and 226 may be data phones connected to respective
computer
hosts as terminal machines. There are many configuration possibilities as well
as equipment
variances possible.
100821 CTI processor 215 preferably has a LAN connection to enable
supervisors with
administrative authority to modify or create new routing routines and so on.
The function of
T-S within processors 215 and 204 depends on accessibility to a telephony
server library (T-
Server Library) 220, which in this example, is connected to LAN 218. Library
550
preferably contains all of the objects, descriptors, and constructs to enable
integrated
CTIanmsaction Intelligent call processing. 'Typically, the library is an
embedded part of a
server that uses the library for communication with other network. elements.
[00831 Without limitation, Internet network 207 is part of communications
environment
200. Internet 207 may be another type of wide-area-network (WAN). For example,
network
207 may be a corporate or private WAN or metro-area-network (MAN). Internet
network
207 has a network backbone 209 extending there through that represents all or
some of the
equipment, lines and access points that make up an Internet network as a
whole, including
any connected sub-networks. As noted above, no geographic or logical
limitations are
intended.
100841 A customer relations management (CRM) server 208 is provided or
otherwise
illustrated within Internet network 207 and is adapted to manage customer
relations relative
to one or more customer bases related to one or more enterprises such as one
hosting
communication center 210 for example. CRM system or service 208 may be
provided by a
third party enterprise. A third-party CRM solution may be implemented from the
base of a
third-party enterprise that may include third party customer management
services. Likewise,
-15-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 CRM server 208 may be part of customer premise equipment (CPE) solution,
whereby the
entire or certain portions of a customer base are related to the host
enterprise and serviced
internally at a specific communication center, such as center 210. In the
latter case, CRM
server 208 may be hosted within the physical domain of center 210 and
connected to LAN
218. In still another embodiment, CRM system 208 may be adapted to service a
customer
base related to a plurality of regionally distributed contact or communication
centers of a
same enterprise. in this case, a separate but centralized facility may be
provided within the
domain of Internet 207 whereby those customers of multiple centers may be
managed
according to the policies and rules established at each center.
[008,51 in this example, center 210 is a multimedia-capable communication
center with
Internet connectivity for contact and interaction with customers and business
entities. An
Internet protocol muter (1PR) 221 is provided within center 210 and has
connection to LAN
218. IPR 221 is adapted to receive multimedia and communication events from
Internet 207
and to route such events to agent stations like stations 222 or 223 over LAN
218. Multimedia
events may include email events, Web form interactions, voice over IP
interactions, Web
messaging interactions, multimedia-capable, or text chat sessions, video mail
interactions,
network conferencing sessions, and IP telephony sessions. Therefore, organized
channels
(media channels) and routing systems may be in place for handling these types
of network
interactions or events. In another embodiment, the CRM system does not
directly address
agents (endpoints), but instead connects to a service provider's media
services (e.g.,
Genesys T-Serverm for voice, Clenesystt Interaction ServerTM for multimedia)
through a
CRM adapter. Likewise, one or more Internet servers (not illustrated) may be
provided to
host. certain network interaction like chat or Web-meetings. Such server may
be assumed
present in this example and provided within the domain of Internet 2.07, which
includes that
of LAN 218 when connected online.
[00861 Among other services, CRM system 208 may be adapted to provide
automated
self-help services, Web-form services, email services, automated fax services,
and other
multimedia services. Likewise, back-end data from a CRM system may include
history
information; statistical information; further contact information; and links
to other resources.
100871 In this embodiment, a CC/CRM adaptor system 214 is provided within
communication center 210 and is adapted to integrate CRM capabilities with
agent and call-
control/management capabilities at the level of an agent workstation or
desktop. CC/CRM
system adaptor 214 is adapted to provide integration between CRM system 208
and CT1-T-S
capability (processor 2.15) using one or more dynamic agent state models 213.
As noted
above, the models 213 represent a collection of agent models representing
individual agents
and. agent capabilities and work task assignments of those agents assigned to
the domain of
system 214, or in this case, agents that are available through contacting
communication
center 210.
-16-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 100881 Within system 214, miserably contact-center function and
management is
abstracted as well as CRM service function and management so that they may be
simultaneously managed and monitored in a convenient agent user interface with
graphic
display capability at the agent level. CAM adaptor system 214 has a parent
application (not
illustrated) that communicates with client applications distributed to agent
stations. An
instance of interaction control/agent control (IC/AC) and CRM client interface
228a is
provided within the domain of agent workstation 223 and is executable, e.g.,
as a software
instance from the desktop of computer 223. A similar instance of IC/AC/CRM
228b is
provided within the domain of station 223 and is executable, e.g., as a
software instance from
computer 557.
[00891 By executing and running instance 1C/AC/CRM instance 228a, an
agent operating
at station 223 can receive voice and media events and at the same time provide
CRM services
to callers or interaction participants in a way that follows the agent status
model of that
particular agent. The agent status model tbr station 223 defines the agent,
and preferably all
(or at least some of the communication capabilities of the agent including all
of the CRM
services available to customers of the agent and to the agent related to those
customers. In
addition, the model for an agent preferably includes dynamic call and session
management
including current agent state and presence over a plurality of media channels
including live
voice channels. Client instance 228a effectively bridges CRM and (TI-related
services
particular to agent model, customer definition, and event purpose using both
manual and, in
some cases automation to select or provide services and data needed to enhance
the
transactional experience for both the agent and caller.
100901 An agent operating, for example, at station 223 may receive
telephone voice call
events from PSTN 202 by way of routing through CSW 211 and internal telephone
wiring
217. The presence of these calls in the system is noted and recorded at CTIIT-
S processor
21$, which has connection to CCICRM adaptor 214 over the LAN. In one
embodiment, a
direct data link (bridge) may be provided between CTI1T-S processor 215 and
adaptor 214.
CC/CRM adaptor 214 prompts CRM system 208 when a communication event relevant
to
agent station 223 is being routed.
100911 During routing, the telephone call is routed to agent telephone 224
while data
about the call is routed over LAN 218 to computer 225 and is displayed, often
ahead of
pickup of the telephone call. The earlier prompt or request made to CRM 208 by
CTIIT-S
processor 215 maybe an initial machine-to-machine request using hypertext
transfer
protocolisimple object access protocol (111TPISOAP) asking CAM 208 to be ready
to send
data about the caller to agent desktop 225 using HT11) protocols, in this case
via a network-
access path defined by access line 216 and LAN 218 and IPR 221, which mutes
the
connection. CRM 108 may be in a state of monitor, or always connected to the
main system
wherein connections to agent desktops are automatic.
-17-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
100921 In a typical operating scenario, CRM 208 stands ready and waits
for a request
from the agent operating station 223. In this scenario, data about the call
and caller may
arrive at computer 225 before the call is picked up at telephone 224. The
agent may then use
ICIACICRM instance to send a request for specific services and/or data to be
available at the
desktop when the agent picks up the call. CFI telephonycall transfer services
and multi-party
connecting may be leveraged, for example, as examples of CRM service solutions
provided
by CRM server 208. CRM server 208 may be prompted to deliver a solution
implemented at
CSW 211, like a multiparty-bridged connection or meeting wherein the agent
initiates the
connection and then drops out to take a next call.
[00931 in another embodiment, data network telephony (DNT) callers may
contact center
210 using soft phones (lP-based) or Internet-capable cellular telephones,
smartphones,
tablets, or other such devices. In. these scenarios, there may be more media
channels available
to the interaction like messaging, chat, email, and so on. En a pure DNI
Sense, IPR 221 may
notify CC1CRM adaptor of an event for station 223 such as a videmonference
using a host
server (not illustrated). CRM also may set up the initial space and format for
the conference
for the agent and the agent may add specific contacts provided by CRM server
208, which
may be visible in an interactive list on the agent's desktop interface. An
agent may interact,
and may bring in new media Channels and capability to the instant interactions
dynamically.
100941 Preferably, the agent status models 213 are updated. during
activity periods and are
rendered in a state of inactive or non-accessibility when the associated agent
is not available
for communication. When an agent comes online, his or her agent status model
is activated
and he is then ready for interaction. CC/CR.M. adaptor 1.14 and the agent
instance of
IClACICR.M 228a, for example, are both charged with reporting state data to
appropriate
destinations.
100951 Agent stations 223 and 223 are not required to be located within a
contact center.
As illustrated, a remote agent may use his or her own telephone line and an
Internet or
prevailing WAN or MAN connection as long as his or her telephone calls are
routed from
CSW 211. A roaming agent 229 is illustrated in this example with a wireless
connection to
230 LAN 218. Agent 229 may also practice the invention using his or her
wireless access
connection to LAN 218 and a cellular telephone. Again, preferably all
telephone calls are
routed through CSW 211 or a similar CT1-enhanced switch.
[00961 Adaptor 214 may be a soft adaptor running in CTIft-S processor
215, or in [PR
221, or in some other connected host Moreover, CRM system 208 may be provided
as a
third-party service or a CPE implement.
100971 Typically, the contact center includes an agent interaction layer
adapted to provide
abstraction of communication center data and en data about any particular
agent. The
abstracted data is used to provide and to update agent status that is
represented within
CC/CRM adapter 214 in the form of an object model.
-18-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 100981 One or more functions of a technology platform such as
described above may be
implemented in a "cloud-based" architecture. Cloud computing is a model of
service
delivery for enabling on-demand network access to a shared pool of
configurable computing
resources (e.g. networks, network bandwidth, servers, processing, memory,
storage,
applications, virtual machines, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned
and released with
minimal management effort or interaction with a provider of the service.
Available services
models that may be leveraged in whole or in part include: Software as a
Service (SaaS) (the
provider's applications running on cloud infrastructure); Platform as a
service (PaaS) (the
customer deploys applications that may be created using provider tools onto
the cloud
infrastructure); Infrastructure as a Service (laaS) (customer provisions its
own processing,
storage, networks and other computing resources and can deploy and run
operating systems
and applications). A cloud-based platform may comprise co-located hardware and
software
resources, or resources that are physically, logically, virtually and/or
geographically distinct.
Communication networks used to communicate to and from the platform services
may be
packet-based, non-packet based, and secure or non-secure, or some combination
thereof.
[00991 More generally, the techniques described herein are provided using
a set of one or
more computing-related entities (systems, machines, processes, programs,
libraries,
functions, or the like) that together facilitate or provide the described
ftmetionality described
above. In a typical implementation, a representative machine on which the
software executes
comprises commodity hardware, an operating system, an application runtime
environment,
and a set of applications or processes and associated data, networking
technologies, etc., that
together provide the functionality of a given system or subsystem. As
described, the
functionality may be implemented in a standalone machine, or across a
distributed set of
machines.
1001001 As noted above, the front-end of the above-described infrastructure is
also
representative of a conventional web site (e,g., a set of one or more pages
formatted
according to a markup language).
[0010.1.1 Client devices access service provider infrastructure as described
to retrieve
content, including HTML, media players, video content, and other objects. A
typical client
device is a personal computer, laptop, mobile device, tablet, or the like. A
representative
mobile device is an Apple i.Padt;'µ or iPad5, iPad Mini, an Androidrm-based
sinartphorie or
tablet, a Windows-bused smartphone or tablet, or the like. A device of this
type typically
comprises a CPU (central processing unit), such as any Intel- or AM1)- (or
other) based chip,
computer memory 304, such as RAM, and a flash drive. The device software
includes an
operating system (e.g.. Apple i0S, GooglesV AndroidTM, or the like), and
generic support
applications and utilities. The device may also include a graphics processing
unit (GPII),
and a touch-sensing device or interface configured to receive input from a
user's touch. The
touch-sensing device typically is a touch screen. The mobile device comprises
suitable
-19-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
programming to facilitate gesture-based control, in a. manner that is known in
the art. The
client is not limited to a mobile device, as it may be a conventional desktop,
laptop or other
Internet-accessible machine running a web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer,
FireFox, Safari,
Chronic or the like. Content retrieved to the client may be rendered in a
browser, within a
mobile app, or other rendering engine.
Enhanced Routing Techniques
1001021 In the context of a content center (or, more generally, a customer
interaction
management platform), routing refers generally to the process of sending an
interaction to a
target. A routing "strategy" instructs how to handle and where to direct
interactions under
different circumstances. In addition to selecting the target, the notion of
routing may also
include determining interaction characteristics such as type (voice, email,
chat, etc.), priority,
customer segment, service type, target KA, etc.). Routing strategies may be
created in a
development environment, using a tool such as Genesys* Interaction Routing
Designer
(IR.D), where users can. test, modify, and load routing strategies. Geriesys
Universal Routing
Server (URS) is a server that executes routing strategies so developed and, in
particular, using
routing strategy instructions. The techniques below may be implemented in or
in association
with contact center agent assignment logic. More generally, the contact center
agent
assignment mechanism may implement one or more various agent mechanisms
including.
without limitation, skills-based routing, business priority-based routing,
share agent by
service level-based routing, cost-based routing, and other known mechanisms.
The contact
center agent assignment mechanism may then be augmented to include one or more
of the
enhanced routing techniques that are described in this disclosure. A
representative but, non-
limiting platform that implements such agent assignment functions is
Grenesysµg,
Orchestration Server (ORS). This server provides session-based routing and
integrates this
and other back-end contact center functions with other contact center systems,
servers,
programs and processes.
[001031 Any of the herein-described functions may be implemented within an
enterprise.
environment, within a cloud-based environment, or within a hybrid (a
combination of cloud
and enterprise) environment
1001041 The following sections describe the various routing (contact-to-agent
assignment)
methods or strategies that may be implemented to provide enhanced agent
assignments (or,
more generally, to augment such existing agent assignment mechanisms)
according to this
disclosure. As noted above, these routing methods are sometimes referred to
herein as
"dynamic customer segmentation," "adaptive business objective routing," and.
"case routing."
This nomenclature is provided for descriptive purposes only and should not be
deemed
limiting. As one of ordinary skill will appreciate, two or more of the above-
described
routing techniques may be used with one another. Thus, in one embodiment, the
dynamic
customer segmentation strategy is implemented in association with the adaptive
business
-20-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 objective strategy or with case routing. In another embodiment, the
adaptive business
objective strategy is implemented in association with case routing. Yet
another embodiment
is to associate (combine) all three of the above-described strategies. The
routing strategies
may be carried out in whole or in part, or concurrently or sequentially. More
generally, two
or more of these routing strategies may be implemented asynchronously with
respect to one
another, or synchronously with respect to one another. These may be configured
or specified
using a development/Configuration tool such as described above.
Anticipatm Dynamic Customer aegmentation Routing
[001051 As is known, when a customer seeks to get in touch with a contact
center,
typically the contact center applies policies in accordance with a current
customer segment
(or association), such as Gold, Silver, Bronze, or the like (regardless of the
manner in which
the segments may be designated). According to one embodiment, the customer
segment
reflects the value" of the customer to the company, where a higher ranking
typically implies
a preferred/enhanced level of care or service (a "service lever). In this
regard, the customer
segment identification may be deemed to be identification of a service level
desired to be
provided to customers belonging to the customer segment. For example, a Silver
customer's
call might be connected to an 1VR system while a Gold customer's call might_
be directly
connected to a live agent. Also, different business objectives may be
identified for an
interaction with a customer depending on the customer segment identification.
Such business
objectives may relate to customer satisfaction and/or business outcome. For
example, the
business objective for a silver customer may be to achieve a certain -IsIPS
score, and/or closing
a deal on a particular business opportunity offered to silver customers, The
business
objective for a gold customer may be to achieve an even higher NPS score,
and/or Closing a
deal on a business opportunity offered to gold customers.
1001061 Current customer segmentation in a contact center such as described
above is
relatively static, and it generally takes into account present and potential
future customer
value for the company. In existing systems, the customer's segment
association, if it is
evaluated at all, is generally reviewed (and potentially adjusted) after-the-
fact; in particular,
in accordance with the outcome of a given (past) interaction. According to
such existing
systems, any new segment association then becomes etTective for a future
interaction.
[001071 According to a dynamic customer segmentation scheme according to
embodiments of the present invention, a customer's service level is
potentially adjusted pro-
actively, such as, for example, in advance of a particular new interaction (or
set of new
interactions), or in real-time during an interaction itself. According to one
embodiment, a
dynamic customer segmentation process is invoked in response to detecting a
current
interaction with the customer. The interaction may be an atomic interaction or
an interaction
related to a particular case. One or more static and/or dynamic factors may be
taken into
account in proactively adjusting the customer's service level. For example,
one or more of
-21-
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the static andior dynamic factors may be taken into account to advance
(promote) a customer
from a current segmentation status (e.g. as stored in a customer record), to
some higher (e.g.,
a next higher) segmentation status.
[001041 According to one embodiment, an anticipated outcome of a pending
interaction
may predicted based on, for example, one or more dynamic factors, to advance,
or not, the
associated customer segment, at the beginning of interaction processing.. For
example, an a-
priori determination is made as to whether treating, for example, a silver
customer as, for
example, a gold customer, may very likely lead to an outcome (e,g. acceptance
of an offer
associated with a business opportunity), which would actually match the
criteria for the
customer's gold classification. If the chance of success is above a particular
threshold value,
a silver customer may be treated as a gold customer and, according to a
business objective set
for gold customers, be presented with a business opportunity that, in some
instances, would
otherwise not have been presented to him/her as a silver customer.
1001091 Static factors that may considered in reassessing customer segment may
include,
for example, one or more of: changes in a customer's profile, changes in a
customer's set of
the business, changes in criteria applied by the business, a person's
anticipated actual
influence (for social media interactions) based on the person's prior
interactions with the
contact center or web monitoring history, etc., and others. For example, a
customer with a
potential to have a high influence in his or her social media network may be
promoted in his
customer segment.
[001101 With respect to changes in the customer's profile, the customer may
have moved,
for example, to a more prestigious geographic location, may have recently
bought a home,
may have changed his/her marital status, and/or may have changed his
job/salary, all of
which may be considered as factors in moving the customer up or down in
customer segment.
1001111 With respect to changes a customer's set of the business, the
enterprise may
change the list of criteria/attributes within the customer model that are used
to assess
customer segment. For example, the enterprise may add or remove a "klout
score" (social
media popularity/influence) as a factor to be considered, and/or remove a
factor such as
"owns TV" because such factors are no longer differentiators for giving
different treatments.
1001121 With respect to changes in criteria applied, by die business in
determining
customer segment, the enterprise may have a new criteria/rule for different
customer
segments (gold, silver, and bronze), based on regulations (e.g. Basel 3 for
banking), or re-
assessment of previous criteria (e.g. a previously bad/high-risk living
location may gradually
become good), or new statistical findings (e.g. different correlation between
sex/age and car
driving safety).
1001131 Exemplary dynamic factors that may he considered for reassessing
customer
segment may include, without limitation, new business offering's) that might
be of interest
for the given customer, cross-/up-sell opponunities during a given interaction
(which may
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
depend on interaction/media channel), the availability of (e.g., highly)
skilled agent for the
cross-Alp-sell offer being at the same time a good match for the given
customer, and other
side-effects of a given interaction, such as visibility to a social media
community or the like.
With respect to new business offerings, particular services or products with
associated criteria
for gold/silver/bronze customers may be identified, during the current
interaction, as being of
interest to the particular customer. For example, the customer may expressly
indicate interest
in the service or product. The customer may be reassigned to a customer
segment based on
the identification of such product and/or associated criteria. The re-
assignment may be, for
example, a general re-assignment, or on a per (sub-) set of offering.
[001141 With respect to cross-/up-sell opportunities, a conversation between
an agent and
customer may go well, and could open an unexpected opportunity for a promising
cross-/up-
sell, but only if the customer were treated as belonging to a higher segment
(e.g. silver
customer treated as gold). In this instance, the customer may dynamically be
reassigned to
the higher customer segment.
[001151 With respect to availability of (e.g. highly) skilled agents for a
cross-/up-sell,
those agents may be re-served for treating calls from gold customers. A
particular one of the
reserved agents may be deemed to be a good fit for handling a current
interaction with a
particular silver customer. In such case, the silver customer may be treated
as a gold
customer, and the pending interaction for that customer may be routed to the
reserved agent.
1.001161 According to one embodiment, a new interaction with the customer may
trigger
the re-assessment of the customer segment based on one or more of the above-
described
static and/or dynamic factors, prior to determining how the new interaction
should be
handled. While typically a main use case for dynamic customer segmentation is
"promotion"
¨ by which the customer is promoted to a next higher customer segment, one of
more of these
triggers (typically dynamic reasons) may be reasons for demoting a customer to
some lower
(e.g., a next lower) segmentation status than what is stored for the customer
in his or her
customer record. Dynamic reasons for demotion may include, for example,
knowledge that
the agents that are currently available to serve the customer are not a good
fit given the
current customer segment, a high interaction rate with a customer who is
poised to pass the
given customer in ranking, unavailability of a best fit media channel for a
given customer,
and/or others.
I00117I in one embodiment, one result of a demotion in customer segment may be
that a
business opportunity associated with the higher customer segment; is bypassed.
Thus, Wan
agent who is not a good fit for the current customer segment handles the
interaction with the
customer, demoting the customer to a lower customer segment prior to such
agent handling
the interaction may prevent the agent from presenting a business opportunity,
which, if
presented by the particular agent, would likely have not resulted in success.
-23-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1001181 According to one embodiment, for an incoming interaction, the routing
strategy
starts with the a-priori re-assessment of the customer segmentation in
response to receipt of
the incoming interaction. Depending on the outcome, a treatment of the
dynamically
determined segment is then applied going forward for some time period, over
some
configurable set of interactions, and so forth. As described above, the re-
assessment (or
initial assessment) may consider one or more static factors (unrelated to the
given new
interaction(s)) and/or one or more dynamic factors (specific circumstances of
a given
interaction.), or combinations thereof
[001191 in one implementation approach, the customer segment evaluation prior
to
processing an outstanding interaction comprises computation of probabilities
of all (or a
defined subset) of possible business results of a given interaction. If the
probability for a
business outcome that would put the customer in a higher-ranked segment is
above a
configured threshold, then the interaction is mated in accordance with this
higher-ranked
segment. Once the probabilities are processed, the customer's service level is
adjusted
(promoted or demoted) accordingly. As noted above, the promotion or demotion
of the
customer's service level may be on a per-interaction basis, or more long-
lasting. 'The service
level adjustment may be applied both to inbound (initiated by customer) as
well as outbound
(initiated by contact center) interactions, as well as to different media
channels (such as
voice, email, chat, web browsing and social media). Also, once promoted (or
demoted) to a
customer segment, first and second business objectives for the new customer
segment may be
evaluated in selecting an agent to handle the interaction. According to one
embodiment, an
agent with a higher likelihood of success of handling the first business
objective may be
selected over a second agent with a lower likelihood of success of handling
the second
business Objective, even if the value of the first business objective is lower
than the value of
the second business objective.
row 201 FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a process for dynamic customer
segmentation
according to one embodiment of the invention. The process may be implemented
by a
processor based on instructions that are stored in memory. A person of skill
in the art Should
recognize, however, that the process may be executed via hardware, firmware
(e.g, via an
ASIC), or in any combination of software, firmware, and/or hardware.
Furthermore, the
sequence of steps of the process is not fixed, but can he altered into any
desired sequence as
recognized by a person of skill in the art.
[001211 The process starts, and in step 600, the processor detects a pending
interaction
associated with a customer and retrieves an existing customer segment service
level
assessment for the customer. According to one embodiment, the detection of the
pending
interaction acts as a trigger to retrieve the customer segment service level.
The existing
segment information may be stored, for example, in a customer profile record
for the
customer.
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1001221 At step 602, the processor performs a test to determine whether a re-
assessment of
the customer segmentation designation is to be performed. This test may be
performed
periodically, or in real-time upon detecting a particular occurrence, such as,
for example,
upon receipt of a new interaction request. For example, the test to determine-
need of re-
assessment may be performed by the routing server 20 in response to receipt of
a request
from the call server 18 to route a pending interaction.
1001231 If the outcome of the test at step 602 is negative, the routine
returns and cycles. If,
however, the outcome of the test at step 602 is positive, the routine
continues at step 604 to
perform the re-assessment in the manner described above. The re-assessment may
use one
or more of the static or dynamic factors, or some combination, and may be
based on
anticipated outcome of the pending interaction that the customer is about to
engage in. In this
regard, in performing the re-assessment, the processor may be configured to
determine the
chances of successfully achieving a business objective, which may be a
business objective for
the current customer segment, a next higher-ranked segment, and/or lower-
ranked segment.
According to one embodiment, a rule or set of rules are invoked to re-assess
the customer
segment service level. The rules may take into account the static and/or
dynamic factors in
order to do the re-assessment.
1001241 At step 606, a test is performed to determine whether a service level
adjustment is
required. If not, the routine returns to step 602, if, however, a customer
segment service
level adjustment is required as a result of the re-assessment, the routine
continues at step 608
to initiate the adjustment (promotion to a given customer segment service
level, demotion to
a given customer segment service level, .modification of an attribute of the
existing service
level, etc.). The routine then continues at step 610 to store the new customer
segment
service level. The re-assessed customer segmentation data may be stored
temporarily (e.g.,
without modifying the customer segment information in the customer record). In
another
embodiment, the current customer segmentation information in the customer
record is
replaced with the n.-assessed customer segmentation data.
(001251 According to one embodiment, the adjustment of the customer segment
service
level causes an interaction with the customer (e.g. atomic interaction or a
task associated with
a case), to he processed differently (e.g. with a different level of service,
different business
objectives, etc.) than the processing prior to the adjustment. For example,
the skill set of the
agent handling the interaction may differ, priority in which the interaction
is handled may
differ, business opportunities presented to the customer may differ, and/or
the like.
100.1261 According to one embodiment, if the re-assessment is temporary, the
customer
reverts back to the customer segment that is stored in the customer record
after the current
interaction (or a discrete number of interactions) is over.
Adaptive Business Objective Routing
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
100.1271 Typical current contact center interaction routing (agent assignment)
assumes that
the business objective (I30) to be achieved for the given interaction/activity
is analyzed and
defined at an initial stage of interaction processing and fixed. Using the
existing, fixed BO,
the agent routing logic generally tries to find the best matching agent for
the particular 80.
if the best matching agent is not available, the matching requirements are
relaxed until an
available agent is tburid. One of the drawbacks of this approach is that the
130 (e.g., an up-
/cross-sell) might be addressed at a. low quality level (i.e., by a less
qualified agent) and thus
might lead to customer dissatisfaction (failure of the BO or reduced
likelihood of future
success with the particular customer).
[001281 According to one embodiment, instead of relying upon a fixed 130
during the
agent assignment process, an adaptive business objective routing strategy
adjusts the business
objective where necessary so as to minimize the opportunity lbr customer
dissatisfaction in
the event an appropriately-skilled agent is not available to handle an inbound
interaction.
According to one embodiment, the business objective may be composed of several
elements
or factors: (1) a primary reason for the interaction, typically as determined
by a chosen
interaction channel (as potentially refined through an IVR dialog); and (2) a
set of business
opportunities (e.g., cross-/up-sell offers).
1001291 According to one embodiment, a reason for the interaction may be
identified
expressly or implicitly according to various mechanisms. For example, a call
reason may be
inferred based on the customer's interaction with the IMR server 34 (FIG. 2).
For example,
the 1MR server 34 may be configured to ask the customer an open-ended question
to elicit
information on the mason for the call. For example, the IMR. server 34 may be
configured to
ask "How can I help you?" The customer may answer by speaking a reason for the
call, such
as, for example, "Am I eligible to upgrade my phone?" According to one
embodiment, the
phrase uttered by the customer is analyzed by the speech analyties module 40
and the call is
then categorized into a particular category, such as, for example, an "upgrade
eligibility"
category. In other embodiments, the question askedby the IMR server 34 is not
open-ended,
but limits the caller's response to, for example, a particular subject. Of
course, the IMR
server 34 may also be configured to function as a traditional 1VR where the
customer is
provided a list of reasons for the call, and the customer presses a number
that matches his or
her reason for the call The call reason may be deduced from the particular
number pressed
by the customer.
1001301 In other embodiments, a call reason may also be deduced based on other
modalities, such as, for example, the customer's interactions using other
communication
channels, such as, for example, the Web, retail shops, email, chat channels,
mobile
applications, social media channels, and the like. Multi-channel analytical
solutions such as,
for example, Cienesys Text Amilytics offered by Genesys Telecommunications
Laboratories,
Inc., may be used to analyze a customer's previous engagement to identify a
previous
-26-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
problem and/or needs before connecting a current call to a contact center
agent. For example,
a customer may be browsing a company web page relating to "Flying with Pets
Policy" when
the customer selects a "speak with an agent" option. Information on the page
being browsed
may be transmitted along with the request to speak with the agent, and from
the transmitted
information it may be inferred that the customer's reason for wanting to speak
with the agent
is related to "Plying with Pets."
1001311 With -respect to identifying business opportunities as part of
identifying business
objectives for the contact center, such business opportunities may be
identified based on
criteria such as, for example, knowledge of the customer, current business
goals, and the like.
Exemplary business opportunities may include credit card upsell, contract
renewal upsell,
and/or the like. According to one embodiment, business opportunities for a
particular
customer are identified based on the customer) profile and currently available
matching
business offerings. According to one embodiment business opportunities may be
identified
based upon customer segment identification (which may be re-assessed prior to
handling the
current interaction as discussed above).
[001321 According to one embodiment, a purpose or goal of a business
opportunity is to
maximize business outcome and/or customer satisfaction. A desired business
outcome may
vary from organization to organization, and/or front time period to time
period. For example,
the organization may have a global target for a particular NPS (net promoter
score), sales,
collection, and/or profit. More specific goals may then be set for different
product lines,
business units, and/or the like. For example, sales based business
opportunities may have
goals relating to conversion rate, revenue, and sales, while service based
opportunities may
have goals relating to customer effort N PS, and/or the like.
1001331 According to one embodiment, after a BO is identified that is deemed
to be
important to the contact center due to its potential to maximize business
outcome and/or
customer satisfaction, the routing logic tries to find a best matching agent
for addressing both
parts of the BO (reason for the interaction and the kiClitified business
opportunity).
According to one embodiment the assignment logic. (e.g. routing
strategy/logic) searches for
agents having the skill set (e.g, qualification, certification, etc.)
identified for the BO. WOO
such agent can be found, then, according to one embodiment, the BO is
adjusted, e.g., by
selecting a second best BO (e.g. with the same reason for the interaction but
second best in
terms of business outcome) for the given customer, The second BO may be deemed
to be of
lesser importance to the contact center relative to the first BO due to its
lesser potential to
maximize business outcome and/or customer satisfaction. The process is then
repeated until
an appropriate agent is found to handle the interaction according to the
(possibly-adjusted)
BO.
[001341 According to one embodiment even if a suitable agent for handling the
BO is
identified, evaluation of a likelihood or success of the particular agent with
respect to the
-27-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 particular 130 may be low, or lower than the likelihood of success with
respect to the second
best BO. In this scenario, the second best BO may be selected to be acted upon
instead of the
first best BO.
1001351 When the proem completes, the customer's profile is updated
accordingly to
reflect the actual BO used. At the next interaction opportunity (Le, the next
time the
customer interacts with the contact center), a new attempt. may be made to
address the top
130.
1001361 In a representative implementation, and given the interaction
channels, the
customer profile, and the set of offers, a set of business objectives are
identified for the
customer in response to detecting a pending interaction with the customer.
During the agent
selection process, the routing logic seeks to find a best matching agent for
addressing both the
primary reason for the interaction and the identified business opportunities,
and begins,
according to one embodiment, with a first (e.g. best or highest ranked)
business objective. If
no agent is available to address both the interaction reason and the currently
identified
business objective, a next best BO is used, and so on until an appropriate
agent is found to
handle the interaction according to the (potentially-adjusted) 80.
1001371 According to one particular implementation, a rank. Rik is assigned to
each pair of
ith BO (I = 1...N) and an available, agent (k = 1¨.M). The rank may be
related, for example,
to a business outcome (e.g., profit) that may be achieved from an interaction
with certain BO
by agents of certain skills. For example, a BO projected to produce a profit
of S100 may be
ranked higher than another 130 projected to product a profit of $80. According
to one
embodiment, in addition to business outcome, a probability of success of
achieving the
business outcome by the particular agent is also considered in assigning the
rank to a
130/agent pair. fhe probability of success may be determined, for example,
based on the
agent's historical perfOrmance with respect to the 130. According to one
embodiment, the
rank may be calculated based on a calculation of an expected value as is
commonly
understood in the field of probability theory. In one embodiment, the expected
value is used
as the rank.
1001381 According to one embodiment, the expected value may be a weighted
average-Of
all possible business outcomes for the particular agent. In one example, the
expected value
E(X) may be calculated and used as follows. Each 130 has a value S in case of
success. S
may depend also on given customer and other factors. In some examples, a loss
value L may
also be introduced. In most eases L IsO, but may also be positive (ifjust the
attempt itself
has a positive effect) or negative Oldie failed attempt has negative impact on
future business
with the customer).
1001391 Each X = BO/Agent combination has a probability P of success,
depending on
agent's abilities to "sell" the 130 to the given customer in the given
situation. Then:
[001401 .E(X) = P*S (1-P)41
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1001411 According to one embodiment, the expected value E(X) is calculated for
all
possible BO/Agent combinations, and the one with the highest value is chosen.
[001421 According to one embodiment, all possible ranks and/or expected values
may be
defined in advance or estimated during runtime, e.g., based on recent contact
history. For
every interaction that is waiting to be routed to an agent, a set of both
business objectives and
available agents are obtained. A best interaction-agent match is then selected
according to a
maximum flunks.
1001431 The resulting interaction (between the selected agent and the BO, as
adjusted) will
then be presumed to occur to potentially maximize the business outcome while
avoiding
customer dissatisfaction.
1001441 The phrase "business objective" is not intended to be limited to any
particular
product implementation.
100145! A generalization of this approach is to estimate a likelihood of
achieving the given
business objective by a particular agent for a current customer; if the
likelihood is below a
configurable threshold then the process moves on to try to satisfy a next best
business
objective.
1001461 If all anticipated outcomes are below the threshold, one or more
possible f011ow-
up strategies may then be evaluated. These include, without limitation,
selecting a business
objective that is closest to the threshold, applying one or more weights to
the business
objective and then making a selection, routing based on the initial reason for
the interaction
without further adjustment according to business objective, and so forth. All
of these variant
scenarios are within the described solution.
1001471 FIGS. 8A-8B are flow diagrams of a process for adaptive business
objective
routing according to one embodiment of the invention. The process may be
implemented by
a processor based on instructions that are stored in memory. For example, the
process may
be implemented by a software module running in the routing server 20. A person
of skill in
the art should. recognize, however, that the process may be executed via
hardware, firmware
(e.g. via an AS1C), or in any combination of software, firmware, and/or
hardware.
Furthermore, the sequence of steps of the process is not fixed, but can be
altered into any
desired sequence as recognized by a person of skill in the art.
[001481 The routine begins, and in step 700, the processor detects a pending
interaction
with the customer (e.g atomic interaction or a task associated, with a case),
and identifies or
retrieves the business Objective data as described above, including, for
example the expressed
or deduced reason for the interaction, and a first identified. business
opportunity with respect
to the customer.
1001491 In step 702, the processor begins the agent selection process. In this
mud, the
processor may interact with the statistics server 22 for identifying
availability of agents
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 having skills that a commensurate to the identified business objective.
The skill level of each
of the identified agent may also be identified.
[001501 In step 704, the processor determines whether agents that are fit to
handle each of
the identified business objectives have been found. Such fit may be based on
not only
availability of the agent, but also how the skill level of the agent
identified as having the
appropriate skills, compares to the skill level that: is deemed to be
appropriate for handling the
particular business objective. If the skill level of the agent is above a
threshold level
identified for the business objective, the agent may be deemed to be the right
fit for the
business objective.
[001511 in step 706, one or more of the matching agents are assigned to the
business
objective.
1001521 It however, the outcome of the test at step 704 is negative (no
matching agent for
addressing!, the current business objective can be located), the routine
continues at step 708 to
identify a next business objective. The next business objective may identify a
second
business opportunity with respect to the customer.
[001531 Once the set of business objectives and matching one or more agents
are
identified, the process proceeds to select a BO-agent pair based on an
assigned rank of the
80-agent pair as depicted with respect to FIG. 88. In this regard, in step
800. the processor
selects a .first BO-agent pair, and in step 802, assigns a rank (which could
be just the expected
value) to the pair. According to one embodiment, the rank may be based on
identification or
a business outcome and probability of success by the particular agent in
achieving the
business outcome. According to one embodiment, an expected value for the
business
outcome is calculated and used to assign the rank.
1001541 According to one example, a first BO may have an expected business
outcome of
S100, while a second BO may have an expected business outcome of $80. However,
a first
agent identified as a match for handling the first BO may be identified, based
on past
performance in handling the first BO, as being 40% successful for the first.
80. A second
agent: identified as a match for handling the second 130 may be identified,
based on the
second agent's performance in handling the second 130, as being 80% successful
for the
second 130. According to one embodiment, the process assigns a rank to the
second .HO-
agent pair that is higher than the rank assigned to the first I30-agent pair.
In this regard, the
process deems it more valuable to pursue the second BO, although not the best
in terms of
business outcome, instead of the first BO.
[00 155f In step 804, a determination is made as to whether there are more 00-
agent pairs
to rank. If the answer is NO, the processor evaluates the assigned ranks and,
in step 806.
selects the 130-agent pair with the highest rank.
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 1001561 In step 808, the pending interaction is routed to the agent of
the selected 80-agent
pair. In this regard, the call routing server 20 may transmit instructions to
the call server 18
identifying an address of the agent device to which the interaction is to be
routed.
[001571 in step 810, the agent is prompted to pursue the-business objective.
For example,
the deduced reason for the interaction may be displayed on the agent device,
and the agent
may, upon seeing such reason, address the call reason with the customer. The
processor may
also display a prompt to present a business opportunity included in the 130,
to the customer,
along with scripts to help guide the agent in presenting such business
opportunity. As a
person of skill in the art should appreciate, the business opportunity that is
presented by the
particular agent may not necessarily be the one with the highest yielding
business outcome.
1001581 According to one embodiment, the business objectives may be associated
with a.
particular customer segment. In this regard, the customer may first be
dynamically
reassigned to a particular customer segment prior to determining which
business objectives to
consider in selecting an appropriate agent.
Case-Based Routing
[001591 Embodiments of the present invention are directed to case routing as
opposed to
atomic interaction routing. In one embodiment, case-based routing may be seen
as taking a
holistic view on the entire case by considering the past steps, a next step,
and anticipated
future steps of the case, and selecting an agent based on this holistic view.
In this regard, a
routing routine attempts to select an agent who is familiar with the pre-
context of the case,
has skills to -perform anticipated follow-up processing steps, and/or one that
is engaged with
potentially related other interactions with the given customer. In this
regard, the selected
agent is one who is deemed to be a good fit for the entire case, or at least
for a certain subset
of tasks associated with the case.
1001601 According to one embodiment, customer segmentation may also be
adjusted pro-
actively in advance of handling one or more steps (tasks) of a particular
case. The
mechanism may be similar to adjusting customer segmentation for atomic
interaction routing
that is described above.
1001611 According to one embodiment, the agent that is selected -to route the
one or more
steps of a particular case may be based on business objectives of the contact
center/enterprise.
According to one embodiment, the agent who is has the highest probability of
maximizing
the business outcome while avoiding customer dis.satisfaction is selected as
described in
further detail above.
100.1621 FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a contact center solution suite (such as
Genesys4)
804 that is. integrated with a CRIV1 enterprise service and marketing
application (such as
Salesforce.com*, or Oracle Sieber*) 802. The identified products/systems are
provided for
descriptive purposes but are not intended to be limiting. Thus, in an
alternative embodiment,
-31-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
the logic of ease routing may be implemented outside of the CRM context, e.g.,
in Genesys
Orchestration and Conversation management.
(001631 An integration of this type allows enterprises to leverage the synergy
of two
critical functions, namely, the management of customer data (through the CRM
system), and
the management of real-time interactions (through the contact center). Through
a seamless
integration of CRM and contact center solutions, enterprises can offer their
customers' choice
of access options such as e-mail, fax, Web chat, work item, and traditional
voice. Customer
interactions are handled in real-time, and they are automatically prioritized,
matched. and
assigned to the best available resources, e.g., based on the customer need,
history, class of
service, and business rules. Preferably, the contact center solution provides
contact center
software, predefined routing strategies and templates, installation and
ongoing support. To
this end, the platform preferably provides SIP-based functionality (to enable
agents to be
located wherever they are needed, thereby freeing the contact center from PBX
constraints),
business-based interaction routing (to enable customers to be connected to the
right agent,
preferably using routing templates configured to the customer's business
needs), and real-
time and historical reporting (to enable tracking of customer service).
1001641 The above-described platform is extensible to enable an additional
routing
strategy that is referred to herein as "case routing." This routing strategy
is described below
using an example implementation.
1.001651 Preferably, the integrated system (e.g., based on the Sieber desktop,
although this
is not a limitation) uses a single agent interface for both CRM and customer
interaction
management. A single agent login to the desktop enables the agent access to
embedded e-
mail, chat and work in the Siebel desktop, removing the need to toggle between
applications.
The approach provides for a single point of real-time management for inbound
call handling,
e.g., through the Siebel CR.M interface. To facilitate the techniques of this
disclosure, in one
embodiment the contact center routing mechanism leverages Siebel CRM data
Customer (or
"case") records 805 that preferably are attached to every interaction (voice,
e-mail, work
item, etc.), including transfers between agents, reducing handling time. Other
CRM systems
may use other nomenclature in lieu of a "ease," and the techniques should be
viewed as
applying to such other CRM-based environments irrespective of the particular
nomenclature
adopted. Preferably imported and real-time updates ofTRM contact lists drive
contact
center-based outbound campaigns, thereby increasing transaction opportunities
and upload of
campaign. results. The integrated system also provides for real-time
intelligent routing for
content management for all types of content including, without limitation,
documents, faxes,
web forms, images, etc., as well as real-time workflow optimization, such as
service requests,
customer orders/fulfillment, and provisioning. By providing customer center
agents with a
complete view of customer data, more personalized cross-channel conversations
are enabled.
The integrated approach facilitates real-time handling of customer requests,
preferably based
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 on customer class of service, needs, history and profile. The unified
desktop approach also
greatly reduces operating costs and increases customer responsiveness.
[001661 The contact center may provide an application programming interface
(API) or
SDK (Software Development Kit) by which the CRM provider integrates the CRM
system.
For example, the contact center may provide a Customer Interaction Management
(UM)
platform that exposes scalable software modules with service-enabled APIs that
allow third
parties to integrate CRM systems, services and software. Applications
communicate through
an abstraction layer or through Web services, or through low-level (fine-
grained) interfaces.
As described above, and in an alternative embodiment, the CRM system is part
of the contact
center itself
1001671 in the prior art, the contact center implements one or more types of
agent-based
routing, such as skills-based best available agent muting. According to this
routing strategy,
this prior technique is enhanced to take into consideration case-based
information. In "case-
based" routing, the decision about which agent should receive a particular
interaction for
processing within the context of a contact. center is determined at least in
part on a "case
record," e.g., (in an CRM embodiment) associated with a CRM-sourced
interaction. Thus,
CRM system or server models a customer support interaction (between one of its
customers
and the system) as a "case." A case (or "ticket" or "work item") has an
associated case
record having given information identifying the ease, its type, an anticipated
'workflow
(through a set of defined or ordered steps) to potential resolution,
anticipated timing,
escalation paths, and the like. Depending on the CRM system from which the
case
originates, a case may be associated with a particular template depending on
the nature of the
customer support issue.
1001681 In case routing, a case record (or information therein) associated
with a case is
used to determine which agent in a set of agents in the contact center should
he identified to
undertake additional work/processing of the case. As will be seen, a best or
target agent
typically is selected based on one or more factors, such as an identity of a
particular next
interaction or step in the processing of the case (as defined by the case
workflow), one or
more anticipated future interactions for the given case and. that should
preferably be handled
by a same agent, the existence of one or more previously-performed
interactions for the case,
including whether any such interactions have been re-opened, remaining
completion time thr
the case, and the like. Preferably, when the case routing strategy is
implemented, an entire
case record (or some material portion thereof) is taken into account in
determining which
agent of a set of agents should be identified as a target for an inbound
contact associated with
the case.
1001691 In case routing, and instead of routing individual interactions (e.g.,
voice calls,
chats, e-mails, etc.) to an appropriately skilled best available agent, once
an interaction is
associated with a particular case, the routing of the interaction is
influenced by one or more
-33-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
case-based parameters. Moreover, preferably what gets "routed" is the case
itself (as
opposed. to the interaction associated therewith). As a simple example
scenario, assume
because of the nature of the case some kind of future interaction might be
needed with a
customer, where that future interaction is triggered at a future certain
and/or upon timeout of
a case idle time (or some other trigger). With case-based routing, once that
trigger occurs,
the "case" is routed to the appropriate agent (or to his or her queue) with
the right skill and
availability, and the agent then makes the necessary communication with the
customer (e.g.,
by phone, text, email, chat or the like). With case routing, the case is
pushed for handling to
the agent proactively when the case-based trigger occurs, and this reduces the
likelihood that
the agent will ignore the interaction (over some other interaction that. the
agent might desire
to handle first, although of course there will be situations wherein some
other assigned
interaction has a higher priority than the case). With case routing,
preferably cases are
pushed. to the agents or their queues) in the order they are submitted. (or
otherwise based on
the case triggers, or based on other priorities) and are routed to the agents
with the
appropriate skills to handle those cases of that type. Pretbrably, and because
case-based
routing involves case-based parameters, when an agent/user receives a case,
(absent more
higher priority interactions that must be worked first) he or she generally
works the ease in
lieu of electing to do some other interaction. Thus, in case based routing,
preferably a case is
provided to the agent (by being pushed for immediate processing, or otherwise
being pushed
into the agent's workbin for being immediately pulled) for handling by the
agent. Whether
characterized as push or pull, the described model used in case routing
ensures that workflow
associated with a CRM case is enforced rigorously, and it ensures that the
target agent works
proactively to resolve the case (or to move the case to another agent or
agents who can do
so).
1001701 With case routing agents can communicate and otherwise interact with
one
another, and preferably multiple agents are each able to view the case
concurrently. If an
agent decides he or she will transfer a case to some other agent or entity
(assuming the
receiving agent can be shown to be a good fit), preferably the receiving
agent/entity has the
option to accept. or reject the case, and preferably cases can be escalated
with a-priority so
that they are worked first. Ma case is updated, preferably an update is pushed
to the agent
that either handled the first interaction or is still working the case.
[001711 The case routing technique may also be implemented in the context of
assignment
logic that uses a reservation approach, wherein the logic performs arbitration
among multiple
request for some agent based on priority, where priority in turn may' be based
on interaction
age, due time, and the like.
10017.21 According to this disclosure, it is assumed that there is a mechanism
(e.g., an API,
a Web service, some other request-response protocol, or the like) for passing
information
between the CRM system and the contact center server that is responsible for
contact center
-34-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
agent selection. A case is opened in the CRM system in the usual manner when
an end
user/customer opens a ticket. A case has an associated case identifier
(caseID), and it is
associated with a data record, sometimes referred to herein as a case record.
As noted above,
typically the case record is a construct associated with the CRM system and
identifies the
case, its type, an anticipated workflow (through a set of defined or ordered
steps) to potential
resolution, anticipated timing, escalation paths, and the like. The case
record may include the
contact history for the case if the case is being re-opened from an earlier
interaction. More
generally, the case record is an object (or a case object) in an object-
oriented database system
associated with the CRM. The contact center typically includes a contact
center server API
for external cage management to link to interactions (both active and
historical) in the contact
center environment.
1001731 Preferably, the contact center reporting systems or sub-systems report
on how
cases are handled. Reports may include, without limitation, how many eases
have been
worked, closed, resolved, are waiting for information, and the like, as well
as how many of
IS each state a particular agent worked. Case routing also may provide more-
granular reporting
than conventional reporting of agent interactions. Thus, for example, when a
case is pushed
to an agent and the agent accepts it, the time that the agent works on this
case can be
monitored and reported. Once the agent returns the case (ea., by closing or
resolving it, by
seeking more infonnation, etc.) the system notes the time incurred, and a new
case may then
be pushed to the agent. By monitoring handling times, and assuming
deterministic cases with
fixed processing steps, the contact center management obtains a view into how
long
particular agents take to handle a case and, if appropriate, can institute
training and other
remedial actions to address deficiencies. The reports may also indicate which
agents are
working the hardest cases, which agents are handling many cases and the
nature. of those
cases, etc. The reports may also indicate when an agent consults another agent
with respect
to the case; if many agents are consulting with a particular agent, this may
indicate that the
consulted agent has the, most relevant knowledge about the ease type and/or
that other agents
need appropriate training. When eases are transferred between or among agents,
such
transfers are also reported, once again indicating the possibility for the
need for additional
agent training. Escalations preferably are reported as well, thereby helping
management
understand when other processes need to be changed (depending on the nature
and extent of
those escalations).
1001741 Preferably, an agent that receives a case (and Nine an "owner" of a
new case) can
access the case history associated with the caselD. Preferably, only the agent
that is actively
working the case (i.e., has an active window open and in focus) is reported as
time against the
case. This allows a first agent to work the case for some time period and then
not lose credit
for such work when the ease is transferred to a second agent. The second agent
gets the time
reported only for the time he or she is actively working the case (i.e., has
an active window
.35W.
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
open, etc.). Preferably, the CRM records also reflect the same activities by
each agent or
user that works the case.
[001751 Preferably, case routing does not impact or change case history. Thus,
irrespective of the identity of the agent who last works the case, all agents
who worked the
ease preferably receive credit for their work. By making sure all time is
accurately recorded
(e.g., by monitoring open and in-focus activity windows on the agent
desktops), the contact
center and/or CRM provides a comprehensive report of time spent on each case,
the identity
of the agents/users that worked the case, and any issues (trends, anomalies,
etc.) identified.
[00176j Case muting and associated reporting in this manner can expose
valuable
information about an agent and whether his or her perceived value is backed by
actual data.
As noted above, in case muting agents receive cases to handle based on case-
specific
parameters (and thus they cannot necessarily pick and choose their
interactions), the case
routing data provides a much more nuanced and accurate view fan agent's
activities. Thus,
an agent may have a very high number of transfers and consults, or a low elose-
rate, etc., and
such data (even if associated with what otherwise appears to be highly-
efficient agent) may
indicate that the agent is actually 'having problems or perhaps is not working
up to his or her
potential (actual or perceived). The information may also indicate that the
case routing logic
needs to be adjusted. Conversely, case routing and associated reporting can
also show that
an agent that was previously considered only fair (e.g., for having a low
number of closed
interactions) is now on the receiving end of transfers and consults for many
of the cases, if
not the hardest cases. The agent has been closed the hard-to-work interactions
that other
agents had refused to pull from the work queue; however, now that the cases
pushed based on
case-based parameters other agents are leaning on this person so that they can
work the cases
they traditionally avoided.
1001771 Of course, there are merely representative examples but they show how
case
routing can provide very useful information about agent work habits that was
not otherwise
available when interactions are muted to agents in the above-described model.
Preferably,
the agent monitoring and case reporting statistics are generated in an
automated manner;
these records may be parsed, once again by automated systems, to generate
output reports
that identify (e.g., rank) agents by their case-handling capabilities.
[001781 More generally, case routing provides advantages over atomic
interaction routing
by enabling the interaction to be handled by an agent that: is familiar with
the pre-context, or
who has the ability to perform anticipated follow-up processing steps, or who
is engaged with
potentially-related other interactions with the given customer, or the like.
[00179j Although there is no limitation regarding when case routing may be
implemented,
typically it may be done more often as a back office function, while atomic
interactions are
more likely handling by the contact center. If the contact center is operating
less efficiently,
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
it may be desired to use case routing to help the contact center work off any
backlog or
otherwise reduce delay.
[001801 According to one example of implementing case routing, a worker in an
insurance
company may open a case record in the CRM system 802. The case record may be,
for
example, for handling an insurance -claim for a car accident involving
theeustomer.
According to one embodiment, the case record identifies a workflow of
anticipated steps to
be taken in handling an insurance claim. For example, the steps may include
obtaining
details of the accident, determining faulty party, authorizing the customer
take the car to a
bodyshop, scheduling a claims adjuster to go to the bodyshop to inspect the
car, getting a
report from the claims adjuster, authorizing the bodyshop to fix the car, and
making payment
to the bodyshop. As a particular step of the workflow is completed,
information about the
worker handling the particular step, date and time in which the particular
step was handled,
and the like, may be tracked in the ease record.
100181i According to one embodiment, the various steps of the workflow may be
handled
by one or more workersiagents of the enterprise. In this regard, an autonomous
task is
generated at a particular step of the workflow that requires agent action, and
the task is routed
to an agent determined to have the skill set for handling the interaction.
According to one
embodiment, instead of finding an agent with the skill set for handling an
immediate next
step of the workflow, an analysis is performed of one or more future steps of
the workflow
(following the immediate next step) for determining skill sets for handling
each of the one or
more future steps at the same time that the determination is made with respect
to the
immediate next step. The processor may be configured with logic to determine
whether a
single agent exists with skills to handle more than one of the identified
steps. Again the
determination is made concurrently for all the identified steps. In this
manner continuity may
be maintained where possible in terms of agents handling the ease. Thus, for
example, if
Agent 1 with skill A is available for handling step 1, but Agent 2 with skills
A and B is
available to handle steps I and 2, Agent 2 may be selected over Agent I. Of
course, the agent
may most likely handle the two steps at different points in time. Moreover,
the agent may
initially just receive a task for handling the immediate next step in the
workflow, and may or
may not know that he has been assigned to the subsequent steps as well. Yet in
some
embodiments, the agent is informed of the assignment of the subsequent steps.
Tasks for the
subsequent steps may be generated concurrently with the generating of the task
for the
immediate next step, or at a later time. The generated tasks may be
concurrently routed to the
agent, or routed at different times, If a task for a subsequent step is routed
at a later time, the
processor detects that an agent has already been selected, and thus routes the
subsequent task
without invoking, for example, logic for making skill determinations for
identifying a best
agent for handling the subsequent task.
[001821 in traditional interaction / task muting a best. target (agent) is
defined based on:
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
availability, occupancy etc.
o customer segment
o priority
o required skills to handle interaction of given media type
5 o agent's capacity
o customer interaction history (e.g. last agent routing)
o additional criteria such as up-Icross-sell opportunity and respective
agent skills
[001831 According to embodiments of the present invention, a complete case
record may
10 be considered when selecting best matching agent for muting a case
record:
o particular individual interaction which is the next "step" in case
processing
o anticipated Mitre interactions for the given case (based on case
class/category),
which should be preferably handled by same agent
o already performed interactions for given case, which might have to he
reopened
potentially
o remaining completion time for whole case
o routing target is selected taking all above into account
1001841 If multiple agents are identified as being equality suitable for
handling a plurality
of upcoming workflow steps, the agent that is ultimately selected may depend,
for example,
on the skill level(s) of the identified agents. An agent with a higher skill
level may be
preferred instead of an agent with a lower skill level.
1001851 According to one embodiment, as discussed above, instead of muting an
autonomous task to the selected agent, the related case =ord. is routed for
giving the agent
context of where in the workflow the current step belongs, and for
understanding the history
surrounding the case. According to one embodiment, routing of the case may be
enabled by
identifying a caselD in the task that is routed to the agent. The easel!) may
then be used to
retrieve the case data from the CRM system.
1001861 According to one embodiment, the routing of an interaction or task to
an agent
may be triggered automatically based on parameters set for the case, and/or
parameters
surrounding one or more steps of the workflow. For example, tasks may be
automatically
triggered based on a date/time setting. Tasks may also be triggered based on
an amount of
time elapsed between two or more steps of the workflow, or since completion of
a last
workflow step. In this regard, the processor monitors for a trigger event,
and, in response to
detecting occurrence of such trigger event, automatically generates and
transmits a task
associated with the trigger event.
Combining Routing Strategies
-38-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
(001871 As noted above, according to a feature of this disclosure, one or
preferably
multiple ones of the above-described routing strategies are implemented
concurrently and/or
in sequence. FIG. 10 illustrates various scenarios.
1001881 The routing strategies may be implemented on a per-interaction basis,
or for
multiple interactions.
[001891 As an example scenario (a), dynamic customer segmentation 900 is
performed
initially, tbilowed by the adaptive business objective routine strategy 902.
1001901 Another example scenario (b) begins with adaptive business objective
routing
902. Mowed by case routing 904.
[001911 As a second example scenario (c), dynamic customer segmentation 900 is
performed initially, tbllowing by case routing 904.
100192( Another example scenario (d) involves concurrent andlor sequential
implementation of dynamic customer segmentation 900, adaptive business
objective routing
902, and case routing 904.
[001911 The sequence or ordering shown above (strategy 900, then strategy 902,
then
strategy 904) is not intended to be limiting. Any sequence or ordering may be
implemented
depending on the use case. As can be seen in this drawing, the one or more
routing
strategies herein are designed to augment other routing strategies implemented
in the agent
assignment mechanism.
[001941 A customer may use a web-based configuration tool or other interface
mechanism
to provision or otherwise configure a custom routing strategy using the above-
identified
schemes, either alone or in combination with existing agent assignment
mechanisms, such as
those based on availability, occupancy, static customer segment (static),
priority, required
skills to handle an interaction of a given media type, agent capacity,
customer interaction
history (e.g., last agent routing), and other criteria, such as up- or cross-
sell opportunities,
agent skills, and the like.
[001951 While the above description sets forth a particular order of
operations performed
by certain embodiments, it should be understood that such order is exemplary,
as alternative
embodiments may perform the operations in a different order, combine certain
operations,
overlap certain operations, or the like. References in the specification to a
given embodiment
indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature,
structure, or
characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the
particular feature,
structure, or characteristic.
1001961 While the disclosed subject matter has been described in the context
of a method
or process, the subject disclosure also relates to apparatus for performing
the operations
herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes,
or it may
comprise a general-purpose computing entity selectively activated or
reconfigured by a stored
computer program stored. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer
readable
-39-
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including an
optical disk, a
CD-ROM, and a magnetic-optical disk, flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM),
a. random
access memory (RAM), a magnetic or optical card, or any type of non-transitory
media
suitable for storing electronic instructions.
[001971 While given components of the system have been described separately,
one of
ordinary skill will appreciate that some of the functions may be combined or
shared in given
instructions, program sequences, code portions, and the like.
[001981 As used herein, agents may be assigned explicitly, e.g., by an agent
assignment
mechanism dedicated to that purpose, or implicitly, e.g., by an IVR.
[001991 Each of the various servers, controllers, switches, gateways, engines,
and/or
modules (collectively referred to as servers) in the atom-described figures
may be a process
or thread, running on one or more processors, in one or more computing devices
1500 (e.g.,
FIG. 11 A, FIG. II B), executing computer program instructions and interacting
with other
system components for performing the various functionalities described herein.
The
computer program instructions are stored in a memory which may be implemented
in a
computing device using a standard memory device, such as, for example, a
random access
memory (RAM). The computer program instructions may also be stored in other
non
transitory computer readable media such as, for example, a CD-ROM, flash
drive, or the like.
Also, a person of skill in the art should recognize that a computing device
may be
implemented via firmware (e.g. an application-specific integrated circuit),
hardware, or a
combination of software, firmware, and hardware. A person of skill in the art
should also
recognize that the fitnctionatity of various computing devices may he combined
or integrated
into a single computing device, or the functionality of a particular computing
device may he
distributed across one or more other computing devices without departing from
the scope of
the exemplary embodiments of the present invention. A server may be a software
module,
which may also simply be referred to as a module. The set of modules in the
contact center
may include servers, and other modules.
(002001 The various servers may be located on a computing device on-site at
the same
physical location as the agents of the contact center or may be located off-
site (or in the
cloud) in a geographically different location, e.g., in a remote. data center,
connected to the
contact center via a network such as the Internet. In addition, some of the
servers may be
located in a computing device on-site at the contact center while others may
be located in a
computing device off-site, or servers providing redundant functionality may be
provided both
via on-site and off-site computing devices to provide greater fault tolerance.
In some
embodiments of the present invention, functionality provided by servers
located on
computing devices off-site may be accessed and provided over a virtual private
network
(VPN) as if such servers were on-site, or the functionality may be provided
using a software
as a service (SaaS) to provide functionality over the intemet using various
protocols, such as
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 by exchanging data using encoded in extensible- markup language POMP or
JavaScript
Object notation (ISON).
1002011 FIG. .11A and FIG. 11B depict block diagrams of a computing device
1500 as may
be employed in exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Each computing
device
1500 includes a central processing unit 1521 mita main memory unit 1522. As
shown in
FIG. 11A, the computing device 1500 may also include a storage device 1528, a
removable
media interface 1516, a network interface .1518, an input/output (I/0)
controller 1523, one or
more display devices 1530c, a keyboard 1530a and a pointing device 1530b, such
as a mouse.
The storage device 15.28 may include, without limitation, storage for an
operating system and
software. As shown in FIG. 11B, each computing device 1500 may also include
additional
optional elements, such as a memory port 1503, a bridge 1570, one or more
additional
input/output devices 1530d, 1530e and a cache memory 1540 in communication
with the
central processing unit 1521. The input/output devices 1530a, I 530b, 1530d,
and 1530e. may
collectively be referred to herein using reference numeral 1.530.
1002021 The central processing unit .1521 is any logic circuitry that responds
to and
processes instructions fetched from the main memory unit 1522. It may be
implemented, for
example, in an integrated circuit, in the form of a microprocessor,
microcontroller, or
graphics processing unit (GM), or in a field-programmable gate array (MA) or
application-specific integrated circuit (AS1C). The main memory unit 1522 may
be one or
more memory chips capable of storing data and allowing any storage location to
be directly
accessed by the central processing unit 1521. As shown in Ha 1 IA, the central
processing
unit 1521 communicates with the main memory 1522 via a system bus .1550. As
shown in
FIG. 11B, the central processing unit 1521 may also communicate directly with
the main
memory 1522 via a memory port 1503.
1002031 FIG. 11B depicts an embodiment in which the central processing unit
1521
communicates directly with cache memory 1540 via a secondary bus, sometimes
referred to
as a backside bus. In other embodiments, the central processing unit 1521
communicates with
the cache memory .1540 using the system bus 1550. The cache memory 1540
typically has a
faster response time than main memory 1522. As shown in FIG. 11A, the central
processing
unit 1521 communicates with variousl/O devices 1330 via the local system bus
1550.
Various buses may be used as the local system bus 1550, including a Video
Electronics
Standards Association (VESA) Local bus (VE13), an Industry Standard
Architecture (ISA)
bus, an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, a MicroChannel
Architecture
(MCA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, a. PCI Extended (PC1-
X) bus, a
PCI-Express bus, or a NuBus. For embodiments in which an I/O device is a
display device
1530c, the central processing unit 1521 may communicate with the display
device 1530c
through an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP). FIG. 11B depicts an embodiment of a
computer
15.00 in which the central processing unit 1521 communicates directly with I/0
device 1530e.
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1 FIG. 11B also depicts an embodiment in which local busses and direct
communication are
mixed.: the central processing unit 1521 communicates with II0 device 1530d
using a local
system bus 1550 while communicating with I/O device I530e
[002041 A wide variety of I/O devices 1530 may be present in the computing
device 1500.
Input devices include one or more keyboards 1530a, mice, tmckpads, trackballs,
microphones, and drawing tablets. Output devices include video display devices
1530c,
speakers, and printers. An I/O controller 1523, as shown in FIG. 11 A, may
control the 1/0
devices. The 1/0 controller may control one or more 1/C) devices such as a
keyboard 1530a
and a pointing device 1530b, e.g., a mouse or optical pen.
[002051 Referring again to FIG. 11A, the computing device 1500 may support one
or more
removable media interfaces 1516, such as a floppy disk drive, a CD-ROM drive,
a DVD-
ROM drive, tape drives of various fbnnats, a USB port, a Secure Digital or
COMPACT
F1ASHTm memory card port, or any other device suitable for =ding data from
read-only
media, or thr reading data from, or writing data to, read-write media. An 1/0
device 1530
may be a bridge between the system bus 1550 and a removable media interface
1516.
[002061 The removable media interface 1516 may for example be used for
installing
software and programs. The computing device 1500 may further comprise a
storage device
1528, such as one or more hard disk drives or hard disk drive arrays, for
storing an operating
system and other related software, and for storing application software
programs. Optionally,
a removable media interface 1516 may also be used as the storage device. For
example, the
operating system and the software may be run from a bootable medium, for
example, a
bootable CD.
1002071 In some embodiments, the computing device 1500 may comprise or be
connected
to multiple display devices 1530e, which each may be of the same or different
type and/or
form. As such, any of the I/O devices 1530 and/or the I/O controller 1523 may
comprise any
type and/or form of suitable hardware, software, or combination of hardware
and software to
support, enable or provide for the connection to, and use of, multiple display
devices 1530c
by the computing device 1500. For example, the computing device 1500 may
include any
type and/or form of video adapter, video card, driver, and/or library to
interface,
communicate, connect or otherwise use the display devices 1530e. In one
embodiment, a
video adapter may comprise multiple connectors to interface to multiple
display devices
1530e. In other embodiments, the computing device 1500 may include multiple
video
adapters, with each video adapter connected to one or more of the display
devices 1510e. In
some embodiments, any portion of the operating system of the computing device
1500 may
be configured for using multiple display devices 1530c. In other embodiments,
one or more
of the display devices 1530c may be provided by one or more other computing
devices,
connected, for example, to the computing device 1500 via a network. These
embodiments
may include any type of software designed and constructed to use the display
device of
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1 another computing device as a second display device I 530e for the
computing device 1500.
One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize and appreciate the various
ways and
embodiments that a computing device .1500 may be configured to have multiple
display
devices 1530c.
[002081 A computing device 1500 of the sort depicted in FIG. 11A and FIG. 11B
may
operate under the control of an operating system, which controls scheduling of
tasks and
access to system resources. The computing device 1500 may be running any
operating
system, any embedded operating system, any real-time operating system, any
open source
operating system, any proprietary operating system, any operating systems for
mobile
computing devices, or any other operating system capable of running on the
computing
device and performing the operations described herein.
1002091 The computing device 1500 may he any workstation, desktop computer,
laptop or
notebook computer, server machine, handheld computer, mobile telephone or
other portable
telecommunication device, media playing device, gaming system, mobile
computing device,
or any other type andlor form of computing, telecommunications or media device
that is
capable of communication and that has sufficient processor power and memory
capacity to
perform the operations described herein. In some embodiments, the computing
device 1500
may have different processors, operating systems, and input devices consistent
with the
device.
1002101 In other embodiments the computing device 1500 is a mobile device,
such as a
Java-enabled cellular telephone or personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart
phone, a digital
audio player, or a portable media player. In some embodiments, the computing
device .1500
comprises a combination of devices, such as a mobile phone combined with a
digital audio
player or portable media player.
1002111 As shown in FIG. I IC. the central processing unit 1521 may comprise
multiple
processors PI, P2, P3, P4, and may provide functionality for simultaneous
execution of
instructions or for simultaneous execution of one instruction on more than one
piece. of data.
In some embodiments, the computing device 1.500 may comprise a parallel
processor with
one or more Cores. In one of these embodiments, the computing device 1500 is a
shared
memory parallel device, with multiple processors and/or multiple processor
cores, accessing
all available memory as a single global address space. In another of these
embodiments, the
computing device 1500 is a distributed memory parallel device with multiple
processors each
accessing local memory only. In still another of these embodiments, the
computing device
1500 has both some memory which is shared and some memory which may only be
accessed
by particular processors or subsets of processors. In still even another of
these embodiments,
the central processing unit 1521 comprises a multicore microprocessor, which
combines two
or more independent processors into a single package, e.g., into a single
integrated circuit
(IC). In one exemplary embodiment, depicted in FIG. lID, the computing device
1500
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
1 includes at least. one central processing unit 1521 and at least one
graphics processing unit
1521'.
[00212j In some embodiments, a central processing unit 1521 provides single
instruction,
multiple data (SIMD) functionality, e.g., execution of a single instruction
simultaneously on
multiple pieces of data. In other embodiments, several processors in the
central processing
unit 1521 may provide functionality for execution of multiple instructions
simultaneously on
multiple pieces of data (MIMD). In still other embodiments, the central
processing unit 1521
may use any combination of SIMD and MIMD cores in a single device.
[002131 A computing device may be one of a plurality of machines connected by
a
network, or it may comprise a plurality of machines so connected. FIG. II E
shows an
exemplary network environment. The network environment comprises one or more
local
machines 1502a, 1502b (also generally referred to as local machine(s) 1502,
client(S) 1502,
client node(s) 1502, client machine(s) 1502, client computer(s) 1502, client
device(s) 1502,
endpoint(s) 1502, or endpoint node(s) 1502) in communication with one or more
remote
machines 1506a, 15061,, 1506c (also generally referred to as server machine(s)
1506 or
remote machine(s) 1506) via one or more networks 1504. in some embodiments, a
local
machine 1502 has the capacity to function as both a client node seeking access
to resources
provided by a server machine and as a server machine providing access to
hosted resources
for other clients I502a, I 502b. Although only two clients 1502 and three
server machines
1506 are illustrated in FIG. 11E, there may, in general, be an arbitrary
number of each. The
network 1504 may be a local-area network (LAN), e.g., a private network such
as a company
Intranet, a metropolitan area network (MAN), or a wide area network (WAN),
such as the
Internet, or another public network, or a combination thereof.
1002141 The computing device 1500 may include a. network interface 1518 to
interface to
the network 1504 through a variety of connections including, but not limited
to, standard
telephone lines, local-area network. (LAN), or wide area network (WAN) links,
broadband
connections, wireless connections, or a combination of any or all of the
above. Connections
may be established using a variety of communication protocols. In one
embodiment, the
computing device 1500 communicates with other computing devices 1500 via, any
type
and/or form of gateway or tunneling protocol such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
or
Transport Layer Security. (TLS). The network interface 1518 may comprise a
built-in
network adapter, such as a network interface card, suitable for interfacing
the computing
device 1500 to any type of network capable of communication and performing the
operations
described herein. An 1/0 device 1530 may be a bridge between the system bus
1550 and an
external communication bus.
1002151 According to one embodiment, the network environment of FIG. 11E may
be a
virtual network environment where the various components of the network are
virtualized.
For example, the various machines 1502 may be virtual machines implemented as
a software-
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Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02
based computer running on a physical machine. The virtual machines may share
the same
pending system. In other embodiments, different operating system may be run on
each
virtual machine instance. According to one embodiment, a "hypervisor" type of
virtualization is implemented where multiple virtual machines run on the same
host physical
machine, each acting as if it has its own dedicated box. Of course, the
virtual machines may
also run on different host physical machines.
1002161 Other types of virtualization is also contemplated, such as, for
example; the
network (e.g. via Software Defined Networking (SDN)). Functions, such as
functions of the
session border controller and other types of functions, may also be
virtualized, such as, for
example, via Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).
1002171 It is the Applicant's intention to cover by claims all such uses of
the invention and
those changes and modifications which could be made to the embodiments of the
invention
herein chosen for the purpose of disclosure without departing from the spirit
and scope of the
invention. The particular manner in which template details are presented to
the user may also
differ. Thus, the present embodiments of the invention should be considered in
all respects as
illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention to be indicated
by claims and their
equivalents rather than the foregoing description.
25
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