IE84076B1 - Multi-site responsibility-based routing - Google Patents

Description

MULTI —SITE RESPONSIBI LITYABASED ROUTING Field of the invention The field of the invention relates to telephony systems and more particularly to automatic call distributors.

Background of the Invention Automatic call distribution systems are known. Such systems are typically used in an organizational context as a means of distributing telephone calls among a group of agents of the organization. Agents are typically segregated into groups to serve particular call targets within an organization.

Often the organization disseminates a single telephone number to its customers and to the public in general as a means of contacting the organization. As calls are directed to the organization from the public switch telephone network (PSTN), the automatic call distribution system directs the calls to its agents based upon some algorithm, typically based upon availability. For example, where all agents are considered equal, the automatic call distributor (ACD) may distribute the calls based upon which agent position (telephone) has been idle the longest.

In order to staff an ACD, an organization often relies on historical levels (in Erlangs) of incoming calls to the individual call targets. A manager of the ACD may examine the historical call Joading records, add or subtract a percentage of the lustorical loading based upon a most recent call history (e.g., the most recent week or month), and estimate a staffing level based upon those calculations. Alternatively, some organizations have relied upon commercially available force management packages) based predictive software (i.e., that calculates daily staffing levels upon historic information.

Once daily staffing levels have been estimated, agents are scheduled based upon those estimates. where more than one organizational call target is involved (e g., sales agents, service agents, outgoing call campaign agents, etc.), requiring different agent skills, each group may be separately staffed based upon an Erlang estimate for that group.

As an alternative to staffing individual groups, some systems group all agents together and assign a skill rating to each agent. Calls are then assigned based upon the skill rating of the agent for handling that type of call.

For example, where a single group is used, an ACD will always look for and assign the call to the most qualified agent. However, some agents are more qualified than others. Because of the differences in qualifications, some agents receive more calls than others, resulting in an inequitable work load.

Further, where all agents are grouped together, an Erlang rate for any one group becomes irrelevant. For example, one benefit of using a common qroup relates to economies of scale. Two separate groups that separately require 10 agents each would typically only require 18 agents from a Common pool of agents. On the other hand, some systems share some agents and, therefore, there is some economies due to the sharing, however, neither extreme is typically used exclusively.

Further, because of sharing it is difficult, if not impossible for call center management to know how many agents are serving a particular application. Because of the difficulty of determining agent loading, it is also difficult to project staffing requirements in a shared agent environment.

Further, the balancing of calls arriving in a multi~ site call center environment can be a difficult problem to solve. One way to handle this problem is to distribute calls that arrive in a round—robin fashion among the call centers. The problem with this approach is that it does not consider local loading and, as a consequence that which is locally optimal may not be that call with globally optimal. For example, suppose center 0 is over—utilized in terms of agents skills S1 SK, while at call center U, agents with those skills are under—uti1ized. The naive round—robin approach would route a call requiring skills S1 SK, to O or U with equal probability, while clearly it would be much better to route that call to call center Tn general, in Contact centers, including call centers, it is difficult to allocate resources, including PEFSOHHE1 r€SOurC€S, such that the goals of the Contact service center business (e g., average speed of answer, level, level of abandoned calls, etc.) are met. where all agents are grouped together, staffing estimates can be based upon an Erlang rate of the agent pool as a whole. Basing a staffing estimate upon an organization as a whole is subject to large errors, if the agents are not, in fact, grouped together: Because of the importance of call handling through ACDS and the need to route agents according to skill, a need exists for a method of assigning agents which is more flexible than the individual group method.

Summary A method and apparatus are provided for distributing calls in an automatic call distribution system having one or more master sites, a plurality’ of satellite sites and at least some agents located at each satellite site of the plurality of satellite sites.

The method includes the steps of detecting a call at a master site of the automatic call distribution system, call type call, contemporaneously meamnfing a deviation from a target determining a of the and occupancy in handling calls of the determined call type for each agent of the at least some agents located at The method further includes the each satellite site. steps of identifying, on the basis of said deviation, ‘an agent with a largest relative under-utilization or the smallest relative over—utilization, or identifying a group of agents of a satellite site with, compared to other sites, the largest relative under—utilization or smallest relative over~utilization, and fransferrinq the call from the master site to the satellite site of the identified agent or group of agents.

In. the references to the present, specification identification or selection of a group of agents having the largest relative under-utilization or smallest relative over—utilization, or phrases of similar effect, mean, for example, the selection of a satellite site group having, relative to other groups of agents at other satellite sites, the largest average negative difference between the target and actual occupancies of the members of the group with respect to the call type in question. Alternatively, it may mean the selection of a satellite site group having the largest number of agents who would benefit from taking the call, based on their current target and actual occupancies.

Brief Description of the Drawings FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an ACD system in accordance with an illustrated embodiment of the invention; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a master ACD of the system of FIG. 1; and FIG. 3 is a block diagrmn of a satellite ACD of the system of FIG. 1.

Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a ACD system 10, shown generally in a context of use and in accordance with an illustrated embodiment of the invention. Under the illustrated embodiment, an ACD owner or user (not shown) may disseminate a telephone number of a master ACD (MACD) 18. Calls originated by the customers 12, 14 based upon the disseminated number may be received and processed by the MACD 18. Alternatively, calls may be placed from the MACD 18 to customers 12, 14.

In either case, calls (either received by or originated from the MACD 18) processed by the may" be detected, MACD 18 and distributed to satellite ACDS (SACDS) 20, 22. It is contemplated that the MACD 18 would handle a mix of inbound and outbound calls. In this context, processing of a calls by the MACD 18 means determining a call type of the call, identifying a skill required for handling the call and transferring the call to a SACD 20, 22 having an agent qualified to handle the call.

It should be noted that while the MACD 18 has been designated as being the master, other ACDS could also share that responsibility. Other ACDS 19 sharing the responsibility for routing calls to SACDs 20, 22 will be referred to as peer ACDS (PACDS) 19. while only one PACD 19 is shown in FIG. 1, it is to be understood that , 22 PACD in SACDS could also function as a situations described below.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the MACD 18 and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the SACDs 20, 22. While the MACD 18 and SACDS 20, 22 may be similar in appearance, they may function in a fundamentally different manner depending upon the call processing context.

For example, the MACD 18 may form the primary Contact point in processing incoming or outgoing calls.

Further, the MACD 18 (while shown as having agents in FIG. 2) may, in fact, have no agents and function simply as a contact processor. Reference shall be made to FIGS. 2 and 3 as appropriate to understanding the invention.

Under the illustrated embodiment, the MACD 18 may receive calls through a number of trunk lines 24 from Along with the calls, call customers 12, 14 of the MACD 18. the MACD 18 may receive information (i.e., about the calls from the PSTN 16. For associated data) the MACD 18 may receive an identifier of a identification (ANI) The MACD l8 example, caller from an automatic number service operating from within the PSTN 16. may also receive information about a dialed number through E! dialed number identification (DNIS) service (DID) information from the PSTN or direct inward dial The MACD 18 may also be programmed to place calls at the same time as it receives calls. For example, the MACD l8 existing or potential customers at the same time as it may conduct an outgoing call campaign to receives calls from existing or potential customers. _40 and transferred to the CPU 30. in the case of Outgoing calls, a list of telephone numbers (i.e., of call targets) may be retrieved from a database 31 or entered through a supervisor's terminal The list may be sequentially transferred to the ACD 32 for processing.

Upon receipt of a telephone number of a call target, the ACD 32 may seize a trunk line of the trunks 24 and transfer‘ the target telephone number to the PSTN 16. when the target answers, the ACD 32 may" connect the target to an agent locally if the MACD 18 has agents or transfer the call to a SACD 20, 22.

Where the call was initiated by the MACD 18, the CPU 30 associated with the MACD 18 may classify the call type based upon the subject matter and purpose of the call.

Classifying the call according to call type allows the CPU 30 to identify and assign the appropriate resources It is to be understood, that would be to servicing the call. classifying outbound calls easier than classifying inbound calls because the system 10 has more information about the reasons for the call. incoming calls may" be classified based The In contrast, upon the receipt of call associated information. identity of the caller or call destination allows the MACD 18 to draw certain inferences about the purpose of the call and the best resource to use in handling the call.

From the information received from the PSTN 16 (or from ‘the CPU 30 in the case of outgoing calls), the MACD 18 may classify the call as a particular work type based upon the identity of the call target and whether it is For t he ACT) an inbound or outbound call, example, sysLem 10 may’ be owned and operated by a department store. Individual call destinations may include women's clothing, men's clothing, footwear, housewares, appliances, electronics, furniture, hardware, automotive and garden. Other internal call targets may include catalog sales or technical support for one or more of the other call targets.

As opposed to creating semi—permanent groups of agents and queuing calls to the appropriate group, the MACD 18 places agents in a single pool and directs all calls to this pool. Note that this pool is a composite of all agents at the SACDS 20, 22 and MACD 18 (if any).

Alternatively, agents may be grouped into clusters. A cluster differs from a group in that an agent may be assigned to only one cluster.

Agents are rated according to skill level in each call type. A respective target agent responsibility (occupancy) matrix may be created at each MACD 18 and time to each PACD 19 to allocate portions of agents‘ call type. As used herein a target occupancy means the percentage of time that an agent is assigned to A target occupancy the handling ea particular call type. matrix means the correlated percentages of assignments of many agents.

One factor that may be used to control agent inclusion in the occupancies described herein is availability.

For example, before an agent signs—in at a beginning of his shift, he would not appear in the target occupancy.

Likewise, when an agent is Occupied be another call, he could not receive another call and, thCTOf0Y0, similarly not appear in the difference occupancy described below.

Allocation of agents’ time may be based upon the agent skill in handling that call type, as well as upon call type workload and other enterprise—related factors.

Table I is a simplified example of a target occupancy matrix.

TABLE I TOCC(j) WORK TYPE WORK TYPE WORK TYPE #1 #2 #3 AGENT #1 85% 10% 50% 15% (‘N AGENT #2 50% 20% 20% 10% AGENT #3 90% 30% 30% 30% AGENT #4 90% 70% 10% 10% In the over—staffed situation (agents available when a call arrives), the call is handled by the agent who is the most under-utilized or the least over—utilized.

Both under—utilization and over-utilization is based on the notion of actual occupancy. Actual occupancy may be defined as a weighted time average of the amount of time an. agent has worked. on a particular work type, with the weight being greater the more recent the activity. For example, an exponentially weighted average over a period (T) would be: where lfl@) has a value ct one if the agent is busy on work type j at time s and zero otherwise.

Table II is an example of an actual occupancy matrix.

Where a call comes in (e.g., for work type #1) a comparison is made of the deviation of each agent from the target occupancy for that work type. Table III depicts the deviation between Tocc(j) and AoCC(j) for each work type.

Table III Docc(j) WORK TYPE [WORK TYPE WORK TYpE"] #1 #2 #3 AGENT #1 -10% 0% -10% 0% AGENT #2 -1% —1% 0% 0% AGENT #3 —a% -3% 0% -5% AGENT #4 -19% -20% 0% +1% As may be seen by comparing Tables I and II, agent #4 has a target occupancy for work type #1 of 70% and an actual occupancy for work type #1 of 50%. Since agent #4 has the greatest negative deviation (i.e., is the

Claims (33)

Claims

1. A method of distributing public switched telephone calls and Internet telephony calls in an automatic call distribution system having a naster site, a plurality of satellite sites and at least some agents located at each satellite site of the plurality of satellite sites, such method comprising the steps Of: detecting a call at the master site of the automatic call distribution system; determining a call type of the call; contemporaneously measuring a deviation from a target occupancy in handling calls of the determined call type for each agent of the at least some agents located at each satellite site; on the basis of said deviation, identifying an agent with the largest relative under—utilization or smallest relative over—utilization, or identifying a group of agents of a satellite site with, compared to other sites, the largest relative under—utilization or smallest relative over- utilization; and transferring the call from. the master site to the satellite site of the identified. agent or group of agents using an Internet Protocol address associated with a caller of the call and a Voice—over—IP application.

2. The method of claim 1 further including the step of measuring the system dynamics.

3. The method of distributing calls as in claims 1 or 2 further comprising assigning the call to the identified agent or one of the identified group of 30 agents at the satellite site where the agent or group are located.

4. The method of distributing calls as in claim 1 or 2 wherein, where an agent rather than a group has been identified, the method further comprise assigning the call to a different agent at the satellite site where the identified agent is located.

5. The method of distributing calls as in claim 1 or 2 further comprising requesting that the master site simultaneously queue the call at a plurality of satellite sites.

6. The method of distributing calls as in claim. 1 or 2 further comprising overflowing the call from the satellite site where the identified agent or group were located to another satellite site.

7. The method of distributing calls as in claim 1 or 2 wherein the step of transferring" the call to the satellite site where the identified agent or group are located further comprises transferring a call control file of the call to the satellite site.

8. The method of distributing calls as in claim 1 or 2 wherein the step of determining a call type further comprises call information from an associated receiving associated public switched telephone network.

9. The method of distributing calls as in claim 1 or 2 further comprising subtracting the actual occupancy from the target occupancy of each agent to determine the relative difference for the agent.

10. The method of distributing calls as in claim 1 or 2 further comprising periodically transferring the actual occupancy and the target occupancy from a satellite site to the master site.

11. The method of distributing calls as in claim 10 further comprising forming the target occupancy and actual occupancy at each satellite site of the plurality of satellite sites.

12. The method of distributing calls as in claim 10 further comprising transferring the call to another satellite site where the satellite is of the identified agent or group of agents unable to process the call locally.

13. An apparatus for distributing public switched telephone calls and Internet telephony calls in an automatic call distribution system having a master site, a plurality of satellite sites and at least some agents located at each satellite site of the plurality of satellite sites, such apparatus comprising: means for detecting a call at the master site of the automatic call distribution system; means for determining a call type of the call; means for contemporaneously measuring the deviation from a target occupancy in handling calls of the determined call type for each agent of the at least some agents located at each satellite site; means for on the basis of said deviation, identifying an agent with the largest relative under-utilization or smallest relative over—utilization, or identifying a group of agents of a satellite site with, compared to other sites, the largest relative under—utilization or smallest relative over- utilization and means for transferring the call from the master site to the satellite site of the identified agent or group of agents using an Internet Protocol address associated with a caller of the call and a Voice—over—IP application.

14. The method of claim 13 further including the step of measuring the system dynamics.

15. The apparatus for distributing calls as in claim 13 or 14, wherein the means for detecting a call at the master site comprise a suitably adapted communication processor.

16. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein the means for determining a call type of the call comprise a suitably adapted call analyzer.

17. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 16, wherein the means for contemporaneously measuring the deviation from target occupancy comprise a suitably adapted arithmetic unit.

18. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 17, wherein the means for identifying an agent or group of agents comprise a suitably adapted comparator.

19. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 18, wherein the means for transferring the call from the master site comprise a suitably adapted communication

20. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 19 further comprising means for assigning the call to the identified agent or one of the identified group of agents at the satellite site where the agent or group are located.

21. The apparatus for distributing calls as in claim 20, wherein the means for assigning the call to the identified agent or group comprise a suitably adapted processor.

22. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any" one of claims 13 to 19, wherein, where the apparatus comprises means for identifying an agent rather than a group of agents, the apparatus further comprises means for assigning the call to a different agent at the satellite site where the identified agent is located.

23. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 19 further comprising means for requesting that the master site simultaneously queue the call at a plurality of satellite sites.

24. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 19 further comprising means for overflowing the call fronl the satellite site where the identified agent or group are located to another satellite site.

25. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 19 wherein the means for transferring the call to 35 l0 the satellite site where the identified. agent or group are located further comprises means for transferring a call control file of the call to the satellite site.

26. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 19 wherein the means for determining a call type further comprises means for receiving call associated information from an associated public switched telephone network.

27. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 19 further comprising means for subtracting the actual occupancy from the target occupancy of each agent to determine the relative difference for the agent.

28. The apparatus for distributing calls as in any one of claims 13 to 19 further comprising means for periodically transferring the actual occupancy and the target occupancy from a satellite site to the master site.

29. The apparatus for distributing calls as in claim 28 further comprising means for forming the target occupancy and actual occupancy at each satellite site of the plurality of satellite sites.

30. A method of distributing public switched telephone calls and Internet telephony calls in an automatic call distribution system, such method comprising the steps of: detecting a call at a master site of the automatic call distribution system; determining a call type of the call; 30 retrieving a target occupancy and an actual occupancy for the determined call type for each of a plurality of agents located at each of a plurality of satellite sites; assigning the call to an agent that is most under— utilized or least over—utilized with respect to the difference between the target occupancy and actual occupancy, or assigning the call to a group of agents of a satellite site that are compared to other sites, the most under—utilized or least over—utilized with respect to the difference between the target occupancy and actual occupancy; and transferring the call to the satellite site of the agent or group of agents using an Internet Protocol address associated with a caller of the call and. a Voice—over—IP application.

31. The method of claim 30 further including the step of measuring the system dynamics.

32. A method of distributing calls in an automatic call distribution system according to claim 1 or claim 30, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

33. An apparatus for distributing calls in an automatic call distribution. system according to claim 13, substantially as herein described with reference to or as shown in the accompanying drawings. MACLACHLAN & DONALDSON, Applicants’ Agents, 47 Merrion Square,