JP2003348240A - Home agent system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To secure the quality of operator's service to a customer by efficiently transmitting customer information to an operator of a home agent arranged on the outside of a contact center. <P>SOLUTION: Customer information concerned with a transfer call is provided to the home agent 50 through a public network 1. Or the customer information concerned with the transfer call is transmitted from a contact center server device in the contact center to the home agent 50. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a home agent system, and more particularly to a home agent system which can efficiently transmit customer information to an operator of a home agent located outside the premises of a contact center. A home and home service that can maintain the quality of service provided by operators while improving and reducing operating costs.
The present invention relates to an agent operation method, a contact center server device, an operator terminal device, and a computer program relating to these.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-317817 discloses a technique relating to a distributed call center in which a call received from a public line is transferred to a remote site. In this technique, a local site and a remote site are connected by a LAN (Local Area Network). Then, the operator who has received the transfer accesses the database at the remote site via the LAN and searches for information on the customer.

[0003] According to the technique, an operator is locally operated.
A distributed call center located at a site and a remote site can be provided, so that the operation efficiency of the call center can be improved and the operation cost can be reduced.

[0004]

However, information on the customer is obtained by accessing the database from the transfer destination after the transfer. In this technique, the access is via a LAN, which places restrictions on the location of local and remote sites.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems. The present invention enables efficient transmission of customer information to an operator of a home agent located outside the premises of a contact center, thereby improving the operation efficiency of a call center. It is an object of the present invention to provide a home agent system capable of maintaining the quality of service for an operator's customer while improving the service and reducing the operating cost.

[0006]

First, a home agent operating method according to a first aspect of the present invention provides an exchange for exchanging and controlling a call between a customer and an operator via a public network.
A telephone device that stores a database for storing information about the customer and a contact center server device that provides the customer information read from the database to the operator terminal at the contact center side, and enables a telephone call via a public network. And a computer device that can be connected to the contact center server device via the public line network is arranged on the home agent side, and the exchange exchanges a call with a customer connected via the public line network. The information is transferred to the home agent via the public line network, and customer information relating to the transferred call is provided from the contact center server device side to the home agent via the public line network. By doing so, the above problem has been solved.

In the present invention, the term "communication device" refers to a device for making a telephone call, and various types have been provided in recent years, and the present invention is not specifically limited thereto. The calling device first includes a normal telephone. In addition, personal computers and PDAs (Person
al Digital Assistants), etc., with a microphone for calls, headphones or earphones, etc., which is used as a telephone that uses an analog telephone line for normal circuit switching, or an IP network or Internet network as a communication path. It may be used as a so-called IP phone.

The public network in the present invention is not limited to a general circuit-switched communication network, but may be an IP network or the Internet. The exchange according to the present invention includes PBX (Private Branch eXchange), IP
Switches and the like are included. Further, the exchange in the present invention may be an exchange included in a public line network, such as a central office exchange. For example, CBR (Carrier Based Routin)
In g), the function of controlling the exchanges in the public line network is provided to the outsider, for example, a general company that operates or uses a contact center, by the person who operates the public line network and presents its specifications. Offering has also been done. The present invention is not limited to this, for example, SS7, U
DP / IP, X. There are standard protocols such as 25.

Next, a home agent operating method according to a second aspect of the present invention provides an exchange for exchanging and controlling a call between a customer and an operator via a public line network, a database for storing information about the customer, and A contact center server device for transmitting customer information read from the database to the operator terminal is arranged at the contact center side, and a call device capable of making a call via a public line network, and connected to the contact center server device A possible computer device is arranged on the home agent side, and the switch transfers a call with a customer connected via the public line network to the home agent side via the public line network, and The contact center server device transmits customer information relating to the transferred call to the home agent. By the way, it is obtained by solving the above problems.

Next, a home agent operating method according to a third aspect of the present invention provides an exchange for switching and controlling a call between a customer and an operator via a public line network, a database for storing information about the customer, and A contact center server device for providing customer information read from a database to an operator terminal is arranged at the contact center side, a communication device capable of making a call via a public network, and the contact device via a public network. -A computer device connectable to the center server device is arranged on the home agent side, and a call with a customer connected via the public line network is communicated from the home agent side via the public line network. The information is transferred to the operator at the contact center, and the customer information related to the transferred call is transmitted to the contact center. By that to be forwarded to the contact center side of the operator terminal via the public network from over server apparatus, which solves the above problems.

A home agent operating method according to a fourth aspect of the present invention provides an exchange for exchanging and controlling a call between a customer and an operator via a public line network, a database for storing information about the customer, and the database. A contact center server device that provides customer information read from an operator terminal to the operator terminal is arranged at the contact center side, and a call device capable of making a call via a public line network, and connectable to the contact center server device A computer device is arranged on the home agent side, and a call with a customer connected via the public line network is transferred from the home agent side to the operator on the contact center side via the public line network. And the customer information relating to the transfer call is transmitted from the contact center server device side to the By which is adapted to transmit to the tact center side of the operator terminal is obtained by solving the above problems.

In the home agent operating method, data for each customer representing the customer information is stored in a key
The above problem has been solved by being configured by transfer data used as data and detailed data.

Next, the contact center server device according to the fifth invention of the present application transmits a call during connection between a customer and an operator via a public line network to another operator outside the premises via a public line network. When the transfer is performed, the transfer command is output to the exchange, and the information on the customer read from the database is transmitted to the operator terminal of the latter operator via the public line network. Thereby, the above-mentioned problem has been solved.

The present invention does not specifically limit the above-mentioned exchange, to which the transfer command is output, to the above-mentioned exchange. As described above, when the call transfer of the present invention is performed by the exchange in the public line network, the exchange of the output destination is the exchange in the public line network. Alternatively, when the call transfer of the present invention is performed by the PBX, the output destination exchange is the PBX.

Further, in the operator terminal device according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, a call between a customer who has been connected via a public line network and another operator outside the premises can be established via a public line network. When a signal notifying of the arrival of the transfer is input when the transfer is made to the own operator, information about the transfer customer transmitted via the public network is sent to the latter operator. The above-mentioned problem is solved by displaying on the display.

Further, a computer program according to a seventh aspect of the present invention solves the above-mentioned problem by providing a computer program for realizing the first to sixth aspects.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention will be briefly described.

According to the present invention, customer information relating to a transfer call is provided to a home agent via a public line network. Therefore, the degree of freedom in arranging the contact center and the home agent is improved.

Alternatively, according to the present invention, customer information relating to a transferred call is stored in a contact center in a contact center.
The server transmits to the home agent. Therefore, the transfer of the call and the transmission of the customer information relating to the call can be performed simultaneously or almost simultaneously. For this reason, even if the call can be transferred, it is possible to avoid troubles such as the customer information being unable to be transmitted to the operator due to an abnormality in the information transmission path or the like. In addition, since the customer information at the time of the call transfer is transmitted to the operator terminal, it is possible to improve the accuracy of time coincidence between the information content time and the call transfer time. If the latest customer information is needed after the transfer of the call, it may be referred to again at the discretion of the operator.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently transmit customer information to an operator of a home agent located outside the premises of a contact center, thereby improving the operation efficiency of a call center and reducing operating costs. While
It is possible to maintain the service quality of the operator for the customer.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a home agent system according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, a customer telephone 2 is connected to a contact center 10 and a telephone 3 of an operator of a home agent 50 via a public line network 1.
Further, various information including the information of the customer of the telephone 2 is transmitted between the contact center 10 and the home agent 50 via the public network 1.

In the present embodiment, as described below, a call with the customer's telephone 2 is connected (with data) or transferred to each individual operator together with data of information on the customer (consult). Transfer (with data)).

A1. When there is a new incoming call from the customer's telephone 2 to the contact center 10 in the inbound business.

A2. When a new connection is made to the customer's telephone 2 in the automatic outbound call.

A3. When an operator instructs to transfer a call connection for a customer on a call to another operator regardless of the inbound business and the outbound business.

The above-mentioned A3 is a transfer after a call is once made with the operator. The transfer has the following patterns in the present embodiment.

B1. A call with a customer once handled by an operator in the contact center 10 is transferred to another operator in the contact center 10.

B2. The call with the customer once handled by the operator in the contact center 10 is transferred to the operator of the home agent 50.

B3. Once the home agent 50 operator has responded to the customer, the call is transferred to the operator in the contact center 10.

B4. Once the home agent 50 operator has transferred a call with the corresponding customer to another home agent 50 operator.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the contact center 10 according to the present embodiment.

In this figure, the contact center 10
Is a dial-up router 12 and a contact
Center server device 13 and web server device 14
, A database server device 15, a statistics monitoring terminal device 16, and a PBX (Private Branch eXchange) 17
And TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol /
It has LANs 61 and 62 according to the Internet Protocol, and a telephone 3 and an operator terminal 4 provided for each operator as indicated by a broken line frame. The telephone 3 is an extension telephone.

The operator terminal 4 has a terminal function unit 57 and a remote function unit 58. The terminal function unit 57
It provides a function as a terminal for displaying information to the operator and for inputting by the operator. The remote function unit 58 provides a specific process according to the present invention as described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The PBX 17, the operator terminal 4, the contact center server device 13, the web server device 14, the database server device 15, and the statistics monitoring terminal device 16 are connected to a LAN 62. Also, the dial-up router 12 and the web server device 1
4 is connected to the LAN 61.

The dial-up router 12 is an MO
Use of voice communication lines by DEM (modulator-demodulator), INS64 and ADSL (asymmetric digital s
ubscriber line), a router having a function of performing data communication by OCN or the like.

The PBX 17 is a private branch exchange (PBX) for exchanging and controlling a call between the telephone 2 of the customer via the public line network 1 and the telephone 3 of the operator in the premises of the contact center 10. Further, the PBX 17 has an exchange control function of transferring the customer's telephone 2 arriving via the public line network 1 to the telephone 3 of the operator of the home agent 50. Further, the PBX 17 also has an exchange control function of transferring a call which is once busy by an operator via the public line network 1 to another operator. Between the telephone 3 of the operator of the contact center 10 and the telephone 3 of the operator of the home agent 50, or via the public network 1. It also has a function of transferring a call between the telephone 3 of the operator of the home agent 50 and the telephone 2 of the currently connected customer via the home agent 50.

The operator terminal 4 displays the information of the customer to which the operator corresponds and the like for the operator. As the operator terminal 4, a general personal computer is specifically used in the present embodiment. A general browser program is used for various displays to the operator.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the contact center server device 13 of the present embodiment.

As shown, the contact center
The server device 13 includes a contact center control device 20
, A home agent control device 25, and a statistical information control device 30.

The contact center control device 20 has a CT
Based on I (Computer Telephony Integration) technology, PBX is required for operators to perform inbound and outbound operations at contact centers.
17 and searches the database server device 15 for information on the connected customers and the like. The contact center control device 20 includes a paging control unit 22 that performs automatic dial prediction transmission control in outbound business, a database control unit 23 that obtains information required at the time of transmission from the database server device 15, It has a contact center control unit 21 that controls the database control unit 23 and controls the entire inbound business and outbound business.

The home agent control device 25 has a home agent control unit 26 and a database control unit 27. Home agent control unit 26
Has a function of issuing an instruction to the PBX 17. The telephone 2 of the customer is connected to the telephone 3 of the operator in the premises of the contact center 10 or the home agent 5.
When connecting to the telephone 3 of the operator 0, the PBX 17 has a function of instructing the PBX 17 to which telephone 3 to connect. The instruction includes an instruction to the PBX 17 for transferring a call which is once busy by an operator to another operator. Further, the home agent control unit 26 has a function of transmitting the information obtained by searching the database server device 15 via the database control unit 27 to the operator terminal 4 of the corresponding operator and displaying the information. I have.

The statistical information control device 30 has a statistical information control unit 32, a statistical database unit 34, and a statistical memory unit 35. The statistical information control unit 32 collects information on the operation status of the inbound business and the outbound business, and generates information for obtaining statistics of the business performance of these businesses. Such processing of the statistical information control unit 32 is performed by the statistical database unit 34 and the statistical memory unit 35.
The information obtained by the processing is stored in the statistical database unit 34.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the home agent 50 according to this embodiment.

As shown, the home agent 50 includes a dial-up router 52, a telephone control unit 53, a terminal function unit 57 and a remote function unit 58.
Terminal 4 having a TCP / I to which dial-up router 52 and operator terminal 4 are connected
It has a LAN 63 by P and a telephone 3 which is an outside line telephone. The operator terminal 4 and the telephone controller 53 are connected by a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. Between the dial-up router 52 and the telephone control device 53, and between the telephone control device 53 and the telephone 3, there is an analog telephone line.

Terminal function unit 57 and remote function unit 58
Is the operator terminal 4 at the contact center 10
Is the same as

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a transfer data management table used in this embodiment.

The transfer data management table is provided in the remote function unit 58 of the operator terminal 4. Regardless of whether the operator is located at the contact center 10 or at the home agent 50, the operator needs to know the information of the corresponding customer when dealing with the customer. In the present embodiment, such customer information is
Stored in a transfer data management table as shown in FIG. 5,
The information is referred to by the terminal function unit 57 and the remote function unit 58 in the operator terminal 4 and provided to the operator.

In FIG. 5, each row of the transfer data management table is data for each customer representing customer information.
Such data for each customer is composed of transfer data used as key data and detailed data containing specific information on each customer.

In the present embodiment, the detailed data includes data representing a customer identification number, a name, a telephone number, and other information. The data of the customer identification number is a number assigned to identify each customer in relation to the business of the contact center 10 or the like.
Also, the name data is the personal name or corporate name of the customer,
The telephone number data is the telephone number of the customer.

The information to be written into such a transfer data management table refers to the database server unit 15 via the database control unit 27 when the customer's call is connected to the telephone 3 of the operator, and the home agent control unit. 26 are organized. In addition, the home agent control unit 26 transmits the organized data to the operator terminal 4 of the corresponding operator via the public network 1. Then, the information data is written into such a transfer data management table. Thereafter, information on the customer of the call connected to the operator is read from the transfer data management table in the remote function unit 58 of the operator terminal 4 of the operator and displayed to the operator.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the transfer source side process and the transfer destination side process in the present embodiment.

In the inbound business, the transfer source side process shown in FIG.
When a new incoming call is received, and when a new connection is made to the customer's telephone 2 in automatic outbound business calling,
When the operator instructs to transfer a call connection for a customer who is talking to another operator regardless of the inbound business and the outbound business, the home agent control device 25 to which the customer's call related to these is transferred. This is performed in the home agent control unit 26. By this processing, the call with the customer is connected to the specific operator, and the customer information of the call is transferred to the operator terminal 4 of the operator.

On the other hand, the transfer destination processing is performed mainly on the remote function unit 58 in the operator terminal 4 of the operator to which the call is connected. By this processing, information on the customer is provided to the operator based on the information transmitted to the transfer data management table.

In the processing on the transfer source side in FIG. 6, first, in step 120, the home agent control unit 26 stores the information stored in the database server device 15 via the database control unit 27, such as waiting for a call or during a call. Information such as the operator status, the tasks assigned to each operator, and the skills of each operator.
Then, the home agent control unit 26 determines the transfer destination operator to be connected in the transfer source side process.

Next, in step 122, the home agent control unit 26 transmits the customer information of the call to be transmitted to the database server 1 via the database control unit 27.
Refer to No. 5 and organize. In addition, the home agent control unit 26 transmits the organized data to the operator terminal 4 of the corresponding operator via the public network 1. Then, the information data is written into such a transfer data management table.

In step 124, it is determined whether or not all data writing to the transfer data management table in step 122 has been normally performed and data transmission has been completed normally. If it is determined that the operation was successfully performed, step 126 is performed.
Proceed to. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is an abnormality in the writing for some reason and the data transmission is not completed normally, the process returns to step 120 again, thereby changing the transfer destination of the customer's call.

In step 126, the home agent control unit 26 transfers the transfer data, which is a part of the data for each customer, used as key data when referencing the transfer data management table, to the call destination transfer operator. Terminal 4
Send to Also, the home agent control unit 26
Outputs an instruction to the PBX 17 and transfers the call to the telephone 3 of the corresponding operator.

The transfer data described above is not specifically limited in the present invention, but is the caller number of the customer in the present embodiment. The calling number is DNIS (Dial
edNumber Identification Service) and ANI (Autom
atic Number Identification), or may be obtained by another method.

In the present embodiment, the call is transmitted to the home agent 50 from the contact center 10 side, and the call is related to the business related to the contact center 10 by the caller ID notification. Is implied to the operator terminal 4 of the home agent 50 of the transfer destination.

Next, in the transfer destination side processing of FIG. 6, first, in step 140, the telephone 3 of the transfer destination operator is set.
Then, the transferred call is received. In addition, at the time of the incoming call, if the incoming call is a call of a call transferred by the home agent control unit 26, that is, if the call is not a call from another call destination, before and after the call, the call destination Transfer data serving as key data when referring to the transfer data management table is received by the operator terminal 4 of the operator.

In step 142, it is determined whether transfer data corresponding to the incoming call has been received. If it is determined that the transfer data has been received, the transfer data received this time is acquired in step 144, and in step 148, detailed data of the transfer data management table searched using the transfer data as key data is searched. On the other hand, if it is determined that the call has not been received, it is determined that the call has been received from another party without notification of the caller ID, and it is considered that the call has been received from another destination other than the contact center 10. 14
In step 6, the non-forwarding incoming call process is performed, and the transfer destination side process in FIG. The non-forwarding incoming call processing includes displaying to the operator that the current incoming call is other than the work related to the contact center 10, and updating the transfer data management table and other information.

In step 150 following step 148, it is determined whether or not there is the corresponding detailed data in the transfer data management table by searching using the transfer data received this time as key data. If it is determined that the corresponding detailed data is present, in step 152, processing based on the detailed data, such as displaying customer information to the operator, is performed. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no corresponding detailed data, it is determined that there is a caller ID notification but there is an incoming call from another party, and in step 154, non-forwarding incoming call processing is performed. After these steps 152 or 154, the transfer destination side processing of FIG. 6 ends.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the present invention can be effectively applied.

[0066]

According to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently transmit customer information to a home agent operator located outside the premises of a contact center, thereby improving the operation efficiency of a call center and reducing operating costs. In addition, the quality of service for the customer of the operator can be maintained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a home agent system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a contact center 10 of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a contact center server device 13 of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a home agent 50 of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a transfer data management table used in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a transfer source side process and a transfer destination side process in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Public line network 2,3 ... telephone 4: Operator terminal 10. Contact center 12, 52… Dial-up router 13. Contact center server device 14 Web server device 15 ... Database server device 16 ... Statistical monitoring terminal device 17… PBX 20 ... Contact center control device 21 ... Contact center control unit 22 ... Paging control unit 23, 27: Database control unit 25 ... Home agent control device 26 ... Home agent control unit 30 ... Statistical information control device 32 ... Statistical information control unit 34 ... Statistics database section 35 ... Static memory 50 ... Home Agent 53 ... Telephone control device 57: Terminal function unit 58 Remote function unit 61-63 ... LAN

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Claims (8)

[Claims] An exchange for exchanging and controlling a call between a customer and an operator via a public line network, a database for storing information about the customer, and a contact for providing customer information read from the database to an operator terminal.
A center server device is arranged on the contact center side, and a communication device capable of making a call via a public line network and a computer device connectable to the contact center server device via a public line network are connected to a home server. The exchange transfers a call with a customer connected via a public line network to the home agent via the public line network, and the customer information related to the transferred call is The home center via the public line network from the contact center server device side.
A home agent operation method characterized by being provided to an agent. 2. An exchange for exchanging and controlling a call between a customer and an operator via a public network, a database for storing information on the customer, and a contact for transmitting customer information read from the database to an operator terminal.
A center server device is arranged on the contact center side, and a communication device capable of making a call via a public line network, and a computer device connectable to the contact center server device are arranged on the home agent side. The exchange transfers a call with a customer connected via a network to the home agent via a public line network, and transmits customer information relating to the transferred call to the contact center server. A method of operating a home agent, wherein a device transmits the information to the home agent. 3. An exchange for exchanging and controlling a call between a customer and an operator via a public line network, a database for storing information about the customer, and a contact for providing customer information read from the database to an operator terminal.
A center server device is arranged on the contact center side, and a communication device capable of making a call via a public line network and a computer device connectable to the contact center server device via a public line network are connected to a home server. A call with a customer located on the agent side and connected via the public line network is transferred from the home agent side to the operator on the contact center side via the public line network and the transfer call Wherein the customer information is transferred from the contact center server device side to the operator terminal on the contact center side via a public line network. 4. An exchange for exchanging and controlling a call between a customer and an operator via a public line network, a database for storing information about the customer, and a contact for providing customer information read from the database to an operator terminal.
A center server device is arranged on the contact center side, and a communication device capable of making a call via a public line network and a computer device connectable to the contact center server device are arranged on the home agent side, A call with a customer connected via a network is transferred from the home agent side to an operator on the contact center side via a public line network, and customer information relating to the transferred call is transmitted to the A home agent operation method, characterized in that a transmission is made from a contact center server device side to an operator terminal on the contact center side. 5. The home agent operating method according to claim 1, wherein the data for each customer representing the customer information is used as key data, , A home agent operating method. 6. When a call during connection between a customer and an operator via the public line network is transferred to another operator outside the premises via the public line network, the transfer command is sent to the exchange. A contact center server device for transmitting the information about the customer read from the database and transmitting the information to the operator terminal of the latter operator via a public line network. 7. When a call between a customer who has been connected via a public line network and another operator outside the premises is transferred to his / her own operator via the public line network, When a signal notifying of the arrival of the transfer is input, information on the customer of the transfer transmitted via the public network is displayed to the latter operator. Operator terminal device. 8. A home agent operating method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, a contact center server device according to claim 6, or an operator terminal device according to claim 7. A computer program for performing either.