IES66411B2 - Automated polling system - Google Patents

Abstract

An automated telephone polling system comprises a switch/dialler unit 11, a set of operator sections 15-1 to 15-n, a call controller 13 which can initiate advance dialling of a new call while a current call is proceeding, and a database unit 11 containing customer information. A script unit 12 presents the operator with a sequence of scripts (screen displays) to guide them through calls. The call controller 13 includes a script logic unit which is responsive to the script currently being displayed and the progress of the operator through that script to determine when to initiate advance dialling of the next call, e.g. by calculating the time elapsed since a script was entered and the number of items remaining to be entered into that script. The script logic unit is coupled to a programmable conditions unit. The initiation of advance calling may be forbidden, required, or conditionally permitted for different scripts.

Description

AUTOMATED POLLING SYSTEM This invention relates to automated telephone polling systems for telesales and the like.

Telephone polling is the activity of selling goods (telesales), and more generally conducting campaigns (which will normally be concerned with selling but may be concerned also, or instead, with information gathering and opinion surveying) , by telephone. An agent or operator (or more generally a team of operators) telephones customers (or more generally clients) to canvass for orders, obtain information or opinion, etc.

Telephone polling systems are now generally automated. A computer holds a database comprising a list of customers with various details about them, including their telephone numbers. The computer is linked to the telephone switch, so that calls can be dialled to the customers automatically using the stored telephone numbers.

The details of the customer being called are also displayed to the operator on a display screen. The operator is presented with the relevant details of the customer, and can update those details, e.g. to enter new orders. The operator is normally presented with a sequence of screen displays termed scripts, which are presented in a suitable order, which may be fully predetermined in a fixed sequence or may be arranged in a branching sequence with the relevant branch being selected in dependence on the progress of the call. A typical sequence of scripts is: Wait for call; Display - 2 customer details; Enter customer details; Product enquiry; Take order; Promote new line; and Complete call. Each script will normally provide certain prompts to the operator, display certain information (regarding e.g. the customer or the products being promoted), and allow for or require the entry of certain information (e.g. the identification and numbers of products being ordered).

Normally, the next call will be dialled by the computer when the current call is completed. This automatic dialling and automatic recall of a customer's details from the customer database held on the computer is able to achieve very significant increases in the efficiency of the operators.

A development of simple automated telephone polling systems of this type is predictive dialling. In this, the system attempts to predict when an operator will become free while a customer is actually being dealt with, and dials the number of the next customer in advance. The waiting time for reaching that next customer after the current call is terminated is thereby reduced. Various algorithms are used to determine when to start the advance dialling, normally based on the elapsed time since the current call was started and the average call length, either for all operators or for the particular operator concerned. More sophisticated algorithms make use of probability theory by looking at all agents and the call distribution profile to compute the dial-ahead time.

There are two major disadvantages to these systems.

The prediction is based on call duration (minimum, maximum, average, or some variant of these). This means that call prediction is no more than an intelligent guess. Further, the system may connect to the next customer with no operator available. Apart from this being a nuisance, it is illegal in many countries.

According to the present invention there is provided an automated telephone polling system comprising a switch/dialler unit, at least one operator station, a script unit for presenting the operator with a sequence of scripts (screen displays), a call controller which can initiate advance dialling of a new call while a current call is proceeding, and a database unit containing customer information, wherein the call controller includes a script logic unit which is responsive to the script currently being displayed and the progress of the operator through that script to determine when to initiate advance dialling of the next call.

The present invention thus overcomes the defects of the known systems by determining the termination time of a call based on the current status of the call. Because of the integration of the telephony, database, and call scripting, the system knows whether or not a call is nearing termination, and based on this knowledge, it can start dialling the next call ahead of the completion of the current call with little risk of completing the dialling before the operator becomes free, or before the current call reaches interruptible status.

An automated telephone polling system embodying the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the system; Fig. 2 is a flow diagram of a typical simple script sequence; and Fig. 3 is a more detailed block diagram of the call controller of the system.

Fig. 1 is a general block diagram of the system which accommodates several operators. The system will generally be implemented using distributed system architecture with a network connecting the various parts of the system; for example, the switch/dialler may be an external component, connected by a network link, and the operator stations may be PCs (personal computers of standard type), together of course with telephone headsets. However, the system may of course be implemented on a single computer if desired.

The system comprises several modules coupled to a distribution bus 10. The main modules are a switch/dialler 11, a script unit 12, a call controller 13, a database unit 14, and a set of operator stations 15-1 to 15-n. The switch/dialler 11, script unit 12, call controller 13, and database unit 14 together form a call centre server IS. Each of the operator stations 15 is normally a PC with a telephone headset, connected as a client to the call centre server.

The database unit 14 contains a set of records, one for each customer. Each record includes the customer's telephone number, together with other information relating to the customer (e.g. name, address, account details, order details, and a record of past transactions).

The switch/dialler unit 11 is coupled to the operator stations 15 and to a set of telephone lines (trunk or PABX lines) through which calls can be made to customers, and is controlled by the call controller unit 13. To dial a call, the customer's number is passed to the switch/dialler unit 11 from the customer's entry in the database unit 14 via an operator station 15. The switch-dialler unit receives the customer's telephone number and automatically dials it; once the number has been dialled, the switch/dialler unit coupled the line to the telephone headset at the operator station.

As discussed above, the switch/dialler unit may receive the number of the next customer to be called while the current call is still in progress. While the current call is in progress on its line, the switch/dialler unit selects a free telephone line and dials that next number on that line.

The call script unit 12 contains the sequence of call scripts, together with control means for controlling their display. Each script is a screen display which can be displayed to an operator. For each operator, the scripts can be called interactively in a suitable sequence, the various scripts being’ suitably linked together and containing control information which allows the operator to proceed through the sequence appropriately in the course of a call to a customer. In general, each script will provide certain prompts to the operator, display certain information, and allow for or require the entry of certain information.

Fig. 2 shows a typical sequence of scripts SCR1 to SCR7, with each box representing a script (i.e. a screen display). The sequence starts with an initial script SCR1, Wait for call. When a call is initiated, a customer is thereby selected, and the sequence proceeds to script SCR2, display customer details, and/or script SCR3, Enter customer details. For these scripts, those details of the customer being called which are available from the customer record in the database unit 14 are displayed. The operator is presented with the relevant details of the customer, and can update those details or add further information. When the customer details have been verified, the call script unit proceeds to the next two scripts, SCR4 (Product enquiry) and SCR5 (Take order). In these scripts, the operator enters the details of any orders placed by the customer. These scripts are followed by a general promotional script SCR6, Promote new line, and finally by a closing script SCR7, Complete call.

Returning to Fig. 1, the call controller 13 controls the overall operation of the system, and has 3 main functions. First, it initiates the dialling (through the switch/dialler 11) to connect the outbound line to the operator's workstation. Second, it monitors (for each operator) the current status of the current call and, using this information, initiates dialling ahead for the next customer before the completion of the current call. Third, it detects line busy or unavailable conditions and initiates the dialling of the next number from the list in that event.

In more detail, the call operator 13 monitors the current call as follows. It knows which script the operator is currently working on, and it monitors the status of that script. It detects the termination of the current call (hang-up), by either the operator or customer, by a hang-up (termination) detector 20 (Fig. 3). And it detects certain keywords in the conversation, for example thank you, bye and good-bye, by using voice recognition, by a keyword detector unit 21, connected (like the hang-up detector ) to the telephone line. When unit 21 operates, the call controller will alert the operator and start to dial the next customer.

If the operator wishes to abort the dialling, they may do so by suitably signalling to the call controller, e.g. by clicking of a button. Otherwise, the current call will be terminated when the new customer answers.

The call controller monitors the progress of the current call by means of a script logic unit 22, which is coupled to a clock unit 23 and. a logic conditions unit 24. The unit 22 monitors the status of each script by using various variables relating to the scripts. The actual rules used to decide on the time to start dialling the next customer may thus be changed by the user.

Each script has a particular termination priority, which is used to allow or prevent the call controller from terminating the call. For example, script SCR5 (Fig. 2) may have a Termination Priority code of Terminate Not Allowed, script SCR6 may have a code of Terminate If Essential, and SCR7 may have a code of Terminate OK. This indicates to the controller that it may terminate SCR7 freely, and it terminates SCR6 after a warning and a pause, but it may never terminate SCR5 (the operator will have the option to abort the dialling). Alternatively nut, the controller will never dial ahead if the call is in script SCR5, it may start to dial towards the end of script SCR6, and it will dial in script SCR7.

For a script in which dialling ahead is allowed on certain conditions, the conditions which are used to make the decision are stored in the logic conditions unit 24.

The decision as to when to dial in script SCR6 can be made on the basis of the time elapsed since the script was entered and the number of items remaining to be entered into the script. The total number of items to be entered is known, so from the elapsed time and the number of items already entered (or still to be entered), the expected time to the completion of the script can be calculated, when this expected time falls below a predetermined value, the call controller can initiate the advance dialling of the next call.

More generally, the variables which can be used by the conditions may include the following: the time since the script was entered; the amount of data remaining to be entered on the script; the minimum, average, and maximum duration of the script; the amount of time spent in the script; the number of data fields remaining to be entered; the minimum, average, and maximum time to enter each data field.

The conditions may weight the variables according to the particular operator, the particular customer, and the particular script. This means that experienced operators may be put on minimum times whereas novice operators will be put on maximum times.

Typical conditions or calculations which may be used include taking the time as: the minimum of (a) the expected remaining script time and (b) the sum of the remaining data items multiplied by the average data item time; and the sum of the remaining data items multiplied by the minimum data item time. it is also possible to use programming constructs such as increasing the time by a given amount if the average script duration exceeds a given value.

The controller will compute the time for the next script (if any) in the same way and it will start to dial the next customer when the computed time reaches a predetermined value, say 10 seconds (giving the operator the option to abort the dialling as previously mentioned. If the customer answers before completion of the current call, the controller will alert the operator. The operator can then put the current call on hold and take the new call, or terminate the current call with a message and accept the new call. Call terminations of this kind are preferably logged, with the controller increasing the next-call-dial-time if the termination rate exceeds a given level.

At the start of a call, the operator may specify that they will be going on break at the end of the call, in which case predictive dialling for this operator becomes disabled.

The variables which are evaluated by the conditions may be predetermined, but are preferably adjustable by the call controller in the light of previous experience. This may be done, for example, by using adapted weighting, with the previous average being multiplied by a constant k slightly less than X and having the most recent value multiplied by (1-k) and added in. Different weightings may be used for different customers, since some customers will be slower than others, and customer weightings may be similarly adjusted for campaigns which regularly phone the same customer.

This technique automatically takes into account factors such as the increase in performance of the operator as they become familiar with the campaign. The controller will in effect learn the characteristics of each script and operator combination, and can decide when it is appropriate to start advance dialling on the basis of the expected time remaining in the current script and the time for the next script if there is a next script.

Claims (5)

1. An automated telephone polling system comprising a switch/dialler unit, at least one operator station, a script unit for presenting the operator with a sequence of scripts (screen displays), a call controller which can initiate advance dialling of a new call while a current call is proceeding, and a database unit containing customer information, wherein the call controller includes a script logic unit which is responsive to the script currently being displayed and the progress of the operator through that script to determine when to initiate advance dialling of the next call.

2. A system according to claim 1 wherein the call controller includes a voice recognition unit which detects standard words or phrases used at the end of calls.

3. A system according to either previous claim wherein the script logic unit is coupled to a programmable conditions unit.

4.. A system according to any previous claim wherein each of the scripts has an associated termination priority indicator, the indicators including ones forbidding, requiring, or conditionally permitting the initiation of advance dialling.

5. A system according to any previous claim wherein the script logic unit calculates the time elapsed since a script was entered and the number of items remaining to be entered into that script.