WO2000005868A1

WO2000005868A1 - Call distribution systems

Info

Publication number: WO2000005868A1
Application number: PCT/GB1999/002296
Authority: WO
Inventors: Colin Windsor Blanchard
Original assignee: British Telecommunications Public Limited Company
Priority date: 1998-07-23
Filing date: 1999-07-16
Publication date: 2000-02-03
Also published as: AU5049899A

Abstract

A call distribution system includes an intelligent call router (64) responsive to data held in a scratchpad platform (65) to connect calls to operators of a call centre or a network based virtual call centre. The scratchpad collects data based on calling line identity (CLI), the data defining either the last destination to which a call originating from the CLI occurred or data entered by the last operator to handle such a call. If the preferred operator is not available then routin may be determined from an ordered list of operators.

Description

CALL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

The present invention relates to call distribution systems and more particularly but not exclusively to such systems implemented by way of the public switched telecommunications network (PSTN).

Increasingly telemarketing services and service providers use operators located at a plurality of locations and may use home workers distributed across the country with computers linked to a central point.

This can result in consecutive calls relating to a single marketing instance being directed to different operators. This can result in problems or wasted time if complete instructions or queries arise. An operator may take time to familiarise themselves with the data provided and caching of data locally in respect of particular clients may not be practical.

According to the present invention there is provided a call distribution system including means responsive to an incoming call selectively to connect the call to one of a plurality of available operators such that each operator handles a balanced traffic load, the call distribution system further including means responsive to information which identifies the source of the call (CLI) to determine from data stored in respect of previous calls whether a current call originates from a known source and if so to determine from the stored data at least one preferred operator to which the call should be connected.

Preferably a telecommunications network includes a plurality of service switching points and at least one service control point, the service control point being responsive to digits defining a network destination to determine whether a call is to a virtual call centre and, if so, to cause calls for said destination to be connected in accordance with a routing plan determined from data stored in respect of previous calls, said data identifying at least a preferred operator for connection of calls from specified calling lines.

The invention also provides a method of handling calls directed to a plurality of available operators, the method including identifying the source of a call, comparing the source of the call with a plurality of known call sources, determining from data stored in respect of a call originating from a known source a routing plan and directing the call in accordance with the routing plan so determined. A telecommunications network including a call distribution system in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawing of which:

Figure 1 shows a so called intelligent network; Figure 2 shows schematic interpretation of the network of Figure 1 ;

Figure 3 shows schematically a telemarketing service platform; Figure 4 shows a typical existing call distribution arrangement; Figure 5 shows a flow chart used in the telemarketing platform of Figure 3 to implement the invention; Figure 6 shows a more detailed block schematic diagram of a telemarketing service arrangement; and

Figure 7 shows message flows between parts of the telemarketing platform of figure 6.

Referring first to Figure 1 , a typical intelligent network may comprise a number of service switching points such as digital main switching units (DMSUs)

2, fully interconnected to provide network service. Customers are connected by way of telephone lines 3 to digital local exchanges (DLEs) 1 so that any customer line may be linked to any other customer line either directly through a single DLE or by way of one or more DMSUs 2. In a so-called intelligent network, the service switching points (SSPs) have signalling access to a service control point (SCP) 8 which may contain intelligence for routing purposes. The network may have a number of so-called intelligent peripherals 1 5, 1 6, 1 8 either connected to a SSP 2 or to a DLE 1 or directly accessible to the SCP 8. These intelligent peripherals or service engines provide dedicated specific functions such as call announcement or call prompt-and-collect arrangements and customers requiring special facilities will be switched to an appropriate intelligent peripheral for such special services.

Some parts of the network may include service platforms 1 7, for example, which provide dedicated intelligent connection through the network of calls. In a telemarketing operation, for example, the service platform 1 7 may be arranged to determine from calling line identity (CLI) where best to interconnect a call.

Turning briefly to Figure 2, the network may be considered as consisting of a switching plane comprising the DLEs 1 and DMSUs 2. This may be considered as a core transport network layer. Each of the DLEs and DMSUs has an associated processor 1 1 , 1 2, 1 3, 14 with SCPs or service platforms having network intelligence 7. The processors 1 1 -14 may communicate with each other using for example C7 NUP signalling as indicated at 6. Communication with the network intelligence 7 will also use C7 signalling for example. Thus the processors of the DLE and SSPs and the intelligence held in the SCP 8 and service platforms form an intelligence layer to control the switching of customer connections 3 through the core transport network layer.

Within the network 4, where telemarketing services are provided, referring to Figure 3, when a caller dials a service number, for example an 0800 or 0345 or 0990 number associated with a telemarketing service, the network intelligence or service platform implements a service provider's plan as previously agreed with the owner of a telemarketing service. Thus the SP control of Figure 3 will control the call destination in dependence upon, for example, time of day, day of week, geographical basis, call distribution for load balancing and possibly caller provided information obtained by prompt-and-collect arrangements using announcement machinery in intelligent peripherals.

A typical feature allows routing to be based on the calling customer's CLI which in a digital network identifies the source of the call to the network intelligence layer.

Thus turning briefly to Figure 4, certain lines may be identified as being from important customers or so called "gold" customers such that from the caller's identity the mid-plan node in the SP control allocates a current incoming call from line 3 to the gold customer group. Calls originating from public payphones may, for example, be grouped in a second arrangement while other domestic callers with a known CLI may fall into a third group and calls which originate without CLI being available may be allocated to a further group. The groups 40-43 are purely exemplary and other groupings can be arranged either based on the service provider's own grouping of CLIs or based on grouped CLIs adopted by the network operator, for example CLIs assigned to payphones, or grouped according to A, B, C, status. Plan exit nodes then allocate each incoming call dependent upon its grouping to one of a number of operators who may be currently active and who may be in a common location or may be in any one of a number of locations including, but not limited to, homeworkers for example. As has been mentioned limitation of this conventional approach to call routing is that a caller making consecutive calls over a very short period of time may be connected to different operators. This can be frustrating for both caller and the operator because the caller may be asked to repeat information given to a different operator during a previous call. Necessarily the operator requires to retrieve a full set of information from the service provider's database or possibly even to retrieve a paper-based record from another operator before being able to answer a current query.

Thus in the present case within the service provider control platform 1 7, each service provider is allocated a scratch pad data store to which information on recent calls, say in the previous 48 hours, may be stored. Thus, for each incoming call a small data storage area is allocated in the network and the service provider may write information to this data area during a first call. Such data may indicate a preferred operator or a preferred group of operators to which subsequent calls may be connected. Other data concerning the customer such as the customer's name or reference number or policy numbers, status may also be included in the data held in respect of a particular CLI and on connection of calls through the network this data may be downloaded to the service provider's operator.

Thus, referring to Figure 5, when an incoming call to the service number is detected by the network, the CLI is obtained and compared with the CLIs indicated in the scratch pad. If at step 505 it is determined that this is not a call from a CLI which has recently been connected to the system then, as indicated at step 510, the mid-plan node analysis using the standard algorithm previously referred to will allocate the caller according to the CLI to the four groups 40-43 of Figure 4. The call will then be connected in known manner to an available operator or will be allocated to an appropriate queue at step 51 5 for operators handling particular types of call. If it is determined that the CLI indicates a call originating from a line which has recently called then at step 520 the scratch pad data store for the particular LCI is examined to determine if there is a preferred operator entry. If there is not preferred operator data held in the scratch pad store then the system will, at step 525, attempt to connect the call to the same operator by placing the call in a queue for that operator as indicated at step 530.

Certain constraints to placing customers in a queue for a specified operator will operate such that if the particular operator has a substantial queue and an associated operator has a significantly shorter queue the call may be differently handled.

If the customer without preferred operator data in the scratch pad area cannot be connected to the previous operator, then the CLI is analysed in known manner at step 510.

If at step 520 the scratch pad data store indicates that a preferred operator should handle the call (step 535) if the preferred operator is available, as indicated at step 540, the call is queued to the preferred operator. In the event that the preferred operator is not available the system may recover an associated operator's listing at step 545 and determine one or more of the associated operators is available at step 550. This will enable the caller to be entered into a preferred operator queue at step 555.

Thus, second calls within a predetermined period of time, which may be selected by the service provider for example, enable mores efficient handling since the exit plan or plan exit node of the service provider control has condition based routing which allows calls to be routed to a particular operator who has, for example a paper file relating to the customer. Alternatively, status based routing may be employed such that if a customer has previously received a quotation, for example, an appropriate operator for implementing a policy or acknowledging credit status may be connected in. Finally skill based routing may be used such that an operator with appropriate experience may be connected to the customer through the network.

It should be noted that access to the scratch pad storage area will be subject to password control and other specific identities from the service provider. It should be noted that in the service platform implementing the condition based routing above there would be one storage function per customer who has called a customer answering centre. However, as there may be many customer answering centres there may be more than one instance of scratch pad data storage per CLI but it will be specific to the CLI in combination with the service provider whose customer answering centre was called whether localised or distributed around the network.

Turning then to figure 6, in a specific implementation, the network includes a local exchange 61 (corresponding to DLE 1 of Figure 1 ), and a representative DMSU 62, the remainder of the public switched network being represented by PSTN 63. The DMSU 62 has access to an intelligent call router 64 which will be contactable by other service switching points of the network. The call router 64 uses information from the service switching points to determine a preferred destination and routing. Thus in the present case, the dialled number and the CLI of the caller will enable the provision of scratchpad data to the call routing algorithm. The call routing algorithm running in the ICR 64 then causes the correct routing data to be returned to the DMSU 62 to effect switching through the PSTN 63 to an appropriate call centre. Other apparatus shown in the diagram includes a scratchpad platform 65 which stores data entered by the call centre operators in respect of previously received calls and dependent on CLI. This is be accessible from the call router 64 by way of a gateway 66 so that the scratchpad data is used to facilitate connection. The call router 64 may obtain additional information from the caller using a prompt and collect function if required.

Turning now to Figure 7, when a caller 71 dials a call centre number (M 1 ), the callers digital local exchange 72 forwards the call to its parent digital main switching unit 73 (M2). The DMSU 73 sends an Intelligent Network Applications Protocol (INAP) message to one of a number of service control points 74 (M3) in the network. The Service control point 74 adds a routing prefix to the number and returns an INAP Call Dropback message (CDP) (M4) to the DMSU. The routing prefix directs the DMSU 73 to apply to an intelligent call router 75. The DMSU 73 now forwards a message to the specified router 75 (M5) together with the called number and CLI. The call router then runs a program directly related to the call centre called and on encountering a scratchpad data link reference returns an INAP message to the DMSU 73 (M6) including routing detail for access to the scratchpad.

The scratchpad application platform 76 now receives the call from the DMSU 73 (M7) and determines from the CLI what information (if any) is associated with the caller. This information is transferred (M8) by way of a peripheral gateway 77 to the call router 75 (M9). In the call router the caller identity is matched to the call and instructions are returned via the peripheral gateway 77 (M 10) to the scratchpad platform (M 1 1 ) enabling the platform to cause call answer (M 1 2) (if required) and to play an appropriate message to the connected caller (M13). If one or more digits are required from the caller to identify a service requirement these will be collected. Scratchpad data (together with collected digits (if any)) is now returned by the scratchpad platform 76 by way of the peripheral gateway 77 (M14) to the call router 75 (M15).

The call router 75 now sends a release message to the DMSU 73 to cause it to drop the connection (M16) to the scratchpad platform (M17). Using the scratchpad data the call router 75 completes running the call centre program and determines the required (or most appropriate) destination (operator) of the call centre and forwards a network INAP connect message (M18) to the DMSU 73 which effects connection through the PSTN to the destination digital local exchange 78 (M19) which in turn connects the call (M20) to the call centre operator selected (M20). The answer condition from the destination will be returned to the originating local exchange 72 from the destination (M21 ).

Claims

1 . A call distribution system including means responsive to an incoming call selectively to connect the call to one of a plurality of available operators such that each operator handles a balanced traffic load, the call distribution system further including means responsive to information which identifies the source of the call (CLI) to determine from scratchpad data stored in respect of previous calls whether a current call originates from a known source and if so to determine from the stored data at least one preferred operator to which the call should be connected.

2. A call distribution system as claimed in claim 1 in which routing means in a telecommunications network is responsive to signalling messages from a service switching point to cause the service switching point to cause recovery of scratchpad data relating to previous calls from the same source.

3. A call distribution system as claimed in claim 3 in which the routing means is responsive to scratchpad data to connect the current call to the same operational point as the previous call.

4. A call distribution system as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 in which the routing means is responsive to scratchpad data to effect connection of the current call to one of a plurality of operators in a preferred order of connection.

5. A telecommunications network including a plurality of service switching points and at least one service control point, the service control point being responsive to digits defining a network destination to determine whether a call is to a virtual call centre and, if so, to cause calls for said destination to be connected in accordance with a routing plan determined from data stored in respect of previous calls, said data identifying at least a preferred operator for connection of calls from specified calling lines.

6. A telecommunications network as claimed in claim 5 in which the service control point causes the service switching point to forward a message to a call router, the call router causing the service switching point to cause recovery of data in respect of previous calls.

7. A telecommunications network as claimed in claim 6 in which the service switching point forward a message to a scratchpad data platform which determines from calling line identity whether there is data in respect of a particular call, the scratchpad data platform forwarding data in respect of previous calls (if any) to the call router.

8. A telecommunications network as claimed in claim 7 in which the scratchpad data platform is responsive to signals from the call router to provide a voice announcement to a calling party.

9. A telecommunications network as claimed in claim 7 or claim 8 in which the scratchpad data platform is responsive to signals from the call router to effect collection of one or more digits signalled by a calling customer and to associate any such collected digit with respective stored scratchpad data for transmission to the call router.

10. A method of handling calls directed to a plurality of available operators, the method including identifying the source of a call, comparing the source of the call with a plurality of known call sources, determining from data stored in respect of a call originating from a known source a routing plan and directing the call in accordance with the routing plan so determined.

1 1 . A method of handling calls as claimed in claim 10 including recovering data related to a preceding call from the known source and forwarding said data to an operator identified by the routing plan.