Rockwell Electronic Commerce Technologies, LLC

Other

Rockwell International Corporation

Aspect Software, Incorporated

Rockwell Electronic Commerce Corp.

Rockwell Electronics Commerce Technologies LLC

Mark J Michelson

Roger A Sumner

Craig R Shambaugh

Robert Beckstrom

Carlo Bonifazi

Anthony J Dezonno

Mark J Power

Jeffrey D Hodson

Kurt E Sunderman

Daniel F Baker

John P Lenihan

Jeff Hodson

Joseph C Steinlicht

Noreen A Harrington

Michael C Hollatz

Mark Powers

Judith Laughlin

Anthony J Denzonno

A method and apparatus are provided for routing a contact with a client to one of a plurality of automatic contact distributors, each having a plurality of agents, by a network router. The method includes the step of determining by each automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributors a largest relative difference between a target occupancy and actual occupancy of each agent among the plurality of agents of the automatic contact distributor and for each contact type processed by the automatic contact distributor. The method further includes the steps of each of the plurality of automatic contact distributors transferring a value of the determined, largest relative difference for each contact type to the network router, the network router detecting a contact, the network router determining a contact type of the detected contact and the network router routing the detected contact to an automatic contact distributor of the plurality of automatic contact distributors that provided a largest relative difference for the determined contact type among the plurality of automatic contact distributors.

Enterprise-wide occupancy based routing

A novel method and apparatus which in one embodiment provides for prioritizing and presenting calls routed from callers through a communication network to an agent station having an associated agent, where the calls are based on voice-dialog communication and/or text-dialog communication. The method includes the steps of receiving a call from the communication network, determining a contact evaluation parameter associated with the call, and applying one or more selected business rules to the contact evaluation parameter to generate a priority value corresponding to the call. The call is assigned the priority value and is routed to a selected agent station. The call is displayed with an indication of its assigned priority value so that the agent may service the calls in priority order.

Method and apparatus for assigning priorities by applying dynamically-changeable business rules

The method and apparatus teach agents in a communication system, such as an automatic call distribution system. In a first step of one embodiment of the method, a previously stored call transaction having a plurality of dialog portions and decision points is provided to the agent. The call transaction is replayed, and at least one decision of the respective decision point in the call transaction is simulated. This simulation is different than an original decision at the respective decision point in the call transaction. The results are evaluated and presented to the agent. In one embodiment at least one decision is a best practice decision. Also, the method further may overlay preferred paths of a call transaction based on stored best practice call transactions. The apparatus implements the method for replaying call transactions.

Best practices learning for agents in a communication system

A method and apparatus are provided for expediting subject matter evolution of an information exchange during a contact through a communication system between a client and an agent of an organization that possesses an expertise in the subject matter of the contact. The method includes the steps of providing a state map of subject matter progression of the subject matter of the contact from a starting point to subject matter resolution along a plurality of parallel subject matter paths, fitting a subject matter progression of the contact within a progression of subject matter of a most likely one of the plurality of parallel subject matter paths of the state map and prompting the agent with prospective subject matter from the most likely one of the plurality of subject matter paths.

Transaction outcome state mapping

A method and apparatus are provided for guiding a conversation between an agent of a call center and a client of the call center towards one of a plurality of goals of an organization controlling the call center. The method includes the steps of recognizing a voice content of the client of the call center, correlating the recognized voice content with a first goal of the plurality of goals of the call center and presenting script to the agent of the call center based upon the correlated goal of the call center.

Adaptive transaction guidance

The method and apparatus improves call transactions in a communication system having an automatic call distribution system. A personality profile of each agent of a plurality of agents in the system is determined. A respective personality profile is one of a plurality of predetermined personality profile types. The determined personality profile type for respective agents are stored as personality profile records in a database. A personality profile of a caller is then determined, the personality profile of the caller being one of the plurality of personality profile types. A priority hierarchy is provided for matching a personality profile types of the caller to personality profile types of the agents. The personality profile type of the caller is then compared to the personality profile type of the agents according to this priority hierarchy. An agent is selected from the plurality of agents based on the comparison of the personality profile types.

Personality based matching of callers to agents in a communication system

The method and apparatus improve transactions in a communication system, such as a communication system having an automatic call distributor. In one embodiment, an assessment is performed in substantially real time of respective stress levels of at least one of a caller and an agent in a call transaction. A third party is engaged in the transaction when at least one of the stress levels of the caller and the agent exceeds a threshold. This third party may include, for example, a virtual party or an automated input source. The third party may engage in the background of the transaction or in the foreground of the transaction, thus communicating either only with the agent or with both the caller and the agent, respectively. The respective stress levels of at least one of the caller and agent may be assessed by methods which include, but are not limited to; analyzing a respective voice signal of at least one of the caller and the agent, converting a respective voice signal of least one of the caller and the agent to text and analyzing the text and/or analyzing a physical stress level of the agent. The apparatus implements the method.

Third party coaching for agents in a communication system

A media handler is used in a transaction processing system, where the system is configured to route incoming calls from callers to agents associated with the transaction processing system, and the incoming calls are based on voice-mode communication and text-mode communication. The media handler includes a media translator operatively incorporated into the transaction processing system and configured to facilitate translation between the voice-mode communication and the text-mode communication. An agent preference setting is selectable by the agent between a voice-mode and a text-mode. Also included is a speech recognition unit configured to convert the voice-mode communication to the text-mode communication and a speech synthesizer configured to convert the text-mode communication to the voice-mode communication.

Media translator for transaction processing system

A method and apparatus provides data to an agent station associated with a transaction processing system. The data corresponds to an incoming call routed from a caller through a communication network to the agent station, where the incoming calls are based on voice-mode communication and/or text-mode communication. The method includes the steps of receiving the incoming call from the communication network, obtaining caller-specific data corresponding to the incoming call, inspecting the caller-specific data to determine a specialty type corresponding to the incoming call, selecting an selected agent station based upon the determined specialty type and routing the incoming call to the selected agent station, transmitting the caller-specific data to the selected agent station, and automatically launching or maximizing an application on the selected agent station so that the application and corresponding call-specific data is available to the agent when the agent services the incoming call.

Apparatus and method for providing caller-specific data to agent station and for automatically launching corresponding application

A method and apparatus are provided for measuring a call handling efficiency of a call center. The method includes the steps of measuring a touch-point indicia for a call and adding the measured indicia to a touch point history of the call.

Customer touch-point scoring system

A method and automatic call distribution system,for routing incoming telephone calls,from external telephonic units,to selected ones of a plurality of agents A,-A,wherein the agents A,-A,are grouped into skill groups,are provided. Each of the skill groups,is comprised of agents having a common agent-skill indicator. An agent-skill indicator being representative of a skill of the agent. Further, the agents in a skill group are arranged by length of time the agent has been available. An incoming telephone call,is initially assigned a call-skill indicator representative of a skill deemed useful in satisfying a need of the external caller. The call-skill indicator is then matched to a common agent-skill indicator of one of the skill groups. The telephone call is routed to the available agent in the matched skill group having been available the longest time. If no agents are available, the external caller is placed in queue until an available agent enters the matched skill group. Unavailable agents are stored in an unavailable group,and are inserted into corresponding skill groups,when they become available.

Method and system for routing incoming telephone calls to available agents based on agent skills

An automatic call distribution system (100) and method provides an operator the capability of selectively adding additional data elements for which the system (100) logs operating data. The system (100) includes an automatic call distributor (102) having a multiport switch (114) for routing incoming telephone calls to a plurality of agent telephonic units (107) and a central processing unit (116) for controlling operation of the multiport switch (114) and for acquiring data representative of specified points during the routing of calls in the system (100). An operator adds additional data elements for which the central processing unit (116) collects data via a computer terminal (120). The computer terminal (120) includes a terminal display unit (122) for displaying the data and a terminal input device (124) for sending instructions to the central processing unit (116) to add data elements. A data computer (108) connected to the central processing unit (116) stores and displays the acquired data. A printer (112) provides a printed record of the data.

Automatic call distribution system with user definable logging and

A telecommunication system (10) having a single automatic call distributor (12) with a multiport switch (14) controlled by a central control processing unit (16) and an associated memory (18) for selectively interconnecting telephonic calls between external telephonic units (20) of an external telephonic network (24) and internal telephonic units (26A, 26B, 26C, 26D) coupled with the multiport switch (14) with a multilink host computer call control interface system (25) having a plurality of host computers (32A, 32B, 32C, 32D) coupled to the automatic call distributor and logical link interfaces (36A, 36B, 36C, 36D) each having a pair of physical link lines (38A, 38B, 38C, 38D) which correspond to an associated host computer (32A, 32B, 32C, 32D) to enable communication between the single automatic call distributor (12) and the plurality of host computers (32A, 32B, 32C, 32D) to provide the host computers with control of call handling operations performed at the automatic call distributor (12).

Growing community of inventors

Elburn, IL, United States of America

Mark J Michelson