Rockwell Electronic Commerce Technologies, LLC

Aspect Software, Incorporated

Rockwell Electronic Commerce Corp.

Other

Rockwell Electronics Commerce Technologies LLC

Robert Beckstrom

Anthony J Dezonno

Carlo Bonifazi

Craig R Shambaugh

Roger A Sumner

Mark J Michelson

Mark J Power

Jeffrey D Hodson

Jeff Hodson

Eric James

Mike Hollatz

David A Funck

Nayel Saleh

Dave Wesen

Dave Mosquera

Mary Ellen Moser

Mike Peters

David Wesen

Mark Powers

Michael J Sheridan

Mike Sheridan

Anthony J Denzonno

The method and apparatus is for improving transactions in a communication system. The method including: dynamically monitoring a data session between at least one of first and second parties in a transaction in the communication system; and engaging a third party into the transaction as a function of the monitoring of the data session between the first and second parties. The apparatus implements the method.

Data session notification means and method

A method and apparatus are provided for assigning a call to one of a plurality of agents. The method includes the steps of providing a description of the call to each of the plurality of agents, receiving a bid to handle the call from each of the plurality of agents and assigning the call to an agent of the plurality of agents with a highest relative received bid.

Agent registration and bidding system

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 routing a plurality of different types of Internet messages within a host to a plurality of agents. The method includes the steps of determining the message type of each of the plurality of different types of Internet messages and inserting a message type identifier into a packet of each message type of the plurality of different message types. The method further includes the steps of routing the packets to an Internet message distributor and distributing the messages within the Internet message distributor to the plurality of agents based upon the inserted message type identifier.

Contact identifier for message types

In one embodiment, a method for providing optimal transaction routing for data packets through a network on a plurality of logical pipes includes assigning each data packet to one of the plurality of logical pipes, with each logical pipe having an assigned numerical service level, and associating a numerical priority-usage level to each of the data packets. The method then includes establishing a threshold return-time-out (RTO) amount for each logical pipe, and transmitting data packets from one of the logical pipes and evaluating a running estimate of round trip times (RTT) for the transmitted data packets from the logical pipe being serviced. The method further includes transitioning to a subsequent logical pipe in a round robin manner once a combination of numerical bandwidth-usage levels for the delivered data packets has equaled or exceeded the numerical service level for the logical pipe being serviced or once that the current estimate of the round trip times for the delivered packets has equaled or exceeded the threshold RTO for the logical pipe being serviced.

Method and apparatus for internet protocol transaction routing

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 for optimizing a workload of an agent of the transaction processing system is disclosed, where the agent handles inbound and outbound calls and the calls are based on voice-dialog communication and/or text-dialog communication. The method includes obtaining historical data from a database based on a category of a current call handled by the agent, where the historical data provides an indication of an expected duration of the call. The method also includes determining a predicted end time of the current call. If an inbound call is pending, the inbound call is routed to the agent after the current call terminates. If an inbound call is not pending, then an outbound call number is obtained from a list of outbound call numbers to be placed, the outbound call is placed a determined amount of time prior to the predicted end time of the current call, and the outbound call is routed to the agent.

System and method for optimizing call routing to an agent

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.

Growing community of inventors

Bolingbrook, IL, United States of America

Robert Beckstrom