Patent ID: 9160856
Filing Date: 2015-10-13
Classification: H04L,H04M,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of indicating availability in a telecommunications network, the method comprising: initiating a call center operator availability alerting service in response to a trigger associated with non-completion of an initial call from a calling party, the initial call being directed to a call handling system comprising a call queuing system for allocating a call to one of a plurality of call center operators after reaching the front of a call holding queue, the trigger relating to the initial call not being allocated to a call center operator in the plurality of call center operators, the call center operator availability alerting service providing the calling party with availability alert information to solicit a follow-up call from the calling party when the call handling system has a given availability state after the initial call, wherein the availability alerting service is responsive to a plurality of different availability states relating to the call handling system, and wherein the availability alerting service detects a first availability status change comprising a status change to a relatively low call load status at the call queuing system after initiation of the availability alerting service and transmits a first availability update message to the calling party to solicit the follow-up call on the basis of the detected first availability status change, and detects a second availability status change comprising a status change to a relatively high call load status at the call queuing system, subsequent to the first availability status change, and transmits a second availability update message to the calling party to at least inhibit the follow-up call on the basis of the detected second availability status change.