Patent ID: 8737600
Filing Date: 2014-05-27
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
1. A skills-based method for routing an incoming communication, comprising: determining, by a task processor, a task associated with the incoming communication; determining whether agents of a particular skill level are available; determining, when no agents of a particular skill level are available, whether a set skill level is equal to a least capable skill level to perform the task; routing the incoming communication, based on the task, to be serviced by a pool of selected agents comprising agents from a first virtual group; adding agents from a second virtual group to the pool of selected agents when the incoming communication has not been serviced before a waiting time for servicing the incoming communication exceeds a predetermined time; adding agents from a third virtual group to the pool of selected agents when the incoming communication has again not been serviced before a reset waiting time for servicing the incoming communication exceeds the predetermined time; determining an existence of a protected virtual group; and preventing agents from the protected virtual group from being added to the pool of selected agents when there are less than a predetermined number of available agents in the protected virtual group, wherein the protected virtual group is comprised of agents of a protected skill, and wherein the agents of the protected skill are assessed to have a first skill level in accomplishing a second task, wherein the first virtual group is comprised of agents assessed to have a first skill level in accomplishing the task, wherein the second virtual group is comprised of agents assessed to have a second skill level in accomplishing the task, wherein the third virtual group is comprised of agents assessed to have a third skill level in accomplishing the task, wherein the agents comprising the third virtual group are less skilled in accomplishing the task than the agents comprising the first virtual group and the agents comprising the second virtual group, and wherein a waiting time at the set skill level associated with the task is skipped when the set skill level is not the least capable skill level with respect to the task and when a maximum increment setting is greater than the set skill level.