Patent ID: 6639982
Filing Date: 2003-10-28
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A method of operating a call center, comprising the steps of:forcing idle time into usable increments for a final agent team in a hierarchy of agent teams; the forcing step includes a step of intentionally delaying a portion of incoming calls an amount of time that is less than a service objective delay time while an agent of the final agent team is available; monitoring, in real time, an average call delay time and percentage of abandoned calls; dynamically adjusting at least one of; a number of agent teams in a hierarchy of agent teams; a number of agents assigned to each agent team; a number of calls intentionally delayed; and a duration of an intentional delay; performing the dynamically adjusting step at least in part in response to chances in at least one of the monitored average call delay time and the monitored percentage of abandoned calls.