Abstract:
A system for automatically detecting status of an agent in a call center is provided. The system may have a call center management system with a plurality of agent workstations coupled to the call center management system and a plurality of telephones associated with the agent workstations. The system may also have a switch that automatically connects calls to the telephones. An off-hook detector automatically detects a manually initiated off-hook status of at least one of the telephones and signals the switch that the agent at the telephones is unavailable. The switch may then avoid connecting a call to the unavailable agent.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to call centers and more particularly, relates to detecting agent status in a call center. 
       BACKGROUND INFORMATION 
       [0002]    A growing number of businesses have begun using call centers to handle interactions with customers. Companies typically use call center services, for example, to manage outbound and inbound communication campaigns to potential customers for telemarketing or to existing customers for collecting information or customer follow-up. Agents are expected to rapidly supply information for various campaigns of the call center. Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) systems assist the agent in placing and receiving calls. Such systems are typically used to distribute incoming calls among a plurality of agents. The ACD may utilize a switch, which may control the dialing and connection of each telephone of each agent. 
         [0003]    The ACD may receive calls for inbound campaigns or place calls for outbound campaigns and connect the calls to an available agent of the call center. The ACD system may assign calls to available agents based on specialties associated with a particular agent or in a round-robin fashion. The ACD system determines if the agent is not currently handling a customer. Some ACD systems have a direct communication channel with each individual telephone and are signaled by the phone when the phone is in use. However, such ACD systems require dedicated hardware/software that allow the individual phone and server or switch of the system to communicate with each other. 
         [0004]    Other ACD systems detect when the telephone of the agent is in use. If the line is in use the system connects the customer with the next available agent. Although the ACD system is able to determine if the telephone is in use, the ACD system is unable to determine if the agent is currently handling a customer or if the agent has dialed-out using the dial pad of the telephone. Accordingly, there is a need for a system for a contact center that allows a telephone call center management system to identify when an agent has made a telephone call outside the controls of the call center management system. In addition, there is a need to alert the system resources as well as supervisors when an agent as manually initiated a call and the duration of telephone calls initiated by the agent. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0005]    Accordingly, the present invention is a novel system and device for automatically detecting the status of an agent in a call center. An exemplary method may involve switching calls to a telephone of the agent in the call center. The method may detect a manually initiated off-hook status of at least the telephone. The method may then signal a switch that the agent at the telephone is unavailable and prevent switching calls to the telephone when a manually initiated off-hook status is detected. 
         [0006]    Embodiments of the invention may have one or more of the following features. According to one exemplary embodiment, the action automatically detecting status of an agent may involve detecting a current status of said telephone and storing a connected status of connected calls to said telephones by said switch. According to another exemplary embodiment, the action automatically detecting status of an agent may involve comparing the current status with the connected status and determining a manually connected status when the current status is active and the connected status is inactive. In another embodiment, the method may communicate to a workstation of a supervisor when the act of detecting a manually initiated off-hook status detects a manually initiated off-hook status. The method may also communicate to call center resources the duration of time that the agent remains on a manually initiated off-hook call. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by reading the following detailed description, taken together with the drawings wherein: 
           [0008]      FIG. 1  is a system diagram of an exemplary agent status determination embodiment used to implement the present invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary embodiment of an agent status determination method according to the present invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart illustrating a first exemplary agent status notification embodiment according to the present invention. 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart illustrating a second exemplary agent status notification embodiment according to the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0012]    The system and method allow a call center to determine the status of an agent in the call center. The system and method allow the call center to determine if agents have initiated or received an outbound call outside the call center&#39;s systems and controls. The invention is applicable to the processing of incoming communications and outgoing communications. The exemplary embodiment may be used in, for example, but not limited to, automatic call distribution (ACD) systems, private branch exchange (PBX) systems, computer telephony systems, telemarketing systems, communication management systems or a combination of these systems. 
         [0013]      FIG. 1  is an exemplary system diagram used to illustrate the agent status analysis method and system  100 . A call center  102  has one or more trunk lines that connect an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) or communication management server  104  to a communication network  106 . The communication network  106  provides a communication link to a customer telephone  108  of a customer  110 . The communication network  106  may be a variety of local area networks or wide area networks using a variety of protocols, for example, but not limited to, a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), an Internet Protocol (IP) network using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or Internet Protocol Network Telephony (IPNT) or a combination of networks and protocols. For illustrative purposes, the communication network  106  shows only one customer  110  transmitting and receiving communications, however, the communication network  106  would have many customers and couple to other communication networks (not shown) that may supply additional customers. 
         [0014]    The communication management server  104  routes telephone calls from the communication network  106  to agents of the call center. In the exemplary communication network  100 , the call center  102  has three agents (a first agent  112 , a second agent  114 , and a third agent  116 ) to handle communications sent and received by the call center  102 . An agent telephone  120  is provided to each agent of the call center  102 . The agents  112 ,  114 , and  116  of the call center  102  respond to communications placed to the call center  102  by the customer  110 . The agents  112 ,  114 , and  116  provide the customer  110  with the desired information or the desired action of the customer  110 . 
         [0015]    An agent supervisor  118  is responsible for reviewing the work of the agents  112 ,  114 , and  116 . The supervisor oversees the progress of campaigns by the communication management server  104  and each individual agent. The supervisor may have a workstation and a telephone  122  to assist and oversee the status of campaigns and the agents  112 ,  114 , and  116 . If an agent cannot satisfy a request of a customer, the supervisor  118  may be summoned to aid in resolving the request. The customer may be transferred to the supervisor  118  or a three-way conference may be facilitated. 
         [0016]    For example, the customer  110  may want to book a Caribbean cruise. The customer  110  places a telephone communication to the call center  102 . An automated audio or touch-tone prompting and response system of the communication management server  104  may identify that the customer  110  wishes to book a Caribbean cruise. The communication manager server  104  routes the telephone communication to the agent responsible for handling Caribbean cruise bookings. In this example, the second agent  114  may be the agent authorized to book Caribbean cruises. The communication management server  102  routes the call to the second agent  114 . The second agent  114  answers the call and books the cruise for the customer  110 . If the customer  110  needs further assistance the supervisor  118  may be alerted to assist the process. 
         [0017]    The communication management server  104  generally routes telephone calls from the communication network  106  to the telephone of the agents  112 ,  114 , and  116 . The communication management server  104  may store an agent&#39;s status. Once a customer call has been switched to the agent, the communication management server  104  may store an agent&#39;s status as unavailable. The communication management server  104  may continually monitor the line of the customer  110  and agent  114  to determine when the call has been disconnected. The communication management server  104  then updates the status of the agent to available, identifying the agent as able to handle another customer. 
         [0018]    An agent sometimes, independently of the communication management server  104 , dials an outside number for personal or other reasons, for example, the agent may dial “911” in an emergency. The communication management server  104  may determine that the agent has made an independent call outside the controls of the communication management server  104 . The communication management server  104  determines that the line of the agent is in use and that the previously stored status of the agent is identified as “available”. The communication management server  104  may therefore determine that the agent has made an independent call. 
         [0019]    The communication management server  104  may then continuously monitor the call to determine the duration of the call. The communication management server  104  may also update the status of an agent to identify that the agent is on an independent call. This alerts supervisor  118  and other monitoring equipment that the call is not a routine call and may require other actions from the routine customer call. 
         [0020]    For example, the communication management server  104  may not record the call since the call may be of a personal nature. The communication management server  104  may perform other actions, for example, alerting a supervisor  118 . If the situation were an emergency the supervisor  118  may need to take necessary corrective actions. The supervisor may also be alerted to prevent agents from pursuing personal matters during work time. The communication management server  104  may send an immediate alert to the supervisor  118  to notify the supervisor  118  that the agent is no longer available to receive calls. 
         [0021]    In another example, the communication management server  104  may put into action other procedures. For example, the communication management server  104  or other equipment in the call center  102  may log the duration of independent calls or other characteristics of the independent calls for later review. In another example, the supervisor  118  may be alerted only when an independent call exceeds a set amount of time, for example, if the call exceeds ten minutes, the supervisor  118  may be alerted. The log of independent calls may be used by the supervisor  118  to review an agent&#39;s performance. 
         [0022]    From a hardware perspective (not shown), the communication management server  102  may utilize network interfaces, switching fabric, one or more processors, memory, and service circuitry. The one or more trunk lines connect the communication network  106  to the interface of the communication management server  104 . The interface of the communication management server  104  also couples to the various agents  112 ,  114 , and  116  and supervisors  118  servicing the call center  102 . The communication management server  104  receives the communication from the customer  110  and routes the communication to an agent  112 ,  114 , and  116 . The switching fabric allows the communication management server  104  to selectively switch and distribute the various lines of communication between customers  110  and agents  112 ,  114 , and  116 . The memory stores the programs and data associated with the agent status and information that may be needed to process the communications. The processors execute the stored routines and interfaces with the switching fabric to distribute the communication based on the logic provided by the stored routines. The service circuitry may provide specialized tasks to efficiently use the processor resources of the communication management server  104 . For example, the service circuitry may provide audio prompts or collect information associated with routing the communication. The above hardware is an exemplary configuration for illustrative purposes. A variety of other computer, microprocessor, storage devices, and additional hardware components and configurations may be used in combination with the above hardware components. 
         [0023]    A flow chart illustrating an exemplary agent status determining method  200  of the invention is shown in  FIG. 2 . The exemplary agent status determination method  200  allows the communication management server  104  to determine if an agent  112 ,  114 , and  116  has independently initiated a telephone call. The method of the exemplary agent status determining method  200  begins when the communication management server  104  (block  202 ) initiates an agent status check. The communication management server  104  determines the current status of the agent&#39;s telephone line (block  204 ). The communication management server  104  may perform this operation by checking the line for a dial tone, communicating directly with the agent&#39;s telephone, or some other method of detecting the status of the telephone line. If the telephone line is inactive, the communication management server  104  may connect the customer to the agent (block  206 ). 
         [0024]    If the telephone line is active, the communication management server  104  determines the logged status of the agent (block  208 ). As previously discussed, the logged status is the stored status of the agent by the communication management server  104 . When a customer is connected to the agent, the communication management server  104  updates the status of the agent to active. The communication management server  104  continues to monitor the call and updates the agent status to inactive once the call with the customer is completed. If the telephone line of the agent is active and the logged agent status is active, the communication management server  104  determines that the agent is still handling a customer and proceeds to the next available agent to connect the customer call (block  210 ). If the telephone line of the agent is active and the logged agent status is inactive, the communication management server  104  determines that the agent has initiated an independent call directly from the keypad of the agent&#39;s telephone (block  212 ). The communication management server  104  proceeds to the next available agent to connect the customer call (block  210 ). 
         [0025]    A flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of the invention when an agent is determined to have made an independently initiated call  300  is shown in  FIG. 3 . Once the communication management server  104  has determined an independently initiated call has been made (block  302 ), the agent status may be updated to a status of active or other status to identify the agent as unavailable due to an independently initiated call (block  304 ). The communication management server  104  may also notify the supervisor of the independently initiated call (block  306 ). This may be a part of the routine when an independently initiated call is detected or may be a separate routine that searches the agent&#39;s status on a periodic basis. The notification may be in the form of, for example, an email or an alert that is signaled within an application used to monitor the call center  102  by the supervisor  118 . 
         [0026]    The method may also determine the duration of the independently initiated call (block  308 ). This may be accomplished by routinely detecting the activity of the telephone line until an inactive state is detected or other method to determine when the call is disconnected. The communication management server  104  may store the duration and other characteristics of the call for later retrieval (block  310 ). For example, the call center may store the independently initiated call statistics in a folder associated with the agent. A summary of the independent calls may be used later when reviewing the agent&#39;s performance. Once the detection and logging process is complete the communication management server  104  proceeds to the next monitoring process (block  312 ). 
         [0027]    A flow chart illustrating a second exemplary method of the invention when an agent is determined to have made an independently initiated call  400  is shown in  FIG. 4 . Once the communication management server  104  has determined an independently initiated call has been made (block  402 ), the agent status may be updated to a status of active or other status to identify the agent as unavailable due to an independently initiated call (block  404 ). The method continues to monitor the length of time elapsed since the connection of the independently initiated call (block  406 ). If the time exceeds a predetermined time limit, the supervisor  118  may be notified of the call (block  410 ). If the time is under the time limit, the supervisor  118  may not be notified and the characteristics of the call may be stored for later use. This method allows the supervisor  118  to only be alerted when an agent makes an independent call and exceeds a reasonable time limit. The process ends and is initiated when the next independently initiated call is detected (block  414 ). 
         [0028]    The prior examples are for illustrative purposes. Modifications and substitutions by one of ordinary skill in the art are considered to be within the scope of the present invention, which is not to be limited except by the following claims.