Abstract:
A contact originator is given a choice to enqueue the contact in multiple contact queues, to serve multiple needs or interests of the originator. If the contact reaches the head of the queue for the primary need while the contact is being serviced from a queue for a secondary need, the contact either remains at the head of the primary-need queue until the servicing at the secondary-need queue is completed, or a resource of the primary-need queue is conferenced in with the contact and the resource of the secondary-need queue so that the resources can serve both needs simultaneously.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This invention relates generally to communications systems, and specifically to enqueuing of contacts in such systems. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A customer may contact a contact center of a business for a particular purpose, but may have additional needs or interests that the contact center can also serve. It is desirable to discover those additional needs or interests and serve them during the time that the customer would normally spend waiting to have served their primary need, i.e., the need that caused the customer to contact the contact center in the first place. 
     The art already provides for interacting with a customer in various ways while the customer is waiting for a call center agent. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,820,260 discloses customizing an applet (an application program) for a waiting customer based on the customer&#39;s selection of an in-queue experience and other customer data, and executing the applet to interact with the waiting customer. 
     The art also provides for enqueuing of a customer (of the customer&#39;s call) in multiple queues. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,434,230 discloses using attributes of a call to find one or more resources that fit those attributes, and enqueuing the call in the queues of the one or more resources. The call is served by only one of the resources for which it has been queued. 
     Neither of these capabilities of the prior art necessarily serves the needs or interests of the customer that are additional to the customer&#39;s primary need. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention is directed to solving these and other problems and insufficiencies of the prior art. According to the invention, a contact is enqueued in a first contact queue, a determination is made of whether or not to enqueue the contact in at least one second contact queue, and in response to the determination, the contact is enqueued in the at least one second contact queue while the contact remains enqueued in the first contact queue. Illustratively, selection of the second contact queue from a plurality of possible contact queues and determining whether or not to enqueue the contact in the second contact queue is effected by interacting with an originator of the contact (the contactor), and then using the results of the interacting and also the in-queue estimated wait times of the first and the second contact queues, to make the selection and/or the determination. Illustratively, the determination is made while the contact is enqueued in the first contact queue. The enqueued contact is first serviced with a resource (e.g., an agent) of one of the first and the second contact queue while remaining enqueued in the other of the first and the second contact queue. The enqueued contact is secondly serviced with a resource of the other of the first and the second contact queue subsequently to commencing of the first servicing. The resource of the first contact queue serves a first, primary, need of the contactor and the resource of the second contact queue serves a secondary need of the contactor. Illustratively, the contact is first serviced by a resource of the second contact queue. If the contact advances to the head of the first contact queue while being first serviced by the resource of the second contact queue, either the contact remains in the first contact queue until the first servicing of the contact has been completed, or the first resource and the second resource are conferenced with the contact to simultaneously service the contact. Illustratively, if a contact that is enqueued in both contact queues is serviced by a resource of the first contact queue before being serviced by a resource of the second contact queue, a determination is made of whether or not to also service the contact with a resource of the second contact queue. The determination can illustratively be made by interacting with the originator of the contact to determine their choice prior to enqueuing the contact in a second contact queue. Alternatively, the first agent may query the contactor and ask if they wish to be served by the second contact queue. If the first agent has completed their work while the contactor remained enqueued in the second queue, the contactor can return to queue and wait. If the second agent becomes available while the first agent is serving the contactor, then either the agents can be conferenced or the second agent can be used to serve another party in the queue while retaining the contactor at the head of the second queue until such time as the work with the first agent is completed. 
     Advantages and capabilities that the invention may yield include using in-queue wait time to determine wait treatment (e.g., what choices to offer to the originator of the contact), using resource availability to determine in-queue wait treatment, using this information to enable the originator to choose to enqueue the contact in multiple queues, and automatically conferencing the resource of the first contact queue with the contact and the resource of the second contact queue when the contact reaches the head of the first contact queue. These capabilities make better use of contact center resources, they provide faster and better service to the contact initiator, and they potentially increase the likelihood of successful up-sell opportunities. 
     The invention may be implemented as a method, an apparatus for performing the method, or a computer-readable medium containing instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
       These and other features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from considering the following description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention together with the drawing, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a communications system that includes an illustrative embodiment of the invention; and 
         FIGS. 2-4  constitute a functional-flow diagram of operations of a contact center of the system of  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  shows a communications system that comprises one or more user communications devices  110  connected by a communications network  106  to a contact center  100 . The system of  FIG. 1  may take many forms. For example, the system may be a conventional telephone system where devices  110  are telephones, network  106  is the public switched telephone system, and contact center  100  is a call center. Or, the system may be a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system where devices  110  are VoIP terminals, network  106  is a wide area network such as the Internet, and contact center  100  is a VoIP contact center. Or, the system may be a data network where devices  110  are personal computers or personal digital assistants, network  106  is the Internet, and contact center  100  is a multimedia contact center that communicates with devices  110  via voice, email, instant messaging, text chat, video call, etc. These are just a few examples of the form that the system of  FIG. 1  can take. Its form is irrelevant for purposes of this invention. 
     Contact center  100  comprises a plurality of agent terminals  124  or other contact-servicing resources, a communications manager  120  for distributing contacts for servicing among terminals  124 , and an interactive response system (IRS)  126  for automatically interacting with users of devices  110 . Manager  120  and IRS  126  illustratively are each a stored-program-controlled machine comprising a storage medium storing programs and a processor that executes the programs from the storage medium. Communications manager  120  implements a plurality of queues  122  for holding contacts while the contacts are waiting for resources, such as agents of terminals  124 , to become available to service the contacts. Contacts normally move sequentially through a queue, from the end of the queue to the head of the queue. When a contact reaches the head of the queue, it is removed from the queue and assigned for servicing to the next available resource (e.g., an agent) that is associated with the queue. Illustratively, if the system of  FIG. 1  is the telephone system, communications manage  120  comprises an automatic call distribution (ACD) private branch exchange (PBX), and interactive response system  126  comprises an interactive voice response (IVR) system. Or, if the system of  FIG. 1  is a VoIP or other data communications system, communications manager  120  illustratively comprises the Avaya Communication Manager, and interactive response system  126  illustratively comprises the Avaya Voice Portal. The form that contact center  100  takes is substantially irrelevant for purposes of this invention. 
     As described so far, the system of  FIG. 1  is conventional.  FIGS. 2-4  show functionality of contact center  120  that implements an illustrative embodiment of the invention. 
     When communications manager  120  receives a contact (e.g., a call or a message) from a user of a device  110 , at step  200  of  FIG. 2 , it collects user information, such as the calling and called numbers, at step  202 . Manager  120  then routes the contact to IRS  126  and sends the collected information to IRS  126  along with the contact, at step  204 . 
     In response to receiving the contact and related information, IRS  126  interacts with the user of device  110  to obtain additional information, such as identity of the user, the purpose for the contact, any account information, etc., at step  210 . IRS  126  uses the information obtained from manager  120  and from user of device  110  to segment the contact, at step  212 . Segmentation refers to classifying a contact according to who is making the contact, what do they want, how valuable are they to contact center  100 , etc. IRS  126  then returns the contact and the segmentation results to manager  120 , at step  214 . 
     In response to the segmentation, data manager  120  selects a primary queue  122  for the contact, at step  220 , in a conventional manner. This queue is called the primary queue because it corresponds to the interest or need (determined at step  210 ) that caused the user to contact contact center  100 . Manager  120  enqueues the contact in the primary queue  122 , at step  222 . Manager  120  then determines the in-queue estimated wait times (EWTs) for all queues  122 , at step  224 . EWT of a queue is a measure of how long the last contact entered into that queue is likely to remain enqueued therein, waiting for an agent to become available to service the contact. Manager  120  then checks whether the EWT of the primary queue  122  exceeds a threshold, at step  226 . The threshold is some amount of time deemed by a manager of contact center  100  to be the minimum needed in order to serve another need or interest that the user of device  110  might have. 
     If the EWT of the primary queue  122  does not exceed a threshold, manager  120  proceeds to treat the contact conventionally, at steps  300 - 304  of  FIG. 3 : When the contact reaches the head (top) of the primary queue  122 , at step  300 , manager  120  connects the contact to terminal  124  of the next available agent for the primary queue  122 , and the agent services the contact, at step  302 . When the agent finishes servicing the contact, the contact is ended (e.g., the call is terminated), at step  304 . 
     Returning to step  226  of  FIG. 2 , if the EWT of the primary queue  112  is found to exceed the threshold, manager  120  routes the contact and the EWTs of queues  122  back to IRS  126 , at step  228 . 
     In response to the contact and the EWTs, IRS  126  optionally obtains any customer history data that contact center  100  may have on the user, at step  230 , and uses all of the information at its disposal to again interact with the user of device  110  to collect additional information regarding what other needs or interests the user may have and whether the user wants to address those needs or interests right now, at step  232 . IRS  126  uses the historical data to try and anticipate what interests or needs the user may have. Alternatively, IRS  126  skips steps  230  and  232  and merely uses the provided EWTs of queues  122  to determine how long an interaction it may have with the user and what interests it may offer to serve. IRS  126  may offer to the user only matters of potential interest for which the EWTs of their contact queues  122  are significantly shorter than the EWT of the primary contact queue  122 . IRS  126  then conducts a corresponding interaction with the user, at step  232 . For example, the user may have contacted contact center  100  regarding MP3 players, but customer history data or the shortness of the contact queue may lead IRS  126  to query whether the user would also be interested in High-definition televisions (HDTVs). IRS  126  may repeat the query for additional maters of potential interest to the customer. 
     Based on the results of the interaction, IRS  126  determines whether or not the user is interested in additional matter, and if so, what those matters are, at step  234 . If the user has no other interest, IRS  126  returns the contact to manager  120  with a “no interest” indication, at step  236 . This causes manager  120  to treat the contact conventionally, at steps  300 - 304  of  FIG. 3 . If the user does express another interest, IRS  126  interacts with the user to determine the user&#39;s level of interest therein, at step  238 . IRS  126  may ask the user whether the user would be interested in the additional matter even after having their primary need served. Alternatively, communications manager  120  may simply record the fact that the customer expressed interest in an additional matter, and then later have the primary agent ask the caller if they would like to be requeued for the additional matter. IRS  126  then returns the contact to manager  120  with an “interested in X” indication, where X identifies the interest of the user, and a level of the user&#39;s interest in X, e.g., low interest or high interest, at step  238 . 
     In response to step  238 , manager  120  tags the contact, at step  310  of  FIG. 3 . When the contact advances to the head of a queue, presence of the tag will cause the contact to maintain its place at the head of the queue, and other contacts from that queue will be serviced instead. (This happens only in the situation where the contact is already being served by an agent from another queue and the agents cannot be, or do not want to be, conferenced together with the customer.) Based upon the interest of the user identified by IRS  126 , manager  120  selects one or more secondary queues  122  that correspond to those interests, at step  312 , and enqueues the contact in the secondary queue  122 , at step  314 . The contact thus becomes enqueued simultaneously in both the primary queue and the secondary queue. Because of the decisions made by IRS  126  at step  232  that were based on EWTs of queues  122 , the contact may (is likely to) reach the head of the secondary queue  122  before it reaches the head of the primary queue  122 . When the contact does reach the head of the secondary queue  122 , at step  320 , manager  120  checks whether the user is being served by an agent of the primary queue  122  (i.e., whether the user&#39;s contact is being served from the primary queue  122 ), at step  322 . If so, manager  120  checks the level of the user&#39;s interest in the secondary matter that was reported at step  240 , at step  324 . If the level of interest is low, manager  120  proceeds to steps  430  et seq. of  FIG. 4 . If the interest is high, or if the interest was not assessed, manager  120  determines whether an available agent of the secondary queue  122  should be conferenced in with the contact and the agent of the primary queue  122  who is servicing the contact from the primary queue  122  so that both agents can service the contact simultaneously, at step  326 . Illustratively, the determination can be made either on the basis of administered policy, or by a whisper message played to the agent of the secondary queue  122  and giving him/her the option of accepting the conference. If manager  120  determines that the agents from the primary and secondary queues should be conferenced, the serving agent informs the user that another agent will be joining the call, at step  328 , and conferences both agents with the contact, at step  330 . Manager  120  also untags the contact, at step  332 . The agents now service the contact together. When they finish servicing the contact, at step  334 , the contact is ended, at step  336 . The agents may complete their servicing at different times, thus leaving only one agent to finish servicing the contact, in which case the contact is ended a step  336  when the last agent finishes servicing the contact. 
     Returning to step  322 , if it is determined there that the contact is not being served out of the primary queue  122 , manager  120  connects the contact to terminal  124  of the next available agent for the secondary queue  122 , and the agent services the contact, at step  340 . When the agent finishes servicing the contact, manager  120  checks whether the contact is still tagged, at step  342 . If not, the contact is ended, at step  346 ; if so, manager  120  untags the contact, at step  344 , and processing of the contact will continue at steps  300  et seq. 
     After being enqueued in the secondary queue  122  at step  314 , when the contact reaches the head of the primary queue  122 , at step  410  of  FIG. 4 , manager  120  checks whether the contact is currently being serviced by an agent of the secondary queue  122 , at step  412 . If so, manager  120  determines whether an available agent of the primary queue should be conferenced in with the contact and the agent of the secondary queue  122  who is servicing the contact so that both agents can service the contact simultaneously, at step  414 . If so, manager  120  proceeds to steps  328  et seq. of  FIG. 3 ; if not, the position of the contact at the head of the primary queue  122  is maintained while other contacts from the primary queue  122  are serviced instead, at step  416 , and the contact is processed from the secondary queue  122 , at steps  340  et seq. of  FIG. 3   
     Returning to step  412 , if it is determined there that the subject contact is not currently being serviced by an agent of the secondary queue  122 , manager  120  checks the level of the user&#39;s interest in the secondary matter that was reported at step  240 , at step  420 . If the level of interest is high, the position of the contact at the head of the secondary queue  122  is maintained while other contacts from the secondary queue  122  are serviced instead, at step  422 , and the contact is processed from the primary queue, at steps  424  et seq. At step  424 , manager  120  connects the contact to the terminal  124  of the next available agent for the primary queue  122 , and the agent services the contact, at step  424 . When the agent finishes servicing the contact, manager  120  untags the contact, at step  426 , and processing of the contact will continue at steps  320  et seq. 
     Returning to step  420 , if it is there determined that the user&#39;s interest in the secondary service is low, manager  120  deletes the contact from the secondary queue, at step  430 , untags the contact, at step  432 , connects the contact to the terminal  124  of the next available agent for the primary queue  122 , and the agent services the contact, at step  434 . When the agent finishes servicing the contact, the contact is ended, at step  436 . 
     Of course, various changes and modifications to the illustrative embodiment described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, the contact may be enqueued in more than one secondary contact queue, for a different matter in each, and may be serviced either out of all of the secondary queues, out of only those secondary queues that can be accommodated before the contact reaches the head of the primary queue, or only out of whichever secondary queue&#39;s head the contact reaches first. These changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention and without diminishing its attendant advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the following claims except insofar as limited by the prior art.