Patent ID: 8634541

Claim:
A method performed by a processor, the method comprising: dividing a group of contact center agents into at least two tiers, the at least two tiers including a first tier and a second tier; receiving a work item at a first time, wherein agents from the group of contact center agents including both first and second tier agents are qualified to process the received work item; determining that no first tier agent is available to receive the work item at the first time; and deferring a work assignment decision for the work item regardless of whether or not a second tier agent is available to receive the work item at the first time, wherein the work assignment decision is deferred until a second time that is a predetermined amount of time after the first time, wherein agents in the first tier are predicted to complete processing of the work item within a first processing time, wherein agents in the second tier are predicted to complete processing of the work item within a second processing time, and wherein the second processing tune is greater than the first processing time by an amount that exceeds the predetermined amount of time.