Patent ID: 8718269

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a first contact in a contact center; creating a first work item as a representation of the first contact in the contact center; establishing a pool of agents within the contact center, each agent in the pool of agents being qualified to process the first work item, wherein the pool of agents being qualified to process the first work item comprises: at least one well-matched agent and at least one less-well-matched agent, wherein the at least one less-well-matched agent is not as well-matched for the first work item because they are not as qualified to process the first work item as the at least one well-matched agent in the contact center, and wherein the at least one well-matched agent is not available at the first time to process the first work item; and deferring a work assignment decision for the first work item beyond the first time while simultaneously considering a risk of not assigning the first work item to an agent in the pool of agents.