Patent ID: 8654965

Claim:
A system for reducing customer dissatisfaction for waiting for service in a queue, said system comprising: a queue monitoring subsystem that detects an entry of a customer into a waiting queue for one of a call center and a contact center, as executed by a processor on a computer; a reward computing subsystem that calculates a reward for the customer for being in the waiting queue; and a communication subsystem to communicate the reward to the customer, wherein the queue monitoring subsystem: detects an entry time of the customer into the waiting queue as a start time of a session; and periodically, after each of a predetermined period of time, determines whether the customer is still remaining in the waiting queue and accordingly notifies the reward computing subsystem, wherein the reward computing subsystem, upon receiving the notification from the queue monitoring subsystem, calculates an updated reward each time the customer is determined to still remain in the waiting queue and notifies the communication subsystem to communicate the updated reward to the customer, and wherein, the reward computing subsystem is configured such that, when the customer's waiting includes multiple waiting periods within a single waiting session, the calculated updated reward is cumulative over the entire waiting session meaning that during the single waiting session, when a first waiting period portion is interrupted by an initiation of service, only to have a second waiting period portion because the customer is again placed in the waiting queue by one of the call center or the contact center, the first and second waiting period portions are considered as cumulative for the reward calculation.