Patent ID: 8126134

Claim:
A method for scheduling outbound agents, said method comprising: receiving historical call connect rates related to time intervals for which an outbound schedule is to be generated; generating scheduling constraints, the scheduling constraints comprising a desired service goal for the outbound schedule, the desired service goal comprising a connection rate for a contact list associated with the outbound schedule; generating potential schedules involving outbound agents based on the historical call connect rates and the scheduling constraints, wherein the time intervals corresponding to higher historical call connect rates are weighted higher than others of the time intervals; analyzing the potential schedules to generate estimated service goal scores for each of the potential schedules; selecting the outbound schedule from among the potential schedules based on the estimated service goal scores; combining the outbound schedule with an inbound schedule, resulting in a combined outbound and inbound schedule; and evaluating the combined outbound and inbound schedule based on an interchangeable unit.