Patent ID: 8345852

Claim:
A method comprising: obtaining a call on an input/output interface of a call center from a caller; determining whether to offer a first callback time to the caller, the first callback time being a future time for a contact between the caller and a call center, wherein determining whether to offer the first callback time to the caller includes determining if the call is expected to be serviced by the call center within a particular period of time; identifying the first callback time if it is determined that the call is not expected to be serviced by the call center within the particular period of time, wherein the future time is a time at which the call center is predicted to be able to service the call center, and wherein identifying the first callback time includes identifying a first time period and identifying a first time during the first time period at which a ratio of a number of agents to an expected call volume handled by the call center is relatively high, the agents being associated with the call center; providing the first callback time to the caller, wherein providing the first callback time to the caller includes soliciting a response from the caller which indicates whether the caller desires the contact at the first callback time; obtaining the response from the caller; and scheduling the contact at the first callback time if the response indicates that the caller desires a contact at the first callback time.