Patent ID: 7620169

Claim:
A method of distributing contacts to a plurality of resources in a contact center, comprising: (a) providing at least a first queue comprising contacts awaiting service by at least one resource of a contact center, wherein each of the contacts can wait in multiple queues simultaneously, and each of the contacts in each of the queues has a corresponding state, wherein a first state indicates that a contactor corresponding to the queued contact is ready to be serviced and a second state indicates at least one of an unwillingness of the contactor to be serviced and unavailability of the contactor for servicing; and (b) applying the following rules to the contacts in the first queue: (B1) when a first contact is at the head of a first queue and has a first state, assigning an available resource to serve the first contact; and (B2) when the first contact is at the head of the first queue and has a second state different from the first state, not assigning an available resource to serve the first contact but assigning the available resource to serve a second contact in the first queue, the second contact having the first state and being later queued in the first queue than the first contact, the first contact remaining at the head of the queue until in the first state.