Patent ID: 8457300

Claim:
A method, comprising: (a) receiving, by a gateway, a first transaction for servicing by a contact center resource, the first transaction corresponding to a first communication with a first external endpoint associated with a transaction initiator, the first communication being packet-switched; (b) assigning, by a processor executable contact manager, a service priority to the first transaction, wherein the first communication is disconnected after the service priority is assigned to the first transaction and before servicing of the first communication is completed; (c) determining, by the processor executable contact manager, a Quality of Service (QoS) metric connected directly or indirectly with the first communication; (d) determining, by the processor executable contact manager and based on the QoS metric, whether to provide special treatment to the transaction initiator, wherein special treatment includes at least one of: (i) maintaining, relative to other later transactions, the assigned service priority for the first transaction while the first communication is disconnected and assigning the assigned service priority to a second inbound communication from the transaction initiator; (ii) scheduling a second outbound communication to at least one external endpoint associated with the transaction initiator, wherein the second outbound communication is to be initiated before the assigned service priority is eligible for delivery to an agent; (iii) assigning to the transaction initiator a favored service priority when the second inbound communication is received by the contact center, wherein the favored service priority is entitled to receive service in less time than a default service priority that would have been provided to the second inbound communication in the absence of special treatment being provided to the transaction initiator; and (iv) when, during the first communication, the transaction initiator selected at least one item as part of an electronic order and the first communication was terminated before the electronic order was completed, maintaining the at least one item in memory and providing the at least one item to the transaction initiator when the transaction initiator makes a further communication with the contact center.