Patent ID: 7961866

Claim:
A method for routing a customer call to a best available agent, comprising: receiving a call based on an initial agent ranking of all available agents, a caller's proximity preference factor, and an agent range preference; coupling a plurality of incoming customer calls and existing call center agents; providing an initial agent ranking based on a dataset including information of at least one from the group of: skill-set, previous interaction with a customer, language capability, race, sex, minimum distance from an agent to a customer, maximum distance from an agent to a customer, and current availability; assigning an agent to service a customer based on an agent distance adjustment being made relative to a closest agent distance prior to assigning an agent to service a customer when said customer specifies an agent range preference; by calculating an agent range preference delta by subtracting said minimum distance from an agent to a customer from said maximum distance from an agent to a customer; calculating an adjusted distance scale by subtracting said minimum distance from an agent to a customer from said agent range preference delta; calculating an agent ranking range parameter by subtracting said initial agent ranking having a lowest value from said initial agent ranking having a highest value; determining a distance adjustment for each said agent within said agent range preference by multiplying said agent range preference times said proximity preference factor times a difference between said agent range preference delta and an agent distance to said customer and dividing by said calculated adjusted distance scale; and calculating a final ranking by subtracting said distance adjustment from said initial ranking for each said agent.