Patent ID: 8411844

Claim:
A method for controlling abandonment rate in an automated contact center that uses a predictive dialing method for determining a number of calls to generate for dialing, wherein the automated contact center comprises a queue where successfully connected dialed calls await agent handling and an agent pool where calls are handled by agents, and wherein an abandonment rate is a proportion of calls in the queue that are abandoned, the method comprising: determining a mean agent occupancy, wherein the mean agent occupancy is used by the predictive dialing method to determine a number of calls to generate, wherein the abandonment rate is close to zero when the predictive dialing method uses the mean agent occupancy, and wherein agent occupancy is a proportion of agents in the agent pool that are occupied by calls; collecting empirical data on agent occupancy while the predictive dialing method uses the mean agent occupancy to determine a number of calls to generate; determining a target abandonment rate; determining a target agent occupancy, wherein a proportion of the agent occupancy empirical data having an agent occupancy equal to or higher than the target agent occupancy is within a predetermined range of the target abandonment rate; collecting and using empirical data on agent handling time to determine an average agent handling time, wherein agent handling time is a duration during which a call is in the agent pool; adjusting the mean agent occupancy used by the predictive dialing method by using the target agent occupancy, the average agent handling time, and a predetermined maximum duration that a call can be in the queue before it is abandoned; using the adjusted predictive dialing method to determine a number of calls to generate for dialing; and generating calls based upon the number of calls to generate.