Patent ID: 7613281

Claim:
An apparatus for monitoring a timely response to a user request, the apparatus comprising: a processing device operative to: receive the user request; determine request factors from the user request; submit a search request based on the request factors to a response time database, wherein the database includes various response times associated with different inquiries where the response times are set by a governing standard relating to customer support guidelines; assign a response time to the user request from the response time database; generate a notification including the user request and a deadline based on the response time; and assign the notification to an assistant to respond to the user request from a plurality of assistants based at least on one of: the assistant's availability, the assistant's experience level, and the assistant's seniority; an output device coupled to the processing device for receiving and displaying the notification; and the processing device further operative to: prior to the expiration of the response time, determine if the user request has been processed; and generate a reminder if the request has not been processed; and a routing device operative to route the notification to the assistant.