Patent ID: 8180043

Claim:
A method for routing calls within an automatic contact distribution system (ACD) that comprises the steps of: accessing at least three different evaluators programmed to collect information for an associated call about at least three different respective identified sets of attributes including a customer evaluator defined by customer information, said customer evaluator programmed to collect customer information about an identified set of customer attributes relating to customers for at least some of the customers originating calls in to the ACD, a business evaluator defined by attributes of agents of the ACD, said business evaluator programmed to collect information about an identified set of business attributes relating to agents and to a business receiving calls on the ACD, and an environment evaluator defined by available equipment resources of the ACD, wherein equipment resources do not include agent availability and agent attribute said environmental evaluator programmed to collect information about an identified set of environmental attributes reflecting equipment resources available to handle calls on the ACD; initiating for the associated call the collection of information enabling said evaluators to assign a value to those attributes for which information exists; creating for the associated call a customer attribute score value based upon the collected customer attribute values, a business attribute score value based upon the business attribute values, and an environment attribute score value based upon the environmental attribute values; performing a comparison of the customer attribute score value to the business attribute score value and the environment attribute score value using a selected one of a plurality of attribute matching algorithms for matching the attribute score values to select an agent where the selected algorithm is chosen based on resources bandwidth available to determine the match, and routing said call to the agent selected by said comparison.