System and methods for scheduling and optimizing inbound call flow to a call center
View Patent ↗A method for providing inbound call reservations to a communication center has steps for monitoring service access points into the communication center by reservation software executing from a machine-readable medium, evaluating communicators and potential communicators, and issuing invitations for reserved communication sessions to qualified communicators and potential communicators, the reserved times coordinated according to data pertaining to predicted communication load and resource availability statistics.
1. A method for providing inbound call reservations to an agent at a communication center, comprising:
monitoring, by a processor, service access points into the communication center, the service access points being either one of a Web page and an interactive voice response unit (IVR);
evaluating and ranking, by the processor, communicators detected by the monitoring by interacting with a caller, gathering, analyzing and storing information solicited during interaction at the IVR and the Web page to determine communicators qualified to receive call reservations;
issuing, by the processor, invitations for reserved communication sessions to qualified communicators prior to interaction between the communication center and communicators at the Web page and prior to communicators entering a queue from the interaction at the IVR, wherein reserved times are coordinated according to data pertaining to predicted communication load and resource availability statistics, and associating the issued invitation for reserved communication session to stored information for each communicator in a database; and
receiving a communication at the call center as a result of the invitation for reserved communication session from a communicator, routing the information gathered and stored to the selected agent along with the communication.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource availability statistics include estimated waiting time in queue.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the evaluating includes evaluating history of Web page navigation or Web form interaction.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the evaluating includes evaluating interactive voice response interaction.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein an issued inbound reservation includes a confirmation number.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising canceling or rescheduling, by the processor, an inbound reservation based on a change in predictive load or agent availability statistics for a reservation time of the inbound communication.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising issuing one or more alerts to a person for whom an inbound communication has been scheduled.
8. A system for providing inbound communication reservations to a communication center, comprising:
a data storage device storing data pertaining to communication reservations, information gathered and solicited from communicators, and data pertaining to predicted load and resource availability statistics;
processor; and
memory, wherein the memory has stored therein instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
monitor service access points into the communication center, the service access points being either one of a Web page and an interactive voice response unit (IVR);
evaluate interactions and the solicited information from the communicators detected at the service access points;
issue invitations for reserved communications to qualified communicators prior to interaction by the communicators at the Web page and the communication center and prior to communicators entering a queue from the interaction at the IVR, wherein the information gathered and solicited is associated with the invitations for reserved communication; and
routing communications received at the communication center as a result of a call reservation to a selected agent along with the information.
9. The system of claim 8 wherein the resource availability statistics include estimated waiting time in queue.
10. The system of claim 8 wherein the instructions to evaluate include instructions to evaluate history of Web page navigation or Web form interaction.
11. The system of claim 8 wherein the instructions to evaluate include instructions to evaluate interactive voice response interaction.
12. The system of claim 8 wherein an issued inbound reservation includes a confirmation number.
13. The system of claim 8 wherein the instructions further cause the processor to cancel or reschedule an inbound reservation based on a change in predictive load or agent availability statistics for a reservation time of the inbound communication.
14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to issue one or more alerts to a person for whom an inbound communication has been scheduled.