Granted Patent B1

US 8,411,843 · App. 11/244,359 · Granted Apr 2, 2013

Abstract

Claims (33)

1. A method for servicing customer contacts, comprising:

(a) placing first and second contacts from first and second customers, respectively in a queue to wait for servicing by a selected resource;

(b) receiving a request from the first customer, but not from the second customer, to be notified when the first contact is eligible for servicing by the selected resource so that the first customer is free to perform a desired activity;

(c) maintaining a connection between the first customer and a contact center while the first contact advances in the queue and while the first customer is allowed to perform the desired activity; and

(d) in response to the first customer's request, providing the first customer with an advanced notification that the first contact is eligible for servicing, wherein the advanced notification is provided via the connection, and wherein the second customer is not provided with the advanced notification when the second contact is eligible for servicing.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification is at least one of an audible tone and a message and further comprising:

(e) determining that the first customer places the first contact on hold to receive an incoming contact; and

(f) after step (d), determining whether the first customer is active on the first contact.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein, when the first customer is not active on the first contact within a selected period of time after the notification is provided to the first customer, assigning the first contact a queue position different from the currently assigned queue position.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the notification is played over the first customer's listening channel on the incoming contact.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the resource is a human agent and wherein step (d) is performed before first contact is delivered to the agent for servicing.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

(e) receiving from the second customer an on-demand queue status request;

(f) in response to the on-demand queue status request, determining a queue metric associated with the second contact; and

(g) providing the queue metric to the second customer's communication device.

7. A method for servicing a customer contact, comprising:

(a) while the customer contact is enqueued, determining that a customer has placed the customer contact on hold to answer an incoming call;

(b) when the customer contact has reached a determined position in the queue, providing an audible notification to the customer via a connection established between the customer and a contact center associated with the queue even though the customer has placed the customer contact on hold; and

(c) in response to step (b), determining whether the customer is active on the customer contact.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein audible notification is at least one of an audible tone and an audible message and wherein the audible notification is played on a listening channel of the customer on the incoming call.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein step (c) comprises a call classifier monitoring the customer contact channel for a voice response from the customer.

10. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

when the customer is not active on the customer contact within a selected period of time after the notification is provided to the customer, assigning the customer contact a queue position different from the currently assigned queue position.

11. A contact center in which first and second contacts from first and second customers are in a common queue, comprising:

an agent available notifier operable to (a) receive a request from the first customer, but not from the second customer, to be notified when the first contact is eligible for servicing by a selected resource so that the first customer is free to perform a desired activity and (b) in response to the first customer's request, maintain a connection with a communication device associated with the first customer while the first contact advances in the queue and while the first customer is allowed to perform the desired activity and provide the first customer with a selected notification via the connection that the first contact is eligible for servicing, wherein the second customer is not provided with the selected notification when the second contact is eligible for servicing.

12. The contact center of claim 11 , wherein the selected notification is at least one of an audible tone and a message and wherein the agent available notifier is further operable to:

(c) determine that the first customer places the first contact on hold to receive an incoming contact; and

(d) after step (c), determine whether the first customer is active on the first contact.

13. The contact center of claim 12 , wherein, when the first customer is not active on the first contact within a selected period of time after the notification is provided to the first customer, the contact center assigns the first contact a queue position different from the currently assigned queue position.

14. The contact center of claim 13 , wherein the notification is played over the first customer's listening channel on the incoming contact.

15. The contact center of claim 11 , wherein the resource is a human agent and wherein the notifier performs operation (b) before first contact is delivered to the agent for servicing.

16. The contact center of claim 11 , further comprising:

a queue status notifier operable to receive from the second customer an on-demand queue status request; in response to the on-demand queue status request, determine a queue metric associated with the second contact; and provide the queue metric to the second customer's communication device.

Assignments (22)