Contact center session preservation
View Patent ↗A system and method for handling a call made to a contact center after a prior call from the same caller was disconnected. In exemplary embodiments, a caller who was connected to an agent during the previous call may be placed in a routing path for the same agent, a caller who had provided information to the system during the previous call may not be required to provide the information again, and a caller who was in a routing path waiting for an agent may be placed ahead of other callers who have spent less time in the routing path.
1. A call handling system for a contact center, the system comprising:
a processor;
a memory, wherein the memory has stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
instantiate an interactive voice response (IVR) tree having a plurality of places, and a queue having a plurality of places,
maintain a call history database including, for each of one or more stored calls:
a stored customer identifier (CID); and
a stored call status, wherein the stored call status contains an indication of whether an advertisement was communicated to a caller associated with the stored call;
determine, based on comparing a CID of an incoming call to the stored CIDs in the call history database, whether the incoming call is a continuation of a previously interrupted stored call;
in response to determining that the incoming call is a continuation of a previously interrupted stored call:
determine whether the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with a place in the tree or in a place in the queue;
in response to determining that the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with a place in the tree, associate the incoming call with the place in the tree;
in response to determining that the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with a place in the queue, associate the incoming call with the place in the queue;
determine, based on the indication in the call status that the advertisement was communicated to the caller; and
in response to determining that the advertisement was communicated to the caller, refrain from communicating the advertisement during the incoming call; and
a switch coupled to the processor, the switch configured to route the incoming call to a contact center resource.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instruction further cause the processor to:
instantiate, for each of a plurality of agents, an agent-specific queue corresponding to the agent;
determine whether the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with an agent of the plurality of agents; and
in response to determining that the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with an agent of the plurality of agents, associate the incoming call with the agent-specific queue corresponding to the agent.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
determine whether the agent-specific queue length is less than a threshold agent-specific queue length, and
in response to determining that the agent-specific queue length is less than a threshold agent-specific queue length, associate the incoming call with the agent-specific queue corresponding to the agent.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the measure of the agent-specific queue length is the number of calls in the agent-specific queue.
5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the measure of the agent-specific queue length is an expected wait time in the agent-specific queue.
6. The system of claim 2 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
in response to determining that the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with an agent of the plurality of agents:
determine, by prompting a caller associated with the incoming call, whether the caller wants to return to the agent; and
in response to determining that the caller wants to return to the agent, associate the incoming call with the agent-specific queue corresponding to the agent.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to purge a stored call from the call history database when a stored call retention time has elapsed after the end of a call corresponding to the stored call.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the stored call retention time is configurable.
9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the stored call retention time is two minutes.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
instantiate a general queue, and
associate the incoming call with the general queue in response to determining that the incoming call is not a continuation of a previously interrupted stored call.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to associate the incoming call with the general queue at a place depending on a value of a caller associated with the incoming call.
12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to associate the incoming call with the general queue at a place depending on the category of the incoming call.
13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to provide a stored call status to an agent receiving the incoming call when the CID of the incoming call matches the stored CID of a stored call in the call history database.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to provide a stored call status to an agent receiving the incoming call by providing to the agent the stored call status in a screen pop.
15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
in response to determining that the incoming call is a continuation of a previously interrupted stored call:
retrieve, from the call history database, stored call status for the previously interrupted stored call; and
associate, with the incoming call, the retrieved call status.
16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instruction further cause the processor to:
in response to determining that the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with a place in the queue:
determine, by prompting a caller associated with the incoming call, whether the ca r wants to return to the place in the queue; and
in response to determining that the caller wants to return to the place in the queue, associate the incoming call with the place in the queue.
17. A method for handling calls in a contact center, the method comprising:
instantiating, by a processor, an interactive voice response (IVR) tree having a plurality of places, and a queue having a plurality of places,
maintaining a call history database including, for each of one or more stored calls:
a stored customer identifier (CID); and
a stored call status, wherein the stored call status contains an indication of whether an advertisement was communicated to a caller associated with the stored call;
determining, based on comparing a CID of an incoming call to the stored IDs in the call history database, whether the incoming call is a continuation of a previously interrupted stored call;
in response to determining that the incoming call is a continuation of a previously interrupted stored call:
determining whether the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with a place in the tree or in a place in the queue;
in response to determining that the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with a place in the tree, associating the incoming call with the place in the tree;
in response to determining that the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with a place in the queue, associating the incoming call with the place in the queue;
determine, based on the indication in the call status that the advertisement was communicated to the caller and
in response to determining that the advertisement was communicated to the caller, refrain from communicating the advertisement during the incoming call; and
routing, by a switch coupled to the processor, the incoming call to a contact center resource.
18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
in response to determining that the incoming call is a continuation of a previously interrupted stored call:
retrieving, from the call history database, stored call status for the previously interrupted stored call; and
associating, with the incoming call, the retrieved call status.
19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
in response to determining that the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with a place in the queue:
determining, by prompting a caller associated with the incoming call, whether the caller wants to return to the place in the queue; and
in response to determining that the caller wants to return to the place in the queue, associating the incoming call with the place in the queue.
20. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
instantiating, for each of a plurality of agents, an agent-specific queue corresponding to the agent;
determining whether the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with an agent of the plurality of agents; and
in response to determining that the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with an agent of the plurality of agents, associating the incoming call with the agent-specific queue corresponding to the agent.
21. The method of claim 20 , further comprising:
determining whether the agent-specific queue length is less than a threshold agent-specific queue length, and
in response to determining that the agent-specific queue length is less than a threshold agent-specific queue length, associating the incoming call with the agent-specific queue corresponding to the agent.
22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the measure of the agent-specific queue length is the number of calls in the agent-specific queue.
23. The method of claim 21 , wherein the measure of the agent-specific queue length is an expected wait time in the agent-specific queue.
24. The method of claim 20 , further comprising:
in response to determining that the previously interrupted stored call was interrupted while associated with an agent of the plurality of agents:
determining, by prompting a caller associated with the incoming call, whether the caller wants to return to the agent; and
in response to determining that the caller wants to return to the agent, associating the incoming call with the agent-specific queue corresponding to the agent.
25. The method of claim 17 , further comprising purging a stored call from the call history database when a stored call retention time has elapsed after the end of a call corresponding to the stored call.
26. The method of claim 25 , wherein the stored call retention time is configurable.
27. The method of claim 25 , wherein the stored call retention time is two minutes.