Call center issue resolution estimation based on probabilistic models

1. A method of assessing performance of a call center agent, the method comprising:

maintaining, in a computer-readable memory, data corresponding to a plurality of customer calls received from customers and processed by a call center agent, wherein the maintained data comprises:

an indication of whether the call was a one-time caller call, and

for each of the one-time caller calls, an indication of whether the call was released by the customer or whether the call was released by the call center agent; and

by a processor:

identifying, from the plurality of customer calls, a set of the one-time caller calls,

determining a first issue resolution rate for the calls in the set that were released by the customer,

determining a second issue resolution rate for the calls in the set that were released by the call center agent,

determining a difference between the first issue resolution rate and the second issue resolution rate, and

using the determined difference to generate a performance assessment for the call center agent.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

using the determined difference to generate a compensation value recommendation for the call center agent.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein using the determined difference to generate a compensation value recommendation for the call center agent comprises, by a processor:

generating a first compensation amount if the determined difference exceeds a first threshold; and

generating a second compensation amount that is higher than the first compensation amount if the determined difference also exceeds a second threshold that is higher than the first threshold.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a difference value between a first issue resolution rate and a second issue resolution rate for a plurality of additional call center agents;

comparing the difference values for each of the call center agents; and

using the difference values to generate compensation value recommendations for each of the call center agents.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein using the determined difference to generate a performance assessment for the call center agent comprises:

using the determined difference (δ θ ) between the first issue resolution rate and the second issue resolution rate to determine a measure of difference (δ q ) between customer released calls and agent released calls as a function of an indication of call complexity (a) and a probability of a customer making a follow-up call (p) with a new problem as follows:

δ

q

=

δ

θ

a

·

p

2

,

and

considering a higher δ q to represent higher level of performance, and

considering a higher δ q to represent a higher level of performance.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the maintained data also comprises:

a measure of complexity for each call, and

for each of the one-time caller calls, an indication of whether the call was released by the customer or whether the call was released by the call center agent; and

wherein using the determined difference to generate a performance assessment for the call center agent comprises using the determined difference to determine a measure of difference between customer released calls and agent released calls as a function of the indication of call complexity and a probability of a customer making a follow-up call with a new problem.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the set of one-time caller calls comprises:

for each of the calls, determining whether the call corresponded to a new problem call or an existing problem call;

determining a probability P 1 that each customer that made a new problem call will make the new problem call; and

determining a probability P 2 that each customer that made an existing problem call will make a follow-up call.

8. A call center agent performance assessment system, comprising:

a first non-transitory computer-readable memory portion storing data corresponding to a plurality of customer calls received from customers and processed by a call center agent, wherein the maintained data comprises:

an indication of whether the call was a one-time caller call, and

for each of the one-time caller calls, an indication of whether the call was released by the customer or whether the call was released by the call center agent;

a second non-transitory computer-readable memory portion storing programming instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause a processor to execute a performance assessment method, the method comprising:

identifying, from the plurality of customer calls, a set of the one-time caller calls,

determining a first issue resolution rate for the calls in the set that were released by the customer,

determining a second issue resolution rate for the calls in the set that were released by the call center agent,

determining a difference between the first issue resolution rate and the second issue resolution rate, and

using the determined difference to generate a performance assessment for the call center agent.

9. The system of claim 8 , further comprising additional programming instructions on the second non-transitory computer-readable memory portion that, when executed, are configured to cause a processor to use the determined difference to generate a compensation value recommendation for the call center agent.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the instructions for using the determined difference to generate a compensation value recommendation for the call center agent comprise instructions to:

generate a first compensation amount if the determined difference exceeds a first threshold; and

generate a second compensation amount that is higher than the first compensation amount if the determined difference also exceeds a second threshold that is higher than the first threshold.

11. The system of claim 9 , further comprising additional programming instructions on the second non-transitory computer-readable memory portion that, when executed, are configured to cause a processor to:

determine a difference value between a first issue resolution rate and a second issue resolution rate for a plurality of additional call center agents;

compare the difference values for each of the call center agents; and

use the difference values to generate compensation value recommendations for each of the call center agents.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the instructions for using the determined difference to generate a performance assessment for the call center agent comprise instructions to:

use the determined difference (δ θ ) between the first issue resolution rate and the second issue resolution rate to determine a measure of difference (δ q ) between customer released calls and agent released calls as a function of an indication of call complexity (a) and a probability of a customer making a follow-up call (p) with a new problem as follows:

δ

q

=

δ

θ

a

·

p

2

,

and

considering a higher δ q to represent a higher level of performance.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein:

the maintained data also comprises:

a measure of complexity for each call, and

for each of the one-time caller calls, an indication of whether the call was released by the customer or whether the call was released by the call center agent; and

the instructions for using the determined difference to generate a performance assessment for the call center agent comprise instructions to use the determined difference to determine a measure of difference between customer released calls and agent released calls as a function of the indication of call complexity and a probability of a customer making a follow-up call with a new problem.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the instructions for identifying the set of one-time caller calls comprise instructions to:

for each of the calls, determine whether the call corresponded to a new problem call or an existing problem call;

determine a probability P 1 that each customer that made a new problem call will make the new problem call; and

determine a probability P 2 that each customer that made an existing problem call will make a follow-up call.

15. A method of assessing performance of a call center agent, the method comprising, by a processor:

retrieving, from a computer-readable memory, data corresponding to a plurality of customer calls processed by a call center agent, wherein the retrieved data for each call comprises:

an indication of whether the call was a one-time caller call, and

for each of the one-time caller calls, an indication of whether the call was released by the customer or whether the call was released by the call center agent; and

using the retrieved data to generate a performance assessment for the call center agent; and

taking an action corresponding to the performance assessment.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising determining a one-time caller call rate, and wherein using the retrieved data to generate the performance assessment comprises generating the performance assessment based at least in part on a rate at which one-time caller calls were released by the customer or by the call center agent.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein using the retrieved data to generate the performance assessment further comprises:

determining a first issue resolution rate for the calls in the set that were released by the customer;

determining a second issue resolution rate for the calls in the set that were released by the call center agent;

determining a difference between the first issue resolution rate and the second issue resolution rate; and

using the determined difference to generate the performance assessment.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising, by the processor, generating a compensation value recommendation for the call center agent based on the determined difference.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein:

the maintained data also comprises a measure of complexity for each call; and

wherein generating a performance assessment for the call center agent also uses a function of the measures of complexity and a probability of a customer making a follow-up call with a new problem.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein:

the retrieved data further comprises, for each calls, an indication of whether the call corresponded to a new problem call or an existing problem call; and

the method further comprises:

determining a probability P 1 that each customer that made a new problem call will make the new problem call; and

determining a probability P 2 that each customer that made an existing problem call will make a follow-up call.