Reporting unavailable trunk-related resources for a predictive dialer using a dynamic pacing algorithm
View Patent ↗A predictive dialer in a call center may originate a number of outbound calls on behalf of agents for an outbound call campaign. Since many calls may fail to connect with the right party, the predictive dialer may originate several contemporaneous calls in order to provide a single call to an available agent. A pacing algorithm in the predictive dialer determines how many calls are to be made based on various factors, conditions, and rules. In some instances, the predictive dialer may attempt to originate more calls than there are available trunks. In such instances, the number of originated calls is limited by the number of available trunks causing a trunk-related deficiency condition, which can adversely impact the agents' performance. Various embodiments of the invention detect and provide notifications of such conditions to allow effective diagnosis of the cause of degradation of agent performance.
1. A method for identifying a trunk-related resource deficiency condition in a call center comprising:
providing a list of telephone numbers of a calling campaign to a predictive dialer wherein outbound calls to the telephone numbers are to be originated by the predictive dialer for a group of agents in the call center;
identifying the trunk-related resource deficiency condition at a time during execution of the calling campaign in which a required number of outbound calls to be originated by the predictive dialer for one or more available agents among the group of agents requires a number of trunk-related resources equal to or exceeding a number of available outbound trunk-related resources;
recording during execution of the calling campaign trunk-related resource deficiency data in a memory by the predictive dialer indicating the time and a quantified value of the trunk-related resource deficiency condition; and
providing a trunk-related deficiency report indicating the time and the quantified value of the trunk-related resource deficiency condition along with at least one other time and respective other quantified value of another trunk-related resource deficiency condition.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trunk-related deficiency report indicates the required number of outbound calls to be originated at the time and a number of available outbound trunks at the time.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the trunk-related deficiency report comprises sending a text message notification to a call center administrator.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trunk-related resources are trunks.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trunk-related deficiency report further indicates a number of agents logged in at the time from the group of agents in the call center.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predictive dialer employs a pacing algorithm to determine the required number of outbound calls to be originated for the one or more agents, and wherein the required number of outbound calls is determined based in part on a likelihood of an outbound call achieving a right party connect.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein a number of outbound calls actually originated by the predictive dialer for the one or more agents is equal to the number of available outbound trunk-related resources.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in response to determining that the required number of outbound calls to be originated exceeds the number of available outbound trunk-related resources, providing a resource deficiency notification for display to a call center administrator.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the resource deficiency notification provides a relative indication of the trunk-related resource deficiency condition comprising a number of unavailable trunk-related resources at the time.
10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor in a predictive dialer cause the processor to:
retrieve a list of telephone numbers for use with a calling campaign wherein outbound calls are to be originated to the telephone numbers by the predictive dialer for a group of agents in a call center;
determine at a time at which a required number of outbound calls to be originated for one or more agents of the group of agents exceeds a number of available outbound trunk-related resources; and
record trunk-related resource deficiency data in a memory by the processor, wherein the trunk-related resource deficiency data indicates the time and a quantified value of the trunk-related resource deficiency based on the number of available outbound trunk-related resources at the time and the required number of outbound calls to be originated, and
provide a trunk-related resource deficiency report comprising the time and the quantified value of the trunk-related resource deficiency along with at least one other time and respective other quantified value of another trunk-related resource deficiency condition.
11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the trunk-related resource deficiency report indicates the required number of outbound calls and a number of available outbound trunks at the time.
12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to provide the trunk-related resource deficiency report as a text message to a contact center administrator.
13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the trunk-related resources are trunks.
14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the trunk-related resource deficiency report indicates a number of agents logged in from the group of agents.
15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
execute a pacing algorithm to determine the required number of outbound calls to be originated, wherein the required number of outbound calls to be originated is determined based in part on a likelihood of an outbound call achieving a right party connect.
16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor, in response to determining that the required number of outbound calls to be originated exceeds the number of available outbound trunk-related resources, transmit a resource deficiency notification for display to a call center administrator.
17. A system originating outbound calls of a calling campaign in a contact center comprising:
a predictive dialer comprising a processor configured to execute instructions causing the processor to:
determine a required number of trunk-related resources required to originate a required number of outbound calls in response to one or more agents from a group of agents in the contact center being available or expected to be available to process calls of the calling campaign,
determine a number of outbound trunk-related resources that are available to the predictive dialer for originating the required number of outbound calls at a time, wherein the required number of trunk-related resources is greater than the number of trunk-related resources that are available,
record the time, identification of the calling campaign, and a quantified value of a trunk-related resource deficiency condition based on the number of the outbound trunk-related resources that are available at the time and the number of outbound trunk-related resources that are available to the predictive dialer, and
provide a trunk-related deficiency report comprising the time and the quantified value of the trunk-related resource deficiency condition along with one other time and respective other quantified trunk-related resource deficiency.
18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the trunk-related deficiency report further indicates a number of agents logged in from the group of agents at the time.
19. The system of claim 17 , wherein a resource deficiency notification is provided via a text message to a call center administrator indicating a relative level of the trunk-related resource deficiency condition.
20. The system of claim 17 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to determine the required number of outbound calls based in part on a likelihood of an outbound call achieving a right party connect.