Granted Patent B2

US 9,094,516 · App. 14/178,589 · Granted Jul 28, 2015

Inventor: Mark J Williams (North Canton, OH)

Assignee: Virtual Hold Technology LLC

H04M3/5231H04M3/5238

Abstract

Claims (39)

1. A system for integration of contact information with search results from a third party Internet search engine, comprising:

a plurality of contact centers, each comprising at least a plurality of contact agents;

a callback cloud comprising a plurality of server computers adapted to generate callbacks to the plurality of agents; and

a queue manager, comprising at least a software service operating and stored on a network-connected computing device communicatively coupled to the callback cloud;

wherein the callback cloud receives a request for agent availability information from the third party Internet search engine to initiate a customer interaction;

wherein the queue manager monitors agent availability across the plurality of contact centers based at least in part on observed agent activity;

wherein the callback cloud queries a first contact center for agent availability and estimated wait time for handling the customer interaction;

wherein the queue manager provides agent availability information to the callback cloud;

wherein the callback cloud provides a status update to the third party Internet search engine;

wherein, when a user of the third party Internet search engine initiates a callback request from within a search query result from the third party Internet search engine, the third party Internet search engine sends a request to the callback cloud and the callback cloud initiates a callback to the party when an agent is available and bridges the callback to the available agent; and

further wherein the third party Internet search engine searches all of the Internet.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the queue manager responds to a request with interactive indicia;

wherein the indicia provide availability information, based at least in part on information collected by the queue manager, to the requestor; and

further wherein the indicia enable scheduling of an interaction with a contact agent based at least in part on availability information.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein a requestor comprises at least a third party Internet search engine;

wherein the third party Internet search engine submits query information to a queue manager, based at least in part on initial third party Internet search query input;

wherein the query information comprises at least business information to identify a business relevant to a first search query made to third party Internet search engine;

wherein the queue manager returns relevant contact information based at least in part on information received from the third party Internet search engine; and

further wherein the third party Internet search engine includes contact information when presenting the results of a first request.

4. The system of claim 3 , further wherein the queue manager provides interactive indicia with contact information based at least in part on agent availability information;

wherein the third party Internet search engine presents the indicia with contact information and query results.

5. A method for integration of contact information with search results from a third party Internet search engine, comprising at least the steps of:

receiving a request from the third party Internet search engine to initiate a customer interaction, at a callback cloud comprising a plurality of server computers adapted to generate callbacks to contact center agents, for contact center agent availability information;

monitoring, using a queue manager comprising at least a software service operating and stored on a network-connected computing device communicatively coupled to the callback cloud, agent availability based at least in part on observed agent activity, across a plurality of contact centers, each comprising at least a plurality of contact center agents;

querying, using the callback cloud, a first contact center for agent availability and estimated wait time for handling the customer interaction;

providing, using the queue manager, agent availability information to the callback cloud;

providing a status update from the callback cloud to the third party Internet search engine;

when a user of the third party Internet search engine initiates a callback request from within a search query result from the third party Internet search engine, sending a request from the third party Internet search engine to the callback cloud;

initiating, from the callback cloud, a callback to the user of the third party Internet search engine when an agent is available; and

bridging the callback to the available agent;

wherein the third party Internet search engine searches all of the Internet.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the steps of:

providing an indicia of estimated wait time, based at least in part on the agent availability information obtained by the queue manager from the plurality of contact centers, to the third party Internet search engine.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising the steps of:

using the indicia of estimated wait time to schedule an interaction request with a callback cloud;

sending a first scheduled interaction request to the queue manager;

routing, by the queue manager, the first scheduled interaction request to a contact center according to availability information based at least in part on observed agent availability;

receiving the scheduled interaction request at a device associated with a first contact center agent; and

initiating a callback from the callback cloud at the scheduled time and bridging the callback to the first contact center agent.

Assignments (7)

Continuity (11)