Granted Patent B2

US 10,027,806 · App. 14/810,493 · Granted Jul 17, 2018

Inventor: Mark J Williams (North Canton, OH)

Assignee: VIRTUAL HOLD TECHNOLOGY, LLC

H04M3/5231H04M3/5238

Abstract

Claims (39)

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

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

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

a queue manager, comprising at least a plurality of software programming instructions stored in a memory of, and operating on a processor of, a network-connected computing device configured to connect to and communicate with the callback cloud;

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

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 at least 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, and determines an estimated wait time based at least in part on agent availability, and provides the estimated wait time to the callback cloud;

wherein the callback cloud provides a status update to the third party Internet search engine, the status update being based at least in part on agent availability information received from the queue manager;

further wherein, when a third party Internet search engine user initiates a callback request from within a third party search query result, the third party 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 is capable of searching all or substantially 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 agent 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 third party Internet search query;

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 query.

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 contact information integration with search results, comprising at least the steps of:

monitoring, using a queue manager comprising at least a plurality of software programming instructions stored in a memory of, and operating on a processor of, a network-connected computing device configured to connect to and communicate with a callback cloud, wherein the callback cloud comprises a plurality of server computers configured to generate callbacks to a plurality of agents, agent availability across a plurality of contact centers based at least in part on observed agent activity;

receiving, at the callback cloud, a request for agent availability information from a third party Internet search engine;

querying, using the callback cloud, at least 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;

determining an estimated wait time based at least in part on agent availability;

providing the estimated wait time to the callback cloud;

providing a status update to the third party Internet search engine, the status update being based at least in part on agent availability information received from the queue manager; and

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

wherein the third party Internet search engine is capable of searching all or substantially 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)

Cited By (1)

US 12,348,669