Method for reporting activity of multi-appearance call-center agent
View Patent ↗A method and apparatus are provided for monitoring activities of a plurality of agents servicing a plurality of calls for an organization. The method includes the steps of monitoring a plurality of applications on a terminal of an agent of the plurality of agents, detecting selection of an application of the plurality of applications, identifying a call associated with the selected application of the plurality of calls and saving a time of selection and an identifier of the application in a respective file or database of the identified call for future retrieval.
1. A method of monitoring activities of a plurality of agents servicing a plurality of calls for an organization, said method comprising:
monitoring a plurality of applications concurrently activated on a terminal of an agent of the plurality of agents, the agent concurrently handling a plurality of calls of a common media type;
detecting selection of an application of the plurality of concurrently activated applications including comparing a location of a cursor with a location of a window or icon of at least one of the plurality of applications and generating an event message including a time of selection and an identifier of the application selected in response thereto;
determining whether a call of the concurrently handled plurality of calls of the common media type is associated with the selected application, and identifying a tracking file for the call if one exists and otherwise creating the tracking file for the call;
saving a time of selection and an identifier of the selected application in the respective tracking file or database of the call for future retrieval;
accumulating time the agent was active and focused on the call and separately accumulating time the agent was active but unfocused on the call, and generating the event message each time agent attention changes while the agent remains focused on the call;
classifying the tracking file of the call as a primary file for the agent and collecting any event messages in the primary file for as long as the agent continues actively handling the call;
reclassifying as a secondary file any tracking file previously classified as a primary file, and adding any event messages to the primary file including the identifier of the application and the time of selection if there is no call associated with the application selection.
2. The method of monitoring activities as in claim 1 wherein the step of monitoring further comprising detecting activation of a switch on a computer mouse of the terminal.
3. The method of monitoring activities as in claim 1 further comprising determining that the selected application corresponds to a call appearance of the identified call.
4. The method of monitoring activities as in claim 3 further comprising determining a total time spent on each call type of the plurality of calls.
5. The method of monitoring activities as in claim 4 wherein the step of identifying the call further comprising comparing a call appearance identifier of the application with identifiers of a list of calls assigned to the agent to determine if the event message of the selected application corresponds to the call appearance.
6. The method of monitoring activities as in claim 5 further comprising opening the respective file upon the first instance of the call appearance.
7. An apparatus for monitoring activities of a plurality of agents servicing a plurality of calls for an organization, said apparatus comprising:
means for monitoring a plurality of applications concurrently activated on a terminal of an agent of the plurality of agents, the agent concurrently handling a plurality of calls of a single common media type;
means for detecting selection of an application of the plurality of concurrently activated applications including comparing a location of a cursor with a location of a window or icon of at least one of the plurality of applications and for generating an event message including a time of selection and an identifier of the application selected in response thereto;
means for determining whether a call of the concurrently handled plurality of calls of the common media type is associated with the selected application and for identifying a tracking file for the call if one exists and otherwise creating the tracking file for the call;
means for saving a time of selection and an identifier of the application in a respective file or database of the identified call for future retrieval;
means for accumulating time the agent was active and focused on the call and separately accumulating time the agent was active but unfocused on the call, and generating the event message each time agent attention changes while the agent remains focused on the call;
means for classifying the tracking file of the call as a primary file for the agent and collecting any event messages in the primary file for as long as the agent continues actively handling the call; and
means for reclassifying as a secondary file any tracking file previously classified as a primary file, and for adding any event messages to the primary file including the identifier of the application and the time of selection if there is no call associated with the application selection.
8. The apparatus for monitoring activities as in claim 7 wherein the means for monitoring further comprising means for detecting activation of a switch on a computer focus device of the terminal.
9. The apparatus for monitoring activities as in claim 7 further comprising means for determining that the selected application is a call appearance of the identified call.
10. The apparatus for monitoring activities as in claim 9 further comprising means for determining a total time spent on each call type of the plurality of calls.
11. The apparatus for monitoring activities as in claim 10 wherein the means for identifying the call further comprising means for comparing a call appearance identifier of the application with identifiers of a list of calls assigned to the agent.
12. The apparatus for monitoring activities as in claim 11 further comprising means for opening the respective file upon the first instance of the call appearance.
13. An apparatus for monitoring activities of a plurality of agents servicing a plurality of calls for an organization, said apparatus comprising:
a monitoring application that monitors a plurality of applications on a terminal of an agent of the plurality of agents, the agent concurrently handling a plurality of calls of a common media type;
a switch on a focus device of the terminal that detects selection of an application of the plurality of applications and generates an event message including a time of selection and an identifier of the application selected in response thereto;
a tracking file that identifies a call of the concurrently handled plurality of calls of the common media type associated with the selected application;
an agent activity processor that saves a time of selection and an identifier of the application in a tracking file of the identified call;
the activity processor accumulating time the agent was active and focused on the call and separately accumulating time the agent was active but unfocused on the call, and generating the event message each time agent attention changes while the agent remains focused on the call, and classifying the tracking file of the call as a primary file for the agent and collecting any event messages in the primary file for as long as the agent continues actively handling the call; and
the activity processor reclassifying as a secondary file any tracking file previously classified as a primary file, and adding any event messages to the primary file including the identifier of the application and the time of selection if there is no call associated with the application selection.
14. The apparatus for monitoring activities as in claim 13 wherein the monitoring further comprising a lookup table comparing a location of the cursor with a location of a window or icon of each of the plurality of applications.
15. The apparatus for monitoring activities as in claim 13 wherein the selected application further comprises a call appearance of the identified call.
16. The apparatus for monitoring activities as in claim 15 further comprising the activity processor determining a total time spent on each call type of the plurality of calls.