| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 379266070 | Call campaign (e.g., script, application, inbound/outbound balancing) | 58 |
| 20080247534 | Campaign manager - A process identifies multiple campaign activation points associated with a voice-based menu hierarchy such that the voice-based menu hierarchy is accessed by multiple callers. The process continues by identifying a campaign associated with the voice-based menu hierarchy and determining a campaign value associated with the campaign. Additionally, the process determines an opt-in rate associated with the campaign and determines a likelihood that callers will reach each campaign activation point. A score associated with the campaign is then calculated for each campaign activation point. | 10-09-2008 |
| 20090168991 | Method and System for Dynamic Tracking and Assignment of Agent Resources within a Contact Center - A system for telephone campaigns includes a contact server for placing outbound contacts, a contact router for routing answered outbound contacts to available agents, and a statistical server for monitoring and serving current agent statistics ahead of each outbound contact or set of contacts initiated on behalf of two or more campaigns. The system is characterized in that the contact server initiates outbound contacts for the campaigns based on availability of agents assigned to the campaigns, and wherein agents assigned to more than one campaign are dynamically designated to serve only the outbound campaign associated with each contact at the time of contact initiation if determined available for the that campaign at the time of contact initiation, and a campaign group identifier is attached as contact data to each contact initiated. | 07-02-2009 |
| 20100158239 | Method and System for Integrating an Interaction Management System with a Business Rules Management System - In a contact center, a system for processing communication events has an interaction server for managing events waiting to be routed, a routing server for routing the events, a rules engine, and a gateway server executing rules invocation logic and interacting with the rules engine. The interaction server tracks incoming events, initiates and sends a routing request to the routing server, including a special routing object, for each event that requires conformance to business rules, the routing server, executing the routing object, sends an execution request to the gateway server, which upon receipt of the request prepares a business object model (BOM), being a set of facts upon which the rules engine executes rules appropriate to the facts, resulting in routing direction for the routing server to route the event. | 06-24-2010 |
| 20100172488 | Method and system for managing interactive communications campaign with reduced customer-to-agent connection latency - A web-based hosted solution (a managed service or system) through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a call center. To reduce latency of customer-to-agent connections, the system implements an agent stay-on-line function by which a persistent telephony connection is established and maintained between the system infrastructure and an available agent. In this manner, the agent may handle multiple customers while avoiding an ACD hold queue. In addition, preferably a service-side hold queue also is established and maintained on the service-side of the infrastructure. This hold queue maintains calls that are waiting to be connected to available agents. It ensures that any customer abandons (on the service side) do not impair the connections that are being established and maintained to the agents. The managed service carries out a communications campaign on behalf of a client. A “campaign” refers to a series of calls to a contact list using one or more sub-campaigns. A sub-campaign associates a list of contacts, a script, and a timeframe. | 07-08-2010 |
| 20100260331 | METHOD OF DISPLAYING COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS - A method and apparatus are provided for presenting structural relationships in an automatic contact distribution system. The method includes the steps of defining a plurality of structural elements within the automatic contact distribution system, selecting a structural element of the automatic contact distribution system as a root element, identifying any related elements of the plurality of elements that together with the selected element affect contact handling within the automatic contact distribution system and displaying the root element and related elements along with an indicia of the relationship between the root element and related elements. | 10-14-2010 |
| 20110116618 | System and Methods for Selecting a Dialing Strategy for Placing an Outbound Call - A dialing strategy determination engine (DSDE) for selecting a dialing strategy for placing an outbound call has determination software executing on a computerized server from a machine-readable medium, access to stored dialing strategies, contact data, and a rules set, and a port for receiving a request for dialing strategy from an outbound dialer. The determination software, upon receiving a request for a dialing strategy associated with a contact identification, consults the rule set and the contact data, selects a dialing strategy based on the rules and the data, and returns the selected strategy to the outbound dialer. | 05-19-2011 |
| 20110123016 | Managing interactive communications campaigns - A campaign strategy manager (CSM) component for a hosted communications campaign system allows users to define more granular and specific campaign strategies, including pass escalation for alternative channels (e.g., text and email) and/or based upon attempt results, contact attributes and response group data. The campaign strategy manager allows users to define pass strategies statically and dynamically, to manage lists across multiple campaigns, and to view results in real-time. A defined strategy is a static strategy created by a user for a particular campaign that, once created, typically is not modified. A dynamic strategy is one where, during the course of a day (e.g., as a sub-campaign is running), a user may alter the defined strategy, preferably just for that day (or portion thereof). In particular, the campaign strategy manager enables the user to make changes to the current strategy as a sub-campaign is running through a particular list. | 05-26-2011 |
| 20110129081 | Method and system for managing interactive communications campaigns with call pacing - A web-based hosted solution (a managed service or system) through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a contact center. The managed service carries out a communications campaign on behalf of a client. A “campaign” refers to a series of calls to a contact list using one or more sub-campaigns. A sub-campaign associates a list of contacts, a script, and a timeframe. An “agent” typically is a contact center operator. A “skill group” is a set of agents that are trained to handle a given script. Call pacing enhancements are implemented to allow simultaneous progress on multiple sub-campaigns under a skill group. The techniques enable control over the pacing of individual sub-campaigns when multiple sub-campaigns are running under a single skill group. The service also provides a framework by which a set of “pluggable” pacing models are provisioned and managed, preferably on a per-model basis. | 06-02-2011 |
| 20110150208 | Iterative scheduling and campaign management - An iterative scheduling and campaign management process uses a WFM system and a CLM system. These systems may be independent or consolidated. In a first step of the process, the WFM system provides the CLM system coarse agent availability data. The coarse agent availability data is used by the CLM system to generate a first list order for a given outbound contact list, which contact list is then provided back to the WFM system. In a second step of the process, the WFM uses the first list order to facilitate a multi-skilled agent scheduling routine. The resulting set of multi-skilled agent schedules (or staffing level data derived from those schedules) is then provided by the WFM system to the CLM system. The CLM system then uses the multi-skilled agent schedules (or staffing level data) to create a second list order for the given outbound contact list. This list may be considered an optimized list given the agent schedule data provided by the WFM system. The outbound campaign is then initiated. Thereafter, and periodically during the outbound campaign, the WFM system provides the CLM system intraday (or intra-campaign) updates to the multi-skilled agent schedules and, in response, the CLM creates at least one re-optimized list order for the contact list based on the intraday data update received from the WFM system. The process can then be repeated iteratively throughout the campaign. | 06-23-2011 |
| 20110188649 | VOIP DIAL PLAN ANALYSIS AND IMPROVEMENT BASED ON DESIGN PATTERNS - A computer implemented method that analyzes and improves a dial plan. A dial plan design template system receives an existing dial plan. The dial plan design template system models the existing dial plan as a directed graph. The dial plan design template system analyzes the directed graph to determine compliance with a set of edge rules. The dial plan design template system analyzes the directed graph to determine compliance with a set of connectivity type rules. | 08-04-2011 |
| 20110211687 | System and Method for Call Flow Generation Via Real-Time Tracking of Guided Problem Resolution - Systems and methods for adapting an existing call flow wherein the call flow further comprises an associated data set, comprising: activating the existing call flow, the existing call flow generating a series of questions designed to obtain information from a caller; determining if an exception condition has occurred; allowing a user to activate an exception call flow in response to the exception condition; retaining the data set associated with the call flow when the exception condition occurred; adapting the data set such that the call flow addresses the exception condition; analyzing the adapted data set to determine if it is unique; and, modifying the existing call flow to incorporate the adapted data set if the adapted data set is unique. | 09-01-2011 |
| 20110255684 | AUTOMATED MECHANISM FOR POPULATING AND MAINTAINING DATA STRUCTURES IN A QUEUELESS CONTACT CENTER - A queueless contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, achieve true one-to-one matching. Solutions are also provided for managing data structures utilized by the queueless contact center. Furthermore, mechanisms for generating traditional queue-based performance views and metrics for the queueless contact center are proposed to help facilitate a smooth transition from traditional queue-based contact centers to the next generation contact centers described herein. | 10-20-2011 |
| 20110255685 | VIEW AND METRICS FOR A QUEUELESS CONTACT CENTER - A queueless contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, achieve true one-to-one matching. Solutions are also provided for managing data structures utilized by the queueless contact center. Furthermore, mechanisms for generating traditional queue-based performance views and metrics for the queueless contact center are proposed to help facilitate a smooth transition from traditional queue-based contact centers to the next generation contact centers described herein. | 10-20-2011 |
| 20120008764 | METHOD, DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR A DETERMINISTIC AUTOMATIC CALL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM - A method of routing a communication request of a first party to one of a plurality of second parties uses a distribution system. The method has a first step including transmitting the communication request by the first party to the distribution system. A second step includes transmitting a first party identification information by the first party to the distribution system. A third step includes unambiguous mapping of the first party identification information onto a particular one of the plurality of second parties via the distribution system using a deterministic algorithm that includes a hash algorithm. The deterministic algorithm stochastically distributes a plurality of differing first party identification information among the plurality of second parties. The third step includes calculating a hash value from the first party identification information using the hash algorithm. A fourth step includes routing the communication request to the particular one of the plurality of second parties via the distribution system based on the hash value. | 01-12-2012 |
| 20120027197 | Collaboration System and Method - A system for enabling collaboration between two or more customer contact campaigns running within a call center environment includes at least one outbound contact server (OCS) resident on a digital medium, the OCS including an automated dialer application resident on a digital medium thereon or accessible thereto for dialing contact numbers from contact records assembled for the running campaigns, a call monitoring and recording system executing from software on a digital medium, for monitoring call dialing progress and business results of completed calls, a central data repository for storing dialing progress and business results data collected by the running outbound campaigns, and a data sharing mechanism executing from software resident on a digital medium, accessible to each campaign running on the OCS for sharing collected data among the running campaigns. Shared data received by individual campaign instances is processed by the receiving campaign against one or more pre-configured business rules to determine whether to modify campaign contact records, campaign dialing patterns and or campaign dialing methods. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20120134488 | Computer Telecommunication Integration Exchanger (CTIEX), System and Method for Channel Associated Data Transmission of Agent and Automatic Service - The disclosure provides a CTIEX, system and method for implementing channel associated data transmission between an agent and an automatic service, wherein the CTIEX comprises a message module and a processing module; the message module receives a channel associated data request message transmitted by a cross-platform automatic service and transmits the channel associated data organized by the processing module to the cross-platform automatic service; the processing module is configured to analyze a call serial number in the channel associated data request message received by the message module to search out agent-associated information and organize channel associated data. The disclosure is capable of implementing channel associated data transmission between an agent and a cross-platform automatic service. | 05-31-2012 |
| 20120177196 | PROACTIVE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONITORING AND GUIDANCE OF CALL CENTER AGENT - A system and a computer-implemented method for monitoring and guiding agents of call centers are described. The method includes receiving during an interaction call between an agent and a and a customer, real-time data associated with the interaction; retrieving by the call analysis system, a performance profile of the agent; using the performance profile of the agent and the real-time data associated with the interaction to determine whether a corrective action alert should be sent to the agent and generating and transmitting the alert to a terminal of the agent during the interaction if so determined. | 07-12-2012 |
| 20120224682 | System for Automatic Assignment of Agents in Inbound and Outbound Campaigns - A system manages inbound and outbound transactions in a contact center that executes software, and one or more data repositories. The software provides a function designating in agent profiles stored in a data repository, individual agents or groups of agents as capable of operating in either the inbound or outbound campaign, a function monitoring activity in both the inbound and the outbound campaign via software executing on one or more servers in the contact center, a function identifying a change in activity in one of the campaigns that qualifies for reassignment of one or more agents, a function selecting an agent or a group of agents to transfer, a function notifying the agent or group of agents of the pending transfer and the time that the transfer will be accomplished, and a function transferring the agent or the group of agents from the one campaign to the other campaign. | 09-06-2012 |
| 20120288082 | Managing interactive communications campaigns with call recording and security - In a web-based hosted environment, agent interactions with contacted persons (call recipients) are recorded by the system for administration and training purposes. According to this disclosure, permitted users are afforded the ability to remove or redact sensitive information from those agent recordings. By this feature, the agent, the service provider customer (or an entity associated with one or both) is afforded the option to selectively erase given sensitive information that has been collected or that otherwise has been made available during the agent-call recipient interaction. Typically, such information includes, without limitation, identity information (e.g., personally identifiable information (PII), credit card information (e.g., such as PCI-related data), health care information (e.g., such as HIPAA-related data), finance information (e.g., such as GLBA-related data), intellectual property (e.g., documentation, other proprietary information) and the like. | 11-15-2012 |
| 20130064361 | LOCAL ROUTE GROUPS AND TRANSFORMATION PATTERNS - In one embodiment, method can include: receiving an address in a call agent, the address being associated with a call; triggering a trunk group selection algorithm in response to at least a portion of the received address, the trunk group selection algorithm providing a selection result from among a trunk group placeholder and a plurality of trunk groups; and forwarding the call to a trunk group determined by a caller-associated attribute when the selection result comprises the trunk group placeholder. | 03-14-2013 |
| 20130208883 | OUTBOUND EFFECTIVENESS THROUGH MANAGEMENT OF IDLE AGENT POOL - A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, establish and maintain a pool of idle agents so that when an outbound call attempt is successful, the agent which is assigned to the successful outbound call attempt can be selected from a plurality of agents based on the agent's superior efficiency rather than being based on the fact that the agent is the next in line to be assigned to such a contact. | 08-15-2013 |
| 20130243181 | System For Presenting Scripts To A Contact - A system is disclosed for presenting a plurality of scripts to a contact. A system includes a dialer, controller, Input/Output devices, and a memory containing modules for execution on a processor. A script player module plays a plurality of prerecorded audio file scripts. A presentation module presenting a plurality of script options to an agent. An input module receives an agent input corresponding to at least one of the script options. A profile module stores a contact profile reflecting contact-specific data, and the presentation module presents script options to the agent based upon the profile for outputting contact-specific scripts. | 09-19-2013 |
| 20130279686 | Crime Reporting in a Controlled-Environment Facility - Embodiments of the invention are directed to communication systems and methods that allow a resident of a controlled environment facility to report a past, on-going or threatened crime, such as a rape. The resident is able to make the report using a facility communications system without alerting other residents of the controlled environment facility that the crime has been reported. | 10-24-2013 |
| 20140016770 | CONTACT CENTER AGENT DISPLAY APPLICATION - The system and method detect a communication device being connected to a network. It is determined if the communication device will be used by an Agent the contact center. If the communication device will be used by an Agent in the contact center, a contact center display application is downloaded onto the communication device. The contact center display application is used to display contact center status information. The contact center status information is transmitted to the communication device. The communication device receives the contact center status information and displays the contact center status information via the contact center display application that was downloaded onto the communication device. | 01-16-2014 |
| 20140072117 | Method of Distributed Aggregation in a Call Center - A method for partitioning a call center having N agents associated with M agent groups, for computation by a plurality of computational nodes, has steps for (a) assigning each agent as a vertex in a hypergraph; (b) assigning each agent group as a hyper-edge in the hypergraph; and (c) applying a hypergraph partitioning algorithm to partition the agents and groups relative to the nodes with the hypergraph cost function awarding equal load distribution to nodes and minimizing inter-node traffic. | 03-13-2014 |
| 20140079211 | SYSTEM, METHOD, AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING EFFECTIVENESS OF ADVANCED CALL CENTER ROUTING ALGORITHMS - A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, simultaneously execute two different work assignment algorithms on the same work flow either in real-time as the work flow is received or in a simulation environment. The differences in the way that each work assignment algorithm handles the same work flow are compared and contrasted to help describe the differences in the work assignment algorithms. | 03-20-2014 |
| 20140153712 | LOCATION-BASED CALL INITIATION - An apparatus has a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to schedule a communication between a contact center and a communication device associated with a user, prompt the user to configure a geographic location for the communication device, track geographic location for the communication device, and initiate the communication in response to determining that the geographic location of the communication device appliance is the configured geographic location. | 06-05-2014 |
| 20140169550 | Robust DTMF detection in an unreliable voice-over-IP (VoIP) environment - A method to discriminate a signal as a DTMF digit is operative in a service provider having a VoIP-based media server. The media server accepts both in-band DTMF and RTP telephone events. A digit detection module receives as input a data stream that may include one or more DTMF digits. The module processes the input data stream and provides, as output, an indication of what digit(s) have been detected and from what source (e.g., in-band audio, an RTP 2833 telephone event, of both). The output is then further processed by a discrimination algorithm to make a final digit determination. If RTP telephone events are detected, the algorithm prefers them and ignores in-band DTMF until the call ends or the media is re-negotiated. The approach detects when duplicate digits of differing types are initially received and only accepts one of them, regardless of spacing or duration. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140169551 | System and Methods for Outbound Dialing in Multi-Campaign and Blended Environment of Virtual Contact Center - A method for determining a number of calls to generate for a specific outbound campaign in an automated contact center based upon a prediction of agent occupancy in a future time period, wherein the automated contact center processes one or more outbound campaigns. The estimates a total number of outbound agents available to the one or more outbound campaigns. By using the total number of outbound agents, an effective number of agents for the specific outbound campaign is determined according to a ratio. The effective number of agents is used to determine a number of outbound calls to generate for the specific outbound campaign according to a dialing method. Calls are then generated for the specific outbound campaign based upon the determined number of outbound calls to generate. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140205080 | Managing interactive communications campaigns with customer recovery - A campaign strategy manager (CSM) component for a hosted communications campaign system allows users to define more granular and specific campaign strategies, including pass escalation for alternative channels (e.g., text and email) and/or based upon attempt results, contact attributes and response group data. The campaign strategy manager allows users to define pass strategies statically and dynamically, to manage lists across multiple campaigns, and to view results in real-time. A defined strategy is a static strategy created by a user for a particular campaign that, once created, typically is not modified. A dynamic strategy is one where, during the course of a day (e.g., as a sub-campaign is running), a user may alter the defined strategy, preferably just for that day (or portion thereof). The CSM may be used to implement a recovery strategy using a dialer pass. | 07-24-2014 |
| 20140205081 | Method and system for managing interactive communications campaigns with call pacing - A Web-based hosted system through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns. The system carries out a communications campaign on behalf of a client. A campaign is a series of calls to a contact list using one or more sub-campaigns. A sub-campaign associates a list of contacts, a script, and a timeframe. An agent typically is a contact center operator. A skill group is a set of agents that are trained to handle a given script. Call pacing enhancements are implemented to allow simultaneous progress on multiple sub-campaigns under a skill group. The techniques enable control over the pacing of individual sub-campaigns when multiple sub-campaigns are running under a single skill group. The service also provides a framework by which a set of “pluggable” pacing models are provisioned and managed, preferably on a per-model basis. | 07-24-2014 |
| 20140233721 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR SELECTING A DIALING STRATEGY FOR PLACING AN OUTBOUND CALL - A dialing strategy determination engine (DSDE) for selecting a dialing strategy for placing an outbound call has determination software executing on a computerized server from a machine-readable medium, access to stored dialing strategies, contact data, and a rules set, and a port for receiving a request for dialing strategy from an outbound dialer. The determination software, upon receiving a request for a dialing strategy associated with a contact identification, consults the rule set and the contact data, selects a dialing strategy based on the rules and the data, and returns the selected strategy to the outbound dialer. | 08-21-2014 |
| 20140270147 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A PREDICTIVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE - Systems and methods for identifying a customer include storing account information, the account information including one or more associated phone numbers and an account number, the account number having a last 4-digit portion, receiving a phone number, comparing the phone number to the account information of various account holders to determine whether the phone number matches an associated phone number, prompting the user to input 4 digits if there is a match, and comparing the received 4 digits to the respective 4-digit portion to identify the customer. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20140301543 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR SCHEDULING AND OPTIMIZING INBOUND CALL FLOW TO A CALL CENTER - A method for providing inbound call reservations to a communication center has steps for monitoring service access points into the communication center by reservation software executing from a machine-readable medium, evaluating communicators and potential communicators, and issuing invitations for reserved communication sessions to qualified communicators and potential communicators, the reserved times coordinated according to data pertaining to predicted communication load and resource availability statistics. | 10-09-2014 |
| 20140314228 | METHOD FOR DESIGNING AN AUTOMATED SPEECH RECOGNITION (ASR) INTERFACE FOR A CUSTOMER CALL CENTER - A method of designing a customer interface for a service center, such as an automated speech recognition (ASR) self-service center. Customer activity to an existing service center is monitored, providing customer model, which includes a collection of customer tasks. These tasks are assigned to action-object pairs, which are further assigned to routing destinations. Dialog modules are designed, based on the customer model data, including disambiguation dialogs. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20140369488 | COLLABORATION SYSTEM AND METHOD - A system for enabling collaboration between two or more customer contact campaigns running within a call center environment includes at least one outbound contact server (OCS) resident on a digital medium, the OCS including an automated dialer application resident on a digital medium thereon or accessible thereto for dialing contact numbers from contact records assembled for the running campaigns, a call monitoring and recording system executing from software on a digital medium, for monitoring call dialing progress and business results of completed calls, a central data repository for storing dialing progress and business results data collected by the running outbound campaigns, and a data sharing mechanism executing from software resident on a digital medium, accessible to each campaign running on the OCS for sharing collected data among the running campaigns. Shared data received by individual campaign instances is processed by the receiving campaign against one or more pre-configured business rules to determine whether to modify campaign contact records, campaign dialing patterns and or campaign dialing methods. | 12-18-2014 |
| 20150010141 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING NATURAL LANGUAGE COMMENTS IN A TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM - A system and method for generating a list of natural language comments during a telecommunication session between a customer and an operator wherein the system and method comprises of receiving a geographical code corresponding to the customer's location and obtaining data associated with the geographical code and processing the obtained data to generate a dynamic interface which comprises of a contextual content and the list of natural language comments. | 01-08-2015 |
| 20150016600 | TIERED CALL ROUTING - A computer device may include logic configured to receive a request to route a call from an interactive voice response system; obtain information associated with the call; and obtain one or more metrics associated with a plurality of automatic call distribution centers. The logic may be further configured to select a rule to route the call based on the information associated with the call; and select a particular automatic call distribution center for the call based on the selected rule, based on the obtained information associated with the call, and based on the obtained one or more metrics. | 01-15-2015 |
| 20150023491 | METHOD OF DISTRIBUTED AGGREGATION IN A CALL CENTER - A method for partitioning a call center having N agents associated with M agent groups, for computation by a plurality of computational nodes, has steps for (a) assigning each agent as a vertex in a hypergraph; (b) assigning each agent group as a hyper-edge in the hypergraph; and (c) applying a hypergraph partitioning algorithm to partition the agents and groups relative to the nodes with the hypergraph cost function awarding equal load distribution to nodes and minimizing inter-node traffic. | 01-22-2015 |
| 20150023492 | LIMITING CONTACT IN A NETWORKED CONTACT CENTER ENVIRONMENT - This document discusses, among other things, limiting contact to a networked contact center that is a host to multiple tenants. In an example embodiment, a communication is received by a networked contact center. In determining whether to allow the communication to reach contact center resources, a contact rate value may be examined. The contact rate value may represent an allowable quantity of contact within a time interval. For some example embodiments, a determination of whether the network contact center is to accept or reject the communication is made based on the contact rate value. | 01-22-2015 |
| 20150023493 | LIMITING CONTACT IN A NETWORKED CONTACT CENTER ENVIRONMENT - This document discusses, among other things, limiting contact to a networked contact center that is a host to multiple tenants. In an example embodiment, a communication is received by a networked contact center. In determining whether to allow the communication to reach contact center resources, a contact rate value may be examined. The contact rate value may represent an allowable quantity of contact within a time interval. For some example embodiments, a determination of whether the network contact center is to accept or reject the communication is made based on the contact rate value. | 01-22-2015 |
| 20150036818 | Managing interactive communications campaigns with reduced customer-to-agent connection latency - A web-based hosted solution through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns is described. To reduce latency of customer-to-agent connections, the system implements an agent stay-on-line function by which a persistent telephony connection is established and maintained between the system infrastructure and an available agent. In this manner, the agent may handle multiple customers while avoiding an ACD hold queue. In addition, preferably a service-side hold queue also is established and maintained on the service-side of the infrastructure. This hold queue maintains calls that are waiting to be connected to available agents. It ensures that any customer abandons do not impair the connections being established and maintained to the agents. | 02-05-2015 |
| 20150043727 | Method and system to determine and employ best contact opportunity - Contact centers, such as outbound call centers, are provided with means by which they may attempt to contact individuals at a time and via a channel preferred by the contact. A history of prior contact interactions is used as one means to establish a preferred contact time and channel. With a preferred contact time and/or channel established, the contact center may attempt to reach the contact with a decreased likelihood of the attempt being consider a nuisance. | 02-12-2015 |
| 20150104000 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING SALES AND MARKETING ACCELERATION AND EFFECTIVENESS - A system for handling call transfer contains a talker computer for providing a batch notification that enables a central data server to identify a batch of one or more customer records for calling, a central data server for receiving the batch notification that enables the central data server to identify the batch of one or more customer record, and a dialing agent computer for providing a connected notification that a customer that has been called has been connected, referred to herein as a connected customer, via a call, wherein a customer record of the connected customer is associated with the batch, wherein the central data server provides an identify notification and the talker computer receives the identify notification that enables the talker computer to distinguish the connected customer record, wherein the connected customer record is associated with the batch. | 04-16-2015 |
| 20150124958 | DETERMINING APPROPRIATE COURSE FOR REPRESENTATIVE WORKING TO RECOVER PAYMENT IN ARREARS - Embodiments of the invention are directed to a system, method, or computer program product for determining an appropriate course of action for a representative working to recover payment in arrears. Embodiments may determine at least one customer preference regarding limitation of representative-customer interactions; and, based on the at least one customer preference, present assistance information to the representative before or during the representative-customer interaction, the assistance information configured to at least one of inform the representative of the at least one customer preference, present the representative with at least one proposed question for presentation to the customer, or present the representative with at least one proposed method for representative-customer interaction. | 05-07-2015 |
| 20150365529 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR SELECTING A DIALING STRATEGY FOR PLACING AN OUTBOUND CALL - A dialing strategy determination engine (DSDE) for selecting a dialing strategy for placing an outbound call has determination software executing on a computerized server from a machine-readable medium, access to stored dialing strategies, contact data, and a rules set, and a port for receiving a request for dialing strategy from an outbound dialer. The determination software, upon receiving a request for a dialing strategy associated with a contact identification, consults the rule set and the contact data, selects a dialing strategy based on the rules and the data, and returns the selected strategy to the outbound dialer. | 12-17-2015 |
| 20160057284 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING TELEPHONY SYSTEM RESPONSE - An approach for simulating a telephony system to enable the evaluation of rules employed by the system for routing inbound calls to representatives is described. A simulation manager receives call production data, representative production data, or a combination thereof as generated by a telephony system during a production run for directing one or more inbound calls to one or more representatives. The simulation manager also generates an expected call handling response of the telephony system during a subsequent production run due to (a) one or more subsequent inbound calls, (b) a change associated with the one or more representatives, (c) a change associated with the call handling rules, or (d) a combination thereof based on execution of a simulation of the execution of the telephony system. | 02-25-2016 |
| 20160065736 | AUTOMATED INCIDENT MANAGEMENT INTERROGATION ENGINE - Methods, devices, and non-transitory storage media to receive ticket information of a ticket that indicates a problem in providing a service to a customer; receive event information that indicates an action performed by at least one of a device or a person to resolve the ticket; select a filter, among multiple filters, to filter the event information based on the action indicated in the event information; select a criteria rule, from among multiple criteria rules, based on filtered event information and parameters included in the criteria rule, wherein each criteria rule includes parameters and values for each parameter; select an output result rule, from among multiple output result rules, that maps to the criteria rule; generate a message that provides an update to a status of the ticket based on the filtered event information and the output result rule; and transmit the message to the customer. | 03-03-2016 |
| 20160080572 | CALL DROP INTELLIGENT ENGINE - The disclosed embodiments provide systems and methods for managing calls received by a call center. In one embodiment, a method is disclosed that may include receiving and routing a first call to a first agent. The method may also include determining completed steps of a troubleshooting process and storing session information comprising a list of the completed steps of the troubleshooting process. The method may further include creating a call drop ticket associated with the session information if the first call is disconnected before the troubleshooting process is completed. In one aspect, the method may include receiving a second call, and, if the second call is associated with the call drop ticket, bypass running of a call routing script; routing the second call to a second agent; and displaying, to the second agent, the completed steps stored in the session information. | 03-17-2016 |
| 20160100057 | MATCHING INBOUND CALL CENTER CALL TO COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITY - Methods and systems conduct a call center communication session (such as a network chat session, video conference, and/or a verbal telephone call) between a user and a call center representative using a specialized call center device (such as a specialized telephone device that provides a call center). These methods and systems use the specialized call center device to automatically identify a topic presented during the call center communication session and to automatically select a commercial opportunity relating to the topic based on previously established relationships between commercial opportunities and topics. Then, these methods and systems use a graphic user interface of the specialized call center device to automatically instruct the call center representative to provide the commercial opportunity to the user before terminating the call center communication session. | 04-07-2016 |
| 20160119475 | RULES-BASED COMPLIANCE SYSTEM - A rules-based compliance system enables a permitted user to define one or more contact attempt suppression rules, wherein each contact attempt suppression rule is adapted to be triggered when a configurable number of past contact attempts as defined in the contact attempt suppression rule have been attempted. A set of contacts are then received by the system. During a communications campaign, and before being issued, a contact in the set of contacts is compared against each of the one or more contact attempt suppression rules. The compliance system is then operative to suppress at least one contact based on a result of the comparison that indicates that a given one of the one or more contact attempt suppression rules is satisfied for the contact. A user may also provision one or more contact location rules that suppress contacts based on location information. | 04-28-2016 |
| 20160191709 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING REAL-TIME ASSISTANCE TO CALL CENTER AGENTS - A device may capture call data corresponding to call between an agent of a call center and a caller. The device may identify a guidance template based on the call data. The guidance template may include one or more rules and/or information for assisting the agent during the call. The device may generate an agent prompt based on the guidance template and/or provide the guidance prompt to an agent device of the agent. The agent device may receive the guidance prompt and display the guidance prompt to the agent. The agent device may capture additional call data from the call and update the guidance prompt based on the call inputs. | 06-30-2016 |
| 20190149662 | Dialing List Manager for Outbound Calls | 05-16-2019 |
| 379266080 | Predictive algorithm | 5 |
| 20130343536 | Incorporating Actionable Feedback to Dynamically Evolve Campaigns - Techniques, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for incorporating contextual reinforcement to dynamically evolve an information campaign. A method includes determining an evolution of an information campaign with respect to at least one end objective up to a pre-determined point of advancement in the life cycle of the information campaign, predicting a future progression of the information campaign from the pre-determined point of advancement with respect to the at least one end objective based on said evolution and at least one learned model of progression, wherein said future progression includes a prediction of a potential outcome of the information campaign at one or more given time points in the life cycle, and incorporating a contextual reinforcement campaign into the information campaign to dynamically evolve the information campaign toward the at least one end objective, creating an evolved information campaign, wherein the reinforcement campaign is based on said future progression. | 12-26-2013 |
| 20140044256 | METHOD FOR AUTOMATED HANDLING OF OUTBOUND CONTACTS REQUIRING ASSURED CONNECTION TO A LIVE AGENT - A system for assuring agent connection for outbound calls placed in an automated outbound calling campaign includes an outbound dialing server, a digital data repository coupled to the outbound dialing server, the data repository storing outbound dialing records for automated outbound dialing, and software executing on the outbound dialing server from a non-transitory physical medium, the software providing a first function for determining for a specific outbound dialing record if the connection to a live agent must be an assured connection, a second function for dialing and engaging an agent via an internal call for reservation of the agent, and a third function for bridging the call connections forged between the system and the agent and the system and the outbound party upon answer of the outbound call. | 02-13-2014 |
| 20140177821 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TESTING AND DEPLOYING RULES - Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method for assessing impact of a rule change in a contact center. The method includes configuring one or more parameters of the rule; receiving a command to assess the rule; retrieving a log of past interactions between end users and the contact center, wherein the log of past interactions reflects interactions prior to deployment of the rule; processing one or more of the past interactions based on the rule; simulating an outcome of the one or more past interactions; and deploying the rule or not to a rules engine based on the simulating. | 06-26-2014 |
| 20140348321 | PRESENCE ENABLED CALL CENTER - Techniques described herein may use presence information to enhance the user experience when contacting entities such as call centers. In one implementation, a method may include receiving presence information relating to a state of a voice line. The presence information may include a wait time associated with the voice line, the wait time corresponding to an estimated time that a caller to the voice line will wait before reaching a human operator. The method may also include providing, by the one or more devices and to a user device that includes the voice line in a contact list, the presence information for display as part of the contact list. | 11-27-2014 |
| 20150063559 | System and Method for Controlling Calls for Contact Centers - A computer system for controlling calls to a call target, including a processor in communication with non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory executing code including code for receiving call target information relating to the call target, code for accessing a database and retrieving a contact rate for a time period for the call target, code for placing a call target identifier in a queue indicating the call target will be called during the time period, when the time period has a contact rate greater than a threshold rate, code for placing a call to the call target during the time period, and code for updating the contact rate based on an outcome of the call. | 03-05-2015 |
