Method and apparatus for routing a call using a hybrid call routing scheme with real-time automatic adjustment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8995647-B2
Application number	US-201313898136-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 20, 2013
Priority date	May 20, 2013
Publication date	Mar 31, 2015
Grant date	Mar 31, 2015

Abstract

A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and apparatus for routing a call using a hybrid call routing scheme are disclosed. For example, the method receives a call for a customer agent at a call center, identifies a list of available customer agents, calculates a hybrid score for each one of the available customer agents, wherein the hybrid score is based upon a combination of a longest-idle-agent routing parameter, a performance based routing parameter and a tuning parameter, selects a customer agent from the list of the available customer agents having a highest hybrid score and routes, by the processor, the call to the customer agent that is selected.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for routing a call, comprising:
receiving, by a processor, the call for a customer agent at a call center;
identifying, by the processor, a list of available customer agents;
calculating, by the processor, a hybrid score for each one of the available customer agents according to a function
H i =μP i +(1−μ) T i ,

where H i is a hybrid score of an ith customer agent of the available customer agents, P i is a performance based routing score of the ith customer agent of the available customer agents, T i is a waiting time of the ith customer agent of the available customer agents that represents a longest-idle agent routing parameter and i is a tuning parameter having a value between 0 to 1 that is selected based on a queue length;
selecting, by the processor, a customer agent from the list of the available customer agents having a highest hybrid score; and
routing, by the processor, the call to the customer agent that is selected.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein when the value of the tuning parameter is 1, the hybrid score is based on only the performance based routing score.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein when the value of the tuning parameter is 0, the hybrid score is based on only the longest-idle-agent routing parameter.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the value of the tuning parameter is based upon a logarithmic relationship to the queue length.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the value of the tuning parameter is based upon a linear relationship to the queue length.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tuning parameter is re-calculated each time a new call is received.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performance based routing score is a function of at least one of: an average call duration, an average call duration and quality grade parameter, an average number of calls handled per hour or an adjusted performance score.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for routing a call, the operations comprising:
receiving the call for a customer agent at a call center;
identifying a list of available customer agents;
calculating a hybrid score for each one of the available customer agents according to a function
H i =μP i +(1−μ) T i ,

where is a hybrid score of an ith customer agent of the available customer agents, P i is a performance based routing score of the ith customer agent of the available customer agents, T i is a waiting time of the ith customer agent of the available customer agents that represents a longest-idle agent routing parameter and μ is a tuning parameter having a value between 0 to 1 that is selected based on a queue length;
selecting a customer agent from the list of the available customer agents having a highest hybrid score; and
routing the call to the customer agent that is selected.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein when the value of the tuning parameter is 1, the hybrid score is based on only the performance based routing score.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein when the value of the tuning parameter is 0, the hybrid score is based on only the longest-idle-agent routing parameter.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the value of the tuning parameter is based upon a logarithmic relationship to the queue length.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the value of the tuning parameter is based upon a linear relationship to the queue length.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the tuning parameter is re-calculated each time a new call is received.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the performance based routing score is a function of at least one of: an average call duration, an average call duration and quality grade parameter, an average number of calls handled per hour or an adjusted performance score.

Assignees

• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Li Faming
• Hu Bo
• Sun Yu-An

Classifications

• H04M3/5232 Primary

  Call distribution algorithms · CPC title