Behavioral Pairing for Contact Center Agent Utilization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Contact centers face challenges in balancing agent utilization and improving performance, as existing FIFO and PBR strategies often lead to higher-performing agents being overworked and lower-performing agents being underutilized, resulting in reduced morale, productivity, and training opportunities.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of behavioral pairing techniques, which involve ordering contacts and agents by percentiles and applying a diagonal strategy to balance agent utilization, ensuring that agents are utilized more evenly and contacts are assigned based on their relative performance and availability, rather than solely on time of arrival or performance metrics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If performance-based routing (PBR) is used to assign contacts to agents, then contact center performance is improved, but agent utilization becomes unbalanced with higher-performing agents being overworked and lower-performing agents being underutilized
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the assignment parameters from pure performance metrics to a composite approach that includes performance differentials. By calculating the difference between contact percentile and agent percentile, the system dynamically adjusts which agent receives which contact, balancing utilization while maintaining performance benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamic assignment where the optimal agent for a contact is determined by real-time percentiles and performance differentials rather than static rules. This allows the assignment strategy to adapt continuously, balancing agent workload while optimizing contact center performance.
2Ease of operation
If first-in, first-out (FIFO) assignment is used to balance agent utilization, then agent workload is evenly distributed, but contact center performance does not improve
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the traditional FIFO approach by introducing percentile-based scoring and differential calculations. Instead of simple first-come-first-served assignment, the system evaluates performance differentials to determine optimal pairings, thereby improving contact center performance while maintaining utilization balance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where contact and agent percentiles are continuously evaluated, and assignment decisions are made based on performance differentials. This feedback loop enables the system to optimize both performance and utilization balance dynamically.
3Productivity
If higher-performing agents receive more contacts, then expected outcome of each interaction is maximized, but lower-performing agents have reduced opportunities for training and improvement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the assignment criterion from maximizing immediate interaction outcome to optimizing the performance differential between contact and agent. This ensures that lower-performing agents receive appropriate contacts for development while higher-performing agents handle more complex cases, balancing both goals.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary evaluation of contact and agent percentiles before assignment, calculating performance differentials in advance. This preliminary action ensures that assignment decisions promote agent development while maintaining overall performance, rather than reactively addressing imbalances after they occur.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for behavioral pairing in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for pairing in a contact center including ordering one or more contacts, ordering one or more agents, comparing a first difference in ordering between a first contact and a first agent in a first pair with a second difference in ordering between a second contact and a second agent in a second pair, and selecting the first pair or the second pair for connection based on the comparing, wherein the first contact and the second contact are different or the first agent and the second agent are different.