Blended PSTN and IP Customer Support Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional contact centers face challenges in handling simultaneous customer support requests over both telephone and computer networks, leading to agent workflow complications and inability to serve multiple customers simultaneously.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that supports blended PSTN and Internet customer support interactions by establishing multimedia communications sessions, using proxy telephone calls to route requests to available agents, and intelligent routing based on skill-specific requirements, allowing agents to connect with multiple customers through both communication channels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If an agent provides support to one customer at a time, then the agent can maintain quality interaction, but simultaneous requests from both telephone and computer networks cannot be handled
Solution Approach 1:
A virtual agent acts as an intermediary between customers and human agents. The virtual agent receives and manages both telephone and computer network requests, routing them to appropriate human agents based on availability and skill requirements. This mediator enables simultaneous handling of multiple requests without increasing human agent workload complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The contact center system integrates multiple communication channels (telephone PSTN and computer network IP) into a unified platform. The system can simultaneously receive, process, and route requests from both traditional telephone and internet-based customers through a single integrated architecture, enabling one agent to serve multiple customers across different channels.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the contact center supports both telephone and computer network requests, then customer accessibility is improved, but agent workload increases when receiving simultaneous requests
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual agent performs self-service functions by autonomously receiving customer requests through various channels, managing call queues, determining skill requirements, and routing to appropriate human agents. This automation eliminates the need for human agents to manually handle simultaneous multi-channel requests, maintaining high productivity while supporting enhanced multi-channel capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-qualifying customer requests through automated skill assessment and pre-routing them to appropriate agents based on availability and expertise before the agent becomes occupied. This preliminary processing enables agents to respond more efficiently to simultaneous requests by reducing manual triage workload.
3Ease of manufacture
If the system routes all requests to a single queue, then the routing process is simple, but skill-specific requirements cannot be met
Solution Approach 1:
The single request queue is segmented into multiple skill-specific sub-queues based on customer requirements. The virtual agent analyzes each request's skill needs and directs it to the appropriate skill-matched sub-queue, ensuring that requests are routed to agents with relevant expertise. This segmentation maintains routing simplicity at the system level while enabling precise skill matching at the queue level.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure includes a system and method for blended telephone network and computer network customer support interactions. The system may include a web server, one or more controllers, a telephone exchange, a monitoring server, and one or more client devices. The method may include receiving a multimedia support request, establishing a multimedia communications session, instructing a telephony application associated with the multimedia communications session to place a telephone call, routing and connecting the telephone call to an available endpoint, identifying the available endpoint when the telephone call is connected to the available endpoint, and transmitting an invitation to participate in the multimedia communications session to the available endpoint.