Outbound Call Scheduling via Pre-Call Availability Notifications

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current call center systems often result in poor customer experiences and inefficient resource utilization due to customers not being available to receive calls, leading to repeated attempts and potential contact with different representatives unfamiliar with the reason for the call.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that allow customer service representatives to send notifications to clients, enabling them to accept or schedule calls at convenient times, with optional biometric authentication and VOIP communication, thereby ensuring availability and security.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If call centers initiate outbound calls without customer availability confirmation, then call volume and representative productivity are maintained, but customer experience deteriorates due to repeated attempts and contact with unavailable customers

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverepresentative productivityVSAvoidcustomer availability

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system sends a notification to the customer's mobile device before initiating the call, allowing the customer to confirm availability in advance. This preliminary action ensures that when the call is made, the customer is actually available, eliminating repeated call attempts and improving both productivity and reliability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Ease of manufacture

If call centers use traditional outbound calling systems, then call initiation is simple and quick, but resource utilization is inefficient due to repeated call attempts and contact with unavailable customers

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecall initiation simplicityVSAvoidresource utilization

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system introduces a mobile notification intermediary between the call center and the customer. The notification serves as a mediator that confirms customer availability before the actual call, maintaining simple call initiation while dramatically improving resource utilization by ensuring successful connections.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Reliability

If call centers make multiple call attempts to reach unavailable customers, then contact rate may improve, but customer experience and representative efficiency worsen due to time waste and potential contact with different unfamiliar representatives

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontact rateVSAvoidtime waste

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

By sending availability confirmation notifications before calls, the system ensures that only available customers receive call attempts. This preliminary filtering action achieves high contact rates while eliminating time waste from repeated attempts and ensures customers consistently receive calls from the same representative.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS11539837B1Mechanisms for scheduling outbound calls from call centers

Publication Date: 2022.12.27 UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION (USAA)

AI summary

Communications channels between systems can be managed such that unnecessary use of the channels is limited. A computer system can initiate a request to establish communications channels between a client device and the computer system. A notification is sent to the client device, which causes the client device to prompt the user to either accept the request or reschedule the requested establishing of the communications channel.