Contact Center Case Merging for Response Consistency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Contact centers face challenges in efficiently handling multiple requests for the same issue across different digital channels, leading to increased response times, duplication of efforts, and inconsistent responses from agents.
Innovation Solution
A computerized system and method that detects similar issues using a Similarity Detection Module (SDM) and a Category Qualifier Module (COM), merging temporary cases with existing cases in the queue when the similarity score exceeds a threshold, and providing an identical response to customers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If agents manually handle each customer request individually, then each customer receives personalized attention, but response time increases significantly and agent productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by proactively detecting similar cases and merging them before agents need to handle each request individually. The automated case management system identifies, merges, and routes similar cases in advance, so agents receive pre-consolidated work queues rather than individual scattered requests, significantly reducing response time and improving productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a virtual copy of the case management process through automated detection and merging mechanisms. Instead of agents manually checking for similar cases, the system replicates the case consolidation function automatically, allowing agents to focus on resolution rather than case management overhead.
2Reliability
If multiple agents handle similar issues independently, then each agent can work at their own pace, but responses to the same issue become inconsistent and customer experience degrades
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges similar cases into unified case records, consolidating multiple customer inquiries about the same issue into a single case that can be handled consistently. This ensures all customers receiving similar issues get the same standardized response, improving reliability and response consistency across the contact center.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the state of case management from individual independent cases to merged consolidated cases. By transforming the case structure and adding similarity detection parameters, the system automatically groups related cases together, ensuring consistent handling while managing complexity through automated rules-based merging.
3Productivity
If agents work through high volumes of similar cases, then more customers can be served, but duplication of effort increases and agent workload becomes inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The case management system performs self-service by automatically detecting similar cases, merging them together, and routing consolidated cases to appropriate agents. This eliminates the need for agents to manually search for and consolidate similar cases, reducing duplicated effort and energy waste while maintaining high service capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback loops where case outcomes and resolutions are captured and used to improve future case merging decisions. By learning from past resolutions, the system becomes more accurate at identifying similar cases, reducing agent effort through better automated consolidation while maintaining high productivity.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method for providing an identical response to a similar issue that is received from different customers. The computer-implemented method includes when a contact-center occupancy-rate is above a first-preconfigured-threshold, for each inbound-interaction from a customer that is entering an interactions-queue: (i) creating a temporary-case for an issue raised in the inbound-interaction; (ii) operating a Similarity Detection Module on the created temporary-case and cases in a cases-queue to receive a similarity-score for the created temporary-case; (iii) when the received similarity-score is above a second-preconfigured-threshold, operating a category Qualifier Module on the temporary-case to provide an indication as to qualification of a category of the issue raised; (iv) when the provided indication as to qualification of the category of the issued raised is qualified, merging the temporary-case with cases in the cases-queue and retrieving a response of the cases in the cases-queue; and (v) sending the retrieved response to the customer.