Contact Center Queue Credit for Reconnected Customer Calls
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Solution Overview
Problem
Contact centers often fail to account for previous disconnections in customer wait times, leading to unfair treatment and increased frustration as customers are placed at the end of the queue upon reconnection, disregarding their previous wait times.
Innovation Solution
The customer queue manager system tracks and accumulates wait times from previous calls that were disconnected, using a unique identifier to associate these times with the customer's position in the queue, ensuring fair placement based on total wait time, including both previous and present queue times.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If customers are placed at the end of the queue upon reconnection after a disconnection, then the queue management system operates with simple reset logic, but customer fairness and satisfaction deteriorate as previous wait times are disregarded
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by capturing and storing the customer's unique identifier and call information at the moment of disconnection, before the customer reconnects. This preliminary data capture enables the system to recognize the customer upon reconnection and restore their queue position, preventing the loss of accumulated wait time without requiring complex real-time calculations during reconnection
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring call status (connected, disconnected, reconnected) and using this information to dynamically adjust queue positioning. When a disconnection is detected, the system feeds back the stored call information to restore the customer's queue position, ensuring that wait time accumulation is preserved across connection events
2Reliability
If the system tracks and accumulates wait times from multiple calls using unique identifiers, then customer fairness improves by crediting previous wait times, but system complexity increases due to database operations and call tracking
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a simplified copy of the customer's call information (unique identifier, call start time, queue position) and stores it in a database upon disconnection. This copy mechanism allows the system to quickly restore queue state without maintaining complex historical records of every call event, reducing the burden of tracking while ensuring fairness
Solution Approach 2:
The queue management system performs multiple functions: it manages active queue positioning, tracks disconnections, stores call information, and restores queue positions upon reconnection. By consolidating these functions into a single multi-functional system rather than separate specialized systems, the patent reduces overall complexity while maintaining reliability
3Ease of operation
If previous queue time is added to present queue time to calculate adjusted total queue time, then customer experience improves through fair wait time recognition, but processing complexity increases due to weighted calculations
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter used for queue positioning from simple connection time to adjusted total queue time, which incorporates previous wait time. This parameter transformation is achieved through a straightforward additive calculation (previous queue time + present queue time), avoiding complex weighted algorithms while still improving customer experience through fair treatment
Data Source
AI summary
A method for managing a queue in a contact center that includes: receiving a previous call from a first customer and determining a unique identifier; tracking a previous queue time; detecting the previous call ending without being connected to an agent; determining the previous wait time accrued; saving in a database a previous call record that includes the previous queue time and the unique identifier; receiving a present call from the first customer and determining a unique identifier; tracking a present queue time; using the unique identifier to check the database to determine the related previous call record; determining the previous queue time; calculating an adjusted total queue time that is the present queue time plus previous queue time; and positioning the first customer in the queue based on the adjusted total queue time.