Contact Center Task Set Segmentation for Concurrent Agent Service
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Solution Overview
Problem
Contact centers face inefficiencies in scheduling customer requests that require multiple skills or resources, leading to work duplication, unnecessary resource use, and prolonged wait times due to sequential task handling and lack of automated capabilities for concurrent processing.
Innovation Solution
The method involves receiving a contact, identifying and grouping tasks into sets based on required skills, queuing these sets in multiple positions, and assigning the first set to an agent while maintaining the second set in a queue, allowing simultaneous queuing and servicing of multiple requests without requeuing, and utilizing a database to track task set servicing hierarchies and dependencies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If tasks are scheduled sequentially to different enterprise resources, then each task can be assigned to the most suitable specialized resource, but the customer experiences prolonged wait times and multiple transfers between agents
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments a customer contact into multiple independent task sets, each requiring different skills. These task sets are then queued concurrently in different queues rather than being processed sequentially. This allows multiple tasks to be serviced in parallel by different agents simultaneously, reducing customer wait time while maintaining proper skill-based assignment for each task.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from one-dimensional sequential task processing to multi-dimensional concurrent processing by queuing task sets in multiple queues simultaneously. Each queue operates independently, allowing parallel service of multiple tasks while maintaining the specialized skill-matching dimension for each task type.
2Device complexity
If a single queue is used for all customer requests, then queue management is simplified, but multi-skilled agents cannot service multiple requests simultaneously and work duplication occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the single queue into multiple specialized queues, each dedicated to specific task sets requiring particular skills. This segmentation enables multi-skilled agents to work on multiple task sets concurrently across different queues, improving productivity while maintaining organized queue management through skill-based categorization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables agents to perform multiple functions by allowing them to service task sets from different queues simultaneously. Multi-skilled agents can handle various types of requests (e.g., product exchange, service plan purchase) in parallel, maximizing their utilization and reducing overall system idle time.
3Productivity
If tasks are grouped by skill requirements into separate queues, then specialized agents can service tasks efficiently, but the system complexity increases and requires tracking multiple queue positions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a control system that acts as an intermediary to manage the complexity of multiple queues. This control system automatically tracks task set dependencies, monitors queue positions across multiple queues, and coordinates agent assignments. By centralizing this coordination function, the system can maintain multiple skill-based queues for efficient processing without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A contact center that includes:(a) an input 200 operable to receive a contact;(b) a task expert module 232 to (i) identify a plurality of tasks 400 associated with the contact; (ii) group the tasks 400 into first and second task sets; and (iii) queue the first and second task sets at different positions in at least one queue 208; and(c) an agent and work item selector 220 to assign the first task set to a first agent for servicing while maintaining the second task set in the at least one queue 208.