Multi-tenanted CTI Server for Pizza Outlet Call Prioritization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Fast food delivery businesses, particularly pizza delivery outlets, face challenges in providing consistent and efficient telephone service due to high customer mobility, variable call rates, limited infrastructure, and the need for maintaining brand consistency across franchise operations, with existing systems lacking mechanisms to reward loyal customers and manage peak call volumes effectively.
Innovation Solution
A multi-tenanted computer-telephony integration (CTI) server system is deployed outside customer premises to identify callers, prioritize loyal customers, queue calls, and provide marketing messages based on customer profiles and real-time data, while bridging calls to ensure efficient call handling and recording statistics, and managing call centers to handle overflow calls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a CTI server is deployed outside customer premises to provide centralized call handling, then call management efficiency and customer service consistency are improved, but system complexity and infrastructure requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a CTI server as an intermediary component that sits between the telephone network and the pizza outlet's existing infrastructure. This server handles call routing, customer identification, and priority management without requiring the outlet to build complex call handling facilities from scratch, thus improving productivity while limiting the increase in system complexity to a single centralized component rather than distributed complex systems at each outlet
Solution Approach 2:
The CTI server performs multiple functions including call routing, customer profile identification, priority determination, queue management, and marketing message delivery. By consolidating these diverse functions into a single multi-functional system, the patent improves overall call handling efficiency while avoiding the need for multiple separate systems that would increase complexity
2Reliability
If priority call handling treatment is provided to loyal customers based on customer profiles, then customer retention and service quality are improved, but call handling time and processing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-identifying customer profiles and loyalty status before the call reaches the outlet. Customer profiles are maintained in advance with their loyalty levels and preferences, allowing the CTI server to immediately determine priority treatment without requiring real-time analysis during call handling, thus improving retention while minimizing time loss
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where call handling performance and customer responses are fed back into the customer profile system. This allows continuous refinement of customer segmentation and priority rules based on actual behavior patterns, improving retention effectiveness while the automated feedback loops handle the complexity of analyzing large amounts of call data without manual intervention
3Reliability
If calls are queued within the network when outlets are unable to service them, then call completion rate and customer service quality are improved, but network infrastructure requirements and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The CTI server acts as an intermediary that manages call queuing functionality centrally rather than requiring each outlet to implement complex queuing infrastructure. The server handles queue management, call routing during peak periods, and coordination between multiple outlets, thereby improving call completion rates while concentrating infrastructure complexity in a single managed component
4Productivity
If multi-tenanted CTI server is used to serve multiple outlets, then resource sharing and cost efficiency are improved, but data security and system isolation requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements segmentation by creating separate virtual tenancies within the CTI server for different pizza outlets. Each outlet has its own isolated data space, customer profiles, and call handling queue, while sharing the same physical hardware resources. This segmentation approach improves resource utilization efficiency through multi-tenancy while maintaining data security through logical isolation between different outlets
Data Source
AI summary
One embodiment of the invention provides a method of handling a telephone call. The method includes providing a multi-tenanted computer-telephony integration (CTI) server. The different tenants correspond to various outlets for one or more product or service offerings. The CTI server is located outside the customer premises for the various outlets. The method further includes receiving a call directed to one of the outlets and using CLI for the call by the CTI server to identify the calling party and a customer profile for the calling party. The customer profile is based on previous orders. The method further includes queuing the call within the network if it is determined that the outlet is unable to currently service the call, and forwarding the call to the outlet to process the call. The CTI server uses the customer profile for providing priority call handling treatment for loyal customers.