Hybrid Behavioral Pairing for Contact Center Assignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional contact center assignment methods, such as FIFO and priority queuing, often lead to uneven utilization of agents and contacts, resulting in longer waiting times for lower-priority contacts and suboptimal overall performance.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of hybrid behavioral pairing (HBP) strategies, which combine elements of behavioral pairing and priority queuing, allowing for balanced or skewed agent and contact pairings to optimize contact center performance by considering the potential benefits of future assignments, using a hybridization function to adjust the balance between balanced and skewed utilization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If priority queuing is used to maximize contact center performance, then high-priority contacts are served faster, but lower-priority contacts experience noticeably longer waiting times
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the hybridization parameter to change the assignment behavior between balanced and priority-based modes, allowing flexible control over the trade-off between overall performance and equity in waiting times
Solution Approach 2:
The assignment strategy transitions from static FIFO or fixed priority queuing to a dynamic hybrid approach that can adapt its behavior based on current system state and performance goals, balancing agent utilization and contact waiting times in real-time
2Ease of operation
If FIFO assignment is used to ensure even agent utilization, then all contacts are served in order of arrival, but contact center performance is suboptimal compared to priority-based methods
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the simplicity and fairness of FIFO assignment with the performance benefits of priority queuing by combining multiple assignment strategies into a hybrid approach that leverages the strengths of each method
Solution Approach 2:
The assignment strategy uses a composite approach combining different routing methodologies (FIFO, priority queuing, behavioral pairing) weighted by a hybridization parameter, creating a flexible composite assignment system that can optimize for different objectives
3Productivity
If behavioral pairing is used to optimize agent-contact matching, then future assignments are considered for long-term benefits, but implementation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hybridization parameter acts as an intermediary control mechanism that simplifies the implementation of complex behavioral pairing by providing a single adjustable parameter to control the degree of optimization versus simplicity in the assignment strategy
Data Source
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AI summary
Techniques for hybrid behavioral pairing in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for hybrid behavioral pairing in a contact center system comprising: ordering an agent; ordering a plurality of contacts; applying, by at least one processor, a hybridization function to the ordering of the plurality of contacts to bias a first strategy for pairing toward a second strategy for pairing; comparing, by the at least one processor and based on the hybridization function, a first difference in ordering between the agent and a first contact in a first pair with a second difference in ordering between the agent and a second contact different from the first contact in a second pair; and selecting, by the at least one processor, the first pair or the second pair for connection based on the comparing.