Queueless Contact Center One-to-One Matching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional contact centers rely on queues to manage work distribution, leading to suboptimal routing and increased administrative costs due to the need for frequent reassignment of agents across multiple queues as their skills evolve, resulting in inefficiencies and high operational complexity.
Innovation Solution
A queueless contact center system that uses ultra-fast mapping through qualification, eligibility, and suitability determinations, employing bitmaps to optimize the assignment of work items to agents without pre-organizing them into specific buckets, allowing for one-to-one optimal matching and reducing the need for manual oversight and reassignment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional queue-based routing is used to manage work distribution, then work can be organized and assigned to agents, but suboptimal routing occurs where agents are not assigned to work items they are most qualified to handle
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical queue-based routing system with an attribute-based matching system using bitmaps and boolean logic. Instead of physically organizing work items into queues and agents into resource queues, the system uses computational attributes and algorithms to determine optimal matches, substituting mechanical organization with intelligent computation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameters of the routing system from queue positions and agent availability to attribute-based qualification and suitability scoring. Work items and agents are characterized by multiple attributes (skills, language, media type, etc.), and the routing decision is based on matching these attributes rather than queue order, fundamentally changing the parameter space of the routing problem.
2Productivity
If contact centers segment contacts into many different queues to improve efficiency, then work distribution can be optimized, but the complexity of configuring, managing, and monitoring queues increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functionality of multiple specialized queues into a single unified work pool. Instead of maintaining separate queues for different work types, languages, or media, all work items are placed in one pool and routed based on attribute matching. This consolidates the complexity from managing thousands of queues to managing one pool with flexible routing logic.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal routing system that handles all types of work items and agent qualifications through a single mechanism. The attribute-based matching system is multi-functional, capable of routing based on any combination of attributes (skills, language, media type, region, customer type) without requiring separate queue structures for each work category.
3Productivity
If agents are assigned to multiple queues to reflect their diverse skills, then resource utilization improves, but the cost of updating agent qualifications across all relevant queues increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical process of manually updating agent assignments across multiple queues with an automated attribute-based system. Agent qualifications are stored as attributes, and the routing algorithm automatically matches work items to qualified agents based on current skills, eliminating the manual administrative overhead of updating queue assignments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary organization of work items and agents by attributes rather than by queues. All work items are pre-tagged with their required attributes, and all agents are pre-tagged with their possessed skills. This preliminary attribute organization enables instantaneous matching when work arrives or agents become available, eliminating the need for real-time reassignment updates.
4Measurement precision
If skill-based queues are used to match work items with qualified agents, then routing can be based on agent expertise, but the next available agent may not be the most suitable agent for the work item
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the routing parameter from simple queue availability to a suitability score based on multiple attributes. Instead of assigning work to the next available agent in a skill queue, the system calculates a suitability score considering the degree of match between work requirements and agent capabilities, allowing optimization beyond mere availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic routing where the optimal agent assignment can change based on current system state and work item characteristics. The suitability scoring system dynamically evaluates which agent is best suited for each specific work item, rather than using static queue-based assignment rules. This allows the system to adapt to varying work requirements and agent availability in real-time.
Data Source
AI summary
A queueless contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, achieve true one-to-one matching. Solutions are also provided for managing data structures utilized by the queueless contact center. Furthermore, mechanisms for generating traditional queue-based performance views and metrics for the queueless contact center are proposed to help facilitate a smooth transition from traditional queue-based contact centers to the next generation contact centers described herein.