Virtual Hold Technology for Call Queue Management

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Solution Overview

Problem

Call centers face challenges in managing high call volumes, leading to long wait times and negative customer experiences, as existing solutions like additional staff or automated systems are costly and inefficient, and standard call flows are impersonal and wasteful.

Innovation Solution

Implementing Virtual Hold Technology that allows callers to hang up while maintaining their place in the queue, using an interface with ACD, IVR, CTI, and automatic dialer to manage call queues, enabling member-initiated outbound calling and reducing wait times by offering call-back options.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If additional staff are provided to service customers during high call volume, then customer service quality is improved, but operational costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecustomer service qualityVSAvoidoperational costs

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables callers to service themselves by allowing them to hang up and receive a callback without requiring continuous agent attention. The automated callback system manages the queue and initiates outbound calls, reducing the need for additional staff during peak periods while maintaining service quality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary actions by capturing caller information and placing them in a queue before an agent is available. The automated system prepares everything needed for the callback, including queue position and caller details, so that when service is provided, it can happen efficiently without requiring additional staffing resources.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Productivity

If callers are placed on hold during high call volume, then service representation availability is maintained, but caller satisfaction deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveservice representative availabilityVSAvoidcaller satisfaction

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

Instead of placing callers on hold and having them wait passively, the system inverts the approach by allowing callers to hang up actively and then initiating an outbound callback to them. This reverses the traditional hold mechanism, giving callers control while maintaining their queue position, thereby improving satisfaction without compromising representative availability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

Solution Approach 2:

The automated callback system acts as an intermediary between the caller and the service representative. It manages the queue, tracks positions, and initiates callbacks, serving as a mediator that connects callers to available representatives without requiring continuous hold time, thus preserving both productivity and satisfaction.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Device complexity

If standard speech recognition applications are used for all customers, then system complexity is reduced, but call duration increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem complexityVSAvoidcall duration

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSDuration of action of moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts only the necessary information from callers during the initial call, such as their callback number and queue position preferences. By taking out only the essential data needed for the callback mechanism rather than processing full service requests through standard speech recognition, the system reduces complexity while minimizing call duration.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

4Reliability

If callers remain on the line during high call volume, then queue position is maintained, but time and resource consumption increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvequeue position maintenanceVSAvoidcaller time consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system inverts the traditional queue mechanism by allowing callers to hang up and then initiating outbound callbacks instead of requiring callers to remain on the line. This maintains queue position reliability while eliminating the time loss associated with holding callers on the phone during high-volume periods.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

Data Source

PatentUS8705725B1Member-initiated outbound call

Publication Date: 2014.04.22 UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION (USAA)

AI summary

A system and method employed in a call center provide a memory structure for use in maintaining a call queue including data representing a plurality of calls to be serviced, and the data is structured so as to represent an order in which the plurality of calls are to be serviced. The call queue data further indicates whether each call is to be handled as an inbound or an outbound call. When an incoming call is received by the call center and no service representative is currently available to service the call, the caller is prompted to elect to either wait on-line for a next available service representative or to disconnect the call and receive a call back at a later time. An aspect of this technology is that the caller does not lose his or her place in the queue and is not stuck on hold.