Work Item Grouping for Simultaneous Contact Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing contact center systems inefficiently handle multiple customer contacts from various media channels, often delivering them one-at-a-time to agents, leading to inconsistent and inefficient customer service.
Innovation Solution
A resource allocation system that groups related work items, such as contacts from the same customer or with the same intent, and delivers them simultaneously to an agent for processing, using a work item grouping table to identify and manage these groupings based on qualifiers like customer identity and intent.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If contacts are delivered one-at-a-time to agents using standard first-in-first-out assignment, then agents can service contacts in a simple sequential manner, but multiple customer contacts are handled inconsistently by multiple representatives and operational efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple related contacts from the same customer into a single work item grouping that is delivered simultaneously to one agent. This combining of contacts that would otherwise be handled separately allows the agent to view and service all customer interactions in context, improving efficiency while maintaining simple assignment operations.
2Device complexity
If contacts are delivered one-at-a-time to agents, then the contact distribution algorithm remains simple and fair, but customer service consistency deteriorates as multiple representatives handle different aspects of the same customer issue
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple contacts into work item groupings that are delivered together to a single agent, ensuring that all customer interactions are handled by one representative. This maintains service consistency without significantly complicating the distribution algorithm, as the grouping logic is added layer on top of existing assignment mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary grouping of contacts by customer identity before delivery to agents. By pre-organizing contacts into work item groupings based on customer identifiers, the system ensures consistent service delivery without requiring complex real-time coordination during contact assignment.
3Productivity
If multiple customer contacts are handled by multiple company representatives, then each contact can be serviced independently, but customer experience deteriorates due to inconsistent and potentially conflicting handling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple contacts from the same customer into a single work item grouping delivered to one agent. This ensures that all customer interactions are handled consistently by a single representative while maintaining high productivity through parallel processing of multiple work item groupings.
4Reliability
If the system delivers all related contacts simultaneously to an agent, then customer service consistency is improved, but agent workload complexity increases as they must process multiple contacts at once
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments contacts into distinct work item groupings based on customer identity and relationships. Each grouping is a self-contained unit that an agent can process independently, reducing the perceived complexity of handling multiple contacts simultaneously while maintaining service consistency.
Data Source
AI summary
A contact center 100 including a grouping agent 232 that is operable to (a) select a first work item 308a, 312a, 316a, or 320a for servicing by a contact center resource; (b) determine whether the first work item is related to a second work item 308b, 312b, 316b, or 320b; and (c) when the first work item is related to the second work item, create, for servicing by the contact center resource, a first work item grouping comprising the first and second work items.