CA3108013C - System and method for anticipatory dynamic customer segmentation for a contact center - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT A method for enhanced interaction processing in a contact center which involves detecting, by a processor, a pending interaction with a customer operating a communication device. The method also involves identifying, by the processor, first and second objectives of the contact center in response to detecting the pending interaction. The first objective is identified as more important to the contact center than the second objective. The method also involves identifying, by the processor, a first agent for handling the first objective, and determining a likelihood of success of the first agent in achieving the first objective. The method also involves identifying, by the processor, a second agent for handling the second objective for which the likelihood of success in achieving the second objective by the second agent is higher than the likelihood of success of achieving the first objective by the first agent. The method further involves transmitting, by the processor, instructions to a routing device to route the pending interaction to an agent communication device operated by the second agent, and prompting, by the processor, the second agent to pursue the second objective. Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ANTICIPATORY DYNAMIC CUSTOMER
SEGMENTATION FOR A CONTACT CENTER
This application is divided from Canadian Patent Application Serial No.

2,960,043 .. filed on July 30, 2015.
BACKGROUND
[0001]
A customer-centric organization needs to seamlessly integrate its operations with its customer intelligence to ensure a complete and actionable 360-degree view of the customer. Every interaction is generally treated as an opportunity to improve the customer experience through superior service, resulting in higher satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
Done correctly, these lead to increased success in both profit-based and non-profit-based businesses and services.
[0002]
To this end, it is known in the art to provide a cloud-based, premise-based or hybrid (cloud-premise) customer interaction management platform that handles various types of inbound and outbound interactions (e.g., traditional voice, voice-over-IP, email, web chat/IM, SMS/MMS, video, fax, self-service other work items, etc.) to various types of resources (e.g., a contact center agents, a back office, an expert/knowledge worker, a branch office, a self-service operation, an outsourced operation, etc.).
Customers may interact through the platform with different types of individuals (e.g., contact center agents, knowledge workers, back-office workers, etc.) and across multiple channels (e.g., contact center/IVR, proactive engagements, web, social media, mobile, etc.).

[0003]
In one embodiment, a customer interaction management platform integrates a contact center, agent stations, and, optionally, a customer relation management (CRM) server.
Typically, the contact center, the agent station(s), and the customer relation management server are coupled over one or more networks, which may be the Internet, a private network, or a telephone network. The customer relation management server may be physically located within the contact center and maintained by a third party, or located remote from the contact center and still operated thereby. End user interactions that call for management are routed, .. e.g., from the CRM server, for handling by the contact center agents. In one representative operating scenario, the contact center implements and maintains an object-based agent status Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 model that contains such data as agent identification, workflow assignments, media capability descriptions, and status elements related to communication and media elements.
The elements of this agent state model are dynamic and updated in real-time as an agent proceeds to receive or initiate interactions and to communicate with the end user using one or more multimedia applications.

[0004] Routing of interactions traditionally involves sending control signaling (as opposed to the media portion of the interaction itself, which typically does not get routed) to one or more agent queues. There may be queues associated with particular types of interactions, and there may be dedicated queues associated with skills or other characteristics of the agents. Typically, routing logic assigns interactions to agents based on configured logic, such as longest-idle agent, least occupied agent, skill level, etc. In an alternative -1 a-Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 scenario, an interaction is routed to an agent queue, where his picked up by an available agent. associated therewith and who has the appropriate skill level and availability to provide the needed communication with the customer. A hybrid 'approach may be implemented wherein an agent has associated therewith a personal workbin into which deferrable interactions (e.g., email or other tasks such as answering a customer letter, proactively contacting a customer, etc.) may be placed; in such a mode, the.agenr typically has some freedom to decide which of his or her tasks to do next. Agents useworkbins to store interactions that they have started working on and with to continue working on at a later time, Interactions can also be distributed to workbins by a muting server, A
wori:bin is like a queue in that it holds interactions, although a workbin typically is associated with a particular agent. A shared group workbin may be used by multiple agents in a pouf) or place. Agents can view the contents of the workbin and pullititeMctions from it in any order.
Thus, in a scenario in winch agents have flexibility in Salectinginteradtiona,.typitally the agent can view some details (e.g., statistics such as number ofinteractions in queue, or average wait time, or service level, etc.) about a queue containing all of the interactions they are assigned to handle. Processing of interactions in wont usually it automated, although an agent may have an opportunity to interact with the identified or viewable interactions. In the latter case, and when given a choice (possibly constrained by Service level or other policies), an agent may elect to pick the interactions that are most easy to resolve, or the contacts with which he or she is most familiar. Typically, an agent is trained tbr certain activities/tasks, some of which the agent may be scheduled to handle based. for example, on a designated "skillnittribute that may be enabled or disabled at a given point in time, Further, as a partioular customer interaction proceeds, the Customer may be handedotTfrott one agent to another, either as dictated by business proCess workflow, because a first agent it-tumble:to address the customer's need, or for other reasons. Although agent switching is sometimes required, it is desirable to avoid or reduce the impact of a context switch, especially if a given agent is aware of a prior contact history and can also handle anticipated.
follow-up steps, [00051 In a traditional interaction, the contact center agent assignment logic preferably routes art inbound interaction to what the system determines is a "best" or target agent. The agent typically is selected or defined based on one or more criteria, such as availability, occupancy; static customer segment., priority required skills to handle an interaction of a given media type, agent capacity, customer inter ion history (e.g., last agent muting), and other criteria, such as up- or cross-sell oppcortunities, agent skills, and the like, 100061 While these techniques work well, it is desirable to provide enhanced contact center routing strategies.

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 100071 Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system and method for case-based routing in a contact center. A processor opens a ease in a customer database. The case is associated with a workflow that has steps anticipated to be executed for the case. The processor identifies first and second steps of the workflow, and further identifies an agent with Skills for handling the first and second steps. The processor generates a task for handling at least the first step of the workflow, and transmits instructions to route the task to the identified agent.
100081 According to one embodiment, the case is a record including a history of lo interactions occurring in the case.
100091 According to one embodiment, the case is associated with a ease la and the instructiOnt to route the task include the case 11).
10010j According to one embodiment, the processor retrieves a history of interactions associated with the case based on the case ID, and displays the history of interactions on an agent device for the identified agent.
[00111 According to one embodiment, the processor generates a second task for handling the second step of the workflow, and transmits instructions to route the second task to the identified agent.
109121 According to one embodiment, the processor monitors for a trigger event. where the generating-of the task is based on detecting occurrence of the trigger event.
[00131 According to one embodiment, the trigger event is lapse a a set time period between two workflow steps.
10014) According to one einbodiment, the trigger event is a preset date.
{0015! According to one embodiment, the processofretrieves identification Oft first customer segment towhich a customer associated with the ease belongs. The first customer segment i* associated with a first objective of the contact:center. The processor predicts an outcome of handling the task by the agent according to the fint customer segment. The processor also identifies a second OtistorrieT segment based on the predicted outcome, artel re-associates the customer to the second customer segment. According to one .embodiment: the second customer segment is associated with a second objective of the contact center different from the first Objective. The task is then handled according to the second objective instead of the first objective.
100:1,61 According to one embodiment, the processor identifies first and second objectives of a -contact center, where the first objective is identified as more important to the contact center than the second objective. The processor determines that the agent has skills for achieving the first objective, and determines a likelihood of success of the first agent in achieving. the first objective. The processor also identities a second agent for handling the second objective, where the second agent also has sk ills for handling the first and second Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 steps of the workflow associated with the case. The processor determines a likelihood of success of the second agent. in achieving the second objective, where the likelihood of success in achieving the second objective by the second agent is higher than the likelihood of sticags.dathieving the first Objective by the agent. The processor transmits instructions to rotne the task to the second agent, and prompts the second agent to pursue the second objective.
100171 These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present 'invention will be more fully understood when Considered with respect to the following detailed description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings Of course, the actual. scope of the invention is defined by the appendedelaims.
100181 Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system and method for enhanced interaction processing in a contact center. iln.thiStitgard,a processor detects a pending interaction with a customer. The processor retrieves, in response to detecting the pending interaction. identification of a first customer segment to which the customer belongs.
The first customer segment is associated with a first objective of thecontact center. 'Ihe processor predicts an outcome of the pending interaction, and identifies a.
second. customer segment based on the predicted outcome. The processor re-associates the customer to-a second customer segment, where the second customer segment is associated with a second objective of the contact center different from the first business objective.
The processor handles the pending interaction according to the second objective instead of the first Objective.
[00191 According to one embodiment, the predicting the, outcome of the pending interaction includes predicting, by the processor, an outcome of a business opportunity presented to the customer. The husineSsOpportunity may be a cross-sell or up-sell opportunity of a product or service.
PAM According to one embodiment, the processor evaluates a plurality of factors associated with the pending interaction, where identification of the second customer segment is based on the evaluated factors.
100211 According to one embodiment, the predicted outcome of the pending interaction matches a criteria set for the second customer segment.
)00221 According to one embodiment, the predicted outcenne relates to the second Objective of the commit center.
[0023) According to one embodiment, the second objective includes a business opportunity not included in the first objective, 100241 According to one embodiment, the pending interaction is for achieving a step of a.
workflow associated with a case, where an agent selected for handling the pending interaction is an agent with skills to handle a next step of the workflow.

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 100251 According to one embodimenµ the second ctistoiner segment is also associated with a third objective, where the second Objective is identified as more important to the contact center than the third objective. The processor identifies a first agent for handling the second objectiVe, and determines a likelihood of success of the first agent in achieving the second objective. The processor identifies a second agent ter handling the third objective, and determines a likelihood of success of the second agent: in achieving the third objective. In the event that the likelihood of success in achieving the third objective by the second agent is higher than the likelihood of success of achieving the second objective by the first agent, the processor transmits instructions to route the pending interaction, to the second agent The processor also prompts the second agent to pursue the second objective.
100261 These and Other features, aspects and advantages of the 'present invention will be more fully understood when considered with respect to the following detailed description, appended Chat*, and -accompanying :drawings. Of course, the actual scope of the invention is defined...by theappended [00271 Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system and method for enhanced interaction processing in- a contact center.- A processor detects-a pend ing interaction with a customer. The processor identifies first and second Objectives Of the contact center in response to detecting the pending interaction, where the first objective is identified as more important to the contact center than the second objective.
The processor 10 identifies a first. agent for handling the first objective. and determinatlikelihood of success of the first agent in achieving.the first objective: The processor identifies a second agent for handling the second objettive, and determines -a likelihood of success Of the second agent in adhiatiing the second objective. In the event that-the likelihood Of success in Achieving the second Objective by the second agent is higher than the likelihood Of sueeets of achieving the first objective by the first agent, the processor transmits instructions to route the pending interaction to the second agent. The processor also prompts the second agent to pursue the second objective.
[00281 According to one embodiment, the first objective is associated with a first business outcome determined to be more desirable to the contact center than a second business outcome associated with the second objective.
100291 According to one embodiment., the business outcome relates to profit, revenue, or sales of the contact center.
[00301 According to one embodiment, the business outcome relates to customer satisfaction.
109311 According to one embodiment, the likelihood of the first or second.
agent in achieving: the first or second objectives is determined based on analysis of historical perforintmce of the first or second agents relating to the first and second objectives.

-5-Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 [0032] According to one embodiment, the second objective is associated with a business opportunity to be presented to the customer. The business opportunity may be a cross-sell or up-sell opportunity of a product or service.
[0033] According to one embodiment, the pending interaction is for achieving a step of a workflow associated with a case, and an agent selected for handling the pending interaction is an agent with skills to handle a next step of the workflow.
[0034] According to one embodiment, the processor retrieves, in response to detecting the pending interaction, identification of a first customer segment to which the customer belongs, where the first customer segment is associated with a third objective of the contact center. The processor predicts an outcome of the pending interaction and identifies a second customer segment based on the predicted outcome. The processor re-associates the customer to a second customer segment. According to one embodiment the second customer segment is associated with the second objective.
[0034a] Accordingly, there is described a method for enhanced interaction processing in a contact center, the method comprising: detecting, by a processor, a pending interaction with a customer operating a communication device; identifying, by the processor, first and second objectives of the contact center in response to detecting the pending interaction, wherein the first objective is assigned a higher priority than the second objective;
identifying, by the processor, a first agent for handling the first objective, and determining a likelihood of success of the first agent in achieving the first objective, wherein the determining a likelihood of success comprises: computing probabilities of possible business results of the pending interaction; if a probability for a business outcome is above a configured threshold, adjusting a service level for the pending interaction; identifying, by the processor, a second agent for handling the second objective for which the likelihood of success in achieving the second objective by the second agent is higher than the likelihood of success of achieving the first objective by the first agent; transmitting, by the processor, instructions to a routing device to route the pending interaction to an agent communication device operated by the second agent;
and prompting, by the processor, the second agent to pursue the second objective.
[0034b] There is also described a system for enhanced interaction processing in a contact center, the system comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

-6-Date Recue/Date Received 2023-03-16 detect a pending interaction with a customer operating a communication device;
identify a first and second objectives of the contact center in response to detecting the pending interaction, wherein the first objective is assigned a higher priority than the second objective; identify a first agent for handling the first objective, and determine a likelihood of success of the first agent in achieving the first objective, wherein the determining a likelihood of success comprises: computing probabilities of possible business results of the pending interaction; if a probability for a business outcome is above a configured threshold, adjusting a service level for the pending interaction; identify a second agent for handling the second objective for which the likelihood of success in achieving the second objective by the second agent is higher than the likelihood of success of achieving the first objective by the first agent;
transmit instructions, by the processor, to a routing device to route the pending interaction to an agent communication device operated by the second agent; and prompt, by the processor, the second agent to pursue the second objective.
[0035] These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will be more fully understood when considered with respect to the following detailed description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings. Of course, the actual scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0036] For a more complete understanding of the disclosed subject matter and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0037] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a customer interaction management platform in which the techniques described herein may be practiced;
[00038] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a contact center system according to one embodiment of the invention.
[00039] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a telephony-based computing infrastructure, such as a contact center, in which the techniques described herein may be practiced;
[0040] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an alternative SIP-based environment in which the customer interaction management platform is used;
-6a-Date Recue/Date Received 2023-03-16 [0041] FIG. 5 is a detailed block diagram of a hybrid (premises-cloud) environment in which the techniques of this disclosure may be practiced in one embodiment;
[0042] FIG. 6 is detailed block diagram of another hybrid cloud-based communications system in which the disclosed techniques may be implemented;
[0043] FIG. 7 is a process flow diagram illustrating a dynamic customer segmentation routing scheme according to this disclosure;
-6b-Date Recue/Date Received 2023-03-16 100441 rigs. 8A-813 are flow diagrams of a process for adaptive business objective routing according to this disclosure;
100451 P10.9 is a diagram illustrating a case routing scheme according to this disclosure;
100461 FIG. 10 is a process flow illustrating how two or more of the routing schemes may be carried out concurrently or sequentially to enhance contact centcyagent assignment logic;
(00:47) FIG. I I A is a block, diagram of a computingdemice according to an embodiment of the present invention;
100481 FIG. 11815 a block diagram of a computing:device according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[00491 1716: I IC is a block diagram of a computing devieeaceording to an embodiment of the present 'invention;
190501 FIG. D is a block diagram of a computing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; and 100511 FIG. I E is a block. diagram i)f a network environment including several Is computing devices according to an embodiment of the present invention.
RETAILED DESCIO.PTION
l00521 In general terms, embodiments of the present invention are directed to a customer 16. interaction management platform that MSC'S a set of one or more interaction routing strategies to determine which agents should receive and 'handle particular contacts. The plattbrin includes an agent assignment mechanism-Which is augmented to implement one or more of a set of routing salmi*. A first routing same proactively adjusts a customer service level against Which the agent assignment mechanism is executed A second routing scheme 25 operates during a given interaction using the -agent assignment mechanism to automatically adjust. which of a set of business objectives should be addressed by an available agent A
third routing scheme provides the agent aSsignment mechanism one or more parameters associated with a case to faCilitate the assignmit. These routing strategieS
May he carried Out in whole or in part. concurrently or sequentially.
30 l9053) The one or more muting strategies may include a "dynamic customer segmentation" strategy that provides an assessment or a-priori :reassessment of a customer's existing customer segmentation (e.g., gold, silver, bronze, etc.) and then determines, based on this analysis and an anticipated outcome of processing a given: customer interaction, whether the customer's customer segment association (for new interactions) should be promoted or 35 demoted. if, for example, this anticipated outcome would promote the customer to a next higher segment, then the current interaction may be treated :in accordance with the policies of this higher-level segment. The promotion or demotion of the customer segment association

-7-Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 may he context dependent and carried out on a per interaction basis or over some time period for multiple interactions.
[OM Another routing strategy implements an "adaptive business objective" strategy by which agent assignments are based in part on adjusting a business objective (139) during, The agent assignment process instead of relying upon a fixed or static business objective that is predefinedor configured. In this appmachi the business objective is.composed of two elements: a reason for interaction (as potentially refined through an IVR
dialog), and a set of business opportunities (e.g, cross-/up-sell offers) that vary based on A known cuStOrner profile. Given these factors, a set of business objectives are then defined thr the -customer, During the agent selection prOcessohe routing logic seeks to find abest matthingagent for addressing both elements and begins with a first (best) business objeCtive. If no Such agent can be found, a next best BO is used, wad st! on until an appropriate agent iSfound to handle the interaction according to the (potentiatly-adjuSted) BO. The B0-agent pairs are then.
ranked based on probability of success of the particular agent in handling the particular 130.
According to one embodiment, an agent with the highest rank, is .selected and the interaction routed to that agent for handling the associated 130.
[00551 Yet another routing strategy implements a "case routing" strategy determined at least in part on a "case record" associated with an interaction, such as (but not limited to) a CRM-sourced interaction. A (.11.-M system or server ,or any other customer database system .20- (collectively referred to as CRM system), which may a-component of the contacttenter or associated therewith, models a customer support interaction (between one of its customers and the systern).AS a-"ta,se" A cute (Or "ticker) has anassociatedease recerd having given information identifyingthe ease, its type,:an anticipated workflow (through a set of defined or ordered steps) to potential resat**, anticipated timing, escalation paths, and the like.
Depending on the CRIVI system from which the ease originates, a ease may be associated with a particular template depending on the nature of the customer support issue in case muting, a-case record associated with a case is used to influence which agent in a set of agents in a contact tenter should be identified to work the case. Without limitation, a best or target agent is selected based on one or more factors, such as an identity Of -a particular next interaction or-step in the processing of the case (as defined by the case workflow), one or more anticipated iliture interactions for the given case (e.g., based on predefined steps according to a workflow, an lot dynamic adjustments according to an anticipated outcome of a.particular step, etc.) and thatshotild preferably be handled by a same agent, the :existence of one or more previously-performed interactions for-the case, including whether any such interactions have been re-opened, remaining completion time for the case, and the like.
10056j According to a feature of this disclosure, the above-described muting techniques may be used either alone or together. Thus, in one embodiment, the dynamic customer segmentation strategy is implemented in association with the adaptive business objective

-8-Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 strategy or with case routing, in another embodiment, the adaptive business objective strategy is implemental in association with case routing. Yet another alternative is to associate (combine) all three of the above-described strategies. These routing strategies may he carriedout in whole or in part concurrently (Synchronously) or sequentially (asynchronously).
100571 FIG. I. illustrates a customer interaction management platform 100 that may be cloud-based, premises-based, or a hybrid implementation. The -platform may he operated by a dedicated service provider, but this is not a requirement. In general, the platform 100 handles all types of interactions, whether inbound or outbound. As illustrated, these interactions include, without limitation, voice, e-mail, web, chat/EM, SMS, video, fax/work items, and others. Interactions are directed to various resources such as a call center, outsourcer, back office, an expert (knowledge worker), a branch office, a self-service function, or the like. Preferably, the platform implements a framework. that -cornprists a set:
of operational layers, such as a configuration layer that provides for configuration., data integrity control, access control and runtime notifications, a management layer that allows a.
customer to monitor the behavior and Status of applications executing in the platfortn (e.g., solution control, alarm processing; troubleshooting and fault management), a media layer that provides external interfaces, enables switch-independence for the applications, and provides for data distribution, and a services. layer that provides status andstatisties.
100581 FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a system for supporting a contact center in providing contact center services according to Ontexemplary embodiment of the invention.
The contact center may be an in-hOuse facility tea businessortorporation for serving the enterprise-in performing the functions of sales and service relative to the products and services available through the enterprise. In Another aspeet-the contact tenter may be a third-party service provider,. The contact center may be deployed in equipment dedicated to the enterprise or third-party service provider, and/or deployed in a-remote computing environment such as, for exaMple, a privateer public _cloud environment. With infrastructure for Supporting Mit* contact centers for multiple enterprises. The vatic*
components of the. contact center-may also be distributed across various geographic locations and computing environments and not necessarily contained in a single location,, computing environment, or even computing device.
190591 According toonc exemplary embodiment, the contact center includes resources (e.g. personnel, computers, and telecommunication equipment): to enable delivery of services via telephone or other Communication mechanisms. Such services may vary depending on the type of contact center, and may range from customer service to help desk, emergency response,- telemarketing, order taking, and the like.
[00601 Custom's,, potential customers, -or other end users (eollectivelysreferred teas customers) desiring to receive services from the contact eentermay initiate inbound calls to

-9-Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 1 the contact center via their end user devices 10a-,10c (collectively referenced as 10). Each of the end user devices 10 may be a communication device conventional in the art, such as, for example, a telephone, wireless phone, smart phone, personal computer, electronic tablet, and/or the like. Users operating the end user devices 10 may initiate, manage, and respond to telephone calls,emaila, chats, text messaging, web-browsing tessions; and other multi-media transactions.
100611 inbound and outbound calls from and to the end users devices 10 may traverse a telephone, cellular, and/or data communication network 14 depending on the type of device thatis being used. For example, the communications network 14 may include aprivate or public switched telephone network (MN), local area network (LAN), private wide area network (WAN). and/or public wide area network such as, for example, the Internet. The communications network 14 may also include a wireless carrier network including a code division Multiple access (CDMA) network, global system for mobile communications (GSM) network, and/or any 36 or 46 network. conventional in the art.
100621 According to one exemplary embodiment, the contact center includes a switch/media gateway 12 coupled to the communications network 14 for receiving-and transmitting calls between end users and the contact center. The switch/media gateway 12 may include a telephony switch configured to function as a central switch for agent level routing within the center. In this regard, The switch 12 may include an automatic call dittributor, a private branch exchange (Pli-X),.an IP-based software switch, and/or any other switch configured to receive Intemet-sourced calls and/or telephone network-sourced calls.
According to One.exemplary etribodintent of the inventiokthe switch is coupled to ace!!
server IS which may, for example, Servo as an adapter orinterface between the switch and the remainder of the routing, monitoring, and other call-handling components of the cornett center.
[00631 The-contact:center may also include a multimedia/social media server for engaging in media interactions other than voice interactions with the end user devices 10 and/or web servers 32. The media interactions may be related, for example, to email, vmail (voice Mail through email), that, video, text-messaging, web, 'social media,-co-browsing, and the like. The web servers12 may include, for example, social interaction site hosts for a variety of known social interaction sites to which an enduser may subscribe, such as, for example, FaceboOkõ Twitter, and the like., The.web servers may also provide web pages for the, enterprise that is being supported by thecontact center._ End users may browse the web pages and get information about the'enterprise's products and services. The web pagesmay also provide a mechanism for contacting the contact-center, via, for example, web chat voice call, email, web real time communication (WebftTC), or the like.
[00641 According to one exemplary embodiment of -the invention, the switch is coupled to an interactive media response (IMR) server 34, which may also be. referred to as a self-help

-10-Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 system, virtual assistant, or the like. Tile IMR server 34 may be similar to an interactive voice response (.IVR) server, except that the IMR server is notrestricted to voice, but may cover a variety of media channels including voice. Taking voice asan example, however, the lVIR server may be configured With an [MR script for querying calling eustOmera on their needs. For example, a contact center for a beak may tell callers, via the [MR
script, to "press 1" if they wish to get an account balance. If this is the case, through continued interaction with the IMR, customers may completaservice without needing to speak with an agent. The IMR server 34 may also ask an open ended question such as, for example. "How can I help you?" and the customer may speak or otherwise enter a reason for contacting the contact center. The customer's response may then be used by the routing server 20 to route the call to an appropriate contact center resource.
100651 If the call is to be routed to an agent, the call is forwarded to the call server 18 which interacts With a muting server 20 for finding an appropriate agent for processing the call. The call server 18 may be configured to process 'Ism calls, Vol P calls, and the like.
For example, the call server 18 may include a session initiation protocol (SIP) server for processing SIP calls. According to some exemplary embodiments, the call server 18 may, for example, extract data about the customer interaction such as the caller's telephone number, often knoWn as the automatic number identification (AND number, of the customer's interim protocol OP) address, or email address.
100661 In some embodiments, the routing server 20 may query a customer database, which stores information about existing Clients, such as contact information, service level agreement (SLA)'requirements, nature Of previous customertorstactS and.
edible; taken by contact center toTesolVe any customer issues, and the like. The 'database May be managed by any database management system conventional in the art, such as Oracle, IBM
DB2, Microsoft SQL server, Microsoft Access, Postgre.SQl.õ MySQL, FoxPro, and SOLite, and may be stored in a mass storage device 30. The routing server 20 may query the customer information from the customer database via an ANI or any other informationeollected by the IMR 34 and fi.n.wltrded to the routing server by the call server 18.
(0067) Once an appropriate agent is available to handle a call, a connection is made between. the caller and the agent device 38a-38e(collectively referenced as.38) of the identified agent. Collected intbrmation about the caller and/or the caller's historical information may also be provided to the agent device for aiding the agent in better servicing the call. In this regard, each agent device 38 may include a telephone adapted for regular telephone calls, Volt> calls, and the like. The agent device 38 may also include a computer for communicating with one or more servers of the contact center and performing data processing associated with contact center operations, and for interTheing with customers via voice and other multimedia communication mechanisms.
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 100681 The selection of an appropriate agent for routing an inbound call may be based, for example, on a routing strategy employed by the routing server 20, and further based. on information about agent availability, skills, and other routing parameters provided, for example, by a statisticsserver .22.
100691 The contact center may also include a reportingserver 28 configured to generate reports from data aggregated by the statistics serVer_22. SuchrOotts may include near real.
time reports or _historical reports concerning the. state of resources, such as, for example, average waiting time, abandonment rate, agent occupancy, and the like. The reports may be generated automatically or in response to specifterequests from a rcquestor (e.g.
agentiadministrator,contact centerapplicationõ and/or the like).
100701 .Amording toone exemplary embodiment of the invention, the routing server 20 is enhanced with functionality for managing Wk-office(offline activities that are assigned to the agents. Such activities may include, for example, responding to emails, responding to letters, attending training -seminars, or any other activity that does not entail real time communication with a 'customer. Once assigned to an agent, an activity an activity may be pushed to the agent, or may appear in the agent's workbin 26a-26c (Collectively referenced as 20) as a tasktri:be coMpleted by the agent. The agent's workbin may be implemented via any data structure conventional in the art, such as, for example, a linked Oa, array, and/or the like.
The workbin may he maintained, for example, in buffer memory of each -agent device 3$.
20. 100711 According to one exemplary embodiment of the invention, 'the mass storage device(0)õ0 may store one or more databases relating to agent data (e.g. agent profiles, Schedules, etc.), customer data (e.g. customer profiles), interattion. data (e.g. : details 'dead interaction with a customer,. including reakin for the interaction,-disposition data, time On hold, handle time, ete.), and the like, According to one embodiment, some of the data (e.g.
customer profile data) may be provided by a third party database such as,for example, a third party customer relations management (OM) database. The-mass storage device may take -lbent of a hard disk or disk array as is conventional in the art.
100721 The various servers of FICi. 1 may each include one or more processors executing computer program instructions and interacting with other system components forperforming the various functionalities described herein. The computer program instructions are stored in a memory implemented using a standard memory device, such as, for example, arandom access memory (RAM). The computer program instructions may also be stored in other non-transitory computer readable media such as, for example, a CD,ROM, flash.
drive, or the like.
Also, although the functionality of each of the servers is described as being provided by the particular server, a personof skill in the art. should recognize that the functionality of various servers may he combined or integrated into a single server, or-the functionality of a particular server may be distributed across oneormore other servers without departing from the scope.
of the embodiments of the present invention.
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 100731 In the various embodiments, the term interaction is used generally to refer to any real-time and non-real time interaction that uses any communication channel including, without limitation telephony. calls (PSTN or Vol.P calls), -emails, mails (voice mail through email), video, chat, screen-sharing, textmessages, social media messages, web real-time communication (e.g. Web RTC calla), and the like.
100741 FIG. 3 illusaratesatraditional Customer interaction management platform 250 that interoperates with telephony infrastructure, such as P$TN 252, according toanother embodiment of' the invention. In this embodiment, the platfornt250 comprises switch .254.
1VR 2564 a telephony server 258, and a set of agent desktops 260.
[00751 FIG: 4 illustrates a Wee-over-1P embodiment whetting* customer interaction management platform 300 interoperates with the MTN 302 and a VolP gateway 304, and Comprises SIP server 306, IVR.308,and1P-based hard. phones 309, or IP-based soil phones 310, according to one. embodiment Of the invention..
100761 Although not shown, typically the customer interaction management platform includes native support for all types of standard media, such as voice (TDM/VolP), email, chat, eo-browSo, web forms, and others.
[00771 FIG. 5 illustrates hybrid on-premises and cloud-based implementation of the customer interaction management plattOrm. In this embodiment, there are three (3) premises locations 402,404 and 406, and each of these locations is associated with a control server 408 .20 to which agents associated with the platform can connect. Customers interface to the platform via a network switch 410. A control server 408 is associated with the network Switch and interfaces to a global router 414 that executes a routing strategy for interaction routing. A database server 41.6-provides an interface to one databases 418.
An interactive voice response (MR) unit 412 is associated with the network switch 410, and IVR
may be controlled by its. own control server 415. A central network routing element typically is located within router 414, whip)) may then instruct the network witch (via server 408) to Send the call M IVR;lante the.IVR has finished the call, it cOuld either be terminated or transferred to an agent. However, it is also possible that the call is Sent to the RIR
unconditionally,:in which ease theiVR control server 415 decides whether to terminate it Cr transfer to an agent. The former scenario is sometimes referred to as MR-behind switch, while the latter is referred to as IVR-in-front. Each control server 408 typically provides various control functions such as agent telephony state propagation, call control and monitoring, WI model unification, inter-site session negotiation (e.g., call transfers, eonferences, etc.) and provides fora common message bus tbr .other applications.. The routing engine in the global router 414 provides strategy-driven interaction flow control, which are referred to herein as routing strategies. Each premise may have associated therewith a "state" server 420 that. provides the platform global agent state/Opacity data, and real-time metrics calculations. A configuration server 424 provides dynamic configuration Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 management. A management layer 426 provides for application monitoring and control, centralized logging, alarms, and the like. Although this figure illustrates direct network level routing to agents, this is not a requirement as there may multi-step routing (e.g., from network to site, and at the site level to agents through a site level router).
100781 FIG. 6 is a more detailed architectural overview of a communications environment in which the techniettes of this disclosure may bepracticed, In this embodiment, a system is provided that integrates a contact center, an agent station, and a customer relation management (CRM) server. This is:just a representative environment and should not be taken as. limiting. In this embodiment, communications envirOnment 200 includes a public, switched-telephone-network (MTN) .202, an Internet network 207, and a communications' or contact center 210. PSIN network 202 may be another type or configuration of telephone netwerIL For example, network 202 May bo a wireless, network or a combination of wireless and wired networks. Likewise, network 202 May be a private or public telephone network.
If the network is the *tic P.STN network, itmay include a switch. 203 which may function as a service control point (SC"). If the network is a private network, it may include a local telephone switch (LSW) 203 for reeelYing and routing telephone calls in the network. The LSW 203 may be an automated eafi drittributne(ACD), a private branch exchange (PBX) or some other call switching hardware, which may also function as a service control point (SCP). In this example, LSW 203 has connection to communication center 210 by way of a telephony trunk 205. Also, in thisexample,t,SW 203 is enhaneed with a computer-telephony-integration (CT1) processor 204 running an instance of a telephony server (T-S).
hocessor 204 provides intelligent telephony:and interaction capabilities to LSW 203.
Examples incinde intelligentperinherals film interactive voice response systems, and other Theinstance of the telephony server 'F-S running on processor 204 provides an array of intelligent routing services, which may be integrated with CTI and intelligent peripheral functions.
[0079j Communication center 210 has a switch (CSW) 211 (such as a PBX or ACD) provided therein and adapted to receive incoming telephone calls from PST 202 for the purpose of internal routing to :communication center personnel and automated help or service systems. CSW 211 is, of course also adapted for outbound calling, CSW 211 may be a PBX
or other type of telephone switch as mentioned above with reference hi LSW
203. CSW.211.
is connected toLSW by telephone trunk 205. CSW 211, like.LSW 203, is also connected to a CTI processor .21.5 running an instance of the T-S server.
100801 Processor 215 preferably uses a separate data network 206 for communicating with processor 204, in this way, intelligent routing routines may he created and implemented at the PSIN level thereby enabling performance of internal call muting at the network level.
Data solicited from a caller may be transferred into center 210 aheadof the actual telephone Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 call with the use of network 206 and the connected CTI procesSots and TS
instances. Agent level routing may then be performed at network level and may be controlled by center.216.
[00811 Center 210 preferably has a local-area-network (LAN) 218 provided therein and utilized to connect multiple workstations and systems together for communication. In this example, an agent workstation 522 and an agent workstation 523 are illustrated having LAN
connectivity. Workstation 522 contains typical agent: equipment for communication not Uniting to a personal LAN-connected computer 227 with a video display unit (VDU) such as a computer monitor and an agent telephone 226, Telephone 226 has connectivity to CSW
211 via internal telephone wiring 217. Workstation 521 is adapted for communication in a like, but not necessarily identical, manner as is station 522 by way of a LAN-connected.
Computer 225 and by Way of an agent telephone 224; Additional conimunication equipment types may be represented Within stations 523 and 522; these belittle, withotn limitation, fax machines, automated answer systems, other processing terminals, and other such network-capable equipment: types. An agent may be a home agent (a person that works from his or her home) and connects to the contact center, e.g., via voice-over-IF>
connections. In one embodiment, telephones 224 and 226 may be data phones connected to respective computer hosts as terminal machines.:There are many configuration possibilities as well as equipment variances.Possible I00821 CI1 processor 215 preferably has a LAN connection to enable supervisors with administrative authority to modify or create new routing routines and so on.
The function of 'f.-S within processors 215 and 204 depends on accessibility toa telephony server library (T-Server Library) 220, which in this example, is connected to LAN 218. Library preferably contains all of the objects, descrintots, and constructs tri enable integrated CTI/Transaetion Intelligent call processing. Typically, the library is an embedded part ai server that uses the library ibr communication with other network elements.
10083) Without limitation, Internet network 207 is part of communications environment 200. Internet 207 may be another type of wick-area-network (WAN).. For example. network 207 may be a corporate or private WAN or metro-area-network (MAN), Internet network 207 has a netwent N.e..kbone 209 extending there through that represents all or some of the equipment, lines and access points that make up an Internet network as a whole, including any connected sub-networks As noted above, no geographic or logical limitations are intended.
109841 A customer relations management (CRM) server 208 is provided or otherwise illustrated within Internet network 207 and is adapted to manage customer relations relative to one or more customer bases related to one or more enterprises such as one hosting communication venter ZI 0 for example. CRM system or service 208 may be provided by a third party enterprise. A third-party CRM solution may be implemented from the base of a third-party enterprise that may include third party customer management services. Likewise, Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 CRM server 208 maybe part of customer premise equipmentXPIry solution. whereby the entire or certain portions of a customer base are related to the host enterprise and .serviced internally at a specific communication center, suit. as tenter 21Ø In the latter casc,. CRM
server 208 may he hOsted within the physical domain of center 210 and connected to LAN
218. In still another embodiment, CRM system 208. may be:adapted to service a enstonter base related to a plurality of regionally d1str1buti4 wattlE* or communication centers of a same enterprise; - In this case, a separate but centralized 'facility maybe provided within the domain of Internet 207 whereby those customers of multiple centers may be managed according to the policies and rules established at each-center.
[00851 in this example, center 210 is-a multimedia-capable communication center with Internet connectivity for contact and interaction With customers and business entities. An Internet protocol router (IPR) 221 is provided within center 210 and has connection to LAN
218. IPR 221 is adapted to receive multimedia and continunication events from Internet 207 and to route such events to agent stations like stations 222 or 223 over LAN
21-8. Multimedia events may include email events, Web form interactions; voice over IP
interactions, Web messaging interactions, multimedia-capable, ortext_chat-sesSions, video Mail interactions, network conferencing sessions. and IP telephony sessions. Therefore; organized channels (media channels) and routing systems may be in place for handling those types of 'Demotic interactions or events. In another embodiment, the CRM system does not direetlyaddrm agents (endpoints),õbut instead connects to a service provider's media services (e,g., Genesyse I-Serval* for voice. Genesys Interaction ServerTM for multirmlia) througha.
CRM -adapter. Likewise, one or more Internet servers (not illustrated) May be provided to.
host certain network. interaction like chat or-Web-meetings. Such server may be assumed presentin This example and provided within the domain of Internet 207, which includes that of LAN 218 when connected online.
[00261 Among other services, CRM system 208 may be adapted to provide automated -self-help services, Web4orni services, email services, automated fax services, and other multimedia services. Likewise, back-end data from a .CR.M. system may include history infomiatiOn; statistical in further contact information; and. links to other resourceS.
100871 in this embodiment, a CC/CRM adaptor system -214 is provided within communication center 2.10 and is adapted to integrate CRM capabilities with agent and Call-control/management capabilities at the level of an agent workstation or desktop. CC/CRM
system adaptor.214 is adapted to provide integration between CRM-system 208 and CTI.t..2 capability (processor 2151 using one or more dynamic agent state models 213.
As noted above, the models 213 represent a collection of agent models representing individual agents and agent capabilities and work task assignments of those agents assigned to thedomairtof system 214, or in this case, agents that are available through contacting communication center 210.

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 100881 Within system 214, preferably Contact-center function and management is abstracted as well as CRM -service tion and management so that they may be simultaneously-managed and monitored in a convenient-agent user interface with graphic display capability at the agent level. OW:adaptor system 214 has a parent application (not illustrated) thattommunicates.withtlient applications distributed to agent stations. An instanceof interaction contrOliagent control (IC/AC) and CRM. client interface 228a is provided within the domain of agent workstation 223 and is executable!, e.g., as aisoftware instance from the desktop ofeemputer 223.. A Similar instance of ICIACICRM
228b is provided within the domain of station- 223, and it executable, e.g., as 'a software instance from computer 557.
100891 By exeCiainn and 'running instance ICJACICRM inStance 228a, in agent operating at station 223 tan revolve voice and media events and at the Same time provide CRM services to callers or interaction participants in a way that follows the agent status model of that particular agent. The-agent status model for station 223 defines the agent, and preferably all (or at least some of the communication capabilities of the agent including all of the CAM
services available to customers of the agent and to the agent related to those customers. In addition, the model for an agent preferablyincluOes dynamic call and session management including current agent state and *settee over' a plurality of media channels including live voice channels. Client instance-228a effectively bridges CRM and cif-related services particular to agent model, customer definition, and event purpose using both manual andõ in some cases automation to select or provide services and data needed to enhance the transactional experience for boththe agent and caller..
100901 Artagent operating, for example, at Statinn 223 May reordire telephone voice eal events from MTN 202 by-way of routing through CSW211 and internal telephone wiring 217. The presence of these-calls in the system is noted and recorded at CTI/T-S processor 215, which has connection to CCICRM adaptir214 over theLAN: In one embodiment, a direct data link (bridge) may be provided between crms processor 215 and adaptor 214.
CC/CRM adaptor 214 prompts CRM System 208 when a communication event relevant to agent station 223 is being routed.
130 100911 During routing. the telephone call is routed to agent telephone 224 while data about the call is routed over LAN 218 to computer 225 and is displayed, often ahead or pickup oldie telephone call The earlier prompt or request made to CRM 208 by cor-s processor 215 maybe an initial machine-toomachine request using hypertext transfer protocolfsimpie Object access protocol (IITTP/SOAP) asking CRM 208 to be ready to send data about the caller to agent desktop 225 using IMP protocols, in this ease via a network-access path defined by access line 216 and LAN 218 and. IPR .221, which routes the connection. CRM. 108 may be in a state of monitor, or always connected to the main system wherein connections to anent desktops are automatic.
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 1 100921 In A MAO operating scenario, CRM 208 stands ready and waits for a request from the *went operating station 223. In this scenario, data about the call and caller may arrive at computer 225 before the cull is picked up at telephone 224. The agent may then use IC/AC/CRM instance to senda request for specific services and/or data to be available at the desktop when the. agent picksup the call. CT1 telephonyeall transfer services and multi-party connecting may be leveraged, for example; as examples of CRM service solutions provided by CRM server 208. CRM server 20 may be prompted to deliver a solution implemented at CSW 211, I ikea multiparty-bridged connection or meeting wherein the agent initiates the connection and then drops out to take a next call 100931 inanOther embodiment, data network telephony (E1NT) Callers may contact -center 210 using soft phones (IP-based) or Internet-capable cellular telephones, smartphortes, tablets, or other such devices. In these scenarios, there may be more. media channels available to the interaction like messaging, chat, email,- and soon. In aptire DNI
sense, 1141.221 May notify CCICRM adaptor of an event for station 223 such as a videoconference tilting a host server (not illustrated). COI alsomay set up the initial space and format for the .conference for the agent and the agent may add specific contacts provided by CRM server 208, which May be visible in an interactive list on the agent's desktop interface. An agent may interact, and may being in new media channels and capability to the instant.
interactions dynamically.
100941 Preferably, the agent status models 213 are updated during activity periods and are rendered in a state of inactive or non*accessib lity when the associated agent is notavailahle for communication. When an agent comes online, his or her agent status model is activated and he is then ready for interaction. CC1CRM. adaptor 114 and the agent instance of IC/AC/CRM 228a, for example, aroboth charged with reporting state data to appropriate destinations.
100951 Agent stations 223 and 223 are not required to be located within a contact center.
As illustrated, a remote agent-may-use his or her own telephone line and an Internet or prevailing WAN or MAN -connectinn as long as his or her telephone calls are routed from CSW 211. A roaming agent.229 is illustrated in this example with a wireless connection to 230 LAN 218. Agent 229 May also practice the invention using his or her wireless access connection to LAN 218 and a cellular telephone. Again, preferably all telephone calls are routed through CSW 211 ora similar C1'1-enhanced switch.
111.0961 Adaptor 214 may be asoll adaptor running in CTI/T-8 processor 215, or in I.PR
221, or in somenther connected host. Moreover, OW system 208 may be provided as-a third-party service or a CPE implement, 100971 'Typically, the contact center includes an agent interaction layer adapted to provide.
abstraction of communication center data and CT! data about any particular agent. The abstracted data is used to provide and to update agent status that is represented within CC/CRM adapter 214 in the form of an object model.
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 100981 One or more functions of a technology platform such as described above may be implemented in a "cloud-based" architecture, Cloud computing is a model of service delivery for enabling on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g. networks, network bandwidth, servers, processing, -memory, storage, applications, virtual :machines, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management 'effort or interaction with a provider of the service, Available services models that maybe leveraged in whole or in pan include: Software as a Service (SaaS) (the provider's applications running on cloud infrastructure); Platform as a service (PaltS) (the customer deploys applications that may be created using provider tools onto the cloud infrastructure); Infrastructureas a Service (laaS)(customer provisions its own processing;
steirage, networks and other Computing resources and can deploy and run operating systems and applications). A cloud based platform may comprise co-located hardware and software resources, or reaources that are physically, logically, vinua fly andior geographically distinct, Communication networks used to communicate to and from the platform services may be packet-based, non-packet based, and secure or non-secure, or some combinatioritherenf.
1:00991 More generally, the techniques described herein areprovided using a set of one or More computing-related entities (systems, machines, Orneenett, programs, libraries, timetions, or the like) that together facilitate or provide the described funetiona1it described above. in a typical implementation,. a representative machine on which thesoftware executes 10 comprises commodity hardware, an operating system, an application runtime: environment, and a set of applications or processes and associated data, networking technologies, etc., that together provide the functionality.of a given system or subsystem. As described, the functionality may be implemented in a standalone machine, or across a distributed set of machines.
(901001 As noted above, the front-end of the above-described infrastructure is also representative of a conventional web site (e.g., a set of one or more pages formatted according to a markup language).
[00101( Client devices access service provider infrastructure as described to retrieve content, including HTML media players, videO content, and other Objects. A
typical client device is a personal computer, laptop, mobile device, tablet, or the like. A
representative mobile device san Apple iPate or iPad5, iPad Mini, an Androitfrm-based smartphorie or tablet, a Windows-based smartphone or tablet, or the like. A device of this type typically comprises a CPU (central processing unit), such as any Intel- or AMD- (or other) based chip, computer memory 304. such as RAM, and a flash drive. The device software includes an operating system (e.g.. Apple i0S, Ciooglee Androidim, or the like), and generic, support applications and utilities. The device may also include a graphics processing unit (CiPU), and a touch-sensing device or interface configured to receive input from a user's touch. The touch-sensing device typically is a touch screen. The mobile device comprises suitable Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 programming to facilitate gesture-based control, in a manner that is known in the art. The client is not limited to a mobile device, as it may be a conventional desktop, laptop or other intetnetqlecessible machine running a web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, #ireFox, Safari, Chromeor the like. Content retrieved to the client may he rendered in a browser, within a mobile app, or other rendering engine.
Enhanced. Routing Techniques 100.1021 the context of a content center (or, more generally, a customer interaction management platform), routing refers generally to the process of sending an interaction to a target A routing "Strategy' instructs how to handle and where to direct interactions under different circumstances. in addition to selecting the target, the notion of routing may also include determining interaction characteristics such as type (voice, email, chat, etc.), priority, customersegment, service type, target SLA, etc.). Routing strategies may be created in a development environment. using a tool such as Genesys't Interaction Routing Designer (IRD), where users can test, modify, and load routing strategies. Cienesys Universal Routing Server (UM is a server that executes routing strategies so developed and, in particular, using routing strategy instructions. The techniqnes below may be implemented in or in association with contact center agent assignment logic. More generally, the contact center agent assignment mechanism may implement one or more various agent mechanisms including, without limitation, skills-based routing, business priority-based routing, share agent by service level-based routing, cost-based muting, and other known mechanism The contact center agent assignment mechanism may then be augmented to include one or more of the enhanced routing techniques that are described in this disclosure. A
representative but, non-limiting platform that implements such agent assignment functions is Genesyst Orchestration Server(ORS). This server provides session-based routing and integrates this and other back-end contact center functions with other contact center systems, servers, programs and processes.
[001031 Any of the herein-described functions may be implemented within an enterprise environment, within a cloud-based environment, or within a hybrid (a combination of cloud and enterprise) environment.
100104J The following sections describe the various routing (contact-to-agent assignment) methods or strategies that may he implementedto provide enhanced agent assignments (or, more generally, to augmentsuch existing agent assignment mechanisms) according to this disclosure. As noted above, these muting methods are sometimes referred to herein as "dynamic. customer segmentation," "adaptive business objective routine and "case routing."
This nomenclature is provided for descriptive purposes only and should not be deemed.
limiting. As one of ordinary skill Will appreciate, two or more of the: above-described routing techniques may be used with. one another.. Thus, in oneembodiment, the dynamic customer segmentation strategy is implemented. in association with the adaptive business Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 objective strategy or with case routing. In pother embodiment, the adaptive business objective strategy is implemented in association with case routing. Yet another embodiment is to associate (combine) all three of the above-described strategies. The routing strategies may be carried out in whole or in part. or concurrently or sequentially.. More generally, two or more of these routing strategies may be implemented asynchronously with respect to one another, or synchronously with respect to one another: These may be configured or specified using a development/configuration tool such as described above.
Antiejpatory Dynamic Customer Segmentation Routing 001 051 As is known, when a customer seeks to get in touch with a contact center, IC typically the contact center applies polieits in accordance -witha current customer-segment (or association), such as Gold, Silver. Bronze, or The like (regardless of the manner in which *segments May be designated). According to one entbediment, the:customer segment reflects the "value" of the customer to the company, where-ahigher ranking typically implies a preferred/enhanced level of care or service (a "service lever), In this regard, the customer segmentidentification may be deemed to be identification fa service level desired to be provided to customers belonging to the customer segment. For example, a Silver Customer's call might be connected to an Mt system while a (bold customer's call might he directly connected to a live agent. Also, different business objectives may be identified for an interaction with a customer depending on-the customer segment identification._ Such business.
16. objectives may relate to customer satisfaction and/or business outcome.
For example, the business objective for a silver customer may he to achieve a cermin.NPS.score, and/or closing a deal Oka particular business opportunity offered to silver customers, The business objective for a gold eustomermay be to achieve an even higher -NP$ score, and/or Closing a deal On a business opportunity offered to geld customers.
1001061 Current customer segmentation in a contact center such as described above is.
relatively static, and itgenerally takes into account present and potential future customer value for the company. In existing systems, the customer's Segment association: -Wit is evaluated at all, is generally reviewed (and .potentially adjuSted) after-the-fact; in particular, in aixerdance With the outcome of a given (past) interaction, According to such existing systems, any new segment association then becomes effective for a tinure interaction.
1001071 Accordingto a dynamic customer segmentation scheme according to embodiments of the present invention, avustomer's service level is potentially adjusted pro-actively, such as, for example, in advance. of a _particularnew interaction (or set of new interactioos), or in real-time .duringan interaction itself. According to one embodiment, a dynamic customer segmentation process is.invoked in response to detecting a current interaction with the eustomer. The. interaction may be an atomic interaction or an interaction related to a particular case. One or more static and/or dynamic factors may be taken into account. in proactively adjusting the customer's service level. For example, one or more of Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 the static and/or dynamic factors may be taken into account to advance (*Mote) a customer from it current segmentation status (e.g. as stored in a customer record), to some higher (e.g., a. next higher) segmentation status.
1001081 According to one embodiment, an anticipated outcome of a pending interaction may predicted based on, for example, one or more dynamic factors, to advance, or not, the associated customer segment, at the beginning of interaction processing. For example, an a-priori determination is made as to whether tmating,_for example, a. silver customer as, for example, a gold customer, may very likely lead to an outcome (e.g. acceptance of an offer associated with a business opportunity), which would actually match the criteria for the customer's. gold -classification. if the chance of success - is above aparticular threshold value, a Silver customer may be treated as ageld customer and,,according to a business objective set for gold customers, be presented with abitainestopportimity that,. in sotneinstances, would otherwise not have been presented to him/her as a silver customer.
1001091 Static factors that may considered in reassesiing customer segment may include, for example, one or more of: changes in a customer's profile, changes in a customer's set of the business, changes in criteria applied by the business,.a .petson's anticipatedactual influence (for social media interactions) based on the person's prior interactiOns-with the contact center or web monitoring history, etc., and others. FOr example, a customer with a potential to have a high influence in his or her social media network may be promoted in his 20- customer, segment, [001101 With respect to changes in the customer's profile, the customer may have moved, for example, to a more prestigious geographic location, may haveretently bought a home, May have -changed his/her Marital Status, and/or may have -changed his job/salary, all of which May be considered as factors in moving the customer up or down in tuStomer segment.
1001111 With respect to changes* customer's set of the busincss,the enterprise may change the list of.criteria/attributes within the customer model that are used to assess etiatomer segment. For example, the enterprise may add or remove. a-" k1 out score" (social media _popularity/influence) as a factor to be considered, and/or remove a factor such as.
"owns TV" because such factors are no longer differentiators for giving different treatments.
001121 With respect to changes: in criteria applied, by the business in determining customer segment, the enterprise may have a new criteria/rule for different customer segments (gold, silver, and bronze), based on regulations (e.g, Basel. 3 for banking), or re-assessment of previous criteria (e.g, a previously bad/high-risk living location may gradually become good), or new statistical findings (e.g. different correlation between sex/age and car driving safety).
1001131 Exemplary dynamic factors that may be considered for reassessing customer segment may include, without limitation, new business offering(s) that might be of interest for the given customer, cross-fun-sell opportunities during a given interaction (Which may Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 depend on interaction/media channel), the availabiliry of (e.g., highly) skilled agent for the cross-/up-sell offer Nine at the same time a good match for the given customer, and other side-effects of a given interaction, such as visibility to a social media community or the like.
With respect to new business offerings, particular services or products with associated criteria for gold/silverbronze customers may be identified, during the current interaction, as being of interest othe particular customer. For _example, the customer may expressly indicate interest in the service or product. The-customer may bereassigned to a customer segment based on the identification of such product and/or associated criteria. The re-assignment may be, for example,.. a: general re-assignment, or on a per (sub,) set of offering.
IC [00.114.1 With respect to cross-/up-sell opportunities, a conversation between an agent and customer may no well, and could open an unexpected opportunity for a promisingtrosi-lap-sell, but only if the customer were treated as belonging to a higher segment (e.g..silver customer treated as gold). In this instance, the customer may dynamically be reassigned to the higher customer segment.
.15 foonsi With respect to availability of(e:g. highly) skilled agents for a cros.s4up,sell, these agents may be reserved for treating calla from gold customers. A
particular one of the reserved agents may he deemed to be a geed fit for handling a current' interaction With-a particular silver customer. 10 such case, the silver customer may be treated as a gold customer, and thepending interaction for that customer may be routed to the reserved agent 20. 100116.1 According to one embodiment, anew interaction with thecustomer may trigger the re-assessment of the customer segment based on one or more of the above-described Static and/or dynamic factors, prior to determining how the new interaction should be handled. While typically a main use case -fm dynamic co-stonier segmentation is "promotion"
by which the customer is promoted to a next higher customer segment. one, Of more of these 25 triggers (typically dynamic reasons) may be reasons for demoting a.
customer to Solite lower (e.g., a next lower) segmentation status than Muftis stored for the customer in his or her customer record. Dynamic reasons for demotion may include, for example, knowledge that the agents that are currently available to serve the customer are not a good&
given the current customer segment, a high interaction rate with a customer who is poised to pass the 30 Om customer in ranking, unavailability ofa best& media channel for a given customer,.
and/or others..
1001171 in .oneentbodiment, one result of a demotion in customer segment may be that a business opportunity associated with the higher customer segment, is bypassed.
Thus, if an agent who is not a good fit for the current customer segment handles the interaction with the 35 customer, demoting the customer to a lower customer segment prior to such agent handling the interaction may preventthe agent from presenting a business opportunity, which, if presented by the particular agent, would likely have not resulted in succes.$
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 1001181 According to one embodiment, for an incoming interaction, the routing strategy starts with the a-priori re-assessment of the customer segmentation in response to receipt of the incoming interaction. Depending on the outcome, a treatment of the dynamically determined segment is then applied going forward for some time period, over some isanfigurable set of interactions, and so faith. As described above, the re-assessment (or initial assessment) may consider one or more static factors (unrelated to the given new interaction(s)) andtor one or more dynamic factors (specific circumstances of a given interaction), or combinations thereof.
1001191 in one implementation approach, the customer segment evaluation prior to processing an outstanding interaction comprises computation of probabilities of all (or a defined subset) of possible business results of a given interaction. If the probability tor business plaint that would put the customer in a higher-ranked segment is above a configured threshold, then the interaction is treated in accordance with this higher-ranked segment. Once the probabilities are processed, the customer's serviee level is adjusted (promoted or demoted) accordingly. As noted above, the promotion or demotion of the customer's service level may be on a per-interaction basis, or More-long-lasting. The service level adjustment may be applied both to inbound (initiated by cOstmer) at Well as outbound (initiated by contact center) interactions, as well as to different media channels (such as voice, email, chat, web browsing and social media). Also, once promoted (or demoted) to a i20 customer segment, first and second business objectives for the-new customer segMent May he evaluated in selecting an agent to handle. the interaction. According to one embodiment, an agent with ahigher likelihood of success of handling the first business objective may be selected ever a secondment with a lower likelihood of success of handling the second business objettist, even if the value Of the first business objective is lower than the value of the second business objective.
[001201 FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a process for dynamic customer segmentation aeourdingto one embodiment of the invention. The process'. may be.
inipternented by a processor based on instructions that are stored in memory. A person Of skill in Osbert should recognize, however, that the process may be executed via hardware, finnware (e.g. via an AMC), or in any combination of software, firmware, and/or hardware.
Furthermore, the sequence-of steps attic process is not fixed, but can be altered into any desired sequence as recognized by a person uf skill in the art.
[001211 The process starts, and in s1ep000, the processor detects a pending interaction associated with a customer and retrieves an existing customer segment service level assessment for the customer. According to one embodiment, the detection of the pending interaction acts as a trigger to. retrieve the:customer segment service level.
The existing segment infbrmation may be stored, for example, in a customer profile record for the customer.

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 1001221 At step 002, the processor performs alest todetermine whether a re-assessment of the customer segmentation designation it to be performed. This test may be performed periodically, or in real-time upon demoting a particular occurrence, such as, for example, upon receipt of a new interaction request. For example. the test to determine need of re-assessment may be performed by the routing server 20 in response to receipt of a request from the call server 18 to route a pending interaction.
1001231 if the outcome ofthe test at step 602 is negative, the routine returns and cycles.. If, however, the outcome of the test at Step 602 is positive,,the routine continues at step 604 to perform the .reassessment in the manner described above. The reASSO&SInent may use one or more of the static or dynamic factors, or some combination, and may be based on anticipated outcome of the pending interaction that the customer is about to engage in: In this regard, in performing the re-assessment, the processor may be configured to determine the chances of successfully achieving s business -Objective, which may he a business objective for the current customer segment, a next higher-ranked segment, and/or kmeNranked segment.
According to one embodiment-a rule or set ofrules are invoked to re-assess the customer segment sery ice level. The rules may take into account the static atultor dynamic factors in order to de the 're-assessment.
1001241 At step 606, a test is performed to determine whether a service level adjustment is required. If not, the routine returns to step 602. If, however, acustemer segment service 10. level-adjustment is required as a result of the re-assessment, the routine continues at step 608 to initiate the adjustment (promotion to a given customer segment service level, demotion to a given customer segment service level,: MOdifieation Of an attribute of the existing service level, etc). The routine then continties at step 610 to store the new customer segment service level. The re-assessed customer segmentation data May be stored temporarily (e.gõ
without modifying the customer segment information in the customer record). In another embodiment, the current customer segmentation information in the eustomerrecord is replaced with the re-assessed eustomersegmentation data.
1001251 According to one embodiment, the adjustment of the customer segment service level causes an interaction with the (*sterner (c.l.g, atomic interaction or a task associated with.
a case), to be processed di fferently (e.g. with a different level ofserviee, different business objectives, etc.) than the processing prior to the adjustment. For example,.
the skill set of the agent handling the interaction may differ, priority in which the interaction is handled may differ, business opportunities presented ito:the customer-may differ, and/or the like.
1001261 According to one embodiment, if there-assessment is temporary, the customer reverts back to the customer segment that is stored in the customer record after the current interaction (or a discrete number of interactions) is over.
Adaptive Business Objective Routing Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 1 1001271 Typical current contact center interaction routing (agent assignment) assumes that the business objective (DO)Iti be achieved lbr the given interaction/activity is analyzedend defined at an initial stage of interaction processing and:fixed. Using the existing, fixed.DO, the agent routing logic generally tries to find the best matching agent for the particular DO.
If the best matching agent is not available, the Matching requirements are relaxed Until an available agent is found. One of the drawbacks of this approach is that the DO
(e.g., an up-/cross-sell) might be addressed at a low quality level (Le:, by a less qualified agent) and thus might lead to customer dissatisfaction (failure of the 130 or reduced likelihood of future success with the particular customer).
1001281 According to one embodiment, instead of relying upon a fixed BO during the agent assignment process, an adaptive business objective routing strategy adjusts the business objective where necessary so as to minimize the opportunity for custrimer dissatisfaction in the event an appropriately-skilled agent is not available to handle an inbound. interection.
According to one embodiment, the business objeetivernay be composed of several elements or factors: (1) a primary reason for the interaction, typically as determined by a chosen interaetion:chantiel (as potentially refined through an IVR dialog); and (2) a1 set of business oppottunifies (eg., eross-lup-sell offer4 =
1001291 According to one embodiment, a mason for the interaction may be identified expressly or implicitly according to various mechanisms. For example, a call reason may be inferred based on the customer's interaction with the IMR server 34 (FIG. 2).
For example, the IMR server 34 may be configured to ask the customer an open-ended question to elicit information ()tithe reason for the call. For example, the 1MR. server 34 may.
be configumd to aidtmlikiw can I help you?" The customer may answer 'by speaking a reason for the call, such as, for example, "Am! eligible to upgrade my phone?" According to one embodiMeot, the phrase uttered by the customer is analyzed by the speech analytics module 40 =lithe call is then categorized, into a particular category, such as, for example, an "upgrade eligibility"
category, in other embodiMents, the question asked by the [MR server 34 is not open.ende.d, but limits the caller's responseto, for example, a particular subject. Of course, the IMR
server 34 may WO be configured to function as a traditional IVR where the customer is provided a list of reasons for the call, and the customer 'misses a number that matches his or her reason tbr the call. The call reason may he deduced from the particular number pressed by the customer.
1001301 In other embodiments, a call reason may also be deduced based on other modalities, such as, for example. the customer's interactions using other communication channels, such as, for example, the Web, retail shops, email, chat channels, mobile applications, social media channels, and the like. Multichannel analytical solutions such as, for example, Gencsys Text Analyties offered by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., may be used to analyze a customer's previous engagement to identify a previous Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 prObl CM and'or needs beforeconeectinga current call to a contact center agent. For example, a customer may be browsing a company web page relating to 'Flying with Pets Policy" when the customer selects a "speakwithan agent' option, Information on the page beintbrowsed may be transmitted along with the request to speakwiththe agent,-and from the transmitted information it may be inferred that the customer's reason for wanting to speak with the agent is related to "Plying with Pets."
100311 With respect to .identifying business opportunities as part of identifOng business Objectives for the contact center, such business opportunities may be identified based on criteria such as,. for example, knowledge of the customer, current business goals, and the like.
Exemplary business opportunities may include credit card _upsdll, contractrenewal upsolµ
andlor the like. According to one embodiment, business opportunities for a particular customer are identified based on the customer' profile and currently available Matching business offerings. According to one emboditnent, business opportunities May be identified based upon customer segment identification (Which may be re-assessed prior to handling the current interaction as discussed above), [001321 Aeeordi lig to one embodiment, a .purpose or goal Of a. business opportunity is to Maximize business ogled:me and/or -customer satisfaction. A desired business otiteome may vary from organization to organization, and/or from time period to time period. For example, the organization may have a global target for a particular lin (net promoter score), sales, !V). collection, and/or profit. More specific goals may then be setfor differentproduet business units,, and/or the like. For example, sales based business opportunities may have goals relating to conversion rate, revenue, and sales,: While service based opportunities may have goals relating to customer effort, bin, and/or the like.
1001331 According to one embodiment, after a BO it identified that is deemed to be important to the contact center due to its potential to maximize business outcome and/or customer satisfitetion, the routing logic tries to find a best matching agent for addressing both.
parts of the BO (reason for the interaction and the identified business opportunity).
According to one embodiment, the assignment logic (e.g. routing strategy/logic) searches for agents having the skill set (e4. qualification, certification, etc.) identified fertile BO. If no such agent can be found, then, according-to one embodiment, the 130 is adjusted, e.g., by selecting useond best 130 (e.g. with the same reason for the interaction but second best in terms of business outcome) for the given customer. The second BO may be deemed to be of lesser importance to the contact center relative to the first BC). due to its lesser potential to maximize business outcome andfortustomer satisfaetion. The process is then repeated until an appropriate agent h found to-handle the interaction according to the (possibly-adjusted) 30, [0.01341 According to one embodiment, even if a suitable agent tOr handling the BO is identified, evaluation of a likelihood of success of the particular agent with. respect to the Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 particular BO may be low, or lower than the likelihood of success with respect to the second best 130. En this scenario, the second best BO may be selected to be acted upon instead of the first best 130.
10013.5I When the process completes, the customer's profile is updated accordingly to reflect the actual 130 used. At the next interaction opportunity(i.e,õ the next time the customer interacts with the Contact center), a new attempt may be made to address the top 130.
190136] In a representative implementation, and given the interaction channels, the customer profile, and the set of otters, a set of business objectives are identi tied for the customer in response to detecting spending interaction with the customer.
During the agent selection process, the routing logic Seeks to find a best matching agent fOr addressing both the primary reason for the interaction and the identified business opportunities, and begins, according to one embodiment, with a first (e.g. hest or highest ranked) business objective. If no agent is available toaddress both the interaction reason and the currently identified business objective, a.next best 130 is used, and so on until an appropriate agent is found to handle the inter* don to the (potentially-adjusted) BO.
100137I Accord ingto one particular intpletneonnioni a rank Rik is assigned to each pair of zth130 (I ---- 1...N) and an available agent ,=I ..,M). The rank may be related, for example, to a business outcome (e.g., profit) that may be achieved from an interaction with certain 130 by agent; of certain skills. for example, a BO projected to produce a profit of S100 may be ranked higher than another BO projected to product a profit of $80, According to one embodiment, in addition to business outcome, a probability cif success of achieving the business outcome by the particular agent is also considered in assigning the rank to a 130/agent pair. The probability of =success may be determined,: for example, based on the agent's historical performance with respect to the BO,. According to one embodiment, the rank may be calculated based on a calculation of an expected value as is commonly understood in the field of prObabi thy theory, In One embodiment, the expected value is used as the rank.
IONA According to one embodiment, the expected value may be a weighted average of :39 all possible business outcomes for the particular agent. In one example, the expected value E(X)maybe calculated and used as follows. Each BO has a value Sin case of success. S
may depend also on given customer and other factom in seine examples, a loss value L may also be introduced. In most eases 1. is 0, hut may also be positive (ifjust the attempt itself has a positive effect) or negative (if the failed attempt has negative impact on future business with the customer).
1001391 Each X 00/Agent combination has a probability P of success, depending on agent's abilities tc,.ticir the130 to the given customer in the given situation. Then:
[001401 E(X) = P'S

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 1001411 According to one embodiment, the expected value E(X) is calculated for all possible BO/Agent combinations, and the one with the highest value is chosen.
[0014.21 According to one embodiment, all possible ranks andlor expeeted values may be defined in advance or estimated during runtime, e.g., based on.recent.contact history. For every -interaction that is waitinto be routed to an agent, a set of both business objectives and available agents are obtained. A best interaction-agent match isthenselected according to a maximum of ranks.
1001431 The resulting interaction (between the selected agent and the 130, as adjusted) will then be presented to occur to potentially maximize the business outcome while avoiding customer dissatisfaction.
1001441 The 'phrase "business objective" is not intended to be limited to any particular product implementation.
1001451 A generalization of this approach is to estimate a likelihood, of achieving the given business Objective by a particular agent for a current customer; if the likelihood is below a configurable threshold then the process moves on totry to satisfy a next best business Objective.
[001461 flail anticipated otitcontes:are below thedueshold, one or more possible ibiloW-up strategies may then be evaluated, These include, without ihnitation, selecting a business objective that is closest to the threShold, applying one or more weights to the business .20- objective and then making a selection, muting based on the initial reason for the interaction without further adjustment according tot:witless objective, and so forth. All of these variant scenarios are Within the described solution.
1001471 EMS. 8A-88 are flow diagrams de process for adaptive business objective rOntingaccnrding to one embodiment of the Invention. The process may be implemented by a. processor based on instructions that are stored in memory. For example, the process may be implemented by a. software module running In the touting server 20. A
person of skill in the art should recognize, however, that the process may be executed via hardware, firmware (e.g. via an ASiC), or in any combination of softWam, firmware, and/or hardware.
Furthermore, the Sequenceof Steps of the process is not fixect but can be altered into any desired sequence as recognizedby a person ofskill in the art, 1001481 The routine begins, and in step700, the processor detects a. pending interaction with the customer (e.g. atomic interaction or a task associated with a case), and identifies or retrieves the business .obiective data as described above, including, for example the expressed or deduced reason Ibr the interaction, and a first identified business opportunity with respect to the customer.
1001491 In step 702, the processor.begins the agent selection process. in this regard, the processor may interact with the statistics server 22 for identifying availability of agents Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 having skills that a commensurate to the identified business objective. The skill level of each of the identified agent may also be identified, 1961501 In step 704, the processor determines whether agents that are fit to handle each of the identified busineSs.objettives have been found.. Such fit may he based on not only availability of the agent, but also how the skill level of the agent identified as having the appropriate skills, compares to the skill level that is deemed to be appropriate for handling the particular business objective, lf the skill level of the agent is above a threshold level identified for the business objective, the agent may be deemed to be the right fit for the business objective.
I 0 [00151I in step 706, one Or more' of the matching agents are assigned to the business objective.
1001521 If, however, the outcome of the test at step 704 is negative (no matching agent for addressing the current business objective can he located), the routine continues at step 708 to identify a next :business objective The next business objective may identify a second business opportunity with respect to the customer.
[001531 Once: the set of business objectives and matching one or more agents are identified, the process proceeds to select a 130-agent pair based on an assigned rank of the 130-agent pair as depicted with respect to FIG. 813. In this regard, in step 800. the processor selects a first BO-agent pair, and in step 802, assigns a rank (which could bejust the expected value) to the pair. According to one embodiment, the rank may be based on identification of a business outcome and probability of success by the particular agent in achieving the business outcome. According to one embodiment, an expected value for the business outcome is calculated and used to assignthe rank.
1001541 According to one example, a first BO may have an expected business outcome of $100, while a second BO may have an expected business outcome of $80. However, a first agent identified as a match for handling the first DO may he identified, based on past perfentumee in handling the first HQ, as being 40% suecessfutfor the first BO.
A second agent identified as a match fOr handling the second 130 may be identified, based on the second ageas performance in handling the second BO, as being 80% auceessfill for the second BO. According to one embodiment, the process assigns a rank to the second HO
-agent pair that is higher than the rank assigned to the first 130-agent pair.
In this regard, the process deems it more valuable topursue the second BO, although not the best in terms of business outcome, instead of the first BO.
1001551 In step 804, a determination is made as to whether there are more 130-agent pairs to rank. If the answer is NO, the processor evaluates the assigned ranks and, in step 806, selects the I30-agent pair with the highest rank.

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 1001561 In step 808, the pending interaction is routed to the agent of the selected 130-agent pair. in this regard, the call routing server 20 may transmit instructions to the call server 18 identifying an address of the agent device to which the interaction is to be routed.
1001571 in step 810, the agent is prompted to pursue the business objective.
For example.
the 'deduced reason for the interaction may be displayed on the agent device, and the agent may, upon seeing such reason, address the call reason with the :customer. The processor may also display a _promptto present a business opportunity included in the 80. to the enstomer, along with scripts to help guide the agent in presenting such business opportunity. As a.
person of Skill in thcart should appreciate, the business opportunity that is presented by the ID particular agent may not necessarily be the one with the highest yielding business entwine.
1001581 .According bone embodiment, the business objectives May be associated with a.
particular cuStoMer segment. In this regard, the customer may first be dynamically reassigned to a particular customer segment. prior to determining which business Objectives to consider in selecting an appropriate agent.
Case-Based Routing 1001591 Embodiments of the present invention are directed to ease routing as opposed to atomic interaction roofing. In one ernhodiment,.case-based routing may be seen as taking a holistic view on the entire case by tonsidering the past steps, a next step, and anticipated future steps ortbe ease, and selecting an agent based on this holistic view:
In this regard,.a routing routine attempts to select an agent who is familiar -with the pre-context of the case, has skills to perform anticipated l'ollow-up processing .steps, and/or one that is engaged with potentially related other interactions with the given customer. In this regard, the selected agent is one who is deemed tobe a good .fit for the entire caseõor at. least for a certain subset Of tasks associated with the ease.
1001601 According to one embodiment, customer segmentation may also be adjusted pro-actively in advance of handling one or more steps (tasks) of a particular case. The methaniSm may be similar to adjusting customer segmentation for atomic interuetion routing that is described above.
(001611 According to one embodiment, the agent that is Selected torOute the one or more _30 steps of -a particular case may be based on business objectives Of the contact center/enterprise.
According to one embodiment, the agent who is has the highest probability of maximizing the business outcome while avoiding customer dissatisfaction is selected as described in further detail above.
1001621 FIC..0 is a block diagram of a contact center solution suite. (swab as Gertesys 804 that is integrated with atRIVI enterprise service-and marketing application (such as Salesforce.comt, or Oracle* $iebe(!)- 802. The identified products/systems are provided for descriptive purposes but are not intended to be limiting. Thus, in an alternative embodiment, Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 i = the logic of case routing may be implemented outside of the CRM
context, e.g., in Genesys' Orchestration and Conversation management.
1001631 An integration of this type allows entetprises to leverage the synergy of two critical functions, namely, themanagement of customerdata (through the. CRM
system), and the management of real-time interactions .(through the contact center).
Through a seamless integration of CRM and contact comer solutions, enterprises can Offer their customers' choke of access options such as e-mail, fax, Web ehat,.workitem, and traditional voice. Customer interactions are handled in real-time, and they are automatically prieritized, matched, and assigned to the best available. resources, e.g., based on the_customer need, history, class of service, and business- rules. Preferably, the contact center solution provides contact center software, predefined routing strategies and templates, installation and ongoing support. To this end, the platform preferably provides SIP-based functionality fto. enable agents to be.
located wherever they are needed, thereby freeing the eentact tenter from PBX
constraints), business-based interaction routing to enable customers to be connected to the right agent, preferably using routing templates configured to the customer's business needs), and real-time and historical reporting (to enable tracking of customer service).
1001641 The above-described platform iaextensible to enable an additional routing strategy that is referred to herein as "case touting." This routing strategy is described below using an exam* implementation.
20. 01651 Preferably, the integrated system (e.g., based on the ',Siebel*
desktop, although this is not a limitation) uses a single agent interface for both CRM and customer interaction management. A single agent login to the desktop enables the agent access to embedded e-mail, &druid work lathe Siebel desktop, removing the need to toggle between applications.
the approach provides for a Single spoint Of reakirnemanagement for inbound call handling, e.g., through the..Siebei CR.M.interface. To tacilibttethe techniques of this disclosure, in One embodiment the contactcenter routing mechanism leverages Siebel CRM data Customer (or "ease") records 805 that preferably are attached. to every interaction (voice, e-mail,'wOrk item, etc.), including transfer* between agents, reducing handling time. Other CRM systems May use other 'nomenclature inlitu Of a- "case," and the techniques should beviewed as applying to such other CRM-based environments irrespective of the particular nomenclature adopted. Preferably, imported and reakime updates of CRM contact lists drive contact, center-based outbound campaigns, thereby increasing transaction opportunities and upload of campaign results.. The integrated system also provides for real-time intelligent routing ibr content management for all types Of content including, Without limitation, documents, faxes, web forms, images; etc., as well as reakime-workflow optimization, such as service requests;
customer orders/fulfillment, and provisioning. By providing customer center agents with a complete view of customer data, moreoersonalized cross-channel conversations are enabled.
The integrated approach facilitates real-time handling of customer requests, preferably based Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 on customer class of service, needs, history and profile. The unified desktop approach also greatly reduces operating costs and increases customer responsiveness.
1001661 The contact center may provide an application programming interface (API) or SDK (Software. Development Kit) by which the CRM. providetintegrateithe CRM
system.
For example, the contact center may provide a Customer interaction Management (C1M) platform that exposes scalable software modules.withserVice-enabled APIa that allow third parties to Integrate CRM systems, services and software. Applications communicate through an abstraction layer or through Web services, or through low-level (fine-grained) interfaces.
As described, above; and in an alternative embodiment,-theCRM system is partof the contact center itself 1001671 in the prior art, the contact center itnplementsene.or more types of agent,based routing, such as.skills-based best available agent Touting. According tO this routing strategy,.
this.prior technique is enhanced to. take into consideration case-basetinformation in "ease-based" routing, the decision about which agent should receive a particular interaction for processing within the context of &contact center is determined at least in part on. a "case record," e.g., (in an CRM embodiment) associated with teRM-sourced interaction. Thus, CRM system or server models a customer support interaction (between one of its customers and the system)as a "case." A case (or "ticket" or "work item") has an associated case record having given information identifying the case, its type, an anticipated workflow .20- (through a set of defined or ordered steps) to potential resolution, anticipated timing, escalation paths, and the like. Depending on the CRM system from which the ease originates, a case may be associated with a particular template depending:on the nature of the customer 'support issue, 1001681 In case ronting, a ease record (Or inforinaticintherein) associated with a cage LS
used to determine which agent in a set of agents in the contact center should be identified to undertake additional work/processing- of the case. As will be seen, a best. or target agent typically is selected based on one Or trim -Wm*, such as an identity of a particular next interaction or step in the processing of the case (as defined by the ease workflow), one or More anticipated Marc interactions for the given case and thatshould preferably be handled by a same agent, the existence of one or more previously-performed interactions for the case;
including whether any such interactions have been re-opened, remaining completion time for the case, and the like. Preferably, when the ease routing strategy-is implemented, an entire case record (or some material portion thereof) is taken into account in determining which agent of a set of agents should be identified as a target for an inbound contact associated with the case.
1001691 In case routing, and instead of routing individual interactions (e.g., voice calls, chats, e-mails, etc.) to an appropriately skilled best available:agent, oncean interaction is associated with a particular case, the routing of the interaction is influenced by one or more Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 ease-based parameters. Moreover, preferably what gets "routed" is the case itself (as opposed: to the interaction associated therewith). As a. simple example scenario, assume because of the nature of the case some kind of future interaction might.
beneeded with a customer, where that finureinteraction is triggered at a future certain and/or upon. thneout Of a case idle time (or some other trigger). With case-based routing, once that trigger occurs, the 'case" is routed to the appropriate agent (or to his or her queue) with the right skill and availability, and the agent _then makes the necessary communication with the customer (e.gõ.
by phoneelext,. email, chat Or the like). With case routine, the Case is pushed for handling to the agent proactively when the case-based trigger occurs, and this reduces the likelihood that I-0 the agent will ignore the interaction (over some other interaction that. the agent might &Site to handle first, although of course there will he situations wherein some other assigned interaction has a higher priority than the case). With case rooting, preferably Cases are pushed to the Agents (or their queues) in the order they are submitted. (or otherwise based on the case triggers, or based on other priorities) and are routed to the agents with the 15 appropriate_ skills to handle those cases of that type. Preferably, and because ease-based routing involves ease-based parameters, when an _agent/user receives a case, (absent more higher priority interactions that must be worked first) he or she generally works the case in lieu of electingto do some other interaction. Thus, in case based routing, preferably a case is provided to the agmt (by being pushed for immediate processing, or otherwise being pushed 20 into the agent's workbin for being immediately pulled) for handling by the agent. Whether characterized aspush or pull, the described model used in case routing ensures that workflow associated With a CRM CliSe is enforced rigorously, and it ensures that the target agent works proactively to teaolve.die ease (or to move the ease to another agent Or agents who can do so).
25 f901701 With ease routing agents can communicate and otherwiseinteract with one another, and preferably multiple agents are each able to-view the case concurrently. If an agent decides he or she will transfer a case to some other agent or entity (-ai*urning the receiving agent can be shown to be a good fit), preferably the receiving agent/entity has the option to accept or reject the_ease, and preferably cases can be escalated With a-priority so 30 that they are worked first. It a-case is updated, preferably an update is pushed to the agent that either handled the first interaction or is still working the case.
100-1711 The case routing technique may alsobe iittplemented in the context of assignment logic that uses a reservation approach, wherein-the logic performs arbitration among multiple request for-some agent based On priority, Wherepriority in turn may be based on interaction 35 age, due time, and the like.
10017.2f .According-to this disclosure, it is assumed that there is a mechanism (e.g., an a. Web service, sonic other request-response protocol. or the like) for passing information.
between the MO system and the contact center server that is responsible for contact center Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 agent selection. A case is opened in the CRM system in the usual manner when an end user/customer opens a ticket. A ease has on associated case identifier ((Ascii)), and it is associated with a data recor&sometitnes referred to herein aso case record. As noted above, typically the case record is-a construct associated with the CRM system and identifies the case its type, an anticipated workflow (through a setofdetined or ordered steps). to potential msolution,anticipauxi timing, escalation p$hs, andthe like The ease record may include the contact history tbr the case if the case is being re-opened from an earlier interaction. More generally..the case record is an object (ora vase object) in an object-Oriented 'database system associated with the CAM. The contact -center typically includes a contact center server API
for external cast management to link to interactions (both active and historical) in the contact center environment.
1901.731 Preferably, the contact center reporting systems or sub-systems .report on how cases are handled. Reports may include, without limitation, how many eaSeshave been worked, closed, resolved, are waiting for information, and the like, as well as how many of each state a particular agent worked. Case routing also may provide more-granular reporting than conventional reporting of agent interactions Thus, for example, when a case is pushed to an agent and the agent accepts it, the time that the agent works on This case can be monitored and reported. Once the agent returns the case (e.g.. by closing or resolving it. by seeking more information, etc.) the system notes the time incurred, and a new case may then 16 be pushed to the:agent. Fly monitoring handling times,- and assuming deterministic cases with fixed processing steps, the contact center management obtains aview into how long particular agents take to handle_ a ease and, if appropriate, can institute training and other remedial actions to address deficiencies. The reports may also indicate which agents are working the hardest cases, which agents are handling many cases and the nature of those cases, etc. The reports may also indicate when an agent consults another agent with respect to the case; if many agents areconsulting with a particular agent, this may indicate that the consulted agent, has themost relevant knowledge about the case type and/Or that. other agents need appropriate.training. When cases are transferred between or amen agents, such transfers are also reported) Once again indicating the possibility for the need for additional agent training. Escalations preferably are reported as well, thereby helping management understand when other processes need to hechanged (depending on the nature and extent of those escalations).
[001741 'Preferably, an agent that. receives a ease (and heingan "owner" of a new case) van access the case histoxyassociated with the caselD. Preferably, only the agent that's actively working the case (i.e., has an active window open and in focus) is reported.
as time against the case. This allows a first agent to work the case for some time -periodand then not lose credit for such work when the ease is transferred to a second agent. The second agent gets the time reported only for the time he or she is actively working the case (i.e., has an active window .35..
Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 open, etc.). Preferably, the CRM records also reflect the same activities by each agent or user that works the case.
100175] Preferably, case routing does not impact or 'change case history. -am%

irrespective of the identity of the agent. who last Works the ease, all agents who worked the east preferably receive credit for their work. By making sure all time is accurately recorded (04õ- by mcinitoling_open And in-focus activity windows on the agent:
desktops), the contact center atutiordtM -provides-a-comprehensive report filine spent on each case, the identity of the agents/users that worked thecase, and any issues (trends, anomalies, etc.) identified.
pi 761 Case routing and associated reporting in this manner can expose valuable information about an agent and whether his. other perceived value is backed by actual data.
As noted above, in case routing agents receive cases to handle based on case-specific parameters (and thus they cannot necessarily pick and choose their interactions), the cake routing data provides a much more nuanced and accurate view of an agenraactiVitim Thus, an agent may have a very high number of transfers and consults, or allow close-rate, etc., and such data (even if associated with what otherwise appears tobe highly-efficient agent) may indicate that the agent is actually 'having problems or perhaps is not working tip to his or her potential (actual or perceived). The information may also indicate that -the case mating logic needs to be adjusted. Conversely, case routing and associated reporting can also show that an agent that was previously considered only fair (e.g., for having& low number-of cloud .20_ interactions) is now on the receiving end of transfers and consults -fur many of the cases, if not the hardest cases. The agent has been closed the hard-to-work interactions that other agents had refused to pull from the work queue; however, now that: the elicits pushed based on case-based parameters other agents are leaning on this person se that they can work the cases they traditionally avoided.
(90177f Ofeourse, them are merely representative examples but. they show how case rooting can provide very useful information about agent work habits that was not otherwise available when interactions are. routed to agents. in the abovedescribed model. Preferably, the agent monitoring and case reporting statistics are generated in an automated manner;
these records May be parsed, onceagain by automated systems, to generate output reports that identify (e.gõ rank) awls by their case-handling capabilities.
1001781 More generally, ctise routing provides advantages over atomic interaction routing by enabling the interaction to. he handled by an agent that is familiar with the pre-eontext, or who has the ability-to perform.anticipatedfullow,up processing steps, or who is engaged with potentially-related other Interactions with the given customer, or the like.
1001791 Although there is .nolimitation regarding when case routing may be implemented, typically it may be done moreoflen siva hack office function, while atomic-interactions are more likely handling by the contact center. if the contact center is operating less efficiently, Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 it may be desired to use case routing to help the contact center work off any backlog or otherwise reduce delay.
1901801 According to one example of implementing ease touting, a worker in an insurance company may open a case record in the CRM system 802. The case record may he, tbr example, for handling an insurance claim for a car accident involving the tustorner.
Aecordireeto opt embodiment, the cm record identifies a Workflow of anticipated steps to betaken in handling an insurance claim. For example, the steps may include obtaining details athe accident, determining faulty party, authorizing the customer take the car to a bodyshop, scheduling a claims adjuster to go to the bodyshop to inspect the car, getting a tO report from the Claims adjuster, authorizing the bodyshop to fix the car, and making payment to the lxidyshop. As a particular step of the workflow is completed, information about the Weaker handling the particular step, date and time in which the particular step was handled, and the like, May be tracked in the case record.
1001811 According to one embodiment, the various steps of the workflow may be handled by one or more workers/agents of the enterprise_ In this regard, an autonomous task is generated at a particular step of the workflow that requires agent action, and the task is routed to an agent determined to have the Skill set fir handling the interaction.
According to one embodiment, instead of finding an agent with the skill set fbr handling an immediate next step of the workflow,. an analysis is performed of one or more future steps of the workflow (following the immediate next:step) fordetermining skill sets for handling each of the one or more future steps at the same time that the determination is made with respect to the immediate next step. The processor May be configured with logic to determine Whether a single agent exists with skills to handle More than one of the identified steps, Again,. the determination it made concurrently for all the identified steps. In this manner continuity may be maintained Where possible in terms of agents handling the ease. Thus, for example, if Agent i with skill A is available for handling-step 1, butAgent..2 withskills A and ft is available to handle steps I and 2, Agent 2 May be selected over Agent is Of emit*, the agent may most likely handle the to steps at different points in time. Moreover, the agent may initially just receive a task for handling the immediate next step it the Workflew, and May or may not know that he has been assigned tothe subsequent steps as well. Yet in some embodiments, the agent is informed of the assignment of the subsequent steps.
Tasks for the subsequent steps may be generated concurrently with the generating of the task for the immediate next step, or:at a later time. The generated tasks may be concurrently meted to the agent, or routed at different times, if a task for a subsequent step is routed at. a faux time, the processor detects thatan agent has already been selected, and thus routes the subsequent task without invoking, for example, logic for making skill determinations for identifying a best agent for handling the subsequent task, 1.001821 In traditional interaction task routing a. best target (agent) is defined based on:

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 o availability, occupancy etc, o customer segment o priority o required skills to handle interaction of given media type o agent's capacity o customer interaction history (e.g, last agent routing) o additional criteria such.as up-icross-sell opportunity and respective agent skills 1001831 According to -embodiments of the present invention, .a complete. case record may be considered when selecting best matching agent for routing atastrecord:
o particular individual interaction which is the next "step' in case processing o antieipated future interactions for the given case (basedonea$o claSsicategoty)õ
which should be preferably handled by tame agent o already performed interactions for given case, which might have to be reopened potentially o remaining completion time for whole case o routing target is selected taking all above into account 1001841 If multiple agents are identified. as being equality suitable for handling a plurality of upcoming workflow steps, the agent that is ultimately selected maydepend, for example, on the skin level(s) of the identified agents. Au agent with a higher skill level may be preferred instead of an agent with -a lower skill level, 1001851 According to one embodiment, as discussed abOve, ihstoadof rOutingan autonomous task to the selected agent, the related eaSerecord it routed for giving the agent context of where in the workflow the current step belongs, and. for understanding the history surrounding the:ease. According to one embodiment; routing of the case may be enabled by identifying a caselD in the task that is routed to the agent The eaten) may then be used to retrieve the case data from the CRNtsystem, 1001861 According to one embodiment, the routing of an interaction or task to an agent may be triggered automatically based on parameters set for the case, andlor parameters surrounding one or more steps of the workflow, For example, tasks may be automatically triggered based on a date/time setting. Tasks may also. be triggered .based on an amount of time elapsed between twoor more steps of the workflow, or since completion of a last workflow step, in this regard, the processor monitors for-atigger event, and, in response to detecting occurrence of such trigger event, automatically generates and transmits a task associated with the trigger event.
Combining Routing Strategies Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 i00187l As noted above, according to a feature of this disclosure, one or preferably multiple ones of the above-4esctibed routing strategies are _implemented concurrently and/or in sequence. FIG. 10 illustrates various scenarios.
1001 MI The routing strategies may heimplemented on a per-interaction basis, or for multiple interactions.
[00.1891 As an. example scenario (a), dynamic customer segmentation 900 is performed initially; followed by the adaptive business Objective muting strategy 902.
1001901 Another example scenario (b) beginS with adaptive business objective muting 902 followed by ease routing 904.
[001911 Asa Second =triple seenario(C), dynamic' customer segmentation 900 is performed initially, following by case routing 904..
1001921 Another example scenario (d) involves concurrent andror sequential implementation of dynamic customer segmentation 900, adaptive business objective routing 902. and case routing 904.
[00193,1 The sequence or ordering shown above (strategy 900, then strategy 902, then strategy 904) is not intended to be limiting. .Any Sequence or ordering may be implemented depending on the use case. As can be seen in this drawing. the one Or more routing strategies herein are designed to augment other Muting strategies implemented in the agent assignment mechanism.
100194i A customer may use a web-based configuration tool or other interface mechanism to provision or otherwise configure, a custom routing strategy using the above-identified schemes, either alone or incoMbiliation with existing agent assignment mechanishis, such as.
those based on availability, Occupancy, static customer segment (static), priority, :required skills to handle an intetattitin of a given media type. agent capacity.
customer interaction history (e.g.õ last agent routing), and other criteria, such as up- or cross-sell opportunities, agent skills, and the like.
[001951 While the above description sets forth a particular Order of operations performed by certain embodiments, it should be understood that such order is exemplary, as alternative embodiments may perform the operations in a different order, combine certain ()aerations, overlap certain operations, or the like. References in the specification tot given embodiment indicate that the embodiment described may include 4 particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but evety embodiment may not necessarily include the partietilat feature, structure, or characteristic.
1001961 While the disclosed-subject matter has been described in the context of a method or process, the subject disclosure also relates to apparatus Mr performing the operations herein. This apparatus. may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise:a general-purpose: computing entity selectively activated OF
reconfigured by a stored computer program stored, Such a computer program may be stored. in a computer readable Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including an optical disk, a CD-ROM, elide magmetic-optical disk, flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAN4),amagnetic or optical card, or any type of non-transitory media suitable the Storing electronic instrtictiona.
[001971 While given components of the system have been described separately, one of ordinary skill will appreciate that some of the fitnctions may be combined or shared in given instructions, program sequences, code portions, and the like.
1001981 AS Used herein, .agents may be assigned explicitly, e.g., by an agent assignment.
mechanism :dedicated to that purpose, or implicitly, tgõ, by an iVR.
[00-199.1 Each of the various servers, controllers, switches, gateways, engines, and/or modules (collectively referred to as Servers) in the afore-described figures may be a process or thread, running on one or more processors, in one or More computing devices 1500 (e.g., FIG. 1 IA, FIG. 118), executing computer program instructions and interacting with other system components fbr pertbrming the various functionalities described herein.
The computer program instructions are stored in a memory which may be implemented in a computing device using a standard memory device, such as, forexample, a random access Memory (RAM). The computer program instructions may also be stored in other non-transitory computer readable media such as. for example, a CD-ROM, flash drive, or the like.
Also, a person of skill in the art should recognize that a computing device may be .20. implemented via firmware (e.g. an application-specific integrated circuit), hardware, or a combination &software, firrnware,.and hardware, A person of skill in the.ali should also recognize that. the fimetionality -of varlets computing devices may be combined or integrated into a single-computing device, or the functionality of a particular computing device may be distributed across one or more other computing deVieeS without departing from the scope of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention. A server may be a software module, which may also simply be referred tons a module. The set. of modules in the contact center may include servers, and other modules.
[002001 The various servers may be located on a computing device 'on-Site at the same physical location as the agents a the contact-center or May be located off-site (or in the cloud) in a geographically different 'potion, e.g., in ammo*. data center, connected to the contact center via a network such as the Internet. In addition,, some of the servers may be located in a computing device on-site at the contact center while others may be located in a-computing device ofT-site, or servers providing redundant functionality may be provided both via on-site and off-site computing devices to provide greater fault tolerance.
in some embodiments of the present invention, functionality provided by servers located on computingdevices off-site may be accessed and provided over a virtual private network (VPN) as if such servers were on-site, or the functionality may be provided using a software asa service (Saa$) to provide functionality over the interact using various protocols, such as Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 by exchanging data using encoded in extensible markup language (Xl+.41.) or JavaScript Object notation (JSON).
1002011 FIG. 11A and FIG. I1B depict block diagrams of a computing *vie(' 1500 as may be employed in exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Each omputing device 1500 includes a central processing unit 1521 and main memory unit 1522. As shown in FIG. 11.A, the computing device 1500 May also include a storage device 1528, a removable media interface 1516, a network interfaoe 1518; an input/output (I/O) controller 1523, one or more display devices 1530c, a keybOard I 530a and a pointing device I530b, such as a mouse.
The storage device 1528 may include, without limitation, storage for an operating system and software. As shown in FIG..118, each computing device 1500.may also include additional optional elements, such as a Memory port 1503, a bridge 1570, one or more additional input/output devices 1530d, 1530eand a cache memory 1540 in communication With the central processing unit 1521. The input/output devices 1530a, 1530b, 1534 and 1$30e may collectively be referred to herein using reference numeral 1530.
[002021 The central processing unit 1521 is any logic circuitry that responds to and processes instructions fetched from the main memory unit 1522. It may be implemented, for example, in an integrated Circuit, in the form of a microprocessor, microcontroller, or graphics processing unit (GPM or in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or application-specific integrated circuit (AS1C). The main memory unit 1522 maybe one or more memory chips capable of storing data and allowing any storage location to be directly accessed by the central processing unit 1521. As shown in FIG. 11,A, the central processing unit 1521 communicates with the main =Moly 1522 Via a system buS1550. As Shown in 1113,=the central processing unit 1521 may also cOrnmttnieate directly with themain.
memory 1522 via a memory port 1503.
(002031 110.11B depicts an embodiment in which the central processing unit communicates directly with cache memory 1540 via a secondary bus, sometimes referred to aart backside bus. In other embodiment* the central processing Unit 1521 communicates with the cache memory 1540 using the system bus 1550. The cache memory 1540 typically has a faster response time than main memory 1522. As shown in FIG. 11A, the central processing unit 1521 communicates with various1/0 devices 1530 via the focal system bus 1550.
Various buses may be used as the local system bus 1550, including a Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) Local bus (VLB), an Indumty Standard Architecture (1SA) bus, an :extended Industry Standard Architecture(EISA) bus, a MicroChannel Architecture (MCA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (1)C1) bus, a P(.1 Extended (PCVX) bus, a PC1-Express bus, or a NuBus. For embodiments in which an 110 device is a display device 1530c, the central processing unit 1521 may communicate with the display device 1530e through an Advanced Graphics Fort (A011.FIG. 1113 depicts an embodiment of a computer 15.00 in which the central processing imit 1521 communicates directly with110 device 1530e.

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 118 also depicts an embodiment in which local busses and direct communication are mixed: the central processing unit 1521 communicates with I/0 device 1530d using a local system bus 1550 while communicating with device 1530e directly.
1002041 A wide variety of II0 devices i 530 May be present in the computing device 1500.
input devices include one or more keyboards 1530a, mice, trackpads, trackballs, microphmes, and drawing tablets: 'Opting devices include video display devices 1530c, speakers, and printers. An 110 contr011er 1523, as shown in FIG. 1 I A, may control the I/O
devices. The 1/0 .controller may control one or more 1/0 devices such as a keyboard 1530a and a pointingdevice 1530h, cg., a mouse or optical pen.
1002051 Referring again to Ea 11A, the comptaingdevice 1500 may support one or more removable media interfaces; 1516, such as a floppy disk drive,a CD-ROM drive, a DWI-ROM drive, tape drives of Variotis formats,, a USB port, a Secure Witt Or COMPACT
FLASHmi memory card port, or any other device suitable for =ding data fritin read-only media, or for reading data from, or writing data to, read-write media. An VO
device 1530 may be abridge between the system bus 1550 and a removable media interface 1516.
[002061 The removable media interface 1516 may for example be used for installing software and *grams. The computing device 1500 may further comprise a storage device 1528, such as one or more hard disk drives or hard disk drive arrays, for storing an operating system and other related software, and for storing application software programs. Optionally.
a removable media interface 1516 may also be used as the storage device. For example, the operating. system and the software may be run from a bootable medium, for example.
bootable CD.
(002071 In seine embodiments, the computing device 1500 may wmpristor be connected to multiple display deviees1530e, Which each maybe Of the same or different type andler form. As such, any of the 1/Ode-vices 1.530 and/or the 1/0 controller 1523.
may comprise any type and/or form of suitable hardware, software, or combinationafhardware and software to support, enable or provide -*the conneetiOn to, and useof, muitiPledisplay devices 15:30c by the computing device 1500. For example, the computing device 1500 may include any type and/or form of video adapter, videacard, driver, and/or library to inteiface, communicate, connect:or otherwise use the display devices 1530c. In one embodiment, a video adapter may comprise multiple connectors to interface to multiple display devices 1530c. Lu other embodiments, the computing device 1500 may include multiple video adapters, -with each video adapter connected to one o.r more of the display devices 1530c. In some embodiments, any portion of the operating system of the computing device 1500 may be configured for using multiple display devices 1530c. In other embodiments, one or more of the display devices 1530c may he provided by one or more other computing devices, connected, for example, to the computing device 1500 Via a network. These embodiments may include any type of software designed and constructed to use the display device of Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 another computing device as a second display device 1530c for the computing device 1500.
One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize and appreciate the various ways and embodiments that a computing device I 500 may be configured to have multiple display devices 1530c.
[002081 A computing device 1500 of the sortdepicted in FIG. I IA and F1a-11B
may operate wider the control of. an operating system., *filch controls Scheduling of tasks and access to system resources. Thecomputing device 1500 maybe running any operating system, any embedded operating system, any real-time operating system, any open source operating system, any proprietary o.perating system, any operating systems for mobile computing devices, or any other operatingsystem capable of running on the computing device and performing the operations described herein.
1002091 The computing device 1500 may be any _workstation, desktop computer, laptop or notebook computer, server Machine, -handheld computer, mobile telephone or other-portable telecommunication device, media playing device, gaming system, mobile computing device, or any other type and/or form of computing, telecommunications or media device that is capable of communication and that has sufficient processor power and memory capacity to perform the operations described herein, In sonic embodiments, the computing deViee-1500 may have .di herein processors, operating systems, and input devicestonsistent with the.
device.
.20 1002101 In other embodiments the computing device 1.500 is.a mobile device, such as a Java-enabled cellular telephone or personal digital assistant (PDA), asmart phone, a digital audio player, or a portable media player. In some embodiments, the toroputing device .1500 comprises a combination of devices, such as a mobile phone combined with a digital audio Player or portable media player.
1902Ill As shown in FTC. tIC, the central processing unit 1521 may comprise multiple processors Pi, P2, p3, :P4, and may provide functionality for simultaneous execution of instructkins or for simultaneous execution acme instruction on morethamone piece. of data.
In Some embodiments, the computing device 1500 may comprise a parallel processor with one or more ()Ores. In one of these embodimentS, the computing device 1500 is a shared memory parallel device, with multiple processors and/Or multiple processor cores, accessing all available memory as a single global address space. In another of thescentbodiments, the computing device 1500 is a distributed memory mallet device with multiple processors each accessing local memory only. In still another of these embodiments, the computing device:
1500 hastoth some memory which is shared and some memory which may only be accessed by particular processors or subsets of processors. In still even another of these embodiments, the central processing unit 1521 comprises a multicore microprocessor, which combim two or more independent processors into a single package, e.g., into a single integrated circuit (IC). In one exemplary embodiment, depicted in FIG. 11D, the computing device Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 includes .at least one central processing unit 1521 and at least one graphics 'processing unit 1521'.
1062121 In some embodiments, scent& processing unit 1521 provides single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) functionality, e.g.,:exteution of a single instruction simultaneously on multiple pieces of data. In other embodiments, several processors in the central processing unit 1521 may provide functionality for execution of multiple instructions Simultaneously on multiple pieces of data (MIMD). instill other embodiments, the central processing unit 1521 may use any combination OISIMD and MIME) cores is a sinOe device.
I002131 A computing device may be one of a plurality of Machines connected by a network, or it may comprises plurality of machines so:connected. Fla lIE shows an exemplary network environment. The network environmentcompriies one or more local machines 1502a, 1502b (also generally relbrked to as local inaehine(s) 1502, client(s) 1502, client node(s) 1502, client machine(s) 1502, client computer(S)1502, client device(S) 1502, endpoint(S) 1502, or endpoint node(S) 1502) in communication with one otmOre'remote machines 1506a, 1506b, 1506c (also generally. referred to as server machine(s) 1506 or remote machine(s) 1506) via one or More networks 1504. In some embodiments, a local Machine 1502 has the capacity to function as both a client node seeking access to resources provided by a server Machine and as a server machine providing access to hosted resources for other clients I 502a, 1502b. Although only two clients 1502 and three server machines 20. 1506 are illustrated in FIG. I 1.13, there may, in general, be an arbitrarynumber of each, The network 1504 may be nlocal-area network (LAN), e.g., a private network such as a company Intranet, a Metropolitan area network (MAN), Or a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet, or another nubile network, or a zOiribination thereof.
I00214! The computing device 1500 may includes network interface 1518 to interface to the network 1504 through a variety of connections including, but notlimited to, standard telephone lines, local-area network (LAN), or wide area network (WAN) links, broadband connections, wireless connections, Or a combination of any orall of the above, Connections may be established using a variety of communication protocola. in one embodiment, the computing device 1500 communicates With Other computing devices 1500 via any type and/or form of gateway or tunneling protocol suc.h. as Secure Socket Layer.
(SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS). The network interface 1518 may comprise a built-in networkadapter, well as a network interface card, suitable for interfacing the computing device 1500 to anytype of network capableof communication and perfoming the operations described herein. An 1/0 device 1530 may a bridge between the system bus 1550 and an external communication bus.
1002151 According to one embodiment, the network environment of FIG. 11E may be a virtual network environment-where the various components of the network are virtualized.
For example, the various machines 1302 may be virtual machines implemented as a software-Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02 1 based computer running on a physical machine. The virtual machines may share the same operating system. In other embodiments, .different operating system may be run on each virtual machine instance. According to one embodiment, a "hypervisor" type of virtualization is implemented where multiple virtual machines run on. the sante host physical machine, each acting as if it has its own dedicated box. Of course, the virtual machines: may also run on different host physical 'machines.
10021.61 Other types of viruudization is also contemplated, such as, for example, the network (e.g. via Software Defined Networking (SDN)), Functions, such as functions of the session border controller and other types of functions, may also be virtualized, such as, for example, via Network Functions Virtualization (WV).
1-0021.71 It is the Applicant's intention to cover by claims all such uses of the invention and those changes. and moditication.s which could be made to the embodiments of the invention herein chosen thr the purpose of disclosure-without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The particular manner in which template details are presented to the user may also differ. Thus, the present embodiments of the invention should be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention to be indicated by claims and their equivalents rather than the foregoing description.

Date Recue/Date Received 2021-02-02

Claims (16)

EMBODIMENTS IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS
CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A method for enhanced interaction processing in a contact center, the method comprising:
detecting, by a processor, a pending interaction with a customer operating a communication device;
identifying, by the processor, first and second objectives of the contact center in response to detecting the pending interaction, wherein the first objective is assigned a higher priority than the second objective;
identifying, by the processor, a first agent for handling the first objective, and determining a likelihood of success of the first agent in achieving the first objective, wherein the determining a likelihood of success comprises:
computing probabilities of possible business results of the pending interaction;
if a probability for a business outcome is above a configured threshold, adjusting a service level for the pending interaction;
identifying, by the processor, a second agent for handling the second objective for which the likelihood of success in achieving the second objective by the second agent is higher than the likelihood of success of achieving the first objective by the first agent;
transmitting, by the processor, instructions to a routing device to route the pending interaction to an agent communication device operated by the second agent; and prompting, by the processor, the second agent to pursue the second objective.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first objective is associated with a first business outcome which is preferred to a second business outcome associated with the second objective.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second objective relates to profit, revenue, or sales of the contact center.

Date Recue/Date Received 2023-03-16

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second objective relates to customer satisfaction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the likelihood of the first or second agent in achieving the first or second objectives is determined based on analysis of historical performance of the first or second agents relating to the first and second objectives.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second objective is associated with a business opportunity to be presented to the customer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the business opportunity is a cross-sell or up-sell opportunity of a product or service.

8. A system for enhanced interaction processing in a contact center, the system comprising:
a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
detect a pending interaction with a customer operating a communication device;
identify a first and second objectives of the contact center in response to detecting the pending interaction, wherein the first objective is assigned a higher priority than the second objective;
identify a first agent for handling the first objective, and determine a likelihood of success of the first agent in achieving the first objective, wherein the determining a likelihood of success comprises:
computing probabilities of possible business results of the pending interaction;
if a probability for a business outcome is above a configured threshold, adjusting a service level for the pending interaction;
identify a second agent for handling the second objective for which the likelihood of success in achieving the second objective by the second agent is higher than the likelihood of success of achieving the first objective by the first agent;

Date Recue/Date Received 2023-03-16 transmit instructions, by the processor, to a routing device to route the pending interaction to an agent communication device operated by the second agent; and prompt, by the processor, the second agent to pursue the second objective.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first objective is associated with a first business outcome which is preferred to a second business outcome associated with the second objective.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the second objective relates to profit, revenue, or sales of the contact center.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the second objective relates to customer satisfaction.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the likelihood of the first or second agent in achieving the first or second objectives is determined based on analysis of historical performance of the first or second agents relating to the first and second objectives.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the second objective is associated with a business opportunity to be presented to the customer.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the business opportunity is a cross-sell or up-sell opportunity of a product or service.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the pending interaction is for achieving a step of a workflow associated with a case, wherein an agent selected for handling the pending interaction is an agent with skills to handle a next step of the workflow.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

Date Recue/Date Received 2023-03-16 retrieve, in response to detecting the pending interaction, identification of a first customer segment to which the customer belongs, wherein the first customer segment is associated with a third objective of the contact center;
predict an outcome of the pending interaction based on one or more dynamic factors to advance the first customer segment;
identify a second customer segment based on the predicted outcome; and re-associate the customer to the second customer segment, wherein the second customer segment is associated with the second objective.

Date Recue/Date Received 2023-03-16