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1. TEA d SS CEN 2 NN m Agent Motivation Is Not All About Incentive Schemes http www callcentrehelper com agent motivation is not all about incentive schemes 27447 htm Feb 22 2012 Carlson Lauren Gamification The Key to Preventing Support Agent Burnout http blog softwareadvice com articles crm gamification preventing support agent burnout 10221 12 Feb 21 2012 Hammarberg Christina Gamified Helpdesk Concepts May Combat Agent Burnout International Customer Management Institute Mar 1 2012 Noble Systems Corporation Noble Composer 9 User Manual Feb 2 2010 428 pages Atlanta GA cited by examiner Primary Examiner Mohammad Islam Assistant Examiner Kharye Pope 57 ABSTRACT Embodiments of the present invention provide computer pro gram products methods and systems for providing an inter active interface to a particular agent of a plurality of call center agents In various embodiments display criteria for providing the interface are defined that relate to a perfor mance parameter associated with the plurality of call center agents Further in various embodiments interaction criteria for providing an opportunity to interact with the interface are defined that relate to a second performance parameter asso ciated with the plurality of call center agents Thus in par ticular embodiments the interactive interface is provided to the particular agent as a result ofthe agent havi
2. U S Patent Sep 17 2013 Sheet 4 of 10 US 8 538 006 B1 FIG 4 Detect 410 Completion of Call 415 Determine Agent 420 Retrieve Criteria 425 Yes Agent No Eligible Increment Counter Display Criteria Met Reset Counter Interaction Criteria Met Retrieve Information for Interface Is Agent Winner Display Award Record Provide Interface to Agent U S Patent Sep 17 2013 Sheet 5 of 10 US 8 538 006 B1 FIG 5 Receive Selection of Report Query Information Provide Report for Display U S Patent Sep 17 2013 Sheet 6 of 10 US 8 538 006 B1 You Made a Sale Try Your Luck AGENT SLOTS FIG 6 U S Patent Sep 17 2013 Sheet 7 of 10 US 8 538 006 B1 Nice Job on that Call Lets Play Trivia Please Select the Correct Answer Below and Select Enter In Handling a Callback You Should Always O Immediately Terminate the Call If No One Answers After 3 Rings 4 When Answered Introduce Yourself and Provide the Reason for Calling C When Answered Immediately Request Identification from Party FIG 7 U S Patent Sep 17 2013 Sheet 8 of 10 US 8 538 006 B1 Nice Job on that Call Lets Play Trivia Please Select the Correct Answer Below and Select Enter In Handling a Callback You Should Always O Immediately Terminate the Call If No One Answers After 3 Rings 4 When Answered Introduc
3. soft phone 110a In one embodiment this device may comprise acomputing device 105 such as a laptop or computing tablet which interfaces with a headphone microphone combination also referred to as a headset 106 An IP phone may use a digital voice control protocol and may process packetized voice data according to various Internet based voice proto cols such as session initiated protocol SIP The call may be conveyed by other types of Internet providers 123a such as a cable company providing Internet access services over a coaxial cable facility 116e Those skilled in the art will rec ognize that a variety of protocols and facilities may be used to convey voice calls The term telephone call as used herein is generally syn onymous with a voice call unless indicated otherwise Fur ther the term telephone call may encompass a voice call originating from any type of device such as a soft phone 110a conventional telephone 1105 a mobile device 110c or other device known in the art The term call as used herein may mean an active instance of two way communication an attempt to establish two way communication or a portion of the two way communication For example a user at a con ventional telephone 1105 can dial a telephone call in an attempt to establish two way communication and a call can be said to exist even prior to establishment of a two way connection In another example a call may be pu
4. 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 mance parameter associated with the call center agents In addition in various embodiments interaction criteria for pro viding an opportunity to interact with the interactive interface to win an award are defined and or recorded Similar to the display criteria in particular embodiments the interaction criteria may be related to an interaction performance param eter associated with the plurality of call center agents Depending on the embodiment the process for providing the interactive interface to the particular agent may involve scheduling a time period for making the interactive interface available to the plurality of call center agents Further the process may involve providing the interactive interface on a computer workstation used by the particular agent awarding the agent with the award based on the agent s interaction with the interactive interface and tracking and reporting the awarding of the award to the agent In particular embodi ments one or more steps of the process may be performed as aresult of a measurement of the display performance param eter forthe particular agent meeting the display criteria and or a measurement of the interaction performance parameter for the particular agent meeting the interaction criteria during the time period In particular embodiments the interactive interface may include a game and the agent s interaction involves playing
5. the agent s interaction information is stored so that such information may be refer enced As a result such storage allows for components ofthe call center architecture 100 to implement different levels of criteria As can be envisioned similar to the interaction cri teria different levels of display criteria may also be defined in various embodiments InStep 225 the ID module receives the awards information defining what the awards are for the particular interactive interface Depending on the embodiment the awards may comprise any number of different items such as for example money extra break time paid time off dinner event tickets and so forth For instance returning to the example involving the roulette wheel the user enters a list of awards that may be available on the roulette wheel such as 1 2 and 3 Next the user enters values to define the relative odds of winning each award The user enters a percentage for each award such as 5096 for 1 3096 for 2 and 2096 for 3 As a result the ID module configures the roulette wheel to have three sections the first section is allotted half the wheel 5096 and has a monetary value of 1 the second section is allotted 3096 of the wheel and has a monetary value of 2 and the third section is allotted 20 of the wheel and has a monetary value of 3 Thus by entering the values e g percentages asso ciated with the different awards the user has dictated the odds of winn
6. typically define the time period for which the campaign will run the shifts that will occur during the time period and the agents that will be assigned to the shifts Therefore the user can simply indicate that the interactive interface s will be active for the entire time period and for all the agents during all ofthe shifts However in some instances the user may not wish to have the interactive interface active for the entire campaign Therefore in various embodiments the user may indicate what shifts e g time periods during the campaign the user would like to make the interactive interface available and or which agents the user would like to make the interac tive interface available to For example the call center opera tor may wish to implement an interactive interface that is active only during the week of Christmas as a reward for those agents who are willing to work this week since the week is a popular time for agents to request vacation In such cases the user indicates the desired shifts and or agents For example in one embodiment the design interface provides a listing ofthe shifts and or agents along with check boxes for each shift and or agent and the user simply checks the appropriate boxes As a result the II module receives a selection ofthe shifts and or eligible agents as shown in Steps 315 and 320 It should be noted that in particular embodi ments the user may indicate criteria for identifying eligible s
7. That is for example the party may speak with an agent to receive customer service The physical area at which the agent sits is often referred to as an agent position and these positions are often grouped into clusters managed by a supervisor who may monitor calls and the agents productivity An agent typically uses a computing device 160a 1605 such as a computer and a voice device 161a 161c The combination of computing device 160a 160c and voice device 161a 161c may be referred to as a work 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 station Thus for these particular embodiments the work station collectively has a data capability and a voice capabil ity although separate devices may be used In some instances workstation may be used in reference to either the data or voice capability at the agent s position For example routing the call to the agent s workstation means routing a callto one of the voice devices 161a 161c at the agent s position Simi larly routing the call to the agent means routing a call to the appropriate equipment at an agent s position In particular embodiments the voice device 161a 161c used by an agent may be a soft phone device exemplified by a headset 161a connected to the computer 160a The soft phone device may be a virtual telephone implemented in part by an application program executing on the computer 160a Further the phone may also comprise an Internet
8. a number of different reasons For instance the discon nection may have occurred because the agent and the party were through with the call and the two mutually hung up the call or the disconnection may have occurred because no one answered the call or the number dialed may have been dis connected and no longer in service While in another example the ITE module may detect the completion ofthe call as a result of the agent handling the call setting an indicator that the call has been completed After detecting the completion of the call the ITE module determines the agent associated with the completed call shown as Step 415 For instance in one embodiment each agent is associated with a unique identifier such as a payroll number When a particular call is route to an agent the call is associated with the unique identifier within the call center architecture 100 That is forexample an identifier for the call is associated with the unique identifier for the agent and the relationship is stored in a record in a database located on some data store 175 within the call center architecture 100 In this particular instance the ITE module queries the database for the unique identifier for the agent to determine what agent handled the call Next the ITE module retrieves the criteria associated with the appropriate interactive interface shown as Step 420 For instance in particular embodiments the IIE module retrieves display criteria intera
9. a plurality of call center agents of a call center the method comprising the steps of defining first display criteria for providing the interactive interface on any one of a plurality of computer worksta tions used by the plurality of call center agents the first display criteria comprising a first set of one or more outcomes to a telephone call fielded by any one of the plurality of call center agents a first particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes for a first particular occurrence of any one of the plurality of call center agents fielding a telephone call and a second particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes for a second particular occurrence of any one of the plurality of call center agents fielding a telephone call defining second display criteria for providing the interac tive interface on any one of the plurality of computer workstations used by the plurality of call center agents the second display criteria comprising a second set of one or more outcomes to a telephone call fielded by any one of the plurality of call center agents a first particular outcome from the second set of one or more outcomes for a first particular occurrence of any one of the plural ity of call center agents fielding a telephone call and a second particular outcome from the second set of one or more outcomes fora second particular occurrence of any one of the plurality of call center agents fielding a tele
10. criteria also based on a history of outcomes the par ticular agent has with respect to fielding calls US 8 538 006 BI 29 17 The system of claim 11 wherein the one or more computer processors are further configured to apply the first display criteria or the second display criteria also based on a history of outcomes the particular agent has with respect to fielding calls 5 30
11. in addition to the data store 175 For example in one embodiment the call center operator may use an internal or external service pro 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 20 vider for payroll services and the IIE module may record the information on the agent s award to the payroll service pro vider so that the award is included in the agent s next pay check Further in various embodiments the IIE module may record any number of different types of information along with the information on the game and the award won by the agent For example in particular embodiments the IE mod ule may also record information on the campaign being con ducted at the time the agent played the game and or informa tion on the call s associated with the agent s play of the game It should be noted that in some embodiments the interac tion itself may serve as the award For instance in particular embodiments the interactive interface may be a video game and the award provided to the agent is a set amount of time the agent is able to play the video game as a result of qualifying to interact with the interface For example the agent may be awarded five minutes to play the game as a result of qualifying to interact with the interface Further in particular embodi ments the amount of time may adjust for subsequent quali fications to interact with the interface For example in one particular embodiment the amount of time may
12. in other embodiments making the interactive interface available to an agent involves providing some mechanism to the agent so that the agent may open and display the interface on his workstation such as for example a button on the agent s workstation that the agent may select Similar to the selecting the interface type the design inter face may be configured in a number of different ways that allow the user to enter the display criteria For instance in one embodiment the display criteria may be pre defined and the user simply selects the appropriate criteria In other embodi ments the user may have more freedom to define the display criteria For example in one embodiment the design inter face may provide the user with ad hoc capabilities so that the user may enter criteria that apply to a specific solution Fur ther in various embodiments the criteria may be related to performance parameters associated with agents For example the criteria may include a field that defines the number of calls that need to be handled e g fielded by an agent before the interactive interface is made available to the agent In this particular example the user may enter a zero to indicate that the interface should be made available to the agent after every call the agent fields The user may enter a number e g 1 2 or 3 to indicate how many calls should be skipped before the interface is made available to the agent For instance if the user e
13. module for performing functionality associated with installing interactive interfaces for one or more campaigns according to one embodiment of the invention Accordingly the flow diagram shown in FIG 3 may correspond to steps carried out by a processor in a computing device such as the WFM server 155 as it executes the II module stored in the computing device s volatile and or nonvolatile memory In various embodiments the user opens a design interface associated with the II module similar to or the same as the design interface used in conjunction with the ID module In particular embodiments the WFM server 155 possesses access to information on campaigns that have been built by one or more users on the WFM server 155 Thus a user may use the design interface to view and select a particular cam paign to have one or more interactive interfaces installed As can be envisioned by those of ordinary skill in the art the design interface may utilize any number of mechanisms for displaying and allowing selection of the campaign For instance in one embodiment the design interface may make use ofa drop down menu that lists all ofthe active campaigns that have been built for the call center and the user selects the desired campaign from the listing As a result in Step 310 the II module receives the selection of the campaign 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 14 In various embodiments the parameters of the campaign
14. number of different options for the interactive interface type For instance in particular embodiments the design interface may provide the user with any number of interactive interface types that include a game of chance for the agent to play when the interface appears on the agent s workstation Games of chance are generally understood to be games that involve some outcome strongly influenced by some random factor out of the control of the player For example games of chance may include card games dice games roulette and baccarat In addition in various embodiments the design interface may provide the user with interactive interface types that include games of skill in addition to or instead of games of chance Games of skill are generally understood to be games that involve some outcome that is determined mainly by one or more mental and or physical skills of the player For example games of skill may include checkers chess trivia and tic tac toe Further depending on the embodiment the design inter face may providethe user with a number of options to identify the desired interactive interface type For example in one embodiment the design interface may include a dropdown option from which the user may select the desired interactive interface type While in another embodiment the design interface may provide a listing of available interactive inter face types and the user selects the desired type by checking a corresponding ch
15. the game For instance the game may be one of a roulette wheel a slot machine dice or cards Further in particular embodiments the process may involve defining agent criteria for identifying the plurality of call center agents that may interact with the interface In various embodiments the interaction work performance may include one or more outcomes of a call For example in particular embodiments the outcomes may include one or more of the particular call being answered a callback being requested an appointment being setup or some other oftype of termination of the particular call In other embodiments the outcomes may include one or more of a sale occurring a number of sales reaching a predefined number a monetary value of a sale equaling at least a predefined amount or a number of items for a sale being at least a predefined number In these particular embodiments the interactive interface may be displayed as a result of the measurement of the inter action performance parameter for a particular call handled by the agent resulting in one of the outcomes Further in various embodiments second display criteria for providing the interactive interface may be defined and or recorded In these particular embodiments the second dis play criteria may be related to a second display performance parameter associated with the plurality of call center agents Likewise in various embodiments second interaction criteria may be defined
16. to the particular agent and report awarding of the award to the particular agent 12 The system of claim 11 wherein the award comprises a first award and a second award and the one or more com puter processors are further configured to award the particular agent with the first award or the second award based on the interaction with the interactive inter face performed by the particular agent 13 The system of claim 11 wherein the interactive inter face comprises a game selected from one of a roulette wheel a slot machine dice and cards and the interaction comprises playing the game 14 The system of claim 11 wherein the first and second sets of one or more outcomes comprise one or more of the call being answered a callback being requested an appointment being setup a sale occurring a number of sales reaching a predefined number a monetary value of a sale equaling at least a predefined amount and a number of items for a sale being at least a predefined number 15 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of applying the first display criteria or the second display criteria is also based on a history of outcomes the particular agent has with respect to fielding calls 16 The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the computer executable instructions are further configured when executed by the at least one com puter processor to apply the first display criteria or the second display
17. value of a sale equaling at least a predefined amount a num ber of items for a sale equaling at least a predefined number a number of appointments set up by parties reaching a pre defined number a number of callbacks requested by parties reaching a predefined number and so forth Further in par ticular embodiments the criteria may be related to other performance parameters not directly linked to work perfor mance such as the completion of an online training session by an agent Therefore the specific criteria described above are only provided as examples of display criteria that may be used and should not be construed to limit the scope of the invention Further in various embodiments multiple interactive interfaces may be made available to agents at the same time during a campaign For these particular embodiments the user may also set a parameter e g field to indicate whether particular criteria e g fielded calls count towards making multiple interactive interfaces available or whether the crite ria only count towards making one or more particular inter active interfaces available Thus in particular embodiments criteria may be set up for multiple interactive interfaces or may be set up for individual interactive interfaces Retuning now to FIG 2 in Step 220 the ID module receives criteria for interaction In various embodiments in addition to providing display criteria for making the interac tive interface availab
18. volatile memory 1040 Fur ther the program modules may be implemented as one mod ule or as other groupings For example in particular embodi ments the Id module and the II module may be combined and implemented as a single module The volatile memory and or non volatile memory may be used to store other information including but not limited to records applications programs scripts source code object code byte code compiled code interpreted code machine code executable instructions or the like These may be executed or processed by for example the processor 1010 These may form a part of or may interact with the program modules 1053 The technologies described herein may be implemented in various ways including as computer program products com prising memory storing instructions causing a processor to perform the operations associated with the above technolo gies The computer program products may comprise a non 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 24 transitory computer readable storage medium storing appli cations programs program modules scripts source code program code object code byte code compiled code inter preted code machine code executable instructions and or the like also referred to herein as executable instructions instructions for execution program code and or similar terms Such non transitory computer readable storage media include all the above identified comp
19. Protocol IP based headset 1615 or a conventional phone 161c Use of the term phone is intended to encompass all these types of voice devices used by an agent unless indicated otherwise Agents typically log onto their workstations prior to han dling calls This allows the call center to know which agents are available for handling calls In particular embodiments the ACD 130 may also maintain data of an agent s skill level that may be used to route a specific call to the agent or group of agents having the same skill level In particular instances if a suitable agent is not available to handle a call the ACD 130 may queue the call for the next available agent As can be expected various algorithms may be employed to process calls in an efficient manner In various embodiments two types of signaling informa tion may be provided with an inbound call that may be used by the ACD 130 in processing the call The first type of signaling information indicates the telephone number dialed by the caller and is frequently referred to as DNIS derived from the Dialed Number Identification Service associated with this capability For example in particular instances a call center may provide various services such as sales customer service technical support etc each of which may be associated with a different telephone number e g multiple toll free 800 numbers In these instances the ACD 130 may use the DNIS to determ
20. US008538006B1 az United States Patent 10 Patent No US 8 538 006 B1 Noble Jr 45 Date of Patent Sep 17 2013 54 SYSTEMS METHODS AND COMPUTER 2004 0210475 Al 10 2004 Starnes etal 705 11 PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR PROVIDING 2006 0182258 Al 8 2006 Sisselman et al 379 265 02 2007 0172050 Al 7 2007 Weinstein etal 379 266 07 INTERACTIVE INTERFACES TO CALL OTHER PUBLICATIONS 75 73 21 22 51 52 58 56 CENTER AGENTS Inventor James K Noble Jr Marietta GA US Assignee Noble Systems Corporation Atlanta GA US Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 0 days Appl No 13 459 524 Filed Apr 30 2012 Int Cl H04M 3 00 G06Q 10 00 G06Q 30 00 US Cl USPE 3 2006 01 2012 01 2012 01 M 379 265 06 705 7 15 705 14 42 Field of Classification Search USPC 379 265 266 370 352 353 354 370 355 356 357 See application file for complete search history References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 239 460 A 5 483 444 A 6 044 355 A 6 049 779 A 6 512 415 BI 7 916 858 BI 8 1993 LaRoche 1 1996 Heintzeman et al 3 2000 Crockett et al 705 7 39 4 2000 Berkson 705 14 39 1 2003 Katz 379 88 22 3 2011 Heller etal 379 265 12 110c DM 412 110b 110a yia Top 105 116a
21. agents become burned out That is many times agents become to feel as though they have nothing left or any energy left to give to their jobs or to the company they work for Such feelings often lead to high turnover rates for agents Experts have pointed out contributing factors that lead to agent burn out include lack of motivation and becoming uninterested in performing the same tasks day after day To combat such factors some employers have added ele ments to an agent s workday to engage the agent in his daily tasks and to hopefully boost agent retention For instance one technique employed to add such elements to an agent s workday is to incorporate gaming techniques into non gam ing applications to encourage participation For example a counter may be incorporated into an agent s work screen that keeps track of the number of calls the agent brings to a resolution The screen may also display the particular agent s record for a day and or the overall record for a day for all agents As a result the counter gives the agent a goal to strive for during the day keeps the agent engaged in his daily activities and promotes desired behavior However a problem often encountered in providing ele ments into an agent s work screen like the counter described above is that such elements typically only keep the agent engaged for a limited period oftime before the agent becomes disinterested in the elements That is many times such el
22. and or recorded In these particular embodi ments the second interaction criteria may be used for provid ing a second opportunity to interact with the interactive inter face to win a second award Further in these particular embodiments the second interaction criteria may be related to a second interaction performance parameter associated with the plurality of call center agents For particular embodiments involving the second display criteria and or second interaction criteria the process for providing the interactive interface to the particular agent may involve providing the interactive interface on a computer workstation used by the agent awarding the agent with the second award based on the agent s second interaction with the interactive interface and tracking and reporting the awarding of the second award to the agent In these particular embodi ments one or more steps ofthe process may be performed as a result of a measurement of the second display performance parameter for the particular agent meeting the second display US 8 538 006 BI 3 criteria and or a measurement of the second interaction per formance parameter for the particular agent meeting the sec ond interaction criteria during the time period Further embodiments of the present invention provide computer program products methods systems apparatus and computing entities for providing an interactive interface to a particular agent from a plurality of call ce
23. at is returning to the example the TIE module determines whether the agent has won the tic tac toe game Generally in various embodiments the tic tac toe game is configured so that the agent plays the game against logic programmed within the interface e g so that the agent plays the game against the machine In particular embodi ments the logic may be configured to include certain diffi culty levels that allow the interface to adjust its play based on the agent s success and or how often the agent plays the game Further in other embodiments the interface may be configured to allow the agent to play against other opponents such as for example other agents who have qualified to play the game If the IIE module determines the agent is entitled to an award the IIE module displays the award on the agent s workstation shown as Step 465 For example if the agent wins the tic tac toe game the interface flashes a screen informing the agent that heis a winner and that he has won 5 At this point the IIE module records information on the agent s game and award shown as Step 470 Similar to the other information previously discussed in various embodi ments the ITE module records the information in a data store 175 located within the call center architecture 100 However in particular embodiments the ITE module may record the information in other storage media internal and or external to the call center architecture 100 instead of or
24. come from the sec ond set of one or more outcomes defined by the sec ond display criteria and upon providing the interactive interface on the computer workstation used by the particular agent awarding the particular agent by at least one com puter processor with an award based on an inter action with the interactive interface performed by the particular agent tracking by the at least one computer processor awarding of the award to the particular agent and reporting by the at least one computer processor awarding of the award to the particular agent 2 The method of claim 1 wherein the award comprises a first award and a second award and the step of awarding the particular agent with the award comprises awarding the particular agent by the at least one computer processor with the first award or the second award based on the interaction with the interactive interface per formed by the particular agent 3 The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of defining agent criteria for identifying the plurality of call center agents and identifying the plurality of call center agents based on the agent criteria 4 The method of claim 1 wherein the interactive interface comprises a game selected from one ofa roulette wheel a slot machine dice and cards and the interaction comprises play ing the game 5 The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second sets of one or more outcomes comprise one or more of the cal
25. component inside or outside of the call center archi tecture 100 For example the reporting module may have capabilities to send information on issued awards to an accounting system so that the agents are properly paid for the awards the agents have earned Such capabilities may be provided by the reporting module automatically sending such information at a designated time e g once a week or by the component requesting the information Examples of Interactive Interfaces and Reports FIGS 6 and 7 provide examples of two different interactive interfaces according to various embodiments of the invention FIG 6 specifically provides an example of an interactive interface involving a game of chance That is more specifi cally FIG 6 provides an interactive interface that is a slot machine For this particular example the agent is able to spin the slot machine and win money Turning to FIG 6 once the interface appears on the agent s workstation the agent is able to spin the slot machine by selecting the SPIN button 610 The agent selects the SPIN button and the machine spins the three reels 615a 615c until the reels 615a 615c stop with a symbol for each reel 615a 615c appearing on the payline 620 The slot machine is considered a game of chance because the game is configured so that the symbols that appear on the payline 620 do so in a random fashion For this particular example the reels 615a 615c have stopped showing a pay
26. ction criteria and or any other appli cable criteria Depending on the embodiment the ITE module may retrieve the criteria based on certain information that pertains to the particular agent For instance as previously described the interactive interface may be configured to have different levels of display criteria and or interaction criteria based on the agent s history with the interactive interface For example the interactive interface may be configured with a first set of display criteria to be used for making the interface available to an agent a first time and a second set of display criteria to be used for making the interface available to the agent for any subsequent times Therefore the IIE module may first query information on the agent s history on inter acting with the interface to determine which criteria are appropriate to apply to the call It should be noted that in some embodiments the IIE module may not only query informa tion to determine the appropriate criteria but may also query information to determine the appropriate interface to apply to the call Following retrieval of the criteria the IIE module deter mines whether the agent is eligible to have the interactive interface made available to him shown as Step 425 Thus in various embodiments the retrieved criteria may include information that specifically indicates whether the agent is eligible While in other embodiments the retrieved criteria may include shi
27. d concepts disclosed herein Like numbers in the drawings refer to like elements throughout Exemplary Call Center Architecture FIG 1 shows one embodiment of a call center architecture 100 illustrating the various technologies disclosed herein The call center shown in FIG 1 may process voice calls that are inbound only outbound only or a combination of both sometimes referred to as a blended call center Although many aspects of call center operation are disclosed in the context of voice calls in various embodiments the call center may process other forms of communication such as for example facsimiles emails text messages video calls and chat messages Since the call center may handle calls origi nating from a calling party or initiated to a called party the term party without any further qualification refers to a person associated with a call processed by the call center where the call is either received from or placed to the party The term caller if used will generally refer to a party calling the call center but in many cases this usage is exem plary Thus useofthe term caller is not intended to limit the concepts to only inbound calls unless the context dictates such Depending on the embodiment inbound voice calls may originate from calling parties using a variety of different phone types For instance a calling party may originate a call from a conventional analog telephone 1105 connected to a p
28. dividuals such as agents call center administrators and or agent supervisors who request one or more reports However in particular embodi ments the functionality may also involve sending reporting information directly to one or more components that are internal or external to the call center architecture 100 Such information may be sent automatically at defined intervals e g at the end of each campaign and or at the request of the components Turning now to FIG 5 additional details will be provided regarding the process flow for providing reporting function ality on one or more agents awards interactive interfaces particular interactions and or campaigns Specifically FIG 5 is a flow diagram showing a reporting module for providing reporting functionality according to one embodiment of the invention Accordingly the flow diagram shown in FIG 5 may correspond to steps carried out by a processor in a com puting device such as the CTI server 145 as it executes the reporting module stored in the computing device s volatile and or nonvolatile memory US 8 538 006 BI 21 The process starts out with the reporting module receiving a selection of a particular report shown as Step 510 For instance in various embodiments a user accesses a menu of available reports by opening a screen provided by an interface on the user s workstation and the screen provides a listing of the available reports from which the user selects the
29. e ments are considered simple and repetitive and do not require any direct interaction with the agent In addition with respect to the counter example described above the agent is likely to set a record that becomes too hard to challenge on a daily basis and thus the agent feels like beating his record 1s highly unlikely and again the agent becomes disinterested Thus a need in the art exists for a process in which a variety of such elements may be developed installed scheduled managed and reported for agents everyday work activities Further a need in the art exists for implementing elements that involve direct interaction with agents Furthermore a need in the art exists for a process that provides a variety of incentives that may be tied to these elements to further moti vate agents It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure herein is presented BRIEF SUMMARY In general embodiments of the present invention provide computer program products methods systems apparatus and computing entities for providing an interactive interface to a particular agent from a plurality of call center agents ofa call center In various embodiments display criteria for pro viding the interactive interface on any one of a plurality of computer workstations used by the plurality of call center agents are defined and or recorded In particular embodi ments the display criteria may be related to a display perfor
30. e 100 depending on the embodiment the PD 150 may comprise one or more software modules executing on a pro cessing device hardware platform In various embodiments the PD 150 is typically config ured to dial a list of telephone numbers to initiate outbound calls which can be accomplished by instructing the ACD 130 to originate the calls Thus in some embodiments the ACD 130 may include functionality for originating calls and if so this functionality may be referred to as a private automatic branch exchange PBX or PABX In other embodiments not shown the PD 150 may directly interface with voice trunks using facilities 116c 116d 116e to the PSTN 115 and or Internet providers 1235 for originating calls After the calls are originated a transfer operation by the ACD 130 may connect the call with an agent or place the call in a queue for anavailable agent In the latter case announcements or music may be provided to the party In various embodiments the PD 150 may make use of one or more algorithms to determine un 0 a 5 25 40 45 55 8 how and when to dial a list of numbers so as to minimize the likelihood of a called party being placed in a queue while maintaining target agent utilization Another server that may be employed in the call center architecture 100 is a workforce management WFM server 155 In various embodiments this server 155 maintains infor mation to generate agents schedul
31. e Yourself and Provide the Reason for Calling X When Answered Immediately Request Identification from Party ENTER F 810 oorry that is Incorrect the Correct Answer is Checked FIG 8 U S Patent Sep 17 2013 Sheet 9 of 10 US 8 538 006 B1 WEEKLY SUMMARY AGENT PAYROLL ID n TEAM BLU 915 935 LOCATION AWA DATES MARCH 12 16 2012 920 Numberof Sales GAME SUMMARY 940 NUMBER OF CALLS FIELDED WA NUMBER OF PLAYS WA NUMBER OF WINS BL WEEKLY AWARD 134 FIG 9 US 8 538 006 B1 Sheet 10 of 10 Sep 17 2013 U S Patent Ol Sls 601 se npojv ueJ6044 cSOL uiejs s Buneuedo 0904 OvOL AJOWS 2IIJEJOA UON joul9JN S nejoA 0804 Je G gu02 jndino indu sjeJoeuduasg OL OLOL eoepeju Hen JosseooJd Suoneoiunuluo b 0001 XJOM 9N 8201 OL US 8 538 006 BI 1 SYSTEMS METHODS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR PROVIDING INTERACTIVE INTERFACES TO CALL CENTER AGENTS BACKGROUND A call center is typically thought of a department used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of communications such as telephone calls For instance many companies will provide call centers so that customers may contact the centers in order to receive support for products sold by the companies Oftentimes a call center involves the use of a plurality of agents who handle the communications However a major problem encountered in many call centers is
32. e agent s interaction with the inter active interface and tracking and reporting the awarding of the award to the agent In particular embodiments one or more steps of the process may be performed as a result of a measurement of the performance parameter for the agent meeting the criteria during the time period This summary is provided to exemplify concepts at a high level form that are further described below in the detailed description section The summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope ofthe claimed subject matter Furthermore the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that address any or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING S Having thus described the invention in general terms ref erence will now be made to the accompanying drawings which are not necessarily drawn to scale and wherein FIG 1 shows one embodiment of a call center architecture illustrating the various technologies disclosed herein FIG 2 is a flowchart illustrating an interface development module that can be used in accordance with various embodi ments of the present invention FIG 3 is a flowchart illustrating an interface installation module that can be used in accordance with various embodi ments of the present invention FIG 4 is a flowchart illustrating an int
33. e first display criteria upon applying the second display criteria provide the interactive interface on the computer workstation used by the particular agent in response to the out come to the telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the first particular occurrence meeting the first particular outcome from the second set of one or more outcomes defined by the second display criteria or the outcome of the telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the second particular occurrence meeting the second particular outcome from the sec ond set of one or more outcomes defined by the sec ond display criteria and upon providing the interactive interface on the computer workstation used by the particular agent award the particular agent with an award based on an interaction with the interactive interface performed by the particular agent track awarding of the award to the particular agent and report awarding of the award to the particular agent US 8 538 006 BI 27 7 The non transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the award comprises a first award and a second award and the computer executable instructions are further configured when executed by the at least one com puter processor to award the particular agent with the first award or the second award based on the interaction with the interactive inter face performed by the particular agent 8 The non transitory computer readable storage m
34. eckbox by the desired interactive interface 0 20 30 40 45 50 55 10 type While in another embodiment the design interface pro vides drag and drop functionality and the user drags and drops the desired interactive interface type from a listing onto a design screen Thus the user selects the desired interactive interface type and the ID module receives the selection shown as Step 210 Next the user enters criteria for displaying the interactive interface and the ID module receives the criteria shown as Step 215 The display criteria define what actions and or conditions must occur in order for the interactive interface to be made available to an agent For instance during a call center campaign the call center operator may only want the interactive interface to become available to an agent after every fifth call the agent has fielded That is for example the call center operator may only want the interactive interface to popup on the agent s workstation after every fifth call fielded by the agent Thus the display criteria control how often an agent is given an opportunity to interact with a particular interface It should be noted that making the interactive interface available to an agent may differ in various embodiments For instance in certain embodiments making the interactive interface available to an agent involves having the interface popup and display on the agent s workstation automatically While
35. edium of claim 6 wherein the computer executable instructions are further configured when executed by the at least one com puter processor to record agent criteria for identifying the plurality of call center agents and identify the plurality of call center agents based on the agent criteria 9 The non transitory computer readable storage medium ofclaim 6 wherein the interactive interface comprises a game selected from one of a roulette wheel a slot machine dice and cards and the interaction comprises playing the game 10 The non transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the first and second sets of one or more outcomes comprise one or more of the call being answered a callback being requested an appointment being setup a sale occurring a number of sales reaching a predefined number a monetary value of a sale equaling at least a predefined amount and a number of items for a sale being at least a predefined number 11 A system for providing an interactive interface to a particular agent from a plurality of call center agents of a call center the system comprising one or more computer proces sors configured to record first display criteria for providing the interactive interface on any one of a plurality of computer worksta tions used by the plurality of call center agents the first display criteria comprising a first set of one or more outcomes to a telephone call fielded by any one o
36. enter hosting arrangement can provide the interactive interface to an agent by interacting with a browser window and using HTML JavaScript protocols on the agent s computer 160a 160c As will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of this disclosure the IIE module may be configured to detect various features of communications in order to evalu ate whether to make an interactive interface available for a particular agent For instance in particular embodiments the 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 16 IIE module may be configured to detect when an agent has opened an email from a party or has sent an email to a party Thus with respect to the process flow described in FIG 4 the IIE module is configured to detect the completion of calls either received from or sent to various parties Although as mentioned it should be understood that in various embodi ments the IIE module may be configured to detect other features of communication such as for example calls being answered average call handling time call disposition text messages being answered sales being made appointments being setup etc Looking at FIG 4 the HE module detects the completion ofa call within the call center architecture 100 shown as Step 410 For example in one embodiment the IIE module may detect when a particular call has been disconnected between an agent and a party The disconnection may have occurred for
37. er the ITE mod ule then records the counter so that the counter may be refer enced for the next qualifying call for the agent shown as Step 470 Further depending on the embodiment the ITE module may record additional information about the call handled by the agent such as for example the date and time the call was concluded and the outcome of the call It should be noted that the display criteria do not always include a counter in every embodiment of the invention and therefore the counter is only one example of the type of display criteria that may be implemented for any given embodiment If the ITE module determines the display criteria are met the ITE module resets the counter shown as Step 440 Thus in particular embodiments the IIE module sets the counter for the agent back to zero Again similar to the IE module incrementing the counter the step of resetting the counter may or may not be performed by the IIE module depending on how the display criteria have been defined for the interac tive interface Next the IIE module determines whether the interaction criteria have been met shown as Step 445 Similar to the display criteria in various embodiments the interaction cri teria is usually defined for one or more specific interactive interfaces However in other embodiments the interaction criteria may be generally defined for all of the interactive interfaces associated with the current campaign The interac tion crit
38. eractive interface execution module that can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention FIG 5 is a flowchart illustrating a reporting module that can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 FIG 6 is a screen display of an interactive interface in accordance with various embodiments of the present inven tion FIG 7 is a screen display of a second interactive interface in accordance with various embodiments ofthe present inven tion FIG 8 is a second screen display of the second interactive interface shown in FIG 7 in accordance with various embodi ments of the present invention FIG 9 is a screen display of an agent report in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention FIG 10 is an exemplary schematic diagram ofa server used in one embodiment of the call center architecture to practice the technologies disclosed herein DETAILED DESCRIPTION Various embodiments for practicing the technologies dis closed herein are described more fully hereinafter with refer ence to the accompanying drawings in which some but not all embodiments of the technologies disclosed are shown Indeed the embodiments disclosed herein are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements and should not be construed as limiting or precluding other embodiments applying the teachings an
39. eria define the conditions that must be met to provide the agent an opportunity to interact with the interface e g to allow the agent to play the game For example in one embodiment the criteria may be set to allow the agent to interact with the interface if the call handled by the agent resulted in the called party requesting a callback or setting up an appointment If the ITE module determines the interaction criteria have been met depending on the embodiment the IIE module retrieves information for the interactive interface shown as Step 450 In some embodiments this step entails the IIE module retrieving the appropriate interface itself from stor age to be made available to the agent Similar to the criteria the appropriate interface may be based on certain information that pertains to the particular agent For example the cam paign may be set up to use a first interactive interface for the first fifty calls fielded by the agent and a second interactive interface for the calls thereafter In addition in particular embodiments the agent may be provided with two or more interactive interfaces to choose from and the IIE module retrieves the interface selected by the agent For example in one embodiment the interaction criteria may have been met for a first interactive interface and a second interactive inter face As a result the agent is given a choice of selecting which ofthe two interfaces that agent would like to interact wi
40. es to effectively handle inbound outbound calls For instance in particular embodi ments the WFM server 155 may maintain historical call volume information for call campaigns and may forecast expected call volume to predict the number of agents needed to handle the call volume at a defined service level The WFM server 155 may then apply information about available agents to generate a work roster of agents In other words the WFM server 155 may schedule agents for their work shifts accord ing to the anticipated needs of the call campaigns Finally in various embodiments the call center architec ture 100 may include one or more other servers 156 to per form various functions For example in one particular embodiment the call center architecture 100 includes a server 156 to serve as a quality assurance system that records com munications fielded by agents and or allows managers to monitor communications to ensure these communications are being handled correctly Although the above components are referred to as serv ers each may be also referred to in the art as units or systems A server may incorporate a local data store and or interface with an external data store Use of the word server does not require the component to interact in a client server arrangement with other components although that may be the case Further the above components may be located remotely from or co located with other components F
41. essor 1010 may be configured to execute instruc tions stored in volatile memory 1040 non volatile memory 1050 or other forms of computer readable storage media accessible to the processor 1010 The volatile memory may comprise various types of memory technologies including but not limited to random access memory RAM dynamic random access memory DRAM static random access memory SRAM and other forms well known to those skilled in the art The non volatile memory may com prise various technologies including but not limited to stor age media such as hard disks floppy disks read only memory ROM programmable read only memory PROM electrically erasable read only memory EPROM flash memory and other forms well known to those skilled in the art The non volatile memory 1050 may store program code and data which also may be loaded into the volatile memory 1040 at execution time Specifically the non volatile memory 1050 may store one or more program modules 1053 and or operating system code 1052 containing instructions for per forming the process and or functions associated with the technologies disclosed herein For example the program modules 1053 may comprises one or more of the ID module the II module the IIE module and or reporting module pre viously discussed The program modules 1053 may also access generate or store data 1055 in the non volatile memory 1050 as well as in the
42. f different ways For example in one embodiment once the called party decides to set up an appointment to have a follow up call with a sales representative the agent brings up a calendar application on his workstation to set a date for the follow up call The cal endar application may be populated with information on when sales representatives will be available to place follow up calls The agent looks at the calendar discusses with the party when the sales representatives will be available and receives a particular date and time from the party on when the follow up call should be placed to the party The agent then enters the follow up call information e g the party s iden tity phone number call identifier agent identifier and reason for the follow up call on the calendar and the information is saved into a data store 175 within the call center architecture 100 As a result the ITE module may then query the data store 175 in particular embodiments to determine that the outcome of the call was the called party setting up an appointment to have a follow up call with a sales representative In another embodiment once the call has been completed a screen is provided on the agent s workstation listing the possible outcomes for the call The agent simply selects the outcome that indicates the call ended with the called party setting up an appointment on the screen and saves the infor mation to the data store 175 Accordingly the IIE m
43. f the plurality of call center agents a first particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes for a first particular occurrence of any one of the plurality of call center agents fielding a telephone call and a second particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes for a second particular occurrence of any one ofthe plurality of call center agents fielding a telephone call record second display criteria for providing the interactive interface on any one ofthe plurality of computer work stations used by the plurality of call center agents the second display criteria comprising a second set ofone or more outcomes to a telephone call fielded by any one of the plurality of call center agents a first particular out come from the second set of one or more outcomes for a first particular occurrence of any one of the plurality of call center agents fielding a telephone call and a second particular outcome from the second set of one or more outcomes for a second particular occurrence of any one ofthe plurality of call center agents fielding a telephone call schedule a time period for making the interactive interface potentially available to the plurality of call center agents and 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 60 65 28 during the time period apply the first display criteria or the second display criteria based on a history the particular agent has with respect to interacting with the interactive
44. ft criteria and or agent criteria that provide US 8 538 006 BI 17 conditions the agent must meet in order to eligible For example the agent criteria may indicate that an agent must be on a particular team in order to have the interactive interface made available to him Therefore if the ITE module deter mines the agent is not eligible the HE module exits without performing further steps to make the interface available to the agent However if the IIE module determines the agent is eligible the IIE module determines whether the display criteria for the interactive interface have been met shown as Step 430 As previously mentioned the display criteria provide the actions and or conditions that must occur before the interactive inter face is made available to the agent For example in one embodiment the criteria may be set to provide the interface to the agent for every fourth call handled by the agent wherein the outcome of the call resulted in the call being answered by the called party the called party requesting a callback or the called party setting up an appointment In various embodi ments the display criteria are usually defined for one or more particular interactive interfaces However in other embodi ments the display criteria may be generally defined for any interactive interface that may be associated with the current campaign Depending on the embodiment the ITE module may make such a determination in a number o
45. hifts and or agents instead of identifying the specific shifts and or agents themselves Therefore for these particular embodiments the shift criteria and or agent criteria are con sidered in determining whether an agent is eligible to have the interface made available to him Next if the user would like to apply the interactive inter face to more than one campaign the user indicates on the design interface that he would like to select another cam paign As a result in Step 325 the II module determines the user wishes to select another campaign and the module returns to Step 310 of the process flow As this point the process flow repeats as described above until the user has finished selecting all of the campaigns for which to apply the interactive interface The user then selects the desired interactive interface he wishes to install in the selected campaign s As previously described in many instances the interactive interfaces have been previously built and the user simply selects the designed interface from a library of available interfaces However in some embodiments the design interface used for installing an interactive interface into one or more campaigns may also include one or more screens configured to allow the user to build a new interface from scratch Once the user selects an interface the II module receives the selection shown as Step 330 For instance returning to the previous example involv ing an interactive i
46. hus in Step 345 the II module determines whether the user would like to edit the interaction criteria If so the II module receives the edited interaction criteria shown as Step 350 Similarly in Step 355 the II module determines whether the user would like to edit the awards If so the II module receives the edited awards shown as Step 360 It should be noted that depending on the embodi ment the edited criteria and or awards may be saved in place of e g overwrite the original criteria and or awards for the interactive interface or the edited criteria along with the other information on the interface may be saved as a new interac tive interface Thus in particular embodiments the interac tive interfaces built through the ID module may also serve as templates that can be used to build specific interfaces for particular campaigns At this point the user may wish to install an additional interactive interface into the campaign s Therefore in Step 365 the II module determines whether the user wishes to install another interactive interface If so the II module returns to the point in the process where the user selects the interactive interface Step 330 and the process described above is repeated for the newly selected interface Once the user is done selecting interfaces the II module saves the information on the selected campaign s and interactive inter face s shown as Step 370 As a result the selected interfaces are
47. in firmware in special purpose digital logic and any combination thereof Greater or fewer operations may be performed than shown in the figures and described herein These operations may also be performed in a different order than those described herein Interface Development Module Turning now to FIG 2 additional details will be provided regarding the process flow for developing interactive inter faces In particular FIG 2 is a flow diagram showing an interface development ID module for performing such func tionality according to one embodiment of the invention For example the flow diagram shown in FIG 2 may correspond to steps carried out by a processor ina computing device such as the WFM server 155 as it executes the ID module stored in the computing device s volatile and or nonvolatile memory In various embodiments to facilitate the design and develop ment of an interactive interface a user such as a call center administrator for example is provided with a design interface in communication with the ID module The design interface may comprise one or more screens from which the user may design and develop an interactive interface to be used in conjunction with an agent s workstation during the agent s workday In various embodiments the first step in developing an interactive interface is selecting the interactive interface type Accordingly depending on the embodiment the design inter face may provide the user with a
48. increase by two minutes each time the agent qualifies to play the game Those of ordinary skill in the art can envision several different features that may be implemented for such embodiments in light of this disclosure Once the agent has finished interacting with the interface the interface is closed and the agent goes about conducting his daily activities until he qualifies to interactive with the inter face again or with another interface At this point other com ponents within or outside of the call center architecture 100 may query and use the information recorded on the agent s interaction with interfaces during the campaign For example as mentioned the call center s payroll system or services may query the information on each individual agent to ensure each agent is paid the appropriate award In addition the IE mod ule may query the information to determine what interfaces and or criteria are appropriate for a particular call handled by the agent Further one or more components may query the information for reporting purposes Those of ordinary skill in the art can envision several uses for the information in light of this disclosure Reporting Module In various embodiments reporting functionality may be provided to report information on agents awards interfaces and or interface interactions that occurred during one or more campaigns Typically such functionality is provided through an interface that is accessible by in
49. ine the purpose ofthe call and potentially identify a group ofagents having the appropriate skill level to handlethe call Thus in various embodiments the ACD 130 may priori tize and route calls to an agent based on the required skill level Skills based routing may be a rule based set of instruc tions that the ACD 130 uses to handle calls Depending on the embodiment skills based routing may be implemented by the ACD 130 or by the ACD 130 interacting with a computer telephone integrated CTT server 145 In various embodiments the CTI server 145 may be incor porated in the call center architecture 100 to control and or coordinate other components ofthe architecture 100 Specifi cally the CTI server 145 may interact with the ACD 130 to coordinate call processing Thus in particular embodiments the CTI server 145 may control routing of calls from the ACD 130 to the various agent workstations and or may provide data to other components processing the calls The CTI server 145 may also provide call reporting functionality based on data collected during calls The second type of signaling information that may be provided with an inbound call is the calling telephone num ber often referred to as automatic number identification or ANI In particular embodiments the ACD 130 and or CTI server 145 may use the ANI of an incoming call to retrieve caller information from a data store 175 and provide the data to an agent s workstatio
50. ing each award As one of ordinary skill in the art can envision in light of this disclosure the awards on the wheel may cover a range of different awards in both amount and type For example the awards may not only be monetary but may also include other types of awards such as gift certificates dinners event tickets US 8 538 006 BI 13 and so forth In addition the awards may not be awards at all per se but instead may include instances in which the agent is not a winner For example one or more sections ofthe wheel may be marked with a message that reads Sorry you are not a winner at this time please qualify and try again As will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art similar to the display criteria and the interaction criteria the awards may be defined for different levels For instance returning to the example the first time an agent qualifies for an award and spins the roulette wheel the sections may be marked as 1 2 and 3 Each time thereafter the sections may be marked as 2 3 and 4 Further depending on the embodiment the user may be able to set other features for the interactive interface by using the design interface For example the user may be able to specify font types for text screen colors and other visual features In addition the user may be able to specify sounds for various features of the interface such as sounds ofthe roulette wheel turning and or voice simulation
51. inserted installed in the operational screens to be used by the agents during the campaign s so that the interfaces can be made available to the agents during the campaign s It should be noted that during the campaign s in various embodiments the one or more components of the call center architecture 100 used to control the call center process for communications are configured to monitor the display and interaction criteria and to take the appropriate actions e g display the interactive screen and or issue the awards based on the criteria For instance as described in greater detail below the CTI server 145 in particular embodiments may be configured to carry out such functionality Interactive Interface Execution Module Turning now to FIG 4 additional details will be provided regarding the process flow for executing interactive interfaces during one or more campaigns Specifically FIG 4 is a flow diagram showing an interactive interface execution IIE module for performing functionality associated with execut ing interactive interfaces during one or more campaigns according to one embodiment of the invention Accordingly the flow diagram shown in FIG 4 may correspond to steps carried out by a processor in a computing device such as the CTI server 145 or an agent s computer 160a 160c as it executes the IIE module stored in the computing device s volatile and or nonvolatile memory Further in particular embodiments a call c
52. inter face upon applying the first display criteria provide the inter active interface on a computer workstation used by the particular agent in response to an outcome to a telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the first particular occurrence meeting the first particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes defined by the first display criteria or the outcome to the telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the second particular occurrence meeting the second particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes defined by the first display criteria upon applying the second display criteria provide the interactive interface on the computer workstation used by the particular agent in response to the out come to the telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the first particular occurrence meeting the first particular outcome from the second set of one or more outcomes defined by the second display criteria or the outcome of the telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the second particular occurrence meeting the second particular outcome from the sec ond set of one or more outcomes defined by the sec ond display criteria and upon providing the interactive interface on the computer workstation used by the particular agent award the particular agent with an award based on an interaction with the interactive interface performed by the particular agent track awarding of the award
53. ironment and the agents positions are in their individual residences Those skilled in art will recognize FIG 1 represents one possible configuration of a call center architecture 100 and that variations are possible with respect to the protocols facilities components technologies and equipment used For example various algorithms and queuing arrangements may be defined to efficiently process calls In other configu rations the ACD 130 may be configured to process not only voice calls but also other forms of communication and per form corresponding call processing functions for email text US 8 538 006 BI 9 chats or facsimile calls Alternatively a web server not shown in FIG 1 may receive or originate email chats and text communications as well as interact with other call center components Exemplary System Operation The logical operations described herein are implemented 1 as a sequence of computer implemented acts or one or more program modules running on a computing system and or 2 as interconnected machine logic circuits or circuit modules within the computing system The implementation is a matter of choice dependent on the performance and other requirements ofthe computing system Accordingly the logi cal operations described herein are referred to variously as states operations structural devices acts or modules These operations structural devices acts and modules may be implemented in software
54. l being answered a callback being requested an appointment being setup a sale occurring a number of sales reaching a predefined number a monetary value of a sale equaling at least a predefined amount and a number of items for a sale being at least a predefined number 6 A non transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions for providing aninteractive interface to a particular agent from a plurality of 0 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 26 call center agents of a call center the computer executable instructions being configured when executed by at least one computer processor to record first display criteria for providing the interactive interface on any one ofa plurality of computer worksta tions used by the plurality of call center agents the first display criteria comprising a first set of one or more outcomes to a telephone call fielded by one of the plu rality of call center agents a first particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes for a first particular occurrence of any one of the plurality of call center agents fielding a telephone call and a second particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes for a second particular occurrence of any one of the plurality of call center agents fielding a telephone call record second display criteria for providing the interactive interface on any one of the plurality of computer w
55. lback In the example if the agent had instead answered the question incorrectly the interface would have informed the agent that he is incorrect and would have pointed out the correct answer 810 as shown in FIG 8 Therefore in various embodiments the interactive interface may also serve as a training tool FIG 9 provides an example of a report on a specific agent and the agent s activities involving interactive interfaces Such a report may be provided to a call center administrator supervisor and or manager In this particular example the report provides a graph 910 on the number of sales made by agent Mark Smith 915 during Mar 12 2012 to Mar 16 2012 920 The report also provides general information about the agent such as his payroll ID 925 team 930 and location 935 Further the report provides information on the agent s inter action with an interface s e g the agent s playing of a game s provided via the interface s Specifically the report informs the reader that the agent fielded 437 calls 940 during the time period of Mar 12 2012 to Mar 16 2012 920 During that time the agent played the game s provided by the inter active interface s a total of 125 times 945 and the won 96 times 950 Finally the report indicates that the agent won a total of 134 955 based on his 96 wins 950 As one of ordinary skill in the art can envision in light of this disclosure the report may be configured in any number of ways and p
56. le to agents the user may also provide interaction criteria for providing an agent an opportunity to interact with the interactive interface Thus in these particu lar embodiments once an agent is provided the opportunity to interact with a particular interactive interface the agent engages in some type of interaction with the interface and based on the interaction the agent may win an award Similar to the display criteria in various embodiments the interaction criteria may also involve performance parameters associated with agents such as the performance parameters already discussed with respect to the display criteria as well as 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 other performance parameters For example the user may set up display criteria for making the interactive interface avail able to an agent for every fifth call fielded by an agent and the calls that count are calls that result in an outcome of a party answering the call a party requesting a callback or a party setting up an appointment Further the user may set up inter action criteria that require the outcome of the fifth call to be eitherthe party requesting a callback or the party setting up an appointment Therefore in this example if an agent fields his fifth call and the outcome ofthe call is the party setting up an appointment the agent is provided the opportunity to interact with the interface As described in further detail belo
57. line 620 having a BAR symbol and two 2 symbols and the interface informs the agent that he has won two dollars 625 At this point the agent can exit the interface by selecting the EXIT button 630 In turn the agent s award of two dollars is recorded Turning now to the example of an interactive interface shown in FIG 7 this particular interface involves the agent interacting with the interface by playing a trivia game For this particular example the agent is asked to select the correct answer to the trivia question 710 and to press the ENTER 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 22 button 715 Therefore the agent reads the three choices for answers to the question clicks on the button 720 that corre sponds to the correct answer and presses the ENTER but ton 715 As a result the interface informs the agent that he has answered the trivia question correctly and has won three dollars 725 A further component of the interactive interface shown in FIG 7 is that the interface serves a second function besides providing motivation and incentives to agents to engage in desired behavior In this instance the interactive interface is also being used to train agents The trivia question 710 being asked is directed to information that is important for an agent to know in performing his work activities Specifically the question is directed to what the agent should do when han dling a cal
58. n computer 160a 160c over facilities 168 along with routing the call to the agent s workstation phone 161a 161c Further in particular embodiments the US 8 538 006 BI 7 ANI may also be used to ascertain a party s status e g a Gold Level customer warranting premium service and or to facilitate the ACD 130 routing the call to a select group of agents Depending on the embodiment the data store 175 may include one or more databases storing different informa tion such as for example records of caller information Fur ther the data store 175 may be integrated with the CTI server 145 the ACD 130 or segregated as a standalone medium or media In various embodiments the ACD 130 may place a call in a queue if there are no suitable agents available and or it may route the call to an interactive voice response server IVR 135 to play voice prompts In particular embodiments these prompts may be in a menu type structure and the IVR 135 may collect and analyze responses from the party in the form of dual tone multiple frequency DMTF tones and or speech In addition the IVR 135 may be used to further identify the purpose ofthe call such as for example prompt ing the party to enter account information or otherwise obtain information used to service the call Further in particular embodiments the IVR 135 may interact with other compo nents such as the CTI server 145 or the data store 175 to retrieve or provide informati
59. ne embodiment the IIE module causes the interface to popup on the agent s worksta tion In another embodiment the ITE module provides a but ton on the agent s workstation or unlocks a button on the workstation so that the agent can select the button and have the interface popup on the agent s workstation Such a con figuration may allow for the agent to go on with his daily tasks such as field another call if need be and access the interactive interface at a more convenient time Those of ordinary skill in the art can envision several ways to provide the agent with the interactive interface in light of this disclo sure At this point the agent may interact with the interface For instance in various embodiments the interface provides some type of game for the agent to play that may result in the agent winning an award For example the interface may be a game of tic tac toe that the agent plays in order to win some type of bonus such as money or additional break time As a result in various embodiments the agent is able to engage in an activity that is not normally a part ofthe agent s daily work activities and win an award Thus advantages to providing such an interface may include breaking the day to day fatigue many agents face and keeping agents motivated to perform work tasks correctly e g promoting agents to perform posi tive behaviors At Step 460 the ITE module determines whether the agent is entitled to an award Th
60. ng a measure ment of the performance parameter meet the display criteria and or a measurement of the second performance parameter meet the interaction criteria Once the interactive interface has been provided the agent may be awarded with an award based on the agent s interaction with the interface 17 Claims 10 Drawing Sheets U S Patent Sep 17 2013 Sheet 1 of 10 US 8 538 006 B1 e e ve o Na BO 2 E E 1g E a 116c 170 E D Em oN Enr FIG 1 a oo e ERK Cols Q SN 116e 116d lt gt Qc N A DDN 161b SE g Sf YN WAN M ii A co y 000 ai 000 A 000 3 G F g i S 110a 105 r 106 U S Patent Sep 17 2013 Sheet 2 of 10 US 8 538 006 B1 FIG 2 Receive Selection of Interface Type Receive Criteria for Displaying Receive Criteria for Interaction Receive Awards U S Patent Sep 17 2013 Sheet 3 of 10 Receive 310 Selection of Campaign Edit Display Criteria Receive Edited Receive 315 Display Criteria Selection of Shifts Edit Interaction Criteria Receive 320 Selection of Eligible Agents Receive Edited Interaction Criteria 325 Another Campaign Receive Selection of No Edit Awards Interactive Interface Receive Edited Awards Another Yes Interface Save tf o FIG 3 End US 8 538 006 B1 335 340 345 350 355 360 365 370
61. nter agents of a call center that define a first award and a second award In these particular embodiments the process for awarding the particular agent involves awarding the agent with the first award based on the agent s interaction with the interactive interface and a measurement of a interaction performance parameter meeting a first result or awarding the agent with the second award based on the agent s interaction with the inter active interface and the measurement of the interaction per formance parameter meeting a second result Finally embodiments of the present invention provide computer program products methods systems apparatus and computing entities for providing an interactive interface to a particular agent from a plurality of call center agents of a call center that define criteria for providing the interactive interface on any ofa plurality of computer workstations used by the plurality of call center agents In these particular embodiments the criteria may be related to a performance parameter associated with the plurality of call center agents Depending on the embodiment the process for providing the interactive interface to the particular agent may involve scheduling a time period for making the interactive interface available to the call center agents Further the process may involve providing the interactive interface on a computer workstation used by the particular agent awarding the agent with an award based on th
62. nterface for a roulette wheel the user selects the roulette wheel interface and the II module receives the selection At this point the user may wish to install the interface with the criteria and awards already defined for the interface such as the display criteria the interaction criteria and the awards themselves However in various embodiments if the user wishes to edit any of the criteria and or awards the design interface provides capabilities so that the user may do so Therefore in these particular embodiments the II module determines whether the user would like to edit the display criteria shown as Step 335 If so the II module then receives the edited display criteria shown as Step 340 For example returning to the roulette wheel interface the display criteria was defined as making the interface available to an agent for every fifth call fielded by the agent in which the outcome of the call resulted in a party answering the call a party request US 8 538 006 BI 15 ing a callback or a party setting up an appointment The user may wish to change the criteria to every fourth call The user edits the display criteria and accordingly the II module receives the edited criteria with the number of calls changed to every fourth call fielded by an agent instead of every fifth call As mentioned the II module may also be configured in various embodiments to allow the user to edit the interaction criteria and the awards T
63. nters the number two the interface will be made available to the agent after every third call fielded by the agent In addition depending on the embodiment other perfor mance parameters may be set for the criteria described above For example in one embodiment the user may not only indicate how many calls must be fielded before the interface is made available but may also indicate how the calls should be fielded before the interface is made available For instance each call fielded by an agent may have a termination code indicating the outcome of the call For example the outcome of the call may have been the party requesting a callback the party not answering the call the phone line being busy the party indicating not to be called the party setting up an appointment an answering machine answering the call the phone line becoming disconnected and so forth The performance parameters could also be based on non voice call related activities performed by the agent For example the performance parameters could specify a number US 8 538 006 BI 11 ofemails from users that are processed or resolved by the call agent The performance parameters could specify a number of chat sessions that the agent must be involved with or short message service messages that are handled Although the embodiments illustrated herein are presented in the context of the agent handling voice calls for purposes of illustration and not for limitation th
64. odule may then query the data store 175 to determine the outcome for the call was the called party setting up an appointment to have a follow up call with a sales representative Further in various embodiments the IIE module may obtain information on the agent s status with respect to hav ing the interactive interface made available to the agent Returning to the example the display criteria indicate that the interface should be made available to the agent for every fourth call handled by the agent that involves the outcome of the call resulting in the call being answered by the called party the called party requesting a callback or the called party setting up an appointment In particular embodiments a counter for the agent may be used to keep track when the fourth call that qualifies to make the interface available to the agent Similar to other information described above the counter may be stored ina data store 175 within the call center architecture 100 or may be stored on some other component such as the agent s own workstation Thus when a call quali 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 18 fies towards the agent s count for making the interactive interface available to the agent and the current counter does not met the requirements set for the display criteria e g the counter is less than three the IIE module increments the counter by one shown as Step 435 Once the IIE module increments the count
65. ommunicate with other elements within the processing system 1000 via a bus 1005 The processor 1010 may be implemented as one or US 8 538 006 BI 23 more complex programmable logic devices CPLDs microprocessors multi core processors digital signal pro cessors DSPs system on a chip SOCs co process ing entities application specific integrated circuits ASICs field programmable gate arrays FPGAs pro grammable logic arrays PLAS hardware accelerators other circuitry or the like In one embodiment the processing system 1000 may also include one or more communications interfaces 1020 for communicating data via the local network 170 with various external devices such as other servers of FIG 1 In other embodiments communication may be via wired optical or wireless networks or a combination thereof The communi cation may use a variety of data transmission protocols such as fiber distributed data interface FDDI Ethernet asynchro nous transfer mode ATM or frame relay The input output controller 1030 may also communicate with one or more input devices or peripherals using an inter face 1035 such as but not limited to a keyboard a mouse a touch screen display input microphone pointing device etc The input output controller 1030 may also communicate with output devices or peripherals such as displays printers speakers headsets banner displays etc The proc
66. on for processing the call In other configurations the IVR 135 may be used to only pro vide announcements Depending on the embodiment the interaction between the ACD 130 IVR 135 CTI server 145 agent computers 160a 160c as well as other components may involve using a local area network LAN 170 However other configurations are possible such as but not limited to using a wide area network wireless network router bridge direct point to point links etc In particular embodiments when an agent is interacting with a called or calling party the agent may use his worksta tion computer 1605 to further interact with other enterprise computing systems such as for example a customer rela tionship management CRM server 140 A CRM server 140 may be used to integrate information from various enter prise business systems to facilitate the agent servicing the call In addition the CRM server 140 may provide a variety of applications In addition to receiving inbound communications includ ing for example voice calls emails text messages and fac similes the call center may also originate communications to a called party referred to herein as outbound communica tions In some embodiments a call center may employ a predictive dialer PD 150 to originate outbound calls on behalf of an agent at a rate designed to meet various criteria Similar to the other components within the call center archi tectur
67. ork stations used by the plurality of call center agents the second display criteria comprising a second set of one or more outcomes to a telephone call fielded by any one of the plurality of call center agents a first particular out come from the second set of one or more outcomes for a first particular occurrence of any one of the plurality of call center agents fielding a telephone call and a second particular outcome from the second set of one or more outcomes for a second particular occurrence of any one of the plurality of call center agents fielding a telephone call schedule a time period for making the interactive interface potentially available to the plurality ofcall center agents and during the time period apply the first display criteria or the second display criteria based on a history the particular agent has with respect to interacting with the interactive inter face upon applying the first display criteria provide the inter active interface on a computer workstation used by the particular agent in response to an outcome to a telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the first particular occurrence meeting the first particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes defined by the first display criteria or the outcome to the telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the second particular occurrence meeting the second particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes defined by th
68. ose skilled in the art will recognized in light of the present disclosure that the principles of the tech nologies disclosed herein can be applied to a variety of tasks routinely handled by a call center agent Thus the user may select one or more of these termination codes to indicate the call must result in a particular outcome for the call to count towards making the interactive interface available to an agent For example if the user selects the termination codes associated with the outcome being one of the party requesting a callback the party answering the call or the party setting up an appointment and a call is fielded by an agent that is terminated because the party does not answer the call then the call will not count towards the requirement to make the interactive interface available to the agent Depending on the embodiment at the end of a call the agent may be provided with oneor more screens that allow the agent to select the outcome ofthe call or one or more components of the call center architecture 100 may monitor certain param eters to determine the outcome of the call It should be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of this disclosure that other types of performance param eters may be used as display criteria besides phone calls and or termination codes For example in various embodi ments display criteria may be based on a sale occurring a number of sales reaching a predefined number a monetary
69. particular report of interest As mentioned depending on the embodi ment reports may provided for a wide range of information associated with the interactive interfaces the agents who interacted with the interfaces and the interactions that occurred during one or more campaigns In Step 515 the reporting module queries the appropriate information for the selected report As previously described in various embodiments information is stored within and or outside of the call center architecture 100 on the use of the various interactive interfaces during campaigns and the agents who engaged in such use For example in particular embodiments information is stored in one or more databases residing on a data store 175 within the call center architecture 100 The reporting module queries this stored information to obtain the appropriate information for the selected report As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate the reporting module may need to query more than one data source for any particular report Finally in Step 520 the reporting module provides the report to the user s workstation for display At this point the user may review the information provided on the particular report In particular embodiments the reporting module also includes the capabilities to print the report if desired by the user Further in particular embodiments the reporting mod ule also includes the capabilities to send the report informa tion to a
70. phone call scheduling a time period for making the interactive inter face potentially available to the plurality of call center agents and US 8 538 006 BI 25 during the time period applying the first display criteria or the second display criteria based on a history the particular agent has with respect to interacting with the interactive inter face upon applying the first display criteria providing the interactive interface on a computer workstation used by the particular agent in response to an outcome to a telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the first particular occurrence meeting the first particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes defined by the first display criteria or the outcome to the telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the second particular occurrence meeting the second particular outcome from the first set of one or more outcomes defined by the first display criteria upon applying the second display criteria providing the interactive interface on the computer workstation used by the particular agent in response to the out come to the telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the first particular occurrence meeting the first particular outcome from the second set of one or more outcomes defined by the second display criteria or the outcome of the telephone call fielded by the particular agent for the second particular occurrence meeting the second particular out
71. rovide any desired additional information such as the criteria that was used during the time period Further depending on the embodiment reports may be included that display othertypes of information such as for example a summary report for all agents during the time period or a report listing a summary on all of the games played during the time period Exemplary Server Component As discussed in conjunction with FIG 1 the call center architecture 100 may comprise various components such as servers that comprise a processing system FIG 10 is an exemplary schematic diagram ofa server that may be used in an embodiment of the call center architecture 100 to practice the technologies disclosed herein FIG 10 provides an exem plary schematic of a processing system 1000 which could represent individually or in combination for example the ACD 130 IVR 135 CRM server 140 CTI server 145 PD 150 WEM server 155 agent computer 160a or other com ponents previously described In general the term process ing system may be exemplified by for example but without limitation a personal computer server desktop computer tablets smart phones notebooks laptops distributed sys tems servers blades gateways switches and the like as well as any combination of devices or entities adapted to perform the functions described herein As shown in FIG 106 the processing system 1000 may include one or more processors 1010 that may c
72. s informing the agent he is a winner At this point the user may select to save the interactive interface e g the user may click the SAVE button on a screen of the design interface Accordingly the ID module saves the information e g the interactive interface type criteria and other feature data for the interface shown as Step 230 Following the step of saving the information for the interactive interface the interface is now available for use with one or more campaigns conducted by the call center Interface Installation Module Turning now to FIG 3 additional details will be provided regarding the process flow for installing interactive interfaces for one or more campaigns The term campaign generally is understood to mean a set of parameters that define commu nications to take place to achieve a marketing and or infor mation activity such as for example placing calls receiving calls and or and sending emails to a number of customers of an insurance company to inform them of a new insurance product they may purchase The parameters of a campaign generally define the who what and when of the campaign For instance the parameters of a campaign may define who will make receive the communications e g parties phone numbers and or email addresses the content of the commu nications and the time period in which the communications will be handled FIG 3 is a flow diagram showing an interface installation II
73. t on hold and a portion of the call may be referred to as a call leg existing between the caller and certain equipment A call may comprise a number of concatenated call legs as known to those skilled in the art In certain contexts which will be made explicit the call may encompass communications other than voice for example text messages video chat facsimile etc In various embodiments inbound calls from callers to the call center may be received at an automatic call distributor ACD 130 In particular embodiments the ACD 130 may be a specialized switch for receiving and routing inbound calls under various conditions Further the ACD 130 may be embodied as a dedicated form of equipment readily available from various manufacturers or the ACD 130 may be a so called soft switch comprising a suitable programming module executed by a processing device to perform the nec essary functions The ACD 130 may route an incoming call over call center facilities 165 to an available agent Depend ing on the embodiment the facilities 165 may be any suitable technology for conveying the call including but not limited to a local area network LAN wide area network WAN ISDN or conventional TDM circuits In addition the facili ties 165 may be the same or different from the facilities used to transport the call to the ACD 130 In various embodiments calls may be routed over facilities 165 to an agent for servicing
74. th and the IIE module receives the selection made by the agent Accordingly the IIE module then retrieves the selected inter active interface Further in various embodiments particular interfaces may be configured to incorporate information into the interface For example the interface may involve presenting a trivia game to agents and the interface incorporates the trivia ques tions into the interface before it is displayed for an agent Therefore in these particular instances the IE module may query the needed information from various internal and exter nal components with respect to the call center architecture US 8 538 006 BI 19 100 For instance in particular embodiments the interactive interface may make use of training information e g may provide a trivia game on training topics and the ITE module queries the call center s data store 175 for training material Under such a configuration the interactive interface may be used to provide training on current and or updated topics for agents Furthermore under such a configuration the interac tive interface may be used to provide training that is specific for particular agents That is for example the IIE module may query training information to present on the interface that has been specifically identified for one or more agents to whom the interface will be made available Next the IIE module provides the interface to the agent shown as Step 455 For instance in o
75. ublic switched telephone network PSTN 115 using an analog plain old telephone service POTS line 116a The calls may be routed by the PSTN 115 and may comprise various types of facilities 1164 including but not limited to T1 trunks SONET based fiber optic networks ATM net works etc Various types of routers switches bridges gate ways and other types of equipment may be involved in the processing of the calls Inbound voice calls may also originate from a mobile device 110c such as a smart phone or tablet which wirelessly communicates with a mobile service provider MSP 112 The voice calls may be routed to the PSTN 115 using an integrated services digital network ISDN interface 1165 or other types of interfaces that are well known to those skilled in the art In particular embodiments the MSP 112 may also route calls as packetized voice referred to herein as US 8 538 006 BI 5 voice over IP VoIP to an Internet provider 1235 using Internet based protocols For convenience unless indicated otherwise the term trunk refers to any type of facility 116c 116d or116e providing voice calls to or from the call center regardless of the type of protocol or technology used Spe cifically a trunk is not limited to time division multiplex ing TDM technology Inbound voice calls may also originate from a calling party employing a so called IP phone VoIP phone or
76. urthermore one or more of the components may be implemented on a single processing device to perform the functions described herein For example in various embodiments one or more functionalities of the ACD 130 IVR 135 CRM server 140 CTI server 145 PD 150 and or WFM server 155 may be combined into a single hardware platform executing one or more software modules In addition the call center architec ture 100 may be provided as a hosted solution where the call processing functionality is provided as a communication ser vice a so called communication as a service or CaaS to a call center operator Thus there is no requirement that the servers identified above actually be located or controlled by a call center operator In addition depending on the embodiment the agent posi tions may be co located in a single physical call center or multiple physical call centers The agents may be remotely located from the other components ofthe call center and may also be remotely located from each other sometimes referred to as a virtual call center In particular instances a virtual call center may describe a scenario in which agents work at home using their own computers and telephones as worksta tions In some configurations a single physical location ofthe call center may not be readily identifiable For instance this may occur when the call processing functions are provided as a service in a hosted cloud computing env
77. uter readable media including volatile and non volatile media but does not include a transitory propagating signal Non volatile computer readable storage medium may specifically com prise a floppy disk flexible disk hard disk magnetic tape compact disc read only memory CD ROM compact disc compact disc rewritable CD RW digital versatile disc DVD Blu ray disc BD any other non transitory optical medium and or the like Non volatile computer read able storage medium may also comprise read only memory ROM programmable read only memory PROM erasable programmable read only memory EPROM electrically erasable programmable read only memory EE PROM flash memory and or other technologies known to those skilled in the art Conclusion Many modifications and other embodiments of the con cepts and technologies set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings Therefore it is to be understood that embodiments other than the embodiments disclosed herein are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims Although specific terms may be employed herein they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation The invention claimed is 1 A method for providing an interactive interface to a particular agent from
78. w in various embodi ments the interaction may entail any number of different actions interplays contacts interchanges or exchanges with the interactive interface For instance in one embodiment the interface may be a roulette wheel that has monetary values set for each section ofthe wheel Therefore the agent is provided the opportunity to spin the roulette wheel as a result of the fifth call s outcome meeting the interaction criteria The agent clicks on a button entitled SPIN on the interactive interface and the wheel spins and stops on a particular section of the wheel having a particular monetary amount As a result the agent is awarded the particular monetary amount as a bonus in addition to the agent s normal pay Further the interaction criteria may be defined for different levels For instance in one embodiment the interaction cri teria may be defined so that an agent is provided the oppor tunity to interact with the interface the first time as a result of the outcome of the fifth call being an answered call a party requesting a callback or a party setting up an appointment However after the first interaction the agent is only provided subsequent interactions if the outcome of the fifth call results in a party requesting a callback or a party setting up an appointment As described in greater detail below in particu lar embodiments each time an agent is provided an opportu nity to interact with the interface

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