Method and system for monitoring call center service representatives

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TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to telecommunications systems and methods. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a method and system for automatically monitoring the performance of call center service representatives.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Call centers provide a wide array of services for customers of the companies that use them. Through a call center, a company can service customers around the world, around the clock. The essence of call center effectiveness and efficiency, however, is the performance of the call center service representatives or agents that serve the calling customers. Call center supervisors manage call service representatives and are responsible for monitoring their performance. Call center supervisors may monitor service representatives' calls for three reasons: (1) to provide training to the customer service representatives, (2) to assure the quality of customer service, and (3) to maintain security within the company.

For a call center that uses an automatic call distributor (ACD), private branch exchange (PBX), or other suitable routing device, there typically exist features that are integral to the ACD that enable monitoring of service representative performance. These capabilities, however, are generally manual and have significant limitations. With other demands on their time and attention, supervisors may not be consistent or equitable in the ways that they monitor each agent. These inconsistencies and inequities may result in a supervisor monitoring an agent either for too little time or too much time, or too infrequently or too frequently. This may cause an imbalance in the supervisor's perception of an agent relative to other agents in the call center.

Another problem that manual scheduling and monitoring of agents causes is increased time pressure on the supervisors themselves. For example, they must remember who has been monitored, for how long they have monitored or intend to monitor an agent, and when to monitor the agent. If a call center has numerous service representatives, the requirement to monitor the performance of these agents may seriously and adversely affect the productivity of the call center supervisor. This is because the task of monitoring agents is only one of many tasks that the supervisor must perform.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There is a need for a method and system that ensures consistency and equity across all agents, that provides a fair system for evaluating each agent's performance in servicing customer calls, and that offers flexible and varied scheduling criteria for monitoring the agents. The present invention, accordingly, provides a method and a system for scheduling and monitoring agents in a call center that overcome or reduce disadvantages and limitations associated with prior agent monitoring methods and systems.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a system for monitoring a plurality of service representatives in handling customer calls includes a switching device that receives customer calls. A number of agent workstations coupled to the switching device receive customer calls from the switching device. A platform coupled to the switching device records customer calls as a plurality of logged sessions and determines service representative monitoring periods having scheduling criteria. The platform selects portions of the logged sessions that meet the scheduling criteria of the monitoring periods.

A technical advantage of the present invention is that it eliminates the need for a supervisor to remember when, who, how often, and for how long to monitor an agent. This frees the supervisor from the task of keeping track of when to monitor the agents. It reduces the pressure on supervisors, while at the same time increases their productivity. The present invention also ensures consistency and equity among all agents, and provides techniques for monitoring agent performance using a wide variety of scheduling criteria.

Another technical advantage of the present invention is that it records each of the monitored sessions for later play back by the call center supervisor or recorded agent. If the call center supervisor desires, the agent may be notified of the upcoming monitored session. This may be important, since legislation, company procedures, or other directives may require the call center supervisor to notify a call center agent that the call is being monitored.

Another technical advantage of the present invention is that by recording the monitoring sessions, the call center supervisor may review the session at his or her convenience. In one embodiment of the invention, recorded messages are stored on disk, rather than on tape. This permits recorded comments to be inserted easily into the recorded session by other call center supervisors for future reference as well as for later review by the monitored call center agent. Storing the monitoring sessions on disk permits the supervisor to delete selected monitoring sessions. Alternatively, the present invention may record or log all sessions, and selectively play back portions of the logged sessions in accordance with a wide variety of scheduling criteria offered by the system. Therefore, the present invention provides both selective recording and selective play back of logged sessions.

Another technical advantage of the present invention is the use of a wide variety of scheduling criteria to establish monitoring schedules for the agents. These criteria may include a variety of scheduling rules based on the number of calls to monitor, the maximum or minimum length of the monitoring time, the number of periods in which to monitor the agent, and whether the calls and periods are to be randomly scheduled throughout the available interval in which the agent is handling customer calls. Moreover, the present invention provides additional scheduling criteria that allow monitoring based on the call type, performance level of the agent, current call traffic at the call center, or other factors and criteria. Using these and other factors, the present invention can establish monitoring schedules and dynamically alter those schedules depending on the operation of the call center.

Another technical advantage of the present invention is the monitoring, storing, and play back of both voice and data associated with a session. For example, a voice call received at a call center may be associated with a screen shot or other data displayed on the agent's screen. Other types of data may also be included or associated with a voice call or a data only session, such as an interaction over a global computer network such as the Internet. The present invention contemplates monitoring sessions or calls that may include voice, data, or both voice and data.

Another technical advantage of the present invention is that it automatically provides reports of the monitoring activity within the call center. This provides proof of and accountability for each of the monitored sessions. Therefore, the method and system of the present invention easily and reliably automate the process of scheduling monitoring sessions for call center service representatives.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The functions and modes of use and advantages of the present invention are best understood by reference to the following description of illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 provides a schematic block diagram of the monitoring system as it may be used within a call center;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary screen for programming pre-determined intervals, the number of calls in each interval, the maximum length of monitoring sessions, and other aspects of the monitoring schedules;

FIG. 3 is a report screen illustrating the results of the monitoring sessions;

FIG. 4 provides a conceptual block diagram of a hardware and software configuration for the system;

FIG. 5 is an application block diagram for the system;

FIG. 6 is a hierarchical interface block diagram for the system;

FIG. 7 provides a process control flow diagram for the system;

FIG. 8 is a process control flow diagram for the channel.sub.-- proc program of the system;

FIG. 9 is a process control flow diagram for the timer process of the system;

FIG. 10 is a function control flow diagram for the recording function of the system;

FIG. 11 is a function control flow diagram for the play back function of the system;

FIG. 12 illustrates components of the scheduling functions of the system; and

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary screen for establishing monitoring schedules using a variety of scheduling criteria.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows an environment 10 that is a portion of a call center for practicing the present invention. In the call center environment 10, calls may originate through a switching device such as an ACD, PBX, or other voice, data, or voice and data switching or routing equipment (referred to generally as ACD 12) for delivery to an agent or call service workstation 14 operated by an agent or service representative. Workstation 14 comprises one or more output devices, such as a display or speaker; one or more input devices, such as a keyboard or mouse; a voice instrument, such as a telephone; and any other device that provides voice/data communication. A platform 16 connects to ACD 12 and includes the necessary controls and software instructions for performing the various functions of environment 10. For illustrative purposes, a set of icons in FIG. 1 describe the functions of environment 10. For example, icon set 18 includes calendar icon 20 and clock icon 22 to represent the scheduling function; diskette icon 24 represents the monitored session voice and data storage that can record selected sessions or all sessions as a "logger"; notebook icon 26 represents the quality scoring function that can determine agent performance information; and icon 28 represents the result of a supervisor being able to follow up with the call center agent and improve the agent's overall performance quality.

Environment 10 contemplates calls or sessions that include voice, data, or voice and data. For example, calls received over telephone switching equipment may include voice conversations, but may also include associated data provided with the call or generated in environment 10. In another embodiment, data switching or routing equipment may provide a purely data session for processing by environment 10. For example, a data session over a global computer network, such as the Internet, may be scheduled, monitored, stored, and evaluated using environment 10. For purposes of this discussion, the terms "session" and "call" contemplate voice only, data only, or both voice and data transactions, and the term "voice/data" contemplates voice only, data only, or both voice and data.

Within environment 10, supervisor workstation 30 represents the automatic scheduling and monitoring system functions provided to a supervisor or other authorized person. Supervisor workstation 30 comprises similar voice/data communication components as agent workstation 14. Icon 32 represents the supervisor telephone or other voice instrument connected to ACD 12 that is used to monitor sessions. An adjunct 33 is coupled to ACD 12. Adjunct 33 comprises a workforce management system, contact control server, computer telephony integration (CTI) application or platform, or other adjunct device accessible by platform 16 to perform call center functions. Adjunct 33 may be implemented in an on-site or remote mainframe, workstation, personal computer, or other device that includes sufficient processing and storage capacity.

Block 34 represents the link between platform 16, adjunct 33, and other components of the call center's management information system (MIS) host for obtaining agent and supervisor names, identification numbers, expected agent schedules, customer information, or any other information relating to the operation of the call center. Block 34 includes wireline or wireless communication links between local and remotely located components of the call center. U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,299 discloses a suitable arrangement of call center components to provide handling and processing of voice/data sessions, and is hereby incorporated by reference.

The various components illustrated in FIG. 1 communicate information that allow for the automatic scheduling and monitoring functions. As described above, block 34 communicates with platform 16 using link 35 to provide agent and supervisor names, identification numbers, expected agents schedules, customer information, or any other information