1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for resource optimization in an environment where certain aspects of the environment operate at different or less predictable speeds than other related aspects. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention contemplate a system and method for automatically initiating communications for a plurality of agents wishing to interact with target entities (e.g., automatically placing telephone calls to customers or potential customers). These embodiments further contemplate prediction of when agents will become available to interact with customers, and for initiating or disconnecting an initiated communication, accordingly.
2. Related Art
In one conventional application of telephone systems, people within an organization, called agents, place telephone calls to people outside the organization, typically customers or prospective customers. Printed lists of telephone numbers are provided to the agents. Each agent manually dials the telephone numbers on his or her list, waits for each telephone call to be answered, and then engages in a conversation with the person who answers the telephone call. The agent discontinues the process if the telephone call is not answered within a predetermined period of time, and the agent may retry the telephone call later. All the telephone numbers on the printed list are processed in this manner.
Many organizations have automated the above-described application by using computers to process the lists of telephone numbers and present them to individual agents. Each agent then manually dials the telephone numbers presented to them, waits for each telephone call to be answered, and then engages in a telephone conversation with the person who answers. The agent discontinues the process if the telephone call is not answered by a person within a predetermined period; the computer may instruct the agent to retry the call later.
The manual dialing procedures described above, whether using printed lists or telephone call scheduling by a computer, are inefficient because the agents must manually dial each telephone call, and then wait for an answer for each telephone call or for a predetermined amount of time to pass before concluding that the telephone call should be discontinued because it was not answered. In addition, manual dialing of telephone numbers is subject to error. These errors and the delays incurred while dialing and waiting for telephone calls to be answered decrease the productivity and effectiveness of agents and increase the costs for such applications.
Modern telephone systems, such as a ROLM Computerized Branch Exchange (CBX) system manufactured by ROLM Systems of Santa Clara, Calif., provide methods by which a computer instructs the telephone system to dial a telephone number for an agent. Depending on the specific capabilities of the telephone system, the telephone system also can determine that a call was not answered within a predetermined period and can disconnect the telephone call. Whenever the telephone system determines that a telephone call is answered, it connects the telephone call to an available agent; this connection can usually be made rapidly enough so that the called party is not aware that a computer, not an agent, has directed the telephone call. Such telephone systems reduce the amount of time that an agent must devote to dialing a telephone call and, hence, eliminate errors associated with manual dialing.
To ensure that an agent is available at the moment a telephone call is answered, many presently available telephone systems and computers place telephone calls only when they are certain that at least one agent is available to answer each such telephone call. This process, known as "preview dialing," is inefficient because an agent must wait from the time the computer begins to dial a telephone call until the time that the remote telephone is answered. Telephone calls may not be answered immediately, and many telephone calls remain unanswered. As one will readily appreciate, agent waiting time increases when the time to answer telephone calls increases and as the ratio of unanswered telephone calls to placed telephone calls increases. The time agents spend waiting adds to the labor costs for agents and thus decreases their productivity and effectiveness.
Because of the above-described problem concerning agent waiting time in telephony applications, there is a need for a system and method that places telephone calls without requiring agents to wait until the telephone calls are answered.