Automatic call distributors are employed in high telephone call traffic situations for providing an even and systematic distribution of incoming calls to a plurality of service positions, such as operators, attendants or agents. Less sophisticated call sequencers are also used in high traffic situations, but provide only "first in first out" queuing for the callers. Generally, such sequencers do not provide uniform distribution of calls to the attendants or agents. One typical application for automatic call distributor (ACD) equipment is the airline industry, in which a large number of callers seeking reservation, arrival, departure, etc., information are connected in an orderly manner to a number of attendants. More typically, ACD equipment provides incoming calls with a direct connection to available attendants until all such attendants are busy. Thereafter, calling parties are placed in a queue, and depending on the service algorithm employed, the calling parties are selectively connected to an operator, once such a position becomes available. Conventional automatic call distribution equipment and methods are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,561.
While ACD equipment has been widely accepted for servicing such high traffic situations, several shortcomings exist. First, the calling parties placed in the queue must wait to be serviced without knowing the extent of the wait time or other circumstances involved. Hence, many calling parties placed in the queue become impatient and simply discontinue the call by hanging up, whereby the business entity associated with the ACD may lose business or customers. In addition, the same calling parties may place subsequent and repeated telephone calls to the business, thereby generating a number of calls from a single caller which yields an erroneous indication of the number of inquiries made to the business entity.
A related concern with present Private Branch Exchange (PBX) equipment, when used to handle large incoming volumes of traffic, is that which is commonly known as "queue limitation." This limitation is encountered when all incoming lines of the business entity are tied up with callers waiting for a group of positions which are experiencing long delays, thereby making access impossible to free or idle telephone extensions which are situated outside of the high traffic group. Such a situation hampers good business relationships and often has a negative affect on the calling parties.
It can be seen that a need exists for instructing the queued calling parties of alternate destinations which may be better suited for providing assistance, and instructions as to the manner in which to reach such destinations. A further need exists for enhancements to ACD and PBX equipment for informing calling parties which have been queued and are therefore waiting for service, of their relative position within the queue so that they are aware of their advancement in the queue and that the completion of the call is imminent.