In today's communication networks, it is possible for a customer to use a telephone and call a business concern to place an order for merchandise and services that are offered for sale by the business concern. Many large businesses and mailorder companies have transcribing positions that are connected by telephone lines with telephone switching offices of the public communication network. The transcribing positions are staffed by operators who answer incoming telephone calls and transcribe the customer orders onto order formats.
The number of orders oftentimes vary with respect to the time of day, the week day and with respect to the time of year. For example, more orders may be received in mid-morning and mid-afternoon hours and less orders received during early and late afternoon hours. Similarly, more telephone orders may be received on mid-week days than on a Monday or Saturday. More orders may also be received during the holidays or during various seasons of the year. A problem arises in that the number of operators required to staff the transcribing positions and the number of transcribing positions varies with respect to the number of orders received. More operators and transcribing positions may be required on mid-week days but are idle on other days. If insufficient operators or transcribing positions are available, orders may be lost thereby resulting in lost sales to the business concerns. Another problem arises with respect to small business concerns in that they not be able to hire operators or install transcribing positions for the relative short time that large numbers of telephone orders are received.