EP0909082A1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Using web page hit statistics to anticipate call center traffic
Assignee: Nokia of America Corp
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Filing: 1998-08-25
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2018-08-25
Abstract
Abstract In a call center (106) associated with a World-Wide Web site whose pages (121, 122) provide a call-request capability (115), the call center receives notifications of page hits and call requests from the Web server (103) and uses these notifications to determine a historical page hits-to-call requests ratio. It then uses the ratio along with current page-hit notifications to predict a volume of calls that will soon need to be handled by the call center and staffing the call center in anticipation of the predicted call volume. The notifications are further used in conjunction with knowledge of information about the content of the Web pages to predict what agent skills will be needed to handle the calls, and to staff agent splits accordingly.
Inventors
- 👤 David L. Bauer
- 👤 Tore L. Christensen
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-31 01:06
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04L; H04L12/00; H04L12/28; H04M; H04M7/00; H04M7/0024; H04M7/003; H04M3/00; H04M3/42; H04M3/50; H04M3/51; H04M3/5183; H04M3/5191; H04M3/523; H04M3/5175
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim
159 words
A communications method in a system comprising a client-server
data network (100-103) that includes a server (103) and a plurality
of clients (100) of the server, a call center (106) communicatively
connected to the server, and a telephone network (105) interconnecting
the call center with the clients, the method comprising the step of
in response to receiving (202) requests for items of information
from clients via the data network, the server providing (204) the clients
with the requested items of information via the data network, the method
CHARACTERISED BY the further steps of: further in response to the receiving, the server notifying (208-210)
the call center of the requests; and in response to receiving (230) the notifications, the call center
storing (250) the notifications for use in predicting (254) a volume of calls,
relating to the items of information, to be handled by the call center and
staffing the call center in anticipation of the predicted volume of calls.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
117 words
The communication method of claim 1 further comprising the
steps of: in response to receiving (216) at the server via the data network
second requests from the clients for calls, relating to the items of
information, to the call center, the server effecting (218) the requested
calls; further in response to the receiving, the server sending (220-222)
notifications of the second requests to the call center; in response to receiving (230) at the call center the notifications of
the second requests from the server, the call center storing (250) the
received second notifications for use in predicting (254) the volume of the
calls and staffing the call center in anticipation of the predicted volume of
the calls.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
52 words
The method of claim 1 wherein: each said notification identifies the requested item of information,
and the call center stores the received notifications further for use in
predicting types of calls to be handled by the call center and staffing agent
splits of the call center in anticipation of the predicted types.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
57 words
The method of claim 1 wherein: each said notification identifies the requested item of information,
and the call center stores the received notifications further for use in
predicting agent skills needed to handle the predicted volume of calls and
staffing the call center with agents having the predicted skills in
anticipation of the predicted volume of calls.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
52 words
The method of claim 2 wherein: the call center stores the received item request notifications and
call request notifications for use in determining a ratio of item requests to
calls and predicting from the received item request notifications and the
ratio the volume of calls to be handled by the call center.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
68 words
The method of claim 2 wherein: the call center responds to receipt (230-232) of a call request
notification by determining (234) an estimated wait time of the requested
call in the call center and notifying (236-238) the server of the estimated
wait time; and the server responds to the notification of the estimated wait time by
notifying the client who requested the call of the estimated wait time.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
70 words
A server (103) for a client-server data network (100-103),
comprising means (202-204) for communicating with clients (100) over the
data network to receive requests for items of information from the clients
and to send the requested items to the requesting clients, CHARACTERISED BY: means (120, 208-210) responsive to the received requests for
sending notifications of the requests to a call center (106) that handles
calls relating to the requested items.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
46 words
The server of claim 7 wherein: the communicating means further receive (216) requests for calls
to the call center from the clients, and the sending means are further responsive to the received requests
for calls by sending (218-222) notifications of the requests to the call
center.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
101 words
A call center (106) for handling calls relating to items of
information provided by a server (103) to clients (100) who request the
items in a client-server data network (100-103), CHARACTERISED BY: means (120, 230) for communicating with the server to receive
from the server notifications of requests received by the server from the
clients for items of information; and means (114, 250-254) responsive to receipt of the communications
for storing the notifications for use in predicting a volume of calls to be
handled by the call center and staffing the call center in anticipation of the
predicted volume of calls.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
37 words
The call center of claim 9 wherein the communicating means further communicate with the server to
receive (230-232) from the server notifications of requests for calls to the
call center received by the server from the clients.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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