System and method for controlling call placement rate for telephone communication systems

Claim 1

A call pacing system for controlling outbound calling connections for handling by one or more attendants, said system comprising: a computer for monitoring statistical parameters concerning call completion times and each one of said attendant's availability, said computer incorporating with said statistical parameters a delay parameter depending upon a desired approximate balance between idle attendants and an amount of non-communication holding time a completed call connection is to be subject to, said computer adjusting timing of attempted outbound calling connections depending upon each one of said attendant's availability and said call completion parameters and said delay parameter; and a telephone switch coupled to said computer and to a call placement circuit, said telephone switch adapted for connection to telephone trunks, said computer, telephone switch and call placement circuit automatically attempting outbound call placement over said trunks.

Claim 15

A method for controlling outbound calling connections for handling by one or more attendants, said method comprising: monitoring statistical parameters concerning call completion times and each one of said attendants' availability; incorporating with said statistical parameters a received delay parameter depending upon a desired approximate balance between idle attendants and an amount of non-communication holding time a completed call connection is to be subject to; automatically attempting outbound call placement; and adjusting under control of said monitoring step timing of attempted outbound calling connections depending upon each one of said attendants' availability and said call completion parameters and said delay parameter.

Claim 16

A method for controlling outbound calling connections for handling by one or more attendants, said method comprising: monitoring statistical parameters concerning call completion times and each one of said attendants' availability; incorporating with said statistical parameters a received delay parameter depending upon a desired approximate balance between idle attendants and an amount of non-communication holding time a completed call connection is to be subject to; automatically attempting outbound call placement; and adjusting under control of said monitoring step timing of attempted outbound calling connections depending upon each one of said attendants' availability and said call completion parameters and said delay parameter.

Claim 33

A method for controlling call placement in an agent system where said agent system has multiple agents handling calls to multiple called parties all under processor control and where there can be several call completion attempts before a called party answers a called connection, said method comprising the steps of: determining an average agent in-use time which includes any time an agent is not available to communicate with a called party; determining an average time it takes for an answer to occur on a series of outbound placed calling connections; maintaining an ordered queue of idle agents and an ordered queue of answered calls not actively communicating with an agent; assigning one or more call tasks to each agent, said tasks operable for initiating individual calls under control of numbers to be called as furnished by said processor; and establishing one or more answer tasks for each agent, said one or more answer tasks operable for starting and stopping said call tasks for a particular agent, said one or more answer tasks including the steps of: reporting to said processor and to both said determining steps and to both ordered queues when an answer occurs and when an agent connects to said answer connection; and establishing a schedule task associated with each agent, said schedule task operable for causing a connection of said associated agent to an answered line under control of said queues and based upon information provided by said answer and call tasks.

Claim 34

A method for controlling call placement in an agent system where said agent system has multiple agents handling calls to multiple called parties all under processor control and where there can be several call completion attempts before a called party answers a called connection, said method comprising the steps of: determining an average agent in-use time which includes any time an agent is not available to communicate with a called party; determining an average time it takes for an answer to occur on a series of outbound placed calling connections; maintaining an ordered queue of idle agents and an ordered queue of answered calls not actively communicating with an agent; assigning one or more call tasks to each agent, said tasks operable for initiating individual calls under control of numbers to be called as furnished by said processor; and establishing one or more answer tasks for each agent, said one or more answer tasks operable for starting and stopping said call tasks for a particular agent, said one or more answer tasks including the steps of: reporting to said processor and to both said determining steps and to both ordered queues when an answer occurs and when an agent connects to said answer connection; and establishing a schedule task associated with each agent, said schedule task operable for causing a connection of said associated agent to an answered line under control of said queues and based upon information provided by said answer and call tasks.

Claim 39

A system for controlling call placement in an agent system where said agent system has multiple agents handling calls to multiple called parties all under processor control and where there can be several call completion attempts before a called party answers a called connection, said call placement controlling system comprising: a computer having a data base of telephone line numbers and data information pertaining to each of said line numbers; a processor for controlling an establishment of said calls in response to telephone line numbers supplied by said computer; and a plurality of agent terminals connected both to said computer and to said processor; said processor comprising: a statistical task running in said processor, said statistical task: determining an average agent in-use time which includes any time an agent is not available to communicate with a called party; and determining an average time it takes for an answer to occur on a series of outbound placed calling connections; a queuing task for maintaining an ordered queue of idle agents and an ordered queue of answered calls not actively communicating with an agent; one or more call tasks assigned to each agent for initiating individual calls under control of numbers to be called as furnished by said processor; one or more answer tasks operable for starting and stopping said call tasks for a particular agent, said one or more answer tasks reporting to said processor and to said statistical and queuing tasks when an answer to a call task occurs and when an agent connects to a call associated with said answer; and a schedule tasks associated with each agent, said schedule task causing a connection of said associated agent to an answered line under control of said queuing task and based upon information provided by said answer and call tasks.

Claim 40

A system for controlling call placement in an agent system where said agent system has multiple agents handling calls to multiple called parties all under processor control and where there can be several call completion attempts before a called party answers a called connection, said call placement controlling system comprising: a computer having a data base of telephone line numbers and data information pertaining to each of said line numbers; a processor for controlling an establishment of said calls in response to telephone line numbers supplied by said computer; and a plurality of agent terminals connected both to said computer and to said processor; said processor comprising: a statistical task running in said processor, said statistical task: determining an average agent in-use time which includes any time an agent is not available to communicate with a called party; and determining an average time it takes for an answer to occur on a series of outbound placed calling connections; a queuing task for maintaining an ordered queue of idle agents and an ordered queue of answered calls not actively communicating with an agent; one or more call tasks assigned to each agent for initiating individual calls under control of numbers to be called as furnished by said processor; one or more answer tasks operable for starting and stopping said call tasks for a particular agent, said one or more answer tasks reporting to said processor and to said statistical and queuing tasks when an answer to a call task occurs and when an agent connects to a call associated with said answer; and a schedule tasks associated with each agent, said schedule task causing a connection of said associated agent to an answered line under control of said queuing task and based upon information provided by said answer and call tasks.