Interactive queuing sytem for call centers

Claim 1

A method of completing a call placed by a caller and directed to a call center having attendants to answer incoming calls, said method comprising the steps of: determining that no attendant is available to answer said call; in response to unavailability of any attendant to answer said call, placing said call in a holding queue; collecting information provided by said caller in response to a presentation of a logical sequence of prompting messages to said caller while said call is in said holding queue, said presentation accomplished through execution of at least two modules of a transaction script, wherein each module is associated with specific data to be solicited and collected from said caller; retrieving additional information from a database using at least part of said collected information as a search key; in response to a signal indicating availability of an attendant to answer said call, completing the collection of said data for the module currently being executed; preventing the execution of any other module in said transaction script in order to gracefully terminate said collecting step; and forwarding to said available attendant said call, and data associated with at least one element selected from a group of elements comprised of said collected information, and said retrieved information.

Claim 2

A method of completing a call placed by a caller and directed to a call center having attendants to answer incoming calls, said method comprising the steps of: determining that no attendant is available to answer said call; in response to unavailability of any attendant to answer said call, placing said call in a holding queue; collecting information provided by said caller in response to a presentation of a logical sequence of prompting messages to said caller while said call is in said holding queue, said presentation accomplished through execution of at least two modules of a transaction script, wherein each module is associated with specific data to be solicited and collected from said caller; retrieving additional information from a database using at least part of said collected information as a search key; in response to a signal indicating availability of an attendant to answer said call, completing the collection of said data for the module currently being executed; preventing the execution of any other module in said transaction script in order to gracefully terminate said collecting step; and forwarding to said available attendant said call, and data associated with at least one element selected from a group of elements comprised of said collected information, and said retrieved information.

Claim 6

A system of completing a call placed by a caller and directed to a call center having attendants to answer incoming calls, comprising: means for determining that no attendant is available to answer said call; means responsive to lack of an available attendant to answer said call, for placing said call in a holding queue means for collecting information provided by said caller in response to a presentation of a logical sequence of prompting messages to said caller while said call is in said holding queue, said presentation accomplished through execution of at least two modules of a transaction script, wherein each module is associated with specific data to be solicited and collected from said caller; means for retrieving additional information from a database using at least part of said collected information as a search key; means responsive to a signal indicating availability of an attendant to answer said call, for completing the collection of said data for the module currently being executed in order to gracefully terminate said information collection; and means for forwarding to said available attendant said call, and data associated with at least one element selected from a group of elements comprised of said collected information, and said retrieved additional information.

Claim 7

A system of completing a call placed by a caller and directed to a call center having attendants to answer incoming calls, comprising: means for determining that no attendant is available to answer said call; means responsive to lack of an available attendant to answer said call, for placing said call in a holding queue means for collecting information provided by said caller in response to a presentation of a logical sequence of prompting messages to said caller while said call is in said holding queue, said presentation accomplished through execution of at least two modules of a transaction script, wherein each module is associated with specific data to be solicited and collected from said caller; means for retrieving additional information from a database using at least part of said collected information as a search key; means responsive to a signal indicating availability of an attendant to answer said call, for completing the collection of said data for the module currently being executed in order to gracefully terminate said information collection; and means for forwarding to said available attendant said call, and data associated with at least one element selected from a group of elements comprised of said collected information, and said retrieved additional information.

Claim 9

A system of completing a call that is placed by a caller and that is destined for a call center staffed by a plurality of attendants, said system comprising: means for determining availability of at least one attendant within a particular pool of such attendants assigned to service calls with characteristics of said call; means for placing said call in a holding queue when no attendant within said pool is available; means for collecting data from said caller while said call is in said holding queue, said collecting means including means for executing at least two modules of a transaction script, wherein each module is associated with specific data to be solicited and collected from said caller; means for retrieving prestored information from a database using said collected data as search keys; means responsive to a signal indicating the availability of an attendant within said pool, for completing the collection of said data for the module currently being executed in order to gracefully terminate said information collection; and means for displaying said information or said data or both to said available attendant as the call is received by said available attendant's telephone set.

Claim 10

A system of completing a call that is placed by a caller and that is destined for a call center staffed by a plurality of attendants, said system comprising: means for determining availability of at least one attendant within a particular pool of such attendants assigned to service calls with characteristics of said call; means for placing said call in a holding queue when no attendant within said pool is available; means for collecting data from said caller while said call is in said holding queue, said collecting means including means for executing at least two modules of a transaction script, wherein each module is associated with specific data to be solicited and collected from said caller; means for retrieving prestored information from a database using said collected data as search keys; means responsive to a signal indicating the availability of an attendant within said pool, for completing the collection of said data for the module currently being executed in order to gracefully terminate said information collection; and means for displaying said information or said data or both to said available attendant as the call is received by said available attendant's telephone set.