Method and apparatus for providing result-oriented customer service

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 wherein there are a plurality of campaigns, each campaign having a priority rating, and step (a) comprises automatically obtaining a list of campaigns including resource requirements for each said campaign; step (b) comprises automatically inspecting said list to identify a specific resource requirement; step (c) comprises automatically obtaining a list of available resources; step (d) comprises automatically inspecting said list of available resources to determine a number of available resources meeting said specific resource requirement; step (e) comprises automatically determining whether said number of available resources is adequate to service said campaigns; step (f) comprises automatically assigning, to each said campaign, a portion of said available resources meeting said specific resource requirement necessary to service said campaign, and automatically beginning said campaigns, if said number of available resources is adequate to service all of said campaigns; and further comprising the steps of: (g) if said number of said available resources is not adequate to service all of said campaigns then, for each campaign: (h) automatically inspecting said priority rating of said campaign; (i) automatically assigning said available resources to said campaign based upon said priority rating of said campaign; (j) for the lowest priority campaign to which said available resources are assigned, automatically determining whether a number of available resources assigned to said lowest priority campaign is adequate to service said lowest priority campaign; (k) automatically beginning campaigns having a priority higher than said lowest priority campaign; and (l) if said number of available resources assigned to said lowest priority campaign is adequate for said lowest priority campaign, then automatically beginning said lowest priority campaign.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1 wherein said resource requirements are agents to be assigned to staff a campaign to contact customers, and wherein: step (a) comprises obtaining, as said list of resource requirements, a list of customers for said campaign and a customer sensitivity profile for each customer on said list of customers; step (b) comprises inspecting said customer sensitivity profile for each customer to identify an agent specific contact requirement as said specific resource requirement; step (c) comprises obtaining a list of available agents and an agent qualification profile for each agent on said list of available agents as said list of available resources; and step (d) comprises inspecting said agent qualification profile for each agent to determine, as said number of available resources, a number of agents meeting said agent specific contact requirement.

Claim 5

The method of claim 3 wherein said customer sensitivity profile for a customer comprises a preferred language for said customer and said agent qualification profile for an agent comprises a language fluency designation, and said step of inspecting said customer sensitivity profile comprises automatically determining whether said customer sensitivity profile designates a predetermined language, and said step of inspecting said agent qualification profile comprises automatically determining whether said language fluency designation designates said predetermined language.

Claim 6

The method of claim 1 wherein said resource requirements are agents to be assigned to staff a campaign to contact customers, and wherein there are a plurality of campaigns, each campaign having a priority rating, and wherein: step (a) comprises obtaining, as said list of resource requirements, a list of customers for each said campaign and a customer sensitivity profile for each customer on each said list of customers; step (b) comprises inspecting said customer sensitivity profile for each customer to identify an agent specific contact requirement as said specific resource requirement; step (c) comprises obtaining a list of available agents and an agent qualification profile for each agent on said list of available agents as said list of available resources; step (d) comprises inspecting said agent qualification profile for each agent to determine, as said number of available resources, a number of agents meeting said agent specific contact requirement; step (f) comprises automatically assigning agents to said campaigns and automatically beginning said campaigns if said number of said agents is adequate to service all of said campaigns; and said method further comprises the steps of: (g) if said number of said agents is not adequate to service all of said campaigns then, for each campaign: (h) automatically inspecting said priority rating of said campaign; (i) automatically assigning agents to said campaign based upon said priority rating of said campaign; (j) for the lowest priority campaign to which agents are assigned, automatically determining whether the number of agents assigned to said lowest priority campaign is adequate to service said lowest priority campaign; (k) automatically beginning campaigns having a priority higher than said lowest priority campaign; and (l) if said number of agents assigned to said lowest priority campaign is adequate for said lowest priority campaign, then automatically beginning said lowest priority campaign.

Claim 9

The method of claim 6 wherein said predetermined characteristic is the degree of penetration into said campaign of said first group and step (b) comprises monitoring said degree of penetration.

Claim 10

The method of claim 6 wherein said predetermined characteristic is the number of calls completed during said campaign of said first group and step (c) comprises monitoring said number of calls completed.

Claim 11

The method of claim 6 wherein said predetermined characteristic is the number of calls attempted during said campaign of said first group and step (c) comprises monitoring said number of calls attempted.

Claim 12

The method of claim 6 wherein said predetermined characteristic is the success rate of said campaign of said first group and step (b) comprises monitoring said success rate.

Claim 15

The method of claim 11 wherein said step of performing comprises automatically terminating the calling of entries in said predetermined queue.

Claim 16

The method of claim 11 wherein said step of performing further comprises automatically beginning the calling of entries in another campaign.

Claim 17

The method of claim 11 wherein said step of performing further comprises automatically notifying a predetermined person that said event has occurred.

Claim 18

The method of claim 11 wherein said step of performing further comprises suspending said campaign and then automatically restarting said campaign at a predetermined time.

Claim 19

The method of claim 11 wherein said step of performing comprises terminating said campaign.

Claim 22

The method of claim 17 wherein said step of performing comprises beginning calling entries in at least a predetermined one of said queues.

Claim 23

The method of claim 17 wherein said step of performing comprises terminating calling of entries in at least a predetermined one of said queues.

Claim 24

The method of claim 17 wherein said step of performing comprises terminating calling of entries in said specified one of said queues.

Claim 25

The method of claim 17 wherein said step of performing comprises suspending calling of entries in at least a predetermined one of said queues.

Claim 26

The method of claim 17 and further comprising the steps of: (e) placing calls to entries in a first predetermined one of said queues; (f) monitoring a second predetermined one of said queues for a second predetermined event; and (g) if said second predetermined event occurs, then performing a second predetermined action.

Claim 27

The method of claim 22 wherein said step of performing comprises terminating the calling of entries in said first predetermined one of said queues.

Claim 28

The method of claim 22 wherein, if said second predetermined event occurs, said method further comprises the step of terminating the calling of entries in said first queue.

Claim 29

The method of claim 17 wherein: step (a) comprises beginning a campaign by placing said call for said entry on said calling list; step (b) comprises placing said entry in a second queue in response to said disposition of said call being a predetermined one of the following: busy, no answer, answering machine, and call completed; and said step (b) further comprises placing said entry in a third queue other than said first queue or said second queue in response to said disposition being other than said predetermined one; and step (c) comprises monitoring said second queue for said predetermined event.

Claim 30

The method of claim 17 wherein: step (a) comprises beginning a campaign by placing said call for said entry on said calling list; step (b) comprises placing said entry in a second queue in response to said disposition of said call being a predetermined one of the following: busy, no answer, answering machine, and call completed; and said step (b) further comprises placing said entry in a third queue other than said first queue or said second queue in response to said disposition being other than said predetermined one; and step (c) comprises monitoring said second queue for said predetermined event; and step (d) comprises terminating the placing of calls for entries on said calling list and starting the placing of calls for entries on said third queue, as said predetermined action, if said predetermined event occurs.

Claim 33

The method of claim 27 wherein said step of specifying comprises designating at least one of said second number of campaigns to be started if said determinative event occurs.

Claim 34

The method of claim 27 wherein said step of specifying comprises specifying that said campaign having said determinative event is to be terminated.

Claim 35

The method of claim 27 wherein said step of specifying comprises specifying that said campaign having said determinative event is to be suspended.

Claim 36

The method of claim 27 wherein said step of specifying comprises specifying that said campaign having said determinative event is to be restarted.

Claim 39

The method of claim 32 wherein said resource requirements are agents to be assigned to staff a campaign to contact customers, and wherein: step (a) comprises obtaining, as said list of resource requirements, a list of customers for each said campaign and a customer sensitivity profile for each customer on each said list of customers; step (b) comprises inspecting said customer sensitivity profile for each customer to identify an agent specific contact requirement as said specific resource requirement; step (c) comprises obtaining a list of available agents and an agent qualification profile for each agent on said list of available agents as said list of available resources; step (d) comprises inspecting said agent qualification profile for each agent to determine, as said number of available resources, a number of agents meeting said agent specific contact requirement; step (f) comprises automatically assigning agents to said campaigns and automatically beginning said campaigns if said number of said agents is adequate to service all of said campaigns; (g) if said number of said agents is not adequate to service all of said campaigns then, for each campaign: step (h) comprises automatically inspecting said priority rating of said campaign; step (i) comprises automatically assigning agents to said campaign based upon said priority rating of said campaign; step (j) comprises, for the lowest priority campaign to which agents are assigned, automatically determining whether the number of agents assigned to said lowest priority campaign is adequate to service said lowest priority campaign; step (k) comprises automatically beginning campaigns having a priority higher than said lowest priority campaign; and step (l) comprises, if said number of agents assigned to said lowest priority campaign is adequate for said lowest priority campaign, then automatically beginning said lowest priority campaign.

Claim 40

The method of claim 33 wherein said customer sensitivity profile for a customer comprises a preferred language for said customer and said agent qualification profile for an agent comprises a language fluency designation, and said step of inspecting said customer sensitivity profile comprises automatically determining whether said customer sensitivity profile designates a predetermined language, and said step of inspecting said agent qualification profile comprises automatically determining whether said language fluency designation designates said predetermined language.