Implementation of call-center outbound dialing capability at a telephony network level

Abstract

A system (33) for outbound dialing for call centers (11) place an outbound dialer (21) at network level (13), and client call centers provide destination number calling lists. The outbound dialer (21), upon completing a call to a destination number, connects the completed call to a routing point at a client call center. The system (33) may be CTI-enhanced, and can be hosted by a client of a network provider, or by the network provider. Clients may subscribe to the network provider for service, providing calling lists and routing points, and completed calls may be routed to call centers operated by different clients. The architecture and method of the system (33) minimizes the number of leased lines required by each call center taking advantage of the system (33).

Claims

1. An outbound dialer system comprising: an automatic call dialer implemented and operated at network level by a network provider, the automatic call dialer having the capability of placing calls selected from one or more stored lists of destination numbers provided by one or more clients of the network provider; and circuitry for recognizing that at least one of said placed calls is answered by a person; wherein the dialer places said calls to the selected destination numbers, and upon .Iadd.a first .Iaddend.one of said placed calls being answered by a .Iadd.first .Iaddend.person, connects the answered .Iadd.first .Iaddend.call to a .Iadd.first .Iaddend.routing point in a remote call center hosted by a .Iadd.first .Iaddend.client .Iadd.of the one or more clients .Iaddend.of the network provider.Iadd., and upon a second one of the placed calls being answered by a second person, connects the answered second call to a second routing point in a second remote call center hosted by a second remote call center different from the first remote call center, wherein the second remote call center is hosted by a second client of the one or more clients of the network provider.Iaddend..

2. The outbound dialer system of claim 1 wherein the network is a publicly-switched telephone network (PSTN).

3. The outbound dialer system of claim 1 wherein the outbound dialer system is hosted by a single client of the network provider, and all calls completed to persons are then connected to a routing point at a call center also hosted by the single client.

4. .[.The outbound dialer system of claim 3 further comprising.]. .Iadd.An outbound dialer system comprising: an automatic call dialer implemented and operated at network level by a network provider, the automatic call dialer having the capability of placing calls selected from one or more stored lists of destination numbers provided by one or more clients of the network provider; circuitry for recognizing that at least one of said placed calls is answered by a person, wherein the dialer places said calls to the selected destination numbers, and upon one of said placed calls being answered by a person, connects the answered call to a routing point in a remote call center hosted by a client of the network provider; and .Iaddend. a computer-telephony integration (CTI) processor connected to the automatic call dialer, wherein the outbound dialer system is sponsored by a single client hosting a plurality of call centers, and wherein calls completed to persons are then connected to routing points at individual ones of the plurality of call centers based on pre-stored routing criteria.

5. The outbound dialer system of claim 4 wherein said completed calls are routed to individual call centers based on a load-balancing algorithm.

6. .[.The outbound dialer system of claim 1.]. .Iadd.An outbound dialer system comprising: an automatic call dialer implemented and operated at network level by a network provider, the automatic call dialer having the capability of placing calls selected from one or more stored lists of destination numbers provided by one or more clients of the network provider; and circuitry for recognizing that at least one of said placed calls is answered by a person, wherein the dialer places said calls to the selected destination numbers, and upon one of said placed calls being answered by a person, connects the answered call to a routing point in a remote call center hosted by a client of the network provider, .Iaddend. wherein the system further comprises a plurality of calling lists provided by a plurality of clients hosting call centers, and wherein the system places outbound calls from different calling lists, connecting calls completed to persons to call centers operated by the clients providing the calling lists.

7. A call center system, comprising: .[.at least one.]. .Iadd.a plurality of .Iaddend.call .[.center.]. .Iadd.centers each .Iaddend.having a call-switching apparatus connected to a telephone network hosted by a network provider by at least one multi-channel telephony trunk line, and a plurality of agent stations having telephones connected by station-side ports to the call-switching apparatus, the .[.at least one.]. .Iadd.plurality of .Iaddend.call .[.center.]. .Iadd.centers .Iaddend.hosted by a client of the network provider; and an outbound dialer in the network implemented and operated by the network provider, the outbound dialer having the capability of placing calls to destination numbers selected from stored lists of destination numbers provided by the client, and circuitry for recognizing that at least one of said placed calls is answered by a person; wherein the outbound dialer places said calls to the selected destination numbers, and upon .Iadd.a first .Iaddend.one of said placed calls being answered by a .Iadd.first .Iaddend.person, connects the answered .Iadd.first .Iaddend.call to a .Iadd.first .Iaddend.routing point in .[.the at least one.]. .Iadd.a first call center of the plurality of .Iaddend.call .[.center.]. .Iadd.centers, and upon a second one of said placed calls being answered by a second person, connects the answered second call to a second routing point in a second call center of the plurality of call centers, wherein the second call center is different from the first call center.Iaddend..

8. The call center system of claim 7 wherein the network is a publicly-switched telephone network (PSTN).

9. The call center system of claim 7 wherein the outbound dialer system is hosted by a simple client of the network provider, and all of said calls answered by a person are connected to a routing point at the at least one call center.

10. .[.The call center system of claim 7 further comprising.]. .Iadd.A call center system, comprising: at least one call center having a call-switching apparatus connected to a telephone network hosted by a network provider by at least one multi-channel telephony trunk line, and a plurality of agent stations having telephones connected by station-side ports to the call-switching apparatus, the at least one call center hosted by a client of the network provider; an outbound dialer in the network implemented and operated by the network provider, the outbound dialer having the capability of placing calls to destination numbers selected from stored lists of destination numbers provided by the client, and circuitry for recognizing that at least one of said placed calls is answered by a person, wherein the outbound dialer places said calls to the selected destination numbers, and upon one of said placed calls being answered by a person, connects the answered call to a routing point in the at least one call center; and.Iaddend. a computer-telephony integration (CTI) processor connected to the outbound dialer and a plurality of call centers hosted by the single client, wherein said calls answered by a person are then connected to routing points at individual ones of the plurality of call centers based on pre-stored routing criteria.

11. The call center system of claim 10 wherein said answered calls are routed to individual call centers based on a load-balancing algorithm.

12. .[.The call center system of claim 7.]. .Iadd.A call center system, comprising: at least one call center having a call-switching apparatus connected to a telephone network hosted by a network provider by at least one multi-channel telephony trunk line, and a plurality of agent stations having telephones connected by station-side ports to the call-switching apparatus, the at least one call center hosted by a client of the network provider; and an outbound dialer in the network implemented and operated by the network provider, the outbound dialer having the capability of placing calls to destination numbers selected from stored lists of destination numbers provided by the client, and circuitry for recognizing that at least one of said placed calls is answered by a person, wherein the outbound dialer places said calls to the selected destination numbers, and upon one of said placed calls being answered by a person, connects the answered call to a routing point in the at least one call center,.Iaddend. wherein the system further comprises a plurality of calling lists provided by a plurality of clients hosting call centers, and wherein the outbound dialer places outbound calls from different calling lists, connecting said calls answered by person to call centers operated by the clients providing the calling lists.

13. A method for minimizing the number of outgoing channels required for a .Iadd.plurality of .Iaddend.call .[.center.]. .Iadd.centers .Iaddend.having a plurality of agents and operating by outbound dialing, comprising steps of: (a) providing, by the call center, one or more stored lists of destination numbers to be called to an automated outbound dialer implemented and operated by a network provider at network level; (b) placing outbound calls by the automated outbound dialer in in the network servicing the call center, according to the list of destination numbers provided by the call center; (c) determining when .[.individual ones.]. .Iadd.a first one .Iaddend.of said outbound calls are answered by a .Iadd.first .Iaddend.person; and (d) connecting said .[.calls.]. .Iadd.first call .Iaddend.answered by .[.a.]. .Iadd.the first .Iaddend.person to a .Iadd.first .Iaddend.routing point at .[.the.]. .Iadd.a first .Iaddend.call center .Iadd.of the plurality of call centers; (e) determining when a second one of said outbound calls are answered by a second person; and (f) connecting said second call answered by the second person to a second routing point at a second call center of the plurality of call centers, wherein the second call center is different from the first call center.Iaddend..

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

(1) FIG. 1 is an overview of a typical call center utilizing outbound dialing according to current art.

(2) FIG. 2 is a simple overview of a call center utilizing outbound dialing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(3) FIG. 1 is an overview of a typical call center 11 in a telephony system 9 utilizing outbound dialing according to current art. Call center 11 comprises a telephony switching apparatus 19 connected in this embodiment to a computer-telephony integration (CTI) processor 25 via CTI link 23. CTI processor 25 provides computerized functions for switch 19, and is capable of both monitoring switch activity and controlling switch activity. Switch 19 may be an automatic call distributor (ACD), a private branch exchange (PBX), or another type of telephony switch such as known in the art, having a CTI interface.

(4) Switch 19 is connected via a telephone wiring system 32 to agent workstations 27a-27d from station-side ports. Each workstation 27a-d comprises a personal computer/video display unit (PCIVDU) and a switch-connected telephone such as PC/VDU's 29a-29d and telephones 31a-31d respectively. Workstations 27a-d share a connection through their PC/VDU's to a local area network (LAN) 26. LAN 26 also has connected thereto a data server 28 for storing and providing data to CTI processor 25 and to PC/VDUs at agent's stations.

(5) Incoming calls to agents at call center 11 arrive from, in this example, a publicly switched telephone network (PSTN) 13 via incoming trunk 17. In other embodiments the network may be a corporate wide-area network (WAN) or other WAN.

(6) In the example of FIG. 1 an outbound dialer 21 is linked to CTI processor 25 which is both switch- and LAN-connected. Outbound dialer 21 is automatic and operated by software according to a predetermined protocol. Outbound dialer 21 may reside separately as illustrated, or may reside in switch 19 or processor 25. It is shown as a separate unit here solely for the purpose of clarification.

(7) Outbound dialer 21 places calls to clients 15 over an outbound trunk 16 which comprises telephony channels from switch 19 into PSTN 13. In this example the channels of trunk 16 are dedicated to outbound dialing. Trunk 16 in this example comprises at least double the number of channels as the number of agents who are actively logged onto the system for reasons as previously described with reference to the background section. That is, that many calls are not answered, others are picked up by automatic systems and the like, and only a portion are actually answered by person.

(8) One with skill in the art will appreciate that many agents may be present and active in a very large call center requiring significant trunking architecture to effect efficient outbound dialing. The example presented here shows only 4 agents, but is deemed sufficient by the inventor for the purpose of illustrating basic call-center functionality. There are, as well, functional elements that are well known to be present in typical call-center architecture that are not illustrated here. These elements may include customer information system servers (CIS), interactive voice response units (IVR), Routers, Stat-Servers, and other such components. Such conventional elements may be assumed to be present in embodiments of the present invention.

(9) FIG. 2 is an overview of a call center utilizing outbound dialing according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the outbound dialing finction resides at the network level. Telephony communications system 33 comprises many of the same elements described above with reference to FIG. 1. Therefore, elements of FIG. 2 that remain the same in function are shown with the same element numbers and will not be reintroduced. Outbound dialer 21 in this embodiment operates in the PSTN, and is supported by a CTI processor 26, which may be the same as, or similar to, CTI processor 25 at the call center. In other embodiments processor 25 may have a digital link 24 (shown as a dotted line, indicating optional) to dialer 21 in the network, and processor 26 may not be needed.

(10) The innovative technique of providing outbound dialing at the network level allows fewer dedicated lines to be employed between switch 19 and PSTN 13. For example, trunk 16 of FIG. 1 (prior art) must maintain at least 8 outbound channels to accommodate agents at workstations 27a-d, assuming a ration of 1 out of two outbound calls being answered by a person. This high number of lines (channels) needed for the purpose of placing the outbound calls all have to be paid for. However, implementing dialer 21 at the level of PSTN 13 allows an inbound trunk 35 (FIG. 2), consisting of substantially the same number of channels as number of active agents, to be used, keeping all agents busy, because the outbound dialer now needs but one line per active agent to route connected calls.

(11) In a preferred embodiment the outbound dialer at network level places calls to destination numbers provided by one or more call-center hosts. When a call is answered by a person, the call is connected to a routing point at the pertinent call center. The call is then routed to an agent according to any routing rules in force at the call center. These routing rules may be relatively sophisticated, incorporating agent skill level and the like, or may be on the basis of an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) as known in the art. In some minimal embodiments calls may be dialed through directly to agents.

(12) In alternative embodiments the routing functions may be at network level as well, including ACD or more sophisticated routing, in which case connected calls accomplished by the outbound dialer at network level may be directed to agents stations rather than to a routing point at a call center. In other embodiments ACD at the network level may accomplish routing to secondary routing points at call centers based on availability and/or loading, and further routing is then accomplished at the call center routing point.

(13) In one embodiment of the present invention, the outbound dialing capability is hosted by the network provider, and offered to companies (clients of the network provider) hosting call centers as a subscription service. A company hosting several distributed call centers can now share costs with other similar companies via the fact that all outbound calls are shared over network lines. In this way, the cost for the service will be substantially less than each company maintaining their own outbound dialing systems within their own call centers. If there is no cost for busy or failed connections as is the case with most shared public lines, costs may be reduced even further.

(14) In another embodiment of the present invention, routers are distributed within PSTN 13 with each router associated with a separate call center that may be hosted by one or more companies. The same outbound dialing system could accommodate all of the call centers.

(15) In yet another embodiment of the present invention, scaled-down versions of the outbound dialing system could be distributed so that each call center connected to a distributed router would have it's own outbound dialer.

(16) A DNT application has routing nodes in a digital data network instead of routers as known in connection-oriented, switched systems, analog to digital conversion is employed, and WAN access is provided. A combination DNT/CTI outbound dialing system is also provided as one possible architecture adapted for converting analog to digital and vice versa. In this way DNT call centers and CTI call centers may subscribe to the same service. The service in some embodiments is offered by a third party telecommunications company, in others by the local telephone company, or perhaps, may be set-up as a joint venture involving several companies hosting call centers as a way to share and reduce costs.

(17) It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that by placing outbound dialing capability within the telephone network, significant savings can be realized by individual companies maintaining call centers. It will also be apparent to one with skill in the art that by utilizing distributed architecture within the network, that costs may even be further reduced due to sharing of the network lines.

(18) The spirit and scope of the present invention is limited only by the claims that follow.