JP2001186258A - System for operating compound call center - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively utilize facility resources depending on even the human resource of a call center and the number of operators and further to improve the quality of a customer service by making the use of acquired customer information efficient. SOLUTION: When predictive transmission is performed for an outbound operation, at least customer transmission information specifying the transmission destination of the transmission is stored in a code 22. When an incoming call is received, whether to be an incoming call when connected by the transmission of an outbound operation or an incoming call from the transmission of a customer for an inbound operation by a speech communication received from the customer is identified in a step 123. In a step 124, stored customer transmission information is selected and read, and information on the customer is offered to an operator connecting the incoming call by using the customer transmission information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a complex call center operating system in a call center having an operator in charge of outbound business and an operator in charge of inbound business, and more particularly, it depends on the human resources of the call center and the number of operators. The present invention relates to a complex call center operating method, a complex call center operating device, and a complex call center operating device capable of effectively utilizing facility resources and further improving the quality of customer service by increasing the efficiency of use of acquired customer information. The present invention relates to a computer-readable recording medium recording a computer program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With regard to outbound business by calling a customer from a call center, when a large number of operators exist and a computer automatically makes a call, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-215528 stores information on a called party. In addition, there is disclosed a technique of presenting information about a called party to an operator device when a response is received from the called party. ACD
Even when the (Automatic Call Distribution) function is used, it is possible for the operator to obtain customer individual information.

[0003] In addition to such an operator in charge of outbound work, there is a case where a single call center has an operator in charge of inbound work by a call received from a customer to the call center. Conventionally, even if there is flexibility in personnel and equipment between an outbound business and an inbound business, when an operator is in charge of an outbound business, the operator exclusively performs the business and does not perform the inbound business. Also, when the operator is in charge of inbound work, he / she will be dedicated to the work,
Do not perform outbound work. That is, even an operator who can perform both tasks simultaneously performs only one of the tasks.

[0004]

Therefore, conventionally, it has not been possible to flexibly respond to changes in human resources and equipment resources of individual call centers. For this reason, valuable resources such as human resources and equipment resources are not effectively used.

[0005] Conventionally, there has been no contrivance for exchanging information between customer information handled in an outbound business and customer information handled in an inbound business. For this reason, it is difficult to exchange information, or only limited information can be obtained, so that customer service may be limited.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and aims to effectively utilize human resources of a call center and equipment resources depending on the number of operators. An object of the present invention is to provide a complex call center operation system capable of improving the quality of customer service by increasing the efficiency of use of information.

[0007]

First, a method for operating a complex call center according to the first invention of the present application provides predictive calling for automatically dialing and sending a customer's telephone number in outbound business by calling a customer from a call center. If the call has been made, at least the customer transmission information for specifying the transmission destination of the call should be stored, and the incoming call at the time of connection due to the outbound business call or the incoming call from the customer in the inbound business due to the call received from the customer. Is located on the call center side, identifies whether the incoming call is an incoming call for the connection to the outgoing call, identifies the individual outgoing call, and selects the corresponding customer calling information based on the identification. To the operator who connects the incoming call, using the customer transmission information to relate to the customer. That information by which is adapted to provide, it is obtained by solving the above problems.

[0008] Further, in the method of operating the complex call center, bidirectional data transfer can be performed between an operator dedicated to inbound business and an operator dedicated to outbound business, so that the acquired customer information can be used. The quality of customer service can be improved by improving the efficiency of customer service.

[0009] Next, in the outgoing business by calling the customer from the call center, the combined call center operating apparatus of the second invention of the present application, when performing a predictive call for automatically dialing and calling the customer's telephone number, A customer transmission information storage control unit for storing at least a customer transmission information for specifying a transmission destination of the transmission, and a call reception at the time of connection by transmission of the outbound business, or a customer transmission at the time of inbound business by a call received from the customer. Is received by the call center,
An incoming call discrimination control unit for discriminating whether or not the incoming call is an incoming call of the connection to the outgoing call and for discriminating the individual outgoing calls, and selecting and reading out the corresponding customer calling information based on the discrimination. This problem has been solved by providing a customer transmission information readout control unit and providing information about the customer using the customer transmission information to an operator connecting the incoming call. The above-mentioned customer transmission information storage control unit, incoming call discrimination control unit, and customer transmission information reading control unit can be realized by a computer program as a substance.

Further, a computer-readable recording medium according to a third invention of the present application realizes the customer transmission information storage control unit, the reception identification control unit, and the customer transmission information read control unit according to the second invention. This problem has been solved by providing a computer-readable recording medium having a computer program recorded thereon.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention will be briefly described.

In a call center having an operator in charge of inbound business in addition to an operator in charge of outbound business, it is conceivable that a single operator takes charge of outbound business and inbound business at any time. In other words, if there is an incoming call at the time of connection due to the outbound business call or a call received from a customer of the inbound business, these calls are connected to the vacant operator regardless of the exclusive use of the outbound business or the inbound business. is there. In this way, it is possible to effectively use the human resources of the call center and the facility resources depending on the number of operators.

[0013] Even when the outbound service dedicated and the inbound service are mixedly connected in this way, the operator must naturally respond to the outbound service incoming call. Similarly, the inbound service incoming call is also required. It is necessary to respond accordingly. Therefore, the operator needs to know at least before starting the call whether the incoming call connected to the operator is related to the outbound business or the inbound business.

According to the present invention, in the outbound business by calling a customer from a call center, when a predictive call for automatically dialing and calling the customer's telephone number is performed, at least the customer specifying the destination of the call is specified. Save outgoing information.

In the case where an incoming call at the time of connection due to the outbound business call or an incoming call from the customer in the inbound business due to a call received from the customer is received at the call center side, the incoming call is the incoming call of the connection to the outgoing call. Whether or not there is, and the distinction between the individual calls is identified. Then, the corresponding customer transmission information is selected and read out based on these identifications, and information about the customer is provided to the operator connecting the incoming call using the customer transmission information.

Therefore, the operator can know whether the incoming call is related to outbound business or inbound business before the call is started. Further, it is also possible to provide information about the customer, such as the name.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the effective use of the human resources of the call center and the facility resources depending on the number of operators is achieved, and the quality of the customer service is improved by using the acquired customer information more efficiently. Improvement can be achieved.

In introducing hardware in a call center, a model is selected from various aspects such as a price, a purchase condition, and a maintenance condition. Then, in a call center, the hardware used for outbound business and the hardware used for inbound business may be manufactured by different manufacturers. In such a case, it may be difficult for the functions included in the outbound business and the functions included in the inbound business to cooperate with each other. Also, even if they are the same manufacturer,
Similarly, when the delivery time is different or the product series is different, it may be difficult to mutually cooperate with the functions included in the outbound business and the functions included in the inbound business.

However, according to the present invention, when predictive transmission is performed during outbound work, at least customer transmission information for specifying the transmission destination of the transmission is stored. Then, when the incoming call is on the call center side, it is determined whether or not the incoming call is an incoming call of the connection to the outgoing call, and the distinction of each outgoing call is identified. Select and read out the customer transmission information. Since the customer transmission information is temporarily stored in this way, it becomes easy to link the functions on the hardware of the outbound business and the inbound business.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a C according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.
It is a block diagram showing the whole composition of the utilization form of TI (Computer Telephony Integration) server device 50.

In this figure, the call center has a P
A BX (Private Branch eXchange) 44, a plurality of telephones 32 and a plurality of client devices 34 provided for each operator, and a CTI server device 50 are provided. Also, the PBX 44 and a plurality of client devices 34
And the CTI server device 50, a LAN (Local Area)
(Network) 46.

In such a call center, the customer telephone 40 is utilized by utilizing the operator predictive calling function.
, So-called outbound work is performed from the call center.

That is, by the predictive transmission function,
Automatically dial and call customer's phone number. When the outgoing call is connected to the customer via the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 42, the call is connected to the operator's telephone 32 by the PBX 44 in the call center. At the same time, information about the customer, such as the callee number of the call, is sent from the CTI server device 50 to the operator's client device 34 and displayed on the screen of the client device 34.

Further, when there is an incoming call from the customer on the call center side during the inbound business of a call coming from the customer, the caller number may be notified by the incoming call. In such a case, information about the customer of the caller number is sent from the CTI server device 50 to the client device 34 of the operator and displayed on the screen of the client device 34.

FIG. 2 shows the CTI server device 5 of the present embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a 0.

The CTI server device 50 includes a CTI control unit 1
0, pacing control unit 12, and client control unit 1
4 and a database control unit 16 for controlling the database 17.

As shown in FIG. 1, the client control section 14 has a function of connecting to a plurality of client devices 34 via a LAN 46. The CTI controller 10 is connected to the PBX 44, and the pacing controller 12 is connected to the external storage device 20 via the LAN 46.

In FIG. 2, first, the customer database is:
It comprises a database control unit 16 and a database 17. The customer database stores information about a number of targeted customers, including at least the telephone number. The customer database stores information on customers who are targets of outbound business. Further, the customer database also stores information on customers who may be targets of inbound business, such as customers that have been handled in some past business.

The client controller 14 transmits a CTI command to the CTI controller 10 based on information received from a client program stored in the client device 34. Further, it receives various types of information from the CTI control unit 10 and the database control unit 16 and transmits them to the client program of the client device 34.

The CTI control unit 10 transmits a CTI command transmitted from the client control unit 14 or the pacing control unit 12 to the PBX 44. In addition, from the pacing control unit 12, the CTI command is only a transmission command. or,
The CTI control unit 10 manages information such as an incoming call, a response, and disconnection sent from the PBX 44. In particular, information regarding the incoming call obtained as a result of connecting the predictive call to the customer is transmitted to the database control unit 16. Other information regarding the incoming call is transmitted to the client control unit 14.

The pacing control unit 12 stores a data group for performing predictive transmission in a database control unit 16.
Request to. The data group thus obtained is transmitted to the CTI control unit 10.

The database control unit 16 extracts a transmission data group requested by the pacing control unit 12 from the database 17. Then, the information managed by the database 17 is added to the information on the incoming call due to the predictive transmission sent from the CTI control unit 10 and transmitted to the client control unit 14.

The external storage device 20 is used for outbound business by calling a customer from a call center.
When a predictive call for automatically dialing and calling a customer's telephone number is performed, the customer call information storage control unit stores at least customer call information for specifying a call destination. If the call center receives a call due to outbound business outgoing call, by identifying the distinction of each outgoing call in outbound business,
The customer transmission information stored in the external storage device 20 is selected and read.

In the present embodiment, the customer transmission information storage control unit, the incoming call identification control unit, and the customer transmission information read control unit of the second invention of the present application are configured inside the CTI control unit 10. As actual processing, the processing of the customer transmission information storage control unit is realized mainly at step 114 described later, the processing of the incoming call discrimination control unit is performed at step 123, and the processing of the customer transmission information read control unit is realized mainly at step 124. The customer transmission information stored in the first invention and the second invention is stored in a software dialer customer identifier file 22 described later. The software dialer customer identifier file 22 is configured in the external storage device 20 described above.

In the above-described configuration, the symbols 〜 in the figure indicate the exchange of signals described below, and occur in the order of the numbers.

First, in the code, the client device 3
4 is the client control unit 14
To the CTI command. In the code, the client program receives the incoming information from the client device 34.

In the code, the client control unit 14
A CTI command is transmitted to the TI control unit 10. In the code, the CTI control unit 10 sends the client control unit 14
Receives incoming information.

In the code, the pacing control unit 12 requests the database control unit 16 for a transmission data group for performing predictive transmission. Then, in the code, the database control unit 16
Pacing control unit 1
Send to 2.

In the code, the pacing control unit 12 performs the
The above-mentioned transmission data group is sent to the I control unit 10. In the code, the CTI control unit 10 controls the PBX 44
Send a TI command. The PBX 44 has a code C
The incoming information is transmitted to the TI control unit 10.

In the case of predictive transmission, predictive transmission information including at least customer transmission information for specifying the transmission destination of the transmission is written in a file of the external storage device 20. Further, at the time of reception for predictive transmission, the file is read. For other incoming calls, such reading is not performed.

At the time of an incoming call for predictive transmission, the CTI control unit 10 transmits to the database control unit 16 a code obtained by adding the above-mentioned predictive transmission information to the reception information.

In the code, information is read from the database 17 based on predictive transmission information. The information is, for example, information on a customer who has received the call.

In the code, the information obtained by adding the above-mentioned predictive transmission information to the reception information is transmitted to the client control unit 14.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the contents of processing at the time of transmission performed mainly by the CTI control unit 10.

In step 112, the CTI control unit 10
From client control unit 14 or pacing control unit 1
2, a customer telephone 40 connected via a public telephone network 42
(CTI command) is obtained. In the case of the preview transmission (manual transmission) in which the operator operates the transmission to the customer's telephone 40, when the operator performs the transmission operation in the client device 34, the transmission is transmitted to the client control unit 14, and the client control unit 14
A transmission command is sent to the I control unit 10. On the other hand, in the case of predictive transmission, the pacing control unit 12 sets the CTI
A transmission command is sent to the control unit 10.

The processing on the client control unit 14 side relating to the step 112 is as shown in the flowchart of FIG. The processing on the pacing control unit 12 side is as shown in the flowchart of FIG.

In step 113, it is determined whether the transmission command obtained in this way is a predictive transmission of the pacing control unit 12 or a manual transmission. If it is determined that predictive transmission is to be performed, predictive transmission information is written to the soft dialer customer identifier file 22 in step 113. The information to be written includes information (identifier information) indicating to which of the individual transmissions in the predictive transmission the information to be written, and customer transmission information for specifying the transmission destination of the transmission.

Note that the above-mentioned identifier information is not particularly necessary when individual transmissions to customers can be distinguished by customer transmission information for specifying the transmission destination of the transmission. Alternatively, when transmitting a transmission command to the PBX 44 in the subsequent step 115, when information for distinguishing individual transmissions is added, the information to be added may be used as the above-mentioned identifier information.

If it is determined that manual transmission is performed, or if step 114 is completed, then in step 115, a transmission command (CTI command) is transmitted to the PBX 44. As a result, the PBX 44 makes a call to the corresponding customer telephone 40.

It should be noted that the determination in the above-described step 113 is based on the case where the transmission command itself can be distinguished between the transmission command from the client control unit 14 and the transmission command from the pacing control unit 12, or when the transmission command is originally added to the transmission command. If there is a distinction between the pieces of information, it may be based on such a distinction.
Alternatively, different information for distinguishing each other may be added to transmission instructions from the pacing control unit 12 and the client control unit 14, and such determination may be made based on the additional information.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the contents of the processing at the time of an incoming call mainly performed by the CTI control unit 10.

In step 122, when there is an incoming call on the call center side, CTI control unit 10 obtains incoming call information transmitted by PBX 44. For outbound business by calling the customer from the call center,
After a predictive call for automatically dialing and calling the customer's telephone number, there is a case of an incoming call upon connection to the customer telephone 40 of the call. Alternatively, there may be a case where a call is received from a customer in an inbound business by a call received from the customer.

In step 123, it is determined whether the above-mentioned incoming call is at the time of connection for predictive calling or from a customer in the inbound business.
If the incoming call information itself obtained in step 122 includes information necessary for the determination, the determination may be made based on the information.
Alternatively, even when information that can be directly determined is not included,
Such a determination can be made by associating, for example, a caller number or a called number included in the information with other information in the call center.

If it is determined that the connection is for the predictive transmission, the process proceeds to step 124 in which the predictive transmission is performed in step 114 of FIG.
The predictive transmission information written in the soft dialer customer identifier file 22 is read. In the reading, by using the above-mentioned identifier information, it is possible to selectively read information corresponding to the incoming call due to the connection of the predictive call. It should be noted that, at the time of an incoming call, the identifier information can be obtained directly from the incoming call information from the PBX 44 or can be obtained by associating the incoming call information with other information in the call center.

In step 125, the database controller 16 is notified of the predictive transmission information obtained in step 124 and the reception information. In this way, the database control unit 16 obtains useful information from the database control unit 16 for the operator to talk with the customer and perform the business. The information is presented to the operator on the display screen of the client device 34 via the client control unit 14 and the LAN 46.

The processing on the side of the database control section 16 relating to the step 125 is as shown in the flowchart of FIG. The processing on the client control unit 14 side is as shown in the flowchart of FIG.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the present invention can be effectively applied. Therefore, it is possible to effectively use the human resources of the call center and the facility resources depending on the number of operators, and to improve the quality of customer service by using the acquired customer information more efficiently.

[0059]

According to the present invention, the human resources of the call center and the equipment resources depending on the number of operators are effectively used, and furthermore, the efficiency of the use of the acquired customer information is improved to improve the customer service. Quality can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a usage form of a CTI server device according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a CTI server device of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing contents at the time of transmission performed mainly by a CTI control unit used in the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing contents at the time of an incoming call mainly performed by a CTI control unit used in the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing contents when a CTI instruction is issued by a client control unit used in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing contents at the time of receiving incoming call information performed by a client control unit used in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating processing performed by a pacing control unit used in the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing contents performed by a database control unit used in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... CTI control part 12 ... Pacing control part 14 ... Client control part 16 ... Database control part 17 ... Database 20 ... External storage device 32 ... Telephone 34 ... Client device 40 ... Customer telephone 42 ... Public telephone line network 44 ... PBX 46 ... LAN 50: CTI server device

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Akiko Nagata 2-36-11 Minamisuna, Koto-ku, Tokyo F-term in Kawatetsu Information System Co., Ltd. (reference) 5K015 AA00 AB00 AF00 AF09 EA00 GA04 GA06 GA07 KA00 5K024 AA02 AA71 BB00 CC01 CC09 CC14 DD05 FF03 FF04 GG00 GG01 GG03 GG05 9A001 CC07 LL09

Claims (4)

[Claims] In an outbound business in which a call is sent from a call center to a customer, when a predictive call for automatically dialing and calling a customer's telephone number is performed, at least customer transmission information for specifying a destination of the call is provided. If the call center receives an incoming call at the time of connection due to the outbound business call or an inbound business call due to a call received from the customer, the incoming call is the incoming call at the connection for the outgoing call. In addition to identifying whether or not there is, there is a distinction between each of the outgoing calls, the corresponding customer outgoing information is selected and read out based on these identifications, and the customer outgoing information is transmitted to an operator connecting the incoming call. Call center operation characterized by providing information about customers using the Law. 2. The composite call center operating method according to claim 1, wherein bidirectional transfer with data can be performed between an operator dedicated to inbound services and an operator dedicated to outbound services. Call center operation method. 3. In the outbound business by calling a customer from a call center, when a predictive call for automatically dialing and calling the customer's telephone number is made, at least the customer sending information for specifying the destination of the call is provided. A customer transmission information storage control unit to be stored; and an incoming call at the time of connection due to the outbound business call, or an incoming call from the customer at the call center side in an inbound business by a call received from the customer, the incoming call is received. An incoming call discrimination control unit for identifying whether or not the call is an incoming call for the outgoing call, and for discriminating the individual outgoing call; A readout control unit, and uses the customer transmission information to an operator who connects the incoming call. Composite call center management device being characterized in that so as to provide information about the customer Te. 4. A computer-readable recording medium on which a computer program for realizing the customer transmission information storage control unit, the incoming call identification control unit, and the customer transmission information read control unit according to claim 3 is recorded.