Patent · US Expired

Automatic call returning method for call distributor with message record capability

US5181236A · kind A · utility

129Cited by
7References
24Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 25, 1990
Grant dateJan 19, 1993
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 25, 2010

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04Q1/45
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method of automatically returning calls to callers (18) who have recorded a message in an ACD mail (22C) controlled message bin (22D) of a voice response unit (22) in response to a stored announcement in an announcement table (22B) selected in accordance with call statistics in a statistics table (22A) from an automatic call distributor (12) to provide the caller with queue information when no agent stations (14) are available. In one mode of operation (FIG. 4), the recorded voice message in queue is automatically provided to an agent when one becomes available in the same manner as an incoming call except an indication is given to the agent station (14) that the incoming call is, in fact, a prerecorded message which requires a cell back. The agent must obtain the telephone number from the recorded voice message and then input the multidigit number to place a return call. In other modes of operation (FIGS. 5 and 6), DTMF tones (D) recorded with the voice message are employed to enable the agent to auto dial the return call in response to the recorded message. In one of these other modes of operation (FIG. 6), the calls are automatically placed by an ACD control computer (20) and …

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.