Hold time reducer

A method of reducing hold time comprising:

• receiving, by a process manager, a request from a client application of a consumer to reach a human agent at the end of a call queue of an organization;
• identifying, by the process manager, if any dial-and-queue processes exist for the call queue;
• if no existing dial-and-queue processes for the call queue are identified:
• launching, by the process manager, at least two dial-and-queue processes for the call queue;
• calling, by each of the at least two dial-and-queue processes, a phone system of the organization and navigating the phone system to reach the end of an IVR tree of the organization and the beginning of the call queue;
• recognizing when a call by one of the dial-and-queue processes is answered by an answering human agent;
• playing a message to the human agent requesting confirmation that the answering human agent is ready to talk to the consumer;
• detecting a voice confirmation, button press confirmation, or call disconnection;
• if voice confirmation or button press confirmation is detected, connecting the consumer in place of the dial-and-queue process call;
• if disconnection is detected, connecting the consumer to take a place in the queue of one of the other dial-and-queue processes;
• if existing dial-and-queue processes for the call queue are identified:
• using, by the process manager, metrics to maintain an appropriate number and frequency of dial-and-queue processes to create and run for the call queue and ensure there is at least one more dial-and-queue process than a number of consumers actively requesting said process manager to reach said call queue;
• keeping the process manager in communication with each of said dial-and-queue processes to monitor the status and health of each of said dial-and-queue processes;
• calling, by each of said dial-and-queue processes based on information supplied by said process manager, said call queue and navigating a phone system of said organization to reach the end of an IVR tree of said organization and the beginning of said call queue of said organization;
• finding an available dial-and-queue process, and then making a connection of said consumer to said available dial-and-queue process;
• and
• taking, by said consumer, a place of said available dial-and-queue process in said call queue.

A Hold Time Reducer (HTR) system comprising:

• a process manager that uses metrics to determine an appropriate number and frequency of dial-and-queue processes to create and run for each of one or more call queues, each call queue associated with one of one or more organizations, launches the appropriate number of said dial-and-queue processes at the appropriate frequency, and keeps in communication with each of said dial-and-queue processes to monitor the status and health of each of said dial-and-queue processes, and ensures there is at least one more dial-and-queue process than a number of consumers actively using the HTR system for a call queue;
• wherein each of said dial-and-queue processes uses information supplied by said process manager to call one of said call queues and navigate a phone system of said associated organization to reach the end of an IVR tree of said associated organization and the beginning of said call queue of said associated organization;
• and
• a client application, used by a consumer, that sends a request to said process manager to reach one of said call queues;
• wherein said process manager receives said request, finds an available dial-and-queue process, and then makes a connection of said consumer to said available dial-and-queue process;
• whereby said consumer takes a place of said available dial-and-queue process in said call queue.