Technique for providing a telecommunication service including information assistance

A method for providing a concierge-type service, comprising:

• receiving, by a first agent in a first facility in a first geographic region, a request for fulfillment of a concierge request from a user;
• conveying said concierge request to a second facility in a second geographic region;
• assigning a second agent in said second facility to attempt to fulfill the concierge request;
• and
• assigning a third agent in said first facility to contact the user with information regarding said attempt to fulfill the concierge request.

A method for providing a concierge-type service comprising:

• receiving, by a first agent in a first facility in a first geographic region, a concierge request from a user;
• conveying said concierge request to a second facility in a second geographic region;
• assigning a second agent in said second facility to attempt to fulfill the concierge request;
• assigning said first agent to contact the user with information regarding said attempt to fulfill the concierge request if said first agent is available;
• and
• assigning said second agent to contact the user with information regarding said attempt to fulfill the concierge request if said first agent is not available.

A method for providing a concierge-type service comprising:

• receiving, by a first agent in a first facility, a concierge request in a first geographic region from a user;
• conveying said concierge request to a second facility which is closer to the first geographic region than said first facility;
• assigning a second agent in said second facility to attempt to fulfill the concierge request;
• and
• assigning a third agent in a third facility to contact the user with information regarding said attempt to fulfill the concierge request, wherein said third facility is closer to the user's geographic region than said second facility.

A method for distributing an incoming call to one of a plurality of agents comprising:

• (a) receiving an incoming call from a caller;
• (b) determining an identity of the caller before the caller is connected to any one of said plurality of agents;
• (c) determining, from information stored about the caller, if the caller prefers one or more of said plurality of agents;
• and
• (d) if the caller prefers one or more of said plurality of agents, connecting the caller to a selected one of the preferred agents.

A method of selecting one or more of a plurality of agents of a service provider which a subscriber to said service provider prefers, comprising:

• (a) receiving an incoming call from the subscriber;
• (b) selecting one of said plurality of agents to which the subscriber should be connected;
• (c) connecting the subscriber to the agent selected in step (b);
• (d) receiving a rating of the agent selected in step (b) from the subscriber;
• (e) repeating steps (a) through (d) a plurality of times;
• (f) selecting said one or more of the plurality of agents which the subscriber prefers as a function of the agent ratings received from the caller in step (d).

A method for providing a concierge-type service by a concierge provider comprising:

• receiving a first request for a concierge-type service from a user having a relationship with the concierge provider;
• the concierge provider storing preference information associated with the user based on the relationship;
• accessing selected preference information in response to the first request;
• supplementing said first request with the selected preference information;
• receiving a second request for a concierge-type service from a third party service provider, the second request being initiated by a subscriber to the third party service provider, the subscriber having no relationship with the concierge provider;
• providing information concerning fulfillment of the first request to the user;
• and
• and providing information concerning fulfillment of the second request to the third party service provider.

A system for providing a user with telecommunication service including information assistance, comprising:

• a mechanism for establishing, for the user, a call connection to a called party;
• a device for monitoring the call connection for a predetermined signal initiated by one of the user and the called party, access to the information assistance being allowed upon a detection of the predetermined signal;
• and
• a processor for determining call charges as a function of a duration of the call connection, regardless of the number of accesses to the information assistance during the call connection, data concerning the call charges being provided for billing the user.