US 2021/0081968 A1 · SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PREDICTING AND RESOLVING SURGE PERIODS

Abstract

A surge engine is provided that predicts upcoming surges for a business such as a contact center or a retail environment. The surge engine may receive a schedule for the business that indicates one or more employees or agents that are scheduled to work for each period. The surge engine further receives a customer or workload forecast for each period that is based on historical customer and workload data for the business. The surge engine then predicts a surge for an upcoming period based on the workload forecast for that period and the schedule for that period. The surge engine may further consider real-time data about the busyness of the business when predicting surges. For each predicted surge, the surge engine automatically identifies employees or agents who may be available to work during the predicted surge, and offers them one or more incentives to work during the predicted surge.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

receiving a schedule, wherein a schedule comprises a plurality of periods, and identifications of agents of a plurality of agents assigned to each period of the plurality of periods;
for each period of the plurality of periods, receiving a predicted workload for the period;
based on the predicted workload for each period and the agents assigned to each period from the schedule, predicting a surge for at least one period of the plurality of periods;
in response to the predicted surge for the at least one period, identifying at least one agent of the plurality of agents not assigned to the at least one period;
and
notifying the identified at least one agent of the predicted surge.

3 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computer system to:

receive a schedule, wherein a schedule comprises a plurality of periods, and identifications of agents of a plurality of agents assigned to each period of the plurality of periods;
for each period of the plurality of periods, receive a predicted workload for the period;
based on the predicted workload for each period and the agents assigned to each period from the schedule, predict a surge for at least one period of the plurality of periods;
in response to the predicted surge for the at least one period, identify at least one agent of the plurality of agents not assigned to the at least one period;
and
notify the identified at least one agent of the predicted surge.

3 more elements

A system comprising:

at least one processor;
and
a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
receive a schedule, wherein a schedule comprises a plurality of periods, and identifications of agents of a plurality of agents assigned to each period of the plurality of periods;
for each period of the plurality of periods, receive a predicted workload for the period;
based on the predicted workload for each period and the agents assigned to each period from the schedule, predict a surge for at least one period of the plurality of periods;
in response to the predicted surge for the at least one period, identify at least one agent of the plurality of agents not assigned to the at least one period;
and
notify the identified at least one agent of the predicted surge.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Systems and methods for predicting and resolving surge periods

Life of this patent

Systems and methods for predicting and resolving surge periods

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20