Automatic call distribution based on matching required skills with agents skills

A method for routing incoming telephone calls, made to a particular telephone number, to available agents;

• the method including the steps of:
• associating indication numbers, including first and second indication numbers, with calls to the particular telephone number, said indication numbers indicating call-handling skills needed by the agent handling calls to the particular telephone number;
• associating at least one of the indication numbers with each of the agents;
• queuing incoming calls to a first group of agents in accordance with the particular telephone number dialed;
• searching for an available agent possessing the first indication number;
• searching for an available agent possessing the second indication number a predetermined time interval after the search for an available agent possessing the first indication number is unsuccessful;
• and
• connecting the incoming telephone call to the available agent possessing one or both of said first and second indication numbers.

An arrangement for matching skill requirements of an incoming telephone caller with skills of one of a plurality of agents, some of the agents being available to handle the incoming caller, comprising:

• means for obtaining a prioritized measure of skill requirements of the incoming caller, said prioritized measure including at least a primary skill requirement and a secondary skill requirement;
• means for obtaining a measure of the skills possessed by the agents;
• means for scanning the skills of the available agents for a match with the primary skill requirement of the caller;
• means for scanning the skills of the available agents for a match with the secondary skill requirement of the caller when a match with the primary skill requirement is not found;
• means for connecting the incoming telephone caller with the available agent possessing a skill that matches one of the skill requirements of the caller;
• and
• means for delaying the search for an agent possessing the secondary skill requirement by a first predetermined time interval after the search for the primary skill requirement was made;
• whereby the likelihood of providing the best match between caller and agent, within a predetermined time interval, is improved.

In automatic call distributing equipment, a method for routing incoming telephone calls to available agents, an available agent being an agent that is presently able to accept an incoming telephone call, the method comprising the following steps:

• associating a particular call-skill with each incoming call, the call-skill representing a particular need of the caller;
• associating a plurality of agent-skills with the agents including a first agent-skill which exactly matches the particular call-skill and a second agent-skill which almost matches the particular call-skill, each agent having at least one agent-skill;
• searching the agent-skills of the available agents for the first agent-skill;
• waiting a predetermined amount of time for the incoming call to be connected to the available agent possessing the first agent-skill;
• and then
• expanding the search of available agents to include agents possessing the second agent-skill.