Best practices learning for agents in a communication system

A method for teaching agents in an automatic call distribution system, comprising:

• providing a previously stored actual call transaction conducted with a customer at an earlier time having a plurality of dialog portions and decision points forming a transaction path to a business outcome;
• replaying the call transaction, and overlaying at least one preferred path on the stored actual call transaction, preferred paths having at least one multiple branch decision point thereby forming a plurality of different transaction paths starting with a common dialog of the stored actual call and each path having a different business outcome, each path having a plurality of dialog portions and a plurality of decision points;
• and
• evaluating the results of the preferred paths at multiple decision points alone the preferred path, and presenting the results to the agent.

A computer readable medium containing computer program code comprising

• call transaction computer program code that provides a previously stored actual call transaction conducted with a customer at an earlier time having a plurality of dialog portions and decision points forming a transaction path to a business outcome;
• replay computer program code that replays the call transaction, and that simulates at least one decision at a respective decision point in the call transaction, which is different than an original decision at the respective decision point in the stored actual call transaction wherein at least one decision point is a multiple branch decision point thereby forming a plurality of different connected transaction paths each having a different business outcome, each path having a plurality of dialog portions and a plurality of decision points and each path starting with a common dialog of the stored actual call;
• and
• evaluator computer program code that evaluates the results of the agent's decisions at multiple decision points alone the transaction path resulting from the decisions, and that presents the results to the agent.

An apparatus that teaches agents in a communication system, comprising:

• means for providing a previously stored actual call transaction conducted with a customer at an earlier time having a plurality of dialog portions and decision points forming a transaction path to an outcome;
• means for replaying the call transaction, and simulating at least one best practice decision at a respective decision point in the stored actual call transaction, which is different than an original decision at the respective decision point in the stored actual call transaction wherein at least one decision point is a multiple branch decision point which forms a plurality of different connected transaction paths each having a different outcome, each path having a plurality of dialog portions and a plurality of decision points and each path starting with a common dialog of the stored actual call;
• and
• means for evaluating the results of decisions of the agent at multiple decision points along the transaction path resulting from the decisions, and presenting the results to the agent.

An apparatus that teaches agents in an automatic call distribution system, comprising:

• means for providing a previously stored actual call transaction conducted with a customer at an earlier time having a plurality of dialog portions and decision points forming a transaction path to an outcome;
• means for replaying the call transaction, and overlaying preferred paths on the call transaction, the preferred path having at least one stored best practice multiple branch decision point thereby providing a plurality of different transaction paths starting with a common dialog of the stored actual call and each path having a different outcome, each path having a plurality of dialog portions and a plurality of decision points;
• and
• means for evaluating the results of the preferred paths at multiple decision points along the preferred path, and presenting the results to the agent.

An apparatus that teaches agents in an automatic call distribution system, comprising:

• a memory having at least one previously recorded actual call transaction conducted with a customer at an earlier time having a plurality of dialog portions and decision points forming a transaction path to an outcome;
• a replay module operatively connected to the storage, the reply module replaying the previously recorded call transaction, and overlaying at least one preferred path on the recorded actual call transaction, the preferred path having at least one stored multiple branch decision point to provide a plurality of different transaction paths starting with a common dialog of the recorded actual call and each path having a different outcome, each path having a plurality of dialog portions and a plurality of decision points;
• and
• an evaluator operatively connected to the replay module, the evaluator evaluating the results of the preferred paths at multiple decision points along the preferred path, and presenting the results to the agent.