Telephone call processing modifications related to call acceptance for an incoming call received at a contact center

A system for processing an incoming call to a contact center from a calling party, comprising a computer processor configured to:

• receive a call establishment request from a carrier at the contact center, wherein the call establishment request includes a telephone number dialed by the calling party;
• determine no agents are available to be connected to the incoming call for speaking with the calling party;
• play an announcement by the call handler to the calling party;
• start a call acceptance timer in response to receiving the call establishment request, wherein expiry of the call acceptance timer causes a call acceptance message to be sent to the carrier accepting the incoming call, wherein the call acceptance timer expires in response to an event comprising an earlier occurrence of:
• a passage of pre-determined amount of time, and
• an agent from a group of one or more agents becoming available prior to the passage of the pre-determined amount of time;
• determine that none of the group of one or more agents are available to accept the incoming call and the expiry of the call acceptance timer has occurred;
• and
• send the call acceptance message to the carrier thereby accepting the incoming call.

A system for processing an incoming call in a contact center from a calling party, comprising a computer processor configured to:

• receive at the contact center a call establishment request from a carrier on a signaling interface, wherein the call establishment request includes a telephone number dialed by the calling party;
• determine no agents are available to connect to the incoming call;
• play an announcement to the calling party indicating no agents are available;
• start a call acceptance timer after receiving the call establishment request, wherein expiry of the call acceptance timer causes a call acceptance message to be sent on the signaling interface to the carrier accepting the incoming call;
• detect an event comprising an earlier occurrence of one of:
• an agent of the group of one or more agents is available to accept the incoming call prior to an expiry of the call acceptance timer, and
• the expiry of the call acceptance timer has occurred prior to the agent becoming available to accept the incoming call;
• and
• send the call acceptance message to the carrier on the signaling interface accepting the incoming call, after detecting the event.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that when executed cause a computer processor to:

• receive a call establishment request on a signaling interface with a carrier at a contact center for an incoming call comprising a voice call, wherein the call establishment request includes a telephone number dialed by a calling party;
• determine no agents from a group of a plurality of agent are available to connect to the incoming call;
• play an announcement to the calling party;
• start a call acceptance timer after receiving the call establishment request, wherein expiry of the call acceptance timer causes a call acceptance message to be sent to the carrier on the signaling interface accepting the incoming call, wherein the call acceptance timer expires upon an earlier occurrence of:
• a passage of a predefined amount of time, and
• an agent from the group of the plurality of agents becoming available prior to the passage of the predefined amount of time;
• determine the expiry of the call acceptance timer occurred prior to the agent from the group of the plurality of agents becoming available to accept the incoming call;
• and
• send the call acceptance message to the carrier on the signaling interface thereby accepting the incoming call.