WO2002009406A1

WO2002009406A1 - Method and system for providing multichannel customer interaction

Info

Publication number: WO2002009406A1
Application number: PCT/US2001/021415
Authority: WO
Inventors: John T. Smiley; Kenneth D. Tuchman; Milos Djokovic; Jim Radzicki; Eric Buhring; Kyp A. Carlton; Travis Carroll
Original assignee: Teletech Holdings, Inc.
Priority date: 2000-07-10
Filing date: 2001-07-06
Publication date: 2002-01-31
Also published as: AU2001273229A1

Abstract

A method and system of providing customer care management services in an environment having a plurality of customer access channels configured to communicate customer requests. Each access channel is associated with a particular communication mode. A computer telephony integration (CTI) service is provided having a port for coupling to each customer access channel. An agent interface is implemented in a customer-centric platform executing on an agent computer, the agent interface comprising a plurality of panels. The customer-centric platform is coupled to the CTI services to receive a selected customer request. At least one access mode invariant panel and at least one access mode dependent panel are implemented within the agent interface. Access mode-invariant content is supplied to the agent interface for display in the access mode invariant panel.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING MULTICHANNEL CUSTOMER INTERACTION

1. Field of the Invention. The present invention relates, in general, to customer interaction management solutions, and, more particularly, to software, systems and methods for providing integrated customer care management over a plurality of communication channels.

2. Relevant Background.

In all types of commerce it is vital to manage customer relationships to ensure efficient and effective interactions between customers and business representatives. Typical customer interactions involve product inquiries, sales, and after the sale support. Customer relationships are particularly difficult to manage in product distribution chains such as mail order, phone order, and electronic commerce that lack face-to- face contact between customers and business representatives.

In a typical business customer interactions are handled by a "call center" or "customer interaction center" . A customer interaction center is defined by groups of agents or representatives that may or may not be physically co-located. These agents use banks of telephone equipment to answer calls in response to requests from calling customers. Combinations of telephone switching and computer information processing techniques (often referred to as computer-telephony integration or "CTI") are used to route calls to particular agent (s) . CTI refers to a broad class of telephony interface equipment and methods that provide data, voice, and/or integrated data and voice functions at a termination point of a phone or data network. In recent systems, customer care databases were coupled to the system to enable customer and customer transaction state information to be stored so as to make the customer- gent transaction more satisfying for all parties.

With the increasing popularity of the Internet and ubiquitous nature of services such as email, chat, web services offered over the Internet, the use of telephone- only customer interaction channels has become limiting. Customers may prefer to access a business to purchase products or obtain information using a web browser, email client, Internet chat session, or the like. These services augment or replace conventional telephone access channels .

Unfortunately, customer interaction center hardware, software, and systems have failed to effectively integrate the multi-mode access channels made available by the

Internet. One possible solution is to duplicate the telephone-based systems that have proven successful. Such a solution does not integrate the multi-mode functionality in the agent's computer interface. Hence, the agent must learn and use multiple interface programs each with its own unique controls, behavior, and sometimes hardware. This is burdensome and inefficient . Common agent tools such as order processing, order tracking, scripted dialogs and the like are different in each access mode. As a result, the business operating the customer interaction center has little control over uniformity and customers experience a high degree of non-uniformity in the customer interaction center experience depending on the access mode chosen. Further, such systems are difficult to extend to new communication channels as they become available because the entire system must be duplicated. Moreover, such systems "silo" the customer care information into separate databases. Hence, as customers access the system over multiple communication channels the information is not shared between channels.

Systems have been proposed to extend conventional call center systems by enabling multimedia content to be transferred between users and agents. Such systems use the Internet to transport a variety of data types but do not distinguish amongst the plurality of communication channels (e.g., email, chat, and web-based communication channels) that can be implemented over the Internet. Hence, such systems fall short of integrating the multiple access channels in an effective way at the agent's interface.

What is needed are systems, methods and devices for integrating multiple heterogeneous communications channels into a consistent agent interface used by agents and representatives in a multi-channel customer interaction center environment .

An important function in a customer interaction center is to provide agent training. Training becomes even more important as agents are expected to handle more complex information across multiple access modes. Conventionally, training occurs in group sessions that are disruptive to the agent workflow. These sessions attempt to cover a wide range of training material and often cannot afford the time to make objective evaluations of a participating agent's progress. Moreover, it is time consuming to update the routing database (s) to reflect the agent's newly trained skills. Hence, the agent's new skills are not put to work immediately. A need exists for systems, methods and devices for integrating agent training into an agent workflow and efficiently updating routing records to reflect training.

Conventional customer interaction centers also fail to integrate well with external databases and information services . Agents are often made aware of local data indicating a customer profile or historical information about the customer relationship. However, a wide and increasingly varied set of information is available from third party sources such as credit reporting agencies, demographic information databases, and psychographic information databases. This information is often used in sophisticated marketing plans, but is not effectively made available to agents and salespeople that are handling a customer interaction. Accordingly, a need exists to provide supplementary customer-related data from third party data base and data services .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method and system of providing customer care management services in an environment having a plurality of customer access channels configured to communicate customer requests. Each access channel is associated with a particular communication mode. A service such as a computer telephony integration (CTI) service is provided having a port for coupling to each customer access channel . An agent interface is implemented in a customer- centric platform executing on an agent computer, the agent interface comprising a plurality of panels. A shared customer relationship management database is shared across all the available customer access channels and is accessible by the customer-centric platform. The customer-centric platform is coupled to the CTI services to receive a selected customer request . At least one access mode invariant panel and at least one access mode dependent panel are implemented within the agent interface. Access mode-invariant content is supplied to the agent interface for display in the access mode invariant panel .

In another aspect, the present invention involves a system and method for providing incremental training to agents in a customer interaction center. Interaction requests are received from customers through a network interface. Availability of each of the agents is monitored and each agent is associated with information indicating the associated agent's capabilities. An incremental training schedule specifying a training segment desired for one or more agents is stored. A training initialization request based on the specified training schedule is generated. Both the interaction requests and the training initialization request are routed to selected agents based on agent availability. Upon completion of a training segment by an agent, the information indicating the associated agent's capabilities is updated to reflect completion of the training segment. This updating enables an agent to receive routings for interaction types that require the newly acquired skills as soon as the agent training is completed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 shows a networked computer environment in which the present invention is implemented; Fig. 2 shows exemplary client software useful in implementation of the present invention;

Fig. 3 illustrates in block diagram form exemplary agent software useful in an implementation of the present invention; and

Fig. 4 shows a window arrangement of the various elements of an agent interface in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is illustrated and described in terms of a distributed computing environment such as an enterprise computing system using public communication channels such as the Internet and the public switched telephone network (PSTN) . However, an important feature of the present invention is that it is readily scaled upwardly and downwardly to meet the needs of a particular application. Accordingly, unless specified to the contrary the present invention is applicable to significantly larger, more complex network environments as well as small network environments such as conventional local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) systems implementing, for example, an Intranet.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary computing environment 100 in which the present invention may be implemented. Environment 100 includes a plurality agent interface machines 105 located in a customer interaction center. Agents 105 are accessed by a number of customers using customer equipment 106 and 107 of various types and capabilities. For example, a telephone 107 generates voice-channel access requests using the public switched telephone network 102. Telephone 107 may be a single line phone, multi-line phone and may be connected by a "copper" coupling, a public branch exchange (PBX) , or the like to PSTN 102. Any telephone equipment and connection mechanism that supports voice data transfer and appropriate signaling protocols to establish a connection over PSTN 102 is a suitable equivalent. Alternatively, a voice channel may be implemented over a data transport mechanism such as internet 101 using such protocols as "voice over IP" or equivalent mechanism (s) for encoding voice data onto a data transport protocol .

Customer equipment 106 is coupled to agents 105 through a data communications network such as Internet 101 or a LAN (not shown) or WAN (not shown) . In the particular example customer equipment communicates using standardized transport protocols such as Internet protocol (IP) , transfer connection protocol (TCP) . Communication channels are typically implemented in conjunction with public services provided by servers such as electronic mail server 116 and chat server 117 coupled to the

Internet. Customer equipment 106 implements client programs such as email client 121 and/or chat client 122, as described in greater detail in reference to FIG. 2, to access the available communication channels.

CTI services 108 comprise computer telephony integration (CTI) software executing on a server typically located at the customer interaction center. CTI services implement basic connectivity and routing functionality in cooperation with a plurality of service modules 110-114. CTI services 108 are implemented, in a particular example, by Genesys T-server framework marketed by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. among other vendors. CTI services 108 include a broad class of telephone- computer interface systems and software that may be provided by one or more vendor's software and systems using commercial off the shelf software in many cases. Accordingly, the term "CTI services" is not construed to represent a particular product or a particular vendor's products. CTI services 108 also provide an access port to agents 105. For enhanced performance the present invention employs an abstraction layer 109 called a "compuphone" interface that eases the task of interfacing various CTI services providers 108 with the customer centric platform 104 executing on agents 105.

Connectivity and routing services are provided by modules 110-114 as shown in Fig. 1. Any number and variety of such services may be added on to CTI services 108 although typical additions are shown in Fig. 1. Phone switch 110 indicates a typical interface to PSTN 102 such as would be found in a PBX or automated call distributor (ACD) mechanisms. Phone switch 110 may provide services such as calling line identifier (CNI) or dialed number identification service (DNIS) that identify a particular calling number when phone switch 110 services a plurality of phone numbers. Phone switch 110 may also use automated number identification (ANI) to identify the phone number assigned to customer equipment 107.

Email server 116 represents the thousands of cooperating electronic mail servers coupled as nodes on the Internet 101. Each email server 116 has a unique network address (e.g., Internet-valid IP address for Internet 101) . Email server 116 employs a user-level protocol such as simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) and

POP3 (incoming electronic mail) to exchange datagrams with email services module 111. Email services module 111 operates as a proxy server in that it acts as a client with respect to email servers 116 and as a server with respect to email client software (shown in FIG. 2) embedded within customer centric platform 104. Email data transferred by email services module 111 and email server 116 are typically embedded in a payload portion of one or more TCP/IP datagrams for transport through Internet 101.

In a similar manner, chat services 112 are provided by a network of chat servers 117. Chat services 112 comprise any service that enables real-time communication between two or more users via computer. Chat services 112 typically involve text exchanges, but may also include voice, graphics, and/or video information exchanges. Chat services module 112 operates as a proxy server in that is acts as a client with respect to chat servers 117 and as a server with respect to chat client software (shown in FIG. 2) embedded within customer centric platform 104. Each chat server 117 has a unique network address and employs a user-level protocol such as chat protocol defined by RFC 1459 published by the Internet engineering task force. Chat messages include text, state, and control information embedded in TCP/IP datagrams for transport across Internet 101.

Web servers 114 implement one or more communication channels using user-level hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and/or any other protocols supported by the network transport medium. Web server 114 may be coupled directly to CTI service 114 as a module, or may be implemented in a separate node coupled to Internet 101. When web server 114 is implemented as a separate node on Internet 101, CTI services will integrate a web proxy server (not shown) to enable access between web client software (e.g., a web browser shown in FIG. 2) embedded in customer centric platform 104. Web server 114 receives HTTP requests and generates responses including markup-language documents that can be displayed on web browser software.

Commercial off the shelf web servers such as Netscape Enterprise server by Netscape Corporation, Internet information server by Microsoft Corporation, and the like may be used to implement web server 114. Web server 114 may integrate a number of auxiliary application services such as database management. In a preferred embodiment, web server 114 incorporates as an integral feature or add- on feature co-browsing capability. Co-browsing is typically implemented as an applet or script stored in web server 114 and sent to browser software on customer equipment 106 and customer centric platform 104. Customer equipment 106 executes the co-browse software to enable an agent operating CCP 104 to direct the browser on customer equipment 106 to various web sites selected by the agent.

The concept of a communication channel through Internet 101 is important to grasp for a complete understanding of the present invention. As the term is used herein, a "communication channel" refers to a user- level link that enables transfer of data between user level interfaces on customer equipment 106 and user-level interfaces within CTI services 108 and service interfaces 110-114. Hence, a communication channel is not tied to or necessarily associated with a particular data type such as voice or video. Voice and video refer to data types that may be transported over either PSTN 102 or Internet 101 in the various communication channels implemented in those networks .

Routing services module 113 is coupled to CTI service

108 and provides routing functions across each of the communications channels. Routing services 113 holds state information or may access a shared database such as customer relationship management database 123 to obtain state information about specific devices and/or customers currently using system 100. A particular advantage of the present invention is that database 123 is shared across all access channels. Hence, state information gathered on any one channel or group of channels is accessible to subsequent interactions made on any access channel . This feature provides both the customer and the agent with a more consistent experience and leverages information gathered through prior interactions more effectively than conventional channel-specific customer relationship management databases .

Incoming requests are routed to specific agents based upon agent availability, agent skill set, and agent authority to conduct the requested transaction. Customer profile information may also be used by routing services module 114. For example, a customer may have preferred status as a result of high volume purchases, or qualify for expedited processing because of previous access requests. In some cases a particular problem or purchase is resolved over time in a series of transactions that may span multiple communications channels. Routing services module 113 is aware of current state information and historical information and uses this information to select appropriate agents to receive the transaction and optionally prioritizes incoming requests based on this state information.

State information that is shared across multiple channels is important because the system uses an inherently unreliable transport mechanism in Internet 101. This means that data is not guaranteed to pass through Internet 101 and latency and quality of service are not guaranteed. Hence, a transaction may be initiated through a web interface but need to be completed across the PSTN 102 using voice channels when service becomes unacceptable across Internet 101. Routing services 113 can reestablish the link between a particular agent and an incoming user irrespective of the communication channel being used.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, CTI services also include an automated attendant module 115 that enables a user to select menu options and enter data using the number pad on customer equipment 107, voice recognition techniques, or other data entry means. Automated attendant module has access to the shared customer relations management database 123 and so shares the ability of agents using CCP 104 to recognized customers and transaction state and query the customers in a consistent manner. This feature improves the effectiveness of automated attendant module 115 as the information obtained is directly usable by CCP 104 -and can be transferred directly to CCP 104. Automated attendant 115 preferably supports multiple channels in that it is used for voice channel communication as well as interfacing with email services 111, chat services 112, and/or web services 114 to automatically generate responses that gather and provide information in a consistent manner across the various communication channels .

Each of the computing devices shown in FIG. 1 may include memory, mass storage, and a degree of data processing capability sufficient to manage their connection to network 101. The computer program devices in accordance with the present invention are implemented in the memory of the various devices shown in FIG. 1 and enabled by the data processing capability of the devices shown in FIG. 1. In addition to local memory and storage associated with each device, it is often desirable to provide one or more locations of shared storage such as disk farm 116 that provides mass storage capacity beyond what an individual device can efficiently use and manage. Selected components of the present invention may be stored in or implemented in shared mass storage .

Fig. 2 illustrates an example set of client software 200 executing on customer equipment 106 shown in FIG. 2. Client software 200 comprises user-level application programs operating in conjunction with an operating system (not shown) executing on customer equipment 106. The present invention may be used with Microsoft windows, Unix variants, Apple Macintosh OS and other available operating systems. Preferably the software components shown in Fig. 2 are implemented using commercial off the shelf software packages to avoid custom configuration and maintenance issues and to provide convenient upgrade paths for customers. However, it is contemplated that some environments may use custom software for any or all of the components shown in FIG. 2.

Some or all of the client software 200 shown in Fig. 2 may also be implemented on telephone equipment 107 that implements access channels through PSTN 102 as well. For example, it is not uncommon for telephones, particularly cellular telephones to implement email and/or web browser client software.

The particular example shown in FIG. 2 is provided by way of example and common equivalent configurations will vary significantly. For example, Fig. 2 illustrates a web browser client 202 that serves as a principal user interface to customer 201 by integrating access to chat client 122 and email client 121. However, each of these clients may implement a direct interface to user 201. Such modifications are driven primarily by software capabilities and preferences of customer 201.

It is not necessary to implement all of the client software shown in FIG. 2 as it is relatively common for a client software set 200 to lack, for example, a chat client 122. Similarly, the present invention is readily extensible to implement other client applications. For example, voice and/or video traffic may be implemented using Internet telephony clients (not shown) that provide a direct interface to customer 201 or operate through browser client 202. These and other modifications are contemplated to lie within the scope of the present invention.

Browser client 202, email client 121, and chat client 122 couple to network 101 through one or more TCP/IP protocol layers implemented by network interface 205. Network interface 205 are provided in a Microsoft Windows environment, for example, by a winsock (i.e., windows sockets) application operating in conjunction with the operating system. Network interface 205 operates to embed user-level data provided by browser 202, email client 121 and/or chat client 122 into TCP/IP datagrams suitable for transport across network 101. Other protocols would be appropriate if a different network architecture were selected.

In operation, customer 201 generates a request for access to an agent 105. Using customer equipment 107 to support a voice channel, this request takes the form of dialing a phone number assigned to the customer interaction center by PSTN 102. Using email, web, or CHAT channels involves generating an appropriately addressed TCP/IP datagram containing the request data. For an email channel the address can be indicated in a recipient field of a email client 121. The chat channel in indicated in the user interface of chat client 122. The addressing for email and chat communications channels may be manually entered or obtained from a directory (not shown) such as an address book, history file, or chat channel directory.

Browser 202 may be directed by an explicit URL reference supplied by customer 201 either by direct entry or from a history or address file. Alternatively, the present invention includes a callback control 203 that is presented to customer 201 as a button or link in the interface of browser 202. The action assigned to callback control 203 is to initiate a request to the appropriate URL. The URL may be appended with state information in the form of "cookies" that identifies the user, current session, and other information useful in providing customer care services . The format and content of cookies, if used, is determined by web server 114 shown in

Fig. 1.

Optionally, multiple components shown in Fig. 2 are simultaneously active to support multiple communication channels . Many common operating systems include multitasking features that support multiple simultaneous sockets with network interface 205. Hence, a user can be conducting a co-browse session with an agent 105 while at the same time communicating with the agent 105 through email and/or chat and/or Internet telephony channels.

Fig. 3 shows basic features and software components implemented in an agent front end 300; Agent front-end components 300 execute on agent computer 105 in cooperation with CCP 104. CCP 104 serves as a shell that provides a consistent interface to coordinate the behaviors of the various other components included within agent front end 300.

Front end 300 interfaces to CTI services 108 through compuphone adapter 109. Adapter 109 supports a variety of plug in extensions 309 that handle messaging protocols with specific implementations of CTI services 108. Messages received by adapter 109 include data, an indicia of the communications channel type of the current access request (e.g., email, voice, web, chat, and the like) as well as state information obtained from CTI services 108. The state information includes customer profile data, data previously obtained about the transaction or earlier related transactions. This state information may be obtained, for example, by another agent 301, automated attendant module 115, or from shared customer relations management database 123.

Additionally, CCP services 104 provide instructional data used to assist an agent 301 in their efforts to assist a customer 201. The instructional data includes the form of dialog scripts that assist the agent 301 in stepping through a transaction in a logical, efficient and thorough manner. The instructional data may also include other non-script information such as hints and advice that agent 301 should be made aware of even though the information is not necessarily directly relayed to the user.

Significantly, CCP services 104 provide the data in a consistent format and content irrespective of the current access channel mode. Hence, the same instructional data and customer profile data, obtained from shared customer relation management database 123 (shown in FIG. 1) is used for each access channel mode . This feature enables the remaining components of front end 300 to provide consistent information and assistance over any of the available communication channels alone or in combination.

Incoming requests are passed to pop-up interface 306 which recognizes the access mode indicia and signals CCP component 302 to initialize an interface, shown in Fig. 4, having both access mode independent and access mode dependent components. The access mode independent features comprise user controls such as controls 401 and 402, dialog script box 403, customer profile area 404 and agent awareness area 405 shown in Fig. 4. Preferably the arrangement of the panels 403-406 are consistent as well so that agent 301 obtain the desire information at a glance and readily access common controls.

Customer profile area 404 displays customer profile information from CMDB 123 including information gathered from prior interactions with a customer (i.e., historical profile information) or gathered earlier in a current interaction (i.e., current profile information). For example, a customer may access an automated question/answer session to through a data or voice channel to gather information such as name, contact information, nature of information requested, and the like. This historical/current profile information is displayed for the agent's reference during the agent's portion of the interaction. Optionally, the current/historical profile information augmented with third party profile information services 312. Third party services 312 are available that provide psychographic and/or demographic information, for example, to augment profile information provided by a user. Other third party information might include, for example, a credit report or credit score, buying pattern information, or other information that might enable an agent to provide better service, cross-sell and up-sell during a particular customer interaction.

The access mode dependent features are principally embedded in customer interaction area 406. For example, an email client 303, chat client 304 or telephony interface 305 may be embedded within area 406 to provide a convenient mode-dependent interface suited to the particular communication channel or channels associated with the current transaction. Optionally, web browser component 307 is also coupled to CCP 302 to enable implementation of an embedded browser within customer interaction area 406.

In a particular embodiment customer interaction area 406 supports multiple windows to enable agent 301 to operate an email client in addition to a browser, chat client and/or telephony services. This feature enables agent 301 to conduct a voice communication over the telephony services channel simultaneously with, for example, a co-browse session using browser 307. Upon receipt of a new request pop-up interface component 306 indicates which combination of applications are stared in customer interaction area 406. As a transaction progresses, agent 301 may launch additional application components as needed.

Because the multiple application components are executing together in area 406 information is readily exchanged between applications. For example, information can be copied by cut and paste action from an email message to a web input page displayed in a web browser. Also, information available in one component can be programmatically transferred to another component. Moreover, automatic data transfer is readily enabled between the access-mode independent panels to the access- mode dependent panels. For example, customer profile data can be used to automatically populate web forms, email address fields, and the like.

In a particular example, a control 401 is provided to implement agent "help" functionality a provided by, for example, help routines 311 service in Fig. 3. By activating the appropriate control, conveniently labeled

"HELP" or with other descriptive text or graphic labeling, the agent browser 307 is launched within CCP 302. The agent browser 307 is directed to an entry point web page for on-line help service 311, or as provided by web server 113 or an equivalent external web server. The agent can tunnel through a directory of help items or use search tools implemented by the entry point web page. Alternatively, the agent browser 307 automatically supplies context information indicating the state of the current interaction. In this alternative, web server 113 is configured to use the supplied context information to provide context-sensitive help in the form of selected web pages .

An optional feature of the present invention involves the use of an incremental training component integrated with the customer-centric platform 104. Agent training is a significant component of a operating an effective customer interaction center. The multi-channel interaction features of the present invention make training even more significant. Any given agent may be trained to support some subset of the available interaction channels. By providing additional training an agent's capabilities can be increased over time to provide greater productivity.

Training is conventionally provided in a classroom or laboratory setting at a prescheduled time. During this time the agent is taken away from productive work, so it is beneficial to minimize the time required. Desirably, the training time is scheduled based on the agent ' s work load. Because training is disruptive, most training regimens attempt to cover a wide range of topics and techniques in a single session. This is often a less than efficient manner to conduct training.

Fig. 5 shows a conceptual flow diagram illustrating conventional operation on the left (i.e., supporting customer interaction) as well as incremental training operation on the right. Interaction requests are received from network appliances at step 501 substantially continuously. Each interaction request is associated with the interaction channel or channels used by the customer generating the request.

At step 502 routing is performed to couple a particular incoming request to a particular agent. Step 502 involves routing the interaction to an agent that is capable of handing the associated interaction channel . For example, an agent trained only in voice interaction should not be the recipient of email or chat interaction channels. The customer relationship management database (CRM dB) , includes a mapping shown in Fig. 6 that creates an association between each port (i.e., each agent machine 105) , the state of the agent machine, and a capabilities vector of the agent currently using the agent machine 105. The state information includes information indicating whether the agent is busy, duration of the current interaction, and similar information about the current status of the agent. The capabilities vector indicates the capabilities of the agent (e.g., email, chat, web- based, or other trained capabilities) . The capabilities vector may also include information about particular skills possessed by the agent such as a familiarity with PC operating system issues, customer relationship skills, foreign language skills, and the like.

The mapping shown in FIG. 6 is a conceptual illustration only. The actual data structures or structures that implement mapping 600 are readily implemented in a variety of forms such as tables, relational databases, object-oriented databases and the like. Mapping 600 may be implemented in customer relationship management database (CRM dB) 123 or other available data storage device. In step 502, the mapping shown in FIG. 6 is checked to match the availability and capabilities of an agent to the interaction request received in step 501. Step 502 may involve queuing a request to wait for a particular agent, for example an agent that has previously interacted with the customer.

Once an agent is selected, an interaction is launched in step 503 by sending a message including the interaction type or interaction channel to the CCP instance of the selected agent's computer 105. CCP 104 launches the appropriate interface (e.g., as shown in FIG. 4) and the transaction is conducted in step 504. For the duration of step 504 the status information in the mapping shown in Fig. 6 is modified to indicate that the agent is busy. Upon conclusion of the interaction the status information is updated to an available state in step 505 and where appropriate CRM dB 123 is updated with information reflecting the status of the interaction to support future transactions. In steps 503 and 504 the interaction status may be accessed by CCP 105 to provide the agent with useful historical information.

Independently, a incremental training segment is scheduled in step 507 for one or more agents. The incremental training schedule may comprise multiple training increments or segments that are scheduled at one time to guide an agent through a training program. The training schedule may specificity a particular agent or a group of agents for which training is desired. At step 502, CTI services 108 treats a scheduled training increment as an incoming interaction request that is routed to the specified agent or to a member of the specified group of agents instead of an incoming interaction request from step 501.

In step 508 the training segment is initiated by, for example, launching browser 307 and directing the browser 307 to a web page or series of web pages identified by a uniform resource locator (URL) specified in step 508. The training may be conducted at the agent's machine 105 using live multimedia content or pre-stored web pages. In a particular example the training regimen includes on-line evaluation and testing to verify the effectiveness of the training increment. Alternatively, incremental training is initiated with a simple email message that instructs the agent to go to a training classroom or laboratory for more conventional training.

In either case, as training is conducted in step 509, the status information is modified to indicate the agent's busy status. As a training increment is completed, the status information is changed in step 510 to indicate agent availability, and when appropriate the capabilities vector is automatically updated in step 511 to reflect the newly trained capabilities of the agent. In this manner, as soon as the agent ' s training is completed, the newly acquired skills can be put to use in taking new interaction types. Because of the tight integration of training with normal operation of the customer interaction system, CTI services 108 is continuously aware of the training state of each agent and can actually preferentially route interactions involving the recently trained material to a newly trained agent to reinforce the training. The system in accordance with the present invention enables training as needed in a scheduled, coordinated fashion with minimal impact to the agent and customer interaction center.

Although the invention has been described and illustrated with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of example, and that numerous changes in the combination and arrangement of parts can be resorted to by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as hereinafter claimed.

Claims

WE CLAIM:

1. A method of providing customer care management services comprising: providing a plurality of customer access channels configured to communicate customer requests, each access channel associated with a particular communication mode; providing a plurality of input/output (I/O) ports where each I/O port is configured to couple to one of the customer access channels; implementing an agent interface in a customer- centric platform executing on an agent computer, the agent interface comprising a plurality of panels; coupling the customer-centric platform to the I/O ports to receive a selected customer request; implementing at least one access mode invariant panel within the agent interface; implementing at least one access mode dependent panel within the agent interface; and supplying access mode-invariant content to the agent interface for display in the access mode invariant panel.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of supplying access mode-invariant content further comprises coupling a shared customer care database to the agent computers, wherein the customer centric platform accesses the shared database to draw customer profile information from the shared database into the access mode-invariant components in the user interface and supply information to the shared database .

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of supplying access mode-invariant content further comprises retrieving profile data from a third party data source.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing access mode invariant content comprises supplying customer interaction scripts for display in the access mode invariant components .

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing web browser software within the access mode dependent panel .

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising initiating a co-browse session by causing a customer's computer to execute program code that gives the browser navigational control over the customer's computer.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing an electronic mail client within the access mode dependent panel .

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing an electronic chat client within the access mode dependent panel .

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of coupling the customer-centric platform to the CTI services to receive a selected customer request further comprises communicating an indicia of the particular access mode associated with the selected customer request .

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the at least one access mode dependent panel is implemented in a self- configuring fashion in response to the communicated indicia.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising: implementing a control in the access mode invariant panel having an action associated therewith for launching a help function module; in response to selecting the control, launching a web browser software module; and directing the web browser software module to obtain a web page corresponding to an entry point into a help database .

12. A customer care management agent implemented in an agent computer, the agent comprising: a first interface for receiving a customer request, wherein the customer request includes indicia of an access mode associated with the request; a second interface for communicating with a customer care database storing customer profile information and customer interaction scripts; an agent interface configured to display dynamically selected content to a customer care agent; an access mode dependent area within the agent interface and displaying a first set of content associated with a current customer request; and an access mode independent area within the agent interface and displaying a second set of content selected from the customer care database, wherein the second set of content is selected irrespective of the current access mode .

13. The agent of claim 12 wherein the access mode dependent area includes format, arrangement and content

^• selected based upon the value of the indicia of the access mode.

14. The agent of claim 12 wherein the access mode dependent area comprises a web browser.

15. The agent of claim 12 wherein the access mode dependent area comprises an electronic mail client.

16. The agent of claim 12 wherein the access mode dependent area comprises an electronic chat client.

17. The agent of claim 12 further comprising means for accessing a third party service to obtain profile data corresponding to the customer generating the customer request .

18. A customer care management system comprising: a computer telephony interface unit having access ports receiving externally generated requests over a plurality of available communication modes; a plurality of agent computers coupled to the interface unit and configured to receive externally generated requests over each of the available communication modes; a first request from a customer generated over a first of the available communication modes; means for receiving the first request in one of the agent computers, wherein the receiving agent computer configures its agent interface in response to the communication mode of the first request; responding to the first request; state information about the first request stored in a shared database such that the state information is associated with the customer; a second request from the customer, the second request being generated over a second of the available communication modes; means for receiving the second request in one of the agent computers, wherein the receiving agent computer configures its agent interface in response to the communication mode of the second request; and means for retrieving state information related to the customer from the shared database to aid in responding to the second request .

19. A method for providing incremental training to agents in a customer interaction center comprising: receiving interaction requests from customers through a network interface; monitoring availability of each of the agents; associating each agent with information indicating the associated agent's capabilities; storing an incremental training schedule specifying a training segment desired for one or more agents; generating a training initialization request based on the specified training schedule; routing both the interaction requests and the training initialization request to selected agents based on agent availability; and upon completion of a training segment by an agent, updating the information indicating the associated agent's capabilities to reflect completion of the training segment .

20. The method of claim 19 wherein each interaction request specifies agent capabilities desired to satisfy the request and the step of routing is performed so as to route interaction requests to agents with capabilities matching the agent capabilities specified in the interaction request.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising: in response to receiving a routed training initialization request, launching a web browser session between the agent and a web server having access to training material web pages associated with the training segment .

22. A method of providing customer care management services comprising: providing a plurality of customer access channels configured each access channel associated with a particular communication mode; implementing an agent interface executing on an agent computer, the agent interface comprising at least one access mode invariant portion and at least one access mode dependent portion; and coupling the agent interface to one or more of the customer access channels to receive a selected customer request .