Advanced Routing

Any routing rules, for any media, for realtime deployment

Advanced routing capabilities

Inbound routing decisions can often be made on the basis of readily available data – originating address, destination address, length of queue, SLA status, etc. But sometimes a decision requires looking beyond the basics to a wide range of other data. To achieve this, Softdial Pathfinder™ offers advanced routing capabilities, allowing highly complex rules and conditions to be applied to session flow for all media channels.

Using Python scripts or DLL files created in C#, Pathfinder can:

  1. query an external source
  2. perform some calculations on the returned result
  3. use the final result either
    • as a metric for decision making, or
    • to compare against other information it has configured in its rules.

In our example, the following steps are taken by Pathfinder to route the session to the correct destination:

  • Pathfinder takes the inbound session’s origin phone number (CLI) and passes it to an external DLL plugin. If the session were of another media channel such as email or SMS the customer’s phone number or email address could be used to identify the customer and lookup data.
  • Pathfinder uses a DLL plugin to perform a series of queries against external data sources to collect information. The queries return a set of values which are exposed to the Pathfinder evaluations.
  • The evaluation uses the data from the queries to compare with parameters defined by a system administrator. For example:
    • Does the customer have one or more bills overdue by 3 months or more?
    • Does the customer’s total outstanding balance exceed £200?
  • The queries can also check to verify:
    • Is the customer aged under 35?
    • Is the customer from the northern region of the country?
  • If any of the conditions above return ‘false’, Pathfinder ends the evaluations and the session will be processed following the default rules defined within the Softdial configuration database.
  • If all query conditions return ‘true’, Pathfinder will receive an array of agents from the plugin. The array will be in order of most suitable agent for the session. Pathfinder then provides the Softdial session routing engine with this list and the session is passed to the most suitable agent.

 

Pathfinder utilising external query results to route sessions
Pathfinder utilising external query results to route sessions

See also ...

Optimised Inbound Routing

Smart rules and ‘best-available’ decisions to drive great customer service

Skills-Based Routing

Choosing the best agent for the session

Preferred Routing

Personalisation is one of the most important factors in delivering first class customer service

Softdial Pathfinder™

Simple building blocks to allow the development of any kind of routing rules, for any media, for realtime deployment

Advanced Routing Examples

Five use case examples showing how Pathfinder may be used to optimise the customer experience