Contact centers with a call-back option and real-time delay information

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Armony, M; Maglaras, C
• 署名单位: New York University; Columbia University
• 刊物名称: OPERATIONS RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0030-364X
• DOI: 10.1287/opre.1040.0123
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 527-545
• 关键词: service networks; service level guarantees; multiclass queueing systems; call-back option; Call centers; Halfin-Whitt regime; real-time delay notification

摘要

Motivated by practices in customer contact centers, we consider a system that offers two modes of service: real-time and postponed with a delay guarantee. Customers are informed of anticipated delays and select their preferred option of service. The resulting system is a multiclass, multiserver queueing system with state-dependent, arrival rates. We propose an estimation scheme for the anticipated real-time delay that is asymptotically correct, and a routing policy that is asymptotically optimal in the sense that it minimizes real-time delay subject to the deadline of the postponed service mode. We also show that our proposed state-dependent scheme performs better than a system in which customers make decisions based on steady-state waiting-time information. Our results are derived using an, asymptotic analysis based on many-server limits for systems with state-dependent parameters.