Businesses use contact centers that include automated systems and representatives of the business to process transactions and/or service the needs of their customers. Contact centers may use a number of communication channels to engage the customers, such as telephone, email, live web chat, and the like.
An interaction from a customer such as, for example, an inbound voice call, is routed to a contact center target, such as, for example, a contact center agent, for processing. In simplest terms, routing is a process of sending the interaction to the target, such as, for example, sending an incoming telephone call or an incoming e-mail, to an agent. In practice, many steps are taken between the arrival of the interaction and the selection and use of a target. Generally speaking, not all interactions should go to the same target; choices should be made in order to determine the best target for each interaction. Each choice-point is an opportunity to make a decision based on the current situation—with the general goal of getting the interaction delivered to the right target.