WO2012069600A1

WO2012069600A1 - Method for playing a sequence of audio contents as waiting message, and call centre system

Info

Publication number: WO2012069600A1
Application number: PCT/EP2011/070964
Authority: WO
Inventors: Francois Pelen
Original assignee: Pmt
Priority date: 2010-11-24
Filing date: 2011-11-24
Publication date: 2012-05-31
Also published as: EP2643979A1

Abstract

A method for playing a sequence of audio contents as waiting message of a private automatic branch exchange (PABX) (10), the PABX - being able to receive incoming calls from a telephonic network (30) and to put them on hold, - the PABX being connected to an advertisement management server (20), storing a set of audio contents (A1,A2,...) being recorded audio messages, the method comprising the steps of: (a) creating a template sequence message (S) at the advertisement management server (20), - said template sequence message (S) comprising a plurality of successive slots (S1, S2,... ) able to receive an audio content; (b) sending the template sequence message (S) and the set (A) of audio contents to the PABX; (c) for each incoming call received and placed on hold by the PABX, performing the steps of: (c1 ) organizing the set (A) of audio contents in a random order; (c2) inserting the successive audio contents (A1, A2,... ) respectively in the successive slots (S1, S2,...) of the template sequence message (S) according to the random order; and (c3) playing the completed template sequence message (S*) in which the audio cotents have been inserted as long as the incoming call is on hold.

Description

Method for playing a sequence of audio contents as waiting message, and call centre system

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention concerns systems implementing On-Hold messaging like call centre systems.

More precisely, the invention relates to a method for playing a sequence of advertisements or other types of non-advertised/sponsored contents as waiting message of a private automatic branch exchange (PABX).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Lots of companies, including for exam ple telephone providers, internet providers, stores, public organisms, etc. dispose of telephonic hotlines. These hotlines enable the users to ask for support, information, and various services.

These hotlines (also called helpdesks), which are operated in dedicated places named call centres, can be a dedicated service of a company or a dedicated entity large enough to receive simultaneously thousands of calls (Some hotlines receive more than 120 millions calls a year). However, when a user calls, after having chosen the service he wants to reach, he often has to wait a few minutes: it may be up to an interlocutor could take his call, or up to his call could be transferred to another interlocutor if needed, or by the time the interlocutor works on his case, etc.

Indeed, most of call centres are PABX-based (Private Automatic Branch exchange, i.e. a telephone switch which directs telephone calls). When a user dials the hotline telephone number, his call reaches the (or one of the) PABX of the call centre. At this point, if an interlocutor is available, the PABX directs the call towards this interlocutor, else the calling user is queued and put on hold as already explained.

During this waiting time, whose average length can be estimated to 3-4 m inutes, music is generally played to entertain the user, this music being possibly punctuated by standard messages announcing for example that an interlocutor will respond soon. Furthermore, some corporate hotlines broadcast information related to their services or upcoming products.

These music/messages are actually one or more recorded audio file: a PABX can store and play in a loop mp3 files, the users being connected to these audio files when put on standby. Alternatively, some PABX can listen to an external audio flow and play it, thus some hotlines continuously transmit the radio or a CD, or audio flows corresponding to advertisements about products of the company owning the hotline. A PABX may even be completed by a "Music On Hold" server, an equipment which delivers an audio flow to the PABX from various sources, including streaming via internet.

So millions of hours are wasted every year while waiting for a hotline to respond.

It cou ld be i nteresti ng to p lay, d u ri ng th is wa iti ng ti m e , advertisements of the type of those which can be heard at radio. These radio advertisements are in the form of 15-30 seconds commercials, played at moments of the day chosen by the announcers.

However, as the waiting time of a telephonic hotline does not exceed a few m inutes, the number of advertisements which can effectively be played to a user is relatively low. Moreover, as soon as the hotline is available, the on hold m ode is stopped , and the currently played advertisement is cut: the advertisements shall not increase the waiting time. To attract the announcers the six following objectives should be met:

- the advertisements shall not be caught in the middle, or if it happens, the system shall take into account the handicap of broadcasting a portion of the audio content - their frequency of apparition shall be controlled (in time and number),

- the set of advertisements shall regularly change

- the advertisement shall touch an individual rather than a group (e.g. radio).

- The announcer may be able to interact with the calling user through promotional announces

- The time between the different ads may be fillable by music or other type of content

Yet, as already explained, a PABX is only able to continuously play an audio flux, and not to adapt it specifically to every user. So a PABX is not suitable as such for playing advertisements.

There is a need for a m ethod enabl ing to play a sequence of advertisements or other types of non-advertised/sponsored contents as waiting message of a private automatic branch exchange. In particular, the invention aims at meeting the six objectives mentioned above. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention proposes in a first aspect a method for playing a sequence of audio contents as waiting message of an at least one private automatic branch exchange (PABX)

- said PABX being connected to a telephonic network and being able to receive incoming calls from said telephonic network and to put them on hold,

- the PABX being connected to an advertisement management server,

- a s et of audio contents be i ng stored i nto th e advertisement management server,

- each audio contents being a recorded audio message, characterized in that said method comprises the steps of: (a) creating a template sequence message at the advertisement management server,

- said template sequence message comprising a plurality of successive slots,

- each slot being able to receive an audio content;

(b) sending the template sequence message and the set of audio contents to the PABX;

(c) for each incoming call received by the PABX and placed on hold by the PABX, performing the steps of:

(c1 ) organizing the set of audio contents in a random order so as to allocate to each audio content a rank in said order;

(c2) inserting the successive audio content respectively in the success ive s lots of the tem p late sequence message, according to their rank in order;

(c3) playing the completed template sequence message in which the audio content have been inserted, with an audio player software of the PABX server as long as the incoming call is on hold.

Preferred but non limiting features of the present invention are as follow:

• the at least one PABX is completed by a local "music on hold" server,

- the advertisement management server (20) being connected to the PABX through said MOH server,

- the MOH server being adapted to:

- receive the template sequence message and the set of audio contents at step (b),

- perform the steps (c1 ) and (c2), and

- provide with the completed template sequence message as an audio flux the PABX for playing it at step (c3);

• the at least one PABX is provided with an improved audio player software, the improved audio player software being the audio player software adapted to: - receive the template sequence message and the set of audio contents at step (b),

- perform the steps (c1 ) and (c2), and

- directly play the completed template sequence message at step (c3);

• the set of audio contents may comprises several times the same audio content, the organizing of step (c1 ) being performed so that two identical audio contents are not directly following in order;

• the step (c1 ) consists in organizing the set of audio contents in a random order so as to allocate to each audio content a rank in said order, checking whether there is at least one succession of two identical audio contents, and performing again the step if so;

• a list of audio contents to not play is provided for the at least one PABX, only the audio contents of the set which do not belong to said list being used at step (c);

• at least one audio content is provided with a playing time slot, the audio content being sent at step (b) only during its playing time slot;

• The method comprises a further step (c4) of sending back to the advertisement management server a set of statistical data including a list of audio content completely played during the step (c3) and/or a on hold duration value;

• the set of audio contents comprises at least one interactive audio content, the step (c3) comprising a substep (c3') of sending a notification to a remote server associated with the interactive audio content if a given number is dialled by the user performing the incoming call when the interactive audio content is played;

• the notification comprises the telephone number of the user performing the incoming call;

• a subset of the set of a audio contents is selected before performing the step (c1 ), the subset being adapted to the called entity and/or to the user performing the incoming call; • each advertisement of the set of audio contents is associated with a coefficient, each audio content being weighted according its coefficient so as to organize the set of audio contents in a weighted random order at step (c1 ).

The present invention proposes in a second aspect of the invention a call centre system , comprising at least one private automatic branch exchange (PABX) connected to a telephonic network and able to receive incoming calls from said telephonic network, the PABX being connected to an advertisement management server, characterized in that it implements a method according to the first aspect of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above, and other objects, features and advantages of this invention, will be apparent in the following detailed description of which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:

- Figure 1 represents a first em bodiment of a call centre system according to an aspect of the invention;

- Figure 2 represents a second embodiment of a call centre system according to an aspect of the invention;

- Figure 3 represents a third embodiment of a call centre system according to an aspect of the invention;

- Figure 4 represents steps of an embodiment of the method according to an aspect of the invention;

- Figure 5 represents steps of another embodiment of the method according to an aspect of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The method for playing a sequence of audio contents as waiting message according to the invention is implemented by at least one private automatic branch exchange (PABX) 10 (or any equivalent system), as represented by figure 1 . It is to be understood that the audio contents may be i n particu lar advertisem ents , but also other types of non- advertised/sponsored contents, as already explained. As an example, in the following description the audio contents will be referred as advertisements, but any embodiment of the method according to the invention is not limited to this particular type of audio contents, and a man skilled in the art will know how to adapt the invention to any set of audio contents to be played.

The PABX 10, for example located in a call centre 1 , is connected to a telephonic network 30. This telephonic network may be a classical telephonic network (PSTN, i.e. Public Switched Telephonic Network), or alternatively a IP-based network (VoIP, i.e., Voice over Internet Protocol). In this second case, specifics PABX called IP-PABX may be used. As already explained, a PABX 10 (or an IP-PABX) is able to receive incoming calls from the telephonic network 30 and to put them on hold if needed.

The PABX 10 being connected to an advertisement management server 20. As explained previously, this server is called advertisement m anagement server for the sake of understand ing , and it is to be understood that this server 20 is able manage any type of audio content. This server 20 may be located far from the PABX 1 0, for example in a datacenter. They are advantageously linked through the internet network 40. The advertisement management server 20 acts as an on-line advertising authority when some of the audio contents are advertisements: the server 20 stores a set A of advertisements A1 , A2, etc., each one of these advertisement having been provided by an announcer which wants its advertisement to be broadcast on one of more selected hotlines. For example, a company of videogames should be interested in hotlines of internet providers, as calling users have a computer. Each advertisement of the set A is a recorded audio message. The invention is not limited to any type of equipment for the advertisement management server 20.

From the set A of audio contents stored in the server 20, a plurality of waiting messages playable by the PABX 10 shall be built to avoid the overbroadcasting of some advertisements with respect to the others. However, as explained, a PABX 10 is only able to listen to an audio flow and play it as waiting message to an on-hold user. The method according to this invention provides a new waiting message for each new calling user.

Building of the advertising waiting message

In a first step, a template sequence message S is created at the advertisement management server 20. This template sequence message S is an audio file, for example a mp3 file, comprising a plurality of successive slots S1 , S2, etc.: each slot is able to receive an advertisement A1 , A2, ... or another content.

Advantageously, the length of each advertisement is calibrated (for example they have a given length of 15 seconds). In this case, the slots S1 , S2, etc., are blanks having the given length.

Moreover, the tem plate sequence message S may com prise additional audio messages between slots. These additional audio messages are for exam ple standard hotline messages (remaining waiting time, message about the Hotline owner, "Thank you for waiting, your call will be taken in a little while"... ).

The template sequence message S and the set A of advertisements are then sent to the PABX 10, the set A being advantageously checked by the company owning the hotline using the PABX 10, as the company may refuse some advertisements according to its pol icy, particularly the advertisements of its competitors. This step of sending the set A and the template sequence message is regularly performed, for example once a day, to update the template sequence message S and the set A of advertisements.

Besides, one or more advertisements may be advantageously provided by announcers with respective playing time slots, for example "18h-22h, from Monday to Friday", if there want to target specific customers, an advertisement being sent to the PABX 10 only during its playing time slot. In a second step, performed for each incoming call received by the PABX 10 and placed on hold, a new playable waiting message is build.

To this end, the set A of advertisements is organized in a random order so as to allocate to each advertisement Ai a rank R_A, (see figure 4) in said order. I n other words, the advertisements are reshuffled . The successive advertisements {Ai} are thus inserted respectively in the successive slots S1 , S2 , etc., of the template sequence message S, according to their rank R_A, in order. The completed template sequence message S^* in which the advertisements A1 , A2, etc. have been inserted can finally be played with an audio player software of the PABX 10 as long as the incoming call is on hold.

By perform i ng such random reorgan ization of the set A of advertisements, their frequency of apparition is balanced thanks to the law of large numbers. Besides, the set A of advertisements may comprise several times the same advertisement, for example if an announcer wants to raise the frequency of apparition of an advertisement. Advantageously, for avoiding playing twice the same advertisement for the same user, the step of randomly reordering the set A of advertisements is performed so that two identical advertisements are separated by a minimum number of other advertisements, or are at least not directly following in order. A solution to this problem is for example to check after the reordering step whether there is at least one succession of two identical advertisements (or whether there are two identical advertisements which are too close), and performing again the step if so.

Alternatively, it can be decided that each advertisement is included only once in the set A (to avoid playing twice the same advertisement for the same user). To this end, each advertisement is advantageously associated with a coefficient (Wi) representing a "weight".

Indeed, contrary to the first embodiment in which the performed random reorganization of the set A of advertisements may be described as a "simple random sampling without replacement" (SRSWOR) in which there is equiprobability to pick any advertisement for a given rank ( p =— , where N is the number of advertisements in the set A), weighted advertisements have not equal chances to be selected.

Wi

As an example, it may be decided that p(Ai) =— (by analogy,

∑ ,

it can be considered that the first embodiment is a particular case in which the coefficient of each advertisement is 1 ).

In other words, the more the weight of a given advertisement is high with respect to other advertisements, the more the probability of selecting this advertisement is high, and therefore the more this advertisement is likely to be played early and/or often.

Thus, weight values are advantageously set according to frequencies of apparition wished by announcers, and the set A of advertisements A1 , A2, ... is organized in a weighted random order according to the coefficient W1 , W2 of each advertisement A1 , A2, ...

The we i g ht va l ues are advantageous ly ca lcu lated at the advertisement server 20, and sent to the PABX 1 0 with the set A. Alternatively, they may be calculated at the PABX (or at the MOH server 1 1 that will be described later). In this second case, the Weights values can be calculated based on frequencies of apparition at an individual Call Center level or at a plurality of Call Centers, in order to make real time adjustment: for example, if the real frequency of apparition of a given advertisement is found below/above a frequency of apparition set by the announcer because of multiple unfavourable random reorganizations, its weight value can be consequently increased/decreased the next day to redress the situation. Whatever the random reorganization method chosen, PABX are however not always provided with functionalities enabling them to perform modifications of the template sequence message S.

I n th is case, the invention provides embodiments enabling to overcome this problem.

AoH server As represented by figure 1 , the at least one PABX 1 0 may be completed by a local "music on hold" (MOH) server 1 1 , this MOH server 1 1 acting as an "advertisement on hold" server. Indeed, as already explained, a MOH server 1 1 is an equipment able to deliver audio flows, and a PABX 10 is able to listen and play an audio flow.

A MOH server 1 1 may for example comprise in a server casing a processor, RAM memory, a storage hard drive, a plurality of Ethernet connectors, an operating system , a stream ing media server software ("lcecast", for example), and advantageously a media streaming management software, and an encryption software.

Generally placed close to the PABX 10, the MOH server 1 1 acts as an interface between the advertisement management server 20 and the PABX 10. Thus, the MOH server 1 1 receives the template sequence message S and the set A of advertisements (and the weight coefficients W1 , W2, ... if applicable) when sent by the advertisement management server 20, performs for each calling user the steps of building the completed sequence message S^*, and provides with this completed template sequence message S^* as an audio flux the PABX 10 for playing it.

Besides, a single MOH server 1 1 can supply a plurality of PABX 10 with advertising audio flows, and the advertisement managing server 20 can itself supply a plurality of MOH servers 1 1 . Indeed, a call centre 1 often hosts much more than one hotline. In the architecture represented by figure 3, a call centre 1 comprises a first PABX 10a and a second PABX 10b (It should be noted that a single physical PABX is sometimes able to manage more than one hotline, and thus to act as a plurality of PABX. In such a case each hotline is managed by a "virtual" PABX 10. So, PABX 10a and 10b of the example could be two virtual entities within a single PABX equipment). They are both connected to the telephonic network 30, and are used for two different hotlines: if a user calls for telephonic hotline of company a, its call will reach PABX 10a, and if he calls for telephonic hotline of company β, its call will reach PABX 10b. Both PABX are connected to the MOH server 1 1 , which provides them with completed sequence message respectively S^*a and S^*b.

However, companies a and β may be very different companies, although they share the same set A of advertisements. For example, companies a and β may be respectively an internet provider and a car constructor: a will accept car advertisements but not β. So, a list L- of advertisements to not play is advantageously provided for at least one PABX 10, this list containing for example car advertisements for PABX 10b. Thus, only the advertisements of the set A which do not belong to said list L- being organized and inserted into the template sequence message S destined to this PABX 10 (See figure 5).

AoH software Alternatively the PABX 10 is provided with an improved audio player software, and the advertisement management server 20 is directly linked with the PABX 10.

Thus, the possible m issing functional ities of the PABX 1 0 are integrated in this improved audio player software. Thus, when improved, the audio player software becomes adapted to receive the template sequence message S and the set A of advertisements sent by the advertisement management server 20, then to perform the steps of building the completed sequence messages S^*, and finally to directly play it. In such configuration, The PABX 10 is in direct interface the advertisement management server 20, and there is no more problems of advertisements sharing. Moreover, the cost of a MOH server is saved. However, modifications of an embedded software imply to conclude an agreement with the PABX's constructor.

Multiple PABX

It should be understood that not only the number of PABX 10 (and therefore the num ber of MOH servers 1 1 if applicable) that a single advertisement management server 20 can supply is not limited, but also the more the number of PABX 10 is high the more the method according to the invention is efficient. Indeed, even if a substantial list L- of advertisements to not p lay i s prov ided for each PABX 1 0 , the s ize of the set A of advertisement to be constituted only slowly increases with the number of PABX, and rapidly reaches a threshold value.

As an example, given a case in which one advertisement out of two played by a given PABX 1 0 is not accepted by another PABX 10, in the following table are represented the theoretical numbers of required advertisements as a function of the number of PABX 1 0 for having 100 accepted advertisements:

As it can be seen, from eight PABX 1 0 the number of required advertisements statistically does not more raise. In other words, from a given threshold size of the set A of advertisements, there is no more limit on the number K of PABX 10 simultaneously manageable. The advertisement management server 20 has indeed just to sequentially build K complete sequence messages S^* (each being adapted to the policy of the company using one of the K PABX 10) between two consecutive updates (generally once a day), which is not computationally significant even for values of K of the order of thousands. Moreover, the step of send i ng the set of advertisements can be shared and performed only once. When the number of PABX 10 connected to the same advertisement management server 20 is sufficient, it becomes possible to relevantly refine the advertisement selection by adapting more specifically each set of advertisements selected for being inserted in the template sequence message S intended to a given PABX 10 to the type of the company using the PABX, for example by including or excluding according to content policies affected to the target PABX 10.

Indeed, known telephone advertising strategies aims at identifying better the identity of the target user (in our case the calling user put on hold), and personalizing the choice of advertisements to be played to him. If applied to the method according to the invention, it would bring high com plexity, in particular if there are many PABX 1 0 sim ultaneously managed.

To the contrary, the method according to the invention proposes as explained to adapt the sequence of advertisement to be played not to the calling user (as it was taught by prior art) but to the called company. For example, in the case where companies a and β are respectively an internet provider and a car constructor, advertisements related to videogames could be preferentially played for user calling for telephonic hotline of company a (because people having an internet connection have a computer, and are therefore likely to be interested in videogames), whereas advertisements related to supermarkets (because they are generally only reachable by car) could be preferentially played for user calling for telephonic hotline of company β.

Advantageously, this information may enable to selected a subset A' of the set A before building the completed sequence message S^*, the subset A' being adapted to the called entity (which is here the company whose hotline is called) and/or to the calling user. The advertisements of the set A' may thus be weighted in the step of random ly reorganizing the advertisement before inserting them (as already explained), in order to raise the probability that such advertisements to be played before the others, as represented by figure 5. Feedback

The on-hold duration cannot be predicted, and varies from one call to another. Only a variable part of the advertisements will thus be successfully and completely played. It should be interesting to monitor which advertisements are effectively played. Such a feedback is interesting both for the announcers and for the advertisement management server 20.

To this end, the method according to the invention may advantageously comprise a further step of sending back to the advertisement management server 20 a set of statistical data including a list L+ of advertisements partially and/or completely played during the waiting time and/or a on hold duration value D (See figure 4).

This step or sending back may be performed for example once a day, but real time reporting is also possible.

If the template sequence message S was for example made for average on-hold duration of 5 minutes, and if feedback shows a real on-hold duration D of 3 minutes, then it is possible to configure the advertisement management server 20 so that it modifies automatically the display policy and thus the length of S to ensure a correct balance. The feedback may also used for correcting weight values of some advertisements.

Besides, knowing each L+, it is possible to generate for example daily statistics on advertisements one by one. An announcer can thus know exactly how many times its advertisement has been fully played, and pay accordingly.

Interactive advertisements

Audio advertisements are generally passive advertisements: the delivered audio message for example presents a new product, or incites the user to buy, etc. The user is not proposed to do any commercial action. Advantageously, the set A of advertisements comprises at least one interactive advertisement, i.e. an active advertisement: as the user has in hand his phone, he may interact by pressing keys.

For example, the user may be told to press 1 if he wants to be called back by the company of the advertisement, or to press 2 if he wants to listen to a special offer, etc. In the case of his phone number being hidden, the user may be invited to dial his number if interested by further offers.

To enable this interactivity, a step of sending a notification to a remote server associated with the interactive advertisement is added if a given number is dialled by the user performing the incoming call when the interactive advertisement is played. The remote server may be a server of the company of the advertisement, the advertising management server 20, or any other equipment connected to the internet network 40. An URL of this remote server may be transferred to the MOH server 1 1 if any, the notification being first sent from the PABX 10 to the MOH server 1 1 , and then sent to the remote server knowing its address.

The notification comprises advantageously the telephone number of the calling user, provided by the PABX 10 if not hidden, and else dialled by the user as already described.

Moreover, some hotlines owners dispose of files listing their users.

For example, if the hotline owner is a telephone provider company, they are able to identify the calling user from its phone number. The interlocutor taking the call after the eventual waiting spot can thus have information about the calling user, and know before the beginning of the conversation for example which product he owns, why he called the last time, etc.

Crisis management

A company sometimes face a large scale event which could affect a significant number of its customers. For example, if an internet provider faces a power outage in a MDF (Main Distribution Frame), more than ten thousand users may simultaneously become unable to be connected to Internet. Such a "crisis" event generally leads to a massive number of nearly- simultaneous calls to the hotline of the involved company, each calling user being unaware of the global aspect of the breakdown. It causes immediate congestion of the hotline, and the waiting time of the users skyrockets.

To prevent this difficult situation which leads to dissatisfaction of users, the invention advantageously proposes a switchable "crisis mode". This mode is triggered at the advertisement management server 20 when a crisis event is detected. When activated, an audio message describing the current event is sent to the at least one PABX 10 of the involved company. In the case of the internet provider, an example of crisis audio message could be "We would like to inform our customers that a power outage is currently affecting the users located in the vicinity of... If you are in this situation, please be patient, the fixing of this situation by our teams is in progress. We apologize for the discomfort."

When the crisis mode is activated, the said crisis audio message is inserted in some or even each of the successive slots Si of the template sequence message S instead of advertisements. It can be done for example by assigning a huge weight (with respect to other advertisements) to this message.

Users which are cal ling the hotline are therefore im mediately informed of the incident and of its close resolution, and ring off if there were calling for this reason.

Call centre

According to a second aspect, the invention proposes a call centre system 1 , as represented by any of figures 1 to 3, comprising at least one PABX 1 0 connected to a telephonic network 30 and able to receive incom ing calls from said telephonic network 30, the PABX 10 being connected to an advertisement management server 20, the call centre implementing a method according to the first aspect of the invention.

As already explained, a call centre 1 often comprise a plurality of PABX 10 and provides hotlines for a plurality of companies. Thanks to the invention, advertisements can be played as waiting message for a plurality of hotlines with only a few servers, advantageously a single advertising management server 20 and a single MOH server 1 1 .

It should be noted that the invention is not limited to call centres, and not even to hotlines. For example, the method according to the invention can be used to play advertisement in any place visited by public, for example stores, car parks, swimming-pools, train stations, etc.

In such places public announcements are regularly made by the staff thanks to speakers, and between them radio is generally played. A basic PABX 10, possibly controlled by a MOH server 1 1 , is particularly suitable to perform such function, as it may be considering that there is constantly one incoming call which is on hold during periods between two announcements. Therefore, advertisements can be advantageously played instead of music in these public places thanks to the method according to the invention.

If the given place is large enough, it can be divided into a plurality of sectors (for example departments in the case of a store), which may be considered as d ifferent "Audio channel" of the MOH server local announcements may be done, and the choice of advertisements to be played may be locally adapted (for example, a distinction between the female and the male clothes departments may be useful in a store).

Claims

1. A method for playing a sequence of audio contents as waiting message of an at least one private automatic branch exchange (PABX) (10),

- said PABX (10) being connected to a telephonic network (30) and being able to receive incoming calls from said telephonic network (30) and to put them on hold,

- the PABX (10) being connected to an advertisement management server (20),

- a set (A) of audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) being stored into the advertisement management server (20),

- each audio content (A1 , A2, ... ) being a recorded audio message,

characterized in that said method comprises the steps of:

(a) creati ng a tem p l ate seq uence message (S) at t h e advertisement management server (20),

said template sequence message (S) comprising a plurality of successive slots (S1 , S2, ... ), each slot (S1 , S2, ... ) being able to receive an audio content (A1 , A2, ... );

(b) sending the template sequence message (S) and the set (A) of audio content (A1 , A2, ... ) to the PABX (10);

(c) for each incoming call received by the PABX (10) and placed on hold by the PABX (10), performing the steps of:

(c1 ) organizing the set (A) of audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) in a random order so as to allocate to each audio content (A1 , A2, ... ) a rank (R_Ai , RA2,■■■ ) in said order;

(c2) inserting the successive audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) respectively in the successive slots (S1 , S2, ... ) of the template sequence message (S), according to their rank (RAI , RA2, ... ) in order;

(c3) playing the completed template sequence message (S^*) in which the audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) have been inserted, with an audio player software of the PABX (10) server as long as the incoming call is on hold.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one PABX (10) is completed by at least one local "music on hold" (MOH) server (1 1 ),

- the advertisement management server (20) being connected to the PABX (10) through said MOH server (1 1 ),

- the MOH server (1 1 ) being adapted to:

- receive the template sequence message (S) and the set (A) of audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) at step (b),

- perform the steps (c1 ) and (c2), and

- provide with the completed template sequence message (S^*) as an audio flux the PABX (10) for playing it at step (c3).

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one PABX (10) is provided with an improved audio player software, the improved audio player software being the audio player software adapted to:

- perform the steps (c1 ) and (c2), and

- directly play the completed template sequence message (S^*) at step (c3).

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the set (A) of audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) may comprises several times the same audio content (A1 , A2, ... ), the organizing of step (c1 ) being performed so that two identical audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) are not directly following in order.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the step (c1 ) consists in organizing the set (A) of audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) in a random order so as to allocate to each audio content a rank (R_Ai , RA2, ■■■) in said order, checking whether there is at least one succession of two identical audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ), and performing again the step if so.

6. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a list

(L-) of audio contents to not play is provided for the at least one PABX (10), only the audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) of the set which do not belong to said list (L-) being used at step (c).

7. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein at least one audio content (A1 , A2, ... ) is provided with a playing time slot, the audio content (A1 , A2, ... ) being sent at step (b) only during its playing time slot.

8. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, comprising a further step (c4) of sending back to the advertisement management server (20) a set of statistical data including a list (L+) of audio contents completely played during the step (c3) and/or a on hold duration value (D).

9. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the set (A) of audio content s (A1 , A2, ... ) comprises at least one interactive audio content, the step (c3) comprising a substep (c3') of sending a notification to a remote server associated with the interactive audio content if a given number is dialled by the user performing the incoming call when the interactive audio content is played.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the notification comprises the telephone number of the user performing the incoming call.

11. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein a subset (Α') of the set (A) of audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) is selected before performing the step (c1 ), the subset (A) being adapted to the called entity and/or to the user performing the incoming call.

12. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 1 1 , wherein each audio content (A1 , A2, ... ) of the set (A) of audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) is associated with a coefficient (W1 , W2, ... ), each audio content (A1 , A2, ... ) being weighted according its coefficient (W1 , W2, ... ) so as to organize the set (A) of audio contents (A1 , A2, ... ) in a weighted random order at step (c1 ).

13. A call centre system (1 ), comprising at least one private automatic branch exchange (PABX) (10) connected to a telephonic network

(30) and able to receive incoming calls from said telephonic network (30), the PABX (10) being connected to an advertisement management server (20), characterized in that it implements a method according to any one of claims 1 to 12.