Techniques for pairing contacts and agents in a contact center system

[0024]A typical task assignment system algorithmically assigns tasks arriving at a task assignment center to agents available to handle those tasks. At times, the task assignment center may be in an “L1 state” and have agents available and waiting for assignment to tasks. At other times, the task assignment center may be in an “L2 state” and have tasks waiting in one or more queues for an agent to become available for assignment. At yet other times, the task assignment system may be in an “L3 state” and have multiple agents available and multiple tasks waiting for assignment. An example of a task assignment system is a contact center system that receives contacts (e.g., telephone calls, internet chat sessions, emails, etc.) to be assigned to agents.

[0025]In some traditional task assignment centers, tasks are assigned to agents ordered based on time of arrival, and agents receive tasks ordered based on the time when those agents became available. This strategy may be referred to as a “f