Method and apparatus for identifying and contacting customers who are due for a visit but have not scheduled an appointment
First Claim
1. A method for attempting to schedule an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, comprising the steps of:
- a) querying the office management system to determine a first class of customers whose appointments have not been scheduled despite reminding the customer at least once to schedule the appointment,b) prompting the one or more persons to make a first personal contact with a customer in the first class of customers by a predetermined means to attempt to schedule the appointment for the customer,c) personally contacting the customer to attempt to schedule the appointment, the personal contact being made by at least one of the one or more persons using the predetermined means,d) noting the results of the first personal contact, ande) noting the time of step d).
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for identifying and contacting customers who have not responded to reminders to schedule a return appointment, or who are due for a visit according to accepted standards of care or office policies, but have not scheduled an appointment. A management database is queried to determine which customers have failed to respond to recall notices. The resulting list of customers may be sorted or filtered so that some customers are preferentially contacted first, based on expected value or office preferences. The list may also be sorted or filtered to fill specific providers'"'"' schedules first. Customer names and contact information are then presented to schedulers so that customers may be contacted. The time and date of each contact is automatically recorded along with the outcome of the contact. A customer name is presented to a scheduler only if the same name is not being simultaneously presented to other schedulers and that customer was not too recently contacted, so that redundant or too frequent contacts are avoided.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A method for attempting to schedule an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, comprising the steps of:
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a) querying the office management system to determine a first class of customers whose appointments have not been scheduled despite reminding the customer at least once to schedule the appointment, b) prompting the one or more persons to make a first personal contact with a customer in the first class of customers by a predetermined means to attempt to schedule the appointment for the customer, c) personally contacting the customer to attempt to schedule the appointment, the personal contact being made by at least one of the one or more persons using the predetermined means, d) noting the results of the first personal contact, and e) noting the time of step d). - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for attempting to schedule an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, the office management system describing each customer and appointment according to one or more attributes which influence profitability or office preferences, comprising the steps of:
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a) querying the office management system to determine a first class of customers whose appointments have not been scheduled despite reminding the customer at least once to schedule the appointment, b) sorting the first class of customers according to customer and appointment attributes, so that all customers whose appointments are more profitable or preferable are presented for contact before customers with less profitable or preferable attributes, c) prompting the one or more persons to personally contact a customer belonging to the first class of customers by a predetermined means to attempt to schedule the appointment for the customer, d) personally contacting the customer to attempt to schedule the appointment, the personal contact being made using the predetermined means by at least one of the one or more persons, e) noting the results of the contact, and f) noting the time of step d). - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for attempting to schedule an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, comprising the steps of:
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a) querying the office management system to determine a first class of customers who are due back for a visit according to accepted standards of care or office policies, but have not been scheduled for an appointment, b) prompting the one or more persons to make a first personal contact with a customer in the first class of customers by a predetermined means to attempt to schedule the appointment for the customer, c) personally contacting the customer to attempt to schedule the appointment, the personal contact being made by at least one of the one or more persons using the predetermined means, d) noting the results of the first personal contact, and e) noting the time of step d). - View Dependent Claims (18)
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19. A method for attempting to schedule an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, the office management system describing each customer and appointment according to one or more attributes which influence profitability or office preferences, comprising the steps of:
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a) querying the office management system to determine a first class of customers who are due back for a visit according to accepted standards of care or office policies, but have not been scheduled for an appointment, b) sorting the first class of customers according to customer and appointment attributes, so that all customers whose appointments are more profitable or preferable are presented for contact before customers with less profitable or preferable attributes, c) prompting the one or more persons to personally contact a customer belonging to the first class of customers by a predetermined means to attempt to schedule the appointment for the customer, d) personally contacting the customer to attempt to schedule the appointment, the personal contact being made using the predetermined means by at least one of the one or more persons, e) noting the results of the contact, and f) noting the time of step d). - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An apparatus for attempting to schedule an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, the apparatus comprising:
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a) a computer programmed to query the office management system to determine a first class of customers whose appointments have not been scheduled despite reminding the customer at least once to schedule the appointment, b) a computer programmed to prompt the one or more persons to make a first personal contact with a customer in the first class of customers by a predetermined means to attempt to schedule the appointment for the customer, and c) a computer programmed to record the results and time of the first personal contact. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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30. An apparatus for attempting to schedule an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, comprising:
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a) a computer programmed to query the office management system to determine a first class of customers who are due back for a visit according to accepted standards of care or office policies, but have not been scheduled for an appointment, b) a computer programmed to prompt the one or more persons to make a first personal contact with a customer in the first class of customers by a predetermined means to attempt to schedule the appointment for the customer, c) a computer programmed to record the results and time of the first personal contact. - View Dependent Claims (31)
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32. An apparatus for attempting to schedule an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, the office management system describing each customer and appointment according to one or more attributes which influence profitability or office preferences, comprising:
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a) a computer programmed to query the office management system to determine a first class of customers whose appointments have not been scheduled despite reminding the customer at least once to schedule the appointment, b) a computer programmed to sort the first class of customers according to customer and appointment attributes, so that all customers whose appointments are more profitable or preferable are presented for contact before customers with less profitable or preferable attributes, c) a computer programmed to prompt the one or more persons to personally contact a customer belonging to the first customer characteristic class by a predetermined means to attempt to schedule the appointment for the customer, and d) a computer programmed to record the results and time of the contact. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. An apparatus for attempting to schedule an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, the office management system describing each customer and appointment according to one or more attributes which influence profitability or office preferences, comprising:
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a) a computer programmed to query the office management system to determine a first class of customers who are due back for a visit according to accepted standards of care or office policies, but have not been scheduled for an appointment, b) a computer programmed to sort the first class of customers according to customer and appointment attributes, so that all customers whose appointments are more profitable or preferable are presented for contact before customers with less profitable or preferable attributes, c) a computer programmed to prompt the one or more persons to personally contact a customer belonging to the first customer characteristic class by a predetermined means to attempt to schedule the appointment for the customer, and d) a computer programmed to record the results and time of the contact. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. An apparatus for attempting to schedule an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, the apparatus comprising:
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a) means for querying the office management system to determine a first class of customers whose appointments have not been scheduled despite reminding the customer at least once to schedule the appointment, b) means for prompting the one or more persons to make a first personal contact with a customer in the first class of customers by a predetermined means to attempt to schedule the appointment for the customer, and c) means for recording the results and time of the first personal contact.
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Specification