Method and System for Customer Transaction Request Routing

• US 20090060165A1
• Filed: 09/18/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Compucredit Intellectual Property Holdings Corporation II
• Original Assignee: Compucredit Intellectual Property Holdings Corporation II
• Inventors: Dani, Pradeep Kumar, Gerber, Raymond
• Application Number:
  US11/856,817
• Publication Number:
  US 20090060165A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.130
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A system (100) and method (900) for routing customer transaction requests, such as electronic installment loan applications (101) is provided. The routing facilitates efficient workflow between a plurality of customer service centers (103, 104, 105) by generating a number within a predetermined range and associating it with the incoming customer transaction request. Each customer service center (103, 104, 105) has associated therewith a subset range of the predetermined range. A queue item builder (110) builds a queue item by querying a database (109) to determine to which customer service center (103, 104, 105) the customer transaction request is to be sent based upon the number and the subset ranges associated with each customer service center (103, 104, 105). A routing module (111) then directs the customer transaction request to the proper customer service center (103, 104, 105).

Claims

1. A method of routing customer transaction requests received over an electronic network to a customer service center selected from a plurality of customer service centers, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a customer transaction request over the electronic network from a client portal;

determining whether customer service assistance with the customer transaction request is required;

generating a number within a predetermined range;

associating the number with the customer transaction request;

associating at least a first subset of the predetermined range with a first customer service center, and associating at least a second subset of the predetermined range with a second customer service center; and

directing the customer transaction request to the first customer service center or the second customer service center based upon then number, the first subset and the second subset.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer transaction request comprises an on-line installment loan request.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of querying a database to determine a customer service center identification associated with one of the at least a first customer service center or the at least a second service center and associating the customer service center identification with the customer transaction request.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of building a queue routing item and associating the queue routing item with the customer transaction request.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of writing the queue item to a database as a customer transaction request associated field.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first customer service center and the second customer service center each comprise a plurality of customer service center cells, further comprising the step of directing the customer transaction request to one of the plurality of customer service center cells based upon the number.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer transaction request comprises an on-line installment loan request, further comprising the step of directing the customer transaction request to one of a pending offer queue or a pending verification queue upon directing the customer transaction request to the first customer service center or the second customer service center.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of electronically generating a prompt on a customer service representative terminal upon directing the customer transaction request to one of the pending offer queue or the pending verification queue.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of directing the customer transaction request to a customer service center terminal and moving the customer transaction request to a verification in process queue.

10. A system for use in routing customer transaction requests received over an electronic network to a customer service center selected from a plurality of customer service centers, the system comprising:

an electronic interface configured to receive the customer transaction requests;

an analyzer configured to determine whether customer assistance is required;

a number generator configured to assign numbers within a predetermined range to each of the customer transaction requests;

a database configured to store identifiers associated with the plurality of customer service centers, wherein each of the plurality of customer service centers is associated with a predetermined sub-range of the predetermined range;

a queue item builder configured to associate each of the customer transaction requests with one of the plurality of customer service centers using the numbers as a routing crierion; and

a routing module, responsive to the queue item builder, configured to direct each of the customer transaction requests to an appropriate customer service center.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the queue item builder is further configured to write a queue item generated by the queue item builder to the database as a field associated with an assigned customer transaction request.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising a customer service center terminal configured to receive at least some of the customer transaction requests from the routing module.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the customer service center terminal further comprises a queuing module, configured to assign received customer transaction requests to an incoming customer service center queue.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the incoming customer service center queue is one of a pending offer queue or a pending verification queue.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a notification module configured to direct received customer transactions to at least one customer service representative terminal.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the queuing module is further configured to advance the received customer transaction requests to a verification in process queue upon directing the received customer transaction requests to the at least one customer service representative terminal.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the numbers comprise random numbers.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the numbers comprise sequential numbers.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein the system comprises an on-line installment loan offering system.