METHODS OF COMPLETING ELECTRONIC FORMS RELATING TO INTERACTIONS WITH CUSTOMERS BY CARRYING OVER CALL BACK NUMBERS BETWEEN FORMS

• US 20090083618A1
• Filed: 09/24/2007
• Published: 03/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Campbell, Michelle
• Granted Patent: US 8,065,602 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Interactions between customers and representatives of a service provider are documented by providing multiple electronic forms for completion. Information that is requested for both forms is carried over from one form to the next rather than requiring the representative to manually enter the same information multiple times. For instance, a call back number of the customer may be entered on one electronic form being used to edit information for a customer and that call back number is automatically carried over to another form being used to document a commitment to handle a request from the customer. The representative is relieved of double-entry, and mistakes that might arise from double-entry are reduced or eliminated. The electronic forms may be submitted to a tracker database that allows for further disposition of the request by the customer.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium containing instructions that perform acts comprising:

in relation to a particular service account of a customer, displaying a first form containing fields for a name of a customer, an identification number of the service account, and a call back telephone number of the customer and containing a submission button that remains inactive until the fields for the name, the identification number, and the call back telephone number are completed;

receiving data into the field for the identification number of the service account; and

subsequently displaying a second form containing fields for at least the customer name and the call back telephone number and upon receiving data into the fields of the second form for the customer name and the call back telephone number, then re-displaying the first form including the name and call back number received within the second form and activating the submission button of the first form.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the acts further comprise:

in response to receiving the data into the field for the identification number, looking up the customer name in a customer database;

if the customer name is found, then auto-filling the name into the field for the name and upon also receiving data into the field for the call back telephone number, then activating the submission button of the first form; and

if the customer name is not found, then displaying the second form.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the service account pertains to telephone service and wherein the identification number of the service account is a telephone number of the telephone service.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of the activated submission button; and

loading the data from the first form into a tracker database.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein displaying the first form and displaying the second form comprises sending a first web page representing the first form and sending a second web page representing the second form from a server to a user terminal over a network.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein receiving data into the first and second forms comprises sending data entered into the first and second forms from the user terminal to the server.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the acts further comprise queueing at the server the data received into the second form and wherein re-displaying the first form comprises sending the first web page representing the first form from the server to the user terminal over the network by retrieving the queued data and including the retrieved queued data within the first web page.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein receiving data into the first and second forms comprises queueing the data at the user terminal.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein re-displaying the first form comprises retrieving the data queued at the user terminal and including the retrieved queued data within the first web page.

10. A computer readable medium containing instructions that perform acts comprising:

receiving a selection from a user to open a first form regarding handling an incoming request from a customer relating to a service account for the customer;

in response to the request, displaying the first form including fields for receiving user input to specify an identification of the service account, a name of the customer, and a call back number of the customer and further including an inactive submission button;

receiving user input to specify the identification of the service account;

looking up the identification in a data store to obtain the name of the customer;

if the name of the customer is found, then auto-filling the name of the customer into the first form, waiting for user input to specify the call back number, and activating a submission button of the first form upon receiving the call back number; and

if the name of the customer is not found, then displaying a second form that includes fields for receiving the name of the user and the call back number for the user, waiting for user input to specify the customer name and the call back number, and re-displaying the first form by including the customer name and call back number received within the second form and by activating the submission button of the first form.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the acts further comprise receiving user input to select the submission button of the displayed first form when in the activated state and then sending the data included in the displayed first form to a tracker database.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the service account pertains to telephone service and wherein the identification of the service account is a telephone number.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving user input to select the submission button of the first form when in the inactive state; and

displaying the second form in response to receiving the selection of the submission button when in the inactive state.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first form and the second form are separate web pages provided from a server to a user terminal, wherein the data that is received into the first and second forms is sent to the server from the user terminal, is queued at the server, and is sent from the server to the tracker database upon selection of the submission button in the activated state.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first form and the second form are separate web pages provided from a server to a user terminal, wherein the data that is received into the first and second forms is queued at the user terminal and is sent form the user terminal to the server upon selection of the submission button in the activated state.

16. A computer-implemented method of collecting information needed to handle an incoming request from a customer regarding a service account, comprising:

in relation to a particular service account of a customer, displaying a first form containing fields for a name of a customer, an identification number of the service account, and a call back telephone number of the customer and containing a submission button that remains inactive until the fields for the name, the identification number, and the call back telephone number are completed;

receiving data into the field for the identification number of the service account; and

subsequently displaying a second form containing fields for at least the customer name and the call back telephone number and upon receiving data into the fields of the second form for the customer name and the call back telephone number, then re-displaying the first form including the name and call back number received within the second form and activating the submission button of the first form.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising:

in response to receiving the data into the field for the identification number, looking up the customer name in a customer database;

if the customer name is found, then auto-filling the name into the field for the name and upon also receiving data into the field for the call back telephone number, then activating the submission button of the first form; and

if the customer name is not found, then displaying the second form.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the service account pertains to telephone service and wherein the identification number of the service account is a telephone number of the telephone service.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a selection of the activated submission button; and

loading the data from the first form into a tracker database.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein displaying the first form and displaying the second form comprises sending a first web page representing the first form and sending a second web page representing the second form from a server to a user terminal over a network.