APPARATUS SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RESPONDING TO WEB FORM INQUIRIES

• US 20090100139A1
• Filed: 10/15/2007
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: XANT Inc.
• Original Assignee: Insidesales.com
• Inventors: Johnson, Jeremiah, Oldroyd, James, Krogue, Kenneth David, Elkington, David Randal, Purdy, Thomas Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 8,510,382 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for generating contact plans and responding to web form inquires using the contact plans.

Claims

1. A method for responding to web form inquiries, the method comprising:

providing a web form to a user via a browser displayable web page, the web form configured to prompt the user for contact data;

receiving contact data associated with the user via the web form;

retrieving additional data associated with the user, the additional data selected from the group consisting of web analytics data, reverse lookup data, credit check data, web site data, web site rank information, do-not-call registry data, and background check information.

associating the user with a preferred contact plan, the preferred contact plan comprising;

a preferred contact time;

a preferred contact method;

at least one backup contact time; and

at least one backup contact method; and

contacting the user in accordance with the preferred contact plan.

2. The invention of claim 1, wherein the preferred contact plan is a hybrid plan.

3. The invention of claim 1, further comprising presenting information on the user to the agent.

4. The invention of claim 3, wherein information is delivered to the agent using a delivery service selected from the group comprising email services, instant messaging services, short message services, enhanced messaging services, text messaging services, telephony-based text-to-speech services, and multimedia delivery services.

5. The invention of claim 3, wherein the information on the user is visually or sonically presented to the agent.

6. The invention of claim 3, wherein the preferred contact plan further comprises a preferred contact method and a schedule for executing contact attempts.

7. The invention of claim 1, wherein the contact data is selected from the group consisting of a name, an address, at least one phone number, at least one fax number, at least one email address, an instant messaging address, address referral data, availability data, and interest data.

8. The invention of claim 1, wherein the contact method or the at least one backup contact method is selected from the group consisting of initiating a phone call, sending an email, sending a facsimile, sending a text message, sending a paging message, leaving a voice mail, and communicating with the individual via an interactive voice response (IVR) system.

9. The invention of claim 1, wherein the preferred contact plan comprises a strategy for queuing a contact attempt.

10. The invention of claim 1, wherein the preferred contact time is immediately.

11. A system for responding to web form inquiries, the system comprising:

a web server configured to provide a web form to a user via a browser displayable web page, the web form configured to prompt the user for contact data selected from the group consisting of a name, an address, at least one phone number, at least one fax number, at least one email address, an instant messaging address, address referral data, availability data, and interest data;

the web server further configured to receive contact data associated with the user in response to the user submitting the web form;

a data server configure to retrieve additional data associated with the user, the additional data selected from the group consisting of web analytics data, reverse lookup data, credit check data, web site data, web site rank information, do-not-call registry data, and background check information.

the data server further configured to associate the user with a preferred contact plan, the preferred contact plan comprising;

a preferred contact time;

a preferred contact method;

at least one backup contact time; and

at least one backup contact method; and

a contact server configured to contact the user in accordance with the preferred contact plan and deliver information on the user to an agent.

12. The invention of claim 11, wherein the contact server is further configured to deliver the information to the agent using a delivery service selected from the group consisting of email services, instant messaging services, short message services, enhanced messaging services, text messaging services, telephony-based text-to-speech services, and multimedia delivery services.

13. The invention of claim 11, further comprising an agent terminal configured to visually or sonically present the information on the user and enable the agent to communicate with the user.

14. An apparatus to develop a contact plan for responding to web form inquiries, the apparatus comprising:

a data collection module configured to receive a plurality of contact attempt records corresponding to inquiries for at least one web form, the contact attempt records comprising time information, user information, contact method information, and contact outcome information;

a data analysis module configured to analyze the contact attempt records to find correlations between the contact outcome information and the time information, user information, and contact method information; and

a contact plan generation module configured to receive the correlations and formulate a plurality of contact plans, each of the plurality of contact plans comprising a contact time and a contact method.

15. The invention of claim 14, further comprising a plan selection module configured to receive contact data for a user and select an appropriate contact plan from the plurality of contact plans.

16. A method to develop a contact plan for responding to web form inquiries, the operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of contact attempt records corresponding to inquiries for at least one web form, the contact attempt records comprising time information, user information, contact method information, and contact outcome information;

analyzing the contact attempt records to find correlations between the contact outcome information and the time information, user information, and contact method information;

using the correlations to formulate a plurality of contact plans each of the plurality of contact plans comprising a contact time and a contact method;

analyzing additional contact attempt records, additional associated customer information, and the plurality of contact plans to formulate an enhanced plurality of contact plans.

17. The invention of claim 16, wherein the contact outcome information comprises success or failure information related to a contact purpose.

18. The invention of claim 16, further comprising receiving contact data from a user and using the contact data to determine an appropriate contact plan from the plurality of contact plans.

19. The invention of claim 16, further comprising executing a contact plan in response to a user opening an email or a document or a URL that was sent to the user.

20. The invention of claim 16, further comprising randomizing a contact plan to increase contact success.

21. The invention of claim 16, further comprising partitioning the contact plans to facilitate hybridization.