SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CORRELATING USER CALL RESPONSE TO ELECTRONIC MESSAGES
First Claim
10. A method of charging a merchant for received voice calls, the method comprising:
- maintaining a database that stores a record of sent electronic advertisements, indications of users who receive the electronic advertisements, and information indicating a time at which the users receive the electronic advertisements;
automatically storing, in the database, records of voice calls made to the advertisers by the users who received the electronic advertisements;
using the database, for each voice call to a merchant from a user, automatically determining whether the voice call was made within a predetermined time period T from a time at which the user received an electronic advertisement for the merchant; and
based on the determination, selecting an amount and/or rate to charge the merchant for the voice call.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of correlating voice calls with received electronic messages includes sending an electronic message associated with a second party to a first party; subsequently receiving a voice call from the first party by the second party; automatically determining whether the voice call resulted from the electronic message, based on electronically stored information about the sending of the electronic message and about the subsequently received voice call; and if it is determined that the voice call resulted from the electronic message, flagging the voice call to have a different status from voice calls not determined to have resulted from an electronic message.
12 Citations
20 Claims
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10. A method of charging a merchant for received voice calls, the method comprising:
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maintaining a database that stores a record of sent electronic advertisements, indications of users who receive the electronic advertisements, and information indicating a time at which the users receive the electronic advertisements; automatically storing, in the database, records of voice calls made to the advertisers by the users who received the electronic advertisements; using the database, for each voice call to a merchant from a user, automatically determining whether the voice call was made within a predetermined time period T from a time at which the user received an electronic advertisement for the merchant; and based on the determination, selecting an amount and/or rate to charge the merchant for the voice call. - View Dependent Claims (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 17)
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14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:
initiating the voice calls by one or more of;
selecting a link in a visual display advertisement on a first device on which the link is displayed;
or dialing the telephone number of a merchant from a second device different from the first device on which the link is displayed.- View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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18. A method for receiving voice calls by recipient parties, the method including:
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sending electronic messages to potential callers, the electronic messages indicating a method for calling the recipient parties; maintaining a database that stores a list of the sent electronic messages, indications of potential callers who received the electronic messages, and information indicating a time at which the users received the electronic messages; automatically storing in the database records of voice calls made to the recipient parties by the potential callers who received the electronic messages; using the database, for each voice call to a recipient party from a potential caller, automatically determining whether the voice call was made within a predetermined time period T from a time at which the potential caller received an electronic message indicating a method for calling the recipient party; and based on the determination, selecting an amount and/or rate to charge the recipient party for the voice call.
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19. A method for determining how much to bill a merchant for a voice call received by a caller, the method comprising:
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storing, in a database, a list of calls made by the caller from at least two calling sources including a first calling source and a second calling source, the list including a time at which each call was made; storing, in the database, a list of advertisements received by the first calling source, the list including an indication of a time at which each advertisement was received and/or displayed at the first calling source; automatically determining, based on the list of calls made and the list of advertisements received, whether any of the calls were calls made to the merchant within a predetermined time period T of the first calling source receiving and/or displaying an advertisement for the merchant; when it is determined that a call was made to the merchant within a predetermined time period T of the first calling source receiving and/or displaying an advertisement for the merchant, charging the merchant for the call based on a first billing scheme; and when it is determined that a call was made to the merchant after the predetermined time period T of the first calling source receiving and/or displaying an advertisement for the merchant, charging the merchant for the call based on a second billing scheme different from the first billing scheme. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification