Methods and systems for defining, applying and executing customer care relationship plans

• US 7,069,231 B1
• Filed: 07/20/2000
• Issued: 06/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Cinarkaya, Bulent, Kolhatkar, Smita, Hasan, Javed
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sterrett, Jonathan G
• Application Number:
  US09/620,167
• Time in Patent Office: 2,168 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10
• US Class Current: 705/7.32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for managing a plurality of customer relationship plans may include a step of collecting profile check values from a database of customer data, the collected profile check values including customer data corresponding to profile checks for each of the plurality of customer relationship plans. The collected profile check values may then be applied to predefined selection criteria in one or more of the plurality of customer relationship plans. The selection criteria determines whether a customer relationship plan of the plurality of customer relationship plans applies to a customer. One or more customer relationship plans may then be assigned or de-assigned to each of the selected customers, depending upon whether the applied profile check values satisfy or fail to satisfy the predefined selection criteria, respectively. The assigned customer relationship plan(s) may then be applied and one or more synchronous and/or an asynchronous actions may be carried out upon the occurrence of a selectable customer event, as called for by applied customer relationship plan(s). The profile checks may include one or more plan indicator, such as customer opportunity size, customer size, market segment or a user-definable business event, for example.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing a plurality of customer relationship plans, comprising the steps of:

collecting profile check values from a database of customer data of a plurality of customers, the collected profile check values including customer data corresponding to profile checks for each of the plurality of customer relationship plans, the profile checks including at least one plan indicator selected from a group consisting of customer opportunity size, customer size and market segment;

applying the collected profile check values to predefined selection criteria in at least one of the plurality of customer relationship plans, the selection criteria defining at least one of a predetermined profile check value threshold that must be exceeded and a condition that must be satisfied for a customer relationship plan of the plurality of customer relationship plans to apply to a customer of the plurality of customers;

selectively assigning or de-assigning at least one customer relationship plan to selected customers of the plurality of customers depending upon whether the applied profile check values satisfy or fail to satisfy the predefined selection criteria, respectively;

organizing all customer relationship plans assigned to a given customer of the selected customers into a plan portfolio for the given customer;

applying the at least one assigned customer relationship plan and carrying out, upon occurrence of a selectable customer event, at least one of a synchronous and an asynchronous action, as called for by the at least one applied customer relationship plan, and

detecting changed profile check values for each of the plurality of customer relationship plans and carrying out at least the collecting and applying steps when the detecting step detects a changed profile check value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the profile checks include a definable range of plan indicators.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection criteria includes a logical expression including at least one logical operator that operates upon the plan indicators.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting step is carried out at least one of asynchronously and at a selectable interval.

5. The method of claim 1, further including a step of managing a selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio, the managing step including at least one of the steps of:

viewing each customer relationship plan of the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually adding a customer relationship plan to the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually modifying a customer relationship plan in the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually enabling a customer relationship plan in the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually disabling a customer relationship plan from the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio, and

manually removing a customer relationship plan from the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein manually added, modified, enabled and disabled customer relationship plans are thereafter unaffected by the assigning and de-assigning steps.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the manually removed customer relationship plan is thereafter susceptible to being assigned and de-assigned by the assigning and de-assigning step.

8. The method of claim 1, further including a step of viewing an audit log of the at least one customer relationship plan assigned and de-assigned to at least one of the selected customers.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the synchronous action includes a batch mode execution of a business procedure.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the asynchronous action includes a real time execution of a business procedure.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the business procedure executed in real time mode includes at least one of a script, a survey and an alert.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the business procedure executed in real time returns a list of user-selectable and executable actions.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of defining a new customer relationship plan by specifying a plan header, defining the selection criteria and defining actions, conditions and outcomes of the new customer relationship plan.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plan header includes at least one of a name, a group, a priority, a description and effective dates for the new customer relationship plan.

15. The method of claim 1, further including a plan inquiry step, the plan inquiry step including a query by plan or a query by customer, the query by plan step enabling management of a selected customer relationship plan and all customers to which the selected customer relationship plan is assigned, the query by customer step enabling management of all customer relationship plans assigned to at least one selected customer.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of customer relationship plans includes at least one plan selected from a group including a critical customer management plan, an account plan, a premium customer plan, a non-profitable customer plan, a service plan, a customer retention plan, a customer satisfaction plan, a product plan, a preventative maintenance plan, a customer service plan and a product recall plan.

17. A computer system configured for managing a plurality of customer relationship plans, comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one data storage device;

a plurality of processes spawned by said at least one processor, the processes including processing logic for;

collecting profile check values from a database of customer data of a plurality of customers, the collected profile check values including customer data corresponding to profile checks for each of the plurality of customer relationship plans, the profile checks including at least one plan indicator selected from a group consisting of customer opportunity size, customer size and market segment;

applying the collected profile check values to predefined selection criteria in at least one of the plurality of customer relationship plans, the selection criteria defining at least one of a predetermined profile check value threshold that must be exceed and a condition that must be satisfied for a customer relationship plan of the plurality of customer relationship plans to apply to a customer of the plurality of customers;

selectively assigning or de-assigning at least one customer relationship plan to selected customers of the plurality of customers depending upon whether the applied profile check values satisfy or fail to satisfy the predefined selection criteria, respectively;

organizing all customer relationship plans assigned to a given customer of the selected customers into a plan portfolio for the given customer;

applying the at least one assigned customer relationship plan and carrying out, upon occurrence of a selectable customer event, at least one of a synchronous and an asynchronous action, as called for by the at least one applied customer relationship plan, and

detecting changed profile check values for each of the plurality of customer relationship plans and carrying out at least the collecting and applying steps when the detecting step detects a changed profile check value.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the profile checks include a definable range of plan indicators.

19. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the selection criteria includes a logical expression including at least one logical operator that operates upon the plan indicators.

20. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the detecting step is carried out at least one of asynchronously and at a selectable interval.

21. The computer system of claim 17, further including processing logic for managing a selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio by carrying out at least one of the steps of:

viewing each customer relationship plan of the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually adding a customer relationship plan to the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually modifying a customer relationship plan in the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually enabling a customer relationship plan in the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually disabling a customer relationship plan from the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio, and

manually removing a customer relationship plan from the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio.

22. The computer system of claim 21, wherein manually added, modified, enabled and disabled customer relationship plans are thereafter unaffected by the assigning and de-assigning steps.

23. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the manually removed customer relationship plan is thereafter susceptible to being assigned and de-assigned by the assigning and de-assigning step.

24. The computer system of claim 17, further including processing logic for viewing an audit log of the at least one customer relationship plan assigned and de-assigned to at least one of the selected customers.

25. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the synchronous action includes a batch mode execution of a business procedure.

26. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the asynchronous action includes a real time execution of a business procedure.

27. The computer system of claim 26, wherein the business procedure executed in real time mode includes at least one of a script, a survey and an alert.

28. The computer system of claim 26, wherein the business procedure executed in real time returns a fist of user-selectable and executable actions.

29. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising processing logic for defining a new customer relationship plan by specifying a plan header, defining the selection criteria and defining actions, conditions and outcomes of the new customer relationship plan.

30. The computer system of claim 29, wherein the plan header includes at least one of a name, a group, a priority, a description and effective dates for the new customer relationship plan.

31. The computer system of claim 17, further including processing logic for carrying out a plan inquiry step, the plan inquiry step including a query by plan or a query by customer, the query by customer relationship plan step enabling management of a selected customer relationship plan and all customers to which the selected customer relationship plan is assigned, the query by customer step enabling management of all customer relationship plans assigned to at least one selected customer.

32. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the plurality of customer relationship plans includes at least one plan selected from a group including a critical customer management plan, an account plan, a premium customer plan, a non-profitable customer plan, a service plan, a customer retention plan, a customer satisfaction plan, a product plan, a preventative maintenance plan, a customer service plan and a product recall plan.

33. A machine-readable medium having data stored thereon representing sequences of instructions which, when executed by computing device, causes said computing device to managing a plurality of customer relationship plans by performing the steps of:

collecting profile check values from a database of customer data of a plurality of customers, the collected profile check values including customer data corresponding to profile checks for each of the plurality of customer relationship plans, the profile checks including at least one plan indicator selected from a group consisting of customer opportunity size, customer size and market segment;

applying the collected profile check values to predefined selection criteria in at least one of the plurality of customer relationship plans, the selection criteria defining at least one of a predetermined profile check value threshold that must be exceed and a condition that must be satisfied for a customer relationship plan of the plurality of customer relationship plans to apply to a customer of the plurality of customers;

selectively assigning or de-assigning at least one customer relationship plan to selected customers of the plurality of customers depending upon whether the applied profile check values satisfy or fail to satisfy the predefined selection criteria, respectively;

organizing all customer relationship plans assigned to a given customer of the selected customers into a plan portfolio for the given customer;

applying the at least one assigned customer relationship plan and carrying out, upon occurrence of a selectable customer event, at least one of a synchronous and an asynchronous action, as called for by the at least one applied customer relationship plan, and

detecting changed profile check values for each of the plurality of customer relationship plans and carrying out at least the collecting and applying steps when the detecting step detects a changed profile check value.

34. The medium of claim 33, wherein the profile checks include a definable range of plan indicators.

35. The medium of claim 33, wherein the selection criteria includes a logical expression including at least one logical operator that operates upon the plan indicators.

36. The medium of claim 33, wherein the detecting step is carried out at least one of asynchronously and at a selectable interval.

37. The medium of claim 33, further including a step of managing a selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio, the managing step including at least one of the steps of:

viewing each customer relationship plan of the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually adding a customer relationship plan to the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually modifying a customer relationship plan in the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually enabling a customer relationship plan in the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio;

manually disabling a customer relationship plan from the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio, and

manually removing a customer relationship plan from the selected customer'"'"'s plan portfolio.

38. The medium of claim 37, wherein manually added, modified, enabled and disabled customer relationship plans are thereafter unaffected by the assigning and de-assigning steps.

39. The medium of claim 37, wherein the manually removed customer relationship plan is thereafter susceptible to being assigned and de-assigned by the assigning and de-assigning step.

40. The medium of claim 33, further including a step of viewing an audit log of the at least one customer relationship plan assigned and de-assigned to at least one of the selected customers.

41. The medium of claim 33, wherein the synchronous action includes a batch mode execution of a business procedure.

42. The medium of claim 33, wherein the asynchronous action includes a real time execution of a business procedure.

43. The medium of claim 42, wherein the business procedure executed in real time mode includes at least one of a script, a survey and an alert.

44. The medium of claim 43, wherein the business procedure executed in real time returns a list of user-selectable and executable actions.

45. The medium of claim 33, further comprising the step of defining a new customer relationship plan by specifying a plan header, defining the selection criteria and defining actions, conditions and outcomes of the new customer relationship plan.

46. The medium of claim 45, wherein the plan header includes at least one of a name, a group, a priority, a description and effective dates for the new customer relationship plan.

47. The medium of claim 33, further including a plan inquiry step, the plan inquiry step including a query by plan or a query by customer, the query by plan step enabling management of a selected customer relationship plan and all customers to which the selected customer relationship plan is assigned, the query by customer step enabling management of all customer relationship plans assigned to at least one selected customer.

48. The medium of claim 33, wherein the plurality of customer relationship plans includes at least one plan selected from a group including a critical customer management plan, an account plan, a premium customer plan, a non-profitable customer plan, a service plan, a customer retention plan, a customer satisfaction plan, a product plan, a preventative maintenance plan, a customer service plan and a product recall plan.