Managing received communications based on assessments of the senders

• US 7,136,448 B1
• Filed: 11/18/2002
• Issued: 11/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Mobley, Katherine H., Venkataperumal, Ramesh, Keller, Carl
• Primary Examiner(s): Deane, Jr., William J.
• Application Number:
  US10/299,603
• Time in Patent Office: 1,457 Days
• Field of Search: 37926501-26514, 37926601-2661
• US Class Current: 379/265.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5235 Dependent on call type or called number [DNIS]

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium is described for adjusting the service provided to customers or others contacting an organization (e.g., via a telephone call) based at least in part on the assessed value of the contacting party to the organization. In such situations, the organization assesses one or more aspects of the customer, such as a potential future value of the customer to the organization. After one or more such customer aspect assessments are available, the organization can adjust the service to be provided to the customer based on those assessments in various ways, such as by selecting one of multiple available human representatives as appropriate to respond to a received communication from the customer (e.g., based also on ratings of relevant capabilities of the representatives) and/or by selecting one or more appropriate offers to be made available to the customer.

Claims

1. A method for a computing system of a business to manage telephone calls from customers based on assessed values of the customers to the business, the method comprising, for each of multiple incoming telephone calls that are each from one of multiple customers of the business:

before transferring the incoming telephone call from the customer to one of multiple human representatives of the business,

identifying the customer and a reason that the customer is calling;

assessing a future value to the business of the customer based at least in part on information specific to the customer;

receiving for each of the human representatives a rating of capabilities for responding to telephone calls made for the identified reason; and

selecting one of the human representatives to respond to the incoming telephone call based on the selected representative having a capabilities rating that is appropriate for the assessed future value of the customer;

transferring the incoming telephone call to the selected representative;

identifying one or more offers from the business to be made to the customer based at least in part on the assessed future value of the customer;

ranking the identified offers based on a specified criteria; and

providing information regarding the identified offers to the selected representative so that the representative can make the offers to the customer, wherein the providing of the information to the selected representative includes providing information regarding the ranking to the selected representative so that a highest ranked of the offers will be made to the customer by the selected representative.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the assessing of the future value of the customer to the business includes analyzing information retrieved from a stored profile of the customer and retrieved information regarding prior interactions between the customer and the business.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the assessed future value of the customer to the business is based on assessed aspects of the customer that include an assessed churn score reflecting a propensity of the customer to discontinue or return purchased items, an assessed up-sell score reflecting a propensity of the customer to purchase additional items, an assessed credit risk score identifying an ability and reliability of the customer to pay for purchased items, and an assessed satisfaction score that identifies a current satisfaction level of the customer with the business.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the selecting of the human representative having a capabilities rating that is appropriate for the assessed future value of the customer includes identifying representatives who will enhance satisfaction of customers having high future values, so that the representatives selected for such customers will be one of the identified representatives.

5. The method of claim 1 including selecting a manner of responding to at least some of the incoming telephone calls that is distinct from a default manner of responding, the selecting of the distinct response manner based at least in part on the assessed future values of the customers placing those calls, and wherein the transferring of those incoming telephone calls to the selected representatives for those calls and/or making of offers to those customers by those selected representatives are performed in the distinct response manner selected for those calls.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the identified reason for one of the incoming telephone calls from a customer relates to problems with an item previously purchased by the customer from the business, wherein the capabilities of the selected representative for responding to telephone calls made for the identified reason include knowledge of the selected representative of that item, and wherein some or all of the identified offers are for other items related to that item.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer placing one of the incoming telephone calls is a potential customer, wherein the identified reason for that telephone call relates to a potential purchased by the customer of an item from the business, wherein the capabilities of the selected representative for responding to telephone calls made for the identified reason include knowledge of the selected representative of that item, and wherein some or all of the identified offers are related to that item.

8. A computer-implemented method for responding to a received communication in a manner based on an assessment of an initiator of the communication, the method comprising:

receiving a communication to an organization; and

automatically responding by,

assessing one or more aspects of an initiator of the received communication that are relevant to the organization;

selecting one of multiple representatives of the organization to respond to the received communication based at least in part on the assessed aspects of the communication initiator and on capabilities of the selected representative; and

providing a notification to the selected representative of the received communication, wherein the notification includes a visual indication of at least one of the assessed aspects of the communication initiator.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the assessing of the aspects of the communication initiator includes assessing one or more indications of a value of the communication initiator to the organization.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the assessed aspects of the communication initiator include one or more of an assessed churn score, an assessed up-sell score, an assessed future value of the communication initiator to the organization, and an assessed satisfaction score with the organization.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the initiator of the communication is an existing customer of the organization, and wherein the assessing of the aspects of the customer is based at least in part on stored profile information for the customer and information regarding prior interactions between the customer and the organization.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the assessing of the aspects of the communication initiator is based on predictive modeling.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the assessing of the aspects of the communication initiator is based on assessment rules defined for the organization.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the assessing of the aspects of the communication initiator is performed for an entity that is represented by an individual who initiated the communication.

15. The method of claim 8 including selecting one or more offers to make to the communication initiator based at least in part on the assessed aspects of the communication initiator.

16. The method of claim 15 including providing information to the selected representative regarding the selected offers so that the selected representative can make one or more of those offers to the communication initiator as part of the response.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the selecting of the offers includes ranking the offers based on a specified criteria.

18. The method of claim 8 wherein the selecting of the representative includes receiving ratings of one or more capabilities of each of one or more of the representatives that are related to effectiveness of those representatives in responding to the received communication, and wherein the selecting of the one representative based at least in part on their capabilities includes using the received capability ratings for the selected representative.

19. The method of claim 8 wherein the capabilities of the selected representative on which the selecting is based include one or more of an amount of experience of the selected representative and an amount of knowledge of the selected representative related to reasons that communications are received.

20. The method of claim 8 including selecting a manner of responding to the received communication, and wherein the selected representative responds to the received communication in the selected manner.

21. The method of claim 8 wherein the received communication is a telephone call from an existing customer related to a previous interaction with the organization, and wherein the selected representative is one of multiple human operators of the organization that provide service to existing customers.

22. The method of claim 8 wherein the selecting of the representative based at least in part on the assessed aspects of the communication initiator and on capabilities of the selected representative is performed in such a manner that a representative having a high ability to effectively respond to a received communication is selected when the initiator of the received communication is assessed as being of high importance to the organization.

23. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing device to respond to a telephone call received from a caller in a manner based on an assessment of the caller, by performing a method comprising:

receiving a telephone call from a caller to an organization; and

automatically responding to the received communication by,

assessing one or more indications of a value to the organization of the caller;

selecting one or more of multiple offers from the organization based at least in part on the assessed value indications for the caller; and

notifying a representative of the organization of the selected offers so that the representative can provide at least one of the selected offers to the caller, wherein the notifying includes providing a visual indication of at least one of the assessed indications of the value to the organization.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein the assessed value indications for the caller include one or more of an assessed churn score, an assessed up-sell score, an assessed future value of the caller to the organization, and an assessed satisfaction score with the organization.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein the caller is an existing customer of the organization, and wherein the assessing of the value indications of the customer is based at least in part on stored profile information for the customer and information regarding prior interactions between the customer and the organization.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein the selecting of the offers includes ranking the offers based on a specified criteria.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein the method further includes selecting one of multiple representatives of the organization to respond to the received telephone call based at least in part on the assessed value of the caller and on capabilities of the selected representative.