System and method for integrated customer management

• US 7,269,567 B1
• Filed: 09/15/2005
• Issued: 09/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Pletz, Tracy, Callahan, William T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elisca; Pierre Eddy
• Application Number:
  US11/227,952
• Time in Patent Office: 726 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/8, 705/11, 707/26, 707/27
• US Class Current: 705/7.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

An automated system and method for customer management deploys customer databases to profile customer service requests for distribution to appropriately assigned agent representatives. The representatives adopt particular roles according to customer care volume, inquiry type, time of day and other customer management needs. Consumer profiles may be accessed in real time to combine customer care events with cross-selling and other promotions related to the consumer'"'"'s transaction history and other factors.

Claims

1. A call processing system that is configured for:

determining an expected economic value that is expected to be derived from performing one or more tasks in connection with an incoming call;

assessing a priority of the incoming call based on the expected derived economic value;

using the derived expected economic value to determine whether to route the incoming call to an automated call processing system; and

a queue having at least a first incoming call and a second incoming call;

wherein in response to determining to route the incoming call to an automated call processing system, routing the incoming call to the automated processing system;

wherein further deriving the expected economic value of the incoming call comprises;

using at least one statistical model to estimate the expected future profitability of a first caller, the first caller being associated with the first coming call and the at least one statistical model being based on a plurality of variables;

using the at least one statistical model to estimate the expected future profitability of a second caller, the second caller being associated with the second incoming call;

comparing the expected future profitability of the first caller with the expected future profitability of the second caller; and

at least partially in response to determining that the expected future profitability of the second caller is greater than the expected future profitability of the first caller, determining that having a customer service representative handle the first incoming call would not be beneficial.

2. The call processing system of claim 1 further comprising:

assessing customer service representative resources available to handle calls in the queue of calls; and

at least partially in response to determining that insufficient customer service representative resources exist to handle both the first incoming call and the second incoming call according to pre-determined service criteria, determining that having a customer service representative handle the first incoming call would not be beneficial.

3. A method of routing a call for processing comprising:

assessing the past performance of a first customer service representative in performing one or more tasks;

assessing the past perforce of a second customer service representative in performing the same one or more tasks;

comparing the past performance of the first customer service representative with the past performance of the second customer service representative;

in response to determining that the past performance of the first customer service representative is better than the past performance of the second customer service representative;

(i) assigning the first customer service representative to a first group of customer service representatives, and (ii) assigning the second customer service representative to a second group of customer service representatives;

assigning a first call value to a first call in a queue of calls;

assigning a second call value to a second call in a queue of calls;

comparing the first call value to the second call value;

determining whether the first customer service representative is available to handle the first call;

in response to determining that the first call value is greater than the second call value and that the first customer service representative is available to handle the first call, routing the first call to the first customer service representative for handling, and

in response to determining that the first call value is greater than the second call value and that the first customer service representative is not available to handle the first call, routing the first call to the second customer service representative for handling.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein assigning a value to a call comprises assessing an estimated benefit associated with attempting to persuade a customer associated with the call not to cancel a service.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising determining whether routing the first call to the first customer service representative for handling would satisfy a predetermined average speed of answer requirement;

and routing the first call to the first customer service representative for handling is executed at least in part in response to determining that routing the first call to the first customer service representative would satisfy the pre-determined average speed of answering requirement.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising routing the first call to the second customer service representative if routing the first call to the first customer service representative would not satisfy the pre-determined average speed of answering requirement.

7. The method of claim 3 further comprising determining an estimated effect that routing the first call to the first customer service representative would have on the first customer service representative'"'"'s ability to complete one or more tasks in regard to the first call;

and routing the first call to the first customer service representative for handling is executed at least in part in response to the determined estimated effect.

8. A call processing system that is configured for:

determining which particular one of a plurality of calls in a queue of calls is the most important of the calls;

assessing the past performance of a first customer service representative in performing one or more tasks;

assessing the past performance of a second customer service representative in performing the same one or more tasks;

comparing the past performance of the first customer service representative with the past performance of the second customer service representative;

determining whether the first customer service representative is available to take the most important call;

in response to determining whether the first customer service representative is available to take the most important call, routing the most important call to the first customer service representative for handling; and

in response to determining whether the first customer service representative is not available to take the most important call, routing the most important call to the second customer service representative for handling.

9. The call processing system of claim 8 further comprising:

determining whether the first customer service representative has handled the most important call within a predetermined period of time; and

in response to the first customer service representative not handling the most important call within the pre-determined period of time, re-routing the most important call to the second customer service representative for handling.

10. The call processing system of claim 8 further comprising:

assessing the past performance of a third customer service representative in completing the same one or more tasks;

comparing the past performance of the third customer service representative with the past performance of the first customer service representative and the past performance of the second customer service representative;

based on comparison, determining that the past performance of the third customer service representative was not as good as the past performance of the first customer service representative, and was also not as good as the past performance of the second customer service representative;

determining whether the second customer service representative is available to take the most important call; and

in response to determining that the first and second customer service representatives are not available to take the most important call, routing the most important call to the third customer service representative for handling.

11. The call processing system of claim 10 further comprising:

determining whether the first customer service representative has handled the most important call within a pre-determined period of time;

in response to the first customer service representative not handling the most important call within the pre-determined period of time, re-routing the most important call to the second customer service representative for handling;

determining whether the second customer service representative has handled the most important call within a pre-determined period of time; and

in response to the second customer service representative not handling the most important call within the pre-determined period of time, re-routing the most important call to the third customer service representative for handling.