Customer relationship management for customer service requests

• US 7,412,046 B1
• Filed: 09/15/2006
• Issued: 08/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: At&T Delaware Intellectual Property, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: At&T Delaware Intellectual Property, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cesario, James C Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Harry S
• Application Number:
  US11/532,474
• Time in Patent Office: 697 Days
• Field of Search: 379/207.02, 379/221.08, 379/265.01, 379/265.02, 379/265.11, 379/265.13, 379/201.01, 379/201.12
• US Class Current: 379/201.12
• 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: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0045 involving hybrid, i.e. a mixture of public and private, or multi-vendor systems

Abstract

Providing customer relationship management (CRM) between a communications service operator and their customers includes obtaining information about a requested communications service requested by a customer, retrieving information about related and/or complimentary communications services to the requested service, and conveying the retrieved information to the customer. The requested service is processed upon a determination that the retrieved information was conveyed to the customer, such that processing of the requested service is contingent upon the retrieved information being conveyed to the customer.

Claims

1. A system controlling the sharing of information between communications services operators and their customers comprising:

a computing environment, said computing environment capable of operating a computing application having customer relationship management (CRM) features that provide the steps that are to be performed when obtaining and/or providing information between communication service customers and communication service operators; and

at least one customer relationship management (CRM) protocol, the CRM protocol operating in the computing environment requiring that complimentary and/or related communication services to a requested communications service, requested by customers, be described to the customers before the requested communications service can be processed, such that processing of the requested communications service is contingent upon indication by a customer service representative that the complimentary and/or related communications services have been described to the customer.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the computing environment comprises a computer server operating a computing application having the CRM features.

3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the computing application comprises a communications service customer care and billing computing application.

4. The system as recited in claim 3, wherein the computing application operates in a networked computing environment.

5. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein the networked computing environment is at least one portion of an information technology infrastructure operable in a communications service operator enterprise.

6. The system as recited in claim 5, wherein the requested communications service is a “

private line”

.

7. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the complimentary and/or related communications service is “

caller identification blocking”

.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein description of complimentary and/or related communication services is aural.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein description of complimentary and/or related communication services is visual.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein description of complimentary and/or related communication services is electronic.

11. A method to ensure knowledge sharing between communications service operators and their customers such that complimentary and/or related services to a requested service are properly described to the customers at the time of subscription, comprising the steps of:

providing at least one customer relationship management protocol (CRM), the CRM protocol requiring that complimentary and/or related communication services to a requested communications service, requested by customers, be described to the customers before the requested communications service can be processed, such that processing of the requested communications service is contingent upon indication by a customer service representative that the complimentary and/or related communications services have been described to the customer; and

executing the protocol by the communications services operator.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein description of complimentary and/or related communication services is aural.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein description of complimentary and/or related communication services is visual.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein description of complimentary and/or related communication services is electronic.

15. A method providing customer relationship management (CRM) between a communications service operator and their customers, comprising the steps of:

obtaining information about a requested communications service requested by a customer;

retrieving information about related and/or complimentary communications services to the requested service;

conveying the retrieved information to the customer;

processing the requested service upon a determination that the retrieved information was conveyed to the customer, such that processing of the requested service is contingent upon the retrieved information being conveyed to the customer.

16. The method as recite in claim 15, wherein the obtaining step is performed by a customer service representative.

17. The method as recite in claim 15, wherein retrieving information about complimentary and/or related communication services comprises receiving aural description of the complimentary and/or related communication services.

18. The method as recite in claim 15, wherein retrieving information about complimentary and/or related communication services comprises receiving visual description of the complimentary and/or related communication services.

19. The method as recite in claim 15, wherein retrieving information about complimentary and/or related communication services comprises receiving electronic communication of the complimentary and/or related communication services.

20. A computer readable medium having computer readable instructions operable in a computing environment to perform the method of claim 15.