Method and apparatus for identifying and contacting customers who are due for a visit but have not scheduled an appointment
First Claim
1. A method for scheduling an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in a computer-implemented office management system, the computer-implemented office management system describing each customer and appointment according to one or more attributes which influence profitability or office preferences and storing information in an office management system electronic database, comprising the steps of:
- a) querying by a contact management program executing on a computer the office management system electronic database to determine a first class of customers whose appointments have not been scheduled despite reminding the customer at least once to schedule the appointment,b) sorting the first class of customers according to an expected appointment value, so that customers whose appointments have a higher expected appointment value are presented for contact before customers whose appointments have a lower expected appointment value, wherein the expected appointment value comprises an amount of revenue expected from the appointment that is to be scheduled, wherein the amount of revenue expected from the appointment to be scheduled is based on an average billings per visit and an individual attendance history of each of the customers in the first class of customers,c) displaying contact information associated with a customer belonging to the first class of customers on a computer screen to prompt the one or more persons to personally contact the named customer to schedule the appointment for the customer, wherein the expected appointment value associated with the customer being displayed to the one or more persons is higher than the expected appointment value of customers in the first class of customers that have not been displayed,d) personally contacting the customer to schedule the appointment, the personal contact being made by at least one of the one or more persons,e) noting the results of the personal contact in an electronic database, andf) noting the time of step d).
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A management database is queried to determine which customers have failed to respond to recall notices. The resulting list of customers may be sorted or filtered so that some customers are preferentially contacted first, based on expected value or office preferences. The list may also be sorted or filtered to fill specific providers'"'"' schedules first. Customer names and contact information are then presented to schedulers so that customers may be contacted. The time and date of each contact is automatically recorded along with the outcome of the contact. A customer name is presented to a scheduler only if the same name is not being simultaneously presented to other schedulers and that customer was not too recently contacted, so that redundant or too frequent contacts are avoided.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method for scheduling an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in a computer-implemented office management system, the computer-implemented office management system describing each customer and appointment according to one or more attributes which influence profitability or office preferences and storing information in an office management system electronic database, comprising the steps of:
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a) querying by a contact management program executing on a computer the office management system electronic database to determine a first class of customers whose appointments have not been scheduled despite reminding the customer at least once to schedule the appointment, b) sorting the first class of customers according to an expected appointment value, so that customers whose appointments have a higher expected appointment value are presented for contact before customers whose appointments have a lower expected appointment value, wherein the expected appointment value comprises an amount of revenue expected from the appointment that is to be scheduled, wherein the amount of revenue expected from the appointment to be scheduled is based on an average billings per visit and an individual attendance history of each of the customers in the first class of customers, c) displaying contact information associated with a customer belonging to the first class of customers on a computer screen to prompt the one or more persons to personally contact the named customer to schedule the appointment for the customer, wherein the expected appointment value associated with the customer being displayed to the one or more persons is higher than the expected appointment value of customers in the first class of customers that have not been displayed, d) personally contacting the customer to schedule the appointment, the personal contact being made by at least one of the one or more persons, e) noting the results of the personal contact in an electronic database, and f) noting the time of step d). - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 25)
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9. A method for scheduling an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in a computer-implemented office management system, the computer-implemented office management system describing each customer and appointment according to one or more attributes which influence profitability or office preferences and including an office management system electronic database, comprising the steps of:
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a) querying by a contact management computer program executing on a computer the office management system electronic database to determine a first class of customers who are due back for a visit according to accepted standards of care or office policies, but have not been scheduled for an appointment, b) sorting the first class of customers according to an expected appointment value, so that customers whose appointments have a higher expected appointment value are presented for contact before customers whose appointments have a lower expected appointment value, wherein the expected appointment value comprises an amount of revenue expected from the appointment that is to be scheduled, wherein the amount of revenue expected from the appointment to be scheduled is based on an average billings per visit and an individual attendance history of each of the customers in the first class of customers, c) displaying contact information associated with a customer belonging to the first class of customers on a computer screen to prompt one or more persons to personally contact the named customer belonging to the first class of customers to schedule the appointment for the customer, wherein the expected appointment value associated with the customer being displayed to the one or more persons is higher than the expected appointment value of customers in the first class of customers that have not been displayed, d) personally contacting the customer to schedule the appointment, the personal contact being made by at least one of the one or more persons, e) noting the results of the contact in an electronic database, and f) noting the time of step d). - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An apparatus for scheduling for scheduling an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, the office management system describing each customer and appointment according to one or more attributes which influence profitability or office preferences, comprising:
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a) a computer programmed to query the office management system to determine a first class of customers whose appointments have not been scheduled despite reminding the customer at least once to schedule the appointment, b) the computer programmed to sort the first class of customers according to an expected appointment value, so that customers whose appointments have a higher expected appointment value are presented for contact before customers whose appointments have a lower expected appointment value, wherein the expected appointment value comprises an amount of revenue expected from the appointment that is to be scheduled, wherein the amount of revenue expected from the appointment to be scheduled is based on an average billings per visit and an individual attendance history of each of the customers in the first class of customers, c) the computer programmed to prompt one or more persons to personally contact a customer belonging to the first class of customers to schedule the appointment for the customer, wherein the expected appointment value associated with the customer to be personally contacted is higher than the expected appointment value of customers in the first class of customers that have not been displayed, and d) the computer programmed to record the results and time of the contact. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 26)
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20. An apparatus for scheduling an appointment for a customer in an office having one or more persons tasked with scheduling appointments for the office in an office management system, the office management system describing each customer and appointment according to one or more attributes which influence profitability or office preferences, comprising:
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a) a computer programmed to query the office management system to determine a first class of customers who are due back for a visit according to accepted standards of care or office policies, but have not been scheduled for an appointment, b) the computer programmed to sort the first class of customers according to an expected appointment value, so that customers whose appointments have a higher expected appointment value are presented for contact before customers whose appointments have a lower expected appointment value, wherein the expected appointment value comprises an amount of revenue expected from the appointment that is to be scheduled, wherein the amount of revenue expected from the appointment to be scheduled is based on an average billings per visit and an individual attendance history of each of the customers in the first class of customers, c) the computer programmed to prompt one or more persons to personally contact a customer belonging to the first class of customers to schedule the appointment for the customer, wherein the expected appointment value associated with the customer to be personally contacted is higher than the expected appointment value of customers in the first class of customers that have not been displayed, and d) the computer programmed to record the results and time of the contact. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 27)
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Specification