Triggering and conducting an automated survey

• US 8,515,803 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2011
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RXO Last Mile Incorporated (XPO, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: 3PD, Inc. (XPO, Inc.)
• Inventors: Meyer, Karl, Turner, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, Alan S
• Application Number:
  US13/245,854
• Publication Number:
  US 20120016719A1
• Time in Patent Office: 694 Days
• Field of Search: 705 711- 742
• US Class Current: 705/7.38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968

Abstract

Systems and methods for initiating and conducting an automated survey are disclosed herein. According to some implementations, a computer-readable medium may be encoded with computer-executable instructions, wherein the computer-executable instructions includes logic adapted to receive a notification of the occurrence of a trigger event associated with a service performed for a customer. The computer-executable instructions further include logic adapted, in response to receiving the notification, to initiate an automated survey to be offered to a survey recipient. Additional logic is adapted to conduct the automated survey. The instructions also include logic adapted to receive survey result information from the survey recipient in response to the automated survey.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising the steps of:

receiving automatically a notification of an occurrence of a trigger event caused by a servicer in association with the servicer performing a service for a customer at a customer location;

in response to receiving the notification, initiating automatically an automated survey to be offered to the customer who received the service performed by the servicer at the customer location, the initiating comprising creating at least one survey record and placing the at least one survey record in a survey scheduling queue in a database, the automated survey comprising a plurality of questions about the service that was performed by the servicer for the customer at the customer location;

polling automatically the database on a periodic basis to detect the at least one survey record in the survey scheduling queue;

in response to detecting the at least one survey record in the survey scheduling queue, contacting automatically the customer who received the service performed by the servicer at the customer location to conduct the automated survey comprising the plurality of questions about the service that was performed by the servicer for the customer at the customer location; and

in response to conducting the automated survey, receiving automatically survey result information from the customer who received the service performed by the servicer at the customer location.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein:

the customer and the survey recipient are the same; and

receiving the notification of the occurrence of the trigger event further includes receiving the notification from the servicer indicating that the service performed for the customer has been completed.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein receiving the notification of the occurrence of the trigger event further includes receiving the notification from a location tracking device indicating that the servicer has left the vicinity of the customer location.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise the steps of:

receiving contact information associated with the survey recipient;

using the contact information when initiating the automated survey;

waiting a predetermined length of time before calling a telephone number associated with the survey recipient, wherein the predetermined length of time is greater than five minutes and less than one hour; and

calling the telephone number

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein conducting the automated survey further comprises playing recorded survey questions.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein receiving the survey result information further comprises receiving numeric answers to the plurality of questions and receiving the numeric answers via a telephone communication channel.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein receiving the survey result information further comprises:

receiving a voice message from the survey recipient; and

digitally recording the voice message.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise the steps of:

enabling a person to digitally record a plurality of voice scripts;

enabling a user to select one or more of the voice scripts to be combined into the automated survey; and

enabling the user to arrange the voice scripts in a specific order.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein each voice script is a survey question or a statement.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise the step of:

enabling the user to enter a number of acceptable answers for each voice script that is a survey question.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise the step of:

waiting a predetermined length of time after receiving the notification before conducting the automated survey.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the trigger event caused by the service comprises at least one of the following:

the servicer sending an electronic communication, the servicer initiating a telephone call, and the servicer leaving the vicinity of the customer location.

12. A computer implemented method comprising:

receiving, automatically by a computer, a notification of an occurrence of a trigger event caused by a servicer in association with the servicer performing a service for a customer at a customer location;

in response to receiving the notification, initiating automatically an automated survey to be offered to the customer who received the service performed by the servicer at the customer location, the initiating comprising creating at least one survey record and placing the at least one survey record in a survey scheduling queue in a database, the automated survey comprising a plurality of questions about the service that was performed by the servicer for the customer at the customer location;

polling automatically the database on a periodic basis to detect the at least one survey record in the survey scheduling queue;

in response to detecting the at least one survey record in the survey scheduling queue, contacting automatically the customer who received the service performed by the servicer at the customer location to conduct the automated survey, automatically by the computer, comprising the plurality of questions about the service that was performed by the servicer for the customer at the customer location; and

in response to conducting the automated survey, receiving automatically survey result information from the customer who received the service performed by the servicer at the customer location.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12, wherein:

the notification of the occurrence of the trigger event is received from the servicer indicating that the service performed for the customer has been completed; and

the servicer is an individual or team responsible for performing the service for the customer.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 12, further comprising receiving contact information associated with the survey recipient, wherein initiating the automated survey further comprises:

waiting a length of time greater than five minutes and less than one hour; and

calling a telephone number associated with the survey recipient.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 12, wherein receiving survey result information further comprises:

receiving a voice message from the survey recipient; and

digitally recording the voice message.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 12, wherein the trigger event caused by the service comprises at least one of the following:

the servicer sending an electronic communication, the servicer initiating a telephone call, and the servicer leaving the vicinity of the customer location.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

waiting a predetermined length of time after receiving the notification before conducting the automated survey.

18. An automated survey system comprising:

an interface device configured to receive a notification of an occurrence of a trigger event caused by a servicer in association with the servicer performing a service for a customer at a customer location; and

a processing device associated with a computer system, the processing device configured to initiate an automated survey comprising a plurality of questions about the service that was performed by the servicer for the customer at the customer location, the automated survey being offered to the customer in response to receiving the notification, the initiating comprising creating at least one survey record and placing the at least one survey record in a survey scheduling queue in a database associated with the computer system,

wherein the processing device is further configured to poll the database on a periodic basis to detect the at least one survey record in the survey scheduling queue, in response to detecting the at least one survey record in the survey scheduling queue, to contact the customer who received the service performed by the servicer at the customer location to conduct the automated survey via the interface device, the automated survey comprising a plurality of questions about the service that was performed by the servicer for the customer at the customer location, and in response to conducting the automated survey, to receive survey result information from the customer who received the service performed by the servicer at the customer location.

19. The automated survey system of claim 18, further comprising a memory device configured to store a survey program configured to instruct the processing device regarding initiating and conducting the automated survey.

20. The automated survey system of claim 19, wherein the survey program comprises at least a survey triggering module and a survey conducting module.

21. The automated survey system of claim 20, wherein the survey program further comprises a survey assembling module, the survey assembling module configured to:

enable a person to digitally record a plurality of voice scripts;

enable a user to select one or more of the voice scripts to be combined into the automated survey; and

enable the user to arrange the voice scripts in a specific order.

22. The automated survey system of claim 19, wherein the memory device further comprises a database for storing one or more types of information selected from the group consisting of order information, customer information, delivery information, survey scripts, the survey scheduling queue, survey result information, and voice message information.

24. The automated survey system of claim 18, wherein the trigger event caused by the service comprises at least one of the following:

the servicer sending an electronic communication, the servicer initiating a telephone call, and the servicer leaving the vicinity of the customer location.

25. The automated survey system of claim 18, wherein the processing device is further configured to wait a predetermined length of time after receiving the notification before conducting the automated survey.