Sales force effectiveness call forward

• US 8,532,281 B1
• Filed: 12/29/2008
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Original Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Inventors: Small, Daniel S., Keifer, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): ZENATI, AMAL S
• Application Number:
  US12/345,308
• Time in Patent Office: 1,716 Days
• Field of Search: 379/266.04, 379/265.02, 379/212
• US Class Current: 379/265.03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/01 Customer relationship services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2038 Call context notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/54 Arrangements for diverting calls for one subscriber to another predetermined subscriber based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; to voice mail H04M3/53308
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0036 where the data service is an information service

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide systems, methods, and computer program products for sales force management that improves sales contacts, improves client service experience, and provides objective data on the end-to-end sales and service process. When a client calls his/her client manager the call will be automatically switched to a call center representative. Systems will capture relationship and call data associated with the clients making the call and the client managers that are being called. The relationship data is sent to the call center representative taking the call to help serve the client. The call data is sent to process owners to review and track the sales force management system as a whole. The call center representatives will either answer the customer'"'"'s questions or prepare a notification form to capture the reason for the call and send the notification to the appropriate client manager.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a computer-readable medium providing computer-readable instructions;

a communication device; and

a processor operatively coupled to the communication device and the computer-readable medium, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to;

receive an incoming call coming from a client that is directed to a phone number of a client manager, wherein the client manger is a specific client manager for the client and the phone number is a direct number for the client manager;

determine if the client manager has activated a call forwarding feature, wherein the client manager activates the called forwarding feature to request that incoming calls be forwarded to a call center;

direct the incoming call to the phone number of the client manager when the call forwarding feature is off;

capture relationship data related to the client manager that the client is calling when the call forwarding feature is activated, wherein the relationship data is an identity of the client manager that is being called;

direct the incoming call to the call center when the call forwarding feature is activated;

forward the relationship data to the call center when the call forwarding feature is activated, wherein a call center switch routes the incoming call and the relationship data to a call center representative;

provide call data related to the incoming call to a process owner for analysis; and

provide a notification to the client manger when the process owner determines that incoming calls to the client manager fail to be forwarded to the call center.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the relationship data includes the client manger that is being called, the schedule of the client manager that is being called, the client that is making the call, the client account number, or the services the client manager has sold to the client.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

create a notification related to the client call if the client manager needs to be notified regarding the client call; and

send the notification to the client manager.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

capture call data related to all of the incoming calls from clients.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the captured call data related to incoming calls comprises:

at least one of the call volume, the date and time of the call, the average speed of answer, the ring time, average talk time, the call origination, the call destination, the average, upper limit, and the lower limit of the number of calls made to all the client managers.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

develop charts or reports based on the captured call data related to the incoming calls.

7. A method comprising:

receiving an incoming call coming from a client that is directed to a phone number of a client manager, wherein the client manger is a specific client manager for the client and the phone number is a direct number for the client manager

determining, by a processing device, if the client manager has activated a call forwarding feature, wherein the client manager activates the called forwarding feature to request that incoming calls be forwarded to a call center;

directing, by the processing device, the incoming call to the phone number of the client manager when the call forwarding feature is off;

capturing, by the processing device, relationship data related to the client manager that the client is calling when the call forwarding feature is activated, wherein the relationship data is an identity of the client manager that is being called;

directing, by the processing device, the incoming call to the call center when the call forwarding feature is activated;

forwarding, by the processing device, the relationship data to the call center when the call forwarding feature is activated representative, wherein a call center switch routes the incoming call and the relationship data to a call center representative;

providing, by the processing device, call data related to the incoming call to a process owner for analysis; and

providing, by the processing device, a notification to the client manger when the process owner determines that incoming calls to the client manager fail to be forwarded to the call center.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein capturing relationship data comprises capturing the client manager that is being called, the schedule of the client manager that is being called, the client that is making the call, the client account number, or the services the client manager has sold to the client.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

creating, through the use of a processer, a notification related to the client call if the client manager needs to be notified regarding the client call; and

sending, through the use of a processer, the notification to the client manager.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

capturing, through the use of a processer, call data related to all of the incoming calls from clients.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein capturing call data related to incoming calls comprises capturing at least one of the call volume, the date and time of the call, the average speed of answer, the ring time, average talk time, the call origination, the call destination, and the average number, upper limit, and the lower limit of the number of calls made to all the client managers.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein capturing call data related to incoming calls further comprises:

developing, through the use of a processer, charts or reports based on the captured call data related to the incoming calls.

13. A computer program product for a sales force management system, the computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code portions embodied therein, the computer-readable program code portion comprising:

an executable portion configured for receiving an incoming call coming from a client that is directed to a phone number of a client manager, wherein the client manger is a specific client manager for the client and the phone number is a direct number for the client manager;

an executable portion configured for determining if the client manager has activated a call forwarding feature wherein the client manager activates the called forwarding feature to request that incoming calls be forwarded to a call center;

an executable portion configured for directing the incoming call to the phone number of the client manager when the call forwarding feature is off;

an executable portion configured for capturing relationship data related to the client manager that the client is calling when the call forwarding feature is activated, wherein the relationship data is an identity of the client manager that is being called;

an executable portion configured for directing the incoming call to the call center when the call forwarding feature is activated;

an executable portion configured for forwarding the relationship data related to the call center when the call forwarding feature is activated, wherein a call center switch routes the incoming call and the relationship data to a call center representative;

an executable portion configured for providing call data related to the incoming call to a process owner for analysis; and

an executable portion configured for providing a notification to the client manger when the process owner determines that incoming calls to the client manager fail to be forwarded to the call center.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the relationship data includes the client manager that is being called, the schedule of the client manager that is being called, the client that is making the call, the client account number, or the services the client manager has sold to the client.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, the computer program product further comprising:

an executable portion configured for creating a notification related to the client call if the client manager needs to be notified regarding the client call; and

an executable portion configured for sending the notification to the client manager.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, the computer program product further comprising:

an executable portion configured for capturing call data related to incoming calls.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the executable portion configured for capturing data related to incoming calls comprises capturing at least one of the call volume, the date and time of the call, the average speed of answer, the ring time, average talk time, the call origination, the call destination, and the average number, upper limit, and the lower limit of the number of calls made to all the client managers.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the executable portion configured for capturing call data related to incoming calls further comprises:

an executable portion configured for developing charts or reports based on the captured data related to the incoming calls.

19. A system comprising:

a computer-readable medium providing computer-readable instructions;

a communication device; and

a processor operatively coupled to the communication device and the computer-readable medium, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to;

receive incoming calls coming from clients that are directed to phone numbers of client managers, wherein the client mangers are specific client managers for the clients and the phone numbers are direct numbers for the client managers;

determine if the client managers have activated a call forwarding feature wherein the client managers activate the called forwarding feature to request that incoming calls be forwarded to a call center;

capture relationship data related to the client managers that the clients are calling when the call forwarding feature is activated, wherein the relationship data is identities of the of the client managers that are being called;

direct the incoming calls to the call center when the call forwarding feature is activated;

forward the relationship data to the call center when the call forwarding feature is activated, wherein a call center switch routes the incoming calls and the relationship data to call center representatives;

capture call data related to all of the incoming calls from the clients;

provide the call data related to the incoming calls to a process owner for analysis; and

provide a notification to the client manger when the process owner determines that the incoming calls to the client manager fail to be forwarded to the call center.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the captured call data related to incoming calls comprises:

at least one of the call volume, the date and time of the call, the average speed of answer, the ring time, average talk time, the call origination, the call destination, the average, upper limit, and the lower limit of the number of calls made to the all the client managers.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

develop charts or reports based on the captured call data related to the incoming calls.