System and method of intelligent call routing for cross sell offer selection based on optimization parameters or account-level data

• US 8,995,643 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2014
• Issued: 03/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Orangewood Legacy LLC
• Original Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Ma, Lizhi, Pederson, Shane P., Khaemba, Wilson, Wang, Hui, Kurubarahalli, Guru, Ulrich, Gary, Dhir, Nitin, Shkreli, Djovana
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Khai N
• Application Number:
  US14/158,353
• Publication Number:
  US 20140133646A1
• Time in Patent Office: 438 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.01, 379/265.02, 379/265.03, 379/265.04, 379/265.05, 379/265.06, 379/265.07, 379/265.08, 379/265.09, 379/265.1, 379/265.11, 379/265.12, 379/265.13, 379/265.14, 379/266.01, 379/266.02, 379/266.03, 379/266.04, 379/266.05, 379/266.06, 379/266.07, 379/266.08, 379/266.09, 379/266.1
• US Class Current: 379/265.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/407 Call center operated for multiple customers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/408 Customer-specific call routing plans
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals
• 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 3/5141 Details of processing calls and other types of contacts in an unified manner unified messaging in packet-switching networks H04L51/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5235 Dependent on call type or called number [DNIS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems

Abstract

An apparatus and methods for a call routing system is disclosed whereby the call routing service provider is associated with a series of partners. By providing a system supporting not only the main user, but also the partners, efficiencies are gained through cost-spreading. Agents can be qualified to field calls for multiple business entities. Cross-selling and proactive servicing based on caller demographic and profile data can be effectuated. The system employs a centralized or global bank of shared Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units so that unnecessary post-routing and call site interflow are reduced. The system comprises a central server system that interfaces with a long distance provider so that route requests are received, caller data is retrieved from one or more databases, routing and handling strategies are developed, load balancing is effectuated, and calls are appropriately routed to one of a plurality of geographically separated call center systems with queues staffed by agents. Each call center system is designed to support various queues, and agents may be qualified or assigned to various queues based on their skill sets and skill levels.

Claims

1. A method of routing in a central server system incoming customer communications to presentations relating to products or services predicted to be of interest to a customer, the method comprising:

forming a communication routing strategy for the customer, in anticipation of at least one incoming communication from the customer, wherein the at least one incoming communication is selected from a group consisting of telephonic calls, web-based communications, voice-over-IP communications, and real-time text interactions, by performing the following steps;

accessing information relating to one or more products or services;

retrieving customer specific information associated with the customer or an account of the customer;

deciding, for each offer associated with the one or more products or services, based on an estimated likelihood that the customer will purchase the one or more products or services, whether to route the at least one incoming communication to one of a plurality of cross-sell presentations relating to said each offer associated with the one or more products or services, the estimated likelihood based at least in part on the customer specific information;

pre-forming the communication routing strategy for the customer consistent with said deciding; and

storing the communication routing strategy in association with the central server system;

receiving, at the central server system, information of a customer communication including identification data that identifies an origin of the customer communication and a medium of the customer communication;

using the identification data to identify, by at least one computer processor, the customer for whom the communication routing strategy has been pre-formed; and

generating, by the at least one computer processor a routing control signal for routing the customer communication to one of said plurality of cross-sell presentations based at least in part on the pre-formed communication routing strategy associated with the customer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said customer specific information comprises one or more online actions associated with said customer'"'"'s online account.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said real-time text interactions are selected from a group consisting of a text messaging communications, Internet chat communications, and customer service messaging communications.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification data are selected from a group consisting of a phone number, an IP address, a device identifier, a user identifier, and a program identifier.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deciding, based at least in part on a communication probability derived from the customer specific information, whether the customer communication will be routed to one of said plurality of cross-sell presentations.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising deciding based in part on an offer eligibility derived from the customer specific information whether the customer communication will be routed to one of said plurality of cross-sell presentations.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming the communication routing strategy by applying an optimization algorithm to determine whether to route the at least one incoming communication to one of said plurality of cross-sell presentations.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said deciding comprises checking the customer specific information for an indication as to whether the customer has previously been exposed to information relating to the one or more products or services.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said deciding comprises deciding whether the customer is eligible to purchase the one or more products or services.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the communication routing strategy to a customer service representative.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising ranking the products for which said deciding is in the affirmative according to a probable value of each product.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically retrieving pre-stored customer specific information.

13. Instructions embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium capable of causing a computer to route in a central server system incoming customer communications to presentations relating to products or services predicted to be of interest to a customer, the instructions embodied in the non-transitory computer readable medium configured to cause the computer to:

access information relating to one or more products or services;

retrieve, for a plurality of customers, customer specific information, wherein the customer specific information of each customer is associated with the customer or an account of the customer;

decide, for each of the one or more products or services, based on an estimated likelihood that the customer will purchase the one or more products or services, whether to route customer communications to one of a plurality of cross-sell presentations relating to said each offer associated with the one or more products or services, the estimated likelihood based at least in part on the customer specific information, wherein the customer communications are selected from a group consisting of telephonic calls, web-based communications, voice-over-IP communications, and real-time text interactions; and

pre-forming a communication routing strategy consistent with said deciding in anticipation of customer communication;

wherein the instructions embodied in the non-transitory computer readable medium cause the central server system to route the customer communication according to the pre-formed communication routing strategy by;

receiving information of a customer communication at the central server system, the said information including identification data that identifies the origin of the customer communication and the medium of the customer communication;

using the identification data to identify, by at least one computer processor, the customer for whom the communication routing strategy has been pre-formed; and

generating by the at least one computer processor, a routing control signal for routing the customer communication to one of said plurality of cross-sell presentations based at least in part on the pre-formed communication routing strategy associated with the customer.

14. A method for routing communications from customers to selected presentations using a routing system and a central server system, the method comprising:

accessing customer information of each of a plurality of customers, the customer information comprising at least one of account specific information of each of the plurality of customers and behavioral information of each of the plurality of customers;

accessing information regarding a plurality of products or services;

evaluating, by at least one computer processor, the customer information and the information regarding the plurality of products and services to determine input to the routing system, the input including at least one of a communication probability, an eligibility indicator, a customer response rate, and a financial parameter;

computing, by at least one computer processor, an expected value for each customer based on the input to the routing system, the expected value based at least in part on the financial parameter;

creating and prioritizing a list of products or services specific to each customer based on the computed expected value;

receiving information of a customer communication at the central server system, the communication information including identification data that identifies the origin of the customer communication, the medium and the format of the customer communication;

using the identification data to identify, by at least one computer processor, the customer for whom the list of products or services has been created and prioritized;

generating, by at least one computer processor, a routing control signal for routing the customer communication so as to present an offer to the customer in accordance with the created prioritized list.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein computing the expected value comprises calculating a weighted average using at least the communication probability, the eligibility indicator, and the customer response rate.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the financial parameter comprises net present value to an offeror.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising calculating the communication probability by determining a probability that the customer will communicate and over what medium the customer will communicate during a predetermined time period based on the customer specific information.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising calculating the response rate by determining a probability that the customer will accept a selected offer based on the customer specific information.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising setting an eligibility flag to a first value to indicate eligibility and to a second value to indicate ineligibility.

20. A method of presenting offers relating to products or services predicted to be of interest to a customer using a central server system, the method comprising:

forming a prioritized offer list for the customer, in anticipation of at least one incoming communication from the customer, wherein the at least one incoming communication is selected from a group consisting of telephonic calls, web-based communications, voice-over-IP communications, and real-time text interactions, by performing the following steps;

accessing information relating to one or more products or services;

retrieving customer specific information associated with the customer or an account of the customer;

deciding, for each offer associated with the one or more products or services, based on an estimated likelihood that the customer will purchase the one or more products or services, whether to include said each offer associated with the one or more products or services in the prioritized offer list, the estimated likelihood based at least in part on the customer specific information;

pre-forming the prioritized offer list for the customer consistent with said deciding; and

storing the prioritized offer list in association with the central server system;

receiving, at the central server system, information of the customer logging into a customer service site;

using the information to identify, by at least one computer processor, the customer for whom the prioritized offer list has been pre-formed; and

generating, by the at least one computer processor, one or more offer presentations to the customer based at least in part on the pre-formed prioritized offer list.

21. A method of routing a customer through web presentations relating to products or services predicted to be of interest to the customer using a central server system, the method comprising:

forming a web routing strategy for the customer, in anticipation of at least one web site from the customer, by performing the following steps;

accessing information relating to one or more products or services;

retrieving customer specific information associated with the customer or an account of the customer;

deciding, for each offer associated with the one or more products or services, based on an estimated likelihood that the customer will purchase the one or more products or services, whether to route the customer to a cross-sell web presentation relating to said each offer associated with the one or more products or services, the estimated likelihood based at least in part on the customer specific information;

pre-forming the web routing strategy for the customer consistent with said deciding; and

storing the web routing strategy in association with the central server system;

receiving, at the central server system, information of the customer logging into a customer service site;

using the information to identify, by at least one computer processor, the customer for whom the web routing strategy has been pre-formed; and

routing, by the at least one computer processor, the customer to at least one cross-sell offer presentations based at least in part on the pre-formed web routing strategy.