Systems for capturing telephonic mass responses
First Claim
1. A method of enhancing response to a broadcast promotion, comprising in combination the steps of:
- broadcasting said promotion over an essentially one-way mass medium;
prompting recipients of that broadcast promotion to respond thereto through their telephone sets having different subscriber telephone numbers;
at a plurality of locations, automatically receiving calls of recipients using their telephone sets to respond to said broadcast promotion, electronically capturing the subscriber telephone numbers of the telephone sets through which said calls are made, and automatically confirming to substantially all callers while on line during said calls that their calls have been received;
at said plurality of locations, subsequently using the electronically captured subscriber telephone numbers to call on multitudes of the telephone sets at a time, electronically prompting all persons who answer the calls on said multitudes of telephone sets to complete their responses to the broadcast promotion through their telephone sets while on line, and automatically receiving the completed responses while on line with said persons through their telephone sets; and
communicating with said plurality of locations and polling information generated by said received calls and said returned calls.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Recipients of a promotion broadcast over an essentially one-way mass medium are prompted to respond thereto through their telephone sets having different subscriber telephone numbers, and the task of handling the resulting mass response is divided into a call receiving phase and a subsequent response completing phase. Such call receiving phase is shortened relative to the response completing phase by automatically receiving calls of recipients using their telephone sets to respond to the broadcast promotion, electronically capturing the subscriber telephone numbers of the telephone sets through which these calls are made, and automatically confirming to substantially all callers while on line during these calls that their calls have been received. The response completing phase is subsequently carried out by using the electronically captured subscriber telephone numbers to call on multitudes of the telephone sets at a time, electronically prompting all persons who answer the calls on these multitudes of telephone sets to complete their responses to the broadcast promotion through their telephone sets while on line, and automatically receiving the completed responses while on line with these persons through their telephone sets. In one system embodiment, a plurality of subsystems are geographically distributed over a wide area, and each subsystem of the plurality carries out both the call receiving phase and the response completing phase for calls received by a particular subsystem. Each subsystem stores information generated by and received through such subsystem, and the stored information is polled from a centralized location.
135 Citations
38 Claims
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1. A method of enhancing response to a broadcast promotion, comprising in combination the steps of:
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broadcasting said promotion over an essentially one-way mass medium; prompting recipients of that broadcast promotion to respond thereto through their telephone sets having different subscriber telephone numbers; at a plurality of locations, automatically receiving calls of recipients using their telephone sets to respond to said broadcast promotion, electronically capturing the subscriber telephone numbers of the telephone sets through which said calls are made, and automatically confirming to substantially all callers while on line during said calls that their calls have been received; at said plurality of locations, subsequently using the electronically captured subscriber telephone numbers to call on multitudes of the telephone sets at a time, electronically prompting all persons who answer the calls on said multitudes of telephone sets to complete their responses to the broadcast promotion through their telephone sets while on line, and automatically receiving the completed responses while on line with said persons through their telephone sets; and communicating with said plurality of locations and polling information generated by said received calls and said returned calls. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14)
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13. A method as in claim I, including the steps of:
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broadcasting a stimulus for prompting said recipients of the broadcast promotion to respond through their telephone sets; and initiating the calling on said multitudes or the telephone sets after expiration of a predetermined length of time after said stimulus.
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15. A method of enhancing response to a promotion broadcast over an essentially one-way mass medium, wherein recipients of that broadcast promotion are prompted to respond thereto through their telephone sets having different subscriber telephone numbers, comprising in combination the steps of:
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dividing said method into a call receiving phase and a response completing phase carried out at least minutes after termination of said call receiving phase; shortening said call receiving phase relative to said response completing phase by, at a plurality of locations, automatically receiving calls of recipients using their telephone sets to respond to said broadcast promotion, electronically capturing the subscriber telephone numbers of the telephone sets through which said calls are made, and automatically confirming to substantially all callers while on line during said calls that their calls have been received; subsequently carrying out the response completing phase by, at said plurality of locations, using the electronically captured subscriber telephone numbers to return said calls, prompting all persons who answer the calls on telephone sets to complete their responses to the broadcast promotion through their telephone sets while on line, and receiving the completed responses while on line with said persons through their telephone sets; and communicating with said plurality of locations and polling information generated by said received calls and said returned calls. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. In a system for enhancing response to a promotion broadcast over an essentially one-way mass medium wherein recipients of that broadcast promotion are prompted to respond thereto through their telephone sets having different subscriber telephone numbers, the improvement comprising in combination:
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a plurality of subsystems each including in combination-- receiving means for receiving calls of recipients of said broadcast promotion using their telephone sets to respond to said broadcast promotion; capturing means connected to said receiving means for capturing the subscriber telephone numbers of the telephone sets through which said calls received by said receiving means are made; means connected to said receiving means for confirming to substantially all callers to the subsystem while on line during said received calls that their calls have been received; and means for returning said received calls, including in combination-- means for calling on multitudes of the telephone sets at a time using the subscriber telephone numbers captured at that subsystem, means for prompting all persons who answer the calls on said multitudes of telephone sets to complete their responses to the broadcast promotion through their telephone sets while on line, and means for receiving the completed responses while on line with said persons through their telephone sets; and polling means for communicating with each of said subsystems of said plurality for polling information generated by and received through said subsystems. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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Specification