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US 2019/0319906 A1Published application
Automated communication in an email synchronization and workflow system
AssigneeOutreach Corporation
InventorsGordon L. Hempton, Wesley R. Hather, Andrew S. Kinzer, Manuel A. Medina
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems are enclosed herein for automatically managing email communication between a group of users and a group of target prospects. A sequence of outbound emails is automatically sent on behalf of a user to a prospect. Based upon the prospect's inbound replies (or lack thereof) the system will perform preconfigured actions, such as stopping automated communications and deferring to the user for manual action.
Claims24
A system for automatically managing email communication between a plurality of users and a plurality of known prospects, comprising:
- a database containing information concerning the plurality of known prospects, and the database containing information concerning a plurality of users;
- an email synchronization module having a plurality of email inboxes associated with respective users, each email inbox of the plurality of email inboxes being capable of receiving a plurality of email messages, including email messages from the plurality of known prospects, the email synchronization module being configured to extract metadata from an email message of the email messages when it is received;
- the email synchronization module being configured to determine whether one or more users of the plurality of users are associated with the email message, and if so, which of the one or more users of the plurality of users are associated with the email message, based upon a comparison of said metadata with information stored in the database concerning the users;
- the email synchronization module being configured to determine whether one or more prospects are associated with the email message, and to identify which prospects are associated with the email message, by examining said metadata for an email address that matches an email address stored in said database corresponding to a known prospect, and if no match is found, by determining whether a name of a sender of the email message matches a name of the known prospect, or said metadata includes an email thread containing a reference corresponding to information stored in the database associated with the known prospect;
- in an event that the email message is determined to be associated with a prospect of the plurality of known prospects, using a rule-based classification module having an order set of conditions to map to a classification for the email message, the rule-based classification module being configured to search for data corresponding to a message-ID stored in the database, and if a corresponding message-ID is found, classifying the email message as a reply, the rule-based classification module being configured to search for data corresponding to textual metadata stored in the database, and if corresponding textual metadata is found, classifying the email message as a reply, the rule-based classification module being configured to search for data matching an identical subject and recipient corresponding to a previous message delivery, and if such identical subject and recipient are found, classifying the email message as a reply;
- in an event that the email message is determined to not be associated with the plurality of known prospects, storing said metadata concerning the email message without storing contents of the email message;
- and
- a deduplication module for storing the plurality of email messages in the database to ensure that each message-ID only exists once in the database.
5 more elements
A system for automatically managing email communication between a plurality of users and a plurality of prospects, comprising:
- a database containing information concerning a plurality of known prospects;
- and
- an email synchronization and workflow system having a plurality of email inboxes associated with respective users, each of the plurality of email inboxes being capable of receiving a plurality of email messages, including email messages from the plurality of prospects, the email synchronization and workflow system being configured to extract metadata from RFC 2822 email headers associated with an email message when it is received;
- the email synchronization and workflow system being configured to determine whether one or more users are associated with the email message, and if so, which users are associated with the email message, based upon said metadata;
- the email synchronization and workflow system being configured to determine whether one or more prospects are associated with the email message, and to identify which prospects are associated with the email message, by examining said metadata for an email address that matches an email address stored in said database corresponding to a known prospect, and if no match is found, by examining said metadata for an email thread containing a reference corresponding to information stored in the database associated with the known prospect;
- and
- in an event that the email message is determined to be associated with a prospect of the plurality of known prospects, using a classification system to determine a classification for the email message, and in an event that the email message is determined to not be associated with the plurality of known prospects, storing said metadata concerning the email message without storing contents of the email message.
4 more elements
(canceled)
A method for automatically managing email communication between a plurality of users and a plurality of prospects, comprising the steps of:
- storing information concerning a plurality of known prospects, and the plurality of users, in a database;
- receiving a plurality of email messages, including email messages from the plurality of prospects, and extracting metadata from an email message when it is received;
- determining whether one or more users are associated with the email message, and if so, which users are associated with the email message, based upon a comparison of said metadata with information stored in the database concerning the plurality of users;
- determining whether one or more prospects are associated with the email message, and which prospects are associated with the email message, by examining said metadata for an email address that matches an email address stored in said database corresponding to a known prospect, and if no match is found, by determining whether the name of the sender of the email message matches the name of the known prospect, or said metadata includes an email thread containing a reference corresponding to information stored in the database associated with the known prospect;
- in an event that the email message is determined to be associated with a prospect of the plurality of known prospects, determining a classification for the email message by searching for data corresponding to a message-ID stored in the database, and if a corresponding message-ID is found, setting the classification for the email message as a reply, by searching for data corresponding to textual metadata stored in the database, and if corresponding textual metadata is found, setting the classification for the email message as a reply, by searching for data matching an identical subject and recipient corresponding to a previous message delivery, and if such identical subject and recipient are found, setting the classification for the email message as a reply;
- in an event that an email message is determined to not be associated with the plurality of known prospects, storing said metadata concerning the email message without storing contents of the email message;
- and
- storing the plurality of email messages in the database only once for each unique message-ID in order to eliminate duplicates of the email messages stored in the database.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.