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

A method of routing incoming customer telephony calls to presentations relating to products or services predicted to be of interest to the customer, the method comprising:

• receiving information of a call at a central server system;
• generating a first routing control signal to route the call to an interactive voice response unit shared by a plurality of call sites, wherein the interactive voice response unit is external to an exchange carrier providing the call;
• receiving input from a caller at the interactive voice response unit;
• retrieving customer specific information based at least in part on the input received from the customer, wherein customer specific information is associated with the customer or an account of the customer;
• accessing information relating to a product or service;
• determining, based in part on the information relating to the product or service and in part on a probability derived from the customer specific information, whether the product or service is appropriate for the customer;
• deciding, consistent with said determining, whether the customer call is to be routed to a presentation relating to the product or service;
• and
• generating a second routing control signal for routing the call to one of said plurality of call sites based at least in part on said deciding.

A system for routing incoming customer telephony calls to presentations relating to products or services predicted to be of interest to the customer, the system comprising:

• a first computer operatively coupled to a telephony network capable of receiving customer calls, the first computer being configured to receive information regarding a call and to develop a routing control signal, wherein the telephony network is responsive to said routing control signal;
• a plurality of call sites for receiving the call based on the routing control signal;
• a voice response unit that is external to the telephony network and that is shared by the plurality of call sites, wherein the first computer pre-routes the call to the voice response unit in order to collect at least a portion of the information regarding the call in order to develop the routing control signal;
• a first database containing customer specific information, wherein the customer specific information is associated with each customer or an account of each customer;
• a second database containing information relating to a plurality of products or services;
• a second computer operatively coupled to said first computer, to said first database, and to said second database, said second computer configured to decide, for each of the plurality of products or services and based on one or both of a call probability derived in part from the customer specific information and an offer eligibility derived in part from the customer specific information, whether the customer call may be routed to a presentation relating to the product or service and to form a call routing strategy based on the results of the decision and on available call handling resources, said second computer being configured to communicate at least a portion of the routing strategy to the first computer;
• and
• the first computer being further configured to develop the routing control signal according to the call routing strategy formed by the second computer.

A system for routing incoming customer telephony calls to presentations relating to products or services predicted to be of interest to the customer, the system comprising:

• a first computer operatively coupled to a telephony network capable of receiving customer calls, the first computer being configured to receive information regarding a call and to develop a routing control signal, wherein the telephony network is responsive to said routing control signal;
• a plurality of call sites for receiving the call based on the routing control signal;
• a voice response unit that is external to the telephony network and that is shared by the plurality of call sites, wherein the first computer pre-routes the call to the voice response unit in order to collect at least a portion of the information regarding the call in order to develop the routing control signal;
• a first database containing customer specific information, wherein the customer specific information is associated with each customer or an account of each customer;
• a second database containing information relating to a product or service;
• a second computer operatively coupled to said first computer, to said first database, and to said second database, said second computer configured to determine, based at least in part on the information relating to the product or service and at least in part on a call probability derived from the customer specific information, whether the product or service is appropriate for the customer and to form a call routing strategy based thereupon and based on available call handling resources, said second computer being configured to communicate at least a portion of the routing strategy to the first computer;
• and
• the first computer being further configured to develop the routing control signal according to the call routing strategy formed by the second computer.

A system for routing incoming customer telephony calls to presentations relating to products or services predicted to be of interest to the customer, the system comprising:

• means for forming a call routing strategy for a customer, in anticipation of at least one incoming call from the customer, said means for forming further comprising:
• means for accessing information relating to one or more products or services;
• means for retrieving customer specific information associated with that customer or an account of that customer;
• means for deciding, for each offer associated with the one or more products or services, and based on one or both of a call probability derived in part from the customer specific information and an offer eligibility derived in part from the customer specific information, whether the customer call may be routed to a cross-sell presentation relating to said each offer associated with the products or services;
• means for forming the call routing strategy for the customer consistent with said deciding;
• and
• means for storing the call routing strategy in association with a central server system;
• means for receiving information of a call at the central server system;
• means for generating a first routing control signal to route the call to an interactive voice response unit shared by a plurality of call sites, wherein the interactive voice response unit is external to an exchange carrier providing the call;
• means for receiving input from a caller at the interactive voice response unit, the input at least identifying the caller as the customer for whom the call routing strategy has been pre-formed;
• and
• means for generating a second routing control signal for routing the call to one of said plurality of call sites based at least in part on the pre-formed call routing strategy associated with the customer.

A method of routing incoming customer telephony calls to presentations relating to products or services predicted to be of interest to the customer, the method comprising:

• retrieving, for a plurality of customers, customer specific information, wherein the customer specific information for each customer comprises past purchase data, past offer data, and account data is associated with the customer;
• accessing information relating to one or more products or services;
• computing, for each product or service, an expected value as a product of a probability and a monetary amount, the monetary amount being based at least in part on a net present value of a sale of the product or service to a seller of the product or service;
• determining, for each product or service, an eligibility parameter, the eligibility parameter being based at least partially on the information relating to the product or service, the eligibility parameter being based at least partially on at least one of the past offer data and the account data;
• forming a routing strategy consistent with said computing and said determining, the routing strategy being formed in anticipation of customer calls and stored in a central server system;
• receiving information of a call at the central server system;
• generating a first routing control signal to route the call to an interactive voice response unit shared by a plurality of call sites, wherein the interactive voice response unit is external to an exchange carrier providing the call;
• receiving input from a caller at the interactive voice response unit, the input at least identifying the caller as a customer for whom the call routing strategy has been pre-formed;
• and
• generating a second routing control signal for routing the call to one of said plurality of call sites based at least in part on the pre-formed call routing strategy associated with the customer.

Instructions embodied in a computer readable medium capable of causing a computer to route incoming customer telephony calls to presentations relating to products or services predicted to be of interest to the customer, the instructions embodied in a computer readable medium configured to cause a 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 that customer or an account of that customer;
• decide, for each of the one or more products or services, for each customer, and based on one or both of a probability derived in part from the customer specific information and an eligibility derived in part from the customer specific information, whether the customer call may be routed to a presentation relating to the product or service;
• and
• form a call routing strategy consistent with said deciding in anticipation of customer calls;
• wherein the instructions embodied in a computer readable medium cause a central server system to route customer calls according to the pre-formed call routing strategy by:
• receiving information of a call at the central server system;
• generating a first routing control signal to route the call to an interactive voice response unit shared by a plurality of call sites, wherein the interactive voice response unit is external to an exchange carrier providing the call;
• receiving input from a caller at the interactive voice response unit, the input at least identifying the caller as a customer for whom the call routing strategy has been pre-formed;
• and
• generating a second routing control signal for routing the call to one of said plurality of call sites based at least in part on the pre-formed call routing strategy associated with the customer.

A method of forming an offer presentation strategy for use with a customer initiated contact, the offer presentation strategy being constructed to contain offers predicted to be of interest to the individual customer who initiates contact, 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 behavior information of each of the plurality of customers;
• accessing information regarding a plurality of products or services;
• forming a list of offers in anticipation of customer initiated contacts, the list of offers being specific to a customer, the list of offers being ordered based in part on information derived from the information of each of the plurality of customers, wherein the information includes one or more factors selected from a group consisting of:
• a probability of the customer initiating a contact, an eligibility of the customer for an offer, a response rate by the customer to an offer, and a net present value of an accepted offer;
• receiving information of a call at a central server system;
• generating a first routing control signal to route the call to an interactive voice response unit shared by a plurality of call sites, wherein the interactive voice response unit is external to an exchange carrier providing the call;
• receiving input from a caller at the interactive voice response unit, the input at least identifying the caller as a customer for whom a list of offers has been pre-formed;
• and
• generating a second routing control signal for routing the call to one of said plurality of call sites so as to present an offer to the customer in accordance with the pre-formed list of offers specific to that customer.