Method and apparatus for proper routing of customers

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with an executable computer program for providing an interactive voice response (IVR) service that is accessible by a calling party over a communications system and that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a call from a party;
• retrieving account information about the party, the account information including historical information associated with the party;
• identifying a previously provided telecommunications service that was provided to the party, from the account information;
• restricting access, to the party, to a plurality of telecommunications services based on the identified previously provided telecommunications service from the account information;
• determining which of a plurality of additional telecommunications services, distinct from the previously provided telecommunications service, are desired by the party;
• receiving a selection from the party of one of the additional telecommunications services;
• processing a service request from the party based upon the selection by the party;
• suppressing, to prevent, routing of the call to a service center that provides the previously provided telecommunications service that was provided to the party and that does not provide any of the additional telecommunications services;
• and
• routing the call to a service center that provides the additional telecommunications service selected by the party.

A call routing system for managing access to telecommunications services, comprising:

• a memory that stores account information about a calling party;
• a processor that retrieves account information from the memory, the account information including historical information associated with the calling party, identifies a previously provided telecommunications service that was provided to the calling party, based on the account information, restricts access, to the calling party, to a plurality of telecommunications services based on the identified previously provided telecommunications service from the account information, determines which of a plurality of additional telecommunications services, distinct from the previously provided telecommunications service, are desired by the calling party;
• receives a selection from the calling party of one of the additional telecommunications services, and processes a service request from the calling party based upon the selection by the calling party, and
• a routing call distributor that suppresses, to prevent, routing of the call to a service center that provides the previously provided telecommunications service that was provided to the calling party and that does not provide any of the additional telecommunications services, and routes the call to a service center that provides the additional telecommunications service selected by the calling party.