Abstract:
A method and system for processing and managing referral data are disclosed. The system comprises a business rules engine for applying at least one business rule to referral data associated with a business entity. Further, the system has a data store for storing the referral data. Moreover, the system includes a reporting and pattern analyzer for analyzing the referral data and for generating reports about the referral data. Furthermore, the system includes a notification and alert system for generating an alert to the business entity, wherein the alert is based on a plurality of criteria associated with the referral data.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention generally relates to data processing and management. More particularly, the present invention relates to processing and managing referral data.  
         [0003]     2. Related Art  
         [0004]     A business entity generates much data in its dealings with customers. The customer may purchase a product or use a service offered by the business entity. From its experience with the business entity, the customer may provide the business entity some referral data either directly or indirectly.  
         [0005]     This referral data can benefit the business entity if the referral data is efficiently utilized. Unfortunately, the business entity tends to manually process and manage the referral data. Moreover, conventional systems intended to manage this referral data are not integrated with the system that interface with the customer, leading to an uncoordinated management of this referral data. Additional, these conventional systems are hard to use and operate.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006]     A method and system for processing and managing referral data are disclosed. The system comprises a business rules engine for applying at least one business rule to referral data associated with a business entity. Further, the system has a data store for storing the referral data. Moreover, the system includes a reporting and pattern analyzer for analyzing the referral data and for generating reports about the referral data. Furthermore, the system includes a notification and alert system for generating an alert to the business entity, wherein the alert is based on a plurality of criteria associated with the referral data.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]     The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.  
         [0008]      FIG. 1  illustrates a system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0009]      FIG. 2  illustrates a direct referral scenario in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0010]      FIG. 3  illustrates an indirect referral scenario in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0011]     Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention will be described in conjunction with these embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the invention to these embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, in the following detailed description of the present invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention.  
         [0012]      FIG. 1  illustrates a system  100  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The system  100  includes a business transaction system  10  of a business entity (e.g., company XYZ) and an integrated referral processing and managing system (IRPM)  50 . In one embodiment, the business transaction system  10  and the IRPM  50  are located at different sites. Hence, the business transaction system  10  and the IRPM  50  communicate and interface via a network (not shown). A firewall  90  may be utilized to protect the business transaction system  10  and the IRPM  50 . In another embodiment the business transaction system  10  and the IRPM  50  are located at same site (e.g., location of business entity).  
         [0013]     The business transaction system  10  interacts with customers  5 . These customers may be purchasing a product offered by the business entity or may use a service offered by the business entity. As a result, the business transaction system  10  generates a plurality of transaction data. This transaction data includes referral data  20 . Referral data  20  can include occurrence of a referral event, the customer that made the referral (e.g., referrer), who was the target of the referral (e.g., referree), and how the referree reacted to the referral. The business transaction system  10  is configured to send the referral data  20  to the IRPM  50 . The business transaction system  10  can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof.  
         [0014]     The integrated referral processing and managing system (IRPM)  50  includes a configurable business rules engine  54 , a data store  56 , a reporting and trends/pattern analyzer  57 , a notification and alert system  58 , and a graphical user interface (GUI)  52 . The IRPM  50  interfaces with the business transaction system  10  in order to centrally monitor, process, and manage the customer referrals and customer feedback about the referrals. The IRPM  50  can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. The IRPM  50  provides integration, ease of use, consolidation, and coordination in monitoring, processing, and managing referral data  20 .  
         [0015]     The data store  56  stores the referral data  20 . Moreover, a full history of a particular referral can be captured in the data store  56 . Besides the referral data  20  described above, the referral data  20  can further include whether the referree purchased the product or service offered by the business entity, when was this transaction, how much was purchased, whether the referree also refer other people to the business entity, how did those other people respond to the referral, etc.  
         [0016]     The configurable business rules engine  54  applies one or more business rules to the referral data  20  received from the business transaction system  10 . Examples of business rules include offer a 10% discount voucher to the referree, offer a 20% discount voucher to the referrer if the referrer provided 5 referrees within a month, and offer 10% discount voucher to referrer if referree purchases the product or uses the service offered by the business entity. The business rules can be changed and modified to meet the product/service promotional goals of the business entity.  
         [0017]     The graphical user interface (GUI)  52  enables user-friendly operation and configuration of the IRPM  50 .  
         [0018]     The reporting and trends/pattern analyzer  57  can analyze the referral data and generate reports about the referral data  20  that can be sent to the business entity. Thus, this provides the capability to quality rate each referral and to analyze patterns of customer behavior and circumstances that lead to better quality referrals, whereas a quality referral refers to a referral that leads to a purchase or use of product/service offered by the business entity. Hence, the business entity is provided more intelligent analysis of customer behavior, quality of referrals, and what correlation there was between customer satisfaction and referrals given. Moreover, the business entity can such questions as what products/services prompted most referrals, what are the customer profiles of those which provided either successful referrals or unsuccessful referrals, and what incentives/levels of incentives worked/did not work to successfully promote referrals.  
         [0019]     The notification and alert system  58  generates an alert  70  to the business entity. The notification and alert system  58  can also send out the reports about the referral data  20  (from the reporting and trends/pattern analyzer  57 ) to the business entity. The alert  70  can be based on a minimum referral threshold event, a referral quality threshold event, and a discount voucher qualification alert based on the business rule. Hence, the business entity can adjust a product/service promotion based on the alert  70 . This enables an immediate response to trends and patterns in the referral data  20 . Moreover, new product/service promotions can be designed based on the alert  70 .  
         [0020]     In practice, the referral data  20  associated with a business entity is received by the IRPM  50 . Thereafter, the configurable business rules engine  54  applies at least one business rule to the referral data  20 . Moreover, the referral data  20  is stored in the data store  56 . Thus, the reporting and trends/pattern analyzer  57  can analyze the referral data  20  stored in the data store  56 . Finally, the notification and alert system  58  generates an alert  70  to the business entity, whereas the alert  70  is based on a plurality of criteria associated with the referral data.  
         [0021]      FIG. 2  illustrates a direct referral scenario  200  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As depicted in  FIG. 2 , at arrow  1 , customer A purchases or uses the product/service offered by the business entity (e.g., Company XYZ). Moreover, the customer A sends a referral to Company XYZ. Hence, customer A is a referrer. The Company XYZ sends the referral to the IRPM  50 . The IRPM  50  then sends a first alert based on the results of the configurable business rules engine  54 .  
         [0022]     At arrow  2 , based on the first alert, the Company XYZ contacts customer B and offers a discount voucher (based on the business rules set by Company XYZ) as a promotion. Customer B is a referree. Moreover, the IRPM  50  sends a second alert based on the results of the configurable business rules engine  54 .  
         [0023]     At arrow  3 , based on the second alert, Company XYZ sends a discount voucher (based on the business rules set by Company XYZ) to customer A.  
         [0024]      FIG. 3  illustrates an indirect referral scenario  300  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As depicted in  FIG. 3 , at arrow  1 , customer A purchases or uses the product/service offered by the business entity (e.g., Company XYZ).  
         [0025]     At arrow  2 , customer B purchases or uses the product/service offered by the business entity (e.g., Company XYZ). Moreover, the customer B references customer A as the person that referred customer B to Company XYZ. Hence, customer A is a referrer. Customer B is a referree. The Company XYZ sends the referral to the IRPM  50 . Moreover, the IRPM  50  sends a first alert based on the results of the configurable business rules engine  54 .  
         [0026]     At arrow  3 , based on the first alert, Company XYZ sends a discount voucher (based on the business rules set by Company XYZ) to customer A.  
         [0027]     It should be understood that other referral scenarios are possible.  
         [0028]     The foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed, and many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the Claims appended hereto and their equivalents.