Abstract:
A method for direct marketing comprising establishing a first communications link between a prospective customer using a device having a unique identification number and a communications device, automatically transmitting the unique identification number associated with the prospective customer&#39;s device to the communications device, establishing a second communications link between the communications device and a computer operably connected to a memory apparatus having a prospective customer database comprising prospective customer information associated with the unique identification number of the prospective customer&#39;s device, in which the information in the database determines prospective customer value which can be used to determine subsequent operations and marketing actions with the prospective customer.

Description:
[0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/975,459, filed Sep. 26, 2007, which application is incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety. This application is a continuation-in-part of my pending patent application Ser. No. 10/860,231, filed on Jun. 3, 2004. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to a system for providing acute marketing intelligence about prospective customer(s) which is dynamically triggered at the time when contact is initiated and any unique identification number of a prospective customer is transmitted. The unique identification number may be an Automatic Number Identification (ANI), VoIP extension numbers, and/or Electronic Numbering (ENUM), Common Short Codes (CSCs) or Subscriber Number or any other unique identification number of a communications device. 
         [0003]    The present invention may be utilized in situations where a telephone call or data transmission or contact is received via traditional land line telephone, cordless phone (WiFi), mobile phone, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) transmitting via the Internet or other packet-switched networks, Dual-tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF), Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID), fiber optic cable, or satellite transmission. The call itself may be a voice call or a text message such as Short Message Service (SMS) or Premium SMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). 
         [0004]    The present invention may be utilized in situations where the contact is initiated by a service provider, a seller or seller&#39;s representative or by the prospective customer. The present invention may be utilized in situations where a service provider, such as a telemarketing representative agent (TSR) is either a live agent or a recorded voice or computer generated voice or touchtone response and includes interactive voice response (IVR), automated speech recognition (ASR), dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF), or data response such as SMS, EMS or Wap Push, picture response, financial transaction and/or other methods of response handling. The present invention may also be utilized in a web environment including Wireless Application Protocol WAP) and/or PC-oriented web and/or radio frequency (RFID) environment and/or cable environment. 
         [0005]    The invention may be utilized in, but is not limited to, areas such as marketing of goods and services, coupons, political activities, find raising, public advocacy, loan applications, regulatory agency oversight, sweepstakes, movies, entertainment content and any other matter where a database of the prospective customer&#39;s activities including zero data points, one data point or more data points may be utilized in modeling score(s) of customer value to influence downstream actions such as to accelerate or stall call handling, and/or to influence selection of seller&#39;s representative live and/or IVR agent, and/or to provide the seller&#39;s representative information useful about seller representative&#39;s own performance and/or information about the prospective customer, and/or to influence product(s) offered, and/or to influence content delivered, including but not limited to, the primary advertised product and/or secondary “teased” and/or unadvertised offer(s), including 3 rd  party offer(s) selection, and/or to influence scripts or non-scripts, and/or information useful in providing an offering to the prospective customer or interviewee. 
         [0006]    The invention may also be used to reduce Advertiser risk from problematic customers, such as those likely to charge back purchases and/or return purchases and/or abusive callers, and/or those likely to cancel and/or stop making payments (bad debt). Prospective customer(s) with a projected propensity to charge back may have high dollar potential along with high risk potential (high$/highC), they may have low dollar potential with high risk potential (low$/highC), etc . . . 
         [0007]    The invention may also be used to reverse-engineer call center (or service provider) procedures to bring media revenue results into closer alignment with an Advertiser&#39;s Return on Investment (ROI) goal, per media dollar spent. The invention may also be used to improve a Telemarketer&#39;s (or service provider&#39;s) Return on Investment (ROI). 
         [0008]    The invention may utilize the Automatic Number Identification (ANI) for the telephone utilized by the prospective customer and/or the Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) identifying the particular telephone number or “application” dialed by the prospective customer and/or linked to the prospective customer. As used herein, a prior customer may also be described as a prospective customer or prospective purchaser. While a telemarketing example is used, the same process can also apply to an online response, mobile response, fiber optics response, radio frequency identification (RFID) response or other response formats. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    At the present time, an advertiser directly selling goods and services with a publicized number, such as a toll free 800# or a toll number, customarily utilizes a telemarketing call center to receive the call and attempt to capture the sale. However, not every call or response is of equal value to the advertiser. Ideally, highest value prospective customers warrant the shortest wait time reaching a TSR, and the highest quality TSR available at that moment, and the optimum quantity of relevant upsell product or service offerings with the fewest unrelated upsell product or service offerings. In the worst case scenario, a potential sale may even be detrimental to an advertiser&#39;s business because the prospective customer may be one who is chronic in returning products and/or claiming a chargeback, and/or likely to cancel their order, and/or likely to stop making payments (bad debt). 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]    Based on a further embodiment of my pending patent application Ser. No. 10/860,231, this chargeback example is used to demonstrate one use of the patent application Ser. No. 10/860,231 system to generate more revenue while reducing the risk of generating a new chargeback, which may increase transaction cost for the Advertiser and may compromise the Advertiser&#39;s standing with their Merchant Bank. 
         [0011]    A chargeback is defined as a dispute of a prior purchase, whereby the purchaser instructs their credit card or debit card provider to dispute an item this customer purchased and/or the transaction price charged. A chargeback request triggers a chain of events back through the credit card financial cycle. 
         [0012]    At the time of a transaction, the cardholder purchasing customer) has an existing line of credit with the Issuer (i.e. MasterCard or Visa) and provides their credit card or debit card number over the phone or electronically to an Advertiser&#39;s (also called Merchant&#39;s) telemarketing agent or service. The telemarketer transmits the order to the Advertiser&#39;s fulfillment processor. The fulfillment processor transmits the order to the Advertiser&#39;s Merchant Bank, an authorized acceptor of the card used. The Merchant Bank pays MasterCard or Visa a fee. The Merchant Bank sends the authorization request to the cardholder&#39;s Issuer and the Issuer approves or declines the transaction. The Issuer bills the cardholder and sends a response to the Merchant Bank. The Advertiser receives funds. Fees are paid all along the way. 
         [0013]    When a cardholder (purchasing customer) rejects a transaction on their credit card or debit card statement, this is called a chargeback. A chargeback reverses this entire process through the Issuer, the Merchant Bank, the Advertiser&#39;s fulfillment processor and the Advertiser. A chargeback could be for a portion of the transaction or for 100% of the transaction. A chargeback is detrimental to the entire credit processing chain. Therefore, Merchant Banks limit chargebacks at the rate of approximately 1% per month of the sales volume for an Advertiser. Merchant Banks may also increase their processing fees as chargeback rates rise. Advertisers risk losing their ability to transact business in the event their chargeback rate exceeds limits imposed by their Merchant Bank. Thus, there is a need for Advertisers to manage their chargeback risk when selling to prospective customer(s) exhibiting a history of chargeback on prior transactions and/or projected to be a chargeback risk, involving either the current Advertiser and or other Advertisers. To address this major industry concern, a way is demonstrated to minimize future chargebacks on products and/or services sold today. The same process can also be used to minimize future product returns on products sold today. The same process can be used to minimize other negative purchaser behavior such as bad credit risk, cancellations, abusive callers etc. The present invention fulfills inter alia, the aforesaid needs and desires. 
         [0014]    Also demonstrated is reverse engineering to drive call center decisions (or service center decisions) based on an Advertiser&#39;s Media ROT (Return on Investment) Goal achievement, or lack of achievement and/or Telemarketer&#39;s ROI (or service center&#39;s ROI). Also demonstrated is how Caller Value and Advertiser&#39;s ROT goals tie to hold time and selection of TSR and/or IVR as well as product offering(s) and script(s). 
         [0015]    How the TSR and/or IVR can utilize modeling score(s) information of prospective customer(s) value is also illustrated. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
         [0016]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing telephone call path; 
           [0017]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram which illustrates Caller Value to impact downstream actions; 
           [0018]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram showing examples of how Caller Value impacts decisions on hold time; 
           [0019]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating revenue compared to risk; 
           [0020]      FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating incoming calls during the airing of a thirty minute infomercial; 
           [0021]      FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating how information is used to improve conversion rate; and, 
           [0022]      FIGS. 7.1 ,  7 . 2 ,  7 . 3 , and  7 . 4  describe the various data points that can be used in developing modeling scores to define prospective customer value and/or to influence hold time, and/or TSR selection, and/or offers, and/or scripts, and/or price, and/or information displayed for the TSR. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0023]    By using prior chargeback incidents and/or modeling propensity for chargeback actions, the present invention is able to filter chargeback prospective customer&#39;s current responses for special handling. By using prior return incidents and/or modeling propensity for return actions, the present invention is also able to filter return prospective customer&#39;s current responses for special handling. 
         [0024]      FIG. 1  shows the Call Path where a prospective customer  100  places a call on  110  which can be a traditional land line telephone, mobile phone, voice over internet protocol (VoIP), dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF), or radio-frequency identification (RFID). Phone number dialed is  120 . Phone call is transmitted via carrier  130 . Phone call is received at  140 , a T1, DS1, or E1 circuit. PBX  150  is the point of exchange from the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to the telemarketer. A Hosted PBX service provider is typically provided by the telephone company. No exchange is needed for VoIP calls, as PBX is incorporated in the VoIP technology. DNIS (Dialed Number Identification Service) identifies phone number dialed. The marketing computer  160  is the central hub for telemarketer. The ACD (Automatic Call Distributor)  170  routes this call to the best Telemarketing Sales Representative (TSR) available  191  thru  198  based on historical skills based table information as well as TSR availability. TSRs  191  to  198  maybe located anywhere in the world and employed by different contractors or be independent contractors. The ACD may also send this call to Intelligent Voice Recording (IVR)  180  for the entire call or for a portion of the call such as an introduction, and then call is routed to TSR  191  thru  198 . Or, the ACD  170  may send this call directly to a TSR, based on DINS protocol. Out of all the potential TSRs, this call reaches the most expensive TSR  191 . TSR&#39;s  191  through  198  all use the same telemarketing script for each individual source code. Telemarketing script is defined as the primary offer(s) words and/or the selling price, secondary offer(s) words and/or selling price, and/or third party offerings. Telemarketing script may also be a coupon, or a survey, or an offer of entertainment content. 
         [0025]      FIG. 2  illustrates introducing Caller Value to impact downstream actions. Prospective customer  100  places a call on  110  land line telephone to phone number dialed  120 , which is transmitted over telephone carrier  130  and received at T1 phone line  140  and exchanged to telemarketer at  150 . At the earliest possible point in these connections, the ANI for this phone call is used as the key data point to access modeling score(s) from Tangible Memory Apparatus  200 . Tangible Memory Apparatus  200  may utilize internal historical information related to this ANI and/or may pull in additional data from external data sources  210 . The marketing computer  160  is the central telemarketing hub. Tangible Memory Apparatus  200  identifies modeling score(s) of prospective customer(s) value including High  220 , Medium  230 , Low  240  or High Revenue Value but High Chargeback Risk (High$/HighC)  250  propensity to purchase advertised product. Tangible Memory Apparatus  200  may also rank prospective customer(s) value to Advertiser&#39;s Profit Floor. This  250  call example is identified as High Revenue Value but High Risk for Chargeback (High$/HighC) and the ACD delays sending call in order to accelerate sending higher value callers to the most qualified TSRs. After giving priority to higher value prospective customers, this call example is sent to TSR  198 , the least expensive live agent TSR, with a simplified offer and telemarketing script with no continuity offers to mitigate any confusion which may result from complex terms and conditions, and/or from a high quantity of upsells. 
         [0026]    In addition to initially filtering the incoming call as just described, the Tangible Memory Apparatus  200  continues with two way communications as long as the caller remains on the line. Information supplied during the call is apt to change future screens and offers and telemarketing scripts appearing on the TSR&#39;s computer for remainder of the conversation. As with initial filtering, succeeding revisions occur quickly, and are not apparent to callers, and present timely updated instructions to TSRs or IVR. 
         [0027]    For even greater Advertiser protection, the call  250 , projected to be a high chargeback risk, can be either rejected with a “forced busy” signal and/or increase the hold time reaching the TSR agent and/or influence the selection of the TSR agent  191 - 198  or IVR  180  and/or the product and/or services offered and/or scripts, to provide chargeback protection to the Advertiser&#39;s business. 
         [0028]      FIG. 3  shows examples of how Caller Value impacts decisions on hold time prior to reaching TSR and/or IVR, and the quality of TSR and/or IVR, and then drives the quantity of offers and price points of products and/or services offered. High Value Prospective Customer  220  holds for only 10 seconds  301  before reaching highly qualified and expensive TSR  191  who offers the main product  310  which was advertised, then offers $400 Deluxe Package  320 , moving on to Custom $1,000 Product  330 , and Related $200 Product  340 , and lastly Related Product $100  350 . After securing the completed order for High Value Prospective Customer  220 , all selected offers that require package delivery are shipped in expensive box via 24-hour shipping  395 . 
         [0029]    The Medium Value Prospective Customer  230  in  FIG. 3  is on hold for 20 seconds  302  before reaching medium qualified TSR  194  who offers the main product  310  which was advertised, then offers $100 Related Product  360 , and $30 Related Product  370  and lastly $75 Unrelated Product  380 . After securing the completed order from Medium Value Prospective Customer  230 , all selected offers that require package delivery are shipped in an inexpensive box to arrive in 5 to 7 business days  396 . 
         [0030]    The Low Value Prospective Customer  240  in  FIG. 3  is on hold for 40 seconds  303  before reaching low qualified and inexpensive TSR  197  who offers the main product  310  which was advertised, then offers $10 Related Product  390 . After securing the completed order from Low Value Prospective Customer  240 , this offer requires package delivery and is shipped in an inexpensive box filled with advertising package inserts and is shipped to arrive in 3-4 weeks  397 . 
         [0031]    High Risk Chargeback Prospective Customer with potential for High Revenue but also High Chargeback Risk (High$/HighC)  250  is on hold for 120 seconds  304  before reaching low qualified and least expensive TSR  198  who offers the main product  310  which was advertised. After securing the completed order from High Risk Chargeback Prospective Customer  250 , this offer is shipped in an inexpensive box with package inserts and is shipped to arrive in 3-4 weeks  398 . 
         [0032]    Single Data Point Prospective Customer  391  is an elderly caller who holds for 60 seconds  305  before reaching highly qualified TSR  193  who offers the main product  310  which was advertised. After securing this completed order from elderly caller, selected offer is shipped in an inexpensive box to arrive in 5 to 7 business days  399 . 
         [0033]    Single Data Point Prospective Customer  392  is an ethnic caller who holds for 90 seconds  306  before reaching IVR  180  which offers the main product  310  in caller&#39;s language  392  which was advertised. After securing this completed order from ethnic caller, selected offer is shipped in an inexpensive box to arrive in 5 to 7 business days  399 . 
         [0034]    Single Data Point Prospective Customer  393  is identified as calling from a geographic region close to retail outlet. Geographic caller holds for 20 seconds  307  before reaching IVR  180  which gives a recording of directions to the local retail store  393 . 
         [0035]      FIG. 4  illustrates the balance between the desires for revenue from a High Risk Prospective Customer compared to the risk an Advertiser is willing to take as the Advertiser narrows the gap to the limit of their Merchant Bank&#39;s Chargeback Cap. 
         [0036]    This advertiser  400  has a 0.5% rate of chargebacks, when his cap from his Merchant Bank is 1.0%, so he is well under his chargeback cap. So, when this advertiser receives the call from High Risk Chargeback Prospective Customer  250  High$/HighC, this advertiser desires the revenue from this caller and is willing to take the risk that this transaction may result in a future chargeback. High Risk Chargeback Prospective Customer  250  holds for 120 seconds  430  before reaching low qualified TSR  198  who offers the main product  310  which was advertised, then offers $25 Related Product  440 . After securing the completed order for High Risk Chargeback Prospective Customer  250 , all selected offers are shipped in inexpensive box to arrive in 3-4 weeks  450 . 
         [0037]    This advertiser  410  has a 0.9% rate of chargebacks, when his cap from his Merchant Bank is 1.0%, so he is very close to his chargeback cap. So, when this advertiser receives the call from High Risk Chargeback Prospective Customer  250  High$/HighC, this advertiser desires the revenue from this caller but needs to limit his risk that this transaction may result in a future chargeback. High Risk Chargeback Prospective Customer  250  holds for 30 seconds before reaching highly qualified TSR  194  who offers the main product  310  which was advertised but the telemarketing script is modified to be simpler and even clarifies the terms of the sale a second time for a second order confirmation. No additional offerings are made. After securing the completed order for High Risk Chargeback Prospective Customer  250 , all selected offers are shipped in inexpensive box to arrive in 5-7 days  470 . This advertiser limits the hold time, selects a very experienced TSR, offers the main product only with a second order confirmation and ships quickly in order to keep this customer happy and mitigate potential confusion with this order. 
         [0038]    This advertiser  420  has a 1.0% rate of chargebacks, when his cap from his Merchant Bank is 1.0%, so he is at his chargeback limit. So, when this advertiser receives the call from High Risk Chargeback Prospective Customer  250  High$/HighC, this advertiser is not willing to risk taking the revenue from this caller because his Merchant Bank may increase his credit card transaction fees or even close his Merchant Bank account. Therefore, this advertiser elects to not to accept this phone call and it is blocked with a continuous busy signal  480 . There is no shipment because there is no order. 
         [0039]    At the moment advertising is broadcast with an 800# and/or a url, it is possible to have multiple responses in a very short window of time. It is therefore desirable to balance response by Prospective Customer Projected Value from modeling score(s) such as High, Medium, Low, and High Risk with TSR Quality and with appropriate advertised and non-advertised product and/or service offerings. 
         [0040]    An Advertiser is interested in generating the greatest revenue at the least risk. The telemarketer is interested in generating maximum profit while still satisfying his Advertising client. Another example of the usefulness of this acute marketing knowledge at the beginning of the contact is the opportunity to Reverse Engineer the service of telemarketing by guaranteeing the Advertiser a return on investment (ROI) for Advertiser&#39;s media expense. Currently, the Advertiser purchases media with the hope of an acceptable ROI but there is no guarantee. In the following example, the telemarketer could choose to bear the risk of revenue generation by guaranteeing Advertiser will meet his ROI goal for an airing of media in exchange for higher compensation to the telemarketer. The telemarketer is empowered to deliver the revenue required because the telemarketer can balance the knowledge of the quality of the Prospective Customer with the need for revenue generation. 
         [0041]    As illustrated in  FIG. 5 , the airing of a 30 minute infomercial creates incoming calls or responses at various points in the infomercial, usually associated with the display on television of the 800# and/or url. For the first 13 minutes of media airing of this infomercial no responses have been received  520 , media minutes  1 - 13 . Once the 800# and/or url are displayed at minute  14  of the infomercial, responses  530  start to come in.  FIG. 5  illustrates responses from phone calls but it is assumed that responses will also be coming to the website advertised. Three calls  530  are received at minute  14 . There is often a cluster of Prospective Customers calling within a short period of time. As described earlier, this invention prioritizes the Prospective Customers based on their modeling score(s) of projected value. The telemarketer and advertiser have previously agreed that the telemarketer will deliver $4,000 of gross revenue  510  for this $2,000 media expense  500 , for an Advertiser&#39;s ROI goal of 2.00  515 . In exchange, Advertiser will pay telemarketer at a higher rate per minute for the entire media airing than is the norm. 
         [0042]    The telemarketer wishes to reach this 2.00 ROI goal at the earliest possible moment, so telemarketer uses his highest quality TSRs  535  until ROI goal is realized. As of call  13   540 , the telemarketer has not met his obligation. When call  14   550  is received from High Value Prospective Customer, the TSR delivers the offering and customized script for the main product, and then continues to sell high dollar upsells until he reaches the revenue needed for 2:1 goal. 
         [0043]    So this telemarketer successfully reaches his ROI goal  515  for Advertiser with Prospective Customer call  14  received at the 27 minute mark of media. Now the telemarketer has generated $4,075 in gross revenue  560  for the advertiser to offset Advertiser&#39;s $2,000 media expense  570  for this media airing. Thus the telemarketer has reached his 2:1 goal. Advertiser continues to pay Telemarketer at the higher agreed upon rate, so any calls this Telemarketer handles after call  14  is incremental Advertiser revenue. Now the telemarketer wishes to ran his telemarketing center with a focus toward telemarketer&#39;s profit, so telemarketer directs calls to Low quality TSRs quickly after call  14 . Lower quality TSRs  580  used on calls  15 - 21  are less expensive for telemarketer. Wait time  585  for Prospective Customers during minutes  29 - 37  are generally longer since this telemarketer is prioritizing his highest quality TSRs for other business. Call  16 ,  590  is received from High Risk Chargeback caller and is blocked because revenue goal has been already reached, therefore reducing the desire to risk a chargeback. 
         [0044]      FIG. 6  shows how information may be used with the TSR in order to improve TSR conversion rate performance. Taking our Caller  14   550  from  FIG. 5  as an example, TSR  191  in  FIG. 6   600  would see the same telemarketing script and price point as for all callers to this particular source code. But with this invention, TSR  191  may see prospective customer value  610 . TSR may see the Revenue needed for this Call as $1,625  615  as well as a $10 Bonus if he closes this sale  620 . He may also see his historic conversion success as 50%  625 , when his peers&#39; success rate is only 30%  626 . The telemarketing script used for this main product is customized to the characteristics of this caller  630 . Rather than seeing the same script over and over again as in the past, the TSR can now see the individual opportunity with each new call. Caller Value may be indicated with words such as High, Medium and Low and/or with a numerical score and/or color coding. Caller Risk may be shown as Chargeback Risk and/or Return Risk so that the telemarketer may use extra care to keep everything simple and easy to understand. And TSR success metrics  625  may also be shown to stimulate TSR success. 
         [0045]    Now that the main product order has been accepted by this high value caller, we move to the second offering where the TSR sees $1,525 Remaining Revenue Needed  640  and $100 Revenue already generated on this order  642  and the TSR bonus has grown to $20  643  with TSR success rate for this upsell at 30%  644  compared to his peers at 15%  645 , with a telemarketing script customized to this high value prospect  647 . 
         [0046]    This deluxe upsell offer has been accepted by this high value caller, and we move to the third offering where the TSR sees $1,125 Remaining Revenue Needed 650 and $500 Revenue already generated on this order  652  and the TSR bonus has now grown to $50  653  with TSR success rate for this upsell at 20%  654  compared to his peers at 5%  655  with a telemarketing script customized to this high value prospect  657 . 
         [0047]    This custom upsell offer has been accepted by this high value caller, and we move to the fourth offering where the TSR sees only $125 Remaining Revenue Needed  660  and $1,500 Revenue already generated on this order  662  and the TSR bonus has now grown to $60  663  with TSR success rate for this upsell at 30%  664  compared to his peers at 15%  665  with a telemarketing script customized to this high value prospect  667 . Now that this TSR secures this upsell and the revenue goal has been achieved, the TSR closes this $1,700 order  670 . TSR has earned a $60 bonus  663  and the telemarketer has met his ROI goals  560  on  FIG. 5 . 
         [0048]      FIGS. 7.1 ,  7 . 2 ,  7 . 3  and  7 . 4  describe the various data points that can be used in developing modeling score(s) for prospective customer(s) Value and information that may influence hold time, TSR selection, TSR information display, IVR selection, product(s) and/or service(s) offered, offer type(s), script selection(s), selling price(s) offered, plus factors such as Advertiser&#39;s ROI, and/or Telemarketer&#39;s ROI. 
         [0049]    There is great value here to utilize prospective customer(s) Value to help enhance the telemarketing experience for the Prospective Customer, mitigate risk for the Advertiser, secure Advertiser ROI, as well as to enhance telemarketing agent performance and Telemarketer ROI.