Abstract:
A method and system for customer service and support integrated with social networks includes an Internet available server application where consumers and providers can create their profiles, integrate their profiles with existing social network profiles, and collaborate with each other on resolving consumer issues using a workflow engine supported with a rule engine. Consumers may be organized into consumer groups and into federations of consumer groups. Consumer issues may be voted on thereby raising the significance of an issue and/or building a provider&#39;s reputation based in part on resolved issues, issue votes, and by reviews and comments. Consumers manage their profiles. Provider profiles are predominately affected by resolved/unresolved issues or positive/negative reviews. Notifications are handled automatically based on configured workflow and rule engine and utilize internal messaging system, emails, SMS and other available social network services (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 61/245,021, filed Sep. 23, 2009, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to a method and system for providing customer service and support integrated with social networks. More specifically, the subject matter discloses a consumer driven customer service network to encourage improved responsiveness and resolutions from providers. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Historically, customer relationship systems have been managed by the provider with which the consumer has an issue. The issue may, for example, describe a dispute between the consumer and the provider or may also describe a service request, a warranty repair request, a billing clarification request, or any other request for information from the provider by the consumer. Typically, a provider is notified of an issue by the consumer placing a phone call or sending an email or an instant message to a customer service department. A customer service representative responds to the consumer either during a real time voice or electronic discussion or via return email. The customer service representative may then file an internal report or record the issue on the provider&#39;s internal Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. At this point, the provider must decide whether and how to respond further to the customer&#39;s issue. The provider may or may not have resolved the issue to the satisfaction of the consumer by this time. All of the data relating to the management and handling of the issue remains controlled by the provider. Consequently, the general public is often unaware of service or quality concerns with a specific provider. 
         [0004]    These internal CRM systems often put the consumer at a disadvantage. The provider controls the scope and content of the information entered into the CRM and also controls who has access to the information. The choice of whether, how, and to what extent to address the issue rests solely with the provider. As such, the provider may close the case without reaching a resolution that is acceptable to the consumer. Because the provider controls access to the CRM and the scope and content information within the CRM, such actions may be taken with little risk of another customer becoming aware of an unsatisfactory resolution. 
         [0005]    Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a universal system for consumers to provide feedback and resolve issues with providers. The improved CRM system would provide enhanced control of the dispute resolution process by the consumer and also provide incentives for providers to resolve disputes quickly and fairly. It would also permit the consumer to easily communicate information about his or her experience with other interested individuals. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    Consistent with the foregoing and in accordance with the subject matter as embodied and broadly described herein, a consumer-driven customer service network that encourages improved responsiveness and resolutions from providers is described in suitable detail to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention. 
         [0007]    In one embodiment of the invention, a network-based customer relationship system for managing data exchanged between a plurality of consumers and a plurality of providers includes a consumer interface configured to receive data from at least one of the consumers, the data including a field to identify one of the providers, and an application module in communication with the consumer interface and executable on a processor to establish a case corresponding to the data entered by the consumer, extract the field identifying the provider, and notify the provider of the existence of the case. The case is accessible to at least one other consumer who accesses the application module via the consumer interface. 
         [0008]    According to another aspect of the invention, the application module is further executable to communicate on a network to establish an interactive environment accessible by the consumers and the providers and to access a data storage device on which each of the consumers and providers establishes an account for the interactive environment. The account preferably requires user verification to access. 
         [0009]    The network-based customer relationship system may also include an Application Programming Interface (API) configured to interface with another network-based environment. The account of the consumers or providers for the interactive environment may include information about a respective account for the consumer or provider on the other network-based environment, and the API may use the information to permit access to the interactive environment from the other network-based environment without additional user verification. Thus, it is a feature of this invention that the interactive environment of the customer relationship system is easily accessible from other social networking environments. 
         [0010]    As another aspect of the invention, the application module is further executable to establish a plurality of groups of which one or more consumers or providers are members. The groups may be established according to the content of the cases, and the application module may be configured to notify each member of the group when a new case is established which contains the respective content. 
         [0011]    As still another aspect of the invention, the application module may be configured to manage a scoring system ranking each of the providers as a function of the number of cases in which that provider is identified. The provider may respond to any of these cases regardless of whether the provider is identified and the ranking of each of the providers is a function of the response. Thus, it is a feature of the present invention to provide a scoring system for providers which ranks the provider according to both the number of cases established by consumers and the responsiveness of the provider. 
         [0012]    According to another embodiment of the invention, a method of managing a customer relationship system includes executing at least one application module on a server to provide an interactive environment for a plurality of consumers and providers to provide information to each other. The information, which relates to at least one provider, is received through a consumer interface. A case corresponding to the information received from each consumer is created, and the case and the related information are stored in a database on a physical storage medium connected to the server. Each provider identified in the case is notified that the case has been established, and the case is made available to a plurality of other consumers, on-line or via another access channel. 
         [0013]    The method of managing the customer relationship system may further include receiving a response from each provider relating to the case through a provider interface and storing the response from the provider in the database on the physical storage medium connected to the server. The consumer is notified of the response, and the response is also made available to the plurality of other consumers. The case may be resolved by one of the following steps: closing the case by the consumer, closing the case at a predefined time interval after receiving the response from the provider, or closing the case in response to other consumers&#39; voting on the acceptability of the response from the provider. The provider may be rated according to at least one of a time required for response, a total number of cases reported to the provider, and a level of consumer satisfaction with the responses received from the provider. 
         [0014]    As still another aspect of the invention, a plurality of groups of consumers may have been established within the customer relationship system, and at least one the groups is notified of the new case according to the information relating to the case. Additionally, feedback may be requested from the consumers belonging to the group notified of the new case. 
         [0015]    These and other objects, advantages, and features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and accompanying drawings, while indicating preferred embodiments of the present invention, are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the present invention without departing from the spirit thereof, and the invention includes all such modifications. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0016]    The drawings furnished herewith illustrate a preferred construction of the present invention in which the above advantages and features are clearly disclosed as well as others which will be readily understood from the following description of the illustrated embodiment. 
           [0017]    In the drawings: 
           [0018]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram representation of a customer relationship management system according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0019]      FIG. 2  is a representation of an exemplary environment incorporating one embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0020]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram representation of a module structure according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0021]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram representation of a database structure according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0022]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating the process for posting consumer reviews according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0023]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating the process for resolving a consumer issue according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0024]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart illustrating the process for consumer interaction with other consumers according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0025]      FIG. 8  is a flowchart illustrating the process for a provider managing the issues assigned to the provider according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0026]      FIG. 9  is a flowchart illustrating the process for a provider managing its corporate profile according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0027]      FIG. 10  is a flowchart illustrating provider interaction with community issues according to an embodiment of the present invention; and 
           [0028]      FIG. 11  is a flowchart illustrating the consumer voting process according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
       [0029]    In describing the preferred embodiments of the invention which are illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology will be resorted to for the sake of clarity. However, it is not intended that the invention be limited to the specific terms so selected and it is understood that each specific term includes all technical equivalents which operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar purpose. For example, the word “connected,” “attached,” or terms similar thereto are often used. They are not limited to direct connection but include connection through other elements where such connection is recognized as being equivalent by those skilled in the art. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0030]    The various features and advantageous details of the subject matter disclosed herein are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments described in detail in the following description. 
         [0031]    Turning initially to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , a block diagram representation of a first embodiment of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and an exemplary environment incorporating the CRM system are illustrated. A consumer  10  may access the CRM system through any interface  12  available to the consumer  10 . The interface  12  may be, but is not limited to, a computer  14 , a cellular phone  16 , or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)  18 . The consumer interface  12  preferably is network-enabled and has access to a network  20 , such as the Internet. 
         [0032]    Similarly, a provider, or a representative thereof, may access the CRM system through any interface  22  available to the provider. The provider may be a for-profit or not-for-profit purveyor of goods or services, a university or other educator, a government department or agency, or any other institution with which a consumer interacts. Typically, a customer service representative will have a network-enabled computer  24  with access to the network  20 , such as the Internet. Optionally, other devices, such as a cellular phone, PDA, text pager, network terminal, etc. may be used to access the network  20 . The provider may have an existing proprietary CRM system  26  and/or may choose to operate a separate proprietary CRM system  26  in parallel to the CRM system as disclosed herein. 
         [0033]    Referring to  FIG. 2 , the CRM system preferably is deployed on a computer cloud  30 . A “computer cloud” as used herein is a cluster of resources, such as servers  32  and storage media  34 , and preferably but not necessarily are independently maintained and operated. The cloud  30  may exist on a single server  32  or, optionally, may be spread over many servers  32  at many locations and linked to one another by an appropriate network, such as the Internet. A server may be a single computer or multiple computers such as desktops or rack-mounted equipment. The servers may be contained in a single room or in multiple locations and are connected to one another by an appropriate internal or external network. The servers include processors for executing application modules and physical storage media to store data. The physical storage media may be of any type known in the art, including but not limited to hard drives, compact discs (CDs) digital video discs (DVDs), non-volatile flash memory, magnetic tapes, or any other suitable storage media. Advantages provided by launching the CRM system on a computer cloud  30  include dynamic scalability of resources such that the CRM system only uses the processing capabilities and storage space required by the application. The cloud  30  typically includes or has access to a significantly greater number of resources than required by an application executing on the cloud  30 . The CRM system provider typically is charged based on the number of resources within the cloud  30  used by the CRM system. Optionally, a CRM system provider may maintain a dedicated facility which includes one or more servers  32  and storage media  34  dedicated to executing the CRM system. 
         [0034]    The CRM system preferably includes multiple application modules  40  and multiple databases  50  operating on the cloud  30 . Each application module  40  includes instructions executable by one or by multiple processors of the servers. The databases  50  provide relational storage for quick access to data and may be stored on a single storage medium or across multiple storage media connected to the servers. For example, the CRM system may include a first module  42  for maintaining consumer profiles, managing consumer networks, and for enabling consumer collaboration. A second module  44  may be used for processing consumer issues, reviews, and comments according to predetermined workflows and rules. A third module  46  may be used for integrating consumers&#39; or providers&#39; existing social profiles with the CRM system and facilitating collaboration on a case with their existing social networks  70 . A first database  52  may be used to store submissions from the consumers, providers, or anyone in the community. The submissions may include, but are not limited to, issues, reviews, comments, requests, questions, suggestions, ideas, and responses to any of the preceding items. A second database  54  may be used to store provider profiles, consumer profiles, and social profiles. Still other modules  40  and databases  50 , not shown, may be included to perform functions or store data as required by the CRM system. Optionally, the application modules  40  and databases  50  may be structured according to any suitable division or combination of features and/or data as known to one skilled in the art. Alternately, the CRM system may be implemented using a single application module  40  and/or a single database  50 . 
         [0035]    The consumer  10  may access the CRM system directly through the network  20  using a web browser  15  executed on any suitable consumer interface  12 . Optionally, the consumer  10  may first access a social network  70 , for example, Facebook  76  or Twitter  78 , to which the consumer  10  is a member. At least one application module  40  may be executing within the social network  70  to provide a link to the CRM system. An application module  40  may similarly be deployed in other applications, such as a web advertisement or as a link running on a provider&#39;s webpage to provide a link to the CRM system. Using a single sign-on module, the authentication credentials, such as a username and password, provided by the consumer  10  to access the social network  70  will additionally permit access to the CRM system without reentering the username and password. Similarly, the single sign-on module permits consumers  10  to first access the CRM system with authentication credentials and then access their social networks  70 . An Application Programming Interface (API),  62  or  64 , available for that social network  70  permits interaction between the CRM system and the social network  70 . Such interaction may include maintaining or updating social network information on either the social network or the CRM system and transferring data to the other network or system. 
         [0036]    Similarly, a provider, or a representative thereof, may access the CRM system directly through the network  20  using a web browser  25  executing on any suitable provider interface  22 . Optionally, the provider may first access a social network  70  on which it maintains a presence. Using a single sign-on module, the authentication credentials, such as a username and password, provided by the provider to access the social network  70  will additionally permit access to the CRM system without reentering the username and password. The single sign-on module also permits providers to first access the CRM system with authentication credentials and to subsequently access the social networks  70 . An API,  62  or  64 , available for that social network  70  permits interaction between the CRM system and the social network  70 . Such interaction may include maintaining or updating social network information on either the social network  70  or the CRM system and transferring the data to the other network or system. The provider may also integrate a proprietary CRM system  26  with the CRM system deployed on the cloud  30 . 
         [0037]    In operation, the CRM system provides a consumer-driven interactive interface for reporting information to and interfacing with providers. Referring to  FIG. 4-11 , an exemplary database structure  200  and flow diagrams of processes for implementing the CRM system are illustrated. 
         [0038]    A consumer  10  first establishes a user account on the CRM system. An application module  40  maintains a database  50  including, for example, a user table  202  which assigns a user ID to each account and stores the user name and password associated with the account. The consumer  10  is required to enter the user name and password to provide secure access to the CRM system. Optionally, a single password or multiple passwords may be used to permit varying levels of security and access to information on the CRM system. The consumer  10  may enter personal identifying information (e.g. name, gender, birth date, and location) stored in a consumer information table  204 . The consumer  10  may further identify social networks  70  to which the consumer  10  belongs. The application modules  40  further maintain a table of social profiles  206  and, if the consumer  10  grants permission, may access the consumers&#39;  10  social network pages to retrieve additional consumer information according to access and permission levels established by the consumer  10 . The consumer  10  may additionally join or form a consumer group. Members of the consumer group can share ideas, submissions, and create events. The CRM system preferably includes a consumer group table  208  which identifies all groups to which each consumer  10  belongs. Preferably, the consumer  10  determines how much information to provide and for what purpose the information will be used. 
         [0039]    Referring to  FIG. 5 , the consumer  10  may use the account to provide a submission, such as a comment, a review, a request, or an idea relating to a provider using a procedure identified generally by blocks  100 - 106 . A “block” is used herein to conceptualize a portion of the processes illustrated in the flowcharts. A block may include a single step or multiple steps and may be completed by a single person or device or multiple people or devices at a single location or multiple locations. Further, the flowcharts present exemplary embodiments and are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments of the present invention contemplate that the steps may be rearranged in varying orders and among varying processes. 
         [0040]    In block  100 , consumers  10  first access their account on the CRM system. A consumer  10  then enters the submission at block  102 . An application module  40  stores each of the submissions in a database  50 . Each of the submissions may be stored in a single element of the database, such as a record, a table, or a file or, optionally, the submissions may be sorted by, for example, the type of information submitted into separate elements of the database, such as a review table  208  or a comment table  210 . For ease of searching, the CRM system preferably requires the consumer to identify a base issue to which the submission relates. The base issue identifies, for example, a general concept, service, or product, to which any submission may be related. The base issue can link comments, reviews, issues, or other submissions by multiple consumers and may be stored in a separate table  212  for quick access, sorting, and searching. In block  104 , the consumer  10  may then notify others in his social networks, consumer groups, or the provider to which the posting relates. Optionally, the consumer  10  may establish a rule to automatically notify one or more of these groups. “Rules” as used herein are sequences that are executed based on the occurrence of an event. 
         [0041]    An application module  40  monitors events, such as a consumer submission, and determines if a rule needs to be executed. The application module  40  preferably interfaces with the rule table  214 , a state machine  216 , and a workflow table  218  to determine what actions to take based on the event. A state machine  216  defines different states, or operating conditions, in which a submission or case may exist. For example, a submission may be a general comment for review by the community, or may be a request for information awaiting a response from a provider. The application module  40  uses rules in the rule table  214  to put the case into an appropriate state, such as notifying a provider or requesting comment from the community. Similarly, the workflow table  218  may define a series of steps that direct the case through a series of states. An exemplary series of states may include, but is not limited to, waiting for submission of a case from a consumer, notifying a provider of the case, waiting for a response from the provider, notifying the consumer of the response, waiting to close the close, and closing the case in response to an acceptable resolution. As a rule or a workflow process requests different states, the state machine  216  defines a set of desired operating parameters for the case during each state. The operating parameters may include, for example, what action is to be performed and by whom the action is expected to be performed. After posting a submission, the consumer  10  awaits responses from other consumers  10 , peers from his social networks, or the provider in block  106 . 
         [0042]    In addition to posting a comment or review, the consumer  10  may further use the CRM system to initiate a customer service-related action pertaining to a service or product received from a provider. In this case, referring to blocks  110 - 118  in  FIG. 6 , the consumer  10  accesses his account at block  110 . The consumer  10  creates a new case identifying the issue and the provider involved at block  112 . The issue may, for example, describe a dispute between the consumer  10  and the provider or may also describe a service request, a warranty repair request, a billing clarification request, or any other request for information from the provider by the consumer. Optionally, the issue may be a generalized problem experienced by the consumer  10  and not directed toward a specific provider. A generalized problem typically applies to products or services available from many providers such that any provider or other consumer who has experienced the problem may be able to provide a solution and may be, for example, incompatible video formats between a television and a video playback device or problems with insects or disease in landscaping. Each new issue may be stored in an issue table  220  and include data such as the consumer&#39;s name, date of incident, description and current status of issue, proposed resolution, community comments, and voting status. The CRM system preferably requires the consumer  10  to identify a base issue to which the issue relates for inclusion in an issue table  212 . Optionally, the consumer  10  may select from a list of base issues already included in the issue table  212  to identify a prior submission to which the new problem relates or is similar. Optionally, the consumer  10  may access the CRM through a social network  70  to which the consumer belongs. 
         [0043]    A significance factor may be included as a field in, for example, the review table  208 , the comment table  210  or the issue table  220  in order to rate the importance of a submission relative to other submissions. The significance factor may be calculated by the number of votes on a submission, as described below, by the number of times the submission was viewed, or by using a set of rules predefined by the consumer  10  or the provider. The significance factor may similarly be increased by the number of comments by other consumers  10  or by the number of other submissions having the same or a related base issue. The significance factor may be used to order search results when searching for submissions pertaining to a specific product or provider. 
         [0044]    The new case is assigned to the provider against which the consumer  10  has an issue in block  114  and/or assigned to the community in general if the issue is a generalized problem in block  115 . If the issue is assigned to the general community, any provider or other consumer  10  that is a member of the CRM system or a peer from the original consumer&#39;s social network that has been notified of the issue may collaborate  117  to suggest a solution to the issue. If the issue is assigned to a specific provider, the CRM system will attempt to notify the provider of the new issue. For providers that are members of the CRM system, the case will be delivered to the contact identified in the company table  222  of the database. If a provider is not a member, an application module  40  of the CRM system will attempt to identify a customer service contact for that provider, such as an email address or a provider&#39;s proprietary CRM website, and forward the issue to the identified contact. The application module  40  may execute a rule to search a network, such as the Internet, for the desired contact information. Optionally, the application module  40  may search a table or other database that includes a precompiled list of contact information for different providers. 
         [0045]    The consumer  10  and the provider will attempt to resolve the issue at block  116 . Once the issue has been resolved to the satisfaction of the consumer  10 , the consumer  10  can then close the issue at block  118 . However, consumers  10  may not always follow through and close issues after receiving a satisfactory resolution. Consequently, at block  118  a rule stored in the rule table  214  of the CRM system will cause the issue to be closed automatically after a predetermined time has elapsed from the consumer receiving a response to the issue on the assumption that the consumer is satisfied. Further, a consumer  10  may not be satisfied with the proposed resolution from the provider and may keep the case active after receiving the proposed resolution. In order to bring such a case to resolution, at block  118  another rule from the rule table  214  may be invoked in which the CRM system initiates a community vote on the proposed resolution. The voting process will be described in more detail below. 
         [0046]    The CRM system itself may perform many functions similar to a social network. Referring to blocks  120 - 128  in  FIG. 7 , a consumer  10  may access his account in block  120  to perform functions in addition to posting a review, comment, or issue as previously described. At block  122 , the consumer  10  can track all previous postings from a single location. The consumer  10  may update the information in the consumer&#39;s public profile, in block  124 . This information may include, but is not limited to, the personal identifying information previously entered into the consumer information table  204 , previously posted submissions that may be stored in a consumer profile table  224 , or the links to the consumer&#39;s social networks in the social profile table  206 . The consumer  10  may also access the public profiles of other consumers  10  on the CRM system at bock  126 . The consumer  10  may choose to collaborate with another consumer  10  on issues or ideas posted by the other consumer  10 . At block  128 , the consumer  10  may also choose to form a consumer group which may include other consumers  10  and may be used to focus attention on a specific provider or issue. 
         [0047]    A provider primarily uses the CRM system to resolve issues assigned to that provider. Referring to blocks  130 - 136  in  FIG. 8 , the provider accesses its account at block  130  and may then access any submission that has been assigned to that provider at block  132 . The provider processes the submissions through a defined workflow process in block  134 . The workflow process may be defined in the workflow table  218  of the CRM system or, optionally, each provider may have a proprietary CRM system  26  to direct the resolution process. The proprietary CRM system  26  may interface directly with the CRM system using a publicly available API in order to retrieve information relating to a submission or the provider may manually enter information into the proprietary CRM system  26 . The provider continues to interact with the consumer  10  until the case is closed at block  136 . 
         [0048]    Referring to  FIGS. 9 and 10 , a provider may further choose to interact with the network established by the CRM system. After accessing its account in block  140  or  150 , the provider may update, at least in part, the information in its public profile at block  142 . The information in the provider&#39;s public profile may include, but is not limited to, contact information provided in the company table  222  and information in a company profile table  226 , which is generated by consumers  10  and the CRM system, such as submissions, and a provider rating. The provider may directly modify the information in the company table  222  at block  142  but, as shown in block  144 , the provider&#39;s interaction with consumers also influences the information maintained in the company profile table  226 . The provider may further interact with the community at block  152  by searching for keywords in submissions not assigned to that provider and by participating in the resolution or collaboration on a general submission in block  154 . 
         [0049]    An application module  40  executing on the CRM system determines rankings for each of the providers discussed on the CRM system. The rankings provide the general community with an indicator of how well the provider interacts with consumers. The rankings may be based, for example, on the consumer reviews, comments, number of open issues, number of resolved issues, number of issues satisfactorily resolved, and the number of general issues on which the provider collaborates with the community to resolve. 
         [0050]    An application module  40  executing on the CRM system may control voting on cases that remain unresolved despite attempts by the provider to provide a solution or on cases that were closed by the consumer  10  but were not resolved in a manner that entirely satisfied the consumer  10 . Referring to  FIG. 11 , consumers  10  access their accounts at block  160  and are presented with an option to vote for specific cases in block  162 . The consumers  10  selected to vote may include those pertaining to a specific consumer group, those with related cases, or even the entire community. Voting may be necessary in those instances when a consumer  10  is so dissatisfied with a service or product that no solution offered by the provider will be satisfactory to the consumer  10 . Conversely, a provider may be unwilling to provide a solution that would be considered satisfactory to a majority of consumers  10 . In either instance, the case remains open and adversely affects the ranking of the provider. Consequently, the voting system permits the community to decide whether the provider has worked with the consumer to fairly resolve the case. 
         [0051]    The voting system is controlled by the rules and workflow engine defined by the tables,  214  and  218 , in the CRM system. Only one vote is allowed per consumer  10  per state of a comment or issue as indicated in block  164 . For instance, after an initial vote, a provider may propose a revised solution to an issue presenting a new state on which the consumers  10  may vote. The significance factor may be increased by a vote, or by the number of votes, on the issue or comment at block  166 . The significance factor may be used to order search results when a consumer or provider searches for reviews or issues pertaining to a specific product or provider as shown in block  168 . After the period for voting has elapsed, the CRM system may cause a case to be closed if the community votes in favor of the provider. Consequently, if the general community feels that a proposed solution is fair while the consumer  10  involved does not, the case will be closed to prevent further negative influence on the provider&#39;s rating. 
         [0052]    The CRM system additionally includes at least one application module  40  executing to monitor events occurring in the system. The application module  40  preferably interfaces with tables defining rules  214 , workflow  218 , transitions or states  216 , and actions  228 . The CRM system may keep the general community, as well as specific consumers  10  or providers, informed of events in the system. For example, if a new submission is posted, the system may provide notification to all other consumers having a related submission or to all providers of similar goods and/or services. Similarly, if a new comment is posted on an existing submission, all consumers having a related submission or comment may receive notification of the new comment. 
         [0053]    The CRM system proposed herein provides advantages to both consumers and providers. It permits the consumer  10  to initiate cases against providers with which it has an issue. It further allows the consumer  10  to keep the case open until a successful resolution has been reached or voted upon. The CRM system provides a uniform interface for the consumer  10  regardless of the provider with which the dispute arose. Further, the consumer  10  may access the CRM system via links from existing social networks. Providers do not need to purchase or maintain a proprietary CRM system. Additionally, providers that provide quick resolution to issues and comments enjoy a favorable ranking readily accessible to members of the community. 
         [0054]    It should be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangements of the components set forth herein. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Variations and modifications of the foregoing are within the scope of the present invention. It also being understood that the invention disclosed and defined herein extends to all alternative combinations of two or more of the individual features mentioned or evident from the text and/or drawings. All of these different combinations constitute various alternative aspects of the present invention. The embodiments described herein explain the best modes known for practicing the invention and will enable others skilled in the art to utilize the invention.