Patent ID: 7974867

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of compiling a customer information set that complies with predetermined sufficiency criteria, the method comprising: providing an overall question set having a plurality of questions; determining from the overall question set a basic question set asked of all users, each question of the basic question set being associated with an expected answer and the basic question set comprising the minimum number of sequenced questions the answers to which would be sufficient to meet the predetermined sufficiency criteria if no unexpected answers are given; providing predetermined sequenced criteria for supplementing the basic question set with supplemental additional questions from the overall question set within the sequence of the basic question set, wherein the criteria are structured to minimize the number of remaining questions that must be answered in order to comply with the predetermined sufficiency criteria; and conducting an optimized interactive customer survey using a computer processing system, the action of conducting the survey comprising: presenting each question of the basic question set to a user, receiving from the user an answer to each basic question, determining if the received answer is the expected answer for the question asked, upon a determination that the received answer is the expected answer, continuing in the basic question set sequence to the next question in the basic question set, upon a determination that the received answer is not the expected answer, presenting supplemental additional questions based on the predetermined sequenced criteria for supplementing the basic question set and returning to the sequence of the basic question set once the user provides the expected answer to the supplemental additional questions, repeating the preceding actions until all basic questions and required supplemental additional questions have been asked and answered, and informing the customer of completion of the survey once the customer provides answers to the minimum number of questions needed to comply with the predetermined sufficiency criteria.