Patent ID: 7860785

Claim:
A method of using communications system to automatically refer an inbound communication, the communications system comprising a computer and a call-routing database in a memory operably associated with the computer, the method including: receiving an inbound communication with the communications system; capturing information associated with the inbound communication and using the captured information in a search of the call-routing database; if the database reveals a previous successful referral associated with the captured information, routing the inbound communication to a same outbound communications path as used in the previous successful referral; if the database does not reveal a previous successful referral associated with the captured information and if the database reveals call-routing criteria associated with the captured information, routing the inbound communication in accordance with said call-routing criteria; and if the database does not reveal a previous successful referral associated with the captured information and if the database does not reveal call-routing criteria associated with the captured information, routing the inbound communication to an outbound communications path.