Patent ID: 7310417

Claim:
A telephone system comprising: a local telephone; a local exchange company switch connected to said telephone; a service control point connected to said local exchange company switch; a voice mailbox system connected to said local exchange company switch; and an intelligent voice response unit connected to only said local exchange company switch, said intelligent voice response unit including a sequenced plurality of queries, said intelligent voice response unit also including logic to select a subsequent query depending upon a caller response to a preceding query, said local exchange company switch set to forward all incoming calls from calling parties to said local telephone to said service control point, said service control point operative during a preselected time period to direct said local exchange company switch to connect all of said incoming calls to said intelligent voice response unit, said intelligent voice response unit operative to provide said sequenced plurality of queries to said calling party and using logic to select a subsequent query depending upon a caller response to a preceding query, said intelligent voice response unit being further operative to sort said incoming calls per topic within said voice mailbox system in accordance with said responses received from said calling party to said queries.