Methods and systems for processing and managing communications

Abstract

An online and offline communication processing and tracking using data processing and data / voice networks is described. A phone address from a phone address number pool is automatically assigned to a first entity. A call quality rating is determined and recorded. A call from a caller directed to the phone address is received at a call bridging system coupled to at least one network, wherein the call is associated with call signaling information. Based at least in part on the call quality associated with the caller call, the caller call is assigned to a first location in a call queue. An outbound call is generated from the call bridging system and the inbound and the outbound calls are bridged. One or more parameters of the bridged call are compared to the call quality rating. An indication is recorded regarding the successful bridging of the calls in association with an entity identifier.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 14 / 069,152, filed Oct. 31, 2013, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 828,623, filed Mar. 14, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,577,016, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 563,493, filed Jul. 31, 2012 which is now U.S. Pat. No. 8,401,172, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 455,845 filed Apr. 25, 2012, which is now U.S. Pat. No. 8,238,540 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 552,905, filed Sep. 2, 2009, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 095,255 filed Sep. 8, 2008, U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 107,269, filed Oct. 21, 2008, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 161,654, filed Mar. 19, 2009, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.COPYRIGHT RIGHTS[0002]A portion of the ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a user-friendly interface that allows marketers to quickly and easily enter advertising campaigns and track transactions. The technical effect is that this makes it easier for users to manage and participate in advertising campaigns.

Problems solved by technology

The foregoing conventional solution has not been well received by the online advertising community for several reasons.

First, it is counter-intuitive for users to send their phone number to the advertiser, when it is the user who wants to call the advertiser.

Users are also wary of sending their telephone number to an advertiser using these types of dialogue boxes because of online fraud.

Also, by the time the call is returned, the user might have lost interest in buying the product, or had already purchased the item elsewhere.

When alternative advertising models are considered (such as television and newspaper which represent the vast majority of advertising dollars spent), the click-to-call functionality cannot be used.

As a result of these deficiencies, the click-to-call mechanism has limited utility.

For media buyers, it is difficult to manage and measure the return on their investment for online, offline, and / or mobile advertisements that result in calls.

In many cases, revenue is lost when a promotion results in a phone call that cannot be tracked back to the media buyer or web property carrying the advertisement.

If a potential customer calls the phone number instead of making the purchase online, there are a limited number of tools available to determine which advertisements resulted in that lead.

This sales / lead tracking and Return On Investment (ROI) optimization is particularly challenging when there are multiple advertisements displayed on different online advertising channels while the sales transaction takes place in another medium (e.g., wireline and wireless telephony).

However, it is rare that an advertising campaign only consists of a single ad and that the ad is placed in a single advertising channel.

A business with a series of online, offline, and / or mobile promotions (e.g., separate media outlets) will not likely be able to determine which advertisements were the most effective if all of the advertisements drive calls to one phone number.

With these advertisements, it is difficult to determine which purchased keywords are the most effective, particularly if the transaction takes place in a separate medium (e.g., telephony).

As with other forms of online, offline, and / or mobile advertisements, if multiple keywords are purchased, the merchant or affiliate traditionally will not be able to determine which keywords generated a positive return on investment and which did not.

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