Ranking system using instant post-transaction surveying of transaction judges
After a telecommunications interaction apparently concludes between first and second parties to the interaction, an automated means for detecting the termination of the interaction jumps in and presents at least one of the parties with an opportunity to participate in a survey (an instant survey) relating to the just-terminated interaction. In one embodiment, the interaction is between a prospective consumer and a lead buyer (or an agent of the buyer) and the instant survey queries the buyer or agent regarding immediate impressions of the quality of the purchased lead that brought the prospective consumer and the lead buyer (or agent) into contact with one another. In one embodiment, results of instant surveys feed into a ranking system that ranks the quality of leads provided through a specific sponsor and remuneration to the sponsor is automatically adjusted according to instant survey results collected for that sponsor.
1. A machine-implemented live lead managing method comprising:
receiving bid profiles from corresponding lead buyers, wherein each bid profile includes specifications for desired leads and a bid;
after receipt of the bid profiles, receiving a live lead from one of a plurality of lead sellers, wherein the live lead includes a telecommunication link with a waiting human caller and lead data corresponding to the waiting human caller;
comparing the bid profiles to the live lead's lead data to select matching ones of the bid profiles according to their bid profile specifications;
determining a winning bid profile and a corresponding winning bid from the selected matching bid profiles;
calculating an adjusted lead price responsive to the winning bid and a markdown, the markdown comprising a per-seller discount associated with the lead seller that provided the live lead;
crediting a seller account of the lead seller that provided the live lead based on the adjusted lead price;
debiting a buyer account of the lead buyer corresponding to the winning bid profile based on the adjusted lead price;
redirecting the live lead's telecommunication link to transfer the waiting human caller to the lead buyer corresponding to the winning bid profile, thereby allowing the lead buyer to continue communication with the waiting human caller through a call on the live lead's telecommunication link;
automatically detecting a termination of the call by either the human caller or the lead buyer;
in response to the automated detection of the call termination, telephonically coupling the lead buyer to an automated survey engine that then presents a survey to the lead buyer and collects a freshly recalled evaluation of the just-concluded call; and
updating, using the freshly recalled evaluation, seller quality information associated with the lead seller that provided the live lead, wherein the per-seller discount is determined based on the seller quality information.
2. The live lead managing method of claim 1 , wherein:
said automatic detecting of the call termination includes at least one of:
detecting a telephone hang-up event;
detecting an end of message (EOM) code; and
detecting a prespecified sequence of automatically generated codes that indicate a termination of the call.
3. The live lead managing method of claim 1 , wherein the markdown further comprises a per-lead discount associated with the live lead.
4. The live lead managing method of claim 3 , wherein the per-lead discount is determined based on the lead data and a historical performance of the human caller.
5. The live lead managing method of claim 1 , wherein the seller quality information associated with the lead seller comprises an indication of a historical lead closure rate for the lead seller.
6. The live lead managing method of claim 1 , wherein the call is a telephonic call and terminated by the human caller, and wherein the lead buyer is telephonically coupled to the automated survey engine while the lead buyer is still remaining on-line after the call termination by the human caller.
7. The live lead managing method of claim 1 , wherein the call is a telephonic call and terminated by the lead buyer, and wherein the telephonically coupling comprises redialing and reconnecting to the lead buyer within a specified time limit after the call termination by the lead buyer.
8. The live lead managing method of claim 1 , further comprising providing at least a portion of the seller quality data to the corresponding lead seller for review.