Managing electronic consent for calling campaigns
View Patent ↗A hosted list service provider (“HLSP”) provides list management services for compliance purposes. The HLSP receives electronic consent information from an enterprise that may comprise a telephone number and stores the same in at least one database, to facilitate retrieving the electronic consent information for a particular telephone number. A telephone number list is provided to a call center, which can originate calls for a calling campaign using the telephone numbers on behalf of the enterprise. After the campaign is completed, the call center may provide data to the HLSP indicating which callers have requested to opt-out, and the HLSP updates its databases appropriately. The HLSP may process the telephone number data against other databases, and may inform the enterprise of called parties that have requested a change of status. Follow up communication can occur to the called party to confirm or re-establish consent for subsequent calls.
1. A method for managing electronic consent provided by an individual to an enterprise, the method comprising:
receiving electronic consent data from the enterprise at a hosted list service provider, the electronic consent data comprising one from a group of web page data, text message, image data, and voice data, wherein the electronic consent data further comprises a telephone number provided by the individual associated with the telephone number, the electronic consent data comprising authorization from the individual to receive a subsequent pre-recorded call to the telephone number;
storing the electronic consent data in an electronic consent database;
storing metadata comprising the telephone number and a linkage to the electronic consent data;
comparing the telephone number against a list of telephone numbers in a second database comprising telephone numbers in a do-not-call database;
determining, by analyzing the metadata, a first date on which the electronic consent was obtained by the enterprise;
determining the first date on which the electronic consent was obtained is later than a second date on which the telephone number was added to the do-not-call database; and
providing the telephone number from the hosted list service provider to an outbound call center, wherein the outbound call center is configured to generate the pre-recorded call to the telephone number on behalf of the enterprise.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the telephone number to the call center comprises transferring a file comprising a plurality of telephone numbers to the call center, wherein each of the plurality of the telephone numbers is uniquely associated with a corresponding electronic consent data stored in the electronic consent database, and wherein the outbound call center originates the pre-recorded call to the plurality of telephone numbers.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an opt-out indication at a front end processing system at the hosted list service provider, the opt-out indication sent from the call center after the call center has generated the pre-recorded call to the telephone number, wherein the opt-out indication indicates a request from the individual to opt-out from receiving a further pre-recorded call originated on behalf of the enterprise.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
updating the metadata associated with the telephone number for which the recorded call was generated to reflect the opt-out indication.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a request from a computer to retrieve the electronic consent data associated with the telephone number; and
providing the electronic consent data to the computer.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pre-recorded call comprises an SMS message generated to the telephone number.
7. A computer-readable non-transitory storage media storing instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to:
receive electronic consent data sent from an enterprise to a hosted list service provider comprising the processor, the electronic consent data comprising one from a group of web page data, text message, image data, and voice data, wherein the electronic consent data further comprises a telephone number provided by an individual associated with the telephone number, the electronic consent data comprising authorization from the individual to receive a subsequent communication to the telephone number;
store the electronic consent data in an electronic consent database;
store metadata comprising the telephone number and a linkage between the telephone number and the electronic consent data;
compare the telephone number against a list of telephone numbers in a second database comprising telephone numbers in a do-not-call database;
determine, by analyzing the metadata, a first date on which the electronic consent was obtained by the enterprise;
determine the first date on which the electronic consent was obtained is later than a second date on which the telephone number was added to the do-not-call database; and
provide the telephone number from the hosted list service provider to an outbound call center, wherein the outbound call center is configured to generate a pre-recorded call to the telephone number on behalf of the enterprise.
8. The computer-readable non-transitory storage media storing instructions of claim 7 ,
wherein providing the telephone number to the call center comprises transferring a file comprising a plurality of telephone numbers to the call center,
wherein each of the plurality of the telephone numbers is uniquely associated with a corresponding electronic consent data stored in the electronic consent database, and
wherein the outbound call center originates the pre-recorded call to the plurality of telephone numbers.
9. The computer-readable non-transitory storage media storing instructions of claim 7 , wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:
receive a request from the call center for the telephone number;
analyze an identity of the call center in conjunction with the request; and
provide the telephone number to the call center after validating the identity of the call center.
10. The computer-readable non-transitory storage media storing instructions of claim 7 , wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:
receive an opt-out indication at the hosted list service provider, the opt-out indication sent from the call center after the call center has generated the pre-recorded call to the telephone number, wherein the opt-out indication indicates a request from the individual to opt-out from receiving further pre-recorded calls originated on behalf of the enterprise.
11. The computer-readable non-transitory storage media storing instructions of claim 10 , wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:
update the metadata associated with the telephone number in response to receiving the opt-out indication.
12. The computer-readable non-transitory storage media storing instructions of claim 7 , wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:
receive a request from a computer to retrieve the electronic consent data associated with the telephone number; and
provide the electronic consent data to the computer.
13. The computer-readable non-transitory storage media storing instructions of claim 12 , wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:
receive a second request from the computer to flag the telephone number as being opted-out; and
set a flag indication in the database indicting that the telephone number has opted-out.
14. A system for providing a list management service to an enterprise over a public communications network, the system comprising:
a database configured to
store a plurality of electronic written consent data,
wherein each electronic consent data comprises one from a group of web page data, text message, image data, and voice data, and
wherein the electronic consent data further comprises a telephone number associated with an individual who has provided consent to the enterprise to receive subsequent communication to the telephone number;
a processor configured to
receive the plurality of electronic written consent data,
store the plurality of electronic written consent data in the database,
compare the telephone number against telephone numbers in a second database comprising telephone numbers in a do-not-call database,
determine, by analyzing the metadata, a first date on which the electronic consent was obtained by the enterprise,
determine the first date on which the electronic consent was obtained is later than a second date on which the telephone number was added to the do-not-call database,
generate a telephone number list comprising a plurality of telephone numbers and further comprising the telephone number, and
transmit the telephone number list to a computer processing system; and an interface configured to
receive the telephone number list from the processor, and
transmit the telephone number list to the computer processing system.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
receive an opt-out indication from the interface received from the computer processing system for a specified telephone number; and
set an opt-out indicator associated with the specified telephone number in the database indicating that a called party receiving a call on behalf of the enterprise has requested to not receive further calls on behalf of the enterprise.
16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
receive a request comprising a specific telephone number;
retrieve a specific electronic consent data associated with the specific telephone number; and
provide the specific electronic consent data the interface in response to receiving the request.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the electronic consent data comprises a SMS formatted text message.