Systems and methods to provide connections to users in different geographic regions
View Patent ↗Systems and methods to provide anonymous communication connections between customers in different countries/regions and service providers. Different call-in references are configured for customers residing in different regions and/or having different language preferences. Different prices are computed for foreign customers based on a single price of a service provider and the call-in references used by the customers to initiate the anonymous connections to take into account of the international/long distance call charges. Currency conversion is performed based on exchange rates in backend payment management. Location information of service providers and customers is provided in a configurable way, based on preference, service category, without compromising privacy. Comments, feedback, and/or ratings of the service providers can be filtered for presentation to the customers, based on the location information of the service providers and/or the customer, or based on the location selection of the customers, to increase relevancy to the respective customers.
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
associating, in a computing apparatus, a plurality of call-in references of a plurality of different regions with respective different language preferences, wherein each of the call-in references is local to a first one of the regions but not to at least a second one of the regions;
identifying, by the computing apparatus, regions in which callers reside;
providing, by the computing apparatus, listings of callees, the listing presented to the callers in different regions including:
different call-in references for receiving calls from the callers; and
different user inputs about services provided by the callees in prior calls filtered according to regions in which the callers reside;
receiving, in the computing apparatus, the calls via the call-in references from the callers;
customizing, by the computing apparatus, interactive voice response prompts presented during one or more of the calls to one or more respective callers based at least in part on the language preferences associated with the call-in references via which the calls are received; and
connecting the calls to the callees based on responses to the interactive voice response prompts.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining patterns in calls made using the call-in references and language preferences of callers indicated in the calls made using the call-in references;
wherein the customizing is further based on the patterns.
3. The methods of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, by the computing apparatus, a listing of a callee to a plurality of customers in the different regions, wherein the listing presented to customers in each respective region is customized with a call-in reference associated with a language preference consistent with a language spoken by majority customers in the respective region.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
providing, by the computing apparatus, a first interactive voice response prompt to allow callers using the call-in reference to select a language for subsequent prompts, wherein customer selections provided in response to the first interactive voice response prompt are used to determine the language spoken by the majority customers in the respective region.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the computing apparatus, a single price for services provided by a callee;
computing, by the computing apparatus, different prices for services provided by the callee to callers in the different regions, based at least in part on call-in references called by the callers for anonymous connects provided to the callee via the computing apparatus; and
charging, by the computing apparatus, the callers in accordance with the prices.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the prices include different telecommunication costs for connecting callers from the different regions to the caller.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the prices include exchange rates between currencies used in the different regions and a currency used by the callee.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing apparatus, locations of callees of the calls to callers of the calls, in granularity determined in accordance with preferences of the callees.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing apparatus, locations of callees of the calls to callers of the calls, in granularity determined in accordance with service categories of the callees.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing apparatus, locations of callers of the calls to callees of the calls, in granularity determined in accordance with preferences of the callers.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing apparatus, locations of callers of the calls to callees of the calls, in granularity determined in accordance with service categories of the callees.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing apparatus, a location of a caller of a call to a callee of the call as being in a region in which there are more than a predetermined number of callers who has called the callee in a predetermined time period.
13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing apparatus, a location of a callee providing services of a category as being in a region in which there are more than a predetermined number of callees providing services in the category.
14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
filtering, by the computing apparatus according to a first location indicator, inputs provided by callers regarding services provided by a callee.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the inputs are comments, feedback, or customer ratings.
16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the first location indicator is a region selected by a caller to whom the filtered inputs are presented.
17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the first location indicator is a region in which a caller resides; and the inputs are filtered for presentation to the caller.
18. A non-transitory computer-storage medium storing instructions configured to instruct a computing apparatus to at least:
associate, in the computing apparatus, a plurality of call-in references of a plurality of different regions with respective different language preferences, wherein each of the call-in references is local to a first one of the regions but not to at least a second one of the regions;
identify, by the computing apparatus, regions in which callers reside;
provide, by the computing apparatus, listings of callees, the listing presented to the callers in different regions including
different call-in references for receiving calls from the callers, and
different user inputs about services provided by the callees in prior calls filtered according to regions in which the callers reside;
receive, in the computing apparatus, the calls via the call-in references from the callers;
customize, by the computing apparatus, interactive voice response prompts presented during one or more of the calls to one or more respective callers based at least in part on the language preferences associated with the call-in references via which the calls are received; and
connect the calls to the callees based on responses to the interactive voice response prompts.
19. A computing apparatus comprising:
at least one microprocessor, and
memory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least one microprocessor to at least:
associate, in the computing apparatus, a plurality of call-in references of a plurality of different regions with respective different language preferences, wherein each of the call-in references is local to a first one of the regions but not to at least a second one of the regions;
identify, by the computing apparatus, regions in which callers reside;
provide, by the computing apparatus, a listing of a callee, the listing presented to the callers in different regions including different call-in references for receiving calls from the callers, different prices of services provided by the callee via the calls connected to the callee, the prices determined based at least in part on the call-in references used to make the calls, and different user inputs about services provided by the callee in prior calls filtered according to regions in which the callers reside;
receive, in the computing apparatus, the calls via the call-in references from the callers;
customize, by the computing apparatus, interactive voice response prompts presented during one or more of the calls to one or more respective callers based at least in part on the language preferences associated with the call-in references via which the calls are received; and
connect the calls to the callee based on responses to the interactive voice response prompts.
20. The computing apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the callee specifies a single price;
and the prices provided in the listing are computed based on the single price, currency exchange rates, and telecommunication costs for connecting the calls received via the call-in references to the callee.