Method and system for managing interactive communications campaigns
A web-based solution through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a third party call center. A web interface is provided to enable a business entity customer to create a set of one or more rules that, when triggered during the campaign, cause the solution to take certain control actions in real-time, based on campaign performance. Preferably, this campaign performance is measured indirectly, i.e. without requiring a direct connection to an on-premises call center ACD. The interface provides the business entity customer with a convenient and easy-to-use display that identifies any rule that has been (or may be getting ready to be) triggered, together with a then current status of the campaign. The system takes a control action (e.g., campaign suspension, adjusting an outbound call rate, or the like) when a customer-configurable rule is triggered.
1. Apparatus, comprising:
a set of machines that comprise a service provider infrastructure, each machine comprising a processor, and computer memory holding program instructions that are executed by the processor, the service provider infrastructure being shared by a plurality of business entities that create distinct interactive communications campaigns;
one or more web servers executing on the machines and through which first and second business entities each creates and manages an interactive communications campaign, each campaign including a set of one or more rules that may be triggered during the campaign;
a telephony server executing on one of the machines to initiate outbound calls to recipients over a plurality of voice connections during the campaign for a respective one of the business entities, wherein a recipient of an outbound call initiated by the telephony server is afforded an option to connect, via a voice connection through the telephony server, to a third party contact center having an automatic call distributor (ACD); and
an application server executing on one of the machines (i) to monitor the voice connections through the telephony server as the campaign for a respective one of the business entities is executed to infer a content center performance metric, wherein the contact center performance metric is inferred without requiring a direct data connection from the third party contact center ACD, (ii) to evaluate the content center performance metric to determine whether a rule from the set of one or more rules has been triggered, (iii) to take a given action if the rule has been triggered, and (iv) to provide information identifying the rule, together with a status of the given campaign;
at least one of the web servers being further adapted to serve a web page to the respective business entity, the web page identifying the status of the campaign as determined by the application server.
2. The apparatus as described in claim 1 , wherein the status is a display icon having at least first and second states.
3. The apparatus as described in claim 2 , wherein, with respect to a given contact center performance metric, the first state indicates that a rule from the set of rules has been triggered, and the second state indicates that a rule has been triggered that has caused an adjustment to the campaign.
4. The apparatus as described in claim 1 , wherein the application server updates the information identifying the rule and the status of a campaign.
5. An apparatus, comprising:
a set of machines that comprise a network-accessible service infrastructure, each machine comprising a processor, and computer memory holding program instructions that are executed by the processor, the service infrastructure being shared by a plurality of entities that use the service infrastructure to create distinct interactive campaigns;
one or more web servers executing on the machines and through which first and second entities each creates and manages an interactive campaign;
a telephony server executing on one of the machines to initiate outbound calls to recipients during an interactive campaign, wherein a recipient of an outbound call initiated by the telephony server is afforded an option to connect, via a voice connection through the telephony server, to a contact center; and
an application server executing on one of the machines (i) to monitor the voice connections through the telephony server as the interactive campaign is executed to infer a content center performance metric, wherein the contact center performance metric is inferred without requiring a direct connection from the third party contact center, (ii) to evaluate the content center performance metric, and (iii) to provide information identifying a status of the given campaign based at least in part on the contact center performance metric;
at least one of the web servers serving a page identifying the status of the campaign as determined by the application server.
6. The apparatus as described in claim 5 wherein the contact center is a third party contact center.
7. The apparatus as described in claim 5 wherein the recipients are customers of an entity.
8. The apparatus as described in claim 5 wherein the application server evaluates the content center performance metric to determine whether a rule from a set of one or more rules has been triggered.
9. The apparatus as described in claim 8 wherein the application server takes a given action if the rule has been triggered.
10. The apparatus as described in claim 9 wherein the given action causes an adjustment to the interactive campaign.
11. An apparatus, comprising:
a set of machines that comprise a network-accessible service infrastructure, each machine comprising a processor, and computer memory holding program instructions that are executed by the processor, the service infrastructure being shared by a plurality of entities that use the service infrastructure to create distinct interactive campaigns;
one or more servers of a first type executing on the machines and through which first and second entities each creates and manages an interactive campaign;
a server of a second type executing on one of the machines to initiate outbound calls to recipients during an interactive campaign, wherein a recipient of an outbound call initiated by the server of the second type is afforded an option to connect, via a voice connection through the server, to a contact center; and
a server of a third type executing on one of the machines (i) to monitor the voice connections through the server of the second type as the interactive campaign is executed to infer a content center performance metric, wherein the contact center performance metric is inferred without requiring a direct connection from the third party contact center, (ii) to evaluate the content center performance metric, and (iii) to provide information identifying a status of the given campaign based at least in part on the contact center performance metric;
at least one of the servers of the first type serving a page identifying the status of the campaign as determined by the server of the second type.
12. The apparatus as described in claim 11 wherein the server of the first type is a web server, and the server of the second type is a telephony server, and the server of the third type is an application server.