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Description  |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and, more
particularly, to a system for providing appropriate mobile services to
subscribers.
2. Description of the Related Art
A successful mobile service provider has to be able to accomplish three
tasks: 1) acquire new subscribers, 2) retain existing subscribers and 3)
make a profit on the service provided. To this end, a mobile service
provider typically develops several service plans and sends informational
material on these service plans to retailers and subscribers. Many
subscribers will purchase a service plan (from a retailer or directly from
the service provider) based on a low base monthly rate and generally not
based on their actual usage habits (e.g. number of domestic and
international long distance calls). Satisfaction with an ill matched
service plan usually lasts until the monthly phone bill comes and then the
subscriber questions the suitability of the service plan. The level of
dissatisfaction increases with each passing month (or bill) and the
customer starts looking for a better deal. Unfortunately, this
dissatisfaction is rarely expressed directly to the mobile service
provider in any form other than a sudden discontinuation of the service.
One of the most pressing problems facing mobile service providers is
churning. Churning refers to the situation where subscribers to mobile
services discontinue service with one service provider to sign with
another source provider or discontinue their service all together. The
churn rate for the wireless industry averages 30% annually and has cost
the providers more than 3 billion dollars per in the 1997-98 timeframe.
The generally accepted industry average acquisition cost for acquiring new
subscribers is $400 and it takes carriers eight to nine months to make
back those expenses (the average cellular phone bill was $47.70 in 1996).
It is clear, that in terms of value per dollar spent, holding on to
existing customers is more efficient than replacing them. Unfortunately,
the first indication that mobile service providers get relating to the
loss of a valued customer is when the customer calls to cancel service.
The causes of churn include; the opportunity to pay a lower rate, the
chance to get something for free (e.g. free voice mail or a rebate), and
service dissatisfaction. While it is important to understand the causes of
churning, from a business standpoint, understanding which particular
customers are most likely to churn is even more important. For example,
subscribers with high monthly usage are much more likely to churn than
subscribers who use their phones sparingly. Not coincidentally, it is the
high usage customer who is the most valuable to the mobile service
providers.
Many mobile service providers have established customer retention programs
to retain their most valuable paying (MVP) customers. These programs
utilize demographic and billing information (e.g. types of calls made
(domestic vs. International), usage, type of service (high end vs. low
end) and length of time as a customer) to identify those MVP customers
most susceptible to churning. Customer service representatives contact
these at risk customers and offer them incentives in exchange for their
loyalty (e.g. a contract with a longer term). These programs have met with
considerable success but they place considerable overhead onto the mobile
service providers.
Access to the subscribers is another problem associated with these customer
retention programs. Customers are reluctant to listen to unsolicited calls
from customer service representatives and quite often customer contact is
lost before the representatives can get their message across. The success
of these programs is dependent on the ability to keep the customer's
attention long enough to get the message across.
There is, therefore, a need for a method and system which will allow mobile
service providers to gain access to their at risk MVP customers and reduce
their susceptibility to churning.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above described
problems and needs and has particular application to a system which allows
mobile service providers to identify and retain at risk subscribers using
two-way interactive communication devices capable of communicating with a
server device over a wireless data network.
The present invention provides subscriber loyalty and retention techniques.
These techniques allows mobile subscribers who have been identified as
being likely candidates for churning, to efficiently, visually and
interactively, review an offer for a mobile service plan better meeting
the subscriber's needs. The subscriber can review and execute the offer
using the display and interface of a mobile device. These techniques are
suitable for mobile devices with small screens and limited keypad
communication.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the present invention
discloses a method and system for making incentive offers to retain
identified subscribers who may fit a profile of a subscriber susceptible
to churning by a competing service provider. Susceptible subscribers are
identified when their billing records and/or demographic information match
a predetermined profile. For example, when a subscriber's billing records
indicates that 100 hours of air time has been used in less than a year
then that subscriber could be designated as being at risk for churning.
The at risk subscriber is identified and then flagged for preemptive
action (e.g. offering the subscriber a better deal before a competitor
probably does).
Once a subscriber has been identified as being at risk for churning, a
Loyalty Service Server application generates a customized message to the
subscriber's mobile device that offers incentives in exchange for agreeing
to a contract with a longer term. This notification would appear as a
customer service message from the Service Provider and is placed in the
mobile device's inbox which can be accessed by the subscriber at any time
from anywhere. Thereafter, when the customer service message is selected,
it executes an underlying Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that takes the
subscriber to an on-line customer service application (i.e. a Loyalty
Service Server application running on a customer service server). This
application provides the subscriber with information relating to the terms
and benefits of the service provider's offer. Additionally, this system
provides a means for the customer to complete the application on-line.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the entire offer and
acceptance process (for the new subscriber service plan) is conducted
on-line with the subscriber using the input interface of a mobile device
to interact with the server hosting the offer. Upon completion of the
interaction, the subscriber's service can also be provisioned almost
immediately based on the subscriber's acceptance of the offer for a new
subscriber service plan.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the offer for a
new subscriber service plan can be electronically sent (e.g. facsimile or
email) or mailed to a designated address (i.e., phone number, email
address, home address) at the request of the subscriber.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present invention will be readily understood by the following detailed
description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like
reference numerals designate like structural elements, and in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic configuration in which the present invention
may be practiced;
FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate functional block diagrams of a customer service
server, a proxy server and a mobile device according to an embodiment of
the present invention;
FIG. 3 depicts an account structure used in the description of the present
invention;
FIG. 4 depicts a system in which a service request for information relating
to customer service offers can be practiced according to an embodiment of
the present invention;
FIG. 5A is a flow diagram of churn reduction processing according to an
embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 5B is a flow diagram of customer service retention processing
according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIGS. 6A to 6L demonstrate an exemplary mobile subscriber visual interface
by illustrating a sequence of screen displays according to an embodiment
of the present invention; and
FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a process flowchart of the present invention
according to one embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the following detailed description of the present invention, numerous
specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough
understanding of the present invention. However, it will become obvious to
those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced
without these specific details. In other instances, well known methods,
procedures, components, and circuitry have not been described in detail to
avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present invention.
The detailed description of the present invention in the following are
presented largely in terms of procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing,
and other symbolic representations that resemble of data processing
devices coupled to networks. These process descriptions and
representations are the means used by those experienced or skilled in the
art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others
skilled in the art.
The present invention is a method and system which allows mobile service
providers to identify subscribers (particularly those subscribers who are
considered to be their most valuable paying (MVP) customers) who may be at
risk to churning, and once identified, present those identified with an
opportunity to review and execute an upgraded service plan better suited
to their needs.
The present invention is well suited for two-way interactive devices that
are used with a wireless data network. The two-way interactive
communication devices, referred to as mobile or client devices, include
but are not limited to personal digital assistant (PDA) like portable
devices, cellular phones, or wireless capable remote controllers. Often
the two-way interactive communication devices have much less computing
resources than a desktop computer or laptop computer does, and such mobile
devices tend to have a small display screen and a phone keypad for a user
to interact with the server device to access mobile subscriber services.
The method along with the system to be described in detail below is a
self-consistent sequence of processes or operations leading to a desired
result. These processes or operations are those requiring physical
manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily,
these quantities may take the form of electrical signals capable of being
stored, transferred, combined, compared, displayed and otherwise
manipulated in a computer system or electronic computing devices. It
proves convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to
refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, operations,
messages, terms, numbers, or the like. It should be borne in mind that all
of these similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical
quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities.
Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following
description, it is appreciated that throughout the present invention,
discussions utilizing terms such as "processing" or "computing" or
"verifying" or "displaying" or the like, refer to the actions and
processes of a computing device that manipulates and transforms data
represented as physical quantities within the computing device's registers
and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities
within the computing device or other electronic devices.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic configuration in of a data communication
system which the present invention may be practiced. Landnet 100 is a
landline network that may be the Internet, an intranet or a data network
of other private networks. Coupled to landnet 100 are a personal computer
(PC) 110 and a customer service server 104. Personal computer 110 may be a
desktop computer (e.g., an IBM compatible computer) and run a HyperText
Markup Language (HTML) browser(e.g., Netscape Navigator from Netscape
Communications Corporation) via landnet 100 using HyperText Transfer
Protocol (HTTP) to access information stored in customer service server
104 (e.g., a workstation from SUN Microsystems Inc. The information stored
in customer service server 104 may be hypermedia information or mobile
data including user account information and customer profiles for all user
accounts serviced by a carrier. Additionally, customer service server 104
may contain applications, which may allow the generation of customized
customer offer messages or letters and process on-line applications for
extended or additional subscriber services.
FIG. 1 also illustrates a private network 120 including a computer 124 and
a server 122. The private network 120 is protected by a firewall 121
protecting resources of the private network 120 from users on other
networks. Private network 120 is typically used in a corporate
configuration in which secure information (e.g. billing records) is kept
in server 122 and accessible only by computing devices, such as computer
124, on the private network 120. Server 122 may operate as a source of the
information stored in customer service server 104. Optionally, although
not shown, customer service server 104 may also be protected by a
firewall.
Serviced by airnet 102 are a plurality of two-way wireless interactive
communication devices, referred to as mobile devices herein, though only
one representation 106 is shown in the FIG. 1. Mobile device 106 is one of
those two-way interactive communication devices and is capable of
communicating, via airnet 102, wirelessly with antenna 108. The airnet 102
represents a wireless carrier infrastructure that generally comprises a
base station and an operations and maintenance center. The base station
controls radio or telecommunication links with the mobile devices. The
operations and maintenance center comprises a mobile switching center
performing the switching of calls between the mobile devices and other
fixed or mobile network users. Further the operations and maintenance
center manages mobile services, such as authentication and oversees the
proper operation and setup of the wireless network as well.
Between landnet 100 and airnet 102 there is a server device that operates
as a proxy server 114 (also referred to as link server, wireless data
server or network gateway server). The proxy server 114 may be a
workstation or a personal computer. Proxy server 114 couples airnet 102 to
landnet 100. Typically, the communication protocol in airnet 102 is
different from that in landnet 100. Hence, one of the functions proxy
server 114 performs is to map or translate from one communication protocol
to another, thereby enabling mobile device 106 coupled to airnet 102 can
communicate with any of the devices coupled to landnet 100 via proxy
server 114.
According to one embodiment, the communication protocol in landnet 100 is
the well known HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or HTTPS, a secure
version of HTTP, and runs on TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and, for
example, controls the connection of the HTML web browser in PC 110, to
customer service server 104, and the exchange of information therebetween.
The communication protocol between mobile device 106 and proxy server 114
via airnet 102 is Handheld Device Transport Protocol (HDTP) (formerly
known as Secure Uplink Gateway Protocol (SUGP)), which preferably runs on
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and controls the connection of an HDML web
browser in mobile device 106, to proxy server 114, where HDML stands for
Handheld Device Markup Language. HDML, similar to that of HTML, is a
markup language (or tag based document language) and comprises a set of
commands or statements specified in a card that specifies how information
displayed on a small screen 116 of the mobile device 106. Normally a
number of cards are grouped into a deck that is the smallest unit of HDML
information that can be exchanged between the mobile device 106 and proxy
server 114. The specifications of HDTP, entitled "HDTP Specification" and
HDML, entitled "HDML 2.0 Language Reference" are enclosed and incorporated
herein by reference in their entirety. These are presented for purposes of
illustration and not limitation. One skilled in the art will appreciate
that the present invention can be practiced using other communications
protocols (e.g. Wireless Session Protocol (WSP)) and markup languages
(e.g. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Compact Hypertext Markup Language
(cHTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Wireless Markup Language
(WML)).
It should be noted that HDTP is a session-level protocol that resembles
HTTP but without incurring the overhead thereof and is highly optimized
for use in thin devices, such as the mobile devices, that have
significantly less computing power and memory than that in a desktop
personal computer. Further it is understood to those skilled in the art
that the UDP does not require a connection to be established between a
client and a server before information can be exchanged, which eliminates
the need of exchanging a large number of packets during a session creation
between a client and a server. Exchanging a very small number of packets
during a transaction is one of the desired features for a mobile device
with very limited computing power and memory to effectively interact with
a landline device.
Although the data communication system 100 was described above as including
a proxy server, it should be understood that the data communication system
100 shown in FIG. 1 does not need to include the proxy server 114 as its
operations can be performed by any remote server, such as the customer
service server 104. The use of the proxy server 114 does provide for
efficient mapping or translation between protocols. The data communication
system also does not need to use HDML or UDP protocols.
According to one embodiment, mobile phone 106 comprises a display screen
116 and a keypad 118, which allows a user thereof to communicate
interactively with mobile device 106. Phone keypad 118 comprises,
preferably, a typical phone keypad and a pair of generic buttons and at
least a pair of upward and downward arrow buttons. The typical phone
keypad, as commonly seen, comprises twelve buttons. Of the twelve buttons,
ten buttons are consecutively numbered, each for one of the numerals 0 to
9, respectively, one button is for "*" sign and the other button is for
"#" sign. The generic and the arrow buttons provide convenient and
efficient means for a user to interact with mobile device 106. Further it
is to be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the present
invention may be practiced using other input interfaces such as touch
screens with icons or displayed soft keys.
The mobile device 106 includes a working memory (e.g., ROM and RAM) not
shown, in mobile device 106 Compiled and linked processes of the present
invention are typically stored in the working memory as a client module
that causes mobile device 106 to operate with proxy server 114. Upon
activation of a predetermined key sequence utilizing keypad 118, for
example, a microcontroller in mobile device 106 initiates a communication
session request to proxy server 114 using the client module in the working
memory. Upon establishing the communication session, mobile device 106
typically receives a single HDML deck from proxy server 114 and stores the
deck as cached in the working memory. As described above, an HDML deck
comprises one or more cards and each card includes the information
required to generate a screen display on display screen 116. The number of
cards in a card deck is selected to facilitate efficient use of the
resources in mobile device 106 and in airnet network 102.
As used herein, a display screen is the physical display apparatus in a
device, such as a 4-line by 20-character LCD screen. A screen display is
the image presented on the display screen such that a screen display can
be displayed on a display screen. Further it is understood that a display
screen having display lines is only for illustrative purpose and many
display screens in reality are graphics-based and do not necessarily have
distinct display lines and it will be appreciated that the principles of
this invention are equally applied thereto.
Referring now to FIGS. 2A and 2B, there are shown functional block diagrams
of proxy server 200, customer service server 220 and mobile device 250
according to an embodiment of the present invention. Proxy server 200,
that may represent proxy server 114 of FIG. 1, is typically a server
computer, and mobile device 250 may, for example, correspond to mobile
phone 106 of FIG. 1. To avoid obscuring the principle aspects of the
present invention, well known methods, procedures, components and
circuitry in proxy server 200, customer service server 220 and mobile
device 250 are not described in detail. Further, it is understood to those
skilled in the art that a server device used herein, which may perform as
proxy server 200 or web servers (including customer service server 220),
means a piece of hardware equipment that comprises one or more
microprocessors, working memory, buses and necessary interfaces and other
components while a server module therein means compiled and linked that
perform designated functions through the parts and components in the
server device. The same distinction is equally applicable to mobile device
106, referred to, for example, as a client device, and the client module
as stated above.
Proxy server 200 comprises a landnet communication protocol (LCP) interface
202 that couples to landnet 240, a wireless communication protocol (WCP)
interface 206 that couples to a wireless network 245 via a carrier's
infrastructure. LCP interface 202 implements a communication protocol
operating in landnet 240. If landnet 240 operates HTTP/TCP, LCP interface
202 is typically an HTTP/TCP interface. Similarly, wireless network 250
may operate a wireless communication protocol suitable for the
characteristics of a wireless network. For example, if the wireless
network operates HDTP/UDP, WCP interface 206 is typically an HDTP/UDP
interface. Examples of the wireless communication protocols may include,
but be not limited to, wireless session protocol (reference to
www.wapforum.org), HTTP or modified HTTP specific for wireless networks.
Examples of the wireless network may include Cellular Digital Packet Data
(CDPD), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division
Multiple Access (CDMA) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) to name a
few.
Proxy server module 210 performs traditional server processing as well as
protocol conversion processing from one communication protocol to another
communication protocol if the communication protocols in landnet 240 and
wireless network 245 are different. According to the present embodiment,
the protocol conversion processing, sometimes implemented in a separate
module referred to as a mapper herein, includes protocol conversion
between HTTP/TCP and HDTP/UDP,.
Working with server module 210, account manager 212 manages a plurality of
user accounts for all the mobile devices serviced by proxy server 200. It
is understood that the user accounts may be stored in another network
server coupled to landnet 240. In other words, the user accounts can be
kept in a database that is physically placed in any computing device
coupled to landnet 240 and can be collected or fetched therefrom. Each of
user accounts is associated with one of the mobile devices. Typically a
mobile device is assigned an identifier or device ID. Device ID can be a
phone number of the device or a combination of an IP address and a port
number, for example: 204.163.165.132:01905 where 204.163.165.132 is the IP
address and 01905 is the port number. The device ID is further associated
with a subscriber ID created and authorized by a carrier as part of the
procedures to activate a user account for mobile device 250. The
subscriber ID may take the form of, for example,
861234567-10900_pn.mobile.att.net by AT&T Wireless Service, it is
nevertheless a unique identification to mobile device 250. In other words,
each of mobile devices serviced by proxy server 200 has a unique device ID
that corresponds to a respective user account in proxy server 200. The
following description is focused on mobile device 250 and its associated
account, it shall be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the
description is equally applied to all mobile devices in communication with
proxy server 200.
Subscribers or user accounts, indexed by each respective device ID, may be
represented by a data structure 300 as shown in FIG. 3. Each record in
data structure 300 comprises information about a subscriber, such as
device ID 302, subscriber ID 304 and user information 306 for the account
indexed by 93845823. User information 306 may include the account
configuration information, for example, device ID 302 is a mobile phone
that is pre-configured for a GSM network and, probably, may be provided
with an option to switch to a CDPD network if necessary. Further user
information 306 may include pointers or linkages to other account related
information, such as account index information 308 and further detailed
account information 310 such as usage information, peak minutes, and
recent call history. Account index information 308 along with all detailed
information like account information 310 can be physically located
together with data structure 300 or separately in one or more devices
coupled to landnet 240 of FIG. 2A. When a request is made from mobile
device 250 to retrieve specific information in a server on landnet 240 or
a notification received to be delivered to mobile device 250, either the
device ID or the subscriber ID 304 thereof must be included for
authentication.
Returning to FIGS. 2A and 2B, customer service server 220 is a server
device performing customer service related applications and comprises a
provisioning interface 222, a storage device 224, loyalty server module
226 and memory 228. Provisioning interface 222 provides access by a
provision entity 280 to customer service server 220. In one embodiment,
provision entity 280 is a server, corresponding to private server 122 of
FIG. 1, within a carrier's private network and stores source information
regarding all customer retention programs. The source information is
securely forwarded to customer service server 220 that subsequently
generates customized offers to respective su | | |
