Abstract

Recipients of a promotion broadcast over an essentially one-way medium are prompted to respond thereto through their telephone sets having different subscriber telephone numbers, and the task of handling the resulting mass response is divided into a call receiving phase and a subsequent response completing phase. Such call receiving phase is shortened relative to the response completing phase by automatically receiving calls of recipients using their telephone sets to respond to the broadcast promotion, electronically capturing the subscriber telephone numbers of the telephone sets through which these calls are made, and automatically confirming to substantially all callers while on line during these calls that their calls have been received. The response completing phase is subsequently carried out by using the electronically captured subscriber telephone numbers to call on multitudes of the telephone sets at a time until substantially all of the calls have been returned, electronically prompting all persons who answer the calls on these multitudes of telephone sets to complete their responses to the broadcast promotion through their telephone sets while on line, and automatically receiving the completed responses while on line with these persons through their telephone sets.

Other References

• ATI Network, Paul Desmond, "Telemarketing service aids advertising campaigns", Network World, 7/17/89, Intl. Pub No.: WO 88/05239, Jul. 14, 198