Existing Customer Lead Matching for Vendor Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing lead generation systems fail to provide leads for consumers who are already customers of vendors, missing an opportunity for vendors to retain or expand their business with these customers.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that includes a database of existing customer information and a matching engine to identify and match consumers who are existing customers of vendors with those vendors, allowing vendors to define criteria for receiving leads from such customers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If lead generation systems focus on identifying new potential customers, then the quantity of leads increases, but the ability to identify existing customers who may be considering switching vendors is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The lead generation system segments the lead pool by identifying and separating existing customers from new potential customers using vendor-provided customer databases. This segmentation allows the system to apply different processing logic and routing for existing customers, ensuring they are identified and directed to appropriate vendors even while maintaining high overall lead volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary matching engine that acts as a mediator between lead sources and vendors. This matching engine receives vendor customer databases as input and uses them to identify existing customers within the lead pool, thereby preserving information about existing customers while maintaining the system's overall lead generation function.
2Device complexity
If vendors receive leads without knowing whether consumers are existing customers, then the lead generation process is simpler, but vendors miss opportunities to retain existing customers
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by having vendors submit their existing customer databases to the lead generation system in advance. The matching engine then uses these databases proactively to identify existing customers within incoming leads before the leads are distributed to vendors, enabling vendors to take retention actions without adding complexity to the lead generation process.
3Measurement precision
If the system stores complete customer information for matching, then the precision of identifying existing customers increases, but the cost and complexity of data management increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential matching information (customer identifiers such as names, addresses, or unique identification codes) from complete customer records and stores only these extracted elements in the matching database. This extraction approach maintains sufficient precision for accurate customer identification while significantly reducing data management complexity and storage requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
One embodiment of an existing customer lead generation system comprises a vendor customer information database, a vendor criteria database, a web server, a matching engine, and a transmission component. The vendor customer information database identifies vendor's existing customers. The vendor criteria database determines which leads each vendor wants to receive. Separate criteria may be specified for consumers that are existing customers and consumers that are not existing customers. The web server receives characteristics of a consumer and a product or service. The matching engine compares the consumer characteristics with the vendor customer information database to identify vendors for which the consumer is an existing customer. The matching engine applies existing customer criteria to match the consumer with existing vendors. The matching engine applies non-existing customer criteria to match the consumer with other vendors. The transmission component transmits a lead identifying the consumer to the matched vendors.