Telephone communication method and system

摘要

The invention concerns telecommunications methods and systems, and more particularly methods and systems for enabling respondents, who may be potential customers, to respond to advertisements for items (goods or services) advertised by or on behalf of advertisers. Telecommunications methods and systems of the invention provide selective communication routing or forwarding to advertisers of communications made to anonymous contact identifiers selected from a pool of anonymous contact identifiers, each anonymous contact identifier able to be allocated to an item to be advertised by or on behalf of the advertiser. The anonymous contact identifier is a public telephone number or an email address, for example. The service is provided by way of hosted system for use by a plurality of advertisers. The invention has particular application in the area of classified or personal advertising in printed or online publications, such as for real estate, automotive, travel or job advertising, for sale or auction item advertising, or for dating agency advertising.

主权项

1. A telecommunications method using a telecommunication system for enabling delivery of a promotional prompt for a second advertiser, to respondents responding to an advertisement for an item advertised by or on behalf of a first advertiser, comprising:
allocating an anonymous contact identifier (ACI) from a pool of ACI's to an item to be advertised by or on behalf of the first advertiser; storing said ACI and associated first advertiser contact details; storing information relating to said item to be advertised for the first advertiser; forwarding said ACI for provision to respondents in association with one or more advertisements for said item; receiving a communication from a respondent to said ACI; providing, in response to receiving the communication from the respondent to the ACI, a promotional prompt for a second advertiser to the respondent that includes contact details for communicating with the second advertiser, the prompt selected in accordance with the stored information relating to the advertised item; and routing or forwarding the communication to said first advertiser using said associated first advertiser contact details.