A wide variety of communications services are available including, for example, call waiting, call forwarding, call blocking, do not disturb services, customized messaging services, communications circles, etc. Generally, the services are implemented for a particular customer based on profile information relating to the customer's preferences. For example, a customer may have call forwarding service implemented so all calls to his or her home telephone number during business hours are forwarded to a network voice mail service. As another example, a customer may have call blocking service implemented so calls received from a specific number during evening hours are blocked.
A customer's preferences with respect to communications service may change from time to time. Referring to the examples above, the customer may decide to have calls that were previously forwarded to the network voice mail service forwarded instead to an office telephone. With respect to the call blocking service, the customer may decide to extend the call blocking service to block calls from another specific number. To accommodate the change in preferences, the customer's profile information relating to the communications service may need to be changed.
Generally, the service provider providing the service makes the change in the customer's profile information relating to the service. The service provider typically makes the change because the service provider delivers the service, and thus, controls the delivery of the service.
To make a change in a communications service, a customer notifies the service provider. The customer may notify the service provider in a number of different ways, which include calling a customer service number, or using the Internet to reach the service provider's web site and communicating the desired changes. Some service providers allow a customer to call a feature access code (FAC) and provide change instructions.
The necessity of having the customer contact the service provider and provide the change instructions significantly slows the desired change in the communications services. The additional necessity of having the service provider implement the change instructions further slows the desired change. Some customers may plan ahead or be patient so a delay of a desired change to communications services may not be important. Most customers, however, desire their changes to communications services to take effect as close to immediately as possible.
Therefore, there is a need for faster ways of implementing a customer's desired changes to his or her communications services. There is also a need for more convenient ways of implementing a customer's desired changes. In addition, there is a need for faster and more convenient ways of implementing a customer's desired changes to his or her communications services without sacrificing qualities such as accuracy and thoroughness in the implementation of the changes.