Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display peripheral interface input device – Including keyboard
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-23
2002-04-30
Nguyen, Chanh (Department: 2675)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display peripheral interface input device
Including keyboard
C345S025000, C345S172000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06380928
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The parent application, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, discloses a portable, hand-held, electronic survey device adapted for use in the hospitality industry, and more particularly restaurants. The instant invention is broadly directed to an interactive, portable, hand-held, electronic survey and satisfaction questionnaire device having a remote, realtime, signaling capability in response to preprogrammed and realtime stimuli or thresholds adapted for use in the hospitality industry, and more particularly restaurants.
2. Related Art
In many industries, obtaining feedback from customers is important to the success of the business. This is especially critical in the service industries, where the perceived quality of the provided service may be the only distinction between two service providers. Due to both the high level of competition and the variety of alternatives available to the consumer, the restaurant industry is driven largely by customer satisfaction.
Thus, many methods have been devised to gauge customer satisfaction through customer survey information, especially for use in restaurants. These have met with limited success, due in part to the competing goals and constraints imposed on the process. Ideally, surveys generate accurate results when every customer responds. While this is seldom achieved, obtaining responses from as large a percentage of the sampled population as possible is highly desirable. In an attempt to achieve this goal, the survey must be either presented directly to each patron, or made so conspicuous that they will notice it spontaneously and consider completing the survey. Opposing this goal, however, is the constraint that the survey technique employed must not negatively impact the customer's dining experience by taking too much time, being intrusive, being too complex, or having some other adverse attribute. This not only adds to the negative experience but skews the results. In an attempt to balance these demands, the survey device should be conspicuous, but not obnoxious or demanding; easy to use; quick to use; and comprehensive. Preferably, the survey questions could also be changed and processed easily. It would also be advantageous if certain responses could be instantaneously and remotely conveyed to management in an unobtrusive manner, so that immediate interaction with the customer would be possible and potentially adverse situations could be remedied in a timely manner, prior to the customer's departure from the dining establishment.
Among the most common techniques currently employed is the use of the paper comment form. Often post-card sized, it is made available to the diner to be filled out and returned to a box for collection. This approach, while widely used, suffers from several drawbacks. Primary among these is the low response rate. These are passive forms, which are often presented on the table and frequently ignored or set aside by customers. If arranged on the table near other items, such as the sugar tray, salt and pepper shakers, and the like, the surveys may not even be seen by the diner. Further, filling out such cards requires the availability of a writing instrument, which usually is not supplied. Therefore, unless the diner has a pen or pencil with them, the card cannot be filled out. Moreover, such paper comment cards are not interactive and cannot supervise or guide the respondent in filling out the survey. Those surveys that are completed and returned may be difficult or slow to process. Typically, the data must be hand-entered into a computer for processing. Occasionally, machine-scannable, “check-box” forms are used, but even these are error prone. Even if fully automated, such procedures may require several days or weeks to process the surveys and return the results to the restaurant. While this may be acceptable for long-term forecasting, it is inadequate for identifying and addressing more immediate concerns or successes. Further, gathering information about a recent, or perhaps temporary, change involves the expense of printing a new set of forms, and, if scanned, updating the processing program.
More importantly, the prior art devices, whether paper or electronic, are oriented toward statistical, after-the-fact survey techniques. Whether the information is collected while the customer is in the establishment, or after he/she has left, the processing and evaluation of the survey merely indicates trends or identifies sources of dissatisfaction after the customer has left the establishment. While valuable as information to management, this does not provide the means to interact with the customer who has had a good or a bad experience prior to leaving the restaurant.
It is well known that the best advertising, good or bad, is word of mouth. This is especially true in the hospitality industry. Thus, if a customer has a bad experience, prior art surveys can capture that data in an effort to alter subsequent events, but the customer who has had the negative experience more than likely will not return and will share this bad experience with numerous acquaintances. This “negative” word of mouth advertising is hard to overcome even if the experienced problem is rectified immediately for the benefit of other customers.
Several electronic survey devices have been developed and patented to address some of the above mentioned problems. The use of electronics holds the promise of faster processing and fewer errors, especially where separate data-entry is avoided. However, nothing in the prior art provides for real time, self-administered, customer satisfaction survey systems, methods, or devices, or, more specifically, devices which signal a programmed condition to the manager or other service attendant so that intervention can proceed prior to the customer exiting the establishment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,367 to Casey is a simple device useful for very basic surveying. It is a stationary device intended to be placed in the lobby of a bank, or similar location, to survey customers as they are leaving. A single question is presented on a printed placard, and the customer is given the option of answering “yes” or “no” via two buttons on the face of the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,315 to Cadotte et al presents a more flexible solution than the Casey device in that it can present several questions and accept three or more alternative answers to each question. Again, the answers are presented on written labels which are inserted into the device in alignment with the response keys. Like the Casey device, this device is relatively large and is intended to be placed in a fixed location within a restaurant and used as the customer is departing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,933 to Adelson et al discloses an early device which uses a microprocessor-controlled slide projector to present a series of questions and accepts answers from a keyboard. It is not generally applicable to customer surveys within service establishments.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,228 to Yamamoto is an automated interviewing device which electronically stores questions and responses in audio format and provides for electronic control of question presentation and response recordation. This device is not generally applicable to customer surveys. It is a large device intended for lengthy questions and answers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,035 to Cohen et al discloses systems, methods, and devices for electronic, self-administered surveys which generate market information for later use by advertisers, advertising agencies, and broadcasters. The invention is directed toward the storage of survey data in a plurality of survey devices and the subsequent upload of survey data from those devices to a centralized data processing unit. The focus of the invention is the historical and statistical value of the survey data compiled. The device cannot be used as a real time tool for determining and signaling or triggering a signal upon the happening of a preprogrammed event.
It would, therefore, be advantageous to
Alphonse Fritz
Meyer Lee G.
Nguyen Chanh
Rader & Fishman & Grauer, PLLC
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