Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Operations research or analysis
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-06
2001-12-04
Hafiz, Tariq R. (Department: 2166)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Operations research or analysis
C705S014270, C705S021000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327570
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of Business/Customer Synergy and more particularly to a system and method of personalized customer service where a private network of subscribing businesses communicates directly with customers via personal agent devices to create customer loyalty, provide direct sales information prior to purchase, provide feedback and customer profiles to participating businesses, and provide a host of customer/business services.
2. Description of Related Art
Traditionally businesses have operated independently of one another. When a customer enters a store, the business has tried to capture his or her attention by various signs, displays, etc. The store has little or no data about the customer or his or her buying habits, desires, etc., except that generated at the point of sale. Some stores have tried to use subscriber cards to track customer profiles and buying patterns. However, this use has been very limited and has involved at most one business or one chain of businesses.
Human beings are generally interested in certain subjects and are interested in information about bargains, specials, sweepstakes, and other buying advantages. As consumers, they do not mind being made aware of this information if it could be presented in a selective manner rather than a barrage of useless advertising or junk mail.
In the past, businesses have run internal point-of-sale systems, inventory systems, etc. but have not communicated with other businesses at the direct point of sale. No systems exist where businesses communicate both with other businesses, directly with a customer, and where the system can sense when a customer is near some specific product of interest in the store, or in the immediate range of the store or neighboring vicinity.
What is badly needed is a means where different stores, product companies, and businesses in different lines of supply could track customers as well as specials etc. on various services and merchandise, and where this information could be shared with a specific individual customer in an intelligent manner between that customer and businesses in synergy as well as selectively with other interested customers. What is badly needed is a personal agent device that a participating customer could carry or wear that could communicate with a private network of subscribing businesses. This agent would provide real-time information to the customer with selected interest that is tailored to the individual needs and desires of an individual customer and the specified service, store, or product business. In addition this agent would allow the customer and subscribing businesses to communicate with a master controller and database. In this way, customer profiles could be generated that would allow information to be tailored to a specific customer. In addition, with micro-communicator chips placed on products, that customer's personal agent device could communicate directly with individual products information about the product that would be of interest to that customer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a system and method that will computerize traditional companies with customized individual addressable electronic direct marketing, self-service automation, and customer care support. This system comprises a private network that connects product companies, manufacturers, stores, educational institutions, travel companies, health-sport-wellness facilities, medical providers, community resources, financial institutions, and many others to a specified individual customer. The purpose of the present invention is to provide the hardware, software, firmware, midware, and other support including a network to develop bonded relationships across many channels with participating businesses and consumers.
The system provides a private computer network whereby subscriber businesses can communicate directly and continuously with participating customers to provide real-time data concerning products, prices, customer supplied needs, anticipated customer needs, money exchange at point of sale, customer tailored offerings, and many other derived benefits. Because of the network nature of the present invention, subscriber businesses can share synergy where customer purchases or indicated interests can be used to formulate or derive new offerings tailored to a specific customer. This synergy can extend between businesses offering related products but also between businesses offering apparently unrelated products where the present invention identifies relationships in buying and need patterns that may not be apparent without detailed analysis. The synergy can be achieved through the use of one or more master nodes in the private computer network. The master node(s) can be equipped with considerable computer and communications capabilities including databasing, ability to perform complicated mathematical procedures such as statistics, and the ability to interface with numerous other services such as the internet, intra-nets, the telephone system, wireless systems such as satellite cellphone and others, and interaction with any number of remote databases. It could also interface to cable TV systems and private cable and fiber optic systems.
While the present invention contains many features and sub-parts, the primary concept of the invention can be divided into four major parts: 1) A private computer communications network comprising one or more master control points that allows continuous two-way communications with participating customers. 2) In-store local wireless communication professional units that subscribing businesses can optionally install in their stores to provide wide bandwidth immediate communications with a customer (through a customer private agent device) at all times that the customer may be in or even near the store (ie. passing by on the sidewalk). 3) Private agent communications devices that can be carried by participating customers that allow medium bandwidth communications with the private network and wide bandwidth communications with in-store units. This device can contain many features including a read/write screen and audio cuing. 4) A communications message board that can generally reside in a participating customer's home or car that can display and provide a summary of activity/status of the other integrated products via a wide band communications path into the private network. In addition to providing specialized information previously mentioned, this device can provide all the normal computer network features such as e-mail, voice-mail, internet access, etc. This communications board can be a specialized device or a modified PC computer known in the art.
The private network with one or more master control points is the communication and coordination means of the present invention. This network allows wideband digital or analog communications of data, pictures, video, and any other manner of information between master control points, subscriber businesses, and participating users. This network can contain a plurality of layers of communications protocol and can be optimally designed to connect, supply, and receive information from the actual users of the system. The master control points can create the synergy between integrated parts of the system by means of databases, statistics, internet access, mathematical analysis, queuing, and expert systems. While most embodiments of this invention would have at least one master control point, it is possible to make use of many of the features of the present invention with no master control point. The private network would use servers, computers, and communications media to connect businesses, master control points, and customers. The actual physical transport media may be telephone lines, wireless channels, Asynchronous Transfer Mode ATM, Internet Protocol (IP), cell phones, private T
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lines, coaxial cable, or any other physical transport means known now or that will most certainly come along in the future during the
Hafiz Tariq R.
Kraft Clifford
Norman Marc
LandOfFree
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