Apparatus and methods for providing fine granularity alerting to customers

• US 20030061109A1
• Filed: 09/24/2001
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dutta, Rabindranath, Banerjee, Dwip N., Brown, Michael Wayne, Ravi, Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 7,188,071 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for providing a fine granularity alerting mechanism for alerting customers of the status of an order are provided. With the apparatus and methods, a customer selects a supplier of a good or service and places an order with the supplier. Upon submitting the order to the supplier, a session between the supplier and the customer is initiated such that the customer may be provided with one or more alerts of the current status of the customer'"'"'s order. The one or more alerts may be periodic or may be based on the occurrence of one or more certain events. The alerts may include an estimated time of travel from a customer'"'"'s current location to a location at which the order is to be completed along with an estimated time of completion of the order. In one embodiment, if the estimated time of travel from the customer'"'"'s current location to the completion location is the same or within a certain tolerance of the estimated time of completion of the order, an alert is transmitted to the customer indicating that the customer should begin traveling to the completion location. In another embodiment, the alerts may include an estimated cost of the order based on a base cost for the product or service ordered as well as incremental costs for delay on the part of the customer for completion of the order.

Claims

1. A method of alerting customers of a current status of an order, comprising:

identifying a change in status of the order;

estimating a time to completion of the order based on the change in status of the order;

estimating a travel time of the customer; and

transmitting an alert to a client device based on the estimated time to completion of the order and the estimated travel time of the customer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating a time to completion of the order includes determining times for one or more remaining phases in completing the order and summing the times for the one or more remaining phases.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating a travel time of the customer includes identifying a current location of the customer and a route from the current location of the customer to a completion location where the order is to be completed.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying a current location of the customer includes obtaining one of an address and a telephone number of the customer and looking up the address or telephone number in a directory.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying a current location of the customer includes obtaining a location of the customer from a location determination system associated with the client device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the location determination system is a global positioning system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a change in status of the order includes receiving a message from a worker indicating a change in status of the order.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the message from the worker is transmitted in response to the worker scanning a bar code associated with the change in status of the order.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the current location of the customer is obtained from a location tracking server and wherein the route from the current location of the customer to a completion location is obtained from a route determination provider.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein estimating a travel time of the customer includes obtaining current traffic condition information.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein estimating a travel time of the customer includes estimating the travel time along the route based on the current traffic conditions along the route.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting an alert to a client device includes determining a time when the customer should being traveling to a completion location, wherein the alert includes an indication of the time when the customer should begin traveling to the completion location.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the time when the customer should begin traveling to the completion location is a difference between the estimated time to completion of the order and the estimated travel time of the customer.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein if the difference between the estimated time to completion of the order and the estimated travel time of the customer is less than zero, the alert further includes an indication of an additional charge for delay in completing the order.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert is one of an instant message, an electronic mail message, a pager message, and a telephone call.

16. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for alerting customers of a current status of an order, comprising:

first instructions for identifying a change in status of the order;

second instructions for estimating a time to completion of the order based on the change in status of the order;

third instructions for estimating a travel time of the customer; and

fourth instructions for transmitting an alert to a client device based on the estimated time to completion of the order and the estimated travel time of the customer.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the third instructions for estimating a travel time of the customer include instructions for identifying a current location of the customer and instructions for identifying a route from the current location of the customer to a completion location where the order is to be completed.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the third instructions for estimating a travel time of the customer include instructions for obtaining a location of the customer from a location determination system associated with a client device.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the third instructions for estimating a travel time of the customer include instructions for obtaining current traffic condition information.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the third instructions for estimating a travel time of the customer include instructions for estimating the travel time along a route based on the current traffic conditions along the route.

21. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the fourth instructions for transmitting an alert to a client device include instructions for determining a time when the customer should being traveling to a completion location, and wherein the alert includes an indication of the time when the customer should begin traveling to the completion location.

22. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein if a difference between the estimated time to completion of the order and the estimated travel time of the customer is less than zero, the alert includes an indication of an additional charge for delay in completing the order.

23. An apparatus for alerting customers of a current status of an order, comprising:

means for identifying a change in status of the order;

means for estimating a time to completion of the order based on the change in status of the order;

means for estimating a travel time of the customer; and

means for transmitting an alert to a client device based on the estimated time to completion of the order and the estimated travel time of the customer.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the means for estimating a travel time of the customer includes means for identifying a current location of the customer and means for identifying a route from the current location of the customer to a completion location where the order is to be completed.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the means for identifying a current location of the customer includes means for obtaining a location of the customer from a location determination system associated with the client device.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the location determination system is a global positioning system.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the current location of the customer is obtained from a location tracking server and wherein the route from the current location of the customer to a completion location is obtained from a route determination provider.

28. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the means for estimating a travel time of the customer includes means for obtaining current traffic condition information.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the means for estimating a travel time of the customer includes means for estimating the travel time along the route based on the current traffic conditions along the route.

30. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the means for transmitting an alert to a client device includes means for determining a time when the customer should being traveling to a completion location, and wherein the alert includes an indication of the time when the customer should begin traveling to the completion location.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the time when the customer should begin traveling to the completion location is a difference between the estimated time to completion of the order and the estimated travel time of the customer.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein if the difference between the estimated time to completion of the order and the estimated travel time of the customer is less than zero, the alert further includes an indication of an additional charge for delay in completing the order.

33. The method of claim 23, wherein the alert is one of an instant message, an electronic mail message, a pager message, and a telephone call.