Automatically facilitated marketing and provision of electronic services

• US 20050038697A1
• Filed: 06/30/2003
• Published: 02/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Aaron, Jeffrey A.
• Application Number:
  US10/611,630
• Publication Number:
  US 20050038697A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.470
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0248 Avoiding fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Systems for automatically facilitated marketing and provision of electronic services include a cycler configured to search through a plurality of databases to match user input with sales information in the databases and to provide keywords resulting from the search. An analyzer is operatively coupled to the cycler and configured to provide a set of potential services to be sold to a customer based on the keywords obtained from the cycler. Other systems and methods are also provided.

Claims

1. A method for providing automatically facilitated marketing and provision of electronic services, comprising:

searching a database for a match between user input and information in the database;

obtaining keywords resulting from the searching step;

utilizing a database table to associate the keywords with potential services to sell to a customer; and

producing a set of suggested actual services and associated information regarding services that can be sold to the customer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating the keywords with generically-defined services.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating appropriate services to offer the customer utilizing a weighted summation of technical appropriateness values associated with at least one of generic, potential, actual or available services.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating preferential services to offer the customer utilizing a weighted summation of preference values associated with actual services offered by a service provider.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising ranking potential generic services for presentment and comparison of preferential services.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising ranking potential actual services for presentment and comparison of preferential services.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising calculating maximum and minimum thresholds such that preferential services offered by a service provider do not override technical security decision criteria.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising calculating ratio checks such that preferential services offered by a service provider do not override technical security decision criteria.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising adjusting or reducing weighted summation values if the threshold is violated.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising discarding a particular preferential service if the threshold or ratio check is violated.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising calculating a comparison value by adjusting weighed summations for cases of service bundling.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting the suggested services and associated information to a user'"'"'s processing device.

13. A computer-readable medium comprising:

logic configured to search a database for a match between user input and information in the database;

logic configured to obtain keywords resulting from the search;

logic configured to utilize a database table to associate the keywords with potential services to sell to a customer; and

logic configured to produce a set of suggested services and associated information of services that can be sold to customer.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising logic configured to associate the keywords with generically-defined services.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising logic configured to calculate appropriate services to offer the customer utilizing a weighted summation of technical appropriateness values associated with at least one of generic, potential, actual or available services.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising logic configured to calculate preferential services to offer the customer utilizing a weighted summation of preference values associated with actual services by a service provider.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising logic configured to rank potential services for presentment and comparison of preferential services.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising logic configured to calculate maximum and minimum threshold such that preferential services offered by a service provider do not override technical security decision criteria.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising logic configured to adjust or reduce weighted summation values if the threshold is violated.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising logic configured to discard a particular preferential service if the threshold or ratio check is violated.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 18, further comprising logic configured to calculate a comparison value by adjusting weighed summations for cases of service bundling.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising logic configured to output the suggested services and associated information to a user'"'"'s processing device.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising logic configured to rank potential generic services for presentment and comparison of preferential services.

24. A system for automatically facilitated marketing and provision of electronic security services, comprising:

a cycler configured to search through a plurality of databases to match user input with sales information in the databases and to provide keywords resulting from the search; and

a service suggestion analyzer operatively coupled to the cycler, the service suggestion analyzer configured to provide a set of potential services to be sold to a customer based on the keywords from the cycler.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the service suggestion analyzer further comprises an analyzer module, a servicer module and an output module.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the service suggestion analyzer further comprises a psychological assistant module and a special deals interface module.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the analyzer module is further configured to produce a prioritized and clustered needs list that includes generic services.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the analyzer module is further configured to include a lookup table to provide the clustered needs list.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the analyzer module is further configured to perform technical weightings of potential services to prioritize the generic needs list.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the servicer module is further configured to interface with the analyzer module to obtain the generic needs list and to produce a ranked set of suggested actual services offered by a service provider.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the servicer module is further configured to incorporate stored preference weightings for an available offered service such that the set of suggested actual services are skewed towards services preferred to be sold by a service provider.

32. The system of claim 25, wherein the output module is operatively coupled to the servicer module and the output module is further configured to provide the ranked set of suggested actual services to a user via at least one of a user'"'"'s display device of a processing device, auditory means including synthesized voice, email, or paging device.

33. The system of claim of claim 24, wherein the service suggestion analyzer is further configured to calculate appropriate services to offer the customer utilizing a weighted summation of technical appropriateness values associated with at least one of generic, potential, actual, or available services.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the service suggestion analyzer is further configured to rank potential generic services for presentment and comparison of preferential services.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein the service suggestion analyzer is further configured to calculate ratio checks such that preferential services offered by a service provider do not override technical security decision criteria