System and Method for Providing Consumer Rewards

• US 20080249813A1
• Filed: 05/15/2007
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rewards Network Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Idine Rewards Network Inc
• Inventors: Schmeyer, Frank F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,732,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0232 Frequent usage rewards other than merchandise, cash or travel
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing

Abstract

An automated consumer rewards/incentive program that accepts a registration of a consumer. The registration entitles the consumer to receive the benefits of the incentive program. To track the fulfillment of reward earning criteria established by member businesses, the registration includes information indicative of a credit card of the consumer. The system uses the credit card information to determine when member customers perform a transaction at a member business. When a member customer performs a transaction at a member business using the registered credit card, the system and method examines the credit card transactional information to determine if the consumer fulfilled the requirements of the incentive program for the member business. If the transactional information indicates that the consumer fulfilled the criteria of the rewards program of the member business, the consumer is rewarded in accordance with the benefits of the incentive program.

Claims

10. A method for allowing a member business to coordinate reservations by member consumers and to manage benefits as defined by an incentive program offered by the member business, the method comprising:

accepting via a computer network a registration for each of the member consumers entitling the member consumers to benefits of the incentive program, the registration including information indicative of a credit card used by each of the member consumers;

comparing credit card transactional information representative of a plurality of transactions with the information indicative of the credit card used by each of the member consumers to determine if one of the transactions was performed by one of the member consumers at the member business, where the credit card transactional information is collected by a credit card processor;

rewarding member consumers with benefits as defined by the incentive program if it is determined in the step of comparing that one of the member consumers did perform a transaction at the member business;

transmitting benefit information to the member business for viewing; and

allowing the member business to change the benefits of the incentive program by modifying criteria for rewarding member consumers with benefits.

1. A method for allowing a member consumer to coordinate reservations and to receive benefits as defined by an incentive program offered by one of a plurality of member businesses, the method comprising:

accepting via a computer network a registration of the member consumer entitling the member consumer to benefits as defined by the incentive program, the registration including information indicative of a credit card used by the member consumer;

comparing credit card transactional information representative of a plurality of transactions with the information indicative of the credit card used by the member consumer to determine if one of the transactions was performed by the member consumer at one of the plurality of member businesses, where the credit card transactional information is collected by a credit card processor;

rewarding the member consumer with benefits as defined by the incentive program if it is determined in the step of comparing that the member consumer did perform a transaction at one of the plurality of member businesses;

accepting one or more reservations from the member consumer to visit one of the plurality of member businesses;

transmitting benefit information to the member consumer for viewing; and

allowing the member consumer to redeem benefits.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the benefit information may include information about incentive points.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the incentive points may be redeemed for items selected from the group consisting of rebates, credits, currency, vouchers, frequent flyer miles, or other incentive rewards.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the information about the incentive points includes information indicative of an amount of incentive points available to the member consumer.

5. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the information about the incentive points includes information indicative of when the incentive points were generated and the criteria by which the incentive points were generated.

6. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the information about the incentive points includes information indicative of when the incentive points were used.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the steps of transmitting reservation information to the member consumer for viewing and allowing the member consumer to manage reservations via the computer network.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the reservation is for an event selected from the group consisting of travel, theatre, dining, sporting events, hotel stay or vehicle rental.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the reservation information includes information specifying the day, time, member consumer and member business associated with each of the respective reservations.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the benefit information may include information about incentive points.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the incentive points may be redeemed for items selected from the group consisting of rebates, credits, currency, vouchers, frequent flyer miles, or other incentive rewards.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the information about the incentive points includes information indicative of an amount incentive points available to each of the member consumers.

14. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the information about the benefits includes information about whether the benefits are rewarded in connection with base incentives or registered incentives.

15. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising the steps of accepting reservations to visit the member business from the member consumers, transmitting reservation information to the member business for viewing, and allowing the member business to manage the reservations by the member consumers via the computer network.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the reservations are for an event selected from the group consisting of travel, theatre, dining, sporting events, hotel stay or vehicle rental.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the reservation information includes information specifying the day, time, member consumer and member business associated with each of the respective reservations.

13-1. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the information about the incentive points includes information indicative of when the incentive points were generated, the criteria by which the incentive points were generated, and when the incentive points were used.

18. A computer-readable media having instructions for determining if a transaction by a member consumer meets one or more requirements of an incentive program of a member business and if the transaction does meet one or more requirements of the incentive program, for providing benefits associated with the incentive program to the member consumer, the instructions performing steps comprising:

receiving transaction information including information identifying a plurality of consumers where at least one of the consumers is not the member consumer, information identifying a plurality of businesses where at least one of the businesses is not one of the member businesses, information pertaining to the purchase of goods or services by each of the plurality of consumers at one of the businesses and information identifying the respective business at which the purchase of goods or services was effectuated;

determining if one of the consumers identified in the transaction information is the member consumer;

determining if one of the businesses identified in the transaction information is one of the member businesses;

if it is determined that the consumer is the member consumer and the business is one of the member businesses, rewarding the member consumer with incentive points in accordance with the requirements of the incentive program for the respective member business and populating a database with information about the incentive points that have accrued to the member consumer;

transmitting via the computer network information about the incentive points and benefits of the incentive program to the member consumer for viewing; and

allowing the member consumer to redeem benefits and incentive points via the computer network.

19. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 18, wherein the information identifying the plurality of consumers includes a credit card number for each of the consumers.

20. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the information identifying each of the businesses is compared against a list of member businesses to determine if the business is one of the member businesses and the credit card number of the customer is compared against a list of credit card numbers of member consumers to determine if the consumer is the member consumer.

21. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the transaction information is collected by a credit card processor.

22. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the information about the incentive points includes information indicative of the amount incentive points available to the member consumer.

23. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the information about the incentive points includes information indicative of when the incentive points were generated.

24. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the information about the incentive points includes information indicative of when the incentive points were used.