System And Method For Providing Consumer Rewards

• US 20090063351A1
• Filed: 08/01/2008
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rewards Network Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Idine Rewards Network Inc
• Inventors: Schmeyer, Frank F., Cruz, Mario A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,933,841 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/64
• 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 may track member consumer credit card transactions without receiving personal information for non-members by using a one way hash function. 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

1. A method for allowing member consumers to receive customized benefits associated with an incentive program created by a member business, the method comprising:

accepting via a computer network registration information for a plurality of member consumers entitling the member consumers to benefits of the incentive program, the registration information including credit card indicia for each of the member consumers, and storing the registration information in a database that is in communication with the computer network;

receiving credit card transactional information from the member business, the credit card transactional information being comprised of information related to one or more purchases, such as credit card indicia associated with each of the respective purchases, information about the member business from which the purchase was made, the location of the member business from which the purchase was made, the type of products that are sold by the member business, and information about the date and time for the purchase;

storing the credit card transactional information in the database;

comparing credit card transactional information for the purchase with the registration information associated with each of the member consumers to determine whether the credit card indicia associated with the purchase matches the credit card indicia supplied by one of the member consumers and if there is a match, thereby confirming that the purchase was completed by one of the member consumers;

rewarding the member consumer associated with the matching credit card indicia in accordance with the benefits of the incentive program;

parsing the credit card transactional information into purchase information comprising categories based on purchase amount, the type of business at which the purchase was made, the location of the business at which the purchase was made, and the date and time that the purchase was made;

storing the purchase information in the database; and

providing recommendations to member consumers for other member businesses based on the purchase information that is stored in the database.

2. The method described in claim 1, including the step of providing each of the member consumers with customized home pages based on the credit card purchase information that is stored in the database.

3. The method described in claim 2, wherein the customized home page includes the total number of incentive points, where the benefits rewarded to the member consumer directly related to the incentive points awarded to the member consumer.

4. The method described in claim 3, wherein the incentive points are reward incentives selected from the group consisting of currency, frequent flyer miles, dining points or purchase vouchers.

5. The method described in claim 2, wherein the customized home page displays an account history for the respective member consumer.

6. The method described in claim 1, wherein the recommendations that are provided to member consumers include identifying member businesses that are within a certain distance of the location of the member businesses from which the member consumer has previously made a purchase.

7. The method described in claim 1, wherein the recommendations that are provided to member consumers include identifying member businesses that sell similar products as the member businesses from which the member consumer has made previous a purchase.

8. The method described in claim 7, wherein the products that are sold by member businesses include products selected from the group consisting of food, clothing, articles of manufacture, vehicles, hotel services, or transportation services.

9. The method described in claim 1, wherein the recommendations that are provided to member consumers include identifying member businesses that sell products in similar price ranges.

10. The method described in claim 1, wherein the recommendations that are provided to member consumers include identifying member businesses that are offering specials on selected days of the week or times that correlate to the time purchases by the respective member consumer were made.

11. The method described in claim 1, wherein the credit card indicia is converted into a secure identifier for each of the member consumers by applying a one-way hash algorithm to the credit card indicia for each of the member consumers and thereby generating the secure identifier.

12. The method described in claim 1, where credit card indicia may be comprised of information related to a credit card, debit card, or similar means for conducting purchase transactions.

13. A method for allowing a member restaurant to manage incentive rewards for a plurality of member consumers, the method comprising:

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

receiving credit card transactional information at the member business, the transactional information being comprised of information related to purchases at the member business such as credit card indicia associated with each of the respective purchases, information about the location of the member business from which each of the purchases were made, and information about the date and time for each of the respective purchases;

storing the credit card transaction information in a database that is in communication with the computer network;

comparing credit card transactional information for each of the purchases with the registration information associated with each of the member consumers to determine if the credit card indicia associated with the purchases matches the credit card indicia supplied by one of the member consumers and if there is a match, thereby confirming that the purchase was completed by one of the member consumers;

rewarding the member consumers in accordance with the benefits of the incentive program if it is determined in the step of comparing that the member consumer did complete a purchase at the member business;

creating a personalized web page for each of the member consumers that displays content to each of the respective member consumers, where the content includes information indicative of an amount of incentive rewards that have been awarded to the particular member consumer; and

wherein the member business may access and view the personalized web page for each of the member consumers via the computer network, including the incentive rewards that are provided to each of the member consumers, and manage the incentive rewards for the member consumers by modifying the benefits of the incentive program or by increasing or decreasing the level of incentive rewards for one or more of the member consumers.

14. The method described in claim 13, wherein the content is further comprised of information selected from the group consisting of reservations, dining history, restaurant menus, restaurant descriptions and restaurant reviews.

15. The method described in claim 14, wherein the member restaurant may manage the content by viewing, modifying, adding or removing information from the content.

16. The method described in claim 15, wherein the member restaurant may manage the content by accessing the computer network remotely.

17. The method described in claim 13, wherein the credit card indicia is converted into a secure identifier for each of the member consumers by applying a one-way hash algorithm to the credit card indicia for each of the member consumers and thereby generating the secure identifier.

18. A method for allowing a member restaurant to manage reservations for a plurality of member consumers, the method comprising:

accepting via a computer network registration information for a plurality of member consumers entitling the member consumers to benefits of an incentive program, the registration including credit card indicia for each of the member consumers;

receiving reservation information from a prospective consumer, the reservation information being comprised of credit card indicia, and information about the date and time for the respective reservation;

storing the reservation information in a database that is in communication with the computer network;

comparing the reservation information with the registration information for the member consumer to determine if the credit card indicia associated with the purchases matches the credit card indicia supplied by one of the member consumers and if there is a match, accepting the reservation information and thereby confirming that the reservation was made by one of the member consumers;

parsing the reservation information into purchase information comprising categories selected from the group consisting of day of the week, time of the day, number of diners, member restaurant, type of cuisine, and price level; and

wherein the member business may view reservation information for the member consumers via the computer network and modify, add or remove reservations via the computer network.

19. The method described in claim 18, wherein the member restaurant may manage the content by accessing the computer network remotely.

20. The method described in claim 18, wherein the credit card indicia is converted into a secure identifier for each of the member consumers by applying a one-way hash algorithm to the credit card indicia for each of the member consumers and thereby generating the secure identifier.

21. The method described in claim 18, including the step of providing recommendations to member consumers based on the purchase information that is stored in the database.

22. The method described n claim 21, wherein the recommendations that are provided to member consumers include identifying member businesses that sell similar products as the member businesses from which the member consumer has made previous purchases.

23. The method described in claim 22, wherein the recommendations that are provided to member consumers include identifying member businesses that are offering specials on days of the week or times that correlate to the purchase information with respect to date and time for the respective member consumer.

24. The method described in claim 23, wherein the member business may offer incentives based on available time slots for reservations.