SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING FEEDBACK ABOUT MERCHANTS USING PAYMENT TRANSACTIONAL INFORMATION

• US 20110276409A1
• Filed: 05/05/2011
• Published: 11/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Wathik Labidi
• Original Assignee: Wathik Labidi
• Inventors: Labidi, Wathik
• Application Number:
  US13/101,830
• Publication Number:
  US 20110276409A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.66
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

Information is analyzed from a user'"'"'s financial account in order to identify one or more payment transactions between the user and a corresponding one or more merchants. The user is enabled to provide feedback, over a computer interface, about individual merchants, as identified from the information. Information about the merchant is published that incorporates or otherwise uses the feedback provided from the user.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for providing feedback about merchants and businesses and the transactions that are being processed with them by individuals or companies, the method comprising:

analyzing information from a user'"'"'s financial account to identify one or more payment transactions between the user and a corresponding one or more merchants and businesses;

enabling the user to provide feedback, over a computer interface, about each of the one or more merchants and businesses; and

publishing information that is based on the feedback.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the feedback corresponds to a rating or a review of the merchant or the business, and/or to a series of scores calculated by the system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing information from the user'"'"'s financial account includes identifying a plurality of payment transactions from the information, including their corresponding plurality of merchants and businesses.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling the user to provide feedback includes:

presenting information that identifies at least some of the plurality of merchants and businesses to the user on a computer-generated interface, and

enabling the user to provide a rating and/or a qualitative input about each of the plurality of merchants and businesses.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein presenting information that identifies at least some of the plurality of merchants and businesses includes forming a list that identifies at least some of the plurality of payment transactions.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising filtering the plurality of merchants and businesses that are to be presented to the user for feedback.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information and authorization from a user to programmatically access the user'"'"'s financial account(s) over a network; and

retrieving transactional information from the user'"'"'s financial account(s) using the network.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein retrieving transactional information from the user'"'"'s financial account is performed on a schedule or in realtime, depending of the circumstances.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein retrieving transactional information from the user'"'"'s financial account is performed

10. The method of claim 1, wherein publishing information that is based on the merchant or the business feedback and scores includes publishing the information on a webpage.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising aggregating feedback for individual merchants or businesses from multiple users, and wherein publishing the information that is based on the feedback includes publishing the feedback on a webpage that includes feedback from one or more other users.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein publishing information that is based on the feedback includes publishing a consolidated rating that is based on a plurality of ratings provided from multiple users, including a rating provided from the user.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining one or more data stores that includes information about a directory of businesses, merchants and registered users.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating scores as a rating of the merchants, businesses and registered users, and then associating the scores with the businesses, merchants and registered users in the one or more data stores.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising publishing data from the one or more data stores as an online directory for businesses and merchants.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising enabling the online directory to be searched and/or reviewed.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising enabling use of selection criteria, along with user profile information, to determine a possible match between a user and a business or a merchant.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising generating a marketing campaign using, among other elements, the users profile information, their calculated score, their reviews of the payment transaction as well as other data elements related to the payment transactions.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising selecting advertisements for the user from a repository using the user profile information.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising selecting advertisements for the user based on individual reviews and/or the transaction history of the user.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein selecting advertisements includes displaying selected advertisements to the user when the user views content from the online directory.