Online Customer Service Technology

• US 20120004977A1
• Filed: 01/19/2011
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Adaptive Marketing LLC (Arthur J Gallagher & Company)
• Original Assignee: Adaptive Marketing LLC (Arthur J Gallagher & Company)
• Inventors: Eisenstein, Jonathan, Daniels, Edward Peter Jr., Delhalle, Frederic
• Application Number:
  US13/009,159
• Publication Number:
  US 20120004977A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for providing subscription-based products to a merchant'"'"'s customers which are managed by a third party provider. The merchant sells a subscription-based product to a customer and sends customer information for that customer to the provider. The provider creates a subscription program account for the customer and periodically sends instructions to the merchant for servicing the customer'"'"'s account. Any instructions, such as an instruction to bill the customer for the subscription, may be branded by the merchant before being sent to the customer so that the provider is unseen by the customer. Dynamic offers for products or services may be created for a customer based on a predetermined set of factors.

Claims

1. A method for offering a subscription-based product to a customer which is managed by a provider, comprising the steps of:

selling the subscription-based product to the customer;

receiving customer information from the customer;

sending a subset of customer information to a computer processor;

receiving instructions from the computer processor to bill the customer for the subscription-based product;

billing the customer for the subscription-based product based at least in part on the received instructions; and

sending the status of the customer'"'"'s account to the computer processor;

wherein the computer processor acts as an intermediary between a merchant and the provider by sending customer information to the provider and receiving instructions from the provider for the merchant.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the selling of the subscription-based product is performed by a merchant billing system and the computer processor is adapted for communicating with the merchant billing system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of branding the received billing instructions with the merchant'"'"'s brand, wherein the step of billing the customer includes sending branded billing instructions.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer processor is under the physical control of the merchant.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer processor stores the subset of customer information which is periodically transferred to the provider.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer processor sends the subset of customer information to the provider when it receives it.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting a subscription-based product for sale by the merchant from a library of programs provided by the provider.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving correspondence for the customer from the computer processor;

rebranding the correspondence; and

sending the correspondence to the customer;

wherein the computer processor receives the correspondence from the provider and sends the correspondence to the merchant.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of creating a customer account after sending the subset of customer information to the computer processor, wherein the provider creates the customer account.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the subset of customer information does not include financial information.

11. A method for facilitating the management of a subscription-based product by a provider, comprising the steps of:

providing a computer processor in communication with a merchant'"'"'s billing system;

receiving, by the computer processor, customer information from the merchant'"'"'s billing system after the sale of the subscription-based product to the customer;

sending, by the computer processor, the customer information to a provider computer to create a subscription account;

receiving, by the computer processor, instructions from the provider computer regarding the subscription account; and

sending, by the computer processor, the instructions to the merchant'"'"'s billing system.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the computer processor is under the physical control of the merchant.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the computer processor stores the customer information which is periodically transferred to the provider computer.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the computer processor sends the customer information to the provider computer when it receives it.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the instructions are branded with the merchant'"'"'s brand before the step of sending the instructions.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of sending, by the computer processor, the status of the customer'"'"'s account to the provider computer.

17. A method for managing a subscription-based product by a provider, comprising the steps of:

providing a computer processor and the subscription-based product to a merchant;

receiving from the computer processor customer information for a customer who purchased the subscription-based product;

creating a subscription account for the customer; and

sending instructions to the computer processor regarding the subscription account;

wherein the computer processor acts as an intermediary between the merchant and the provider.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of sending the instructions to the customer wherein the instructions are branded with the merchant'"'"'s brand.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the computer processor is under the physical control of the merchant.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the computer processor stores the customer information which is periodically transferred to the provider.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein the computer processor sends the customer information to the provider when it receives it.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of adapting the computer processor to communicate with a merchant billing system.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising the steps of sending correspondence to the computer processor intended for the customer wherein the correspondence is branded with the merchant'"'"'s brand before being sent to the customer.

24. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of receiving from the computer processor the status of the customer'"'"'s account.

25. A system for facilitating management by a provider processing system of a subscription-based product offered by a merchant billing system, comprising:

a computer processor;

wherein the subscription-based product is offered by a merchant and managed by a provider;

the computer processor acts as an intermediary between the merchant billing system and the provider processing system and is adapted for communicating with the merchant billing system;

the merchant billing system sends customer information for a customer to the computer processor after the merchant billing system processes the sale of the subscription-based product to the customer;

the computer processor sends the customer information to the provider processing system for creation of a customer account;

the provider processing system sends a billing instruction for the customer account to the computer processor; and

the computer processor sends the billing instruction to the merchant billing system.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the billing instruction is branded with the merchant'"'"'s brand before being sent to the customer.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the computer processor brands the instruction.

28. The system of claim 25 wherein the computer processor is under the physical control of the merchant.

29. The system of claim 25 wherein the computer processor stores the customer information which is periodically transferred to the provider processing system.

30. The system of claim 25 wherein the computer processor sends the customer information to the provider processing system when it receives it.

31. The system of claim 25 wherein the provider processing system sends correspondence for the customer to the computer processor and the correspondence is branded with the merchant'"'"'s brand before being sent to the customer.

32. The system of claim 25 wherein the customer information does not include financial information.

33. The system of claim 25 wherein the subscription-based product has an SKU which is used by the merchant to sell the subscription-based product to the customer.

34. The system of claim 25 wherein the computer processor sends the status of the customer'"'"'s account to the provider.

35. A method for dynamically generating a product offer by a provider, comprising the steps of:

creating a dynamic offer for a customer on a computer processor based upon a predetermined set of factors;

offering the dynamic offer to the customer;

analyzing the success of the dynamic offer offered to the customer on a computer processor;

using the success of the dynamic offer as a factor in creating a subsequent dynamic offer;

wherein the predetermined set of factors comprises the customer'"'"'s geo-location, the customer'"'"'s shopping behavior, the customer'"'"'s credit information, and wherein the product offer is a dynamically priced product or service or a dynamically bundled plurality of products or services.

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising the step of receiving customer demographics and preferences from the customer when he or she registers with the provider, wherein the predetermined set of factors includes the preferences.

37. The method of claim 35 wherein the step of creating occurs after the customer has initiated a purchase from a merchant.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the predetermined set of factors includes information about the purchase.

39. The method of claim 35 wherein the provider and the merchant are the same entity.

40. The method of claim 35 wherein the predetermined set of factors includes information about the customer obtained by searching database records not under the control of the provider.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the database records are public records or social network records.

42. The method of claim 35 wherein the step of creating occurs based upon the customer'"'"'s proximity to a predetermined location.