LOCATION TRIGGERED SERVICE RESPONSE

• US 20120209657A1
• Filed: 02/13/2012
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Aladdin Connolly
• Original Assignee: Aladdin Connolly
• Inventors: Connolly, Aladdin
• Application Number:
  US13/371,754
• Publication Number:
  US 20120209657A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

An automated location based customer detection and ordering system determines proximity of a customer to a merchant and initiates an ordering mechanism for common routine purchases. Purchases such as coffee, bagels, donuts and other food and snack items are often readily available to a mobile customer from a variety of retail establishments of various merchants. A personal electronic device such as a cellphone or smartphone corresponds to the user and indicates the user'"'"'s presence within proximity of a particular merchant. A user is registered with various merchants, typically retail service locations, for a particular predetermined service offering from available menu items. A central repository or clearinghouse receives the proximity indication of a user and a registered merchant, and sends a confirmation request for the predetermined service offering. Upon user confirmation or order modification, the clearinghouse sends a confirmed order request to the merchant for preparation and delivery on user arrival.

Claims

1. A method for ordering services comprising:

determining, based on a location, that a customer is proximate to a merchant;

identifying, based on an identity of the customer, a predetermined offering of the merchant for preparation; and

sending an order for the predetermined offering to the merchant on behalf of the customer.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending an indication to the customer indicative of the predetermined offering;

receiving an order confirmation from the customer indicating acceptance of the order; and

sending the order to the merchant based on the order confirmation.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein confirming further comprises:

receiving an alternate selection from a menu of vendor offerings in lieu of the predetermined offering indicated by the order confirmation, and

sending the order confirmation including the alternate selection as the predetermined offering.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising receiving a payment authorization for the confirmed order, the payment authorization including an indication to complete a transaction with a financial entity using a prearranged identifier corresponding to a payment source.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at a personal electronic device appurtenant to the customer, an indication of a pending transaction for the predetermined offering; and

receiving a customer input via the personal electronic device for confirming or declining the transaction.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a locator signal from a personal electronic device of the customer;

determining, based on the locator signal and a location of a merchant, that the customer is within a predetermined distance of the merchant; and

mapping an identity of the customer and the merchant to the predetermined offering.

7. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

declining the transaction upon occurrence of at least one of;

an explicit confirmation from the personal electronic device;

customer location passing out of proximity;

or

a predetermined time elapses from initiation and transmission of the pending transaction for the predetermined offering.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting the predetermined offering as a default transaction by the customer for future initiated transactions;

and

aggregating the transactions over time for coalescing purchases from a particular customer for customer loyalty tracking.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving an indication of customer proximity from an application on a personal electronic device of the customer, the application operable to identify proximity to registered merchants for providing the predetermined offering.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the application is responsive to:

receiving a set of registered merchants available for predetermined offerings;

rendering a list of available merchants;

rendering, for each merchant, a menu of offerings available as the predetermined offerings; and

receiving a selection from the customer of the predetermined offering for that registered merchant.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein predetermined offering includes preparation of a commodity at a retail location of the merchant, proximity determined based on GPS (Global Positioning System) signal from the personal electronic device and a GPS indication of the retail location.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving, from a customer, billing information for settling a transaction corresponding to fulfillment of a predetermined offering by a registered merchant, the billing information including a payment source from which to direct payment to the merchant, the billing information responsive to the order confirmation from the user for a predetermined offering.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, from an unenrolled merchant, a request for registration, the registration enabling the application to display the merchant on the application; and

receiving, from the merchant, a set of vendor offerings and prices available as menu options for predetermined offerings to customers via the application.

14. A personal electronic device having an application for associating merchants with customers based on proximity of the customer to the merchant, the device comprising

an application for ordering services configured to:

determine, based on a location, that a customer is proximate to a merchant;

identify, based on an identity of the customer, a predetermined offering of the merchant for preparation; and

send an order for the predetermined offering to the merchant on behalf of the customer.

receive an indication indicative of the predetermined offering; and

send an order confirmation indicating acceptance of the order, the confirmed orders for receipt by a responsive merchant.

15. The device of claim 14 wherein the personal electronic device further includes:

a remote application for establishing an association between the customer and the merchant, the association for initiating an automated transaction for a predetermined offering; and

a locator for identifying the location of the personal electronic device relative to the merchant.

16. A computer program product having encoded instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium for performing a method of providing services responsive to proximity of a customer to the service provider, the method comprising:

identifying a set of service providers having service selections;

storing the identified set in a repository, the repository responsive to geographic location signals indicative of a subscriber location;

determining when a subscriber is in proximity to an identified service provider;

informing the service provider of the presence and identity of the proximate subscriber; and

retrieving, based on the identity, a preferred one of the service selections of the proximate subscriber.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein determining further comprises determining when a computing module of a subscriber is in proximity to a service provider responsive to a geographic location.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the geographic location signals are generated by a Global Positioning System (GPS) responsive device and the computing module is a mobile personal computing device responsive to wireless signals for Internet connectivity.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising invoking a Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the computing module for storing, associated with the subscriber, a preferred service selection of the service provider.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein proximity is determined by the computing module of the subscriber being disposed within a predetermined distance from a mobile service provisioning station.