SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A HOUSEHOLD SERVICES MARKETPLACE

• US 20130018687A1
• Filed: 09/19/2012
• Published: 01/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lifeworx, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Lifeworx, Inc.
• Inventors: Agrawal, Bal
• Granted Patent: US 8,533,019 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1053 Employment or hiring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for the operation of an In-home Assistant Service. The service provides a marketplace to connect households with assistants for frequent and specialized jobs. The service collects profile data of potential assistants including multiple skills the assistant can provide. It also enables the household to provide detailed request criteria. A locate process is then performed to determine, which assistants best meet the identified criteria.

Claims

1-30. -30. (canceled)

31. A processor-implemented method for providing households with part-time service assistants comprising:

storing a plurality of assistant profiles, the plurality of assistant profiles each comprising an assistant location;

a time window of availability;

skill sets including two or more household service skills, a rated ability level for each of the two or more household service skills; and

a billable rate;

receiving via the processor a job request from a household, the job request comprising essential criteria, including a household location, a requested time window for performing the job request, and a primary job function, and one or more secondary criteria comprising a plurality of requested skill sets and/or requested rated ability levels for the primary job function or one of the requested skill set, wherein one of the secondary criteria is specified as a deal breaker criteria;

screening via the processor the stored plurality of assistant profiles based on the essential criteria, such that assistant profiles not satisfying the essential criteria are excluded from an essential criteria screening result;

excluding from the essential criteria screening result via the processor any assistant profiles that do not meet the deal breaker criteria;

screening via the processor the essential criteria screening result to identify the number of secondary criteria met by each assistant profile to produce a secondary criteria screening result; and

selecting via the processor a chosen set of assistant profiles from the secondary criteria screening result that match the largest number of secondary criteria.

32. The method of claim 31 further comprising rerunning the claimed process after increasing a distance used to determine compliance with the household location criteria when no assistants profiles meet the deal breaker criteria.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein the secondary criteria comprises a distance or travel time from the location, a requested ability level, and a requested specialization for the one or more household service skills.

34. The method of claim 31 wherein a location is both one of the essential criteria and one of the secondary criteria.

35. The method of claim 31 wherein the deal breaker criteria is a language skill.

36. The method of claim 31 further comprising receiving a perceived performance pertaining to a hired assistant from the household and adjusting the rated ability level in the hired assistant'"'"'s profile based on the perceived performance.

37. The method of claim 31 further comprising billing the household.

38. The method of claim 31 further comprising transmitting information identifying the job described in the job request to mobile devices of assistants identified in the assistant profiles of the chosen set, selecting a hired assistant based on a first received assistant response.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein the transmission occurs via SMS or email.

40. The method of claim 31 further comprising performing a background check to confirm information in one or more of the collected assistant profiles.

41. The method of claim 31 further comprising receiving feedback from the household and updating one or more assistant profiles via the processor based on the feedback.

42. The method of claim 31 wherein the secondary criteria received are selected from a predefined set.

43. The method of claim 31 wherein the secondary criteria include a skill proficiency rating.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the skill proficiency rating received is selected from a predefined set.

45. The method of claim 31 wherein at least some of the information comprising one or more of the assistant profiles is received from a mobile device.

46. The method of claim 31 wherein at least part of the job request is received from a mobile device.

47. The method of claim 31 wherein the rated ability level is specified in a pre-defined granular format.

48. The method of claim 31 wherein the rated ability level is specified in a narrative format that is not predefined.

49. The method of claim 31 wherein the chosen set of assistant profiles includes only one assistant profile further comprising notifying the assistant corresponding to the one chosen assistant profile that they are booked for the job request.

50. The method of claim 31 wherein the selection via the processor is further based on an importance designation of the secondary criteria.

51. A processor-implemented method for providing households with part-time service assistants comprising:

storing a plurality of assistant profiles, the plurality of assistant profiles each comprising an assistant location;

a time window of availability;

skill sets including two or more household service skills, a rated ability level for each of the two or more household service skills; and

a billable rate;

receiving via the processor a job request from a household, the job request comprising essential criteria, including a household location, a requested time window for performing the job request, and a primary job function, and one or more secondary criteria comprising one or more requested skill sets and one or more requested rated ability levels for the primary job function or one of the requested skill sets;

determining a level of importance for each of the secondary criteria;

screening via the processor the stored plurality of assistant profiles based on the essential criteria, such that assistant profiles not satisfying the essential criteria are excluded from an essential criteria screening result;

screening via the processor the essential criteria screening result based on the level of importance of the secondary criteria to produce a secondary criteria screening result; and

selecting via the processor a chosen set of assistant profiles from the secondary criteria screening result that match the most secondary criteria and the secondary criteria with the highest level of importance.

52. The method of claim 51 wherein the determining step is expressly performed by the household submitting the job request.

53. The method of claim 51 wherein the determining step is programmatically via the processor to automatically set the level of importance for the secondary criteria.

54. The method of claim 53 wherein assistant location is given a high level of importance.

55. The method of claim 53 wherein a requested language skill among the secondary criteria is given a high level of importance.

56. A processor-implemented method for providing households with part-time service assistants comprising:

storing a plurality of assistant profiles, the plurality of assistant profiles each comprising an assistant location;

a time window of availability;

skill sets including two or more household service skills, a rated ability level for each of the two or more household service skills; and

a billable rate;

receiving via the processor a job request from a household, the job request comprising essential criteria, including a household location, and one or more secondary criteria comprising a requested time window for performing the job request, a billable rate, one or more requested skill sets and one or more requested rated ability levels for at least one of the requested skill sets;

determining a level of importance for each of the secondary criteria;

screening via the processor the stored plurality of assistant profiles based on the essential criteria, such that assistant profiles not satisfying the essential criteria are excluded from an essential criteria screening result;

iteratively screening via the processor the essential criteria screening result based on the level of importance of the secondary criteria to produce a secondary criteria screening result; and

selecting via the processor a chosen set of assistant profiles from the secondary criteria screening result that match the most secondary criteria and the secondary criteria with the highest level of importance.

57. An apparatus for providing households with service assistants comprising:

a processor;

a memory connected to and in communication with the processor and containing processor-executable instructions;

a mobile network interface accessible by the processor to provide network access to the processor;

wherein the processor executes instructions contained in the memory and the instructions instruct the apparatus to;

collect and store a plurality of assistant profiles, the plurality of assistant profiles each comprising a location;

a time window of availability;

skill sets including two or more household service skills, a rated ability level for each of the two or more household service skills; and

a billable rate, wherein at least a portion of the collection occurs via the mobile network;

receive via the mobile network a job request from a household, the job request comprising;

essential criteria including a location, a time window for performing the job request, and one or more skill sets that are designated as essential; and

secondary criteria including skill sets that are desired for the job request including two or more household service skills, a rated ability level for the two or more household service skills and a billable rate, wherein each secondary criteria has designated a level of importance to the household;

screen via the processor the stored plurality of assistant profiles based on essential criteria, such that assistant profiles not satisfying the essential criteria are excluded from an essential criteria screening result;

iteratively screen via the processor the essential criteria screening result for the plurality of assistant profiles that match one or more most important secondary criteria, such that assistant profiles not satisfying the one or more most important secondary criteria are excluded from a secondary criteria screening result;

select via the processor a chosen assistant profile from the secondary criteria screening result by incrementally screening each of the secondary criteria, based the designated level of importance to the household, until chosen assistant profiles are identified;

notify the household of the chosen assistant profiles.

58. The apparatus of claim 57 wherein the essential criteria comprises a location and a specific time including a date and designed hours to perform the job request.

59. The apparatus of claim 57 wherein the secondary criteria comprises a distance from the location, a requested ability level, and a requested specialization for the one or more household service skills.

60. The apparatus of claim 57 wherein a location is both one of the essential criteria and one of the secondary criteria.

61. The apparatus of claim 57 wherein the notifying comprises communicating a list of potential part-time service assistants to the household including some or all of the matched essential and secondary criteria.

62. The apparatus of claim 57 further comprising a processor-executable instruction for receiving via the mobile network a perceived ability level pertaining to an assistant profile from the household and adjusting the rated ability level in the selected assistant'"'"'s profile based on the perceived ability level.

63. The apparatus of claim 57 wherein a fluency level in one or more languages is designated as an essential skill.

64. The apparatus of claim 57 further comprising, prior to notifying, transmit information via the mobile network identifying the job described in the job request to a plurality of the assistants specified by the chosen assistant profiles and removing from the chosen assistant profiles any assistants that do not respond.

65. The apparatus of claim 57 wherein the designated level of importance is determined by the processor based on predefined criteria.

66. The apparatus of claim 57 where in the selection via the processor comprises an analysis based on a combination of a particular skill and its rated ability.