Indirect customer identification system and method
First Claim
1. A system for automatically updating entries in a database based upon information received from a plurality of point of sale terminals comprising:
- a) a central computer system;
b) a computerized database system residing on the central computer system, the database system havingi) a transaction database containing a plurality of transaction records,ii) an accounts database containing a plurality of account records,iii) a customer database containing a plurality of customer records each containing a customer name field,iv) a T-A link database containing links between the transaction and the account records,v) an ACX link database containing links between the customer and the account records, andvi) a CTX link database containing links between the customer and the transaction records;
c) a communication link linking the central computer system to the plurality of point of sale terminals;
d) a new transaction information record received by the central computer system over the communication mechanism concerning a new transaction, the new transaction information record containingi) sales information including a list of products purchased during the transaction;
ii) account information about a transaction account used to purchase the list of products, andiii) a transaction customer name taken from a payment mechanism during the new transaction;
e) basic programming on the central computer system for receiving the new transaction information record and updating the computerized database system byi) creating a new transaction record in the transaction database based upon the sales information;
ii) determining if a transaction account record exists in the accounts database that matches the transaction account and creating the transaction account record in the account database if the transaction account record does not already exist;
iii) creating a new T-A link between the new transaction record and the transaction account record; and
f) advanced programming on the central computer fori) determining whether any account customers exist for the transaction account record by finding any ACX links between the transaction account record and the customer records;
ii) determining whether the transaction customer name matches the customer name field in any of the account customers; and
iii) if a match is found, creating a new CTX link between the matching account customer and the new transaction record.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A database system and method is presented that updates a retail transaction database for each transaction by extracting a name from a payment mechanism. Associations already made between the customer records, the transactions database, and the payment account database are used in conjunction with the extracted name to create additional associations between customers and transactions and between customers and payment accounts. In addition, new customer records can be created by searching demographic databases using the reverse append name and data associated with the transaction already in the database.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A system for automatically updating entries in a database based upon information received from a plurality of point of sale terminals comprising:
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a) a central computer system; b) a computerized database system residing on the central computer system, the database system having i) a transaction database containing a plurality of transaction records, ii) an accounts database containing a plurality of account records, iii) a customer database containing a plurality of customer records each containing a customer name field, iv) a T-A link database containing links between the transaction and the account records, v) an ACX link database containing links between the customer and the account records, and vi) a CTX link database containing links between the customer and the transaction records; c) a communication link linking the central computer system to the plurality of point of sale terminals; d) a new transaction information record received by the central computer system over the communication mechanism concerning a new transaction, the new transaction information record containing i) sales information including a list of products purchased during the transaction; ii) account information about a transaction account used to purchase the list of products, and iii) a transaction customer name taken from a payment mechanism during the new transaction; e) basic programming on the central computer system for receiving the new transaction information record and updating the computerized database system by i) creating a new transaction record in the transaction database based upon the sales information; ii) determining if a transaction account record exists in the accounts database that matches the transaction account and creating the transaction account record in the account database if the transaction account record does not already exist; iii) creating a new T-A link between the new transaction record and the transaction account record; and f) advanced programming on the central computer for i) determining whether any account customers exist for the transaction account record by finding any ACX links between the transaction account record and the customer records; ii) determining whether the transaction customer name matches the customer name field in any of the account customers; and iii) if a match is found, creating a new CTX link between the matching account customer and the new transaction record. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 15, 16, 17)
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8. A method for updating an electronic database on a computerized system comprising:
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a) establishing the database with customer records, account records, and transaction records, the database also having link databases containing T-A links between the transaction records and the account records, ACX links between the customer records and the account records, and CTX links between the customer records and the transaction records, b) receiving a particular name extracted from a payment mechanism used in a purchase transaction; c) identifying a purchase transaction record in the database for the purchase transaction indicating items purchased in the purchase transaction; d) finding a matching account record in the database for the payment mechanism; e) finding transaction customer records associated with the identified purchase transaction record using CTX links within the database between the customer records and the transaction records in the database; f) extracting identifying information from the found transaction customer records, wherein the identifying information is selected from a group comprising phone number information and address information; g) searching for additional customer records having the same identifying information as at least some of the extracted identifying information; h) finding a selected customer record from the additional customer records by comparing names found in the additional customer records with the particular name extracted from the payment mechanism; and i) associating the selected customer record with the identified purchase transaction record by creating a new CTX link in the database between the selected customer record and the identified purchase transaction record. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for updating a database having customer records, account records, and transaction records, the database also having link databases containing T-A links between the transaction records and the account records, ACX links between the customer records and the account records, and CTX links between the customer records and the transaction records, the system comprising:
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a) means for receiving a particular name extracted from a payment mechanism used in a purchase transaction; b) means for identifying a purchase transaction record in the database for the purchase transaction indicating items purchased in the purchase transaction; c) means for finding a matching account record in the database for the payment mechanism; d) means for finding transaction customer records associated with the identified purchase transaction record using CTX links within the database between the customer records and the matching transaction records in the database; e) means for extracting identifying information from the found transaction customer records; f) means for searching for additional customer records having the same information as at least some of the extracted identifying information; g) means for finding a selected customer record from the additional customer records by comparing names found in the additional customer records with the particular name extracted from the payment mechanism; and h) means for associating the selected customer record with the identified purchase transaction record by creating a new CTX link in the database between the selected customer record and the identified purchase transaction record.
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18. A method for updating an electronic database on a computerized system comprising:
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a) establishing the electronic database on the computerized system with data records including customer records, account records, and transaction records, the database also having link records containing T-A links between the transaction records and the account records, ACX links between the customer records and the account records, and CTX links between the customer records and the transaction records; b) electronically receiving transaction information from a point of sale device, the transaction information containing i) sales information including a list of products purchased; ii) account information about a transaction account used to purchase the list of products, and iii) a transaction customer name taken from a payment mechanism; c) creating a new transaction record in the transaction records based upon the sales information; d) determining if a transaction account record exists in the account records that matches the transaction account and creating the transaction account record in the account records if the transaction account record does not already exist; e) creating a new T-A link between the new transaction record and the transaction account record; and f) determining whether any account customers exist for the transaction account record by finding any ACX links between the transaction account record and the customer records; g) determining whether the transaction customer name matches a customer name field in any of the account customers; and h) if a match is found, creating a new CTX link between the matching account customer and the new transaction record. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification