Conducting transactions between a vendor and a customer using text messages

• US 8,839,311 B1
• Filed: 11/26/2013
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: West Technology Group LLC (West Corporation)
• Original Assignee: West Corporation
• Inventors: Hendren, Chad David, Darby, Kenneth A., Gass, Steven, Stetich, Sandra, Frazer, James
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, HOANG VU A
• Application Number:
  US14/089,927
• Time in Patent Office: 294 Days
• Field of Search: 725/104, 725/30, 725/62, 725/86, 725/87, 709/206, 715/752, 455/466, 707/785
• US Class Current: 725/62
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3255 using mobile network messaging services for payment, e.g. SMS
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42042 Notifying the called party of information on the calling party details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

The illustrative embodiments described herein provide systems and methods for conducting transactions with a customer using text messages. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a first text message from a mobile communication device associated with a customer. The first text message includes a request from the customer to receive one or more text messages from a vendor. The method also includes adding the customer to a set of consenting customers in a customer database in response to receiving the first text message. The set of consenting customer including customers that consent to receiving text messages from the vendor. The method also includes sending a second text message to the mobile communication device. The second text message is associated with a service offered by the vendor.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a first text message from a mobile communication device associated with a customer, the first text message comprising a request from the customer to receive one or more text messages associated with a vendor;

sending a second text message to the mobile communication device, the second text message associated with a service offered by the vendor;

determining whether a text message has been received from the mobile communication device accepting the offer; and

when the text message accepting the offer has not been received within a predetermined amount of time, sending another text message associated with the service offered by the vendor to the mobile communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second text message includes an offer from the vendor to provide the service to the customer, the method further comprising:

receiving a third text message from the mobile communication device, the third text message comprising an acceptance of the offer; and

requesting the vendor to provide the service to the customer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the customer is associated with a text message consent flag changeable between a first value and a second value, the text message consent flag set to the first value if the customer consents to receiving text messages from the vendor, the text message consent flag set to the second value when the customer does not consent to receiving text messages from the vendor, the method further comprising:

determining the value of the text message consent flag in response to receiving the third text message from the mobile communication device; and

requesting the vendor to provide the service to the customer in response to the text message consent flag being set to the first value.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the vendor provides the service to the customer in response to the vendor receiving the request to provide the service to the customer.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a third text message from the mobile communication device, the third text message comprising a request to cease receiving text messages from the vendor; and

removing the customer from a set of consenting customers in a customer database.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the customer using automatic number identification in response to receiving the first text message.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

attempting to identify the customer using automatic number identification;

in response to a failure to identify the customer using automatic number identification, sending a third text message to the mobile communication device prompting the customer to enter account identification data;

receiving a fourth text message from the mobile communication device, the fourth text message comprising the account identification data; and

identifying the customer using the account identification data.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the account identification data is a phone number associated with the customer.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the customer has an active account with the vendor after receiving the first text message from the mobile communication device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding the customer to a set of consenting customers in a customer database in response to receiving the first text message, the set of consenting customers comprising customers that consent to receiving text messages from the vendor; and

determining whether the set of consenting customers includes the customer, wherein adding the customer to the set of consenting customers in the customer database is in response to determining that the set of consenting customers does not include the customer.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether access to a vendor account for the customer is associated with a password; and

in response to determining that access to the vendor account for the customer is associated with the password, sending a third text message to the mobile communication device, the third text message prompting the customer to input the password for the vendor account associated with the customer.

12. A method, comprising:

receiving a first text message from a mobile communication device associated with a customer, the first text message indicating the customer'"'"'s consent to be contacted by a pay-per-view programming provider via text messaging;

sending a second text message to the mobile communication device, the second text message associated with pay-per-view programming offered by the pay-per-view programming provider;

determining whether a text message has been received from the mobile communication device accepting the offer; and

when the text message accepting the offer has not been received within a predetermined amount of time, sending another text message associated with the pay-per-view programming offered by the pay-per-view programming provider to the mobile communication device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the second text message includes an offer from the pay-per-view programming provider to provide access to a pay-per-view television program, the method further comprising:

receiving a third text message from the mobile communication device, the third text message comprising an acceptance of the offer; and

requesting the pay-per-view programming provider to provide access to the pay-per-view television program to the customer.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the second text message includes an offer from the pay-per-view programming provider to provide access to a pay-per-view television program, the method further comprising:

receiving a third text message from the mobile communication device, the third text message comprising an acceptance of the offer;

sending a fourth text message to the mobile communication device, the fourth text message prompting the customer to select a program preference for the pay-per-view television program;

receiving a fifth text message from the mobile communication device, the fifth text message comprising a selected program preference for the pay-per-view television program; and

requesting the pay-per-view programming provider to provide access to the pay-per-view television program having the selected program preference to the customer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the program preference is a program quality preference selectable between at least a standard definition and a high definition.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the customer is associated with a text message consent flag changeable between a first value and a second value, the text message consent flag set to the first value if the customer consents to receiving text messages from the pay-per-view programming provider, the text message consent flag set to the second value when the customer does not consent to receiving text messages from the pay-per-view programming provider, the method further comprising:

sending the second text message to the mobile communication device in response to determining that the text message consent flag has the first value.

17. A system, comprising:

a text message transaction manager configured to conduct transactions with a customer using text messages, the text message transaction manager comprising;

a customer database comprising a set of consenting customers that consent to receiving text messages from a vendor;

a customer intake module configured to receive text messages from mobile communication devices, each of the mobile communication devices associated with a respective customer, the first text message comprising a request from the customer to receive one or more text messages from the vendor; and

a transaction engine configured to conduct a transaction with the customer using text messages;

wherein the text message transaction manager is further configured to determine whether a text message has been received from a mobile communication device associated with a respective customer accepting an offer and, when a text message accepting the offer has not been received within a predetermined amount of time, send another text message associated with the service offered by the vendor to the mobile communication device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the customer intake module is further configured to add the customer to the set of consenting customers in the customer database when the customer intake module receives a first text message from the customer;

and wherein the text message transaction manager further comprises a customer cancellation module configured to remove the customer from the set of consenting customers in the customer database when the customer cancellation module receives a second text message, the second text message comprising a request to cease receiving text messages associated with the vendor.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the transaction comprises a purchase of a service from the vendor, and wherein the text message-based transaction system further comprises the vendor configured to provide the service to the customer.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the transaction comprises a purchase of a service from the vendor, and wherein the transaction engine further comprises a parameter selection module to determine a parameter for the service provided to the customer based on a customer selection.