System and method for rewarding customer loyalty in a mobile environment

• US 8,880,421 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2011
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: mobiTeris, Inc.
• Original Assignee: mobiTeris, Inc.
• Inventors: Navar, Murgesh, McMullen, George
• Primary Examiner(s): Koneru, Sujay
• Application Number:
  US13/294,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20120150606A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,090 Days
• Field of Search: 705 711- 742
• US Class Current: 705/7.34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/027 involving a payment switch or gateway
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3223 Realising banking transactions through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals

Abstract

A customer reward service may reward customers who show or are expected to show frequent patronage to a provider of a good or service. The type of reward given to a customer may depend on a variety of factors including the real-time location of the customer, registration or profile data, or other pertinent data provided by or about the customer including the customer'"'"'s purchasing history or the customer'"'"'s social interactions. By collecting and considering a variety of data associated with a customer, a business may provide rewards and incentives tailored to the customer thus improving the ability of the business to better attract and retain customers.

Claims

1. A method for rewarding customer loyalty with dynamically adjustable electronic scratch cards, comprising:

receiving a plurality of parameters from a computing device associated with a user, wherein the plurality of parameters include;

user location data representing the geographic distance from the user to a vendor in real-time,

user purchase history data representing the number of times the user has completed a previous transaction with the vendor, and

user review history data representing the number of times the user has positively reviewed the vendor in a social network; and

executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor;

updates a user profile based on the plurality of parameters, the profile previously created by the user and stored in memory,

matches the plurality of parameters stored in the user profile with a plurality of scratch cards playable by the user and associated with a good or service offered by the vendor, each of the scratch cards further associated with a dynamically adjustable probability that the scratch card will present winning results when played by the user, selects a scratch card from the plurality of scratch cards to present to the user,

dynamically adjusts the probability that the selected scratch card will present winning results when played by the user based on the plurality of parameters stored in the user profile, and

transmits the selected scratch card to the computing device, the selected scratch card displayable on a graphical interface of the computing device, the selected scratch card including an activation button that allows the user to play the scratch card.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the scratch card is generated in real-time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the scratch card is selected from a series of available scratch cards from the vendor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters further include information stored in a user profile of a second user in the network, the user being communicatively coupled to the second user, and wherein the information indicates a preference by the second user for a good or service offered by the vendor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters further include indicia of redemption of an offer received by the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters further include indicia of a purchase or transaction previously completed with a second vendor offering a good or service similar to the good or service offered by the vendor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters further include user feedback about the vendor.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters further include user feedback about the good or service offered by the vendor.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the scratch card is based on information stored in the user profile, the information indicating a preference by the user for the vendor.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the scratch card is based on information stored in the user profile, the information indicating a preference by the user for the good or service offered by vendor.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the execution of instructions by the processor further tracks the scratch card received by the user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the execution of instructions by the processor further generates a notification regarding a special event or sale hosted by the vendor and transmits the notification to the computing device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the scratch card to a second user in the network.

14. A system for rewarding customer loyalty with dynamic electronic scratch cards, comprising:

memory that stores a user profile associated with a user and a plurality of user parameters received from a computing device associated with a user, wherein the plurality of parameters include;

user location data representing the geographic distance from the user to a vendor in real-time,

user purchase history data representing the number of times the user has completed a previous transaction with the vendor, and

user review history data representing the number of times the user has positively reviewed the vendor in a social network; and

an application server that;

updates the user profile based on the plurality of parameters, the profile previously created by the user and stored in memory,

matches the plurality of parameters stored in the user profile with a plurality of scratch cards playable by the user and associated with a good or service offered by a vendor, each of the scratch cards further associated with an adjustable probability that the scratch card will present winning results when played by the user,

selects a scratch card from the plurality of scratch cards to present to the user,

dynamically adjusts the probability that the selected scratch card will present winning results when played by the user based on the plurality of parameters stored in the user profile, and

transmits the selected scratch card to the computing device.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied there on a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for rewarding customer loyalty with dynamic electronic scratch cards, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of parameters from a computing device associated with a user, wherein the plurality of parameters include;

user location data representing the geographic distance from the user to a vendor in real-time,

user purchase history data representing the number of times the user has completed a previous transaction with the vendor, and

user review history data representing the number of times the user has positively reviewed the vendor in a social network;

updating a user profile based on the plurality of parameters, the profile previously created by the user and stored in memory;

matching the plurality of parameters stored in the user profile with a plurality of scratch cards playable by the user and associated with a good or service offered by the vendor, each of the scratch cards further associated with a dynamically adjustable probability that the scratch card will present winning results when played by the user;

selecting a scratch card from the plurality of scratch cards to present to the user;

dynamically adjusting the probability that the selected scratch card will present winning results when played by the user based on the plurality of parameters stored in the user profile; and

transmitting the selected scratch card to the computing device, the selected scratch card displayable on a graphical interface of the computing device, the selected scratch card including an activation button that allows the user to play the scratch card.

16. A method for rewarding customer loyalty with dynamically adjustable electronic scratch cards, comprising:

receiving one or more parameters from a computing device associated with a user, wherein the one or more parameters includes user location data representing the geographic distance from the user to a vendor in real-time and one or more of;

user purchase history data representing the number of times the user has completed a previous transaction with the vendor, and

user review history data representing the number of times the user has positively reviewed the vendor in a social network; and

executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor;

updates a user profile based on the one or more parameters, the profile previously created by the user and stored in memory,

matches the one or more parameters stored in the user profile with a plurality of scratch cards playable by the user and associated with a good or service offered by the vendor, each of the scratch cards further associated with a dynamically adjustable probability that the scratch card will present winning results when played by the user, selects a scratch card from the plurality of scratch cards to present to the user,

dynamically adjusts the probability that the selected scratch card will present winning results when played by the user based on the one or more parameters stored in the user profile,

transmits the selected scratch card to the computing device, the selected scratch card displayable on a graphical interface of the computing device but initially locked from being played by the user,

verifies that the user is within a predetermined radius of the vendor based on the user location data,

transmits a signal to the computing device to unlock the selected scratch card when the verification step indicates that the user is within the predetermined radius of the vendor, and

transmits an error message to the computing device when the verification step indicates that the user is not within the predetermined radius of the vendor.

17. A system for rewarding customer loyalty with dynamic electronic scratch cards, comprising:

memory that stores a user profile associated with a user and a plurality of user parameters received from a computing device associated with a user, wherein the plurality of parameters include user location data representing the geographic distance from the user to a vendor in real-time and at least one of the following parameters;

user purchase history data representing the number of times the user has completed a previous transaction with the vendor, and

user review history data representing the number of times the user has positively reviewed the vendor in a social network; and

an application server that;

updates the user profile based on the plurality of parameters, the profile previously created by the user and stored in memory,

matches the plurality of parameters stored in the user profile with a plurality of scratch cards playable by the user and associated with a good or service offered by a vendor, each of the scratch cards further associated with an adjustable probability that the scratch card will present winning results when played by the user,

selects a scratch card from the plurality of scratch cards to present to the user,

dynamically adjusts the probability that the selected scratch card will present winning results when played by the user based on the plurality of parameters stored in the user profile, and

transmits the selected scratch card to the computing device.