Brand response

• US 9,396,490 B1
• Filed: 02/28/2012
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bazaarvoice Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Bazaarvoice Incorporated
• Inventors: Breitenstein, Jeffrey, Marx, Matthew G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ouellette, Jonathan
• Application Number:
  US13/407,358
• Time in Patent Office: 1,603 Days
• Field of Search: 705 11-912
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

Embodiments described herein provide systems and methods for brand response. One embodiment of a system for providing brand a review system configured to receive customer reviews from a plurality of web sites and provide for display on the web sites responses to the customer reviews inline with the customer reviews. The system can further include a brand response system configured to allow a user associated with a manufacturer to submit a response to a customer review of a product and provide the response to the review system.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory having instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the system to carry out operations comprising;

receiving user-generated content from one or more web sites, wherein the user-generated content includes one or more reviews of at least one product or service;

storing the user-generated content including the one or more reviews in an encoding format suitable for incorporation within a web page;

based on information indicating that a specified criterion relating to a first one of the one or more reviews is met, generating an alert in a digital format encoding the specified criterion;

using an electronic messaging protocol to provide the alert to a provider of the at least one product or service;

subsequent to using the electronic messaging protocol to provide the alert, receiving, from a representative of the provider of the at least one product or service, a response to the first review;

subsequent to receiving the response, storing the response in the encoding format;

subsequent to receiving the response, generating an invitation, for a reviewer that corresponds to the first review, in the digital format encoding invitation information inviting the reviewer to reply to the response;

upon generating, providing the invitation to the reviewer; and

based on storing the response in the encoding format, instructing a host computer device for a first one of the one or more web sites to incorporate, into source code of a web page of the first web site, the response and an indicator indicating that the response is an official response authorized by the provider, and further instructing the host computer device to display the web page including the response from the representative and the indicator.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

subsequent to using the electronic messaging protocol to provide the alert, producing to the provider a response template that encodes, in the encoding format, field information indicative of one or more specified categories of content requested for the response and an interface configured to receive the one or more specified categories of content from the provider; and

wherein storing the response includes storing the one or more specified categories of content in the encoding format.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the encoding format includes Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

4. The system of claim 1, wherein in instructing the host computer device for the first web site to incorporate into the source code of the web page the response and the indicator, the operations further comprise instructing the host computer device to modify the source code.

5. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, user-generated content from one or more web sites, wherein the user-generated content includes one or more reviews of at least one product or service, wherein each of the one or more reviews include a user-provided rating that is one of a plurality of pre-determined rating options;

based on receiving the user-generated content, the computer system storing the user-generated content including the one or more reviews in an encoding format suitable for incorporation within a web page;

determining, by the computer system, that a specified criterion relating to a first one of the one or more reviews is met;

in response to the determining, the computer system causing a provider of the at least one product or service to be notified with regard to the specified criterion being met;

subsequent to notifying the provider, the computer system receiving a response to the first one of the one or more reviews from a representative of the provider;

subsequent to receiving the response, storing, by the computer system, the response in the encoding format;

subsequent to receiving the response, generating, by the computer system, an invitation in a digital format encoding invitation information inviting a reviewer that corresponds to the first review to reply to the response;

upon generating, providing, by the computer system the invitation to the reviewer; and

based on storing the response in the encoding format, the computer system instructing a host computer device for a first one of the one or more web sites to incorporate into source code of a web page of the first web site both the response and an indicator indicating that the response is an official response authorized by the provider and further instructing the host computer device to display the web page including the response from the representative and the indicator.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the web page displays the review, and wherein the web page displays the response in-line with the review.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the encoding format is Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and wherein the method further comprises:

based on the first review of the at least one product or service, the computer system producing to the representative a response template that encodes, in the encoding format, information indicating one or more specified categories of content requested and a user interface configured to receive the one or more specified categories of content from the representative.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the specified criterion is at least one of a low rating, a high rating, a predetermined frequency of particular ratings, or a trend of ratings.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

the computer system linking the review and the response in the encoding format so that the review and the response are displayable on the web page together.

10. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

the computer system receiving another response to the review; and

the computer system instructing the host computer device to incorporate into the source code of the web page the another response by modifying the source code.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the invitation includes a link selectable by the reviewer to navigate to the web page displaying the response and the indicator.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

the computer system using an electronic messaging protocol to provide the invitation to the reviewer; and

based on reply information indicating that the reviewer has provided a reply to the response, the computer system instructing the host computer device for the first web site to incorporate the reply into the source code of the web page.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the indicator that the response is authorized by the provider includes a trademark associated with the provider.

14. The method of claim 5, wherein the indicator that the response is authorized by the provider includes at least one of a logo or brand name associated with the provider.

15. An article of manufacture comprising at least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by a computer system to cause a computer system to perform operations comprising:

receiving user-generated content from one or more web sites, wherein the user-generated content includes one or more reviews of at least one product or service;

storing the user-generated content including the one or more reviews in an encoding format suitable for incorporation within a web page;

in response to determining that a specified criterion relating to one of the one or more reviews of the at least one product or service is met, causing a provider of the at least one product or service to be notified with regard to the specified criterion being met;

subsequent to causing the provider to be notified, receiving a response from a representative of the provider;

associating the response received with a particular one of the one or more reviews included in the user-generated content;

based on the associating, generating an invitation, for a reviewer that corresponds to the particular review, in a digital format encoding invitation information indicating that the reviewer is invited to reply to the response;

upon generating, providing the invitation to the reviewer; and

instructing a host computer device for a first one of the one or more web sites to incorporate into source code of a web page of the first web site the response and an indicator indicating that the response is an official response authorized by the provider and further instructing the host computer device to display the web page to display the response and the indicator.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

instructing the web page to incorporate the particular review into a portion of the source code such that the web page displays the particular review and the response together.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

producing to the provider a response template that encodes, in the encoding format, information indicating one or more specified categories of content requested and a user interface configured to receive the one or more specified categories of content from the representative.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

subsequent to generating the invitation, receiving reply information indicating that the reviewer has updated the particular review.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

instructing the host computer device to display the web page including timing information for the response, wherein the timing information indicates a time the response was written.

20. An article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the operation of associating causes the response to be displayable in-line with the particular review on the web page.