Systems and methods for providing remote ordering capabilities

• US 20070088624A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 04/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TopCoder, Inc. (Wipro Limited)
• Original Assignee: TopCoder, Inc. (Wipro Limited)
• Inventors: Hughes, John, Fogleman, Michael, Vaughn, Drew, Hughes, Greg
• Granted Patent: US 9,129,289 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants

Abstract

The invention relates to methods and systems for receiving, processing and fulfilling remotely placed orders. In one aspect, requests to place an order are received from a remote location, and based on a customer identifier included in the request, customer preference data is retrieved. An electronic selection menu based on customer preference data is transmitted to the customer, the order is received and prepared. The customer'"'"'s arrival is automatically detected, and the completed order is provided to the customer.

Claims

1. A method for fulfilling orders, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a customer to place an order for one or more items for sale at a location, the customer being remote from the location and the request including a customer identifier;

obtaining customer preference data based on the customer identifier;

transmitting an electronic selection menu to the customer, the electronic menu comprising elements based on the customer preference data;

receiving the order;

automatically detecting the customer'"'"'s arrival at the location; and

providing a completed order to the customer upon the customer'"'"'s arrival at the location.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the location is a restaurant.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the location is a market.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the request is received via the Internet.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the request is received via a telephone.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the request is received via wireless access protocol messaging.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer preference data comprises previously ordered items.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer preference data further comprises payment preferences.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer preference data further comprises preference data for multiple people.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer preference data further comprises a location preference.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a suggested location for pickup of the order.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising providing directions to the suggested location.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic menu comprises food items available for inclusion in the order.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic menu comprises consumer goods available for inclusion in the order.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer preference data further comprises payment preferences.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising issuing the customer a radio frequency identification device.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the customer'"'"'s arrival is detected via radio frequency identification.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer'"'"'s arrival is detected via optical character recognition.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the detection occurs as the customer approaches the location in a vehicle.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the detection occurs as the customer approaches a service counter at the location.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising preparing the order.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the order is prepared based on an estimated time of arrival of the customer at the location.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the order is provided to the customer upon arrival at the location based only on the automatic detection of the customer.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the request and order are received at a location different from the location at which the order is prepared and provided.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising transmitting the order to the location at which the order is prepared and provided.

26. The method of claim 1 further comprising maintaining a database of customer data associated with customers of the location, the customer data comprising for each customer a customer identifier and at least one customer preference.

27. A method for fulfilling orders at a restaurant, the method comprising:

maintaining a database of customer data associated with customers of a restaurant, the customer data comprising for each customer a customer identifier and at least one customer preference;

receiving a request from a customer to place an order at the restaurant, the customer being remote from the restaurant and the request including the customer identifier;

retrieving the customer data associated with the customer using the customer code;

in response to the retrieved customer data, transmitting an electronic menu to the customer, the electronic menu comprising elements based on the at least one customer preference;

receiving a menu selection from the customer in response to the transmitted electronic menu;

automatically detecting the customer'"'"'s arrival at the restaurant; and

providing a prepared order to the customer upon the customer'"'"'s arrival at the restaurant location.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the at least one customer preference is at least one of a payment preference or an order preference.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the request is received via the Internet.

30. The method of claim 27 wherein the request is received via wireless access protocol messaging.

31. The method of claim 27 wherein the request is received via a voice recognition system.

32. The method of claim 27 wherein the sensor-based monitoring system is a radio frequency identification system.

33. The method of claim 27 wherein the customer'"'"'s arrival at the restaurant location is detected based on an electronic message received from the customer.

34. The method of claim 27 further comprising providing the customer preference data to an inventory management system, thereby affecting inventory control actions related to the items.

35. A system for fulfilling food orders at a restaurant, the system comprising:

a data storage module for storing customer preferences relating to restaurant orders;

a communications module for;

receiving a request from a customer to place an order at a restaurant, the customer being remote from the restaurant and the request including a customer code;

transmitting an electronic menu to the customer, the electronic menu comprising elements based on at least one customer preference associated with the customer code; and

receiving the order from the customer; and

a sensor-based monitoring system for automatically detecting the arrival of the customer at the restaurant and transmitting instructions to the restaurant to provide the order to the customer upon arrival.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein the sensor-based monitoring system comprises a radio frequency identification capabilities.

37. The system of claim 36 further comprising a plurality of radio frequency identification tags, each tag being associated with a customer and facilitating the automatic detection of the arrival of the customer.