System and Method for Providing Consumer Rewards
First Claim
10. A method for allowing a member business to coordinate reservations by member consumers and to manage benefits as defined by an incentive program offered by the member business, the method comprising:
- accepting via a computer network a registration for each of the member consumers entitling the member consumers to benefits of the incentive program, the registration including information indicative of a credit card used by each of the member consumers;
comparing credit card transactional information representative of a plurality of transactions with the information indicative of the credit card used by each of the member consumers to determine if one of the transactions was performed by one of the member consumers at the member business, where the credit card transactional information is collected by a credit card processor;
rewarding member consumers with benefits as defined by the incentive program if it is determined in the step of comparing that one of the member consumers did perform a transaction at the member business;
transmitting benefit information to the member business for viewing; and
allowing the member business to change the benefits of the incentive program by modifying criteria for rewarding member consumers with benefits.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An automated consumer rewards/incentive program that accepts a registration of a consumer. The registration entitles the consumer to receive the benefits of the incentive program. To track the fulfillment of reward earning criteria established by member businesses, the registration includes information indicative of a credit card of the consumer. The system uses the credit card information to determine when member customers perform a transaction at a member business. When a member customer performs a transaction at a member business using the registered credit card, the system and method examines the credit card transactional information to determine if the consumer fulfilled the requirements of the incentive program for the member business. If the transactional information indicates that the consumer fulfilled the criteria of the rewards program of the member business, the consumer is rewarded in accordance with the benefits of the incentive program.
124 Citations
24 Claims
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10. A method for allowing a member business to coordinate reservations by member consumers and to manage benefits as defined by an incentive program offered by the member business, the method comprising:
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accepting via a computer network a registration for each of the member consumers entitling the member consumers to benefits of the incentive program, the registration including information indicative of a credit card used by each of the member consumers; comparing credit card transactional information representative of a plurality of transactions with the information indicative of the credit card used by each of the member consumers to determine if one of the transactions was performed by one of the member consumers at the member business, where the credit card transactional information is collected by a credit card processor; rewarding member consumers with benefits as defined by the incentive program if it is determined in the step of comparing that one of the member consumers did perform a transaction at the member business; transmitting benefit information to the member business for viewing; and allowing the member business to change the benefits of the incentive program by modifying criteria for rewarding member consumers with benefits. - View Dependent Claims (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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13-1. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the information about the incentive points includes information indicative of when the incentive points were generated, the criteria by which the incentive points were generated, and when the incentive points were used.
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18. A computer-readable media having instructions for determining if a transaction by a member consumer meets one or more requirements of an incentive program of a member business and if the transaction does meet one or more requirements of the incentive program, for providing benefits associated with the incentive program to the member consumer, the instructions performing steps comprising:
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receiving transaction information including information identifying a plurality of consumers where at least one of the consumers is not the member consumer, information identifying a plurality of businesses where at least one of the businesses is not one of the member businesses, information pertaining to the purchase of goods or services by each of the plurality of consumers at one of the businesses and information identifying the respective business at which the purchase of goods or services was effectuated; determining if one of the consumers identified in the transaction information is the member consumer; determining if one of the businesses identified in the transaction information is one of the member businesses; if it is determined that the consumer is the member consumer and the business is one of the member businesses, rewarding the member consumer with incentive points in accordance with the requirements of the incentive program for the respective member business and populating a database with information about the incentive points that have accrued to the member consumer; transmitting via the computer network information about the incentive points and benefits of the incentive program to the member consumer for viewing; and allowing the member consumer to redeem benefits and incentive points via the computer network. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification