Method and System Facilitating Two-Way Interactive Communication and Relationship Management

• US 20090327928A1
• Filed: 03/05/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Unthink Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unthink Corporation
• Inventors: Kontses, Panos E., Dedis, Anastasia
• Application Number:
  US12/398,257
• Publication Number:
  US 20090327928A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/763
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A tool, method, and system that facilitates two-way interactive brokered commercial communication network between consumers and commercial entities. A Leaf holds all commercial relationship information and any relevant to the specific Seller information. A Relationship Tree is an organizer as well as a communications tool. A Tree can be turned to lists by clicking one of the controls. Each Branch can be isolated and enlarged by clicking on it, for better viewing. The leafs are placed on the tree by the owner who can drag and drop in the desired place. Each new leaf awaits under the tree to be hung in the desired place by the tree owner and generate a relationship code. Different Trees can be used for different purposes each escorted by relevant tools and gadgets.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating two-way interactive communication with relationship management recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a computer system running software to enable a relationship tree;

creating one or more trees;

opening each created tree in a different tab on the display of the computer system;

naming the individual tabs;

said trees have three levels;

said first level being the tree;

said second level being the branches or clusters; and

said third level being the leafs;

providing communication-receiving means to a computer system;

said communication receiving means;

provides a two-way communication channel

provides receipt of all communications

rewards feedback

provides means for receiving solicited and unsolicited communications via three delivery channels; and

organizes relationships and communications;

displaying leafs with messages as enlarged;

selecting a leaf,

displaying messages listed in chronological order by date received;

hovering over a leaf causes message details to appear;

providing a selectable box to view messages for Commercial Tree;

providing tree controls as needed for each tree appear on the first column;

providing tree applications to appear in the same column when an applications tab is clicked; and

selecting which tools, and gadgets to use and keep only those selected on the page.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship tree is dedicated to commercial updates and the controls, communication channels, tools and gadgets that escort it as needed for that purpose;

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a tree has clusters or branches that can be used interchangeably.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first level tree is either for social, commercial, or professional contacts and can be expanded to include any other user-defined variations.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein

a commercial tree is comprised of tagged clusters only;

a social tree is comprised of basic clusters only; and

a professional tree is comprised of basic and tagged clusters only.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

exploring a tree by zooming in and out of levels;

viewing it as a visitor or as an owner;

turning it to Tree/Hybrid/Frame view;

measuring and displaying the popularity of the levels; and

converting a tree to a series of lists.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step or providing fruit to the tree which is comprised of relationship history that includes:

messages, receipts, and reward points earned.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein a commercial tree is comprised of three communication channels:

the Tree, a selectable box, and a dedicated email inbox;

the Tree is for solicited commercial messages;

each leaf of the tree represents a company that the consumer has chosen to communicate with;

the leaf is a user-controlled feed that the consumer sets parameters as to what type of messages and how often to receive them from each seller;

sellers can opt to reward consumers for each message read with commercial communication reward points that can be redeemed against future purchases;

the selectable box is where unsolicited mail is received;

sellers interested to form a relationship with a consumer can send invitations the selectable box and ask for their leaf to be placed on the consumer'"'"'s Tree;

each mailing sent to the selectable box pays the consumer that reads it and sends feedback with cash;

the dedicated email inbox is where consumers receive messages from merchants they have subscribed to, but are not site-participating merchants and do not have their own trees.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

providing a communication loyalty reward program;

rewards are offered by merchants not for shopping but for communication access and mailing list participation;

rewards for unsolicited messages are cash; and

rewards for solicited messages are points that can be redeemed for discounts on future purchases from each merchant

acting as a facilitator and having quality standards and providing rules, terms and conditions that supersede the merchants;

each merchant owning their own rewards program and setting their own reward program parameters, points formulas, spend thresholds, merchant rules, terms and conditions and bearing full responsibility towards users for all rewards granted by merchants to users;

reward system privileges that include;

replenish, refresh, share, swap, exchange, convert and refer; and

reward rings include;

swap or exchange rings, network rings and conversion rings that can be open, or require approval to join or by invitation only.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

merchant created rings including the following types or rings;

providing an exchange or swap rings program that allows each merchant to choose other merchants and form a ‘

ring’ and

permit consumers to use the rewards they have collected from one merchant with any of the other merchants of the ring as long as the participating merchants are on the consumer'"'"'s tree;

providing a conversion rings program that allows rewards earned from other programs to be converted to commercial communication loyalty points and be redeemed for purchases from the merchants participating in a conversion ring as long as each leaf is on the consumer'"'"'s tree and is active or backwards, commercial communication loyalty points to be converted to other reward program points, or providing for conversion in both directions;

providing a network rings program that allows rewards to be redeemed with other ring merchants without requiring that the consumer grants communication access (i.e. participating merchants don'"'"'t need to be on the consumer'"'"'s tree; and

providing options to join;

open, by invitation only or approval needed.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein

a tree can have only basic or only tagged clusters or branches individually or a mix of basic and tagged clusters depending on its use;

clusters in combination with leafs enable the tree to function as a relationship management system;

basic clusters are only used for organizational purposes; and

basic clusters function as user defined sub-lists of leafs.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein

tagged clusters are defined by adding description and tags (descriptive keywords) to identify the cluster;

tagged clusters are used for organizational purposes and have attraction capabilities; and

based on said tags, recommendations to relevant leafs to attach to each tag cluster are provided, that are ‘

attracted’

by the cluster'"'"'s tags; and

tagged clusters enable user-defined site organization and browsing.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein

a leaf is coded to know which tree it can attach to;

various types of leafs, are provided for different uses;

each leaf has visibility, access and reception settings that tree owner can customize when placing leaf on their tree;

a personal leaf for social use can only be used by personal account holders for social networking;

a personal leaf for consumers can only be used by personal account holders for commercial networking;

a personal leaf for professionals can only be used by personal account holders for professional networking;

a celebrity leaf for celebrities can only be used by personal account holders who are celebrities for social networking;

an ad leaf for B2C businesses and brands can only be used by business account holders for commercial networking;

a B2B leaf for B2B businesses and freelancers can only be used by business account holders for professional networking; and

a jobs leaf for employers and recruiters can only be used by professional account holders for professional networking; and

more leafs can be created in the same way for other types of users or networking purposes.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein businesses that have leafs can choose to participate in campaigns which provide rewards to third parties and advertising and marketing to the business:

providing businesses that have leafs can choose to participate in Leaf Sense campaigns where web site owners pick up leafs and display them next to relevant content contextually targeted leafs;

providing businesses that have leafs can choose to participate in Leaf Ranking campaigns to rank high on search/browse results against targeted words; and

providing businesses that have leafs can choose to participate in direct marketing campaigns to send unsolicited messages to consumers'"'"' selectable box.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

providing each consumer their own tree where they can add leafs of merchants that they want to receive updates from;

providing under each tree a selectable box that can be used by merchants to target consumers;

allowing merchants to browse consumer profiles and select who to target;

requiring that each message sent to a consumer'"'"'s selectable box offers monetary rewards or the option instead of collecting the money to receive a Reward Point Boost if consumer decides to place leaf on his/her tree; and

allowing users to set selectable box threshold as they wish in order to exclude some businesses, some business categories, businesses with unacceptable reputation score and/or unacceptable reward levels so that when threshold criteria are not met, the selectable box cannot be targeted by a business.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

providing a syndicated feed if leaf is updated through merchant'"'"'s website;

providing each merchant can create as many information channels as needed;

providing a separate leaf feed be given to the merchant per channel;

providing updates are fed from the merchant'"'"'s website through these feeds;

providing that, if leaf is directly operated through merchant'"'"'s stage on our website and not through merchants web site, updates are uploaded to each channel directly by merchant;

when a leaf is picked up by a consumer and added to consumer'"'"'s tree the tree of the business is updated with the consumer'"'"'s leaf automatically;

a network is established between merchant and user;

a user'"'"'s leaf collects information from merchant per user defined leaf reception settings; and

a user'"'"'s consumer leafs run daily queries to pick up any available changes in consumer profiles.

17. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

providing a social tree with communication channels that provides a solicited communication channel between friends;

invites unsolicited communication; and

provides a dedicated email for solicited communications between non-member-friends and users.

18. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

providing a solicited communication channel between professionals, employers and suppliers;

providing a solicited communication channel between 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd degree relationships; and

providing a dedicated email providing a solicited communication channel between non-member-professionals, B2B Businesses, Employers and users.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of the process of creating a tree;

selecting tree type where a user can browse tree families or individual tree avatars to select;

selecting a background where user can browse different background options to select;

by choosing whether selected background follows time of day changes;

follows local weather changes;

follow both time of day changes and local weather changes;

or remains unchanged;

by selecting tree clusters or branches and personalizing them in one of two ways;

‘

Select Sample Cluster Template and personalize it’

can be chosen, where the user will;

Select Sample Cluster Template;

Personalize it by making any of these changes, if desired;

Add cluster(s);

Delete cluster(s);

Edit cluster;

Name, Position, Cluster Description, only if Tagged Cluster, Cluster Tags, only if Tagged Cluster, and finally save their Tree;

‘

Select a numbered Cluster Template’

can be chosen;

where the user will Select number of clusters;

Name clusters;

Edit cluster position if desired;

Cluster Description, only if Tagged Cluster;

Add Cluster Tags, only if Tagged Cluster; and

Save the Tree;

by creating any other trees user wants to use or begin adding leafs to their tree; and

by editing any of the user created trees by selecting the tree Avatar.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising of:

tree owner customizing leaf when placing it on their tree by customizing leaf visibility settings (select who can see and can be seen by this leaf owner, making visibility selection per leaf. Stories are never visible to this leaf owner about leafs that are invisible to him/her);

by customizing leaf access settings by selecting all the access rights a user wants this leaf owner to have when visiting the user'"'"'s profile and the type of stories and content this leaf owner can see or will receive about the user; and

by customizing reception settings by selecting which information channels the user wants to subscribe to and receive updates from and how often the user wants this leaf to pick up available updates.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of how the leaf-feed picks up information instead of being fed information from lists:

when a leaf is picked up by a consumer and added to consumer'"'"'s tree the tree of the business is updated with the consumer'"'"'s leaf automatically;

a network is established between merchant and user;

user'"'"'s leaf collects information from merchant per user defined leaf reception settings; and

user'"'"'s consumer leafs run daily queries to pick up any available changes in consumer profiles.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising of the steps of how leafs are added to a tree:

either by browsing and adding a leaf;

where user searches or browses leafs based on various keywords and criteria;

where in case of business leafs (B2C, B2B or Employer) and for Celebrity and Consumer leafs, user can click on the + sign on the leaf to add it on tree;

where in case of Social amd Professional personal leafs, user can click on the “

+”

sign on the leaf, add a message and if leaf owner accepoints invitation leafs are exchanged by the system automatically and placed under both users'"'"' trees awaiting organization by the respective tree owners;

where leaf is coded to know which tree it can attach to;

where said tree'"'"'s branch (or cluster) list is displayed along with the options ‘

under the tree’ and

‘

create a Branch ______’

(by specifying a new Branch name). and user can select where leaf will go;

where user can continue by adding ‘

Leaf Settings’

or click “

Add Leaf”

to finish and add settings later;

or by uploading leaf;

where user provides email and password and system automatically uploads all email contacts;

where a query is run and contacts that are site members are shown and can be invited within the site;

where contacts that are not site members are also shown and can be invited via email message.

or by manually adding a leaf;

where new leaf is created and info (at minimum name and email) is manually added;

where Click Invite;

where a query is run; and

where if contact is not a site member then email invitation is sent;

where if site member in-site invitation is sent; and

where a Leaf remains in Pending Invitations folder until accepted or erased.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising of the steps of how a consumer can sign up to a mailing list without disclosing their email:

on the web with a participating merchant leaf owner by visiting merchant'"'"'s website and clicking on the leaf to pick it up, entering his user ID details on a window that opens in the system website and then selecting where on tree he wants leaf to go, adding ‘

Leaf Settings’

or clicking immediately “

Add Leaf”

to finish and add leaf position or settings later;

in a store by using SMS by having installed a mobile add-on on user'"'"'s mobile OR having registered his mobile on his profile, then sending SMS with Leaf ID to the specified number by the store, a unique number given by the system to the merchants for this purpose, and on logging in to the tree later user will find the leaf under his Tree and can organize it, add settings or delete it;

on the web with non-participating merchants by user not have to provide email info to the Business to whom they want to subscribe to their mailing list;

user is a member tree owner and has downloaded the browser add on;

when user finds a Subscribe box or an RSS subscription box;

user clicks on the add on and;

the add on checks with the database if any other user has subscribed to this list; and

if yes then takes the user to finish;

in the case of a subscribe box an auto-generated masked email address will be imported into the email address field of the box and in the case of an RSS a masked url will be imported into the RSS field;

the user can finish here or can go through the steps to ‘

select branch’ and

‘

leaf settings’ and

then finish;

a success message is displayed and the List is turned to a leaf that goes on user'"'"'s tree;

updates are collected by the system, on a business dedicated space, every time a merchant sends them;

when a user adds settings to his/her leaf which has only one channel, since non-participating merchant;

the leaf will only pick up updates according to user settings, regardless of how often list sends updates to the system.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an alternative networking business model where trees are sponsored;

where there is a dedicated communication channel (TV) on the tree trunk for the user'"'"'s sponsor;

where this channel is controlled by the sponsor and not tree owner;

providing that the user can reposition this TV in other places within his/her networking page;

providing that a user can select a user'"'"'s sponsor from the available sponsors;

providing that the user'"'"'s sponsor, in exchange for having this dedicated TV channel to market to the consumer, covers all costs so that the consumer can enjoy networking free of cost and commercial-free.

providing also for Preferred Member Status with a user'"'"'s sponsor.

providing that preferred member status comes with exciting benefits that are defined individually by each sponsor, vary between sponsors and are evolving since they can be re-defined at any time by each sponsor.

25. The method of claim 17, further comprising of subscribing to an employer'"'"'s list for job updates through the jobs leaf:

where a jobs leaf for employers and recruiters can only be used by professional account holders for professional networking;

employer registers;

employer creates jobs leaf,

employer creates as many information channels as hiring job specialties;

user'"'"'s can add leaf on their professional tree;

select job channels to receive updates from in this way subscribing to one or more of the employer'"'"'s job channels; and

user can select blind subsciption or regular;

if blind subcriber then employer cannot view name or other identifying info of user.