WO2010082159A1

WO2010082159A1 - A method and system for providing an integrated vendor partnership and customer loyalty framework

Info

Publication number: WO2010082159A1
Application number: PCT/IB2010/050121
Authority: WO
Inventors: Helena Charlotte Friedrich
Original assignee: Corporate Constellations (Pty) Ltd
Priority date: 2009-01-13
Filing date: 2010-01-13
Publication date: 2010-07-22

Abstract

A method for providing an integrated vendor partnership and customer loyalty framework and a computer system 100 for aiding the implementation of the method. The method includes presenting information on goods/services offered for sale by the vendors in a standardised presentation framework to the customers and the management of transactions involving the purchase, by the customers, of goods/services offered for sale by the vendors. The management of the transactions includes facilitating the receipt of payments from the customers and facilitating the transfer to the vendors of payments due to the vendors. The computer system 100 includes a database 102 which is executable on a computer server 104, a computer program 106 which is executable on a processor 107 of the computer server 104, a user interface in the form of hypertext web pages 108 which are accessible over the internet and a call centre 110.

Description

A METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING AN INTEGRATED VENDOR PARTNERSHIP AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY FRAMEWORK

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention relates to a method and system for providing an integrated vendor partnership and customer loyalty framework.

A "vendor partnership" in this specification refers to a number of vendors co-operating with one another to attract business from customers.

An "operator" in this specification refers to an entity which manages aspects of a vendor partnership, including at least the receipt of payments from customers for the goods and services offered by the vendors of the vendor partnership. A "standardised presentation framework" in this specification refers to an interface by which information on like entities e.g. vendor partners are presented in a standardised manner and whereby actions related to said like entities e.g. purchacing goods/services from the vendors are performed in a standardised way. Such a framework may be in the form of an a internet website for use from a personal computer or a laptop computer, a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) website for use from a mobile device like a cellphone, a call centre with standard operating procedures for use by phone or the like.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

A method for providing an integrated vendor partnership and customer loyalty framework, the method including:

recording predetermined particulars of the vendors in the vendor partnership;

recording predetermined particulars of the customers;

presenting information on goods/services offered for sale by the vendors in a standardised presentation framework to the customers; and

managing transactions involving the purchase, by the customers, of goods/services offered for sale by the vendors, including recording predetermined particulars of each transaction, facilitating the receipt of payments from the customers and facilitating the transfer to the vendors of payments due to the vendors.

The method may include maintaining a rewards account for each customer from which money may be deducted, consequently reducing the payment due, in any transaction between the customer and a vendor; said maintenance including calculating on each transaction between the customer and a vendor, a customer reward portion of the monetary value of the transaction and adding the customer reward portion to the balance of the rewards account of the customer.

The method may include

holding the payments received from customers in trust;

calculating according to predetermined criteria an operator commission portion and a vendor payment portion of the monetary value of each transaction; and

determining at predetermined time intervals a total commission due to the operator and a total payment due to each vendor for transactions concluded over a predetermined time period and transferring at said predetermined time intervals the total commission due to the operator from the payments held in trust to the operator and the total payment due to each vendor from the payments held in trust to the vendor.

The method may include ranking the vendor partners according to predetermined criteria, ranking the customer members according to predetermined criteria and filtering the vendor partners which are accessible by each particular customer member, based on the rankings of the vendor partners and the customer member, respectively.

The method may include inviting vendors meeting predetermined criteria to participate in the vendor partnership.

The method may include receiving requests from vendors to join the vendor partnership.

The method may include receiving membership requests from customers and approving customers for membership according to predetermined criteria.

The method may include setting product categories of vendor partners and assigning each vendor partner to one or more product categories, thereby enabling the structured presentation of the vendor partners per product category in the standardised presentation framework.

The method may include setting geographical regions of vendor partners and assigning each vendor partner to one or more geographical region, thereby enabling the structured presentation of the vendor partners per geographical region in the standardised presentation framework.

The method may include localising the standardised presentation framework to a geographical region selected by a customer member, said localisation including presenting only the vendor partners assigned to the selected geographical region to the customer member.

A computer system for aiding the implementation of the method of the first aspect of the invention, the computer system including:

a database for storing the predetermined particulars of the vendors, the predetermined particulars of the customers and the predetermined particulars of the transactions;

a computer program executable on a processor for utilising the database; for, on a payment by a customer, communicating with a payment authorisation server of an institution operating the payment method to bring about the receipt of the payment into a trust bank account; and for communicating with a server of a financial institution to bring about the transfer of payments from the trust bank account to the bank account of each vendor; and

a user interface providing for the entry of the predetermined particulars of the vendors, the predetermined particulars of the customers and the predetermined particulars of the transactions; and for presenting information, on the goods/services offered for sale by the vendors and on the transactions, in said standardised presentation framework to the customers. The database may be configured for storing predetermined particulars of a rewards account for each customer from which money may be deducted, consequently reducing the payment due, in any transaction between the customer and a vendor; the computer program being operable to maintain the rewards account for each customer, said maintenance including calculating on each transaction between the customer and a vendor, a customer reward portion of the monetary value of the transaction and adding the customer reward portion to the balance of the rewards account of the customer in the database.

The computer program may be operable to calculate, according to predetermined criteria, an operator commission portion and a vendor payment portion of the monetary value of each transaction, to determine at predetermined time intervals a total commission due to the operator and a total payment due to each vendor for transactions concluded over a predetermined time period and to communicate with the server of the financial institution to bring about at said predetermined time intervals the transfer of the total commission due to the operator from the trust bank account to a business bank account of the operator and the transfer of the total payment due to each vendor from the trust bank account to a bank account of the vendor.

The database may be configured for storing rankings of vendor partners and customer members; the computer program being operable to rank the vendor partners according to predetermined criteria, to rank the customer members according to predetermined criteria and to filter the vendor partners that are accessible by a particular customer member based on the rankings of the vendor partners and the customer member, respectively.

The user interface may allow for the submittal of requests by vendors to join the vendor partnership.

The user interface may allow for receiving membership requests from customers and approving customer membership. The database may be configured to store product category information for each vendor partner, the user interface allowing for setting product categories of vendor partners, assigning each vendor partner to one or more product category and browsing of vendor partners by product categories.

The database may be configured to store geographical information for each vendor partner; the user interface allowing for setting geographical regions of vendor partners, assigning each vendor partner to one or more geographical region and browsing of vendor partners by geographical region.

The user interface may allow for selecting a geographical region, localising the standardised presentation framework to the selected geographical region and displaying only the vendor partners assigned to the selected geographical region.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Further features of the invention are described hereinafter by way of a non-limiting example of the invention, with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying diagrammatic drawings. In the drawings:

Figure 1 shows a flowchart describing the vendor and customer recording part of a method providing an integrated vendor partnership and customer loyalty framework in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 shows a flowchart describing the transaction processing part of the method of Figure 1 ; and

Figure 3 shows a block diagram describing a system providing an integrated vendor partnership and customer loyalty framework in accordance with the invention. DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With reference to Figure 1 and Figure 2 of the drawings, a method for providing an integrated vendor partnership and customer loyalty framework, in accordance with the invention, is designated generally by the reference numeral 10.

The method will be performed by a business entity hereinafter referred to as the operator.

The operator will pre-approve (block 12) vendors to be invited to join the vendor partnership using predetermined criteria. Vendors may also request (block 14) to join the vendor partnership by entering their contact details on a request form provided by the operator after which the operator may approve (block 16) the vendor. Predetermined particulars for each vendor, including details of the goods/services offered for sale by the vendor, are recorded (block 18) by the operator. The operator assigns (block 20) a ranking to each approved vendor partner, based on predetermined criteria, and the ranking is recorded (block 22).

The operator sets (block 24) various vendor categories and records (block 26) them. Each category represents a related group of vendors, e.g. Accommodation, Famous Brands, Financial Services and the like. The operator further assigns (block 28) each vendor partner to one or more vendor categories and the association of each vendor with a particular category or categories is recorded (block 30).

The operator sets (block 32) various geographical regions in the form of countries and records (block 34) them. The operator further assigns (block 36) each vendor partner to one or more countries and the association of each vendor with a particular country is recorded (block 38).

Customers request (block 40) to become members by entering contact and other predetermined particulars on a request form provided by the operator. The operator approves (block 42) or rejects the membership request according to predetermined criteria. The operator further assigns (block 44) a ranking to each approved customer, based on predetermined criteria. The particulars and ranking of each approved customer is recorded (block 46).

Customers select (block 48) a particular country, localising (block 50) the presentation of information to the selected country so that the operator will only present vendor partners assigned to the selected country to the customer. Customers may further request (block 52) vendor information by category from the operator. Customers may furthermore request (block 54) vendor information for particular vendors from the operator. The operator filters vendor partners that are accessible by a particular customer member (block 56) based on the rankings of the vendor and the customer, respectively. Information on the goods/services offered for sale by vendors is presented (block 58) in a standardised presentation framework by the operator to the customers.

Customers initiate (block 60) transactions for the goods and services offered by the vendor with the operator. The operator records predetermined particulars of each transaction such as the amount, the customer and the vendor whose goods or services are being acquired.

The operator maintains a rewards account and a business account for each customer. The operator adds a customer reward portion of the monetary value of each transaction to the balance of the rewards account of the customer. The customer can exercise (block 62) the option to use the money in the rewards account to settle the charge in a transaction between the customer and any vendor of the vendor partnership in full or in part. More particularly, the customer's rewards account balance is presented to the customer and the customer selects (block 64) the portion of the total customer reward due to be set off against the charge in the transaction. The balance in the rewards account is reduced (block 66) to reflect the remaining rewards available and the business account (block 68) is updated to reflect the payment due for the transaction.

If the charge in the transaction is not settled (block 70) in full from the balance of the customer's rewards account, the customer payment due is automatically processed. The operator facilitates the receipt of payments from customers in a currency selected by each customer using a customer selected payment method which may include bank debit order, debit card, credit card or the like. The operator receives (block 72) the payments in a trust bank account of the operator.

The operator furthermore calculates (block 74) according to predetermined criteria, and records, an operator commission portion, a vendor payment portion and the customer reward portion of the monetary value of each transaction. The customer reward portion is added (block 76) to the balance of the rewards account of the customer.

The operator provides (block 78) the customer with an invoice and provides (block 80) the vendor, whose goods or services are purchased, with a purchase order on each transaction.

The operator determines (block 82) at predetermined time intervals, a total commission due to the operator and a total payment due to each vendor for transactions concluded over a predetermined time period. The operator furthermore interacts (block 84) with a computer server of a banking institution to bring about the transfer at said predetermined time intervals of the total commission due to the operator from the trust bank account to a business bank account of the operator and the total payment due to each vendor from the trust bank account to a bank account of each vendor. The transfer of payments to vendors is done in the currency preferred by each vendor.

The transaction, including delivery of the goods or services and after sales service is further managed (block 86) by the operator.

With reference to Figure 3 of the drawings, a computer system for aiding the implementation of the method for providing an integrated vendor partnership and customer loyalty framework, in accordance with the invention, is designated generally by the reference numeral 100. The computer system consists of a database 102 which is executable on a computer server 104, a computer program 106 which is executable on a processor 107 of the computer server 104, a user interface in the form of hypertext web pages 108 which are accessible over the internet and a call centre 110. Authorised users in the form of administrators of the operator, vendors and customers (1 12, 1 14, 1 16) log onto the system by entering a username and a password via the web pages 108.

Vendor partnership requests, customer membership requests, the predetermined particulars of vendors and customers, the rankings of vendors and customers, the associations of vendors to categories and the associations of vendors to countries are entered via the web pages by administrators 1 12. The computer program 106 inserts the relevant data in each case into the database 102.

The web pages 108 allow for the particulars of vendors, customers and transactions to be viewed by users (1 12, 1 14, 1 16). The web pages further present information, on goods/services offered for sale by the vendors, in a standardised presentation framework to the customers 116. The browsing of vendors by category and the searching of vendors by keywords is provided for. The computer program 106 queries, from the database 102, the vendor information of vendors, associated with the customer selected country, and accessible by the particular customer member logged onto the system, based on the rankings of the vendor partners and the customer member. The vendor information is displayed via the web pages.

The predetermined particulars of a transaction for the purchase of goods/services offered by a particular vendor are entered via the web pages 108 by the customer 1 16 and inserted on the database 102 by the computer program 106.

The computer program 106 maintains the rewards account and the business account for each customer in the database 102.

Transactions are initiated by the customers via the web pages 108. The computer server 104 queries the total customer reward due to the customer from the database 102 and the web pages 108 presents the total customer reward due to the customer 1 16. The customer 1 16 selects the portion of the total customer reward due which is to be set off against the charge in a transaction for the goods or services of any vendor in the vendor partnership. The rewards balance can be used to settle the charge in the transaction in full or in part. The computer program updates the balance of the rewards account in the database to reflect the remaining rewards available and updates the business account in the database to reflect the remaining payment due for the transaction.

The payment due in relation to the transaction is processed automatically by the computer program 106. The computer program communicates with a payment authorisation computer server 120 of the institution operating the customer selected payment method to request authorisation for transferring the payment due from funds of the customer to the trust bank account of the operator. The computer program inserts details of the payment received into the database 102.

The computer program 106 furthermore calculates according to the predetermined criteria, the operator commission portion, the vendor payment portion and the customer reward portion of the monetary value for each transaction and inserts the calculated values into the database 102. The computer program adds the customer rewards portion to the balance of the rewards account of the customer in the database.

The computer program 106 calculates at predetermined time intervals the total commission due to the operator and the total payment due to each vendor for transactions concluded over a predetermined time period. The computer program further communicates with a computer server 1 18 of a banking institution to bring about at said predetermined time intervals the transfer of the total commission due to the operator from the trust bank account to a business bank account of the operator and the transfer of the total payment due to each vendor from the trust bank account to a bank account of each vendor. More specifically, the computer program is operable to generate a batch file and to make the batch file available to the computer server 1 18 of the banking institution, said batch file containing at least destination bank account numbers and an amount to be transferred into each destination bank account. The computer program 106 performs currency conversions where necessary in order to allow for receiving the payment due by the customer of a transaction in a currency selected by the customer 1 16 and the total payment due to each vendor in the currency preferred by the vendor 1 14.

The computer server 104 generates the invoice document for the customer 1 16 and the purchase order document for the vendor 1 14, whose goods or services are purchased, on each transaction. The invoice document is sent to the customer 1 16 and the purchase order document is sent to the vendor 1 14 as attachments to electronic mail messages.

The authorised users (1 12, 114, 1 16) log off from the system by clicking the appropriate hyperlink of the web pages 108.

Operator staff manages the interaction with members and partners and the execution of transactions via the call centre 1 10.

The Applicant envisages that the method and system providing an integrated vendor partnership and customer loyalty framework will provide for convenient transacting between vendors and customers within a framework which ensures a high level of service and builds customer loyalty. The Applicant further envisages that the system, providing a number of web pages for each vendor partner, carrying the particulars of the specific vendor partner only, and providing an internal payment mechanism, will remove the need for customers acquiring goods and services from the vendors, online, to browse the internet external to the web pages of the system. Furthermore, since all data and transactions can be managed by the operator within the boundaries of the system, a high degree of operator management control over the framework can be achieved. The Applicant also envisages that the internal payment mechanism will provide for convenient payment by customers for the goods and services of vendors in a vendor partnership while allowing for the seamless and automatic distribution of funds received from customers between the operator of the vendor partnership and the vendors in the vendor partnership.

Claims

Claims:

1. A method for providing an integrated vendor partnership and customer loyalty framework, the method including:

recording predetermined particulars of the vendors in the vendor partnership;

recording predetermined particulars of the customers;

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , including maintaining a rewards account for each customer from which money may be deducted, consequently reducing the payment due, in any transaction between the customer and a vendor; said maintenance including calculating on each transaction between the customer and a vendor, a customer reward portion of the monetary value of the transaction and adding the customer reward portion to the balance of the rewards account of the customer.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, including

holding the payments received from customers in trust;

calculating according to predetermined criteria an operator commission portion and a vendor payment portion of the monetary value of each transaction; and determining at predetermined time intervals a total commission due to the operator and a total payment due to each vendor for transactions concluded over a predetermined time period and transferring at said predetermined time intervals the total commission due to the operator from the payments held in trust to the operator and the total payment due to each vendor from the payments held in trust to the vendor.

4. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, including ranking the vendor partners according to predetermined criteria, ranking the customer members according to predetermined criteria and filtering the vendor partners which are accessible by each particular customer member, based on the rankings of the vendor partners and the customer member, respectively.

5. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, including inviting vendors meeting predetermined criteria to participate in the vendor partnership.

6. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, including receiving requests from vendors to join the vendor partnership.

7. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, including receiving membership requests from customers and approving customers for membership according to predetermined criteria.

8. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, including setting product categories of vendor partners and assigning each vendor partner to one or more product categories, thereby enabling the structured presentation of the vendor partners per product category in the standardised presentation framework.

9. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8, including setting geographical regions of vendor partners and assigning each vendor partner to one or more geographical region, thereby enabling the structured presentation of the vendor partners per geographical region in the standardised presentation framework.

10. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9, including localising the standardised presentation framework to a geographical region selected by a customer member, said localisation including presenting only the vendor partners assigned to the selected geographical region to the customer member.

1 1. A computer system for aiding the implementation of the method as claimed in claim 1 , the computer system including:

a user interface providing for the entry of the predetermined particulars of the vendors, the predetermined particulars of the customers and the predetermined particulars of the transactions; and for presenting information, on the goods/services offered for sale by the vendors and on the transactions, in said standardised presentation framework to the customers.

12. The computer system as claimed in claim 1 1 , wherein the database is configured for storing predetermined particulars of a rewards account for each customer from which money may be deducted, consequently reducing the payment due, in any transaction between the customer and a vendor; and the computer program is operable to maintain the rewards account for each customer, said maintenance including calculating on each transaction between the customer and a vendor, a customer reward portion of the monetary value of the transaction and adding the customer reward portion to the balance of the rewards account of the customer in the database.

13. The computer system as claimed in claim 11 or claim 12, wherein the computer program is operable to calculate, according to predetermined criteria, an operator commission portion and a vendor payment portion of the monetary value of each transaction, to determine at predetermined time intervals a total commission due to the operator and a total payment due to each vendor for transactions concluded over a predetermined time period and to communicate with the server of the financial institution to bring about at said predetermined time intervals the transfer of the total commission due to the operator from the trust bank account to a business bank account of the operator and the transfer of the total payment due to each vendor from the trust bank account to a bank account of the vendor.

14. The computer system as claimed in any one of claims 1 1 to 13, wherein the database is configured for storing rankings of vendor partners and customer members; and the computer program is operable to rank the vendor partners according to predetermined criteria, to rank the customer members according to predetermined criteria and to filter the vendor partners that are accessible by a particular customer member based on the rankings of the vendor partners and the customer member, respectively.

15. The computer system as claimed in any one of claims 1 1 to 14, wherein the user interface allows for the submittal of requests by vendors to join the vendor partnership.

16. The computer system as claimed in any one of claims 1 1 to 15, wherein the user interface allows for receiving membership requests from customers and approving customer membership.

17. The computer system as claimed in any one of claims 1 1 to 16, wherein the database is configured to store product category information for each vendor partner, wherein the user interface allows for setting product categories of vendor partners, assigning each vendor partner to one or more product category and browsing of vendor partners by product categories.

18. The computer system as claimed in any one of claims 1 1 to 17, wherein the database is configured to store geographical information for each vendor partner; and the user interface allows for setting geographical regions of vendor partners, assigning each vendor partner to one or more geographical region and browsing of vendor partners by geographical region.

19. The computer system as claimed in any one of claims 1 1 to 18, wherein the user interface allows for selecting a geographical region, localising the standardised presentation framework to the selected geographical region and displaying only the vendor partners assigned to the selected geographical region.