Patent Grant
8271316
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a letter composition and delivery system. More particularly, the present invention relates to letter composition and delivery as well as collection and interpretation of data obtained via the letter composition and delivery process.
2. Description of the Related Art
In today's highly commercialized society, consumers are offered seemingly unlimited choices. While it may seem that this diversity of products and services only serves to benefit consumers, consumers often have a difficult time selecting among the vast assortment of options available to them. Today's consumer is bombarded by advertisements while driving, watching television, listening to the radio, and even while surfing the Internet. However, the information typically provided in such advertisements is sorely inadequate. Thus, even when a consumer expends an enormous amount of money on an item or service, the consumer's selection is often made based upon very limited information. Although a consumer's individual experience with regard to a particular product or service is a potential source of valuable information to other consumers, it is difficult if not impossible to disseminate this information to a wide range of consumers or potential consumers. It would therefore be beneficial if consumers could benefit from the very valuable experiences of other consumers. Accordingly, it would be desirable if consumers could communicate their opinions to other consumers and potential consumers.
In addition to having information accessible to make informed decisions, consumers often value the opportunity to communicate their opinions, questions and suggestions to businesses. However, writing a letter is a time-consuming process. Moreover, it is often difficult if not impossible to identify the appropriate individual within a business or company to whom a letter should be addressed. Another problem arises when the business is a foreign business and therefore conducts business in a language other than that spoken by the consumer. As a result, consumers are often discouraged from sending letters to businesses regarding good or bad experiences, suggestions, or questions. Even when a consumer does decide to send a letter to a company, it is often difficult to discern whether the letter was received by the business and therefore difficult to achieve resolution of the situation that prompted the letter. It would therefore be beneficial if a system could be established which would facilitate and track the composition and delivery of a letter to a business as the resolution of the situation that prompted the letter.
In order to successfully offer a wide variety of choices to today's consumer, businesses often expend large sums of money on advertisements and consumer research. Typically, businesses perform surveys to obtain valuable consumer opinions regarding the products or services offered by them. In addition, these businesses often purchase consumer information from sources such as organizations that independently perform such surveys. However, these surveys are not initiated by consumers and therefore are not likely to obtain information from those who might provide the most valuable feedback to businesses. Moreover, such surveys are tedious and time-consuming to complete. It would therefore be beneficial if a consumer could quickly and easily communicate his or her opinions and experiences to these businesses upon initiation by the consumer through a more sophisticated data gathering process than the traditional consumer survey. It is also important to note that the data obtained from such surveys is not typically made available to consumers. Thus, it would be desirable if a consumer could access information such as consumer ratings obtained as a result of such communications. Moreover, it would be desirable if such communications could be made in a manner so as to promote a response by the business to the consumer.
The Internet has recently become a popular information resource for even the most unsophisticated computer user. The popularity of the Internet as an information source is due, in part, to the vast amount of available information that can be downloaded by almost anyone having access to a computer and a modem. The Internet's strength also lies in its open-ended nature. These and other factors have caused an exponential increase in Internet to usage and with it, an exponential increase in the volume of information available. However, even with the vast amount of information and services available on the Internet, there fails to be an effective mechanism for facilitating the communication of information between consumers and businesses. In addition, businesses have seemingly failed to recognize the potential word of mouth influence a consumer has in view of the rising popularity of the Internet and electronic mail. It would therefore be desirable to leverage the power and accessibility of the Internet to facilitate the exchange of information among consumers and businesses.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable if a mechanism for facilitating communication from consumers to businesses could be established. Similarly, it would be beneficial if a counterpart mechanism could be established to promote responses from businesses to consumers in response to consumer communications. In addition, it would be beneficial if consumer data could be obtained through this communication process. Moreover, it would be desirable if these mechanisms could be implemented on the Internet to facilitate communication between consumers and businesses as well as the information gathering process.
The present invention enables a consumer feedback communication to be generated by consumers to transmit valuable feedback to businesses. Through this process, market research data related to the consumers may also be generated. Accordingly, the feedback and consumer related data may transmitted to businesses as well as entire industries, enabling the businesses to improve their business practices as well as resolve situations that prompted the generation of the feedback communication.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, methods and apparatus of the present invention generate a consumer feedback communication via a wide area network. A business to which the consumer feedback communication is directed is identified in response to input from the consumer. Feedback data relating to the business is obtained from the consumer via the wide area network. At least a portion of the consumer feedback communication is automatically generated using the feedback data. The consumer feedback communication is addressed to an individual associated with the business. The consumer feedback communication is then transmitted to the individual.
It is important to note that the present invention enables market research data to be collected via a wide area network using consumer feedback flow from a plurality of individual consumers. Each of the consumer feedback flows includes feedback data associated with a consumer feedback communication addressed to at least one business, where the feedback data relates to at least one business. Market research data is then collected from the obtained feedback data associated with the consumer feedback flows received from the plurality of individual consumers.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, methods and apparatus of the present invention provide accessibility to one or more consumer feedback communications previously sent by a consumer to one or more businesses and associated business feedback responses received by the consumer from the one or more businesses. Information associated with one or more consumer feedback communications is stored, where each of the feedback communications has been previously composed by a consumer, addressed to at least one business and including feedback data relating to the business. A command and consumer feedback communication selection is received from the consumer. Information associated with one of the consumer feedback communications identified by the consumer feedback communication selection is then modified or displayed corresponding to the selected command.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, methods and apparatus of the present invention collect data associated with a consumer through generation of a consumer feedback communication via a wide area network. A business to which the consumer feedback communication is directed is identified in response to input from a consumer via the wide area network. Feedback data relating to the business is obtained from the consumer via the wide area network. At least a portion of the consumer feedback communication is automatically generated using the feedback data. Data associated with the consumer is then collected from the obtained feedback data.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, methods and apparatus for composing and translating a consumer feedback communication directed from a consumer to a business includes identifying a business to which a consumer feedback communication is directed in response to input from a consumer. Feedback data relating to the business is obtained from the consumer. At least a portion of the consumer feedback communication is generated using the obtained feedback data. The consumer feedback communication is addressed to an individual associated with the business. The consumer feedback communication is then translated from a first language to a second language. These and other features of the present invention will be described in more detail below in the detailed description of the invention and in conjunction with the following figures.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be obvious, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process steps have not been described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.
The present invention serves as an information based intermediary between consumers and businesses. More particularly, the present invention enables a consumer to provide feedback data, generate consumer feedback communication from this feedback data and send the consumer feedback communication to businesses as well as individuals. During this feedback communication generation and transmission process, consumer data is obtained and interpreted. In response to the consumer feedback communication, a targeted business may send a business feedback response to the consumer. The consumer may then provide updated feedback data, enabling additional consumer data to be obtained and interpreted. The present invention is preferably implemented in a wide area network such as the Internet. More particularly, a consumer may access a web site via the Internet to access the present invention. However, it will become apparent in the following description that many of the process steps need not be performed via the Internet.
A consumer may, for a variety of reasons, wish to provide feedback to a business, entity, or individual by way of the present invention. In accordance with one embodiment, the consumer accesses a web site via the Internet to generate and transmit consumer feedback. More particularly, the web site uses a dynamic consumer feedback communication generator to lead consumers through the process of organizing and elaborating on their feedback. This feedback communication generator prompts the consumer (i.e., user) for information that is useful to businesses to quantify and evaluate the consumer's feedback.
Rather than sending a letter, a consumer may wish to view letters sent by other consumers, or responses received by other consumers by entering the Hall of Flames or the Hall of Praise, or by viewing the Response of the Week as indicated by the corresponding hypertext links in
The consumer may wish to provide various types of feedback, which may be positive, negative, or neutral.
In addition to the type of feedback (e.g., complaint), the consumer provides substantive information to assist the business in rectifying the problem or situation that motivated the consumer to write the complaint.
The consumer may wish to provide different feedback depending upon the industry and business involved.
Since the feedback ratings will ultimately be used to generate data that may be used and analyzed by a business, a predetermined set of feedback ratings is presented to the consumer.
A consumer feedback communication is automatically generated from the feedback data provided by the consumer. In addition, the feedback process is simplified through the use of a template.
The template may be designed to further enable the consumer to input additional free form text as well as enter other data deemed appropriate for the particular industry or company.
The templates shown and described above with reference to
While the consumer may want to write a complaint or compliment, the consumer may also merely have a suggestion or a question.
It may be desirable to provide different templates for different feedback types. For instance, it may be desirable to supply different information and therefore a different template for a question or a suggestion than that presented for a complaint or a compliment.
As described above with reference to
The present invention also enables a consumer to send a letter to a business, even where the preferred language of the target business differs from that of the consumer. Thus, a letter may be translated by a consumer prior to being sent. Alternatively, a letter may be translated automatically (e.g., based upon geographic region associated with the consumer and/or the geographic region associated with the business). While the free form text may be translated, a basis for translating the feedback ratings as well as the structured measurements obtained throughout the feedback process may also be established. Moreover, in order to promote the response and resolution process, a business feedback response may also be translated upon initiation by the business or automatically upon generation and transmission of the response. It is important to note that the structured measurements may be translated in advance to yield comparable data across different languages and cultures. Accordingly, the present invention promotes communication between consumers and businesses, as well as serves to bridge the cultural and linguistic gap between consumers and businesses.
During the letter generation process, consumers have the opportunity to target as well as carbon copy select relevant stakeholders on their correspondence. These individuals may be selected based upon a variety of factors such as industry or product category, business, and/or geographic region (e.g., zip code). For instance, the geographic region associated with the business as well as the consumer may be used to target various individuals who might be motivated to react to the feedback sent by the consumer.
In addition to the identification by the consumer of individuals to receive the correspondence, the present invention may address the letter to various individuals an stakeholders automatically without intervention or initiation by the consumer, allowing the consumer to modify the inclusion of these individuals and stakeholders as recipients of the message. For instance, when a consumer addresses a complaint to the airline industry, the letter may be automatically addressed and sent to the U.S. Department of Transportation. For instance, the present invention may list the U.S. Department of Transportation as a stakeholder who may receive a carbon copy upon selection by the consumer. This addressing capability may be accomplished through a set of influence databases that are accessible to the consumer feedback communication generator. As one example, these databases may identify governmental officials such as federal, state, and local politicians according to geographic region. As another example, these databases may identify federal or state politicians according to relevant subcommittee. As yet another example, special interest groups and associations may be indexed according to geographic region as well as industry. In addition, the consumer may extend their influence by transmitting the communication to the consumer's “circle of influence.” By entering the names and electronic mail addresses, facsimile numbers and/or postal mail addresses, the consumer may influence the purchase decisions of relatives, colleagues, and neighbors. Since each of these people may also forward the letter to others, the viral diffusion can potentially extend to numerous people. One method of calculating the extent to which a consumer can influence others will be described in further detail below with reference to
Once the letter is addressed automatically or by the consumer, contact information is associated with the letter to enable the letter to be directed to the appropriate individuals and stakeholders. For instance, the contact information may include an electronic mail address, a postal address, and a facsimile number. In addition, information such as name, function, title, telephone number, and other pertinent information may be stored. The letter is then sent via this contact information. Thus, letters need not be delivered via electronic mail in all cases. For instance, a business may prefer that a letter be delivered via conventional mail or facsimile rather than via electronic mail.
In addition to the mode of delivery, a business may prefer that data be supplied in a simplified format in addition to, or instead of, the textual format. For instance, a business may request feedback data (e.g., feedback ratings, purchase volume, and purchase frequency) that are supplied by the consumer as well as consumer data that are generated as a result of the letter generation process. Thus, a business need not dedicate internal resources to parsing the text of a letter to create a digital record of the nature and seventy of an incident, or to profile the consumer according to data provided in the letter. The consumer data may include, for instance, indices indicating a level of brand purchase loyalty of the consumer, economic value of the consumer, and the potential word of mouth influence of the consumer. Exemplary methods for calculating these indices will be described in further detail below with reference to
When a letter (i.e., consumer feedback communication) is generated, the letter is ultimately delivered via an available mode of delivery. Although as described above a business may have a preferable mode of letter delivery, the following process flow diagram is shown to handle all modes of delivery for illustrative purposes.
In addition to ensuring that a letter is delivered to the desired business, the present invention updates the system databases with business feedback response information as well as updated consumer feedback data obtained in reaction to this response. Moreover, the present invention attempts to promote resolution and response from a business by enabling a letter and/or response to be published (e.g., via the Internet).
When a business response is not received by the consumer or the web site provider, after a specified period of time (e.g., 3 weeks), the web site provider sends a letter to the business requesting that they copy the web site service on all responses at block 1012. This letter may be sent via electronic mail, facsimile, or postal mail. In addition, at block 1014 the web site provider sends a letter (e.g., via electronic mail, facsimile, or postal mail) to the consumer asking if they have received a response and whether they would like the web site provider to follow up with the business. At block 1016, if the consumer does not respond within a predetermined period of time (e.g., 2 weeks), a response status is associated with the letter at block 1018. More particularly, the response status is stored in a database to indicate that the response status is unknown. At this time, the web site provider sends no further mail to the consumer. When a consumer indicates at block 1020 that a response has been received from the business, the system databases are updated with response information at block 1022. More particularly, this response information may include at least a portion of the response as well as a response status. In addition, the web site provider replies to the consumer with a suggestion to provide updated feedback data in the future. In other words, the consumer may provide updated feedback ratings, possibly indicating an increase in loyalty as a result of resolution of the event that initiated the feedback. At block 1024 if the consumer indicates that he or she has still not received a response from the business and does not want the web site provider to follow up, the consumer letter status associated with the consumer letter is updated to indicate that follow up is not requested at block 1026. Alternatively, the web site provider resends the consumer feedback letter to the business with a “follow up” header at block 1028. The process continues at block 1030.
The above-described process is repeated as follows to ensure that the system databases are current and that the feedback event is resolved in accordance with the consumer's preferences. At block 1032 the web site provider determines whether a response has been received from the business via the web site. When a response is received, a system database is updated with a response status indicating that a response has been received at block 1034. Alternatively, when it is determined that a consumer has updated the system with a response at block 1036, a system database is updated with a suitable response status at block 1038.
When a business response is not received by the consumer or the web site provider, after a specified period of time (e.g., one month), the web site provider sends a letter to the consumer at block 1040 asking if they have received a response and whether they would like the web site provider to follow up with the business or to relegate the business to the Hall of Shame. In other words, the consumer may request that at least a portion of the consumer letter be published on the Internet. At block 1042, if the consumer does not respond within a predetermined period of time (e.g., 2 weeks), a response status is associated with the letter at block 1044. More particularly, the response status is stored in a database to indicate that the response status is unknown. At this time, the web site provider sends no further mail to the consumer. When a consumer indicates at block 1046 that a response has been received from the business, the system databases are updated with response information at block 1048. More particularly, this response information may include at least a portion of the response as well as a response status. In addition, as described above, the web site provider replies to the consumer with a suggestion to provide updated feedback data in the future. In other words, the consumer may provide updated feedback ratings. At block 1050 if the consumer indicates that he or she has still not received a response from the business and wants the web site provider to follow up, the web site provider resends the consumer feedback letter to the business with a “follow up” header at block 1052. Alternatively, when a consumer has not received a response to his or her consumer feedback communication, the consumer may wish to relegate the business to the Hall of Flames as shown at block 1054 rather than attempting to further contact the business. Otherwise, the consumer letter status is updated at block 1056 to indicate that neither follow up nor publication is requested. When the consumer requests publication of the letter, the web site provider publishes at least a portion of the letter in the Hall of Flames and updates the consumer letter status to reflect this publication at block 1058. Process blocks 1032 through 1052 may be repeated two times prior to ending the follow up and resolution process at block 1060. Accordingly, the present invention (e.g. via a web site) supplies response services that promote the transmission of a response by a business to a consumer initiated feedback communication.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the consumer may access an online consumer affairs filing cabinet to organize and keep track of the consumer letters generated and associated feedback.
As described above, the consumer may access his or her own private filing cabinet.
As described above, the feedback ratings (including those directed to resolution of the situation that prompted the feedback) are collected via consumer input. These feedback ratings, obtained feedback data, and other consumer or business data may be supplied upon demand or on a regular basis to various businesses (e.g., via a digital data structure). In addition, these ratings may be published for the benefit of the consumer. In this manner, each consumer may benefit from the experiences of other consumers.
In addition to the feedback data (e.g., ratings) obtained from the consumer, the feedback data (and other information) obtained from the consumer during the feedback process may be combined and interpreted to create additional consumer data. For instance, the feedback data obtained directly and indirectly from the consumer may be used to create one or more indices that profile the consumer. Once created, these indices may be transmitted to businesses or industries that wish to receive this valuable consumer data.
Information that is obtained and used for consumer profiling may be obtained directly from the consumer as well as indirectly from the consumer.
Businesses often want to identify consumers who are loyal consumers.
In addition to identifying loyal consumers, businesses typically are interested in identifying those consumers who have the economic ability to purchase various goods and/or services.
As described above, market research data may be generated over a cross section of consumers. As one example, market research data may be generated over a particular geographic region. As another example, market research data may be generated for consumers within a particular cross section of the population (e.g., income level, education level).
Although the above description generally describes the collection of consumer data relating to consumers generating feedback communications using the present invention, business data relating to the targeted businesses may also be generated. The business data may identify or quantify a variety of business practices followed by the business. In addition, the business data may identify the industry of the business. Moreover, the business data may quantify the number of compliments or complaints generated within a particular industry. Depending upon the user interfaces used to generate the feedback communications, a variety of business data may be obtained from the feedback communications.
While valuable information is obtained directly from user input that is consciously provided by a willing consumer, some information may be inferred from the behavior of the consumer. Thus, valuable consumer data may be gathered and measured based upon this consumer behavior.
Through tracking the type and number of individuals to whom consumer feedback communication is sent, the number of letters that are sent by a given consumer (e.g., within a particular industry), and the cascading effect of word of mouth influence, the present invention identifies the most influential consumers within particular product categories or industries. This viral index may be used to profile and direct various communications to individuals based upon their ability to influence the purchase and consumption patterns of others both on and off the web. In addition, the feedback data (e.g., ratings) as well as the feedback type (e.g., complaint or compliment) may be used to ascertain whether the individual is likely to positively or negatively influence other consumers or potential consumers. For instance, it may be desirable to identify individuals who pose a large threat to negatively influencing other consumers as well as to identify individuals who can be expected to leverage positive word of mouth information and marketing messages. Moreover, the viral index may also be used to build panels of expert users for product testing and identify candidates that can be given free product or services to generate positive word of mouth communication.
The present invention captures and generates valuable consumer data through a variety of processes. The present invention captures feedback data reflecting the attitudes from consumers as a result of a “feedback event” via the consumer feedback communication and response processes. In addition, the obtained data reflecting the purchasing and communications behavior of the consumer is used to develop powerful indices of financial and word of mouth impact. This enables businesses to use this information to their economic advantage, as well as to harness the power of word of mouth influence of today's technologically sophisticated consumer.
Various embodiments of the invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium is any data storage device that can store data which can thereafter be read by a computer system. Examples of the computer readable medium include read-only memory, random-access memory, CDROMs, magnetic tape, and optical data storage devices.
Although illustrative embodiments and applications of this invention are shown and described herein, many variations and modifications are possible which remain within the concept, scope, and spirit of the invention, and these variations would become clear to those of ordinary skill in the art after perusal of this application. For instance, the present invention is based upon the generation and transmission of a letter by a consumer, preferably in the form of an electronic mail. However, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to this arrangement, but instead would equally apply regardless of the mode of transmission. Accordingly, the present embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims.
This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/695,016, filed Oct. 23, 2000 now abandoned, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes, and which claims priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/172,393, entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING AND MANAGING CONSUMER FEEDBACK VIA A WIDE AREA NETWORK”, filed on Dec. 17, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.
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| Number | Date | Country |
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| 0017824 | Mar 2000 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60172393 | Dec 1999 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 09695016 | Oct 2000 | US |
| Child | 11346589 | US |
