Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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FULLY INTEGRATED, ON-LINE INTERACTIVE
FR}~QUENCY AND AWARD REDEMPIION
. PROGlRAM
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to frequency and award redemption
program. More particularly, the present invention relates to an on-line,
s interactive frequency and award redemption program which is fully
integrated.
Description of Related Art
Frequency programs have been developed by the travel industry
0 to promote customer loyalty. An example of such a program is a
"frequent flyer" program. According to such a program, when a
traveler books a flight, a certain amount of "millage points" is calculated
by a formula using the distance of the destination as a parameter.
However, the millage points are not awarded until the traveler actually
s takes the flight.
When a traveler has accumulated suff1cient number of millage
points, he may redeem these points for an award chosen from a specific
list of awards specified by the program. Thus, for example, the traveler
may redeem the points for a free flight ticket or a free rental car. In
order to redeem the accumulated points, the traveler generally needs to
request a certificate, and use the issued certificate as payment for the
free travel.
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While the above program may induce customer loyalty~ it has the
disadvantage that the selection of prizes can be made only from the
limited list of awards provided by the company. For example, a traveler J
may redeem the certificate for flights between only those destinations to
s which the carrier has a regular service. Another disadvantage is that the
customer generally needs to plan ahead in sufficient time to order and
receive the award certificate.
According to another type of frequency and award program, a
credit instrument is provided and credit points are accumulated instead
o of the millage points. In such programs, bonus points are awarded by
using a formula in which a price paid for merchandise is a parameter.
Thus, upon each purchase a certain number of bonus points are
awarded7 which translate to dollar credit amount. According to these
programs, the customer receives a credit instrument which may be
acceptable by many enrolled retailers, so that the selection of prizes
available is enhanced. An example of such a program is disclosed in
E.P.A. 308~224. However, while such programs may enhance the
selection of prizes, there is still the problem of obtaining the credit
instrument for redeeming the awarded points. In addition, the enrolee
must allow for processing time before the bonus points are recorded and
made available as redeemable credit. Thus, the immediacy effect of the
reward is lacking in these conventional incentive programs.
SUl\~MARY OF TI~ INVENTION
2s In view of the above, the present invention is advantageous in that
it provides an on-line, interactive incentive program which is fully
integrated.
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The disclosed invention is also advantageous in that it provides an
on-line access to product information, product purchases using an on-line
electronic order form, award catalogs, and award redemption using an
on-line electronic redemption forms.
s Another advantage of the subject invention is that it awards bonus points immediately upon purchase of a merch~ndi~e.
The present invention is further advantageous in that it provides
bonus points which are immediately made available for redemption.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it allows the
o customer to select a prize immediately upon the award of the bonus
points.
A further advantage of the present invention is that it allows a
customer to order a prize and redeem the awarded points towards the
ordered prize immediately upon the award of the bonus points, thus
enhancing the immediacy effect of the reward program.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that it provides
an electronic sign-up form for on-line signing up by users.
The above and other advantages are provided by the disclosed
invention which includes provisions for access over the internet. Upon
gaining of an access, the customer is able to browse through a
merch~r cJi~e catalog, an award catalog, view the bonus points available
for redemption in the customer's award bonus account, and get
information about the products for purchase, the program, and the
customer's account. The program also enables the customer to order
merchandize on-line, order prizes on-line and redeem awarded points on-
~ Iine. Accordingly, the selection of available prizes is expanded by the
merchants who join the program, and the bonus award is made instantly
redeemable.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAVVINGS
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become
apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment
with reference to the drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a flow chart showing the access part of the program
of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 2 is a flow chart showing the product selection and on-line
purchase part of the program of the preferred embodiment of the present
invention;
0 Figure 3 is a flow chart showing the membership part of the
program of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 4 is a flow chart showing the award redemption part of the
program of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Figure ~ is a flow chart showing an enrollment routine.
Figure 6 is a flow chart showing an exemplary routine to
determine the number of points the user is short of for redeeming a
particular product.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED
EMBODIl\iENT
The program according to the present invention will be described
with reference to Figures 1-5. Figure 1 is a flow chart showing the
access part of the program. In Figure 1, 10 indicates access via an on-
line provider such as AOLTM, CompuServeTM etc. On the other hand~
20 indicates a direct access to the internet, such as via NetscapeTM.
2s Upon gaining an access to the internet, 30, the program proceeds to a
selection menu 40. Depending on the user's choice, from the selection
menu 40 the program may proceed to PRODUCT A HOMEPAGE I 00A
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or PROGRAM HOMEPAGE 300. Alternatively the user may choose
to exit the program via EXIT, 50.
It should be noted from the outset that in the preferred
embodiment of the disclosed invention, the user may back-track from
s any particular point in the program. Notably, the user is able to return
to selection menu 40 from any part of the program. This being stated
generally, it will be appreciated that this feature is applicable to the
further program steps of the preferred embodiment described below and,
~herefore, it will not be repeated in the following description.
0 In Fig. 1, PRODUCT A ~OM~PAGE, 100A, is a homepage of
a particular type of products. For example, PRODUCT A
HOMEPAGE, 100A, may be a homepage for men's shirts. In such an
example, the PRODU~T A HOMEPAGE, 100A, may include icons to
allow the user to select information regarding, for example, different
brands, price ranges, types (dress shirts, sport shirts, etc.), and
thereafter review the products available relating to the particular
selection in a manner much similar to reviewing a printed product
catalogue.
Alternativ~ly PRODUCT A HOMEPAGE, 100A, may identify
a particular brand. In such an example PRODUCT A HOMEPAGE,
1 00A, may include icons to allow the user to review information
regarding particular products sold by this particular brand.
In the preferred embodiment, the capability to view information
regarding the various products ;s enhanced by providing the user with
various "browsing" options, generally implemented in the form of icons.
This is depicted in Fig. 1 as BROWSING OPTION 60. Thus, for
example, the user may choose to list the products alphabetically, list the
brands alphabetically, or use a search engine to create a group of
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products which fit the user's requirements. Any conventic)nal search
engine may be used for this pulpose. Such a search engine can be
implemented for accepting a boolean string, or by collecting the user's
response to an inquiry set. The fields for the search engine may
s include, for example, key words, brands, price range, material etc.
In Fig. l, BROWSING OPTION 60 is shown at the same level
as PRODUCT A HOMEPAGE, 100A, to indicate that in the preferred
embodiment the user may go directly to view the products information,
or arrange a new list of products according to the user's needs.
0 However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, that other arrangements are possible. For example, BROWSING OPTION, 60,
can be inserted between SELECTrON MENU 40 and PRODUCT A
HOMEPAGE l 00A so that the user may have to enter his preferred way
of viewing the products before the user is able to select the products'
homepage.
In the Figures, PRODUCT A HOMEPAGE, l00A, is depicted
as multiple pages. This depiction signifies two features of the program
of the present invention. The first feature, is that PRODUCT A
HOMEPAGE, l00A, may incl-lde more than one page. Thus, if a large
amount of informat;on needs to be included in PRODUCT A
I~OMEPAGE, l00A, the homepage may actually comprise several pages
and the user will be provided with a scroll option so as to be able to
scroll over the information pages. Another feature is that from the
selection menu 4() the user may be able to choose other products
2s homepage such as, for example, PRODUCT B HOMEPAGE,
PRODUCT C HOMEPAGE, etc., which are depicted impliedly in the
drawings as pages following PRODUCT A HOMEPAGE, l00A.
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In a similar manner, PROGRAM HOMEPAGE, 300, is shown
in the Figures as multiple pages. (It will be understood by those skilled
in the art that PROGRAM HOMEPAGE 300 is the main internet
address for the incentive program system). This depiction also signifies
two features of the program of the present invention. The first feature,
is that PROGRAM HOMEPAGE, 300, may comprise multiple pages
with a scrolling feature to allow the user to scroll for viewing the
information contained in the pages. The second feature is that several
incentive programs, or incentive level programs may be available for
o access from the selection menu 40. For example, several different
programs may be accessible, each program being managed by a different
incentive company. Alternatively, or in addition, several incentive level
programs may be accessible from the selection menu 40.
In the case of several incentive level programs, restrictions may
be imposed for accessibility to the various incentive level programs. For
example, a particular incentive company may manage three incentive
programs: white, silver and gold. The white incentive program can be
accessible for enrollment by any approved user. On the other hand, the
incentive company may allow limited access to the silver and gold
incentive programs for providing information only, while enrollment
may be restricted only to those users who satisfy set requirements.
These requirements may re}ate, for example, to a certain level of
purchasing within a given period, credit rating, gross salary, special
company promotion program, etc. As in the above, while these various
features have been described herein, they are depicted in the drawing
simply by showing multiple pages following PROGRAM HOMEPAGE
300.
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If a user selects PRODUCT A HOMEPAGE 100A, the program
proceeds to a selection menu 110, shown in Fig. 2. Incidentally, the
routines shown in Fig. 2 are depicted to proceed from the routine of
Fig. 1 by the designation Ai. This designation is to alert the reader that
this particular routine is generic to all the other products homepage, such
as PRODUCT B HOMEPAGE, PRODUCT C HOMEPAGE, etc.
Therefore, while the description provided herein relates to PRODUCT
A HOMEPAGE, 100A, this is only for demonstration purposes and it
will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that similar processing
o would follow upon selection of a different product homepage.
With continued reference to Fig. 2, selection menu 110 provides
the user with the following options: proceed to PROGRAM
HOMEPAGE 300, proceed to PRODUCT i HOMEPAGE, 1 00i, (i
being any of the number of available products homepage) or proceed to
ORDER FORM 130. Alternatively, the user may change the list of
products by choosing the appropriate browsing option or using the
search engine to create a new list of products (not shown). Upon
selection of PRODUCT i HOMEPAGE, 100i, the program reverts to
step Ai, i.e., to SELECTION MENU 110. Upon selection of
PROGRAM HOMEPAGE 300, the program proceeds to step B shown
in Fig. 3, which will be described later.
If the user decides to purchase an item, the program proceeds to
ORDER FORM 130 and the user is prompted to electronically provide
entries to the a~rol~liate quarries in the order form. Thereupon, a
communication link is established and the program performs a CREDIT
CHECK routine, 140, to verify the availability of funds for purchase.
At this junchlre, a particular feature of the program of the present
invention will be described. As noted above and shown in Fig. 1, the
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user may access the internet using an on-line provider or an internet
direct access. If the user is accessing the internet via an on-line
provider, his credit information (account number, type of credit card
etc.) is available directly from the on-line provider. Accordingly, in
s performing the CREDIT CHECK routine 140, the information needed
for the credit check can be obtained from the on-line provider.
Alternatively, if the user gained access via an internet direct method, the
CREDIT CHlECK routine 140 may provide an inquiry screen requesting
the user to enter his credit information.
0 A related feature of the present invention is that when the user
enters ORDER FORM 130 from a particular product homepage
describing a particular product, it is very likely that the user wishes to
purchase that particular product. Therefore, the relevant information
regarding the product can be read from the product's homepage and
pasted at the a~propl;ate positions in the ORDER FORM ~30. Thus,
the user will only have to enter information specific to options such as
size, color, quantity, etc.
At step 130, certain predetermined information is striped off from
the completed order form and sent to the credit check 140. Such
information may be, for example, credit card number and dollar amount.
This is because much of the information included in the order form is
irrelevant to the person's credit, and the credit institution may be unable
to handle the extra information. Furthermore, sending the least amount
of information would expedite the credit check.
If the CREDIT CHECK routine 140 result is negative, in step
150N the user is provided with a message to that effect. The program
may then plOlllpt the user to enter another credit card number or to exit.
However, if the CREDIT CHECK routine 140 result is positive, in step
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150P the program proceeds to establish a communication link and places
a PRODUCT ORDER, 160, with the product company. As shown in
Fig. 2, in the preferred embodiment PRODUCT ORDER 160 is placed
by electronic means such as e-mail or facsimile so as to render the
program of the present invention fully integrated in an interactive on-line
system; however, the ORDER FORM 160 can alternatively be place by
conventional means by simply printing and mailing the ORDER FORM
~60 to the product company.
As shown in Fig; 2, while the communication link is established
0 to the product company, the program also proceeds to the
FREQUENCY DATABASE, 170. In FREQUENCY DATA~ASE 170
the user's information is checked against the database of enrolled users.
If it is determined that the user is an enrolled user, 180E, the program
proceeds to step 190 to calculate the award points according to a
1S preprogrammed formula. Thereafter the program proceeds to add the
points to the enrolled user's account, 200, and display the account
information and the added points to the user, 210. From this point, the
program may return to ORDER FORM 130, to step Ai (not shown), to
PROGRA~ HOMEPAGE 300 to view the awards catalog (not shown)
or proceed to SELECTION MENU, 40, (not shown).
The preferred embodiment includes a particular feature wherein
in addition to displaying the points added to the account, the program
includes a routine to display a selected award or productl and the
number of points the user is short of in order to receive that award or
2s product. For example, during particular periods certain awards or
products may be designated as under a "special program". Thus, during
those periods~ the award would require a reduced number of points
and/or the product would be available under special favorable terms.
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The user may be notified of that fact, to thereby entice the user to
purchase additional products in order to qualify for the " special
program" terl!ns.
In order to implement the "special program," the information
s regarding the award/product needs to be read. The number of points
required to redeem the particular qualifying award is then fetched.
Similarly, the user's account is accessed and the number of points in the
user account is fetched. The number of points read from the user's
account is sulbtracted from the number of points read from the award
0 information and the result is displayed as the number of points the user
is short of to redeem the particular qualified award. An exemplary flow
chart is provided in Fig. 6.
On the other hand, if in step 170 it was determined that the user
is a new, unenrolled user, 180N, the program proceeds to step 220 to
calculate the award points according to the preprogrammed formula.
Thereafter, the program proceeds to step 130, wherein a message is sent
to the user identifying how many points he wil3 earn should he enroll in
the program. Step 230 also inquires whether the user is interested in
joining the program. Accordingly, step 230 may be in a form of a
mess~e such as, for example, "By enrolling in the incentive program
yo~ will earn [X] points for purchasing the [insert the item purchased].
These points may be redeemed toward exciting awards. Are you
interested in enrolling or viewing the award catalog? Y/N."
If in step 240 the user selects NO in response to step 230, the
2s program proceeds to OR~ER FORM 130 or to process Ai (not shown),
which proceeds to SELECTION MENU 11 0. Alternatively, after
receiving NO in step 240 process may continue to SELECTION MENU
40. At step 240, if it is determined that the user would like to sign up
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with the award program (join), the program proceeds to step 250 which
is a sign up routine. Any conventional sign up routine may be used at
this stage of processing. At the end of the sign up routine, the program
can return to point Ai, or to the purchase order form. The user may
s sign off from any of these locations.
For illustration purposes, a general flow of an enrollment routine
for signing up is shown in Fig. 5. This routine may be entered from
may different places in the program, e.g., after m~king a purchase, after
reviewing information regarding the program, etc. Accordingly, the
o beginning of the routine of Fig. 5 is shown "floating."
At step 600 the user is prompted either to enter a credit card
account number, 610, or to indicate that he wishes to use the same
account used to access the internet or to purchase an item, in which case
the account number is obtained from within the program, 620. (It
should be recognized that the user's name can also be obtained internally
from the on-line access program.) At 630 the user is prompted to enter
a personal identification code, which can generally be a four
letter/number code. At 640 the user is prompted to enter his choice of
mailing address - the address indicated on the order form, 660, or a
different address, 650. (A different address can be entered in the order
form, for example, when purchasing a present to be mailed to the
recipient). At 670 the program creates a new account in the database.
In Fig. 2, steps l90 and 220 may be combined and the awards
point calculated before reaching step 170. That is, upon obtaining a
2s positive credit check at step 150P, the program can proceed to calculate
the award points before proceeding to step 170. Then after performing
step 180, process can proceed either to step 200, when it was
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determined that the user is an enrolled user (180E), or to step 230, when
it is determined that the user is not an enrolled user (180N).
In the description of the preferred embodiment, the term product
also refers to a gift certificate. The following examples are provided in
order to make this feature clearer to the reader. When a user accesses
the various product homepages, the user has the option to purchase a gift
certificate rather than purchasing an actual product. The gift certificate
can be directed to a particular merchant, a particular
nnanufacturer/brand, or to all the products available through the
program.
In the preferred embodiment the gift certificate is sent
electronically to a computer designated by the user to be printed by a
printer linked to the designated computer. Thus, for example, if the
user knows the account number of the recipient of the gift certificate, the
user may purchase the gift certificate and designate the recipient's
account as the designated computer. Accordingly, the gift certificate
will be electronically sent to the recipient's computer, or electronically
added to the recipient's account while electronically informing the
recipient of the transaction. Therefore, the user will not have to mail
the certificate to the recipient.
It should also be realized that the user will be credited award
points corresponding to the price of the gift certificate purchased. Thus,
while the recipient will receive the gift certificate for purchases, the user
will receive the award points. In addition, the user may use award
points from his account as payment for the purchasing of a gift
certificate; thus effectively making the award points available for
purchases by a recipient. This can be user to entice unenrolled
recipients to join the program.
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When a user selects PROGRAM HOMEPAGE 300 (e.g., from
SELECTION MENU 40 or from SELECTION MENU 110~, the
program proceeds through to SELECTION MENU 310, shown in Fig.
3. In Fig. 3, SELECTION MENU 310 is shown as three consecutive
s decision points. This represents the structure in the preferred
embodiment wherein each of the options shown branching from the three
decision points are available for selection from PROGRAM
HOMEPAGE 300.
SELECTION MENU 310 allows the user to exit the program, go
o to PRODUCT Ai HOMEPAGE 1 00A (from which program would
proceed to Ai in Fig. 2), go to the BROWSING OPTION 60, learn
about the award program by selecting ABOUT AWARD PROG~AM
320, apply for membership by selecting MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
25û (see, Figs. 2 and ~), review the user's account by selecting the
FREQUENCY DATA BASE 340, or revie~r the awards catalog by
selecting AWARD CATALOG HOMEPAGE 400 (shown in Fig. 4).
Upon selecting FREQUENCY DATABASE 340, the user will be
prompted to enter the account number, the identification code, or both
at step 350. In the program of the present invention, the account
number and the identification code are linked together, for user for
which they are available. Thus, when a user account is established in
the frequency database, data is included to link the user's account
number to the user's identification code. ~It should be noted that
account number can refer to a credit card account number, an account
2s number internal to the program, etc.)
If the user has entered the internet via an on-line provider 10, his
credit card account number can be obtain on-line from the on-line
provider. Therefore, rather than prompting the user to enter his credit
14
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card account number or his program account number, the credit card
account number can be obtained on line from the on-line provider, and
the account can be matched against the accounts in the frequency
database. If a match is obtained, the program account number can be
s read from the frequency database. However, for security purposes, it
is preferable that the program will not proceed to step 360 to display the
account information before the user has been prompted and has entered
at least the correct identification code at step 350, which is matched with
the account number.
0 If the user selects AWARD CATALOG HOMEPAGE 400
processing proceeds to the routine shown in Fig. 4. In the preferred
embodiment several options are available for viewing the award catalog.
This is represented by the SELECTION MENU 410, although those
skilled in the art would recognize that other processing can be provided
for viewing the award catalog. As shown in Fig. 4, at least two options
are made available by SELECTION MENU 410: SHOW QUALIFIED
AWARDS 420 (shown continuing at branch E) and VIEWING
OPTIONS 450. QUALIFIED AWARDS 420 allows the user a quick
access to viewing all the awards the user is qualified for. VIEWING
OPTIONS 450 allows the user to view the awards according to the order
selected by the user.
If the user selects QUALIFIED AWARDS 420, the frequency
database is accessed to determine the award point, 425. thereafter, the
entire award catalog is scanned and a qualified awards database is
created for the particular mlmber of award points read from the user's
account, 430. Thereafter, the first page of the first award is displayed,
435, and the user can brows through the catalog created in step 430.
A~ternatively, the user can select QUALIFIED AWARD OPTION 440
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for different options of arranging and viewing the qualified awards
catalog. These options can be~ for example, by alphabetical order, by
brands, by product, etc.
While the above method of displaying the qualified awards is
s workable, it may take too much time to scan all the awards in order to
"custom" build a quali~led awards catalog. Therefore, other alternatives
may be used for creating the qualified award catalog. According to the
preferred alternative, point levels are de~lned. For example, point level
1 can include all awards of value up to 500 points, point level 2, up to
1000 points, etc. When the user's account is read at 425, the highest
point level the user is qualified for is determined. At this point a
message may be displayed such as "You are qualified for point level 3
and have additional 350 points in your account. To qualify for point
level 4 you will need 150 additional points".
If memory size is not a problem, different libraries can be stored,
each of which corresponding to a certain point level. Thus, for
example, award library 1 can include all the awards which can be
redeemed by a number of points defined by point level 1. In the above
example, award library I will include all awards worth up to 500 points.
Thus, when the point level of the user is determined, all the awards in
the correspond;ng library are made accessible as qualified awards. This
allow for fast access, since the step 430 of creating the qualified catalog
is skipped. However, such system may require large amount of
memory, since many libraries may be needed to store the various awards
of different point levels.
In the preferred embodiment the award libraries are arranged in
a progressive manner, so as to avoid the need for a large memory size.
The above example of the point levels will be used to explain this
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feature. Using the above example, award library 1 should include all
awards worth up to 50() points. Award library 2 should include all
awards worth from 501-1000 points, etc. Thus, if the user is qualified,
for example, for point level 2, access is made to award libraries 1 and
s 2. Thus, duplication of awards in the various libraries is prevented.
A further option would be to flag the various awards according
to the point level for which they are qualified. Accordingly, when the
po;nt level of the user has been determined, the awards are scanned for
the a~p.-o,~)liate flag and the qualified award library is created in this
0 manner. While this feature does not elimin~tt~ step 430, the qualified
award library can be ~uilt in less time than by scanning the required
points and comparing each required point to the available points.
By selecting VIEWING OPTIONS 450, the user may set the
order in which to view the awards. Thus, for example, the user may
view the awards by alphabetical order, enter a ceiling point number for
viewing all awards up to that ceiling, view awards by product or brand,
etc. The award catalog of the program of the preferred embodiment
includes a feature whereby when a particular award is shown, it includes
information regarding how many points are required to redeem that
particular award, and how many points the user is short of in order to
redeem that particular award.
To implement the above mentioned feature, the program accesses
the user's account in the frequency database and reads the amount of
award points the user has in his account. Then, whenever the program
2s displays a particular product, the program subtracts the number of point
available in the user's account from the number of points required to
redeem the award. The result is displayed as the number of points the
user is short of to redeem that award. Of course, if the user is not
17
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enrolled in the program or does not have any award points in his
account, the number of point the user is short of will be equal to the
number of points required to redeem the award. An exemplary flow
chart is shown in Fig. 6.
s Another particular feature for viewing the award catalog is shown
in Fig. 4. The user is provided with an access to the frequency database
via FREQUENCY DATABASE 460. While in Fig. 4 FREQUENCY
DATABASE 460 is shown to proceed from VIEWING OPTION 450,
it would be appreciated that access to the frequency database and the
0 routine of the feature described below can be provided in other places
in the program.
Upon accessing the frequency database, the user may view the
account to verify the amount of redeemable points recorded therein.
Thereafter, the user may enter any ceiling awards points of the user's
choice, 470, for viewing the awards worth up to that ceiling, 475.
Processing for displaying the qualified awards can then proceed as
shown in steps 435, 440, and 500 in branch E of Fig. 4.
In the preferred embodiment, the user may enter the REDEEM
routine 500 at any point in the program. In Fig. 4 this feature is
represented by the several REDEEM 500 selections depicted at many
points of the program. When entering the REDEEM routine, the user
may be prompted to enter the account number, the identification code or
both, 510. This is similar to the description provided with respect to
step 350 in Fig. 3. Thus, only the identification code may be re~uired
2s if on-line access was gained via an on-line provider. Thereafter, the
proper award to be redeemed is determined.
It should be noted that if the REDEEM 500 step has been entered
into from an award page, the award described in that particular page
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CA 02240424 1998-06-12
WO 97/Z~0~8 PCTAUS96/19728
may be automatically read into the REDEl~M 500 routine as the selected
award. However, the user may be prompted to verify that this is the
correct award he wished to redeem and enter a~l~ropliate selections,
such as color, size, etc. Otherwise, the user may simply be prompted
s to enter the award by, ~or example, an award code. It should also be
no~ed that if the user has designated the ceiling award points, the user's
account needs to be accessed to verify that the user has sufficient points
to redeem the chosen award, 515.
The proper amount of points is then subtracted from the user's
0 account and an adjustment is made in the frequency database, 520. A
link is then established to the fulfillment house or directly to the product
manufacturer and an award order is communicated, 530. Thereafter, the
program returns to the P~OGRAM HOMEPAGE 300.
In the description of the preferred embodiment, the term "user"
also refers to merchants, product manufacturers, award program
~dmini~trators, etc. These particu}ar users may be provided with a
special access code. Upon entering the special code, these particular
users may be provided with a privileged access to the program which
allows them to make limited changes to the data. Thus, for example, a
merchant may use this special access to change a price charged for a
particular product. Similarly, a program administrator may gain
privileged access to enter newly added awards available through the
program. In addition, in the preferred embodiment a report is generated
upon each privileged entry so that the changes made can be monitored.
2~ Certain variations would be apparent to those skilled in the art,
which variations are considered within the spirit and scope of the
claimed invention.
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