AU785195B2 - Service management system - Google Patents

Description

P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title: "SERVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM" The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: 2

TITLE

"SERVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM" FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention is concerned with an interfacing system to provide efficient and reliable provision of services to service users by service providers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION At present, a person seeking the services of a trades person such as a plumber, electrician, handyman or the like, or any other service provider typically will peruse a classified telephone directory to locate a provider of the service sought. Among the main selection criteria are proximate geographic location, size and presentation of the directory entry.

Having selected a service provider from the directory, the proposed service user must then telephone the service provider on a fixed line telephone and/or a mobile telephone and often, telephone access is limited to business hours unless an after hours number is given.

.A fixed line telephone communication will often be accepted by an office assistant who is unable to satisfy an enquiry as to availability or estimated costs other than to give a non-committal indication as to availability or cost or otherwise to take a message for later return by the service provider. In other circumstances a fixed line telecommunication may provide the proposed service user with an invitation to leave a recorded message.

25 Currently, initial communications between a service user and a service provider utilising a classified telephone directory and a telephonic *oo communication leave much to be desired from the point of view of both the service user and the service provider.

The service user may need to make several telephone calls to locate a service provider willing to provide a particular service to a geographical region at a mutually acceptable time. Often the service user must make compromises to suit the availability of the service provider.

Having agreed to meet at the location at which the service is required, the service user often will need to make arrangements for time off work to be present to discuss the service required with the provider before a final decision is made. Frequently, service providers can be many hours or even days late in keeping an appointment to a variety of reasons, including poor time management, to the extent that trades persons in particular have a poor reputation for punctuality.

If the service user is not satisfied with the demeanour or price quote of the service provider, the entire selection process must be repeated until a service provider has been accepted.

The selection process for a service provider can be an equally unsatisfactory experience for the service provider.

Some service users will seek to obtain as many quotes as possible to obtain the lowest price possible for the service sought. Other service users will only be available for on site meetings at inconvenient or unrealistic times.

Either way, much of a service providers time is spent answering telephone calls or providing quotes in an unproductive manner.

As the average user of services, whether personal services, trade services or professional services resorts to a classified telephone directory for service providers, the user is usually not highly discerning as to the quality of service provided or is otherwise unable to check the reputation of the service provider.

Accordingly there is a need for an interface system between service users and service providers which overcomes or alleviates at least some of the disadvantages to either or both parties in the service provider selection process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a network communications system to facilitate provision of services to service users by service providers, said system comprising: an interface addressable both by service users and service providers, said interface adapted in use to selectively address stored service provider data to permit selection by a service user of a service provider according to one or more user selectable criteria established by a service user and one or more provider criteria established by a service provider, said interface in use permitting communication of a request for service from a service user to a selected service provider, said system characterized in that said user selectable criteria includes a time of day and/or date for preferred supply of services, said one or more provider criteria includes an indication as to availability according to time of day and/or date, said system further characterized in that said interface is adapted to communicate to said service user an acceptance or rejection, of a service user request, by said service provider and wherein said interface is adapted, subject to acceptance by said service provided of said service user request, to communicate to said service provider confirmation of said service user's agreement to said service provider's acceptance of said service user's request to provide services according to criteria agreed between said service user and said service provider.

Preferably said one or more user criteria established by a service user comprises at least two user criteria.

Suitably said network communications system is a wide area network.

.Preferably said network communications system is the Internet.

If required the interface may comprise an internet website adapted for interactive communication.

Suitably said interface is operatively coupled with one or more sources of service provider data, said interface being responsive to service user oO.o selectable criteria to provide selected service provider data.

The user selectable criteria may include a geographic region in which a service is required.

The geographic location may be defined as a street address and/or a logo postcode.

The user selectable criteria may also include a user definable service type or a service type selected from an array of predefined service types.

The one or more provider criteria established by a service provider may include a description of the services provided by the service provider.

The one or more criteria established by a service provider may include availability to supply services in predetermined geographic locations.

The one or more provider criteria established by a service provider may include an indication as to availability according to time of day and/or date.

If required, said interface may be linked with a service provider's home page to provide additional data for service users.

Suitably the interface is adapted to update service provider availability data upon communication by a service user of agreement to the service provider's acceptance of a service user's request.

Preferably the interface is adapted to issue to a service provider an invoice in relation to the service provider's acceptance of a service user's request.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order that the invention may be more easily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to a preferred embodiment ~illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which: FIG 1 shows schematically a block diagram of the invention.

FIG 2 shows schematically a flow chart of the system according to the invention.

FIG 3 shows schematically the interface management of data inputs and outputs of a preferred embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS .FIG 1 shows a block diagram representing schematically the basic functionality of the system according to the invention and the relationship between elements of the system.

At the heart of the system is interface 1 which is a web site for an operator for the operation of the services management system.

A service user 2, wishing to obtain the services of a service provider such as a plumber, electrician, gardener or any other form of service provider initially contacts interface 1, via user communicator 3, typically a U I 6 computer connected to the internet. When connection to interface 1 is established, the service user 2 is prompted to identify the nature of the service required by a text box, a drop down menu or the like. Having selected a primary service classification such as "plumber", the interface may then prompt to permit one or more layers of sub-classification of the service required ie. "Leaking faucet".

Having established the nature of service to be provided, the service user is then prompted to indicate the geographical location at which the service is to be provided. If the user has already entered the user's name and address details, the interface will prompt for confirmation of that address or an alternative if incorrect. The user may be prompted to enter a postal or zip code to represent the general area for service supply or it may extract the postal or zip code from a full residential address record.

Once the interface has identified a service type and service delivery region, interface 1 then searches a database 4 of service providers classified by services offered and geographical regions serviced. The service providers listed in the database are subscribers to the service .management system of the invention.

The interface then presents to the monitor screen of user communicator 3 a graphical representation of a calendar showing collective availability of the plumbers who meet the initial user selection criteria. The calendar may show for a predetermined future time period of, say, up to six months ahead the reserved appointment density of plumbers for the selected area on a daily basis by colour coding. For example some days could be coloured red to represent 90% reservations for a given day, yellow to represent between 75% and 90% reservations, green to represent between 50% and 75% reservations and white for less than reservations for a given day. The screen display representing daily availability density is generated from an availability table 5 compiled from the subscriber database 4 according to the initial selection criteria.

When the user has determined a calendar date which is convenient to the user for service supply and which suggests a reasonably likelihood of obtaining supply of that service on that date, the user is prompted to select the service supply date and when that information is entered, the interface functions to display on the user's monitor screen a list of plumbers who meet the selection criteria. The display is conveniently in the form of a table showing the names of individual plumbers, their company or business name and an availability grid in say one hour blocks from 8 am to 6 pm on the selected day. This hourly availability display is generated from the compiled data in the availability tables Should the user require more information on a particular service provider, a link may be provided to a service provider's home page 6.

Once the user has selected a particular service provider, a Request for Service form is displayed on the user's monitor screen for completion.

The pre-formatted email form contains fields in which the user may enter user details including name, address, telephone number, description of problem or service required and any other messages ie. "beware of dog".

The Request for Service email, once completed, identifies the selected service provider and the time and date of service requested from selections already made and is then transmitted to a service provider's communicator 7 (such as a computer connected to the internet) via interface 1.

20 Upon receipt of the email from a service user, the service provider 8 then responds with a pre-formatted email acceptance or rejection which is transmitted to user 2 via interface 1. If the service provider's response is a rejection, the user is provided with a prompt to return directly to the hourly/daily availability table on the basis of retained selection criteria to 25 permit an alternate selection of service provider.

If the service provider response is an acceptance, the service user i is prompted to provide an email confirmation, again on a pre-formatted email form which is transmitted to the service provider via interface 1. The relationship established between service user and service provider from that time forward is a normal business relationship with the service provider billing the user directly.

When interface 1 detects an acceptance by a service provider of a Request for Service, billing module 9 is activated. If the service requested I 8 is a "standard" fixed price service, the billing module 9 may issue to the service provider via email an invoice for a particular percentage of the fixed price service. Typically the fee for providing the service management system according to the invention is quite small to encourage participation by as many service providers as possible whereby users are provided with the widest choice possible otherwise, the billing module may transmit an email to the service provider requesting details of the specific service provided and the charge rendered.

To maintain good customer (user) relationships, service users are provided with a pre-formatted email from to register a complaint against a particular service provider. The administration of the service management system has an overriding right to reject unsatisfactory service provider subscribers to the system.

To obtain a listing in the service provider directory, a provider may pay an annual fee based on, say, primary service classification and/or postal/zip codes serviced by the provider.

*.Service provider details are provided for storage in database 4 and may be changed or modified only via interface 1.

The availability tables 5 are compiled from availability data indexed against specific service providers and this data is maintained by the source provider on a regular basis via interface 1.

Access to interface 1 by service providers for any functional requirement is by a password issued at the time of registration as a subscriber.

25 FIG 2 shows schematically a flow chart for the basic procedural steps of the service management system described above. For the sake of simplicity the following abbreviations are used:- EGF Electronically Generated (email) Form SP Service Provider FIG 3 shows graphically the nature of data inputs and outputs for interface 1.

It readily will be apparent to a skilled addressee that many modifications and variations may be made to the invention without 4 l 9 departing from the spirit and scope thereof.

For example, for the benefit of user and provider alike, when a particular service is selected by the user, an explanatory memorandum may be selectable to show the steps involved and tools/equipment needed for the service requested. This can assist users in understanding the nature of services provided, special skills required and special equipment to gain a better understanding of the costs in providing the service. The same or a modified form of that information may be made available to a service provider to act as a checklist for tools/equipment required before travelling to a work site.

Where associated services of a different service classification may be required to fulfil the service requested, a link may be provided from the selected plumber to electricians where say both skills are required to install an electrical hot water service.

In yet another embodiment, the interface could be linked with a street directory database to transmit a street map image to the service *provider for the address at which the service is to be provided.

It equally will be apparent to a skilled addressee that in addition to providing a convenient and relatively low cost referral system for service providers, the service management system, even in its basic form described above, offers a management tool for service providers to maintain a more systematic approach to their service provision. Additional management modules including central billing, banking, credit control tool and parts purchases could be added to the interface functionality to 25 enhance value for subscribers in particular.

A single national marketing budget for the system would substantially reduce the overheads of individual service providers by reducing the costs of advertising and marketing.

By monitoring the nature and frequency of services provided by the various selection criteria, the system operator could establish a valuable statistical database useful for subscribers in their business development.

For example such statistics could show a dearth or glut of a particular service supply in certain geographical regions.

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Throughout this specification and claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", and variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

Claims (15)

1. A network communications system to facilitate provision of services to service users by service providers, said system comprising: an interface addressable both by service users and service providers, said interface adapted in use to selectively address stored service provider data to permit selection by a service user of a service provider according to one or more user selectable criteria established by a service user and one or more provider criteria established by a service provider, said interface in use permitting communication of a request for service from a service user to a selected service provider, said system characterized in that said user selectable criteria includes a time of day and/or date for preferred supply of services, said one or more provider criteria includes an indication as to availability according to time of day and/or date, said system further characterized in that said interface is adapted to communicate to said service user an acceptance or rejection, of a service user request, by said service provider and wherein said interface is adapted, subject to acceptance by said service provided of said service user request, to communicate to said service provider confirmation of said service user's agreement to said service provider's acceptance of said service user's request to provide services according to criteria agreed between said service user and said service provider.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said interface is adapted to update service provider availability data upon communication by a service •il* user of agreement to the service provider's acceptance of a service user's agreement.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said one or more user criteria established by a service user comprises at least two user 1 criteria.

4. A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said one or more provider criteria established by a service provider includes a description of the services provided by the service provider.

A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said one or more provider criteria established by a service provider includes availability to supply services in predetermined geographic regions.

6. A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said interface is linked with a service provider's home page to provide additional data for service users.

7. A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said network communications system is a wide area network.

8. A system as claimed in any claim 7 wherein said network communications system is the Internet.

9. A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the interface comprises an internet website adapted to interactive communication.

A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said interface is operatively coupled with one or more sources of service provider data, said interface being responsive to service user selectable criteria to provide selected service provider data.

11. A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the user :selectable criteria includes a geographic region in which a service is required.

12. A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the geographic region is defined as a street address and/or a postcode.

13. A system as claim in any preceding claim wherein the user selectable criteria includes a user definable service type or a service type selected from an array of predefined service types.

~14. A system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the interface is 25 adapted to issue to a service provider an invoice in relation to the service provider's acceptance of a service user's request.

15. A network communications system substantially as hereinbefore S*o described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED this Twenty-third day of August 2006. MARK RICHARD COOPER By his Patent Attorneys FISHER ADAMS KELLY 4. 4 13 DATED THIS Eleventh day of October 2001 MARK RICHARD COOPER By His Patent Attorneys FISHER ADAMS KELLY