WO2016195431A1 - Method and apparatus for providing benefit information - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing benefit information. The present invention comprises the steps of: receiving information on a position or interested affiliates of a customer from a customer terminal; searching for one or more affiliates on the basis of a current position or an interested position of the customer; identifying an affiliate benefit for each of the discovered affiliates; identifying card benefits of each credit card possessed by the customer with respect to each of the discovered affiliates; arranging, according to the discovered affiliates, affiliate benefits for the discovered affiliates and the card benefits of the credit cards possessed by the customer for the discovered affiliates to generate benefit information for each affiliate; and providing the benefit information for each affiliate to the customer terminal. According to the present invention, information on benefits provided by the affiliates and benefits provided by a card company may be synthetically provided.

Description

Method and device for providing benefit information

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing benefit information, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing a customer with benefit information that a customer who visited a member store can receive from the affiliated store.

Recently, as the use of personalized devices such as smartphones and tablet computers has increased, companies aiming to attract customers through public relations have been able to use personalized devices to overcome the advertising methods that were provided in pieces through newspapers or broadcasts. Attempting to advertise or promote

In particular, recently, offline stores such as restaurants and cafes are attempting to increase customer attraction through affiliate contracts with online services that provide price benefits, such as providing coupons or earning points.

On the other hand, Korea belongs to the countries with a relatively high rate of payment using credit cards. As a result, competition among credit card companies is becoming more intense for customers to purchase products using their cards.In order to enhance competitiveness, card companies have entered into franchise agreements with offline stores, and customers can purchase their cards at the stores. By using the payment to provide a certain benefit to the customer.

As a result, the customer can receive the benefits directly provided by each store and the benefits through the credit card company, either overlapped or selectively.

However, there were many losses that could not be received without knowing the specific benefits of the customer's position. In addition, the store or credit card companies have designed a variety of benefits to attract customers, but there is a problem that does not get the actual customer attracting effect because the benefits are not easily communicated to customers.

Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2001-0104145 relates to an 'incentive providing system and a method of providing the same', and discloses a method for providing a user with incentive information identified using a POS system of a store. However, even in the conventional technology, there was a problem that it was difficult for the customer to comprehensively grasp the benefits provided by the stores for the corresponding customers and the benefits of using the credit card.

Therefore, there is a need for a technique for solving the above problems.

On the other hand, the background art described above is technical information that the inventors possess for the derivation of the present invention or acquired in the derivation process of the present invention, and is not necessarily a publicly known technique disclosed to the general public before the application of the present invention. .

One embodiment of the present invention is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for providing benefit information integrating information on benefits provided by a merchant and benefits provided by a card company.

In addition, an embodiment of the present invention has an object to provide a method and apparatus for providing benefit information that provides customized information on benefits provided for each individual customer.

In addition, an embodiment of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for providing benefit information that provides the maximum benefits in consideration of the history of visits to merchants and credit card usage history of individual customers.

As a technical means for achieving the above-described technical problem, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the embodiment of the present invention receives the location information or the information on the interested merchant including the current location or the location of the customer from the customer terminal Making a step; Searching for one or more affiliate stores based on the customer's current location or location of interest or affiliate store information of interest; Checking affiliate store benefits for each retrieved affiliate store; Confirming a card benefit of each of the customer's own credit cards for each of the searched affiliated stores; Generating benefits information for each affiliated store by arranging the affiliated store benefits for each of the retrieved affiliated stores and card benefits of each customer's own credit card for each retrieved affiliated store by the retrieved affiliated stores; And providing the customer information for each affiliate store to the customer terminal.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, an embodiment of the present invention receives location information or information on an affiliate store of interest including a current location or a location of a customer from a customer terminal, and receives the current location or location of interest of the customer, Or an affiliate store search unit for searching for one or more affiliate stores based on the interested store information; Merchant benefits for each of the searched merchants, and the benefits of the card by each of the customer's holding credit card for each of the searched merchants, and the benefits to create benefits information for each merchant by arranging the merchant benefits and card benefits for each searched merchant A calculator; It may include a benefit information providing unit for providing the benefit information for each affiliated store to the customer terminal.

According to any one of the problem solving means of the present invention described above, an embodiment of the present invention can provide information about benefits provided by the merchant and the benefits provided by the card company integrated.

In addition, one embodiment of the present invention can be customized to provide information on the benefits provided for each customer differently.

And one embodiment of the present invention can provide the maximum benefits in consideration of the history of visits and credit card usage of individual customers.

The effects obtainable in the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned effects, and other effects not mentioned above may be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description. will be.

1 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration of a benefit information providing system including a benefit information providing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an apparatus for providing benefit information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing benefit information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the steps of confirming benefits to be provided by a customer in the method of providing benefit information illustrated in FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention, and like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when a part is "connected" to another part, this includes not only "directly connected" but also "electrically connected" with another element in between. . In addition, when a part is said to "include" a certain component, which means that it may further include other components, except to exclude other components unless otherwise stated.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a network of a benefit information providing system including a benefit information providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a benefit information providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. to be.

As shown in FIG. 1, the system including the benefit information providing apparatus 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a network N. As shown in FIG.

The network N may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a value added network (VAN), a personal local area network (PAN), and a mobile communication network (PAN). It can be implemented in all kinds of wired / wireless networks such as mobile radio communication network (Wibro), wireless broadband Internet (Wibro), mobile WiMAX, high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), or satellite communication network.

The system including the benefit information providing apparatus 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a plurality of customer terminals 10 used by individual customers. The customer terminal 10 is a personalized device used by a customer who is a subject consuming a product or service provided by a merchant, and is a computer or a portable terminal capable of connecting to a remote server through a network (N) or connecting to another terminal and the server. , A television, a wearable device, or the like. Here, the computer includes, for example, a laptop, desktop, laptop, etc., which is equipped with a web browser, and the portable terminal is, for example, a wireless communication device that ensures portability and mobility. , Personal Communication System (PCS), Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), Personal Handyphone System (PHS), Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), International Mobile Telecommunication (IMT) -2000, Code CDMA Division Multiple Access (2000), all types of handhelds such as W-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Wireless Broadband Internet (Wibro), Smart Phones, and Mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX). It may include a (Handheld) based wireless communication device. In addition, the television may include an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), an Internet Television (Internet Television), a terrestrial TV, a cable TV, or the like. Further, the wearable device is, for example, an information processing device of a type that can be worn directly on a human body such as a watch, glasses, accessories, clothes, shoes, etc., and is connected to a remote server via the network N directly or through another information processing device. Or may be connected to another terminal. In particular, the customer terminal 10 may be provided with a GPS module to calculate the position of the terminal, and may drive a benefit information providing application communicating with the benefit information providing apparatus 20 to be described later.

The benefit information providing device 20 is an online service provider that provides benefit information to the customer terminal 10 through the network N, and accesses a remote server via the network N directly or through another information processing device. Or an information processing device connected to another terminal. The benefit information providing apparatus 20 will be described in more detail later with reference to FIG. 2.

In addition, the affiliated store terminal 30 may be included in the benefit information providing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. The affiliated store terminal 30 is a personalized device for accessing the benefit information providing device 20 to register and manage information on the affiliated store. The affiliated store terminal 30 may be connected to a remote server through a network N or may be connected to other terminals and servers. It may be implemented as a computer, a portable terminal, a television, a wearable device, or the like. The affiliated store terminal 30 exchanges data with the benefit information providing apparatus 20 using a separate application or a web browser communicating with the benefit information providing apparatus 20.

Furthermore, the card company apparatus 40 may be included in the benefit information providing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. The card company device 40 is a server and / or a terminal device operated by a credit card company, and may be an information processing device connected to a remote server or connected to another terminal via a network N directly or through another information processing device. have. The card company device 40 may exchange data with the benefit information providing device 20, and in particular, may provide card information and customer information to the benefit information providing device 20.

Referring to the configuration of the benefit information providing apparatus 20 in more detail with reference to FIG. 2, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may include a customer information management unit 21. The customer information management unit 21 receives and registers customer information from a customer corresponding to each customer terminal 10 according to a request for membership from the customer terminal 10, and creates and manages a customer account corresponding to each customer information. do. The customer information may include personal information such as the name, age, telephone number, email address of the customer, and card information held by the customer. Here, the card information held by the customer includes information on the type of each credit card held by the customer, and optionally further includes specific information such as the card number and the expiration date of the credit card held by the customer. can do.

In this case, the customer terminal 10 or the customer information management unit 21 may provide a user interface including an entry field for each item so that the customer may easily input the customer information including personal information and card information, and particularly, the customer terminal 10 or the customer information management unit 21 may be provided. A user interface may be provided to allow a customer to select a specific type of card from a card list including all types of cards issued by each card company so that a type of credit card can be selected and inputted.

The benefit information providing apparatus 20 according to the embodiment of the present invention may include a card information management unit 22. As described above, the card information management unit 22 collects, stores, and manages card incentive information including information on types of cards issued for each card company and benefits for each type of card. The card information management unit 22 may periodically access the card company device 40 to collect and update card incentive information of each card. In particular, the card incentive information may include information about benefits that can be provided to the customer when each type of card is used at a particular merchant.

Here, the benefits may be all economic benefits including point accumulation, discounts based on point deduction, unconditional discounts, coupons, mileage accumulation, and the like, and may further include additional benefits such as valet parking and discounts.

Meanwhile, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may include an affiliated store information management unit 23. The affiliated store information manager 23 receives an affiliated member registration request from each affiliated terminal 30, registers affiliated store information, and creates and manages a registered store account corresponding to each affiliated store information. Herein, the affiliated store information may include basic information about the name and location (address) of the affiliated store, an industry type, an image, and the like, and affiliated store incentive information on benefits provided to the customer. In particular, the affiliated store information management unit 23 may register or update the affiliated store incentive information according to the request of each affiliated store terminal 30, the affiliated store terminal 30 is a benefit information providing device through a web browser or a separate application (20) ), You can continuously register and register merchant incentive information. In this case, the affiliate incentive information may include information on benefits that a customer may receive in using a product or service of the affiliate store and may include information about an expiration date. As described above, the benefit may include various economic benefits and additional benefits.

The affiliated store owner may access the benefit information providing device 20 with the affiliated store account through his affiliated store terminal 30, and may newly register, modify, or delete information about benefits at any time.

Meanwhile, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may include an affiliate store search unit 24. When the affiliate store search request is received from the customer terminal 10, the affiliate store search unit 24 searches for an affiliate store near a current location of the customer terminal 10 or a location of interest of the customer.

At this time, the customer terminal 10 transmits the information on the current position of the customer terminal 10 calculated using the GPS module to the benefit information providing apparatus 20 or the customer's interest entered into the customer terminal 10 by the customer. The information on the location may be transmitted to the benefit information providing apparatus 20, and the search for the affiliate store may be requested.

Accordingly, the affiliated store search unit 24 searches for an affiliated store around the current location of the customer terminal 10 or a customer's interest location by referring to the location of each affiliated store stored in the affiliated store information management unit 23. At this time, the merchant search unit 24 may search only merchants associated with the category (industry) selected by the customer.

Of course, at this time, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may receive the affiliate store information of interest from the customer terminal 10 instead of the information about the current location or the interest location of the customer according to an embodiment, and thus the affiliate store search unit 24 may The affiliate store may be searched based on the interested store information. The affiliated store information of interest may include at least one of a name of the affiliated store and information on a category to which the affiliated store belongs.

In addition, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may include a benefit calculator 25. Benefit calculation unit 25 checks the benefits that can be provided to the customer in each of the searched merchants, if the merchant search unit 24 searches for some merchants in accordance with the merchant search request of the customer terminal (10).

Here, the benefit calculation unit 25 checks affiliate store incentive information stored in the affiliate store information management unit 23 for each affiliate store searched by the affiliate store search unit 24. The benefit calculation unit 25 extracts the card information from the customer information corresponding to the customer terminal 10 requesting the search of the affiliate store, and the card information incentive information corresponding to the type of the card held by the customer in the card information management unit 22. Check it. At this time, the benefit calculation unit 25 checks whether the card incentive information for the affiliated store searched by the affiliated store search unit 24 is confirmed within the checked card incentive information. Accordingly, the benefit calculation unit 25 may calculate the maximum benefits that can be provided to the customer terminal 10 by combining the incentive information of the merchant and the card incentive information for the affiliate. In addition, the benefit calculation unit 25 may calculate the integrated benefits based on all the history that the customer visited or paid at the merchant through the customer terminal 10. Here, 'integrated benefit' is a benefit provided by the operating agent of the benefit information providing apparatus 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention based on the history of the customer.

Meanwhile, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may include a customer grade checking unit 26. The customer rating checking unit 26 may check the rating of the customer given separately or integrated with respect to the affiliated store and the card company.

The grade of the customer for the affiliated store may be stored and managed in the customer information management unit 21 or the affiliated store information management unit 23. For example, the rating of customer C for Merchant A may be 'low' among upper, middle, and lower, and the same customer C may be 'upper' for Merchant B. That is, the same customer may be given a different grade for each merchant.

On the other hand, the information on the rating of the customer for the card company, based on the customer holding card information or personal information of the customer stored in the customer information management unit 21, the customer rating confirmation unit 26 confirms the rating with the card company device (40) Can be collected by request. That is, in the case where the rating of the customer is determined by the card company, the benefit information providing device 20 may collect the grade granted to the customer by the card company by requesting the card company device 40 using the card information input by the customer or the personal information of the customer. have. Furthermore, the customer grade checking unit 26 may check the integrated grade of the customer who requested the affiliate store search. In this case, the integrated grade is a grade given to the customer based on all histories visited or paid by the merchant through the customer terminal 10 and may be used for the calculation of the above-described integrated benefits. Here, the personal information may include unique identification information given to an individual who may confirm that the customer who has stored the personal information in the benefit information providing apparatus 20 and the customer whose personal information is stored in the card company apparatus 40 are the same person. For example, it may include a social security number or an I-Pin number. In addition, the benefit information providing device 20 transmits the personal information or card information of the customer to the card company device 40 of the card company that manages the financial transaction card held by the customer when the customer registers customer information such as personal information and card information. After confirming that the customer is a member of the card company, give the identification number for the customer separately and store, and at the same time issue the identification number of the customer to the card company device 20 so that the identification number is also stored in the card company device (20) Can be stored. When the customer grade is checked again later, it is possible to request the confirmation of the customer grade registered in the card company device 40 by using the identification number of the customer that was originally assigned, not the sensitive information such as the personal information or the card information of the customer. have.

On the other hand, if the customer rating confirmation unit 26 confirms at least one of the rating for the merchant, the card company, and the integrated benefits as described above, the above-described benefit calculation unit 25 is based on the confirmed customer rating of the merchant You can also calculate additional benefits from credit cards, and integrated benefits. To this end, the aforementioned merchant incentive information and card incentive information may further include information on benefits that can be additionally provided for each grade of the customer. In particular, the card incentive information may further include information on benefits that can be additionally provided for each customer grade for each particular card type. That is, the card incentive information may include card type information, affiliate store information, and benefit information for each customer class in association with each other. In this case, information on a benefit provision condition may be additionally associated and stored. For example, if a customer of the highest grade (customer grade information) pays more than 50,000 won at member B (merchant information) using company A's platinum card (card type information), 10% The card incentive information may include information indicating that a payment amount discount benefit (benefits information) may be provided.

In this case, the customer grade for the affiliated store may be given and updated based on history information including information about the number or frequency of reservations for the corresponding affiliated store, the average payment amount or the cumulative payment amount at the affiliated store, and the like.

In addition, the customer grade for the card company may be calculated based on the cumulative use amount of the previous month, the number of years of subscription, the total cumulative use amount of the customer for the card company.

In this way, the benefit calculation unit 25 may calculate the additional benefits and the integrated benefits of the merchant or the card company based on the customer grade for the merchant and the customer grade for the card company and the integrated grade identified in the customer rating checking unit 26. .

In addition, the benefit calculation unit 25 may determine the final benefit by combining the merchant benefits, card benefits, and integrated benefits for each of the searched merchants as described above.

On the other hand, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 includes a benefit information providing unit 27 for providing the benefit information for each affiliated store to the customer terminal 10 when the benefit calculating unit 25 determines the final benefit for the searched affiliate store. The benefit information providing unit 27 transmits the calculated benefit information for the final benefit for each affiliate to the customer terminal 10, but in order of the greater the merchant benefit or the greater the card benefit, or the greater the combined benefit. The searched merchants may be sorted and transmitted to the customer terminal 10. And when the customer confirms each of the sorted merchants, each benefit may be listed and displayed.

Meanwhile, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention receives a customer's reservation request or a payment request for any one of the affiliated stores in which the benefit information providing unit 27 provides the benefit information, and thus, the customer's affiliate store. It may include a reservation and payment processing unit 28 for processing a reservation or payment request for.

When the customer requests a reservation for a particular merchant, the reservation and payment processing unit 28 transmits a reservation request to the affiliated store terminal 30 of the corresponding merchant to receive a reservation confirmation signal, and the reservation confirmation signal is received from the affiliated store terminal 30. When received, the customer's reservation for the affiliated store may be confirmed and notified to the customer terminal 10.

In addition, when a customer requests a payment for a specific merchant, the reservation and payment processing unit 28 selects one of the user's holding cards for the payment request and performs the payment procedure directly or through another payment server, and then executes the payment amount. When the deposit is received from the card company, the settlement amount can be settled with the affiliated store to perform the settlement.

Furthermore, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may further include a history management unit 29 that manages the reservation or payment details for the affiliated store of the customer. The history management unit 29 collects and records each time information about reservation and payment request and processing status for each affiliate store for each customer. In addition, the history management unit 29 may transmit such history information to the customer grade checking unit 26 as a whole or for each of the affiliated stores, thereby enabling calculation of a grade or integrated grade for each specific store.

Hereinafter, a method of providing benefit information performed by the benefit information providing apparatus 20 described above with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 will be described. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing benefit information according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the steps of confirming benefits to be provided by a customer in the method of providing benefit information shown in FIG. 3. to be.

However, the method of providing benefit information according to the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 includes steps that are processed in time series by the system and the benefit information providing apparatus 20 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Therefore, even if omitted below, the above descriptions of the system and the benefit information providing apparatus 20 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 may also be applied to the method of providing benefit information according to the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Can be applied.

As shown in FIG. 3, the benefit information providing method performed by the benefit information providing apparatus 20 starts from step S310 in which the benefit information providing apparatus 20 confirms a current position or a location of interest of the customer. The current location or location of interest of the customer may be performed by receiving information about the current location of the customer terminal 10 or the location of interest selected by the customer from the customer terminal 10. Of course, at this time, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may receive affiliated store information of interest from the customer terminal 10 instead of the current location or the location of interest of the customer.

In addition, the benefit information providing method performed by the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may include a step (S320) of searching for affiliated stores around the identified location. Herein, the affiliated stores may be all affiliated stores having a location within a predetermined radius from the identified location, or may be more than a predetermined number of affiliated stores in order of close proximity to the identified location. In this case, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may perform only the affiliate store belonging to the selected category after receiving the affiliate store category from the customer terminal 10 in advance to perform the operation S320. In addition, when the benefit information providing apparatus 20 receives the affiliated store information of interest in operation S310, the affiliated store information may be based on the interested store information instead of location information in searching for the affiliated store in operation S320.

Subsequently, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may perform an operation (S330) of checking the benefits to be provided by the customer at the searched affiliate store. At this time, step S330 may be embodied as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may perform the steps S331 to S334 for calculating the benefits of the affiliate store and the steps S335 to S338 for calculating the card benefits in parallel. Furthermore, the above-described process of calculating the integrated benefits may be performed separately.

First, referring to the process of calculating the benefits of the affiliated store in detail, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may call up the affiliated store incentive information for each retrieved affiliated store (S331). For example, when affiliated stores 1, 2, and 3 are searched based on a location of a customer, incentive information of affiliated store 1, incentive information of affiliated store 2, and incentive information of affiliated store 3 may be called.

Subsequently, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may check the reservation or payment history of the customer for each found affiliate store (S332), and calculate a grade of the customer for each affiliate store (S333). If the customer grade for each merchant is calculated, the steps S332 and S333 may be replaced by calling the stored customer grade.

The benefit information providing apparatus 20 may calculate the affiliate store benefit (S334). Here, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 calculates the affiliate store benefit based on the affiliate store incentive information called in step S331. In this case, when the affiliate incentive information includes information on additional benefits for each member of the affiliate store, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may calculate additional benefits according to the customer grade identified in steps S332 to S333 in addition to the basic benefits. . Additional benefits do not have to be included. At this time, the additional benefits for each of the plurality of affiliated stores may be separately calculated and added to the basic benefits separately calculated for each affiliate.

Meanwhile, referring to the process of calculating the card benefit, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 calls the card information held by the customer included in the customer information (S335).

The benefit information providing apparatus 20 calls the card incentive information corresponding to each card held by the customer (S336), and the called card incentive information includes information on benefits applicable to each of the one or more affiliated stores that are currently searched. Check if it is

On the other hand, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may check the rating of the customer for the card company (S337). The benefit information providing apparatus 20 may check the card information held by the customer or the personal information of the customer in the customer information and request the card company device 40 to confirm the rating information of the corresponding customer. Accordingly, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may check the customer grade for the card company corresponding to each card held by the customer. Further, in step S337, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 transfers the rating information of the customer to the card company apparatus 40 based on the identification number of the customer jointly held by the benefit information providing apparatus 20 and the card company apparatus 40. You may ask.

Subsequently, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may calculate the card benefit when information on the card benefit applicable to the searched merchant exists in the card incentive information called in step S336 (S338). In this case, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 calculates the additional benefits that the customer can receive at the merchant based on the customer grade for each card company identified in step S337 when a card that can be benefited from the searched merchant is searched. Card benefit can be calculated.

Accordingly, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 integrates the affiliate store benefits and the card benefits for each affiliate based on the benefits for each affiliate calculated in step S334 and the benefits of the card companies for each affiliate calculated in step S338. Final benefit information may be generated (S339).

In this case, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may additionally include the aforementioned integrated benefits in the final benefit information.

Subsequently, referring again to FIG. 3, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 provides the customer terminal with the benefit information determined by the affiliated store through step S330 (S340). In this case, the benefit information for each affiliate may be sorted according to various criteria as described above.

When a reservation request for a specific merchant is received from the customer terminal 10 based on the benefit information for each affiliate provided to the customer terminal 10 (S350), the benefit information providing apparatus 20 requests a reservation to the affiliated store terminal 30. Transmit the process to process the reservation (S360), if the payment request is received from the customer terminal 10 for the reserved affiliated store (S370), the payment is processed payment amount (S380).

In addition, the benefit information providing apparatus 20 may accumulate and record the reservation details and payment details of the customer for the affiliate store so that the history may be managed (S390). The history managed in this way may be used to calculate the integrated grade or integrated benefits, or to calculate the customer grade for each merchant.

The method for providing benefit information according to the embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 4 may also be implemented in the form of a recording medium including instructions executable by a computer, such as a program module executed by the computer. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. In addition, computer readable media may include both computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Communication media typically includes computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave, or other transmission mechanism, and includes any information delivery media.

In addition, the method for providing benefit information according to an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented as a computer program (or computer program product) including instructions executable by a computer. The computer program includes programmable machine instructions processed by the processor and may be implemented in a high-level programming language, an object-oriented programming language, an assembly language, or a machine language. . The computer program may also be recorded on tangible computer readable media (eg, memory, hard disks, magnetic / optical media or solid-state drives, etc.).

Therefore, the method of providing benefit information according to an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented by executing the computer program as described above by the computing device. The computing device may include at least a portion of a processor, a memory, a storage device, a high speed interface connected to the memory and a high speed expansion port, and a low speed interface connected to the low speed bus and the storage device. Each of these components are connected to each other using a variety of buses and may be mounted on a common motherboard or otherwise mounted in a suitable manner.

Here, the processor may process instructions within the computing device, such as to display graphical information for providing a graphical user interface (GUI) on an external input, output device, such as a display connected to a high speed interface. Instructions stored in memory or storage. In other embodiments, multiple processors and / or multiple buses may be used with appropriately multiple memories and memory types. The processor may also be implemented as a chipset consisting of chips comprising a plurality of independent analog and / or digital processors.

The memory also stores information within the computing device. In one example, the memory may consist of a volatile memory unit or a collection thereof. As another example, the memory may consist of a nonvolatile memory unit or a collection thereof. The memory may also be other forms of computer readable media, such as, for example, magnetic or optical disks.

In addition, the storage device can provide a large amount of storage space to the computing device. The storage device may be a computer readable medium or a configuration including such a medium, and may include, for example, devices or other configurations within a storage area network (SAN), and may include a floppy disk device, a hard disk device, an optical disk device, Or a tape device, flash memory, or similar other semiconductor memory device or device array.

The foregoing description of the present invention is intended for illustration, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be easily modified in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features of the present invention. will be. Therefore, it should be understood that the embodiments described above are exemplary in all respects and not restrictive. For example, each component described as a single type may be implemented in a distributed manner, and similarly, components described as distributed may be implemented in a combined form.

The scope of the present invention is shown by the following claims rather than the above description, and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and their equivalents should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention. do.

Claims (16)

1. In the benefit information providing method performed by the benefit information providing apparatus,

   Receiving location information or interested merchant information from a customer terminal;

   Searching for at least one affiliate store based on the location information or the affiliate store information of interest;

   Checking affiliate store benefits for each retrieved affiliate store;

   Confirming a card benefit of each of the customer's own credit cards for each of the searched affiliated stores;

   Generating benefits information for each affiliated store by arranging the affiliated store benefits for each of the retrieved affiliated stores and card benefits of each customer's own credit card for each retrieved affiliated store by the retrieved affiliated stores; And

   Providing the benefit information for each affiliated store to the customer terminal, the benefit information providing method.
2. The method of claim 1,

   The location information,

   How to provide benefit information, including information about the current location or location of interest of the customer.
3. The method of claim 1,

   The method,

   Receiving and storing affiliate store incentive information from respective affiliated store terminals corresponding to each affiliate store; And

   And communicating with each card company device to receive and store card incentive information for each credit card type provided by each card company.
4. The method of claim 3,

   Merchant benefits above,

   Calculated based on the merchant incentive information,

   The card benefits above,

   Benefit information calculated by searching for the card incentive information of each of the customer's credit card among the card incentive information for each credit card type, and then extracting the card incentive information including the benefit corresponding to the found merchant from the searched card incentive information How to Provide.
5. The method of claim 3,

   Checking the merchant benefits,

   Confirming the customer grade of the customer for each of the searched affiliated stores, and calculating, for each of the retrieved affiliated stores, additional benefits based on the customer grades, and including the added benefits in the affiliated store benefits.
6. The method according to claim 3 or 5,

   Checking the card benefits,

   Checking a customer grade of a credit card company of a credit card corresponding to card incentive information including a benefit corresponding to the retrieved affiliate store among the credit cards held by the customer; And

   Including the additional benefits based on the customer ratings for the card company in the card benefits, the benefit information providing method.
7. The method of claim 1,

   The method,

   Performing a reservation or payment procedure based on the benefit information for any of the affiliates when a reservation or payment request for any of the affiliates is received from the customer terminal provided with the benefit information for each affiliated store; And

   And storing the performance history of the reservation or payment procedure for the customer.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein

   The method,

   And calculating an integrated benefit for the customer based on the performance history.
9. In the device for providing benefit information,

   An affiliate store search unit for receiving location information or interested affiliate store information from a customer terminal and searching for one or more affiliate stores based on the location information or interested affiliate store information;

   Merchant benefits for each of the searched merchants, and the benefits of the card by each of the customer's holding credit card for each of the searched merchants, and the benefits to create benefits information for each merchant by arranging the merchant benefits and card benefits for each searched merchant A calculator;

   And a benefit information providing unit for providing the benefit information for each affiliated store to the customer terminal.
10. The method of claim 9,

    The benefit information providing apparatus,

    And a customer information management unit for collecting and managing personal information of each customer and credit card information held by each customer from each customer terminal.
11. The method of claim 9,

    The benefit information providing apparatus,

    An affiliated store information management unit configured to receive and store affiliated store information and affiliated store incentive information from respective affiliated store terminals corresponding to each affiliated store; And

    And a card information management unit communicating with each card company device to receive and store card incentive information for each type of credit card provided by each card company.
12. The method of claim 11,

    The benefit calculation unit,

    The merchant benefit is calculated based on merchant incentive information for each of the searched merchants, and the card benefit is retrieved from the card incentive information of each credit card held by the customer among the card incentive information for each credit card type, and then the card incentive found. And extracting and calculating card incentive information including benefits corresponding to the retrieved affiliate store from the information.
13. The method of claim 11,

    The benefit calculation unit,

    Checking the customer grade of the customer for each of the searched affiliated stores, and for each of the searched affiliated stores, calculating the additional benefits based on the customer grade, the benefits information providing apparatus.
14. The method of claim 11,

    The benefit calculation unit,

    Check the customer ratings of the credit card companies of the credit card corresponding to the card incentive information including the benefits corresponding to the retrieved merchant among the credit card held by the customer, and the additional benefits based on the customer ratings for the credit card companies to the card benefits Including, benefit information providing apparatus.
15. The method of claim 11,

    The benefit information providing apparatus,

    A reservation and payment processing unit that performs a reservation or payment procedure based on the benefit information for the arbitrary affiliate store when a reservation or payment request for any affiliate store is received from the customer terminal provided with the offer information for each affiliate store; And

    And a history management unit for storing the performance history of the reservation or payment procedure for the customer.
16. The method of claim 15,

    The benefit calculation unit,

    And calculating an integrated benefit for the customer based on the performance history.

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