GB2508128A - Facilitating transactions between customers and service providers by utilizing multi way online bidding - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for facilitating transactions between customers and service providers enables a customer and a service provider to interact with each other through the process of multiple internet bidding for time scheduled services (i.e. appointments). The customer allocates a group of service providers by specifying the required service, location and time frame when the service is to be provided. A search engine returns a list of the service providers matching the search criteria. The customer can make as many offers as she/he likes to the different service providers he prefers based on the rating, distance or other criteria. Each offer specifies job date, job time, offer value (bid) and offer response deadline - the date and time the service provider is required to feedback the offer. The service provider in its turn receives multiple bids which may overlap in time. Based on the bid value, distance or rating the service provider accepts the offer preferred. When an offer has been accepted by one of the service providers, the system automatically updates the service provider time availability, disregards the related offers to other service providers and rejects the offers from other customers which overlap in time.

Description

Method and Apparatus for Facilitating Transactions Between Customers and Service Providers by Utilizing Multi Way Online Bidding

Technical field

The present discLosure is generally reLated to networked computer systems and, more particuLarly, is related to online time management and online marketplaces.

Background of invention

The invention generalLy relates to the field of electronic commerce and more particuLarLy to time management and time alLocation modeLs and methods. The disclosed methods implement a true marketplace which is driven by pure demand and suppLy principLes and provides the pLatform for customers and service providers to interact with each other by utilizing an online solution.

Business to customer interaction in terms of e-commerce and appointment seLling through the process of internet bidding is not new. The foLlowing patent pubLications are exampLes reLating to e-commerce: US 7,069,241 Bl Sheth et aL US 7,373,319 61 Kopelman, et aL US 7,386,508 61 Walker et aL (facilitating transactions between a buyer and a seLler) US 7,069,242 Bl Sheth et aL US 2007/0116216 Al Steve Carmichael et aL (appointment trading) CA 2405112 Al MCKINSEY a COMPANY INC CA2528991 Al COPART INC CA2687467 Al Siddiquie et al (service provider appointment scheduLing) WO2O1 2031081 SORLANDER (Advertising time slot selLing) WO2008091 545 Telcordia Technologies, Inc. "System and method for enabLing service providers to create real-time reverse auctions for location based services"

Summary of the Invention

In a conventionaL marketpLace a service provider showcases her or his services, availability and list prices for each service to a customer. When the customer contacts the service provider it is generalLy understood between both parties that the customer will pay the predetermined price and in general there is no negotiation on the price.

Some online appointment auction systems allow putting time sLots up for auction in order to collect offers from the customers. Once the offer coLlection period is over the service provider selects the most advantageous bid while other potentiaL customers have to join another auction or have to use a fixed price service. Such an appointment trading method is highly inefficient as the customer is not sure whether the service will be provided until the auction is finished. This can be problematic if the service is needed rather soon.

The present invention is unique in that it allows the service consumer (customer) to bid on as many appointments as she or he likes, so avoiding dependency on a single auction result.

This is extremeLy vaLuabLe for time sensitive services.

PreferabLy the method of the invention automaticalLy Links together all the related bids and updates its status according to the actions a service provider or a customer has taken. The onLine appLication automaticalLy buiLds the relation between the bids creating a multi-way bidding auction and withdraws alL the remaining bids once one of them is won.

Another customer benefit is that the muLtiple bids put the service providers in competition as the job is allocated to the one who accepts the offer first.

The computer based methods of the invention preferably enable the service providers to advertise their services, time availability and geographical location so that the customer can search and bid on time scheduled services.

The benefit for the service providers is that they can effectiveLy selL their time sensitive services in a flexible manner for prices which are dictated by the market demand.

The offer detaiLs such as bid vaLue and location preferably are shared between the customer and the service provider only, so that other bids are independent from the previous ones.

Brief description of the drawings

Aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood from the folLowinE description of illustrative embodiments made with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings.

The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon cLearly ilLustrating the principLes of the present disclosure and the means for putting the invention into effect. Moreover, the various features and integers of the different embodiments may be combined with or substituted for one another in ways not specificaLLy illustrated, all within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims. In the drawings, Like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the severaL views.

Fig.1 is a diagram of a system that may be used to implement embodiments of the present invention.

Fig.2 is a diagram of an exampLe of a server site including web server, appLication and database.

Fig. 3 is a diagram of a database structure showing tables which may be used in an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig.4 is a diagram showing the format of the relationaL tables of Fig. 3 and logicaL Links between the database records.

Fig. 5 is a simplified diagram describing the LogicaL connections between database records.

Fig.6 is a fLow diagram of the service provider details input/update process.

Fig.7 is a fLow diagram showing the making of job offer(s) by the customer (bidding).

Fig.8 shows the multipLe logical connections between a customer and muLtipLe service providers through the automaticaLLy created job item and the offers.

Fig.9 shows an example of multiple Logical connections between multiple customers and the multiple service providers through the job items and job offers.

Fig.1O is a flow diagram which ilLustrates an exampLe of interactions between the customers, the application and the service providers due to an offer accept event.

Fig.1 1 shows the updated status of the diagram of Fig 9 once one of the offers has been accepted.

Fig.12 is a flow diagram which ilLustrates an exampLe of interactions between the customers, the application and the service providers in case of accepted offer cancelLation by a service provider.

Fig.13 shows the updated status of the diagram on Fig.11 once one of the offers has been cancelled.

Fig.14 is a flowchart which describes the Logical Links creation process between a job item and multiple job offers (bids).

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments

The illustrated methods and systems provide the ability for customers to soLicit a time scheduled service or services from multiple service providers in the form of muLtiple job offers which can be considered as bids for an appointment.

Fig 1 is a diagram of a system which may be used to implement the described embodiments of the present invention. The system includes a server hosting a website 101 (hereinafter "website"), a service consumer (hereinafter "customer") terminal 102, a service provider terminal 103 and a network 104 such as the Internet. Each service provider terminaL 103 and customer terminal 102 may comprise a desktop computer, Laptop, handheld computer tablet, wireLess communication smartphones etc., being any suitable means that can connect to the network and get access to website 101.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention is impLemented in a client-server environment as shown herein. The Internet is one example of a client-server environment.

However, any other appropriate type of cLient-server environment such as an intranet, a wireLess network, a VPN, a teLephone network, etc. may also be used. The present invention is not limited to the client-server modeL and could be implemented using any other appropriate model. The described embodiment uses the worLd-wide-web, although other protocols may be used and other, newer versions of the web may also be used.

Fig 2 is a diagram of the website 101. The website 101 incLudes a web server 220, an application 230 and a database 240. The database in its turn includes a number of. The web server 220 provides the connection to the network. The application 230 implements the steps necessary to communicate with the customer terminaL 102 and the service provider terminal 103. The application 230 further generates information based on the communications with the customer terminal 102 and the service provider terminal 103.

The database 240 includes memory storage of information received from the customer terminal 102 and the service provider terminal 106 and information generated by the application 230. The generation and storage of information is discussed in greater detail below.

ALthough, in the illustrated embodiment the server 220, application 230 and database 240 are shown as singLe units, they may include one or more physical computer systems.

Fig 3 provides the database 240 structure overview. The database contains a number of reLational tables i.e. the table records are in reLation to each other. The disclosed embodiment comprises a table 310 which contains the user information, a table 320 which contains the service provider time availability information, a table 330 which contains the information regarding job offers (bids) and a table 340 which contains the job items. The roLe of each tabLe is described in further detail below.

The database 240 may also contain other generic tabLes 350 such as login information, rating information and others which are not used in the present invention description.

The present invention is not limited by the database structure shown in Fig 3. The data may be stored in formats different from tables such as plain text. The number of tables aLso may vary as some of them can be merged so that all the required data is stored in a single table.

Fig 4 iLlustrates the structure of the relationaL tables and the logical relations between the database records. The database 240 comprises number of relational tables to store the information reLated to the customers and to the service providers and the interactions between the customers and the service providers. The relations between the different tabLe records are created by using unique record identifiers. The ilLustrated embodiment is based on the foLLowing five tables:

Table 310

The database table 310 is used to store the user major information such as Full name, Date of birth, address and provided services list which may be empty in case of customer reLated records. The table may also include some optional information such as distance the user is willing to travel etc. The column liserl D (4101) specifies the unique user ID.

The column Full Name (4102) specifies the user fulL name or business name.

The column Address (4103) specifies the user address and/or postcode.

The column Phone Number (4104) specifies the user contact phone number.

The column ProvidedServices (4105) specifies the list of the provided services. This field to be used by the service providers onLy and may stay empty for the customers.

Table 320

The time availabiLity table contains the information regarding the time periods (time slots) the service provider is wiLling to advertise.

The column Userl D (4201) is a unique user identifier.

The column Availabilityl nit (4202) specifies the time avaiLability before any job offer has been accepted by the service provider.

The column AvailabilityCurrent (4203) specifies the current time availability considering the previously accepted job offers.

Table 340

Jobs table 340 is used to store the information related to a unique job item. Each job record is created automaticaLly by the appLication 230 and is used as a common reference point for the multipLe offers (bids). The job item role is discussed in further detail beLow. Each job table record contains the following information: The column JobiD (4401) is a unique Job item identification.

The column SCID (4402) is the customer UseriD (4101) which initiated the job creation process.

The column JobDate (4403) is the date the job is to be executed.

The column RequestedService (4404) specifies the required service such as "cLeaning", "child minding" etc. The column JobDescription (4405) provides some optionaL extra information regarding the job (location details, required service provider qualifications etc.) The column JobStatus (4406) is used by the application to track the status of the job which can be "active", "assigned" etc. The column JobAllocation (4407) specifies the UseriD (4101) of the service provider the job is aLlocated to.

Table 330

The Offers table is used to store the offer related information. Each offer record represents a single job offer initiated by a customer and contains the following fieLds: OffenD (4301) contains a unique offer identification number.

OfferSPiD (4302) contains the UseriD (4101) of the service provider who received the offer; OffenSCiD (4303) contains the UseriD (4101) of the customer who initiated the offer; OfferJoblD (4305) contains the JobiD (4201) of the job record the offer is Linked to.

OfferPrice (4306) contains the offer price defined by the customer.

OfferDeadline (4307) -the date and time until the offer is active. Once the deadline is passed the appLication marks the offer as "Expired" which makes it impossible to accept.

OfferStatus (4308) -the parameter used to store the offer status which can be "Active", "Accepted", "Rejected", "Expired", etc. The Logical link 450 is created by using a unique UseriD identifier and links together tabLe 310 and 340 records.

The Logical link 451 is created by using a unique JobiD identifier and Links together tabLe 340 and 330 records.

The Logical link 452 is created by using a unique UseriD identifier and links together tabLe 330 and 310 records.

The invention is not limited by the tabLe format shown in Fig 4. For example the tables may contain additional columns and the column names may vary.

Fig 5 introduces the simpLified and easy to understand diagram which represents the Logical reLations between the database records.

The Customer 510 represents a table 310 record reLated to the customer who initiates a job offer.

The Job Item 520 represents a table 340 record which is created automatically by the application.

The Offer 530 represents a table 330 record. The offer box 530 also shows the job time whose use is described later.

The Service Provider 540 represent a tabLe 310 record related to the service provider who gets the offer 530.

The Link 511 represents the Logical connection 450.

The Link 521 represents the Logical connection 451.

The Link 531 represents the Logical connection 452.

The diagram format introduced in Fig.5 is widely used further in the invention descriplion.

Fig 6 is a flow diagram of the service provider details input/update process.

First the service provider specifies the provided services detaiLs, location and time availability (610). The process is initiated by the service provider. The service details may include e.g. the service provider's qualifications, experience, references, independent ratings, reviews, etc. and expected rates. The service provider may aLso upload some graphics/pictures reLated to the provided services.

Then appLication 230 validates the provided data as shown in 620 and once the detaiLs are confirmed to be valid the application updates the database corresponding tables such as tables 310, 320 and any others as appLicable (step 630).

Fig 7 is a flow diagram showing the job offer (bidding) process. The process is initiated by the customer.

710: First the customer completes the search form where she/he specifies the required type of service, Location and time frame the service to be provided. She/he aLso may specify some additional search criteria such as job duration or the distance she/he is willing to traveL.

720: The application returns a list of service providers which match the search criteria specified in 710.

730: The customer chooses one or more service providers based on the displayed details such as rating, distance, expected rate, etc in order to make a job offer (bid). The customer completes the job offer form where she/he specifies the job starting time, duration and the offer monetary value (offer price), offer deadline, etc. The customer is aLlowed to make as many job offers as she/he likes to the different service providers bidding for the same time period (time slot).

740: The application vaLidates the job offer(s) and maps the offer(s) to the automatically created job item.

Fig 8 shows the multiple logical connections between the customer and the service providers through the automaticaLLy created job item and the offers. The aim of the diagram is to

B

display the multi way bidding system which allows a customer to initiate muLtipLe offers to the different service providers for the same time period.

The appLication 230 returns a group of service providers 810 matching the search criteria specified by the customer 840. The search criteria may include the type of service required, date and time the service is required, etc. The customer 840 chooses the service providers to make a job offer to by submitting the offer form where se/he specifies the job details such as the job starting time, duration, offer vaLue and other reLevant information. The customer is alLowed to make as many offers for the same time period (time slot) as she/he Likes. The application 230 links the newLy created offer 820 to an automaticaLly created job item 830 and updates the corresponding tables in database 240.

The appLication 230 maps alL the customer 840's following offers 821 and 822 to the existing job item 830 according to the algorithm described in Fig 14.

Fig. 9 shows the example of multipLe logicaL connections between multiple customers (940, 941, 942) and the service providers through the job items and job offers. Customer 1 (930) has made three offers (920, 921, 922) to three different service providers 911, 912, 913.

These three offers are mapped to the single job item 1 (930) and specify the same start time 9:00.

Customer 2 (941) made a singLe offer 923 to the service provider 3 (913) which is connected to the job item 2 (931). The offer specifies a start time of 13:00.

Customer 3 (942) made an offer 924 to the service provider 3 (913) and an offer 925 to the service provider 4 (914) both for a job starting at 9:00. The various offers from the various customers comprise various price bids.

Service provider 3 (913) received three job offers 922, 923 and 924 from three different customers. Offer 3 (922) and offer 4 (924) are for the same time slot starting at 9:00.

The status of all offers is "Active" i.e. the offers can be accepted by the service providers.

Fig 10 is a flow diagram which illustrates an example of interactions between the customers, the application and the service providers due to an offer accept event. The exampLe is based on the diagram shown in Fig. 9 Step 1 (1001) Service provider 3 (913) has received three job offers: offer 3 (922), offer 4 (923), offer 5 (924) and accepted the offer 3 (922) as the most advantageous.

Step 2 (1002, 1003) Once the appLication 230 received the job acceptance from service provider 3 (913) it updates the database records corresponded to the offer 3 (922) to mark offer as "accepted" and updates the database record related to job item 1 (930) to mark the job as aLLocated to the service provider 3 (913). Then the application 230 extracts alL other offers related to the job item 1 and updates their status to inactive so that the service provider 1 (911) and the service provider 2 (912) cannot accept the offers 920 and 921 respectively.

Step 3 (1004, 1005, 1006) The appLication 230 notifies customer 1 (940) that the offer has been accepted and the job has been allocated to the service provider 3 (91 3). The application may also optionally notify service provider 1 (911) and service provider 2 (912) that the offer 1 (920) and offer 2 (921) are not active anymore.

Step4(1007, 1008, 1009) Application 230 updates service provider 3 (913) time availability (additionaLLy unavailable for two hours commencing 9:000 and searches for the job offers which are clashing in time with the recentLy accepted one. The Fig 9 example shows that the accepted offer 3 (922) is clashing with offer 5 (924) as both these offers request the timeslot from 9:00 tilL 11:00.

The appLication thus then changes offer 5 (924) status to "rejected" because the service provider 3 (913) cannot accept it because it conflicts with the already accepted offer 3 (922). The application may optionalLy notify customer 3 (942) that the offer 5 (924) has been rejected.

Fig 11 shows the updated status of the Fig 9 diagram once the offer 3 has been accepted.

Application 230 has updated the database records as follows: Job Item 1 (930) has been switched to the new status "ALlocated" so that the service provider 3 (913) [or customer] can cancel it if desired by the service provider [or customer] and if either or both such cancellation(s) is/are aLLowed under the system ruLes; Offer 1 (920) and Offer 2 (921) have been switched to status "Inactive" so that the service provider 1 (911) and the service provider 2 (921) cannot accept these offers.

Offer 5 (924) has been switched to the status "Rejected" as it is clashing in time with the accepted offer 3 (922). Acceptance of offer 3 by service provider 3 necessarily implies rejection of the time-conflicting offer 5.

ALl other job and offer records stay the same as before.

The appLication 230 may use any other non-verbal format to highlight the job item and job offer status such as a numerical one. For example status "Active" might be encoded as number "1".

Fig 12 is a flow diagram which illustrates an example of interactions between the customers, the application and the service providers in case of offer cancellation, based on the diagram shown in Fig. 11.

Step 1 (1201) Service provider 3 (913) cancels the previously accepted offer 3 (922).

Step 2 (1202, 1203) Once the appLication 230 has received the offer canceLation from service provider 3 (913) it switches the offer 3 (922) status to "CancelLed", job item 1 (930) status from "AlLocated" to "Active" and searches the database 240 to extract alL the offers reLated to job item 1 (930) in order to switch their status back to "Active" so that service provider 1 (911) or service provider 2 (912) can accept the offer 1 (920) or offer 2 (921) respectively, if they wish.

Step 3 (1204, 1205, 1206) Application 230 notifies the customer 1 (930) that the acceptance of the offer 3 (922) has been canceLled by the service provider 3 (913). Application 230 aLso notifies the service provider 1 (911) and the service provider 2 (912) that the offer 1 (920) and the offer 2 (921) are active again.

Step 4 (1207, 1208, 1209) Application 230 updates the service provider 3 (913) time availability and verifies if there are other offers which has been previously rejected due to the time clash and switches their status back to "Active", if any. Application 230 updates the database to record the new status of the offei 5 (924) to mark it as "Active" as the pievious time clash is cleaied once the offei 3 (922) is canceled.

Application 230 may optionally notify the customer 3 (924) that the offerS (924) is active again.

Fig 13 shows the updated status of the Hg 11 diagram once the offer 3 acceptance has been cancelled.

Application 230 has updated the database records as follows: Job Item 1 (930) has been moved from status "Allocated" to the new status "Active" Offer 1 (920) and offer 2 (921) have been switched back to the status "Active" so that the service provider 1 (920) and service provider 2 (921) can accept them if they so choose; Offer 3 (922) has been switched to status "Cancelled" because the service provider 3 (913) has withdrawn their originaL acceptance.

Offer 5 (924) has been switched back to the status "Active" as the time clash with Offer 3 (922) is cleared making it possibLe for the service provider 3 (913) to accept it.

ALl other job and offer records stay the same as it shown on Fig 11. It is to be understood that permitting service providers to withdraw acceptance of offers as described above is an optional general ruLe of the onLine bidding system and process. In addition or in the aLternative, a similar optional general rule may be instigated to alLow consumers to withdraw bids, and/or bids to be deemed withdrawn automaticalLy by the application 230, e.g. if payment criteria are not fuLfilled within a certain time of offer acceptance and/or the scheduled time of service delivery. A bid withdrawn by a customer or deemed withdrawn by the application 230 has consequences simiLar to those of an acceptance withdrawn by a service provider, as shown in Figs 9-13, mutatis mutandis. Still other generaL rules may be implemented in the online bidding system and process.

Fig. 14 is a flowchart which describes the logical links creation process between a job item (340) and multiple job offers (bids) 330. The described method of interaction between a customer and a service provider uses an automaticalLy created job item record which acts as a common reference point for the multipLe job offers (bids).

The job creation process is initiated by the customer by submitting a job offer form where she/he specifies the type of service and the job date. The appLication 230 searches for a matching job item in table 340 with the corresponding service (4404), date (4403) and customer ID (4402) parameters. The application may use other job item search criteria depending on implementation.

If the application failed to find a job item with the matching parameters then it creates a new job record in table 340 and Links it to the newly submitted job offer.

If the job record exists and offer is valid then the appLication links the new offer to the existing job item.

The described method allows muLtiple job offers (bids) to be mapped to a single job item, thereby building a multi way bidding system for the same time period.

Claims (19)

1. Ctaims: 1) A computer implemented method of facilitating interactions between customers and service providers in consideration of the service provider time availability and the provided services, comprising: a. providing a database containing service provider identity information and type of service offered information; b. Providing a database containing information regarding the service providers' time availability; c. Allowing the customers to initiate muLtiple job offers for a specified service type and time of performance; d. Allowing the service providers to review and accept/reject the offers received from the customers.
2. 2) The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein a customer is allowed to initiate the muLtiple job offers targeted to different service providers but the same time of performance.
3. 3) The computer implemented method of claim br 2 where alL the job offers made to a given service provider are collated and the given service provider is allowed to accept a single offer from the coLlated offers.
4. 4) The computer implemented method of any preceding claim in which the multiple job offers are automaticaLly linked together to a single job item.
5. 5) The computer implemented method of claim 4 in which when the status of one of the offers is changed, the status of other reLated offers is consequentialLy affected automaticalLy.
6. 6) The computer implemented method of claim 4 or 5 in which a newly submitted job offer is Linked to an existing job item if an associated customer identity, specified service type and time of performance match those of an existing submitted job offer but otherwise is Linked to a newLy created job item.
7. 7) The computer implemented method of any preceding claim in which the service provider time avaiLability is automaticaLly updated according to the job offers which have been accepted.
8. 8) The computer implemented method of any preceding claim in which acceptance of an offer causes other offers with clashing performance times to be automatically rejected.
9. 9) The computer implemented method of any preceding claim in which the service provider time avaiLability is automaticaLly updated foLlowing canceLlation of an accepted job offer.
10. 10) The computer implemented method of claim 9 in which the status of job offers which were cancelled due to the accepted job offer are updated following the cancellation of the accepted job offer.
11. 11) The computer implemented method of any preceding claim in which cancelLation of accepted job offers by the service provider is aLlowed.
12. 12) The computer implemented method of any preceding claim in which cancellation of accepted job offers by the customer is allowed.
13. 13)The computer implemented method of any preceding claim, in which a database is used, comprising job item records, and in which: each job item record comprises a job identifier, a customer identifier, job status information and job allocation information.
14. 14) The computer implemented method of claim 13, in which the database comprises user records, and in which: each user record comprises a user identifier, name information and contact information.
15. 15) The computer implemented method of claim 14, in which the user record name information comprises service provider name information or customer name information.
16. 16) The computer implemented method of claim 13, 14 or 15, in which the database comprises service provider time availability records, and in which: each service provider time availability record comprises a user identifier and current availability information.
17. 17) The computer implemented method of claim 13, 14, 15 or 16, in which the database comprises offer records, and in which: each offer record comprises an offer identifier, a service provider identifier, a customer identifier, a job identifier, offer price information and offer status information.
18. 18)The computer implemented method of claim 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, in which the user identifiers in the user records are logicalLy Linked to the customer identifiers in the job item records, the job identifiers in the job item records are LogicaLly linked to the job identifiers in the offers records and the service provider identifiers in the offers records are logicaLly linked to the user identifiers in the user records.
19. 19) A computer readable medium containing instructions for carrying out the method of any preceding claim.