JP2001067534A - Prepaid card system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily provide service that a customer satisfies highly. SOLUTION: Once a prepaid card is inserted into a reader, the reader reads out card information such as use date information, use amount information, and winning frequency information (S1). Then the reader decide whether or not the cumulative use amount of the day is larger than a sets amount downloaded from a repeating device according to used amount information obtained from the prepaid card (S4). When the decision result of S4 meets the condition (Yes), the reader decides whether or not a winning frequency of the day is less than the set frequency downloaded from the repeating device according to the winding frequency information (S5). When the decision result of S5 meets the condition (Yes), the reader sets the level of service provided by a service providing device to 'special service mode' (S6).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a prepaid card system in which a prepaid card is used as a means for paying a paid service.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in an entertainment facility such as a game center, a game service using a prepaid card is provided. Some of these types of entertainment facilities are so-called "station squares", which open in downtown areas in front of the station. Especially when it comes to urban-type terminal stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area, etc. It is not unusual for 10 to 15 stores to be crowded at the terminal station.

[0003] In such a store opening situation, there is a tendency for competition for customers in the same area. Therefore, each store introduces a membership system or provides more advantageous services than other stores (competitive stores). And strive to increase customer satisfaction.

[0004]

However, when these services are realized, customer satisfaction can be improved, but capital investment in service facilities required for the implementation of excessive services and advantages over other stores are achieved. There is also a risk that the management will deteriorate due to the provision of various services. For this reason, in regions where competitors are crowded, there has been a tendency in recent years that stores have become difficult to manage due to excessive competition.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a service with high customer satisfaction in a prepaid card system.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a prepaid card system according to the present invention is a prepaid card system in which a prepaid card is used as a means for paying a paid service, wherein the prepaid card is used for a predetermined period of time. History information acquisition means for reading history information indicating the total usage amount and the number of times the special service has been received, and a service mode to be provided based on the history information read by the history information acquisition means. Service level setting means for setting any one of the above.

[0007] In this case, the service level setting means determines whether the cumulative usage amount is equal to or more than the set amount and determines whether the number of times of enjoying the special service is equal to or less than the set number. When both conditions are satisfied, the service level may be set to a special service mode.

[0008] Further, the reading device of the present invention is a reading device that updates information recorded on a prepaid card used as a payment means of a pay service according to consumption,
A history information acquisition unit for reading history information indicating a cumulative amount of money used for a certain period of time and the number of times a special service has been received from a prepaid card; and Service level setting means for setting any one of the advantageous special service modes.

In this case, the service level setting means determines whether the cumulative usage amount is equal to or more than the set amount and determines whether the number of times of enjoying the special service is equal to or less than the set number. When both conditions are satisfied, the service level may be set to a special service mode.

[0010] According to the above configuration, it is possible to appropriately select a service level to be provided to a customer according to the total usage amount and the number of times the special service is enjoyed during a certain period.
Therefore, for customers who may be dissatisfied with the service level, it is possible to easily prevent leakage to other stores by providing services in a special service mode which is more advantageous than the normal mode. . In addition, for a customer who is not likely to be dissatisfied with the service level, by providing the service in the normal mode, it is possible to easily suppress excessive service provision at the own store.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of the prepaid card system according to the first embodiment. This system is
A relay device 2 for centrally managing the card information of the prepaid card 1 and a service level provided by the service providing device 4 based on the card information read from the prepaid card 1 and updating the card information according to consumption and the like. The prepaid card 1 is a rechargeable membership card that can be used only in the same store.

As shown in FIG. 3, the prepaid card 1 has a card ID for uniquely identifying a card, card balance information indicating a use (consumption) limit, use date information indicating the latest card use date, and the latest Usage amount information (a part of the history information) indicating the total usage amount used on the card usage day, and the jackpot number information indicating the number of jackpots enjoyed by the user of the prepaid card 1 on the latest card usage day ( An IC card capable of storing card information such as part of history information).

The reading device 3 is a processing unit 3 for performing processing such as acquisition and updating of card information recorded on the prepaid card 1.
1, a card insertion unit 32 as an interface with the prepaid card 1, and a communication interface (hereinafter abbreviated as “communication IF”) 33 for communicating with other devices. This processing unit 31
Further, a card information acquisition unit (history information acquisition unit) 35 for reading card information from the prepaid card 1, a service level setting unit (service level setting unit) 36, an update processing unit 37, and a card information notification unit 38 are provided.

Before setting the service level provided by the service providing apparatus 4, the service level setting section 36 uses the usage amount information and the jackpot based on the usage date information obtained from the prepaid card 1 by the card information obtaining section 35. A date determination process is performed to determine whether the count information should be cleared to zero. This date determination process determines whether or not the date acquired by a real-time clock (not shown) matches the latest card use date indicated by the use date information. If the determination result satisfies the condition, The use amount information and the number of jackpots information are cleared to zero by the update processing unit 37.

Next, the service level setting unit 36 determines whether the accumulated usage amount consumed by the card user on that day is equal to or greater than the set amount based on the usage amount information and the number of jackpots, and It is determined whether or not the number of jackpots enjoyed is equal to or less than the set number. If both of these determination results satisfy the condition, the service level provided by the service providing device 4 is set to “special service mode”. Otherwise, set to "normal mode".

The update processing unit 37 updates the card balance information and the usage amount information in accordance with the consumption. When the date does not match the latest card usage date indicated by the usage date information of the prepaid card 1, that is, When the determination result in the date determination process satisfies the condition, the usage date information is updated to the date of the day, the usage amount information and the jackpot count information are cleared to zero, and a jackpot signal is received from the service providing apparatus 4. In such a case, a process of incrementing the number of times of jackpot information is performed.

The card information notification section 38 includes an update processing section 37
Notifying the relay device 2 of the updated card information in
A process of notifying the service providing device 4 of the service level set by the service level setting unit 36 is performed. As a result, the relay device 2 updates the recorded contents of its own database, and the service providing device 4 starts providing the service at one of the service levels of the “normal mode” and the “special service mode”. .

Next, an outline of the operation of the prepaid card system configured as described above will be described. When the prepaid card 1 is inserted into the reading device 3 from the card insertion unit 32, the card information acquisition unit 35 of the reading device 3 reads the card information recorded on the prepaid card 1, and the service level setting unit 36 The service level provided by the service providing device 4 is set based on the information.

This service level indicates whether the customer is satisfied with a low level of “losing”, in other words, a state where the number of jackpots is small or not at all with respect to the total usage amount of the day. It is set based on whether there is. In the present embodiment, as a result of the determination by the service level setting unit 36, if the total usage amount of the day is equal to or more than the set amount and the number of jackpots is equal to or less than the set number, the service level is set to “special service mode”. You.
The set amount and the set number are notified in advance from the relay device 2 to each of the reading devices 3 via the communication IF 33, and can be changed at regular intervals such as hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly units.

When the card information acquisition unit 38 of the reading device 3 notifies the service providing device 4 of the service level via the communication IF 33, the service providing device 4 starts providing the service at the notified service level. . That is, when the service level is the “special service mode”, the customer receives a “big hit” with a smaller usage amount than the previous time.

[0022] As a result, it is possible to recover customer satisfaction for a customer who has a possibility that the degree of satisfaction is remarkably reduced and flows to another store, and to easily prevent the flow of customers to another store. In addition, for customers whose satisfaction level has not decreased so much and there is no risk of leaking to other stores, providing services in the "normal mode" will provide Provision can be easily suppressed.

Next, the flow of processing performed by the reading device 3 to set the service level will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Note that it is assumed that the set amount and the set number of times as the service level setting reference have been downloaded to the reading device 3 from the relay device 2 via the communication IF 33 in advance. In this state, when the prepaid card 1 is inserted into the reading device 3 from the card insertion section 32,
The card information acquisition unit 35 of the reading device 3 reads card information such as card ID, card balance information, use date information, use amount information, and jackpot number information (S1).

Then, the service level setting unit 36 of the reading device 3 determines whether the date acquired by the real-time clock matches the latest card use date based on the read use date information (S2). . When the determination result of S2 does not satisfy the condition (No), the reading device 3
Update processing section 37 updates the use date information recorded on the prepaid card 1 to the date of the day, and clears the use amount information and the number of jackpots information to zero (S
3). On the other hand, when the determination result of S2 satisfies the condition (Ye
s) and S3 are skipped.

Next, the service level setting unit 36 of the reading device 3 determines whether or not the accumulated usage amount of the day is equal to or more than the set amount downloaded from the relay device 2 based on the usage amount information acquired from the prepaid card 1. (S
4). When the determination result of S4 does not satisfy the condition (N
o), the service level provided by the service providing device 4 is set to “normal mode” (S6). This is because if the total usage amount of the day is less than the set amount, the customer will not feel “losing” regardless of the number of jackpots.

If the result of the determination in S4 satisfies the condition (Ye
s) The service level setting unit 36 of the reading device 3 determines whether the number of jackpots appearing on that day is equal to or less than the set number downloaded from the relay device 2 based on the number of jackpots acquired from the prepaid card 1 (S5). ).
If the determination result of S5 does not satisfy the condition (No),
The service level provided by the service providing device 4 is set to “normal mode” (S6). This is because even if the accumulated usage amount of the day is equal to or greater than the set amount, if the number of jackpots is equal to or greater than the set number, the customer does not feel "losing".

On the other hand, if the result of the determination in S5 satisfies the condition (Yes), the service level provided by the service providing device 4 is set to "special service mode" (S7). This means that if the total usage amount for the day is equal to or greater than the set amount and the number of jackpots for the day is equal to or less than the set number, the customer will feel "losing" and will be leaked to other stores. This is because there is a fear.

When the service level is set to the “special service mode” in the reading device 3 and the service level is transmitted to the service providing device 4 through communication via the communication IF 33, the service providing device 4 The service provision in the "special service mode" is started, and the fact is displayed so that the user can recognize it.

After that, when a “big hit” occurs in the service providing device 4, a big hit signal is transmitted from the service providing device 4 to the reading device 3 via the communication IF 33. Upon receiving the jackpot signal, the update processing unit 37 of the reading device 3 updates not only the card balance information and the usage amount information according to consumption but also updates the jackpot number information (increment of the jackpot number).

Next, a prepaid card system according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The present system relates to a prepaid card system in which a rechargeable prepaid card issued at a ticket vending machine at each store can be commonly used at a plurality of stores. Hereinafter, the description will be given with the same reference numerals given to the same or similar components as those of the first embodiment, focusing on the differences from the first embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 5, in addition to the above card information, the prepaid card 1 also stores a store code indicating the ticketing store of the prepaid card 1 or the store used last time. This store code is recorded on the prepaid card 1 at the time of issuing a ticket at the ticket vending machine or at the time of using the reading device 3. For this reason,
The ticket vending machine and the reading device 3 store the store code of the store in the memory.

The service level setting unit 36 of the reading device 3
Determines, in addition to the above processing, whether the store code acquired from the prepaid card 1 matches the store code of the own store stored in the memory. In addition, in addition to the above-described processing, the update processing unit 37 of the reading device 3 also updates the shop code to the shop code of the shop when the inserted shop code of the prepaid card 1 is not the shop code of the shop. Do.

Next, an outline of the operation of the present system will be described. When the prepaid card 1 is inserted into the reading device 3 from the card insertion unit 32, the card information acquisition unit 35 of the reading device 3 reads the card information recorded on the prepaid card 1, and the read store code is stored in another store. If it is a code, the update processing unit 37 updates the store code to the store code of the own store. The service level setting unit 36 of the reading device 3
The service level provided by the service providing device 4 is set based on the usage amount information and the jackpot number information.

This service level is set through the same processing as in the first embodiment. However, in this embodiment, the cumulative use is not at the own store but at another store (there may be two or more stores). Set based on amount and number of jackpots. This means that when a customer at another store came to their store, they could not be satisfied with the service of the other store, so if they provided the customer with the “special service mode” service at their store, This is because new customers can be easily obtained.

When the shop code is the shop code of the shop itself, the same shop card processing as the processing of FIG. 1 is performed. For this reason, even in the own store, it is possible to easily prevent the outflow of customers to other stores by providing a service in the "special service mode" to customers with a low degree of satisfaction, By providing the service in the “normal mode” to a customer who is unlikely to flow out to another store, it is possible to easily suppress excessive service provision in the own store.

Next, the flow of processing performed by the reading device 3 to set the service level will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the figure, the same processes as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same step numbers, and description thereof is omitted.

When the prepaid card 1 is inserted into the reading device 3 from the card insertion portion 32, the card information acquiring portion 35 of the reading device 3 outputs the card ID, card balance information, use date information, use amount information, jackpot number information. , And card information such as a store code (S11). Next, the service level setting unit 36 of the reading device 3 determines whether the store code acquired from the prepaid card 1 matches the store code of the store itself (S12).

When the result of the determination in S12 satisfies the condition (Y
es), the reading device 3 performs its own store card processing (S1).
3). This own store card processing is the same as the processing of S2 to S7 in FIG. On the other hand, if the determination result in S12 does not satisfy the condition (No), the update processing unit 37 of the reading device 3 updates the store code to the store code of the own store (S14). This S
The processing after 14 is the same as the processing from S4 to S7 in FIG.

In the above embodiments, an IC card is used as a prepaid card.
An optical card or a magnetic card may be used. The service providing device 4 is not limited to a slot machine, and may be various game machines, and may include a service level setting unit 36 instead of the reading device 3. Furthermore, the content of the service provided in the “special service mode” is such that, in addition to increasing the probability of occurrence of the “big hit” of the service providing device 4, a predetermined number of coins are presented, and drinks and premiums are presented. Is also good.

In this case, when the "special service mode" is selected on the reading device 3, a lamp or the like is displayed on the reading device 3 or the service providing device 4 so that the clerk can recognize the selection. The clerk who saw it will provide coins, drinks, prizes and the like for free on the spot. In addition, the jackpot count information in this case is stored in the service level setting unit 36.
When the “special service mode” is set, the update processing unit 37 increments the value.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The service level to be provided to the customer can be appropriately selected according to the total usage amount and the number of times the special service has been enjoyed over a certain period, so that customers who may be dissatisfied with the service level are more advantageous than the normal mode Providing services in a special service mode makes it easy to prevent outflows to other stores, and provides services in the normal mode for customers who are not likely to be dissatisfied with the service level. By providing the service, it is possible to easily suppress excessive service provision in the own store.
Therefore, there is no need to constantly provide excessive capital investment and excessive services in order to survive excessive competition.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing performed by a reading device to set a service level in a first embodiment of a prepaid card system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a prepaid card system according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing fields of card information recorded on a prepaid card of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a reading device illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a view showing fields of card information recorded on a prepaid card of a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing performed by the reading device to set a service level in the second embodiment of the prepaid card system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Prepaid card 2 Relay device 3 Reading device 4 Service providing device 35 Card information acquisition part (history information acquisition means) 36 Service level setting part (service level setting means)

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification FI FI Theme Court II (Reference) G07F 7/08 B (72) Inventor Masaaki Kiryu 3-3 Toyosu 3-chome, Koto-ku, Tokyo NTT Co., Ltd. F term in reference data (reference) 3E044 AA00 AA05 BA06 CC04 DC05 DE03 DE04 5B049 BB17 BB46 CC16 CC31 CC39 DD04 EE02 EE23 EE25 FF08 GG04 5B055 BB10 CB08 CB09 KK01 KK04 KK05 KK40 KK19 KK19 KK18 KK19 KK18

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A prepaid card system in which a prepaid card is used as a means for paying for a pay service, a history information acquiring means for reading history information indicating a total amount of money used for a certain period and the number of times a special service is received from the prepaid card; Based on the history information read by the history information acquisition means,
A service level setting means for setting a service level to be provided to one of a normal mode and a special service mode which is more advantageous than the normal mode. 2. The service level setting means judges whether the cumulative usage amount is equal to or more than a set amount, and judges whether the number of times of enjoying the special service is equal to or less than a set number. 2. The prepaid card system according to claim 1, wherein when the condition is satisfied, the service level is set to a special service mode. 3. A reading device for updating information recorded on a prepaid card used as a means of paying for a pay service according to consumption, wherein a history indicating a cumulative usage amount and the number of times a special service has been received from the prepaid card for a certain period of time. History information obtaining means for reading information, based on the history information read by the history information obtaining means,
A service level setting unit for setting a service level to be provided to one of a normal mode and a special service mode which is more advantageous than the normal mode. 4. The service level setting means determines whether the cumulative usage amount is equal to or more than a predetermined amount and determines whether the number of times of enjoying the special service is equal to or less than a predetermined number. 4. The reading apparatus according to claim 3, wherein when the condition is satisfied, the service level is set to a special service mode.