JPH0696096A - Point managing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute the point management in almost the same way as a POS terminal equipment is used by using a multi-function telephone terminal equipment, and also, to reduce the cost to about 1/5 to 1/10 so as to become profitable economically. CONSTITUTION:In the point managing device for managing a point issued in accordance with a customer's purchase amount at every affiliated store, this device has a processor part, a memory part, a display part and a key part, is provided with a speech function and a communication function, and constituted by providing a multi-function telephone terminal equipment operated in accordance with a loaded IC built-in card and a program stored in advance, an information reader/writer which is connected to the terminal equipment through an I/O interface, and executes read and write of information to a personal information recording card, and a computer connected to the terminal equipment through a pay station line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a point management device, and more particularly to a point management device for managing points issued by each member store according to a purchase amount of a customer. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A personal information recording card (magnetic card, IC, etc.) when a product is purchased or a service is provided.
A system for making payments using a built-in card or the like (hereinafter, a magnetic card will be described as a representative) is often adopted. Such a magnetic card is called a credit card and is issued to customers who purchase products by credit. At the time of product purchase, a customer presents a magnetic card to purchase credit. As described above, the credit card functions as a kind of identification card for the customer to determine whether or not the credit can be purchased.

In recent years, the importance of customer information such as customer product purchase trends has been recognized. By using the magnetic card, it is possible to finely collect customer information such as what kind of product the customer purchased and when, and it is possible to accurately grasp the customer needs such as what kind of product the customer wants.

However, the conventional credit card requires only a customer who purchases a product for credit, and many cash customers do not need it. Therefore, a customer who only purchases cash cannot have a magnetic card. However, there is a problem in that even the customer who owns the credit card can understand the actual condition of the credit purchase, but cannot know the actual condition of the cash purchase.

On the other hand, in order to keep customers coming to the store continuously, services such as discounts and provision of free gifts to customers are provided. It has been conventional to give discounts or provide prizes according to the purchase price of a product, and hand out stamp-like service point coupons called blue chips, green stamps, etc. every time you purchase a product. It was done by. The customer attaches the given numbered coupons to a predetermined mount and keeps it, and when a certain number of points are collected, the customer can receive a discount or free gift service in exchange.

[0006] This conventional system is easy to lose because a scoring ticket corresponding to the purchase amount is given each time it is purchased, and the scoring ticket must be attached and stored on a predetermined mount, which imposes a heavy burden on the customer. Was to force. For this reason, there are problems that few customers continuously collect the coupon tickets, and the impeccable service does not sufficiently fulfill the customer immobilization.

On the other hand, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-27365, the total service points (cumulative points) are calculated, and the calculated total service points are recorded on the magnetic stripe of a paper magnetic card. A point management device for printing on the surface of a magnetic card is disclosed. According to this technique, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to attach stamp-shaped service point coupons to a predetermined mount. However, this magnetic card is made of paper and has a fixed number of printing fields to print the total number of points, so it is a simple one that is used instead of the conventional mount, and the customer identification number that owns the magnetic card. Is also not listed. For this reason, even if the customer comes to the store continuously by using the paper magnetic card, there is a problem that the customer information cannot be collected because the customer cannot be identified.

Therefore, the applicant of the present application has proposed the following method of using a magnetic card using a POS terminal device connected to a host computer through a dedicated line.

The method of using this magnetic card is as follows: in the recording area of the magnetic card, a card number column for recording an identification number for identifying the owner of the magnetic card, and a cumulative point column for recording cumulative points according to the cumulative purchase amount. When a product is purchased, the magnetic card presented by the customer is inserted into an information writing / reading device for writing / reading information, and the information writing / reading device allows the identification number to be read from the card number column of the magnetic card. To identify the owner of the magnetic card, read the accumulated points up to the previous purchase from the accumulated points column of the magnetic card with the information writing / reading device, and set the accumulated points to points according to the purchase amount this time. The accumulated points up to the current purchase are calculated by adding the accumulated points up to the current purchase calculated by the information writing / reading device in the accumulated points column of the magnetic card. While writing the points and updating the cumulative points of the customer recorded in the host computer with the new cumulative points, while identifying each customer by using the magnetic card presented by the customer when purchasing the product. , Manage points.

By using the magnetic card as described above, it is possible to correctly know the accumulated points up to the current purchase, and the receipt received when the customer purchases the product and the accumulated points up to the current purchase along with the current points by the current purchase. Can be displayed immediately. Therefore, the customer can instantly recognize the points this time and the accumulated points by looking at the receipt received at the time of purchasing the product, and it does not take time and effort to receive the stamp-like printed matter such as the blue chip and attach it to the mount. Therefore, the customer feels like purchasing the product again at a specific store, and the customer can be fixed and non-mobilized. Then, in order to enjoy the point service, the customer needs to present a magnetic card each time the product is purchased, and according to the method of using the magnetic card of the present invention, if the customer uses the magnetic card, the identification is made. Since the customer who used the information can be surely specified, it becomes possible to surely grasp the customer information such as the product purchase trend of the fixed and non-liquid customer, and it becomes easy to take a measure for sales promotion. Further, even if the magnetic card is lost, the magnetic card with points is reissued due to the access to the host computer, which is a great advantage for the customer.

On the other hand, with respect to the above points, since the contribution amount must be calculated according to the points issued by the member store, the member store must also manage the points. Regarding the management of points on the side of the member store, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 34079/1990 discloses a magnetic card in which, in addition to the management of the points by the customer side, management by the store issuing the points, that is, the side of the member store is added. Has disclosed a transaction point settlement system. Even in this system, the terminal device installed in the store is POS.
A terminal device is used.

However, depending on the store, the price of the POS terminal device is high and it cannot be installed due to cost problems, or the dedicated line cannot be drawn, and as a result, the installation is not possible. There is a problem that it may not be possible.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a point management device which can easily manage points on the member store side by using a multifunctional telephone terminal device.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a point management device for managing points issued by each member store for each member store according to the purchase amount at the time of purchase by a customer. A multifunctional telephone terminal device having a key portion, having a call function and a communication function, and loaded with an IC built-in card and a program prestored in the memory portion, and input / output to this multifunctional telephone terminal device An information reading device that is connected through an interface and reads information from a personal information recording card, and a computer that is connected to the multi-function telephone terminal device through a public line by the communication function. Customer-specific data for identifying a customer is written, and the IC-embedded card identifies a member store for identifying a member store. Data is written in the information reading device, the customer identification data is read from the personal information recording card inserted in the information reading device, and the IC is built in based on the purchase amount input from the key portion. Points are calculated according to a calculation program stored in advance on the card, and the points are sent to the computer in association with the customer identification data and the member store identification data. It is characterized in that the total amount is calculated and the burden cost amount for each member store is calculated according to the total number of issuing points for each member store during the predetermined period.
It is preferable that the point management device further includes a sheet issuing device that is connected to the multi-function telephone terminal device and that issues a sheet displaying at least one of the total issued points and the burdened cost amount. The multi-function telephone terminal device and the sheet issuing device can be configured by a multi-function facsimile device that is operated according to a program stored in advance in a card with a built-in IC and a built-in memory unit. Further, instead of inputting with the key unit, the reading function of the multi-function facsimile apparatus may be used to read the data sheet such as the mark sheet to input the data such as the purchase price this time.

[0014]

In the point management device of the present invention, the multifunctional telephone terminal device is provided with the central function of point management, so that it is possible to perform the point management substantially the same as that using the POS terminal device. In addition, compared with the case of using the POS terminal device, the cost is about one fifth to one tenth, which is economically advantageous and is connected to the computer using the public line. There is a great advantage that it does not require a dedicated line and therefore can be used even in a place where a dedicated line cannot be drawn, and the cost required to draw the dedicated line can be saved. Further, although it is very recent, a multifunctional facsimile machine which operates according to a program stored in advance in a card with a built-in IC and a built-in memory section is becoming widespread. The management device can be constructed with a simple structure, and even a small store such as an individual store can join the member store and enjoy the advantage of points.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A point management device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. In addition, in this embodiment, a point management device that can perform point management from the customer side in addition to point management from the member store side will be described.

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic view of a point management device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In this figure, reference numeral 1 indicates the entire point management device, which is installed in each member store, and which has a multi-function telephone terminal device 2.
An information reading / writing device 3 for reading / writing data from / to the magnetic card JC, which is a personal information recording card, and a point sheet issuing device 4 connected to the multi-function telephone terminal device 2. ing. The multi-functional telephone terminal device 2 is connected to a front end processor (FEP) 6 via a public telephone line 5 of the telephone. A host computer 8 is connected to the FEP 6 via a controller (CTL) 7. This host computer 8
A data bank 9 for recording customer information collected by the multifunction telephone terminal device 2 and transmitted via the controller (CTL) 7 is connected to the.

When the customer information is small, the customer information may be stored in the memory in the host computer 8 instead of providing the data bank 9 externally.

As shown in FIG. 2, the multi-function telephone terminal device 2 is composed of a CPU and includes a processor unit 10 for controlling the entire terminal device.
Includes a memory unit 11 including a ROM and a RAM,
A key unit 12 including a numeric keypad, a function key, a touch key, etc. is connected.

The multi-function telephone terminal device 2 is used by loading an IC built-in card (memory card) MC. Therefore, the multi-function telephone terminal device 2 has a loading port for the IC built-in card MC. 13 are provided. The multifunctional telephone terminal device 2 further includes a connection port 14 for the information reading / writing device (reader / writer) 3 and a connection port 15 for the point sheet issuing device 4.
Is provided. The connection ports 13, 14, 15
Are connected to the processor unit 10 via a memory card interface unit 16, a reader / writer interface unit 17, and a printer interface unit 18, respectively.

The multi-function telephone terminal device 2 comprises a call processing unit 19 connected to the key unit 12, a modem, etc., and a communication processing unit 2 connected to the processor unit 10.
It has 0. The call processing unit 19 and the communication processing unit 20
Is connected to the public line 5 via the automatic changeover switch 21. Normally, when the call processing unit 19 is connected to the public line 5 and the communication processing unit 20 is in a state of performing communication, the automatic changeover switch 21 is automatically switched, and the communication processing unit 20 is It is connected to the public line 5.

A display unit 22 composed of a liquid crystal display is provided on the surface of the multi-function telephone terminal device 2, and the operation of the display unit 22 is controlled by the processor unit 10. ing.

The memory unit 11 is composed of the display unit 22, the ROM storing the control programs of the interface units 16, 17, and 18, and the like.

The IC built-in card MC is a member store identification data (number) for specifying a member store, a calculation program for multiplying the purchase amount at the time of this purchase by a predetermined coefficient, and calculating points this time. It contains a calculation program that adds the points this time to the points accumulated up to this purchase and calculates new points. When a plurality of multi-function telephone terminal devices 1 are installed in a member store, the IC built-in cards MC used for them are all made to contain the same member store specific data.

The magnetic card JC is for reading information,
Although any card that can be written can be used, it is preferable that it is a magnetic card defined by the JIS standard that can be used for a long time. Instead of the magnetic card JC, a personal information recording card may be configured by a card with an integrated IC.

Next, an example of the point management using the point management device 1 will be described.

In the multi-function telephone terminal device 2, the IC built-in card MC is already set, and in the recording area of the magnetic card JC, an identification number for identifying the owner of the magnetic card (other It may be a code or the like), that is, the customer identification data and accumulated points up to the time of this purchase will be described in advance.

First, the magnetic card JC presented by the customer is inserted into the information reading / writing device 3. Information reading / writing device 3
Reads the identification number and the accumulated points from the magnetic card JC and transmits it to the processor unit 10 of the multi-function telephone terminal device 2. Next, with the magnetic card JC still inserted in the information reading / writing device 3, the current purchase amount is entered using the key unit 12. The purchase amount this time is the total purchase amount calculated by an ordinary cash register. The processor unit 10 has a predetermined constant, for example, 0.
This point is multiplied by 01 to calculate the present point for the customer (hereinafter, simply referred to as the present point), and the present point is added to the accumulated points read above to calculate a new accumulated point. When the purchase price this time includes a consumption tax, the amount excluding this consumption tax amount is automatically calculated so that the point amount is obtained.

The new cumulative points are written on the magnetic card JC by using the information reading / writing device 3 and also displayed on the display unit 22. This display unit 22
In addition to the above new accumulated points, the purchase amount, this time points, etc. are displayed.

After that, the automatic changeover switch 21 is switched to connect the communication processing unit 20 to the public line 5, and the new accumulated points are transmitted to the FEP 6 in a state associated with the customer specifying data. , Store it there. In this way, the new cumulative points stored in the FEP 6 are sent to the host computer 8 by batch processing with the customer identification data attached, and the cumulative points up to this time are replaced with new cumulative points. Are stored in the data bank 9.

Further, the present point is transmitted to the FEP 6 in the state of being associated with the customer specifying data and the member store specifying data, and stored there. As described above, the current points stored in the FEP 6 are sent to the host computer 8 in batch processing in a state in which the customer identification data and the member store identification data are attached, and based on the member identification data, the points are stored for each member store. The cumulative issuance points (the cumulative issuance points are obtained by adding the cumulative issuance points of the member stores up to the last time to the current points) are classified and added and recorded. The cumulative issuance points are set for a predetermined period of time, the burden for each member store is calculated based on the total points, and the points are issued later by using the mail or the point sheet issuing device 4. It is desirable that the cumulative issue points can be displayed on the display unit 22 of the multi-function telephone terminal device 2 by calling from the multi-function telephone terminal device 2.

In parallel with the above, the point sheet issuing device 4 issues a point sheet on which predetermined items are displayed. The predetermined items are, for example, the points this time,
The new cumulative points are the cumulative points, the present point target amount, the sheet issue number, the issue date and time, the identification number for identifying the customer, the issuing store name, the consumption tax amount, and the like.

With the above, all point management is completed.

In the above description of the embodiments, the point management device has been described as having the multifunction telephone terminal device and the printer which is the sheet issuing device. However, the multifunction telephone terminal device and the sheet issuing device are most recently used. It is becoming widespread and can be configured with a card with built-in IC to be loaded and a multifunctional facsimile machine operated according to a program stored in advance in a built-in memory section. In this case, the data such as the purchase price may be input by reading the data sheet such as the mark sheet by using the reading function of the multi-function facsimile device instead of the input through the key unit. By using this multifunctional facsimile device, the present point management device can be constructed with a simple structure, and even a small store such as an individual store can enjoy the benefit of points as a member store.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic diagram of a point management device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a structural explanatory diagram of a multi-function telephone terminal device used in the point management device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 point management device 2 multifunctional telephone terminal device 3 information reading / writing device 4 point sheet issuing device 5 public line 8 host computer 10 processor unit 11 memory unit 12 key unit 16 memory card interface unit 17 reader / writer interface unit 18 printer interface Part 19 Call processing part 20 Communication processing part

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] March 4, 1993

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] Brief description of the drawing

[Correction method] Delete

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A point management device that manages points issued by each member store for each member store according to the purchase amount at the time of purchase by a customer, including a processor unit, a memory unit, a display unit,
A multifunctional telephone terminal device having a key portion, having a call function and a communication function, and loaded with an IC built-in card and a program prestored in the memory portion, and input / output to this multifunctional telephone terminal device An information reading device that is connected through an interface and reads information from a personal information recording card, and a computer that is connected to the multi-function telephone terminal device through a public line by the communication function. , The customer identification data for identifying the customer is written, and the IC
Member store specifying data for specifying a member store is written in the built-in card, and the information reading device reads the customer specifying data from the personal information recording card inserted in the information reading device, and from the key portion. Based on the input purchase amount, points are calculated according to a calculation program stored in advance in the IC built-in card, the points are sent to the computer in association with the customer specifying data and the member store specifying data, and in this computer, ,
Calculate the total number of issuing points for each member store during the specified period,
A point management device, wherein the burden cost amount for each member store is calculated according to the total number of issued points for each member store during the predetermined period. 2. A sheet issuing device, which is connected to the multi-function telephone terminal device, and which issues a sheet displaying at least one of the total of the issuing points and the burdened cost amount, further comprising: 1 point management device. 3. The multi-function telephone terminal device and the sheet issuing device are configured by a multi-function facsimile device operated according to a program stored in advance in a card with an IC built-in and a built-in memory section to be loaded. The point management device according to claim 2. 4. The data such as the current purchase price is input by reading the data sheet such as a mark sheet by using the reading function of the multi-function facsimile apparatus instead of inputting by the key portion. The point management device according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that.