WO2014089617A1

WO2014089617A1 - Business system and method for customer relationship management

Info

Publication number: WO2014089617A1
Application number: PCT/AU2013/001443
Authority: WO
Inventors: Emil KOUTANOV
Original assignee: Maze Retail Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2012-12-10
Filing date: 2013-12-10
Publication date: 2014-06-19

Abstract

A business system (11), application, configuration application module, customer registration application module and method for facilitating registration of customers with a plurality of businesses and managing the accumulation of customer attributes as part of a customer management relationship service offering to businesses (19) and their customers (23) is disclosed. The business system includes a database management system (DMS) (15) as part of a customer relationship management (CRM) platform (13) and a plurality of business clients (39). A business configuration process (43) configures the DMS (15) with business data (17) of businesses (19) by way of the business clients (39) to register customers (23) of the business. A customer registration process (51 ) is invoked to facilitate the registration of customers (23) with the business (19) in a way that populates the business data (17) stored for that business (19) that has not been derived from other sources, improving the efficiency of the registration process and avoiding redundancy of data.

Description

BUSINESS SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a business system and method that has particular, although not exclusive, utility with operating reward or loyalty schemes (reward schemes) for businesses and their customers as part of a service offering for these businesses to their customers using sophisticated customer relationship management.

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

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The following discussion of the background art is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention only. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to was part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of the application. Customer reward schemes have become very popular in recent times as a means for business to attract new and return business from customers. By way of example, basic reward schemes have involved a loyalty card produced by a particular business to be retained by a customer, where the card has provision for applying a stamp or other identifier of the business whenever a transaction between the customer and the business is performed. After a prescribed number of these transactions, as shown on the loyalty card, the customer may be entitled to a discount or free service, at which point the reward scheme is reset and the customer provided with a new card. Given the popularity of these reward schemes, it is now becoming common for a reward scheme provider to offer a service to businesses by running a reward scheme for a number of businesses simultaneously and manage the scheme for the business. In this arrangement businesses can reduce their time involved with managing their own reward scheme, and benefit from economies of scale that arise from adopting a more sophisticated reward scheme that they are able to participate in, whilst outsourcing management of the scheme to the reward scheme provider and spend more time on operating their business.

These types of rewards schemes have become computerised with the widespread use of the Internet and the ability to access a scheme operated remotely on a central server very quickly and easily using an appropriate client such as a desktop PC, a smartphone, or tablet.

Given the complexity that can be built into these schemes seamlessly, especially with the advent of cloud computing, quite sophisticated reward schemes can be operated as Software as a Service (SaaS). These reward schemes can have value added functionality such as the provision of customer relationship management (CRM) that may be used by the business to improve the quality of their own marketing and service delivery to their customers.

CRM systems in the past have been underpinned by proprietary databases, whereby businesses track their ongoing customer relationships using a database management system (DMS) that belongs solely to those businesses.

With the advent of cloud computing, both the CRM software and the underlying DMS can be offered as a service, whereby the customer DMS is hosted by the service provider. While this model may involve components that are physically shared by the businesses (e.g. the database server, application server, web server, etc.), the service provider guarantees that the data remains proprietary and prevents one business seeing the data of another business. While the business forfeits the physical control over the data, the service provider offers such additional benefits as continuous backups, high availability and disaster recovery. By a business registering their customers as part of a reward scheme, relevant customer attributes to the business can be captured and stored in a customer list, which can be subsequently accessed by the business to offer promotional incentives, for example, and assist the business in providing a better or more efficient service to their customers.

There is an emerging trend in CRM systems, particularly those involved in managing customer loyalty, to share certain aspects of the customers' data. An example of such a system involves a loyalty platform where a customer is given consolidated access to a reward scheme offered by all participating businesses. The benefit to the customer is that they register their details only once and are issued with one card with one identifying customer number. This card can be presented at any business that is a member of the reward scheme and connected to the network to award and redeem points. In this example, reward scheme provider acts as a CRM platform.

Customers have individual accounts with each business and those details are proprietary.

However, any business can view the customer's "shared" data, such as their name, contact details, address, and so on, providing that the customer has an account with that business.

Thus, not only does this facility improve the quality of the reward scheme that can be delivered to the customer, it can be a much simpler scheme to be administered from the perspective of the business and actually improve the operation of the business itself. One problem that has become apparent though with the effective operation of these schemes is the need for the business to capture customer attributes when registering customers with the reward scheme and discriminating between new and existing customers when serving them. Registering a new customer and indeed recording a transaction with an existing customer has a time cost associated with it, which can be disruptive to the efficient running of the business, especially where it has a number of customers requiring servicing at the one time. This not only can inconvenience the business, but obviously the customer as well. A further problem is that the types of customer attributes that are relevant and should be captured by one business can be quite different to those attributes that are relevant to another business. By the same token, many businesses can have overlapping customer attributes that are duplicated by the customer when registering with different businesses.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to overcome or at least mitigate some of these problems.

In accordance with an overall aspect of the present invention, there is provided a business system for facilitating registration of customers with a plurality of businesses and managing the accumulation of customer attributes as part of a customer management relationship service offering to businesses and their customers, including: a database management system for storing and accessing business data and customer data;

(a) the business data including business identifier data and customer configuration data having a plurality of customer attribute types required for registering customers with a business; and (b) accumulated customer data including customer identifier data and customer attributes; a business client for communicating with:

(a) the database management system to: (i) provide relevant business data of the business and customer data of a customer transacting with the business to the database management system ;

(ii) retrieve customer attribute types from the database management system, the customer attribute types being required for registering the customer with the business data stored for a particular business; and

(iii) if necessary, provide the relevant customer data required to complete registration of the customer with the business; and

(b) a customer for sourcing customer data for registering a customer with the particular business; a business configuration process for configuring the database management system with business data of each business, the business configuration process being operable with a business client of one business and the database management system to provide business configuration data to said database management system for registering customers with that business; a customer registration process for registering a customer with a business, the customer registration process operable with the business client of that business and the database management system to:

(a) source customer identifier data from the customer to the business client of that business and operate said business client to provide same together with business identifier data of that business to the database management system;

(b) operate said database management system to:

(i) check customer data stored for the customer and compare the stored customer data with the business configuration data of the business;

(ii) populate the business data stored for the business with customer attributes corresponding to the customer attributes types of the business configuration data for that business from the customer data; and

(iii) identify any required customer attribute types that have not been obtainable from the stored customer data to satisfy the business configuration data for the business to register the customer and inform the business client of these; or

(iv) indicate that no further customer attributes are required to register the customer with the business; (c) operate the business client to:

(i) source from the customer the required customer attributes, if any, to register the customer with the business; and

(ii) provide these required customer attributes to the database management system; and (d) further operate the database management system to populate the business data stored for that business with the required customer attributes to register the customer with the business.

In accordance with another overall aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for facilitating registration of customers with a plurality of businesses and managing the accumulation of customer attributes as part of a customer management relationship service offering to businesses and their customers, including:

(a) storing and accessing business data and customer data;

(i) the business data including business identifier data and customer configuration data having a plurality of customer attribute types required for registering customers with a business; and

(ii) the accumulated customer data including customer identifier data and customer attributes;

(b) providing business data of the business and customer data of a customer transacting with the business for storing, including:

(i) retrieving customer attribute types from the stored business data, the customer attribute types being required for registering the customer with the business data stored for a particular business; and

(ii) if necessary, providing the relevant customer data required to complete registration of the customer with the business;

(c) sourcing customer data for registering a customer with a particular business;

(d) configuring each business with its business data for registering customers of that business;

(e) registering a customer with a business by:

(i) sourcing customer identifier data from the customer and provide same together with business identifier data of that business for processing; and (ii) checking customer data stored for the customer and comparing the stored customer data with the business configuration data of the business;

(f) populating the business data stored for the business with customer attributes corresponding to the customer attributes types of the business configuration data for that business from the customer data; and

(i) identifying any required customer attribute types that have not been obtainable from the stored customer data to satisfy the business configuration data for the business to register the customer and informing the business of these; or

(ii) indicating that no further customer attributes are required to register the customer with the business;

(g) sourcing from the customer the required customer attributes, if any, to register the customer with the business; (h) providing these required customers for storing and processing; and

(i) populating the business data stored for that business with the required customer attributes to register the customer with the business.

In accordance with another more specific aspect of the invention, there is provided an application for a business client for communicating with a database management system as part of a business system for facilitating registration of customers of a business as part of a customer management relationship service, including: a business configuration application module for communicating with a business configuration process for configuring the database management system with business data of each business, the business configuration process operable with the business configuration application module of the business client and the database management system to provide business configuration data to said database management system for registering customers of that business; and a customer registration application module for communicating with a customer registration process for registering a customer with the business, the customer registration process operable with the customer registration application module of the business client of that business and the database management system to:

(b) operate said database management system to:

(ii) provide these required customer attributes to the database management system; and

(d) further operate the database management system to populate the business data stored for that business with the required customer attributes to register the customer with the business.

In accordance with another particular aspect of the present invention, there is provided a business configuration application module for a business client for communicating with a business configuration process as part of a business system for facilitating registration of customers of a business as part of a customer management relationship service, including: a require process operable as part of the business configuration process to provide business configuration data to a database management system for registering customers of that business; wherein said require process invokes a call process to update the database management system with appropriate business data including customer configuration data having one or a plurality of customer attribute types required for registering customers with a business; the database management system being configured for storing and accessing business data and accumulated customer data.

In accordance with a further particular aspect of the present invention, there is provided a customer registration application module for a business client for communicating with a customer registration process as part of a business system for registering a customer with a business as part of a customer management relationship service, including: a transaction option to process a transaction by a customer, the transaction option invoking the customer registration process and a database management system for storing and accessing business data and accumulated customer data, the accumulated customer data including customer attributes; wherein the transaction option:

(a) communicates with the database management system to: (i) provide business data of the business and customer data of a customer transacting with the business to the database management system;

(b) invokes the customer registration process to: (i) source customer identifier data from the customer to the business client of that business and operate said business client to provide same together with business identifier data of that business to the database management system;

(ii) operate said database management system to: a. check customer data stored for the customer and compare the stored customer data with the business configuration data of the business; b. populate the business data stored for the business with customer attributes corresponding to the customer attributes types of the business configuration data for that business from the customer data; and c. identify any required customer attribute types that have not been obtainable from the stored customer data to satisfy the business configuration data for the business to register the customer and inform the business client of these; or d. indicate that no further customer attributes are required to register the customer with the business;

(iii) operate the business client to: a. source from the customer the required customer attributes, if any, to register the customer with the business; and b. provide these required customer attributes to the database management system; and

(iv) further operate the database management system to populate the business data stored for that business with the required customer attributes to register the customer with the business.

In accordance with a further specific aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for facilitating registration of customers with a business and managing the accumulation of customer attributes as part of a customer management relationship service offering to the business and their customers, including:

(a) providing business data of a business and customer data of a customer transacting with the business for storing, including: (i) retrieving customer attribute types from the stored business data, the customer attribute types being required for registering the customer with the business data stored for a particular business; and

(ii) if necessary, providing the relevant customer data required to complete registration of the customer with the business; and

(iii) sourcing customer data for registering a customer with a particular business.

In accordance with another specific aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for facilitating registration of customers with a business and managing the accumulation of customer attributes as part of a customer management relationship service offering to the business and their customers, including:

(a) sourcing customer identifier data from the customer and providing same together with business identifier data of that business for processing; (b) checking customer data stored for the customer and comparing the stored customer data with the business configuration data of the business;

(c) populating the business data stored for the business with customer attributes corresponding to the customer attributes types of the business configuration data for that business from the customer data; and either (i) identifying any required customer attribute types that have not been obtainable from the stored customer data to satisfy the business configuration data for the business to register the customer and informing the business of these; or (ii) indicating that no further customer attributes are required to register the customer with the business;

(d) sourcing from the customer the required customer attributes, if any, to register the customer with the business;

(e) providing these required customers for storing and processing; and

(f) populating the business data stored for that business with the required customer attributes to register the customer with the business. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be better understood in light of the following description of the best mode for carrying out the invention. The description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic components of the business system;

Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of the business data and the accumulated customer data;

Fig. 3 is a sequence diagram showing the processes involved with business using the system to configure its requirements with the main platform which the system is embodied; Fig. 4 is a sequence diagram showing processes involved with a new customer registering with a first business of the system having a minimal set of customer attributes and the same customer registering with a second business of the system having a larger set of customer attributes for registration purposes; Fig. 5 is a similar sequence diagram to Fig. 2 but showing another customer registering with the second business of the system first, and then the first business;

Fig. 6 is a sequence diagram showing the first customer transacting with the first business on another occasion after it has previously registered with that business.

DESCRIPTION OF BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The best mode for carrying out the invention involves a preferred embodiment directed towards businesses using a business system as a SaaS in a cloud computing environment for implementing a rewards scheme with their customers that manages the accumulation of customer attributes as part of a customer relationship management system.

In the present embodiment, as best shown in Fig. 1 , the business system 1 1 comprises a customer relationship management (CRM) platform 13 hosted on a server. The CRM platform 13 includes a database management system (DMS) 15 for storing and accessing business data 17 related to the rewards scheme for businesses 19, and also accumulated customer data 21 of the customers 23 for registering customers with businesses 19 of their choosing.

As shown in Fig. 2, the business data 17 includes business identifier data 25 for uniquely identifying and distinguishing one business from another, and customer configuration data 27 defining a set of customer attribute types required for registering customers with the reward scheme of a particular business. In the present embodiment, the business identifier data 25 simply comprises a number, whereby the DMS 15 allocates identifier numbers in a sequential manner to businesses on them becoming members of the system 1 1 .

The customer attribute types essentially comprise record types that are divided into shared attributes 29 and private attributes 31 . The shared attributes 29 are further divided into typical types such as: NAME 29a; CONTACT 29b being a telephone number or media address; ADDRESS 29c being a residential address; GENDER 29d; AGE GROUP 29e and the like; and uncommon types 29n such as marketing information gathered about the customer characteristic or important for the particular type of business. For example, with a hair dressing salon, it would be important to include typical attribute types of NAME 29a, CONTACT 29b, ADDRESS 29c, GENDER 29d, AGE group 29e, but also uncommon attribute types such as STYLING preference 29n-i , preferred HAIRDRESSER 29n₂, date of BIRTH 29n₃, COLOUR 29n₄, special EFFECTS 29n₅ etc. On the other hand, for a fast food or convenience store, it might only be necessary to include typical attribute types of NAME 29a and CONTACT 29b.

Private attributes 31 of a customer are pertinent to a specific business relationship (i.e. account). For example, private attributes 31 include account BALANCE 31 a, LAST contact date 31 b, transaction LOG 31 c, FEEDBACK 31 d etc.

Shared attributes 29 comprise attribute types of a customer 23 that can be seen on request for registration by any business 19 that is a member of the system 1 1 upon the customer registering with a business to participate in the rewards scheme. In contrast, private attribute types can only be viewed and modified by the particular business with whom the customer is registered. Another business cannot access the private attribute data of the business with whom the customer is registered, even after the customer registers with that other business for the purpose of the rewards scheme. Thus the customer attribute types will differ from business to business and the data stored under a record type will have different access permissions depending upon whether the attribute type is shared or private.

As also shown in Fig. 2, the accumulated customer data 21 includes customer identifier data 33 for uniquely identifying and distinguishing one customer 23a from another 23b ... 23n, and customer attributes containing relevant customer information for the particular set of customer attribute types 29 and 31 required of a business 19 with which a customer 23 chooses to register to benefit from the rewards program of which that business is a member. As in the case of the business identifier data 25, the customer identifier data 33 comprises a number. The DMS 15 allocates identifier numbers in a sequential manner to customers on them registering with a member business for the first time only. Thus once a customer 23 has registered with a member business 19 and is allocated an identifier number for the first time, the customer retains 23 that identifier number for the purposes of registering with any other member business.

The customer attributes essentially comprise the information corresponding to the individual customer 23 that populates the customer attribute types 29 and 31 required by a business 19 for the customer to be registered with the rewards program as configured for that particular business. For example, as shown in Fig. 2, when registering with one business 19a, the business data 17 configuration for that business may require shared attributes 35-i to 35₅ for the name 29a, contact 29b, age group 29e, date of birth 29n₃ and special effects 29n_5; and private attributes 371 to 37₄ for each of the private attributes 31 a to 31 d. Consequently, the customer attributes will constitute the particular customer information applicable to that customer for each of these records.

From a customer perspective, the customer data 21 that will be accumulated for a particular customer 23 over registration with a number of businesses 19a to 19n will comprise only the customer attributes for the prescribed customer attribute types configured for those businesses and no others. Thus the customer data 21 may comprise only a few customer attributes at the outset, but may grow into a significant number of attributes as the customer registers with many more businesses.

The businesses communicate with the server of the CRM platform 13 via business clients 39. A business client 39 may be a smartphone, personal computer, a tablet or other device that can load and operate a customised application for businesses to communicate with the server over a network, which in the present embodiment is the Internet 41 . In the present embodiment, the application includes a business configuration application module for communicating with a business configuration process 43 and a customer registration application module for communicating with a customer registration process 51 . Once a business 19 has become a member of the system 1 1 and has completed its configuration requirements using the business configuration process 43, which will be described in more detail later, it is able to communicate with and use the CRM platform 13 to provide a CRM platform 13 for the business. In particular, it can use the customer registration process 51 to register its customers on the CRM platform 13 and take advantage of the other features of the CRM platform to service its customers.

In the present embodiment, Business-to-CRM communications typically involve a business client 39 providing business identifier data 25 to identify the business 19 to the DMS 15 and customer identifier data 33 of the customer 23 transacting with the business 19. They also involve the business client 39 retrieving any shared customer attribute types 29 that are required for the business to complete registration of the customer with the business, and if necessary, the business client 39 providing the relevant customer data 21 to complete registration of the customer 23 with the business 19. The business client 39 also communicates with the customer 23 to source any outstanding shared customer attributes to supplement any customer data 21 already stored for the customer on the DMS 15 for completing the registration process. Importantly, only outstanding shared customer attributes need to be provided by the customer 23 for registration purposes, not all of the shared customer attributes for the customer attribute types provided in the business data configured for the business. This makes for a far more efficient registration process and reduces the time involved with the business registering new customers to their rewards scheme.

The business configuration process 43 involves configuring the DMS 15 with business data 17 of each business 19 that is a member of the business system 1 1 . The business configuration process 43 is operable with the business client 39 of one business 19a and the DMS 15 to provide business configuration data to the DMS for the business to register future customers, e.g. customers 23a and 23b with that business. The model adopted in the present embodiment for the business configuration process 43 is more clearly shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings. Firstly, business B1 requires only one customer attribute type NAME 29a for the purposes of registering customers to the reward scheme in which the business and customer participate.

The business configuration process 43 is invoked by the business operator selecting a configuration option that is part of an application downloaded or uploaded to the business client 39. Selecting the option involves the business client 39' for business B1 invoking a require process 45 to send a require message to the CRM platform 13 advising that the business B1 only requires configuration of its business data 17 for customer attribute type NAME 29a.

The CRM platform 13 then invokes a call process 47 for the DMS 15 to asynchronously update its database with the appropriate business data for B1 .

Another business B2, on the other hand, requires three customer attribute types: NAME 29a, CONTACT 29b and ADDRESS 29c for registering its customers. The business configuration process 43 for the business B2 follows the same process, the business client 39" invoking a require process 49 to send a require message to the CRM platform 13 advising that the business B2 requires configuration of its business data 17 stored on the DMS 15 to have each of the three customer attribute types NAME 29a, CONTACT 29b and ADDRESS 29c.

Similarly, the CRM platform 13 then invokes the call process 47 again directing the DMS 15 to update its database with the appropriate business data for B2.

Once a business 19 has been configured for membership of the business system 1 1 , the model adopted for customer registration lends itself to the business 19 registering new customers with the rewards scheme and/or processing transactions of customers that are already registered with the rewards scheme as a simple part of any business transaction between the business and the customer. This is more clearly shown by way of three different scenarios involving operation of the customer registration application module with the customer registration process 51 : one scenario showing new customer registration involving growth of the customer data in Fig. 4; another scenario showing new customer registration but involving no growth of the customer data in Fig. 5; and a further scenario showing operation of the process with an existing customer. In the first scenario, the customer registration process 51 is invoked via the customer registration application module by the business operator after a Customer 1234 transacts business with B1 . The operator selects a transaction option that is part of the application being run on the business client 39' of the business B1 to process the transaction by Customer 1234 as part of the rewards scheme offering by the business. Selecting the option involves the B1 business client 39' invoking a check and data process 53 which sends a check Customer 1234 message to the CRM platform 13. The CRM platform 13 then invokes the DMS 15 to invoke an internal check and ask process 55, whereby the business data 17 of the business B1 and the accumulated customer data 21 of the customer 1234 stored on the database of the DSM 15 are checked and compared exclusively for shared customer attributes that are required by the business data 17 and are not present in the accumulated customer data 21 . The result of the comparison is then included in an ask message that is sent back to the B1 business client 39', asking for the excluded customer attributes of customer attribute types stored in the business data file for the business B1 to be sent to the CRM platform. If the accumulated customer data 21 is present, the DSM 15 populates the business data 17 stored in the file for the business B1 with those shared customer attributes that correspond to the designated customer attribute types required for the business B1 . In the example shown in Fig. 4, the check and ask process 55 ascertains that the customer 1234 has not been previously registered and that the business data 17 for the business B1 only requires the customer attributes for the customer attribute type NAME 29a. So the ask message is sent to the business client 39' of B1 asking for customer attribute information for NAME 29a to be supplied by the check and data process 53.

The check and data process 53 is programmed to receive the ask message and note whether it has content or not. If it does, then the check and data process 53 sends a show form message to the business client to inform the business operator that they need Customer 1234 to provide a form providing the requisite customer attribute information. In the present embodiment, this is managed between the business and customer whereby the business may employ its own rules governing the transaction at this stage. The supply of the form may be implemented manually or digitally, whereby the process employed in either case is represented as a customer process 57.

On the customer process 57 submitting a form supplying the requisite customer attribute information and inputting it into the business client 39 of B1 , the check and data process 53 then proceeds to send a customer data message to the CRM platform 13 providing the required customer attribute. The check and ask process 55 is then invoked again to have the DMS 1 5 update its database by populating both the business data 17 and the accumulated customer data 21 files stored on the database with the provided shared customer attribute.

Fig. 4 shows the growth scenario with the Customer 1234 registering with another business B2, after it has already been registered with B1 . In this scenario, a check and data process 59 is invoked by the business client 39" for B2 after the Customer 1234 transacts with B2 using the customer process 61 of the customer. A check Customer 1234 message is sent to the CRM platform 13 as before, which results in the DMS 15 invoking its internal check and ask process 63. After the comparison of the business data 17 for B2 and the accumulated customer data 21 for the Customer 1234 is performed, it determines that the shared customer attribute NAME 29a is present on the customer data file, but not the requisite customer attribute types CONTACT 29b and ADDRESS 29c. The check and ask process 63 then sends an ask message to the business client of B2, asking for the excluded customer attributes CONTACT 29b and ADDRESS 29c to be supplied. Concurrently, the check and ask process 63 populates the business data file for B2 with the NAME 29b attribute from the customer data file for Customer 1234.

The check and data process 59 proceeds as before with sending a show form message that is ultimately provided to the customer process 61 and the requisite customer attributes are input from the form to the business client of B2. The check and data process 59 then proceeds to send a customer data message to the CRM platform 13, which is then processed by the check and ask process 63 to populate both the business data 17 and accumulated customer data 21 files stored on the database and complete the registration process of Customer 1234 with business B2.

In the second scenario, as shown in Fig. 5, the customer registration process 65 is invoked by the business operator after a Customer 1235 transacts business by way of a customer process 67 with business B2 first. The check and data process 69 of business client 39" of B2 sends a check Customer 1235 message to the CRM platform 13, which then invokes the DMS 15 to invoke the internal check and ask process 71 . In this scenario, as Customer 1235 is new, the comparison of business data 17 with customer data 21 will result in all of the shared customer attribute types for B2 being asked for in the ask message. The check and data process 69 then sends the show form message to obtain the requested customer attributes from the customer process 67. The process continues as before, with the business client 39' invoking the check and data process to send the customer data message with the required customer attributes, and the DMS 15 updates the business data 17 of B2 and the customer data 21 of Customer 1235 stored on the database with the requisite customer attributes.

Fig. 5 shows the no growth scenario with Customer 1235 then registering with business B1 , after registering with B2. In this scenario, the customer process 73 initiates a transaction with business B1 , which results in the business client 39' of B1 invoking the check and data process 75 to send a check Customer 1235 message to the CRM platform 13. The internal check and ask process 77 is then invoked by the DMS 15 and the comparison of business data 17 and customer data 21 undertaken.

As described previously, the shared customer attribute type for business B1 is only the NAME 29a customer attribute, which is already stored in the accumulated customer data file for Customer 1235, as a result of the previous registration of Customer 1235 with business B2. Consequently, the check and ask process 77 sends an ask message back to the business client 39' with an empty argument.

The check and data process 75 of the business client 39' processes the ask message and on determining that there is an empty argument indicates that no further information is required to complete registration of the Customer 1235 to the business operator.

In the third scenario, as shown in Fig. 6, the customer registration process 79 automatically handles a transaction from an existing Customer 1234 of business B1 . In this scenario the customer registration process 79 is initiated by the customer process 81 , which results in the business client 39' of B1 invoking the check and data process 83 to send a check Customer 1234 message to the CRM platform 13. The DMS 15 invokes the internal check and ask process 85, which on performing the comparison ascertains that the all of the shared customer attribute types listed in the business data file for B1 have customer attributes populated for Customer 1234. This may be determined intrinsically by an inspection of the business data file 17 or by doing a comparison with the actual customer data file 21 for the Customer 1234.

Either way, the check and ask process 85 ends up sending an ask message back to the business client 39' with an empty argument. As in the second no growth scenario previously described, on the check and data process 83 of the business client 39' determining that there is an empty argument, it indicates that no further information is required of the Customer 1234 for registration and to process the transaction as part of the rewards scheme deployed by the business.

It should be noted from the above that a CRM 13 that allows business to share certain customer data offers several advantages to all parties, most notable of which is convenience. That is, the elimination of duplicate data entry for the businesses, as well as the need for customers to have multiple duplicate identities with each business. The problem, however, is that each business may put forward their own requirement as to the data that must be collected from the customers. For example, B1 requires the customer's name while B2 needs the customer's name, contact and address. In order to accommodate this variability, previous implementations have taken a lowest common denominator approach, gathering all data that may be required by the participating businesses. This favours businesses with large data requirements at the expense of those that need only a few attributes. This is because a customer may enrol in the business system 1 1 while transacting with any business that is a member. In these situations, the registration takes time and requires a certain commitment (both the customer's and the business') and poses a privacy risk to the customer. Thus B1 is required to gather all of the customer's data, even though the excess data is only required by B2.

This problem is overcome in the present embodiment, by the business system 1 1 allowing for businesses to explicitly specify the required attributes of the customer using a set of discrete symbols corresponding to those attributes. For example, business B1 requires only the {NAME} attribute, being the customer's full name. Meanwhile, B2 requires the {NAME, CONTACT, ADDRESS} attributes. When a customer enrols into the business system for the first time, by transacting with the business B1 , B1 will only gather the customer's name. This process will likely involve the customer filling in an application form. Following this transaction, the customer will have an account with B1 hosted by the CRM 13. The CRM 13 will also know the customer's name; the customer's remaining attributes will remain blank for the time being.

Now, the customer transacts with B2 for the first time. The CRM will determine that the customer is enrolled, but has no account with B2. The DMS determines the difference between the attributes requested by B2 and those attributes that are presently known for the customer. In this example, the knowledge gap is the set comprising {CONTACT, ADDRESS}. The CRM informs B2 of the missing attributes. B2 acquires the missing contact address and residential address from the customer and submits it to the CRM. Following this transaction, the customer will have an account with B2. The CRM will also know the customer's name, contact, and address. When using a shared-customer CRM model, it is the responsibility of the businesses to acquire customer information that is subsequently retained by the CRM service provider and may be used for the benefit of other businesses as required by accumulating the data in a central repository. This permits the business system described above to have the following advantages:

• It makes the data acquisition process fair for all businesses and is proportional to their own data requirements; · It increases the convenience for the customer by minimising the amount of information that has to be disclosed up-front to any business, on the off- chance that it might be required by another business;

• It eliminates data duplication, such that shared customer attributes of the same time cannot simultaneously expose different values to different businesses, which further reduces the cost of managing the data;

• Businesses can start with minimal data requirements and grow these over time;

• It ensures that each record in the customer database is complete with respect to the individual data requirements imposed by those businesses that have a relationship with said customer. It should be appreciated that the scope of the present invention is not limited by the specific embodiment described above. For example, it is not essential that a customer enrol with the reward scheme via registration with a member business. A customer can enrol into the reward scheme by approaching the reward scheme provider directly. This may take the form of signing up online, using the scheme provider's website, or via any other means. This is in contrast to the present embodiment where the customer enrols indirectly, by transacting with a business that is part of the business system. In doing so, the customer not only registers with the scheme provider, but also implicitly establishes an account with the business.

In addition, the business client is not limited to being a client specifically associated with any one business. It could be any terminal, application or mechanism by which the customer registers with the business system. For example, in another embodiment, the client is a self-service kiosk located on the premises of the business. In a further embodiment, it is a website that the customer logs into themselves to register for a rewards program offered by the business. This would be the case if the business was an online business with no retail presence, or a retail business augmented by an online presence.

In addition, the relationship between the customers and the businesses is not limited to one that entails some kind of a rewards structure. The system can be applied to any recordable relationship between businesses and their customers in the broader CRM context.

Thus the actual means of how the data is accumulated through deployed business clients is not so important, nor the nature of the business or the relationship, it is the accumulation of data in a central repository such as the CRM platform and DMS that is important.

It should also be noted that the invention is not limited to the specific aspects of the invention defined in the summary of the invention. Different aspects of the invention also are envisaged viewing the definition of the invention from different perspectives. For example appropriate changes to the interoperability and inclusion of features will occur when defining the invention from the business client perspective, or the server perspective, or the signal processing perspective.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A business system for facilitating registration of customers with a plurality of businesses and managing the accumulation of customer attributes as part of a customer management relationship service offering to businesses and their customers, including: a database management system for storing and accessing business data and accumulated customer data;

(a) the business data including business identifier data and customer configuration data having a plurality of customer attribute types required for registering customers with a business; and

(b) the accumulated customer data including customer identifier data and customer attributes; a business client for communicating with:

(g) the database management system to:

(i) provide business data of the business and customer data of a customer transacting with the business to the database management system;

(iii) if necessary, provide the relevant customer data required to complete registration of the customer with the business; and (h) a customer for sourcing customer data for registering a customer with a particular business; a business configuration process for configuring the database management system with business data of each business, the business configuration process operable with a business client of one business and the database management system to provide business configuration data to said database management system for registering customers of that business; a customer registration process for registering a customer with a business, the customer registration process operable with the business client of that business and the database management system to:

(a) source customer identifier data from the customer to the business client of that business and operate said business client to provide same together with business identifier data of that business to the database management system ;

(b) operate said database management system to:

(iii) identify any required customer attribute types that have not been obtainable from the stored customer data to satisfy the business configuration data for the business to register the customer and inform the business client of these; or (iv) indicate that no further customer attributes are required to register the customer with the business;

(c) operate the business client to:

2. An application for a business client for communicating with a database management system as part of a business system for facilitating registration of customers of a business as part of a customer management relationship service, including: a business configuration application module for communicating with a business configuration process for configuring the database management system with business data of each business, the business configuration process operable with the business configuration application module of the business client and the database management system to provide business configuration data to said database management system for registering customers of that business; and a customer registration application module for communicating with a customer registration process for registering a customer with the business, the customer registration process operable with the customer registration application module of the business client of that business and the database management system to: (a) source customer identifier data from the customer to the business client of that business and operate said business client to provide same together with business identifier data of that business to the database management system;

(b) operate said database management system to:

(iv) indicate that no further customer attributes are required to register the customer with the business;

(c) operate the business client to:

3. A business configuration application module for a business client for communicating with a business configuration process as part of a business system for facilitating registration of customers of a business as part of a customer management relationship service, including: a require process operable as part of the business configuration process to provide business configuration data to a database management system for registering customers of that business; wherein said require process invokes a call process to update the database management system with appropriate business data including customer configuration data having one or a plurality of customer attribute types required for registering customers with a business; the database management system being configured for storing and accessing business data and accumulated customer data.

4. A customer registration application module for a business client for communicating with a customer registration process as part of a business system for registering a customer with a business as part of a customer management relationship service, including: a transaction option to process a transaction by a customer, the transaction option invoking the customer registration process and a database management system for storing and accessing business data and accumulated customer data, the accumulated customer data including customer attributes; wherein the transaction option: (a) communicates with the database management system to:

(b) invokes the customer registration process to:

(i) source customer identifier data from the customer to the business client of that business and operate said business client to provide same together with business identifier data of that business to the database management system;

5. A method for facilitating registration of customers with a plurality of businesses and managing the accumulation of customer attributes as part of a customer management relationship service offering to businesses and their customers, including:

(a) storing and accessing business data and customer data;

(i) the business data including business identifier data and customer configuration data having a plurality of customer attribute types required for registering customers with a business; and (ii) the accumulated customer data including customer identifier data and customer attributes;

(e) registering a customer with a business by:

(i) sourcing customer identifier data from the customer and providing same together with business identifier data of that business for processing; and

(ii) checking customer data stored for the customer and comparing the stored customer data with the business configuration data of the business;

(f) populating the business data stored for the business with customer attributes corresponding to the customer attributes types of the business configuration data for that business from the customer data; and (i) identifying any required customer attribute types that have not been obtainable from the stored customer data to satisfy the business configuration data for the business to register the customer and informing the business of these; or

(g) sourcing from the customer the required customer attributes, if any, to register the customer with the business;

(h) providing these required customers for storing and processing; and

6. A method for facilitating registration of customers with a business and managing the accumulation of customer attributes as part of a customer management relationship service offering to the business and their customers, including:

(a) providing business data of a business and customer data of a customer transacting with the business for storing, including:

(ii) if necessary, providing the relevant customer data required to complete registration of the customer with the business; and (b) sourcing customer data for registering a customer with a particular business.

7. A method for facilitating registration of customers with a business and managing the accumulation of customer attributes as part of a customer management relationship service offering to the business and their customers, including:

(a) sourcing customer identifier data from the customer and providing same together with business identifier data of that business for processing;

(b) checking customer data stored for the customer and comparing the stored customer data with the business configuration data of the business;

(c) populating the business data stored for the business with customer attributes corresponding to the customer attributes types of the business configuration data for that business from the customer data; and either

(e) providing these required customers for storing and processing; and (f) populating the business data stored for that business with the required customer attributes to register the customer with the business.