Cross-Merchant Customer Rating via Payment Network
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current rating systems primarily focus on merchant evaluations and are limited in allowing consumers to rate merchants independently, with less common systems for rating consumers, due to the anonymity of consumers, which hinders the consolidation and sharing of customer ratings across merchants.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that enables merchants to rate customers during card transactions by obtaining a card number, inputting a customer rating, generating a transaction message, and transferring it through a payment network to determine a customer identifier and store the rating in a centralized database, allowing for consolidated customer ratings to be accessed and shared.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If rating systems are implemented only on specific websites or applications, then the rating functionality is easy to implement and operate, but the ratings are limited in scope and cannot be consolidated across different merchants
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by enabling the rating system to function across multiple merchants and platforms through the payment network infrastructure. The server can collect ratings from any merchant during card transactions, making the system universally applicable rather than platform-specific. This allows consolidation of customer ratings across different merchants while using existing payment processing infrastructure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If consumer rating systems are implemented independently of specific platforms, then consumer ratings can be consolidated and shared, but the system complexity increases due to need for centralized infrastructure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses the payment network as an intermediary to enable rating consolidation without requiring merchants to build their own centralized infrastructure. The existing payment network server acts as a mediator that collects ratings from various merchants and stores them in a centralized database, simplifying the implementation for individual merchants while enabling cross-merchant rating consolidation.
3Reliability
If merchants can access consolidated customer ratings, then transaction confidence and security improve, but the system requires additional data processing and storage capabilities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating and storing consolidated customer ratings in the database before merchants need them. The server aggregates ratings from multiple transactions and stores the consolidated data ready for retrieval, allowing merchants to access pre-processed rating information without requiring complex real-time calculations during transactions.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for allowing a merchant to rate a customer as part of a card transaction between the customer and the merchant, the method being performed in a merchant device, the method including: a) obtaining a card number for a payment card of the customer for use in the card transaction; b) obtaining a customer rating input by the merchant; c) generating a transaction message including: i) transaction details indicative of the card transaction, the transaction details including the card number; and ii) the customer rating; and d) transferring the transaction message to a server via a payment network, to thereby allow the server to: i) determine a customer identifier based on the card number; and ii) cause the customer rating to be stored in a ratings database in association with the customer identifier.