Abstract:
A method for creating customer hierarchies via a network by sending an invitation to one or more customers to join a hierarchy, receiving, from the one or more of the customers, a request to join the hierarchy based upon the invitation, and adding the sender of the request to the hierarchy.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to customer hierarchies. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for creating self-built customer hierarchies over a network wherein an invitation is sent to one or more customers to join a hierarchy. The invitation to join the hierarchy is sent by an originating customer (the hierarchy builder) to another customer. Upon accepting the invitation, a response to the invitation is sent to the hierarchy builder by the other customer, and selected portions of the other customer&#39;s hierarchy is added to the hierarchy builder&#39;s hierarchy.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    In the pre-paid calling market, mobile phones are generally sold as a commodity. This is in contrast to traditional contract based mobile phone sales which typically characterize the post-paid calling market. Due to the lack of service contracts within the pre-paid calling market, a user, or customer, of the pre-paid mobile phone can be anonymous to an operator, and thus there is typically no customer support at and after the point of sale of the pre-paid mobile phone. Nevertheless, it would be beneficial if operators were able to offer these customers the possibility of consolidating their mobile phone subscriptions into one account structure, as consolidating their mobile phone subscriptions into one account brings benefits to mobile phone users, such as allowing the users to be able to manage their subscriptions, transfer balances between subscriptions, and reload their pre-paid subscriptions at different levels, for example. In turn, such benefits facilitate a higher level of customer satisfaction, strengthening the customer-operator relationship, and thus lowering customer chum.  
           [0005]    Traditionally, however, only post-paid (i.e. contract) customers have benefited from customer hierarchies, which typically have been managed by telecom operators. This is due to how traditional pre-paid mobile phone subscriptions are structured.  
           [0006]    For example, FIG. 1 shows the structure of traditional pre-paid mobile phone service accounts and subscriptions for two mobile phones A and B (not shown). A pre-paid mobile telecom service account, mobile phone A pre-paid account  10 , is associated with a single pre-paid subscription, mobile phone A pre-paid subscription  20 . A monetary balance is stored in mobile phone A pre-paid subscription  20 , enabling an initial or continuing use of mobile phone A.  
           [0007]    A separate pre-paid mobile telecom service account, mobile phone B pre-paid account  30 , is associated with a single pre-paid subscription, mobile phone B subscription  40 . A monetary balance is stored in mobile phone subscription  40 , enabling an initial or continuing use of mobile phone B. As mobile phones A and B have mutually exclusive subscriptions and accounts, the owners and/or users of mobile phones A and B can not share benefits only available to post-paid customers, such as account consolidation and access to bundled rates or volume discounts given to accounts with multiple subscriptions directly associated with the accounts. Moreover, as it is common for one family, company, or organization to have more than one mobile phone subscription, and as a telecom operator is not aware of the commonly owned multiple subscriptions, the telecom operator can not award the benefits of accumulated usage and other charges to the common owner.  
           [0008]    However, even if the telecom operator were aware of the commonly owned multiple subscriptions, traditional post-paid consolidated subscription management is very expensive and involves specially trained telecom operator staff to manage the consolidated subscriptions. Thus, it would be advantageous if the operators could offer to customers the option of consolidating their mobile phone subscriptions into one account structure, which, in turn, would bring benefits to the users by allowing them to be able to manage their balances, transfer their balances between subscriptions, and reload their subscriptions at different levels.  
           [0009]    In situations where families or small companies purchase multiple mobile phones, it would further be advantageous for the purchasers to organize their pre-paid mobile phone accounts into a hierarchy for consolidated reporting, budgeting, and payment allocations. However, a problem arises as there is no relationship between the phones themselves, due to the phones typically being purchased at different times and/or at different locations. The purchasers typically have only two options in this situation: the first is to convince a mobile phone customer service center that they own all of the mobile phones, and request that the service center create a hierarchy, and the second is to make do without a hierarchy.  
           [0010]    Therefore, a need exists for a method wherein the purchasers or customers can negotiate their own hierarchies with other customers, in order to receive the benefits listed above associated with consolidated accounts and subscriptions.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    It is an object of the present invention to enable customers to create self-built customer hierarchies, at both the account and subscription levels.  
           [0012]    Another object of the present invention to enable customers to modify self-built customer hierarchies, at both the account and subscription levels.  
           [0013]    A further object of the present invention is to enable customers to create a hierarchy wherein an account manages different types of accounts and subscriptions.  
           [0014]    Yet another object of the present invention is to enable the consolidation of post-paid and pre-paid subscriptions and accounts within a customer hierarchy.  
           [0015]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a more cost effective way in which to manage customer hierarchies.  
           [0016]    The above objects can be attained by a method and system that enables customers to negotiate their own self-built customer hierarchies at both the account and subscription levels. The present invention enables customers to login to a customer self care system, over the Internet or over any other type of network, and provides for the sending of an invitation from an invitation sender to other customers to join the invitation sender&#39;s hierarchy. An invitee can then choose to accept or decline the invitation, whereupon the inviter confirms the link between the inviter and invitee.  
           [0017]    The invitation can be at the account level or the subscription level. An account level invitation leaves the invited account with full control over its sub-tree of accounts and/or subscriptions, resulting in a multi-account hierarchy. A subscription level invitation moves the subscription of the invitee from the invitee&#39;s account to the inviter&#39;s account.  
           [0018]    At any point in time, any subscription or account can receive an invitation from another customer hierarchy, leave its current customer hierarchy, and join the hierarchy whereupon the invitation originated.  
           [0019]    These together with other objects and advantages which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0020]    [0020]FIG. 1 shows the structure of traditional pre-paid mobile phone service accounts and subscriptions for mobile phones A and B, according to the prior art.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 2 shows a network system wherein invitations to join a customer self-built customer hierarchy containing accounts and/or subscriptions may be sent, and acceptances to the invitations may be received according to the present invention.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 3 shows one possible result of consolidating the pre-paid mobile phone subscriptions of FIG. 1 according to the present invention.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 4 shows one possible result of consolidating the pre-paid mobile phone accounts of FIG. 1 according to the present invention.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 5 shows one possible result of consolidating pre-paid and post-paid mobile phone subscriptions according to the present invention.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 6 shows one possible result of consolidating pre-paid and post-paid mobile phone accounts according to the present invention.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 7 shows a balance transfer between subscriptions according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 8 shows reload patterns according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 9 shows an account managing different types of accounts and subscriptions according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0029]    Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 2 shows a network system wherein invitations to join a customer self-built customer hierarchy containing accounts and/or subscriptions may be sent, and acceptances to the invitations may be received. A customer, using web-enabled mobile phone A connects and logs into customer self care web server  70 , for example, via antenna  55 , via WAP gateway server  80 , and via network  90 . Alternately, a customer may log into customer self care server  70  using computer  60  running network-enabling software via network  90 . Such network-enabling software may include, for example, an HTML browser.  
         [0031]    The customer (the inviter) may send an invitation in the form of an e-mail or an instant message, for example, to another customer (the invitee) connected to network  90 , such as an invitee using web-enabled mobile phone B, or such as an invitee using computer  65  running network-enabling software. Phone B may be connected to network  90  via a palm gateway, an imode gateway, a WAP gateway, or any other type of gateway which allows communication through a network such as network  90 . The invitee using phone B or computer  65  will receive a message notifying that there is a message requiring an action. The invitee using phone B or computer  65  may accept or reject the invitation.  
         [0032]    The invitation is not limited to being sent over only one type of network. The invitation may be sent over any type of network, such as wired or wireless LANs, WANs, VPNs, and Intranets. For example, the invitation may be sent from mobile phone A to mobile phone B using the Internet, the invitation may be sent from mobile phone A to mobile phone B using an SMS message, as is well known in the art, or the invitation may be sent over a PSTN network using an automated voice system to call the number of mobile phone B and to play a prerecorded invitation message.  
         [0033]    The customer using mobile phone B receives the invitation sent by the inviter, and chooses whether or not to accept the invitation to join the inviter&#39;s hierarchy. Or, alternately, software running on mobile phone B receives the invitation sent by the inviter, and determines, based on preprogrammed criteria, whether or not to accept the invitation to join the inviter&#39;s hierarchy.  
         [0034]    For a pre-paid subscription level acceptance, FIG. 3 shows one possible result of consolidating the pre-paid mobile phone subscriptions of FIG. 1 according to the present invention. Using pre-paid account  10  and pre-paid subscription  20  of FIG. 1 as an example of the existing hierarchy of the inviter, (using mobile phone A of FIG. 2, for example) and using pre-paid account  30  and pre-paid account  40  of FIG. 1 as an example of the existing hierarchy of the invitee (using mobile phone B of FIG. 2, for example), FIG. 3 shows the resulting hierarchy of the invitee&#39;s acceptance of the inviter&#39;s subscription invitation. Mobile phone B pre-paid subscription  40  is transferred from mobile phone B pre-paid account  30  to mobile phone A pre-paid account  10 , and mobile phone B pre-paid account  30  is left with no subscriptions. Mobile phone A pre-paid subscription  20  remains unaffected.  
         [0035]    For a pre-paid account level acceptance, FIG. 4 shows one possible result of consolidating the pre-paid mobile phone accounts of FIG. 1 according to the present invention. Using pre-paid account  10  and pre-paid subscription  20  of FIG. 1 as an example of the existing hierarchy of the inviter, (using mobile phone A of FIG. 2, for example) and using pre-paid account  30  and pre-paid account  40  of FIG. 1 as an example of the existing hierarchy of the invitee (using mobile phone B of FIG. 2, for example), FIG. 4 shows the resulting hierarchy of the acceptance of the inviter&#39;s account invitation. Mobile phone B pre-paid account  30  becomes a sub-account of mobile phone A pre-paid account  10 , with mobile phone B pre-paid subscription  40  intact. Mobile phone A pre-paid subscription  20  remains unaffected.  
         [0036]    For a post-paid subscription level acceptance, FIG. 5 shows one possible result of consolidating pre-paid and post-paid mobile phone subscriptions according to the present invention. Using pre-paid account  10  and pre-paid subscription  20  of FIG. 1 as an example of the existing hierarchy of the inviter, (using mobile phone A of FIG. 2, for example) and introducing post-paid account  15  and post-paid account  25  as an example of the existing hierarchy of the invitee (using mobile phone B of FIG. 2, for example), FIG. 5 shows the resulting hierarchy of the invitee&#39;s acceptance of the inviter&#39;s subscription invitation. Mobile phone B post-paid subscription  25  is transferred from mobile phone B post-paid account  15  to mobile phone A pre-paid account  10 , and mobile phone B post-paid account  15  is left with no subscriptions. Mobile phone A pre-paid subscription  20  remains unaffected.  
         [0037]    For a post-paid account level acceptance, FIG. 6 shows one possible result of consolidating pre-paid and post-paid mobile phone accounts according to the present invention. Using pre-paid account  10  and pre-paid subscription  20  of FIG. 1 as an example of the existing hierarchy of the inviter, (using mobile phone A of FIG. 2, for example) and using post-paid account  15  and post-paid account  25  of FIG. 5 as an example of the existing hierarchy of the invitee (using mobile phone B of FIG. 2, for example), FIG. 6 shows the resulting hierarchy of the inviter&#39;s account invitation. Mobile phone B post-paid account  15  becomes a sub-account of mobile phone A pre-paid account  10 , with mobile phone B post-paid subscription  25  remaining intact. Mobile phone A pre-paid subscription  20  remains unaffected.  
         [0038]    After the creation or modification of the customer hierarchy is completed, customers may perform account functions on the hierarchy including balance transfers, configurable reload patterns, account value reload, and service value reload.  
         [0039]    [0039]FIG. 7 shows a balance transfer between subscriptions according to an embodiment of the present invention. Under this embodiment an account owner or controller may reload the balance of one subscription with funds transferred from another subscription. Account  100  is connected to subscription  110  and subscription  120  via datalinks  115  and  125 , respectively. Subscriptions  110  and  120  may be both pre-paid subscriptions, both post-paid subscriptions, or one post-paid and pre-paid. Datalinks  115  and  125  may be any type of communication link or line which has the ability to transmit information, such as an analog telephone line, a digital fiber-optic line, a wireless transmission, or any other type of communications link. Subscriptions  110  and  120  maybe subscriptions for any type of service, mobile phone service or otherwise. An owner or controller of account  100  may withdraw value from subscription  110  via datalink  115  and deposit that same value into subscription  120  via datalink  125 , as represented by arrow  130 . Alternately, an owner or controller of account  100  may withdraw value from subscription  120  via datalink  125  and deposit that same value into subscription  110  via datalink  115 , as represented by arrow  140 .  
         [0040]    [0040]FIG. 8 shows reload patterns according to an embodiment of the present invention. Under this embodiment, an account owner or user may configure different or identical reload amounts to be transferred to the subscriptions that are associated with the account. Account  100  is connected to subscription  110 , subscription  120 , and subscription  130  via datalinks  115 ,  125 , and  135 , respectively. Datalinks  115 ,  125 , and  135  maybe any type of communication link or line which has the ability to transmit information, such as an analog telephone line, a digital fiber-optic line, a wireless transmission, or any other type of communications link. Subscriptions  110 ,  120 , and  130  may be subscriptions for any type of similar or dissimilar services, and may be any combination of post- and pre-paid subscriptions. For example, subscription  110  may be a subscription for a mobile phone service, while subscription  120  and  130  may be subscriptions for a cable television service; subscription  110  may be a pre-paid subscription, while subscriptions  120  and  130  may be post-paid subscriptions. Account  100  is configured by the account  100  owner or controller to have an initial reload value. Although any reload value may be assigned to the initial reload value, for the sake of clarity, $100 is used in FIG. 8. From the initial reload value, the owner or controller of account  100  next configures the reload percentages of the initial reload value to be sent to subscriptions  110 ,  120 , and  130 . For example, the owner or controller of account  100  may apportion 10% of the initial reload value to be sent to subscription  110 , 40% of the initial reload value to be sent to subscription  120 , and 50% of the initial reload value to be sent to subscription  130 , resulting in $10 being transferred to subscription  110 , $40 being transferred to subscription  120 , and $50 being transferred to subscription  130 .  
         [0041]    The concept of building self-created customer hierarchies can be applied to a wide variety of markets, not only the pre-paid wireless telecom industry. With the increasing convergence of billing telecom services and the ever expanding product offering of telecom companies, the self-created customer hierarchies can incorporate not only wireless subscriptions, but one account can own or manage different types of subscriptions. In this regard, FIG. 9 shows an account managing different types of accounts and subscriptions. Account  100  may be associated with different types of accounts including, for instance, mobile internet account  150 , wired internet account  160 , and cable TV account  170 . In turn, mobile internet account  150  is associated with mobile internet subscriptions  180  and  190 , wired internet account  160  is associated with wired internet subscriptions  200  and  210 , and cable TV account  170  is associated with cable TV subscriptions  220  and  230 .  
         [0042]    Account  100  may add value to sub-accounts  150 ,  160 , and  170  via datalinks  240 ,  250 , and  260 , respectively. The value from account  100  may be added to sub-accounts  150 ,  160 , and  170  simultaneously, at different times, and/or using reload patterns as described in the FIG. 8 discussion above, with sub-accounts  150 ,  160 , and  170  replacing subscriptions  110 ,  120 , and  130 . Mobile internet account  150  may add value or transfer balances between mobile internet subscriptions  180  and  190  via datalinks  270  and  280 , respectively, as described in the FIG. 7 discussion above with account  150  replacing account  100  and subscriptions  180  and  190  replacing subscriptions  110  and  120 . Wired internet account  160  may add value or transfer balances between wired internet subscriptions  200  and  210  via datalinks  290  and  300 , respectively, as described in the FIG. 7 discussion above with account  160  replacing account  100  and subscriptions  180  and  190  replacing subscriptions  110  and  120 . Cable TV account  170  may add value or transfer balances between cable TV subscriptions  200  and  210  via datalinks  310  and  320 , respectively, as described in the FIG. 7 discussion above with account  170  replacing account  100  and subscriptions  220  and  230  replacing subscriptions  110  and  120 .  
         [0043]    The many features and advantages of the invention are apparent from the detailed specification and, thus, it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such features and advantages of the invention which fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation illustrated and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.