Patent ID: 8793147

Claim:
A method for providing information from a business to a customer for assisting the customer in choosing a product, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving from a customer a first set of information regarding a product, wherein the first set of information is received via a first computer interface communicating with the customer over a computer network; (b) providing a second set of information to the customer via said first computer interface based on the received first set of information; (c) receiving first customer data regarding said product; (d) processing, using a microprocessor, the first customer data, wherein the first processed customer data is formatted in a first data format for a first one of a plurality of product providers, and wherein the first processed customer data is formatted in a second data format for a second one of the plurality of product providers, wherein said first and second data formats are different; (e) sending the processed first customer data to each of the plural product providers via a second computer interface; (f) receiving, via said second computer interface, a reply from each of the plural product providers in response to the processed first customer data; (g) determining, individually, if the reply from each of the plural product providers includes first product data: (A) if so, formatting the first product data into a predetermined format; (B) if not: (1) sending to the customer a notification that no product data was received; (2) receiving and processing third customer data regarding the product, and wherein the third processed customer data is formatted in the first data format for the first one of a plurality of product providers, and wherein the first processed customer data is formatted in the second data format for the second one of the plurality of product providers, and sending the processed third customer data to each of the plural product providers; and (3) receiving first product data from each of the plural product providers; and sending, via said first computer interface, the first product data to said customer; (h) receiving, via said first computer interface, a product choice and second customer data regarding the product choice from the customer in response to said first product data from one of the plural product providers; (i) processing, using said microprocessor, the second customer data; (j) sending, via said second computer interface, the processed second customer data to said one of the plural product providers and receiving from said one of the plural product providers, via the second computer interface, second product data in response to the processed second customer data; (k) processing, using said microprocessor, the second product data; and (l) sending the processed second data, via said first computer interface, to the customer.