Patent ID: 8671009

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a computer-based data center for providing an automated computer network-based appointment scheduling service through which a plurality of customers registered with the service are individually capable of scheduling an appointment with one or more of a plurality of businesses registered with the service at a customer-selected appointment time that is selected from one or more business-offered appointment times, wherein the data center comprises: one or more computer databases that store data, wherein the stored data comprise data regarding the plurality of customers and the plurality of businesses; and at least one electronic computer device in communication with the one or more computer databases, wherein the at least one electronic computer device is programmed to: calculate a reliability rating for at least a first customer of the plurality of customers, wherein the reliability rating for the first customer is based on at least, for the first customer, (i) a number of non-no-show scheduled appointments by the first customer with the plurality of businesses registered with the service over a historic evaluation time period and (ii) a total number of scheduled appointments by the first customer with the plurality of businesses registered with the service over the evaluation time period, wherein: the reliability rating is calculated based on a ratio of (i) the number of non-no-show scheduled appointments by the first customer with the plurality of businesses registered with the service over the evaluation time period, to (ii) the total number of scheduled appointments by the first customer with the plurality of businesses registered with the service over the evaluation time period; and there are a plurality of possible hierarchical reliability ratings for each of the plurality of customers, and wherein the at least one electronic computer device is programmed to calculate the reliability rating for each customer such that a customer has the highest possible reliability rating when the customer had zero scheduled appointments over the evaluation time period; compare the reliability rating for the first customer to a reliability rating threshold for a first business of the plurality of businesses upon the first customer transmitting a request to schedule an appointment with the first business at the customer-selected appointment time to the computer-based data center; and booking the appointment for the first customer at the customer-selected appointment time with the first business when the reliability rating for the first customer equals or exceeds the reliability rating threshold for the first business, wherein the at least one electronic computer device comprises at least one processor circuit and at least one memory circuit in communication with the at least one processor circuit.