# US 2014/0156431 A1 · Customer interaction manager on a point of sale computer

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- Number: US 2014/0156431 A1
- Document ID: US20140156431A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 13/690,806
- Filed: 2012-11-30
- Published: 2014-06-05
- Earliest claimed: 2012-11-30
- Assignees: NCR Corporation
- Applicants: Ncr Corporation
- Inventors: Taylor Drake Morgan; Azhar Bande-ali; Brett S. Taylor; Charles Howard Mallory; Curtis Patrick Quinn Evans; James Lee Fortuna; David Allen Turner
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140156431A1

## CPC

- G06Q 20/20: Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
- G06Q 20/385: {using an alias or single-use codes}
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

## Abstract

An approach is provided for indirectly connecting a customer's mobile smart device to a point of sale computer located at a business when the customer is making a purchase at the business. The customer's mobile smart device and the POS computer communicate over the Internet with a customer interaction manager executing on an Internet server. This provides an easy to use interface for the customer and allows the customer to receive information and send requests to the business without having to wait for personnel working at the business to be available.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method of managing customer interaction with a business implemented by a point of sale computer located at the business and communicating over the Internet with a server computer, the method comprising:
starting a purchase transaction for a customer present at the business;
establishing an Internet session with the server computer by transmitting a purchase transaction started notification for the started purchase transaction;
receiving a unique identifier from the server computer in response to transmitting the purchase transaction started notification where the unique identifier uniquely identifies the started purchase transaction;
providing the unique identifier and a uniform resource locator (URL) to the customer where the URL is an Internet address serviced by the server computer;
receiving a request using the Internet session with the server computer over the Internet where the request includes the unique identifier; and
processing the received request where processing the request include using the unique identifier to identify the started purchase transaction.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the business is a restaurant.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, wherein the purchase transaction includes customer location information where the customer location information specifies where the customer is seated within or near the restaurant.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein providing the unique identifier and the URL to the customer includes printing the unique identifier and the URL as readable text using a printer.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein providing the unique identifier and URL to the customer includes creating an optical code encoded with information that includes the unique identifier and the URL and printing the optical code using a printer.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein the optical code is a Quick Response (QR) bar code.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein providing the unique identifier and the URL to the customer includes wirelessly transmitting data to a mobile smart device operated by the customer.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein wirelessly transmitting data includes using near field communications to transmit the data where the transmitter is located proximate to the customer.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein wirelessly transmitting data includes using Wi-Fi communications to transmit the data.

### Claim 10 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein providing the unique identifier and the URL to the customer includes wirelessly receiving, from a mobile smart device operated by the customer, location information and transmitting the unique identifier and the URL to the mobile smart device if the received location information matches the customer location information from the purchase transaction.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the location information wirelessly received from the mobile smart device is provided by a global position system in the mobile smart device.

### Claim 12 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the location information wirelessly received from the mobile smart device is encoded in an optical code located proximate to the customer and an image of the optical code is wirelessly received from the mobile smart device.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein providing the unique identifier and the URL to the customer includes transmitting the data using text messaging to a mobile smart device operated by the customer.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein processing the received request includes adding an item to the purchase transaction.

### Claim 15 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein adding the item to the purchase transaction includes sending a notice to an employee of the business to deliver the added item to the customer.

### Claim 16 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein processing the received request includes sending a notice to an employee of the business to provide a service to the customer.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, wherein the notice to the employee includes instructions to physically deliver a bill detailing the items of the purchase transaction to the customer.

### Claim 18 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, wherein the notice to the employee includes instructions to physically retrieve a form of payment for the purchase transaction from the customer.

### Claim 19 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
processing a payment for the purchase transaction;
transmitting a list of items in the purchase transaction to the server computer using the Internet session; and
terminating the Internet session with the server computer.

### Claim 20 (depends on 1)

One or more non-transitory digital storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause performance of the method recited in claim 1.