Method, system and program product for distribution of feedback among customers in real-time

A system for providing distribution of customer feedback in real-time, comprising:

• a network communications channel;
• one or more servers connected to said network communications channel and to a trans-retail establishment server connected to said network communications channel, each of said one or more servers corresponding to one or more retail establishments, each of said one or more servers having deployed thereon a tool for distributing feedback received in real-time from one or more customers of said one or more retail establishments, said tool comprising:
• a location tracking module configured to detect a location of a customer of said one or more customers providing feedback for an aspect of a retail establishment of said one or more retail establishments by continuously tracking, in real-time, movement of a portable device operated by said customer of said one or more customers within said retail establishment of said one or more retail establishments, said portable device configured to communicate with said tool;
• an item identifier module configured to identify one or more products in said one or more retail establishments;
• a collection module configured to:
• collect in real-time, utilizing said location tracking module and said item identifier module, said feedback received in real-time from said one or more customers for said aspect of said retail establishment of said one or more retail establishments, wherein said aspect of said retail establishment of said one or more retail establishments comprises at least one of:
• product, service, store operation, recommendation, review, overall shopping experience and miscellaneous, wherein said feedback is collected using at least one tag, said tag comprising at least one of:
• a text tag, an audio tag and a visual tag, and wherein said tag comprises at least one of:
• product-related data and location-related data;
• determine whether said feedback inputted pertains to either a product or a location within said retail environment;
• allow a user access to said feedback collected, and wherein said user comprises at least one of:
• a customer of said one or more customers that has inputted said feedback and a customer, other than said one or more customers, that has not inputted said feedback;
• and
• an update module configured to update said feedback collected and stored within said storage module by adding, based on said determining in order to facilitate retrieval of said feedback collected, one or more additional tags to said feedback inputted by said one or more customers pertaining to said one or more aspects of said retail environment, wherein said one or more additional tags are extrapolated from said at least one tag in order to facilitate retrieval of said feedback inputted,
• wherein said collection module is further configured to allow a user access to said one or more additional tags, extrapolated from said at least one tag, and additional information, based on either an inquiry submitted to said tool by said user or based on a current location of said user identified by said tool, and wherein access by the user to said one or more additional tags extrapolated from said respective first tag is determined based on a preference of said user to specify an amount and degree to which the one or more additional extrapolated tags are retrieved and provided to the user.

A computer program product for distributing retail information in a retail environment, said computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable medium;
• first program instructions to collect feedback pertaining to one or more aspects of a retail environment inputted by one or more customers using a plurality of portable devices, said first program instructions including instructions to determine whether said feedback inputted pertains to either a product or a location within said retail environment, and wherein said first program instructions further include instructions to receive a tag corresponding to said feedback inputted, said tag comprising at least one of:
• an image tag, an audio tag and a text tag, and wherein said first program instructions further include instructions to create, based on said determining in order to facilitate retrieval of said feedback collected, additional tags extrapolated from said tag corresponding to said feedback inputted in order to facilitate retrieval of said feedback collected;
• second program instructions to identify respective locations of said one or more customers by continuously tracking, in real-time, movement of said plurality of portable devices, and to identify one or more products in said retail environment;
• third program instructions to search said feedback collected based on either an inquiry submitted by said user or based on a current location of said user identified, wherein said user comprises at least one of:
• a customer of said one or more customers that has inputted said feedback and a customer other than said one or more customers that has not inputted said feedback, and wherein said first, second and third program instructions are recorded on said computer recordable medium;
• fourth program instructions to retrieve a subset of said additional tags extrapolated from said tag corresponding to said feedback inputted corresponding to a subset of said feedback collected based on either said inquiry submitted by said user or based on said current location identified, wherein retrieval of said subset of said additional tags extrapolated from said tag corresponding to said feedback inputted corresponding to a subset of said feedback is determined based on a preference of said user to specify an amount and degree to which the one or more additional extrapolated tags are retrieved and provided to the user, and wherein said fourth program instructions are recorded on said computer recordable medium;
• and
• fifth program instructions to present said user with additional information besides said feedback collected based on either said inquiry submitted to said tool by said user or based on said current location of said user identified by said tool.

A process for deploying computing infrastructure comprising integrating computer-readable code into a computing system, wherein said code in combination with said computing system is capable of performing a process of distributing customer feedback in a retail environment, said process comprising:

• creating a tag corresponding to feedback to be inputted into a tool, said tag being configured to extrapolate on said feedback, wherein said tag comprises at least one of:
• an image tag, an audio tag and a textual tag, and wherein said tag comprises at least one of:
• a product-related tag and a location-related tag;
• collecting by said tool in real-time said feedback inputted by one or more customers using a plurality of portable devices that are configured to communicate with said tool, said feedback inputted pertaining to one or more aspects of a retail environment, wherein the collecting further comprises determining whether said feedback inputted pertains to either a product or a location within said retail environment, and wherein the collecting further comprises adding, by said tool, based on said determining in order to facilitate retrieval of said feedback collected, one or more additional tags to said feedback collected based on said tag corresponding to said feedback inputted in order to facilitate retrieval of said feedback collected, and wherein said aspect of said retail environment comprises at least one of:
• product, service, store operation, recommendation, review, overall shopping experience and miscellaneous;
• identifying, using said plurality of portable devices that are configured to communicate with said tool, respective locations of said one or more customers by continuously tracking, in real-time, movement of said plurality of portable devices, and identifying one or more products in said retail environment;
• storing by said tool said feedback collected from said one or more customers;
• providing a user access to said feedback stored based on either an inquiry submitted to said tool by said user or based on a current location of said user identified by said tool;
• retrieving in real-time by said tool a subset of said one or more additional tags corresponding to said feedback collected based on either said inquiry submitted to said tool by said user or based on a current location of said user identified by said tool, wherein said user comprises at least one of:
• a customer of said one or more customers that has inputted said feedback and a customer other than said one or more customers that has not inputted said feedback, and wherein retrieval of said subset of said one or more additional tags corresponding to said subset of said feedback is determined based on a preference of said user to specify an amount and degree to which the one or more additional tags are retrieved and provided to the user;
• and
• presenting said user with additional information besides said feedback collected based on either said inquiry submitted to said tool by said user or based on said current location of said user identified by said tool.