US 9,805,415 B2Granted

Transaction linked merchant data collection

AssigneeMastercard International Incorporated

InventorJustin Xavier Howe

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A system, method, and software product for obtaining details on merchant data from customers purchasing goods or services at a merchant with a payment instrument. After customers make purchases, a server associated with a payment instrument network or payment instrument issuing bank sends a message in the form of a signal to open an application, an SMS, an e-mail, an electronic bank statement, or other electronic means to the customer offering the customer the opportunity to provide details on merchant data on the merchant where the purchase was just made, including the name and address of the merchant where the purchase was just made. The customer may be offered rewards for providing of details on merchant data. The payment instrument network and payment instrument issuing bank are thus presented with the opportunity to mine data in a crowdsourced manner from consumers who have just purchased from a merchant.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method for identifying a merchant involved in a completed payment transaction between the merchant having a transaction acquiring device and a customer, the method being carried out by a server connectable with a personal computing device over a network, comprising:

monitoring by the server, the transaction acquiring device of the merchant for a completed payment transaction between the merchant and the customer;
extracting a customer identification for the customer from said completed payment transaction;
comparing said customer identification with a list of customer identifications;
determining from said comparison, whether said customer has elected, prior to the payment transaction, to provide merchant data about the merchant;
wherein, when it is determined that the customer has elected to provide merchant data about the merchant prior to the payment transaction:
transmitting by the server a message to a personal computing device associated with the customer, the message requesting that the customer provide details of said merchant for said completed payment transaction;
receiving, by the server from the customer personal computing device, a response including at least one of a merchant name, a merchant address, a merchant phone number, and a channel used to process the transaction;
and
storing the response from said customer m an information dataset of a database for the merchant;
when it is determined that the customer has not elected, prior to the payment transaction, to provide merchant data about the merchant, continuing to monitor, by the server, the transaction acquiring device of the merchant for a next transaction.

7 more elements

A system for identification of a merchant involved in a completed payment transaction between the merchant having a transaction acquiring device and a customer, wherein:

a server connectable with a personal computing device over a network, the server associated with a processor executes program instructions to:
monitor the transaction acquiring device of the merchant for a completed payment transaction between the merchant and the customer;
extract a customer identification for the customer from said completed payment transaction;
compare said customer identification with a list of customer identifications;
determine from said comparison whether said customer has elected, prior to the payment transaction, to provide merchant data about the merchant;
wherein, when it is determined that the customer has elected to provide merchant data about the merchant prior to the payment transaction, the processor executes further program instructions to:
transmit a message to a personal computing device associated with the customer, the message requesting that the customer provide details of said merchant for said completed payment transaction;
receive from the customer personal computing device a response including at least one of a merchant name, a merchant address, a merchant phone number, and a channel used to process the transaction;
and
store the response from said customer in said information dataset of said database for the merchant;
when it is determined that the customer has not elected, prior to the payment transaction, to provide merchant data about the merchant, the processor executes further program instructions to continue to monitor the transaction acquiring device of the merchant for a next transaction.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.