Method and system for enhancing customer loyalty

Abstract

A method of and system for providing customer-specific information involving a) obtaining customer identification information for identifying a customer to be served at the weigh station; b) storing a plurality of customer profiles for a plurality of customers wherein each customer in the plurality of customers has an associated customer profile; and, c) when the customer is in the plurality of customers, retrieving the associated customer profile for the customer using the customer identification information and providing associated customer-specific information based on the associated customer profile to a weigh station display.

1 . A system for enhancing customer loyalty, the system comprising:
 a customer identification module operable to obtain a customer identifier for uniquely identifying a customer;   a storage module operable to store a plurality of customer profiles, each customer profile in the plurality of customer profiles being associated with one of a plurality of customers;   an information retrieval module operable to select a customer profile from the plurality of customer profiles stored in the storage module, the selection being based on the customer identifier;   an information processing module operable to generate incentive information for the customer based on the customer profile selected by the information retrieval module, the incentive information comprising marketing information for the customer, the marketing information identifying at least one of a plurality of products available for purchase; and   a weigh station operable to receive the incentive information from the information processing module, the weigh station comprising:
 a scale operable to determine a weight of one of the plurality of products; and 
 a display operable to display the marketing information to the customer. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein each customer profile of the plurality of customer profiles comprises at least one of historical purchase information recording prior purchases by that customer, historical reward information previously offered to that customer and historical marketing information previously displayed to that customer. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , further comprising a customer profile updating module, the customer profile updating module being operable to update the historical marketing information of the selected customer profile to include that the marketing information was displayed by the weigh station display. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the incentive information further comprises reward information for specifying at least one of a coupon and a discount to be provided to the customer. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4  further comprising an output device associated with the weigh station, the output device being operable to provide a transaction record to the customer, the transaction record being based on the at least one of a coupon and a discount specified in the reward information. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5  wherein,
 the weigh station further comprises:
 a data input module operable to receive a product identifier, the product identifier uniquely identifying one of the plurality of products; and 
 a communication module operable to receive product information about the product identified by the product identifier; and 
   the transaction record is further based on the product information.   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the discount is applied against a product unit price as a discount percentage, the discount percentage being specified in the incentive information and based upon at least one of the weight of the product and the historical purchase information stored in the selected customer profile, and wherein the coupon is associated with another of the plurality of products offered for sale. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 4  further comprising a customer profile updating module, the customer profile updating module being operable to update the historical reward information of the selected customer profile to include the reward information. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the incentive information further comprises reward point information for the customer, the reward point information specifying a total number of reward points redeemable by the customer. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the display is further operable to display the reward point information. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the display is further operable to display an indication of whether the total number of reward points are redeemable for the product offered for sale. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 3  further comprising a point-of-sale station operable to generate purchase information about the product;
 and wherein the customer profile updating module is further operable to update the historical purchase information of the selected customer profile to include the purchase information.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the point-of-sale station is separate from the weigh station and the historical purchase information is not updated until the product is purchased at the point-of-sale station. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , further comprising a plurality of weigh stations and a plurality of point-of-sale stations linked together by a server; the plurality of point-of-sale stations being spaced from the plurality of weigh stations. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the information retrieval module is further operable to:
 (i) receive the customer identifier from the customer identification module;   (ii) determine whether one of the customer profiles of the plurality of customer profiles is associated with the customer using the customer identifier;   (iii) when one of the customer profiles is associated with the customer, select that customer profile from among the plurality of customer profiles; and   (iv) when none of the customer profiles is associated with the customer, generate and associate a default customer profile with the customer.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the customer identification module comprises a service number provider operable to (i) assign a service number to the customer, (ii) link the service number with the customer identifier, and (iii) transmit the linked service number to the information retrieval module;
 and wherein the information retrieval module is further operable to determine whether one of the customer profiles of the plurality of customer profiles is associated with the customer using the service number.   
     
     
         17 . A method for serving a customer at a weigh station, the method comprising:
 (a) receiving a customer identifier for identifying the customer;   (b) retrieving a customer profile associated with the customer from a storage module using the customer identifier;   (c) generating incentive information for the customer based on the associated customer profile, the incentive information comprising marketing information for the customer, the marketing information being directed to at least one of a plurality of product offered for sale;   (d) providing the incentive information to the weigh station;   (e) selecting one of a plurality of weighable products for weighing and then determining a weight of that product using a scale of the weigh station, wherein the weight determined comprises neither a weight of the customer, nor a weight of a display of the weigh station;   (f) displaying the marketing information to the customer on the display of the weigh station.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the associated customer profile comprises at least one of historical purchase information, historical reward information and historical marketing information. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising updating the historical marketing information of the selected customer profile to record that the marketing information was displayed by the weigh station display. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the incentive information further comprises reward information for specifying at least one of a coupon and a discount to be provided to the customer. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , further comprising providing a transaction record to the customer, the transaction record being based on the at least one of the coupon and discount specified in the reward information. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein, providing a transaction record comprises:
 receiving a product identifier for the product offered for sale;   retrieving product information for the product offered for sale from a product database using the product identifier; and   generating the transaction record, the transaction record being based on the reward information and the product information.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 20 , further comprising:
 discounting a product unit price by the discount percentage, the discount percentage being based upon at least one of the weight of the product and the historical purchase information stored in the selected customer profile; and   associating the coupon with another of the plurality of products offered for sale.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 20 , further comprising updating the historical reward information to include the reward information. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , further comprising not updating the historical reward information to include the reward information until the product is purchased at a point-of-sale station, the point-of-sale station being separate from the weigh station. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the incentive information further comprises reward point information for the customer, the reward point information specifying the total number of reward points redeemable by the customer. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26 , further comprising displaying the reward point information on the display of the weigh station. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , further comprising displaying an indication of whether the reward points are redeemable for the product offered for sale on the display of the weigh station. 
     
     
         29 . The method as defined in  claim 15  further comprising providing at least one queue by at least one point-of-sale station, the weigh station being spaced from the at least one point-of-sale station such that the customer receiving the marketing information in step f) is not in the at least one queue.