SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MOBILE LOYALTY PROGRAM
The present invention provides a Mobile Loyalty and Community Service (MLCS) for decreasing customer churn and increasing customer spend. In an embodiment, the MLCS provides an event driven platform based around sticky accounts. The MLCS issues tokens, currencies, loyalty points and other value assets to customers based on definable user activities (e.g., purchases, forwarding promotional messages to friends, etc.), and stores these assets into customer accounts. Each of these accounts is made sticky by associating it with the mobile carrier and the customer's phone number. The MLCS provides prize catalogs where customers can redeem points in their accounts for valuable prizes (e.g., free voice minutes, ringtones, etc.). The MLCS also provides downloadable games, e.g., pay-per-play games. To motive customers to play these games, and thus increase customer spend, the MLCS issues points to customer based on in-game events (e.g., game score, level reached within a game, etc.).
1 . A method for implementing a loyalty program for a mobile carrier, comprising:
creating an account for a customer, wherein the account is associated with the mobile carrier;
issuing points to the customer for making purchases from the mobile carrier;
storing the issued points into the account; and
providing a catalog to the customer, wherein the customer can redeem points stored in the account for prizes in the catalog.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising deleting points from the account if the customer switches to another mobile carrier.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the prizes in the catalog include voice minutes.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the prizes in the catalog include downloadable ring tones.
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising offering a sweepstake to the customer, wherein the customer can redeem points stored in the account to enter the sweepstake.
6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving reports of purchases made by the customer from the mobile carrier;
issuing points to the customer based on the received reports; and
storing the points that are issued based on the received reports into the account.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the reports of purchases are received in batches from a billing system of the mobile carrier.
8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
offering downloadable games for purchase to the customer;
downloading one of the games onto a mobile device of the customer when the customer purchases the game;
issuing points to the customer for the game purchase; and
storing the points tat are issued for the game purchase into the account.
9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
offering tokens for purchase to the customer, wherein the custom can redeem the tokens to play games on the mobile device of the customer;
storing tokens purchased by the customer into the account;
enabling the customer to play a game once on the mobile device when the customer redeems one or more of the purchased tokens to play the game; and
deducting the one or more purchased tokens from the account.
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the game is capable of reporting in-game events to a server, and further comprising:
after the customer finishes playing the games on the mobile device, having the game report an in-game event to the server;
receiving the in-game event at the server;
issuing points to the customer based on the in-game event; and
storing the points that are issued based on the in-game event into the account.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the catalog includes prizes that the customer can redeemed for points issued based on in-game events.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the in-game event is reaching a level within the game.
13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the in-game event is a game score.
14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
receiving game scores from other players;
comparing the game score of the customer to the game scores of the other players; and
issuing points to the customer based on the comparison.
15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving the game scores of the customer and the other players over a predefined period of time; and
issuing points to the customer if the game score of the customer is within a top group of the received game scores.
16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the top group includes a top 100 of the received game scores.
17 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising posting a leader board on a Web site, wherein the leader board lists the game scores of the customer and the other players in order of descending score from a top score.
18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising sending a message to the customer informing the customer of a rank of the customer on the leader board.
19 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending a message to a mobile device of the customer;
issuing points to the customer when the customer forwards the message to another person; and
storing the points that are issued for forwarding the message into the account.
20 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending a message to a mobile device of the customer, wherein the message offers at least one product for purchase;
issuing points to the customer when the customer purchases a product from the message; and
storing points that are issued for the purchase into the account.
21 . The method of claim 20 , wherein the customer purchases the product from the message by sending a Premium Short Message Service (PSMS) to a server and the customer is billed by the mobile carrier for the purchase.
22 . The method of claim 20 , further comprising:
issuing points to the customer when the customer forwards the message to another person; and
storing the points that are issued for forwarding the message into the account.
23 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalog is Web based or WAP based.
24 . The method of claim 21 , further comprising:
monitoring the account of the customer; and
sending a message to the customer when the number of points in the account reaches a certain amount or points are added to the account, wherein the message includes a link to the catalog.
25 . The method of claim 1 , her comprising:
downloading an application onto a mobile device of the customer;
having the downloaded application automatically register the customer with a service if the customer is not already registered with the service; and
creating the account for the customer when the customer is registered with the service.
26 . The method of claim 25 , further comprising having the downloaded application search for a registration flag in storage of the mobile device to determine whether the customer is already registered with the service.