WO1994024804A1

WO1994024804A1 - System and method for facilitating transactions between central and remote facilities

Info

Publication number: WO1994024804A1
Application number: PCT/US1994/004588
Authority: WO
Inventors: Stephen Corey Wren
Original assignee: Stephen Corey Wren
Priority date: 1993-04-22
Filing date: 1994-04-22
Publication date: 1994-10-27
Also published as: AU6713794A

Abstract

A system (10) for facilitating financial services transactions includes a financial services facility (12) for engaging in a first business activity leading to a first transaction in the form of a business contract, and a retail sales facility (14) located remote from the financial services facility (12) for engaging in a second activity being different from the first activity and leading to a second transaction being different from the first transaction of the financial services facility (12). Each of the facilities (12, 14) has an array of electronic communications equipment (16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38) for communicating information in voice and print media between an agent at the financial services facility (12) and a customer at the retail sales facility (14).

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN CENTRAL AND REMOTE FACILITIES

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of copending U.S. application Ser. No. 07/855,099, filed March 20, 1992.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to a system for communicating between remote facilities and, more particularly, is concerned with a system and method for facilitating transactions between central and remote facilities.

Description of the Prior Art Over the years the marketing of certain financial services to retail customers, such as auto financing to car purchasers at car dealerships, has increasingly been hindered by problems experienced by the companies providing the financial services. The more serious of these problems are high administrative costs, long delays in creating and implementing new financial service products, and complex methods which confound and confuse retail sales locations and their customers.

The traditional approach in marketing financial service products has been to offer them at retail sales locations by employees of the retail businesses acting as agents of the financial services companies. One of the consequences of this traditional approach is that each retail sales business is required to have the necessary means for calculating and quoting rather complicated matters, such as payments and premiums, and to be responsible for maintaining computer hardware and software systems independently of the financial service companies. All too frequently these requirements result in contracts written with wrong amounts and/or terms which later create embarrassment and confusion for the retail sales business when those contracts have to be amended, endorsed, or worse yet completely rejected.

Another consequence of this traditional approach is that in acting as agents of the financial services companies, the employees of the retail sales businesses are often required to be licensed in their state to do so. High turnover rate of these employees can pose a serious problem for these businesses as personnel with such skills are not easy to find. Furthermore, there are considerable costs for the retail sales businesses in maintaining separately these in-house systems or replacing them to keep pace with changing products and regulations. An ideal system for providing these financial services would be one which overcomes the above-described problems of the traditional appoach. Such ideal system would employ the qualified agents available at the financial services company and thereby eliminate the necessity for employees of the local retail sales business to qualify to act as agents of the financial services company. Elimination of local agents would reduce the incidence of contracts containing errors and save the cost of training such employees. Also, such ideal system would utilize the hardware and software existing at the financial services company and thereby eliminate the necessity to purchase and maintain the hardware and software necessary to process and support the activities of such employee agents. Further, such ideal system would employ the expertise of agents at the financial services company and generate the appropriate financial services documents tailored to the particular customer and thereby eliminate the necessity to obtain and maintain the instructional manuals and application forms necessary for carrying out of these activities.

The prior patent art reveals two remote transaction systems whose stated objectives are to reduce overhead expenses. These remote transaction systems should be considered as possible candidates for providing solutions to the aforementioned problems experienced with the traditional approach of providing financial services.

One remote transaction system disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 4,845,636 to Walker provides a transaction booth located remotely from an operations center, for facilitating a transaction such as a renting or leasing an automobile. The booth and center are connected by audio and video equipment for transmitting and receiving audio and video signals between the customer in the booth and the agent at the operations center primarily to simulate a face-to-face experience for the customer. Operation of the communications equipment at the transaction booth and dispensing of items or objects to the customer are electronically controlled from the operations center. Payment in cash or credit card is made via a payment module located at the booth.

However, the Walker remote transaction system requires installation and maintenance of expensive video equipment and has no means for producing a financial services document at the booth tailored to the specific needs of the customer. Thus, at best, the Walker system would lead to less than an optimum solution to the problems noted heretofore with the traditional approach to marketing financial service products.

The other remote transaction system disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 5, 142,566 to Meschi provides a system of billing and payment of utility services between the user's or customer's site and central office via telephone lines and modems. Service usage data is transmitted periodically from the customer's site to the central office where the data is stored in the memory of a central processor at the central office. When payment is due, the service charge data is calculated at the central office and then sent to a printer at the customer's site where the charge data is printed on a blank bill form made available to the customer. The customer then makes payment in the manner desired such as through a bank by telephone. However, the Meschi remote transaction system requires that a supply of forms be maintained in inventory at the user's or customer's site. Also, the Meschi system employs only one communications line thus making it impossible to transmit voice and data at the same time. Thus, at best, the Meschi system would lead to less than an optimum solution to the problems noted heretofore with the traditional approach to marketing financial service products.

Consequently, a need still exists for an improved system which facilitates consummation of business transactions between central and remote facilities. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system and method for facilitating transactions between central and remote facilities which satisfies the aforementioned needs.

The principle object of the system and method of the present invention is to facilitate transactions by retail sales customers at remote locations, such as car, truck, boat and motocycle dealerships, with banks, credit unions and finance companies, or a service company representing such companies, at central locations. The method by which the transactions between the parties are facilitated reduces the costs associated with creating, marketing, administering, and selling financial services products, thereby making them more cost effective and affordable. Another object of the present invention is to further centralize and simplify the responsibilities over these products.

A further object of the present invention is to shorten the time required to create and implement new products in the financial services arena. An additional object is to provide a wider variety of these products to offer retail customers.

The foregoing objects are accomplished by a transaction system and method using electronic communications where the retail customer may use the electronic communications facilities and equipment at the retail sales location to contact a financial services company to negotiate the purchase, lease, and contracting of financial services and/or other goods and services. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a financial services company and its agents who will now be responsible for selling these products to the customers are located centrally and thereby drastically reduce and streamline related business costs such as by having only one computer system used to support the selling and adminstrative process and in having to train only a single centrally located group of individuals who will act as the agents. The ability to pool agents for distributed use among all retailers will as well eliminate any possible negative effects illness or attrition may have on any individual retailer. The reduction in costs associated with these products will then help create a greater variety of more competitive products for retail customers more likely to meet each customer's specific needs with greatly reduced overhead costs allowing the products to be much more competitive with other products and services and eventually lead to further sales of these products and thus expand the industry. The reduced capital requirements would also encourage smaller companies to compete. Many smaller companies currently concentrate on specific states or regions as they do not have the resources to develop products for many states. The result would be increased competition.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following detailed description, reference will be made to the attached drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an array of electronics communications components employed in a system and method for facilitating transactions in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The preferred embodiment of a system 10 and method for facilitating transactions in accordance with the principles of the present invention will now be described in detail. The transactions facilitating system 10 includes a central facility 1 2, such as a financial services company, and one or more remote facilities 14, such as retail sales facilities, which are patronized by potential customers of the central facility 12. The central facility 1 2 is engaged in a first activity which leads to a first transaction. Each remote facility 14 is engaged in a second activity being separate and distinct or different from the first activity and which leads to a second transaction which is also separate and distinct or different from the first transaction of the central facility. For instance, the remote facilities 14 can be retail sales facilities, such as car, truck, boat and/or motocycle dealerships whose principle activities are educating and informing customers about the vehicles they sell for the ultimate purpose of achieving the desired end transaction which is the sale of these vehicles to their customers. The central facility 12 can be a financial services facility, such as a bank, credit union or a finance company, whose principle activities are educating and informing customers about conditions and terms of loans (financial products) to be used in the purchase of the vehicles from the dealerships for the ultimate purpose of achieving the desired end transaction which is the consummation of a loan or financing and insurance agreement between the financial services company and the customer. In the illustrated case of financial services, the system 10 facilitates the carrying out of activities, such as financial business transactions, in accordance with the principles of the present invention, by employing an array of means for transmitting and/or receiving information between the financial services facility 12 and a customer at one of the respective retail sales facilities 14. The financial services facility 1 2 offering the goods and/or services is established at a central location. Each retail sales facility 14 is sited at a given remote location where their. potential customers are located.

At the remote retail sales facility 14 an area is established where an array of electronic communications equipment is provided in accordance with the present invention for transmitting and/or receiving information about financial services between the central financial services facility 12 and the customer at the retail sales facility 14. More particularly, as seen in Fig. 1 , such array of electronic communications equipment includes a modem 16, a digital computer 18, a speaker phone 20, a monitor 22, a printer 24 or other means for recording signals transmitted from the company 1 2, and a keyboard or input device 26. Additionally, a mail bag 28 or like device is provided at the retail sales facility 14.

For communicating with the customer at the remote retail sales facility 14, a complementary array of electronic communications equipment is located at the financial services facility 1 2. As seen in Fig. 1 , this equipment includes a modem 30, a digital computer 32, a phone 34, a monitor 36 and a keyboard or other input device 38. Only a complementary printer is not needed at the financial services facility 1 2 for the purpose of facilitating transactions in accordance with the present invention. Preferably, two separate phone lines 40, 42 are available to interconnect the respective phones 20, 34 of the facilities 14, 12 simultaneously with, but separately from, the interconnection of the respective modems 1 6, 30 of the facilities 14, 1 2 so that voice and data communication can be ongoing concurrently between the customer at the retail sales facility 14 and an agent at the financial services facility 1 2. Each of these components of the respective electronics communications equipment at the respective facilities 12, 14 is per se a conventional off-the-shelf item and thus it is not necessary to describe such components in any further detail.

At the remote retail sales facility 14, the customer of the retail sales facility 14, who is also a prospective customer of the financial services facility 1 2, is escorted to the area where the above-described array of electronics communications equipment of the retail sales facility 14 is provided. The customer presses an auto dial button 44 on the speaker phone 20 to establish voice contact with an agent of the financial services company 12. The speaker phone 20 as contemplated herein is intended to encompass other comparable devices, such as a videophone or the like, where in addition to 2-way verbal contact the customer can establish 2-way visual contact with the agent.

The customer and agent then speak with one another by way of the phones 20, 34 of the respective facilities 14, 1 2. Concurrently, the agent by using his or her digital computer 32, monitor 36, keyboard 38 and modem 30 establishes electronic contact with the customer's modem 16, digital computer 1 8, monitor 22 and printer 24 to provide helpful information to the customer about the transaction being proposed between the customer and financial services facility 12. Such information can take the form of charts and the like displayed on the monitor 22 or printed on a sheet of paper by the printer 24. The digital computer 1 8 stores suitable well-known off-the-shelf communications and perhaps graphics software programs in its memory and is operational to translate the electronic signals caused to be transmitted from the financial services facility 1 2 by the agent into such displayed or printed information. An example of a suitable communications program is one commercially available under the trademark Carbon Copy and an example of a suitable graphics program is one commercially available under the trademark Harvard Graphics.

Thus, it is the agent residing at the central financial services company 1 2 who has complete control over the above-described electronic communications equipment in the presence of the customer located at the retail sales facility 14. The agent is thereby able to display any desired information at will on the customer's monitor 22 or to print any information at will on the customer's printer 24. The customer may respond verbally via the speaker phone 20 or by using his or her keyboard 26 or other input device. When appropriate the agent can then command the customer's printer 24 to create or print needed contracts and documents (such as loan application papers, a notice of proposed insurance, an insurance binder, an insurance application, etc.). The agent can also display his or her own image in a corner of the customer's monitor 22 as a courtesy by using an appropriate communications program and a graphics file produced from the agent's photograph with a conventional image scanner.

Once the contracts are printed out the customer is directed to sign them and personally place them and any required payment (check) in a mail bag 28 located at the retail sales facility 14. Alternatively, some other means of remitting payment and the completed contracts to the agent can be used.

Although the system 1 0 has been described with reference to financial services, the concept of the present invention is not so limited. It may be used to sell all goods and services to remote customers whether or not financed or insured such as at a consumer goods store where customers use the system to select and transact their purchase.

It can now be readily seen that the system 10 of the present invention accomplishes its first object identified above by centralizing the administration and selling of products and thereby substantially reduces the costs associated with creating, marketing, and administrating these products and services. The system 10 also accomplishes its second object identified above by consolidating all management activities of the financial services products with the central office. The only task of the retail sales location is to refer business, and nothing else. Hence, all possible responsibilies are centralized permitting better control and simplifying ongoing management. With the great reduction in costs associated with developing and administering new products it is now possible, that is, affordable, to develop a greater variety of products which are then more likely to fit the needs of specific customers. The third object is achieved as new product supporting materials, such as computer programs and other sales materials, are now centralized and it is no longer necessary to train an army of outside staff to sell and support the new products, giving the financial services company more control as well on the sales process.

It is thought that the present invention and its advantages will be understood from the foregoing description and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the form hereinbefore described being merely preferred or exemplary embodiment thereof.

Claims

CLAIMSI claim:

1 . A system for facilitating transactions, comprising:

(a) a central facility for engaging in a first activity leading to a first transaction;

(b) a remote facility located remote from said central facility for engaging in a second activity being different from said first activity and leading to a second transaction being different from said first transaction of said central facility; and (c) an array of electronic communications equipment located at each of said facilities and being operable for communicating information in voice and print media between an agent at said central facility and a customer at said remote facility for engaging in said first activity to consummate said first transaction.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a means for transmitting and receiving audio signals located at each of said facilities.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a digital computer located at each of said facilities.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a phone located at each of said facilities.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said phone at said remote facility includes an auto dial button which when pressed automatically establishes voice contact with said phone at said central facility.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a monitor located at each of said facilities.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment located only at said remote facility includes a printer.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a keyboard located at each of said facilities.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a pair of separate phone lines interconnecting said respective facilities.

10. A system for facilitating financial services transactions, comprising:

(a) a financial services facility for engaging in a first business activity leading to a first transaction in the form of a business contract; (b) a retail sales facility located remote from said financial services facility for engaging in a second activity being different from said first activity and leading to a second transaction being different from said first transaction of said financial services facility; and

(c) an array of electronic communications equipment located at each of said facilities and being operable for communicating information in voice and print media between an agent at said financial services facility and a customer at said retail sales facility for engaging in said first activity to consummate said first transaction.

1 1 . The system of claim 10 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a means for transmitting and receiving audio signals located at each of said facilities.

1 2. The system of claim 10 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a digital computer located at each of said facilities.

1 3. The system of claim 10 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a phone located at each of said facilities.

14. The system of claim 1 3 wherein said phone at said retail facility includes an auto dial button which when pressed automatically establishes voice contact with said phone at said financial services facility.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a monitor located at each of said facilities.

1 6. The system of claim 10 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment only at said retail sales facility includes a printer.

17. The system of claim 10 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a keyboard located at each of said facilities.

18. The system of claim 10 wherein said array of electronic communications equipment includes a pair of separate phone lines interconnecting said respective facilities.

1 9. A method for facilitating transactions, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a central facility for engaging in a first activity leading to a first transaction;

(b) providing a remote facility located remote from said central facility for engaging in a second activity being different from said first activity and leading to a second transaction being different from said first transaction of said central facility;

(c) providing an array of electronic communications equipment at each of said central and remote facilities; and

(d) communicating information in voice and print media from an agent at said central facility to a customer at said remote facility by using said array of electronic communications equipment for engaging in said first activity to consummate said first transaction.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said communicating includes: displaying said information on said equipment at said remote facility; and controlling said displaying from said central facility.

21 . The method of claim 21 wherein said communicating includes: printing said information on said equipment at said remote facility; and controlling said printing from said central facility.

22. A method for facilitating financial services transactions, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a financial services facility for engaging in a first business activity leading to a first transaction in the form of a business contract;

(b) providing a retail sales facility located remote from said financial services facility for engaging in a second activity being different from said first activity and leading to a second transaction being different from said first transaction of said financial services facility;

(c) providing an array of electronic communications equipment at each of said financial services facility and retail sales facility; and

(d) communicating information in voice and print media from an agent at said financial services facility and a customer at said retail sales facility by using said array of electronic communications equipment for engaging in said first activity to consummate said first transaction.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said communicating includes: displaying said information on said equipment at said retail sales facility; and controlling said displaying from said financial services facility.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein said communicating includes: printing said information on said equipment at said retail sales facility; and controlling said printing from said financial services facility.