Methods and systems for connected sales associate services
Contents
1. 8 illustrates an example method by which a user may control the dashboard view of the reference appli cation 0017 FIG 9 illustrates an example method by which a user may search the reference application through the connect application 0018 FIGS 10 12 each illustrate an example method by which a user may search the reference application for refer ence materials and information concerning products DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0019 The following description of example methods and systems is not intended to limit the scope of the description to the precise form or forms detailed herein Instead the follow ing description is intended to be illustrative so that others may follow its teachings 0020 A mobile application for connecting sales associates to various service systems is disclosed hereinbelow In gen eral the system provides for mobile device connectivity for a sales associate to access various retail systems In at least one example the disclosed invention leverages mobile technol ogy chat functionality social networking rewards electronic catalogs marketing and or sales data retail online shopping technology and or a consumers social connections such as US 2013 0325891 Al through a social media website to enable each sales associate to provide a customize and personal shopping experience for multiple customers while maintaining their retail location mobility 0021 In one example the mobile application is2. and or other determined through user preferences set by the user and associated with the user log in In some example the listing of sales associates may include a listing of all associ ated sales associates with a visual indication on some and or all users who are not currently logged into the system such as graying out etc As illustrated in FIG 4 if the server 68 returns that the user of the application 300 is a sales associate reporting to a manager the application 300 may display at the area 308 a listing of tasks assigned and or other relevant information to the associate by a user of authority such as for example the manager 0039 Referring now to FIG 5 in order to provide various applications to the user the system provides a menu of appli cations by selecting the area 502 in the navigation bar 312 By selecting the area 502 the server 68 queries the data reposi tory 68A to determine the pre set and or customized applica tions available to the user Alternatively the applications may be stored on the device 20 itself and the user may have global access and or restricted access to the applications based upon their login credentials In the example of FIG 5 the applica tions are listed in the area 504 as thumbnail icons It will be appreciated however by one of ordinary skill in the art that the method of displaying the applications may vary as desired including listing etc Additionally the example area 504 include
3. 179 9 306 JA VIVA INOS SITS 1200044 NI ISWIYINI 9589 VIJYYO SFYANV ILVIIOSSV FWOQTAM 193 09 IHS 1001 SddY 314034 HINNd 216 th OLE 5441 123136 NONNOI LSOW lt MIIA HLINS T1IVHIIN lt SYSVLMAIA 01131404 NOSVP lt MAIA NOSGIS 806 SALVIDOSSY NI M0139 FTATH VIYA JWOS 90 63148 1200044 NI ISYIYOINI 9871 FYOLS TIMAOOM LV s k SIHONYUIIVNAN E JAOITIM 706 US 2013 0325891 A1 Dec 5 2013 Sheet 4 of 10 Patent Application Publication 9 914 FON Sdd 314034 coo 0 8 FWVN ddY FWVN 009 FANN 2 ddY NONNOI JAVN NOWWOS 341 9 194138 ANY 1015 INiddL Ad YNOA NI SddV NONWOJ LSOW SY 19810 38 LVHL SddV 199195 3593 110901 206 G 914 4 1001 FON 314034 asvogHsYa J 0 8 9 909 0000 OHS 114434 430v34 vdi nn YJIHSYI 6 AMTAMSr 3 1004 5 10413 HSV4SWOH YdWIJWOH 1 44 0 18 SddV AW Patent Application Publication Dec 5 2013 Sheet 5 10 US 2013 0325891 A1 FIG 7 MANAGERS GUIDE Lu
4. a Lu a TRAINING MULTIMEDIA 9 6 COMMUNICATION NEWS ARCHIVE 129 REPORTS SALES FLOOR PLANNING 720 US 2013 0325891 A1 Dec 5 2013 Sheet 6 of 10 Patent Application Publication 8 913 OLZ 0 2 OLZ OLZ 012 082 VIGJFWLLIANIN NOLLVWSOAJNI J4ON 404 WILI SL4Od34 SMIN NOLLYIINNNWOD INVd YAMOT NI NMOG 8 3dIMS ONINNV 1d 40014 511 5 S39Vd JAON OL 14914 8 1981 5 FZINOLSMNI i39N343334 OL ANOD TAM gob 022 US 2013 0325891 A1 Dec 5 2013 Sheet 7 of 10 Patent Application Publication 6 914 as 2 0 00 0002000000 0000050000 108 5100998 00119183 50110110 1001 9 SUOLIVAL 9 J 8000 JAI N 1001 RON Sdd 314034 HONG 0850 D th 83308313 0100 JAN 0118981 914003 8001 34015 LYNI 0339 ELT USOWNYW 310381 l 110901 LO3NNO9 OHS US 2013 0325891 A1 Dec 5 2013 Sheet 8 of 10 Patent Application Publication 3409 6 913 Tidy SINNILNO9 IMAO 13040 2 03 10 KA RE 076 SINAI SUOLOVEL lt 1970048 30919 89500081971 94185534518 lt 301 lt ONNNYTd 0013 95
5. keyboard etc These and other input devices would typically be connected to the processing unit 22 by means of an interface 58 which in turn would be coupled to the bus 26 Input devices may be connected to the processor 22 using interfaces such as for example a parallel port game port firewire or a universal serial bus USB To view infor mation from the processing device 20 a monitor 60 or other type of display device may also be connected to the bus 26 via an interface such as a video adapter 62 In addition to the monitor 60 the processing device 20 may also include other peripheral output devices not shown such as for example speakers cameras printers or other suitable device 0027 As noted the processing device 20 may also utilize logical connections to one or more remote processing devices such as the host system server 68 having associated data repository 68A In this regard while the host system server 68 has been illustrated in the exemplary form of a computer it will be appreciated that the host system server 68 may like processing device 20 be any type of device having processing capabilities Again it will be appreciated that the host system server 68 need not be implemented as a single device but may be implemented in a manner such that the tasks performed by the host system server 68 are distributed amongst a plurality of processing devices databases located US 2013 0325891 Al at different geographical
6. locations and linked through com munication network Additionally the host system server 68 may have logical connections to other third party systems via a network 12 suchas for example the Internet LAN MAN WAN cellular network cloud network enterprise network virtual private network wired and or wireless network or other suitable network and via such connections will be associated with data repositories that are associated with such other third party systems Such third party systems may include without limitation systems of banking credit or other financial institutions systems of third party providers of goods and or services systems of shipping delivery compa nies etc 0028 For performing tasks as needed the host system server 68 may include many or all of the elements described above relative to the processing device 20 In addition the host system server 68 would generally include executable instructions for among other things coordinating a personal shopper relationship providing a social network storing a user s personal information facilitating recommendations providing access to merchandise searching and identifying reference materials etc 0029 Communications between the processing device 20 and the host system server 68 may be exchanged via a further processing device such as a network router not shown that is responsible for network routing Communications with the network router may be p
7. of a specific riding lawn mower and 05272012 corresponds to the date on which the manual was uploaded in this case May 27 2012 Such dates are important because the reference application contains notification processes to ensure that the US 2013 0325891 Al reference materials and related content are current and rel evant Indeed the reference materials 940 may incorporate additional date information within tags or metatags such as expiration dates to notify the user when a given reference material may no longer reflect the make or model currently sold in stores 0045 Turning now to FIGS 10 11 there is illustrated a dashboard within the Lawn and Garden department of the reference application Specifically upper pane 1010 shows the Lawn and Garden department though the user can swipe upper pane 1010 rightward for other departments such as tools tool storage or consumer appliances In lower pane 1020 the user can choose to search for product info at button 1021 can view ongoing sales at button 1023 or can search for news or reports at buttons 1025 or 1026 respectively Once the user selects button 1021 for product info the user is taken to a Product Info page not shown where the user can choose from one of several products within the department listed Once the user has selected from a list of products that Product page is shown in FIG 11 in this case the product is Mow ers From the P
8. system and it is not indicated to the system that the user has otherwise previously used the sales associate manage US 2013 0325891 Al ment application 300 which indication may be stored in a cookie stored on the device 20 or may be provided as a dedicated device e g permanently logged in as a specific user the sales associate may be provided with a welcoming message and directed to the area 304 where the user may access a log in procedure 0038 When the user is logged into the sales associate management application 300 the system may next determine the authorization level of the user by querying the server 68 Upon determination of the authorization level the system may display different information to the sales associate For example as illustrated in FIG 3 the sales associate is deter mined to be a manager at area 302 Accordingly in this example the area 308 may provide a listing of the associates reporting to the manager that are currently logged into the system For example login in as a manger may cause the server 68 to query the data repository 68A and or any other suitable system component to determine the available sales associates currently logged into the system It will be appre ciated however that information provided to the user at the area 308 and or any other area of the application 300 may be predetermined and or otherwise defaulted based upon the authorization level of the user and or may be overwritten
9. 105 413019 20151 120810 10240 181520 096 kk kak ka kk kk kk REAR RAR kk kak kak kk kk kk KARKAA KAKE kk kak kk kak kk ake 076 056 lt ONINNYd 80012 92108 kk kk kk kak d RAR OR 1 076 03 1900 31049 096 056 lak ka kak kk kk BR KRAK KARAKARA KR KR BERR RR RA 0 6 kk kak kk ak kk kk kk kk kk kaka kaka kk 9 8190939 YNN 30007 lt 5375 ATH Td 40914 55705 120419 ONY NM 44330 805511 91 11031 9 159291 096 OHS SIROLY 2XM3OEOLIVAL 130819 9 NAT 383328 096 US 2013 0325891 A1 Dec 5 2013 Sheet 9 of 10 Patent Application Publication 02 OZLL OGLL 0211 144 55333 401 104 JINVII IMTVA 114 5 3 AV ld ONITIAS 10413389 4315 SHIMON ON SUOLOVAL 600 SONILVA 81 045 YANNSNOD 14416230 SHIMON 91 LZOL OLOL 0 Sls VIGSWILINW 5140434 SMIN NOLLVIINANNOI AVGOL 53198 ONINNV 1d 40074 54198 LONAOUd FJINFYIITAJ Patent Application Publication Dec 5 2013 Sheet 10 of 10 US 2013 0325891 A1 1210 USER BEGINS ENTE
10. RCH TERMS 1230 USER SELECTS AUTO COMPLETE OR FINISHES TYPING AND BEGINS SEARCH 1240 APP PERFORMS SEARCH FOR REFERENCE MATERIALS BASED ON SEARCH TERMS 1250 APP DISPLAYS SEARCH RESULTS IN THE FORM OF REFERENCE MATERIAL NAME AND THUMBNAIL PREVIEW 1260 USER SELECTS ONE REFERENCE MATERIAL FROM LIST OF SEARCH RESULTS 1270 APP DISPLAYS CONTENT OF REFERENCE MATERIAL TO THE USER 1280 IF APPROPRIATE USER MAY PRESENT TO OR SHARE WITH STORE CUSTOMER CONTENT OF REFERENCE MATERIAL US 2013 0325891 A1 Dec 5 2013 Sheet 1 of 10 Patent Application Publication L 7913 welbold vS 2 545 ysiq Bunelodo 7 02 00 77 aveL EI 1811 warskg yeloueul yJOMJON 58593014 NON We SAS 180 Patent Application Publication Dec 5 2013 Sheet 2 of 10 US 2013 0325891 A1 12 5 2 2 2 US 2013 0325891 A1 Dec 5 2013 Sheet 3 of 10 Patent Application Publication 1 GuvOgHsya LSITHOSH9 O 193135 SddY NOWNOO LSOW 00 06 1331 34 NMOOZMVL GY 31793X3 00065 1331 13834 AIA 00 06 1441 3NIL 13534 1090 1 44 07 80 NMOQ3YYL 209 4 125 13838 179 L 401 SNOLLVOIISSYTO SNAW 13838
11. RING A SEARCH TERM 1220 APP SUGGESTS AUTO COMPLETION FOR POPULAR OR FREQUENTLY USED SEARCH TERMS 1230 USER SELECTS AUTO COMPLETE OR FINISHES TYPING AND BEGINS SEARCH 1240 APP PERFORMS SEARCH FOR REFERENCE MATERIALS BASED ON SEARCH TERMS 1250 APP DISPLAYS SEARCH RESULTS IN THE FORM OF REFERENCE MATERIAL NAME AND THUMBNAIL PREVIEW 1260 USER SELECTS ONE REFERENCE MATERIAL FROM LIST OF SEARCH RESULTS 1270 APP DISPLAYS CONTENT OF REFERENCE MATERIAL TO THE USER 1280 IF APPROPRIATE USER MAY PRESENT TO OR SHARE WITH STORE CUSTOMER CONTENT OF REFERENCE MATERIAL FIG 12 US 2013 0325891 Al METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CONNECTED SALES ASSOCIATE SERVICES FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 0001 The present description relates generally to Multi channel connectivity of a sales force and more particularly to methods and systems for providing connected sales associate services BACKGROUND OF RELATED ART 0002 In store sales associates have traditionally been pro vided with basic in store electronic support including for example point of sale POS support Traditionally POS support has been embodied by an in store non mobile cash register that is centrally located to allow customers to pay for merchandise and to allow sales associates to provide limited stationary sales support such as product lookups sales manu als etc 0003 Recent developments of robust mobile devices has lead to an implementation of a mo
12. US 20130325891 1 av United States a Patent Application Publication Pub No US 2013 0325891 A1 Masood et al 43 Pub Date Dec 5 2013 54 METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR 52 05 CONNECTED SALES ASSOCIATE SERVICES USPE ANT 707 769 707 817 014 76 Inventors Rafeh Masood Bartlett IL US Gina Gn ABSTRACT Hoffmann Geneva IL US A method and system for providing a connected sales asso ciate service application via a mobile device The application provides for an integrated platform upon which various tools 2 for providing support to a sales associate are built The appli Ga app non cation includes a database ofinformation regarding the opera tion of a retail establishment and a database of reference 22 Filed May 30 2012 materials The application provides a user interface for allow ing several sales associate to access a central server for the retail establishment on multiple mobile devices The user interface displays information regarding sales and inventory Publication Classification information and reference materials for products such as user s manuals which enable the sales associate to answer 51 Int Cl questions posed by customers A sales associate can thus GO6F 17 30 2006 01 search for and find all store products which meet a customer s G06F 3 048 2006 01 specifications 1210 USER BEGINS ENTERING A SEARCH TERM 1220 APP SUGGESTS AUTO COMPLETION FOR POPULAR OR FREQUENTLY USED SEA
13. a hybrid application delivered on mobile devices such as an iPod and or an iPad This example application may service multiple store associates in multiple locations across different and or similar retail umbrellas Still further the example application may serve as a single point of entry for tasks applications information reports and or other suitable programs Still further users of the example applications may be provided with immediate access to their daily task lists lead manage ment time clock management social media store statistics store performance etc 0022 In another example the afore mentioned hybrid application is designed to simplify users searches for infor mation and media content by consolidating and centralizing same within a single reference application Such information and media content is typically categorized by business area with common departments grouped adjacently For example apparel beauty jewelry and cosmetics products are grouped adjacently and consumer appliances lawn and garden prod ucts and hand tools are grouped adjacently The reference applications enables sales associates to find relevant refer ence materials for such products quickly via a search bar 0023 With reference to the figures the following dis closes various example systems and methods for providing a system for connectivity of a sales associate to a retail support network To this end a processing device 20 illustra
14. associate 210 may access the sys tem 200 through any suitable device 20 such as a computer system 212 a smart phone 214 a tablet computer 216 or any other suitable known or yet to be developed communication device In the disclosed example the communication device 20 is capable of Internet browsing textual transmission and or video transmission e g video chat video phone etc but it will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that the communication device may be any suitable communication device including any voice email and or text communication with or without use of other transmission types 0032 Concurrently in the illustrated example a second sales associate 220 may also access the system 200 through Dec 5 2013 any suitable device such as a computer system 222 a smart phone 224 a tablet computer 226 or any other suitable known or yet to be developed communication device Similar to the first user s devices the communication devices 222 224 226 are each capable of Internet browsing textual trans mission and or video transmission e g video chat video phone etc as desired 0033 Each sales associate 210 220 accesses the host server 68 through the network s 12 In this example each associate 210 220 accesses the system 68 through a separate network 12 but it will be appreciated that the network access may be architected in any suitable manner Each of the net work s 12 provides netwo
15. bile platform POS support system For example US Patent publication No 2011 0231272 is directed to a retail mobile POS software applica tion that provides mobile POS support to retailers The described system includes a scanner and iPod Touch coupled with a retail POS system and uses a touch screen interface to POS features a salesperson would typically use to help a guest including purchases with credit gift and debit cards cash and making returns The mobile system also combines iPod Touch features with a magnetic stripe reader barcode scanner and software to speed plastic and cash transactions 0004 Forcredit card and instant credit transactions guests or purchasers write their signature on the device using finger entry and control Any employee who has the portable elec tronic device can accept cash transactions After entering all the products and totaling the cost the employee presses an on screen Cash button to electronically open one of any number of cash drawers installed around the store Guests or purchasers will continue to have the option to receive a printed or c mailed receipt or both 0005 The described mobile POS software application however is limited in that it is simply an extension of the traditional POS system Today s sales associates however demand additional mobile access to multichannel processing and support systems to provide for enhanced sales activities Thus while the background sys
16. ded to a sales associate at the user computer device 20 via the host system server 68 As illustrated a sales associate manage ment application 300 may include a sales associate area 302 by which a use can see information regarding the currently logged in sales associate a logout selectable interface 304 which can be utilized to disconnect and or deauthorize the device 20 from the server 68 a sales data area 306 to provide the sales associate with links to authorized sales data trends provided by the server 68 a listing area 308 providing a listing of sales associates logged into the system an applica tion area 310 proving a selectable listing and or iconic view of available applications and a navigation area 312 allowing quick navigation of various user interfaces as will be described herein Additionally any alerts such as for example any news alerts may be displayed to the sales asso ciate at an area 320 as illustrated in FIG 4 It will be appre ciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that these areas need not be displayed concurrently and or in the exact manner as shown in FIG 2 and that variations may be made as desired 0037 More particularly once the user navigates to the sales associate management application 300 that is hosted in the host server system 68 a determination may be made as to whether or not the user is currently logged into the system as illustrated in FIG 3 If the sales associate is not logged into the
17. environment having multiple processing devices linked via a local or wide area network whereby the executable instruc tions may be associated with and or executed by one or more of multiple processing devices 0024 For performing the various tasks in accordance with the executable instructions the example processing device 20 includes a processing unit 22 and a system memory 24 which may be linked viaa bus 26 Without limitation the bus 26 may be a memory bus a peripheral bus and or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures As needed for any par Dec 5 2013 ticular purpose the system memory 24 may include read only memory ROM 28 and or random access memory RAM 30 Additional memory devices may also be made accessible to the processing device 20 by means of for example a hard disk drive interface 32 a magnetic disk drive interface 34 and or an optical disk drive interface 36 As will he under stood these devices which would be linked to the system bus 26 respectively allow for reading from and writing to a hard disk 38 reading from or writing to aremovable magnetic disk 40 and for reading from or writing to aremovable optical disk 42 suchas a CD DVD ROM or other optical media The drive interfaces and their associated computer readable media allow for the nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions data structures program modules and other data for the processing device 20 Those of ordinary ski
18. erformed via a network interface component 73 Thus within such a networked environment e g the Internet World Wide Web LAN cloud or other like type of wired or wireless network it will be appreciated that program modules depicted relative to the processing device 20 or portions thereof may be stored in the non transitory memory storage device s of the host system server 68 0030 Referring to FIG 2 there is illustrated an overview of an example system 200 for providing multiple sales asso ciates with access to multiple application providing connec tivity to a retail environment s network in accordance with an example of the present disclosure The system 200 is well suited for operation on a distributed network system such as for example a client server architecture utilizing the Internet cloud mobile network cellular network or other suitable wired and or wireless network The system 200 may be implemented in various other communication networks and or mediums as desired including for example a localized non distributed network 0031 Generally speaking the system 200 is operable to facilitate online connectivity of multiple sale associates to various in store applications as well as networked and or non networked data repositories It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that the number of sales associates concurrently using the system 200 may vary as desired In the illustrated example a first
19. ing up and down within the lower pane enables users to scroll through various departments such as training floor planning or news archives News articles within the application may comprise updates to specific store depart ments or notices of current or upcoming sales among other relevant information 0042 FIG 9 demonstrates how a user can activate the reference application 910 from within the connect applica tion Once the user selects the reference application 910 the user can tap search bar 920 and a native keyboard 930 will appear As the user begins entering text into search bar 920 frequently searched terms may appear to prompt the user to select recently or frequently searched reference materials Search terms can vary broadly to widely access both general reference materials for given products such as for example owner s manuals as well as specific information about store inventories sales etc Thus potential search terms can include footwear cosmetics jewelry catalog sales today and stockroom among others 0043 Once the user has entered text into search box 920 the host system server 68 can transmit such data 68A through the network 12 to the network interface 73 thereby enabling the application to search through reference materials which are stored in the system memory 24 The reference applica tion returns several search results in the form of reference materials 940 which ma
20. l server using a corresponding plurality of additional user inter faces and a corresponding plurality of additional com munication networks wherein the first user interface and the plurality of addi tional user interfaces cause the central server to query the database to return and display reference materials at one or more of the first user interface and the plurality of additional user interfaces at the retail location 2 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 1 wherein the user interface and the plurality of additional user interfaces further cause the central server to query the database to return and display sales or inventory information for the retail establishment 3 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 1 wherein the reference materials comprise docu ments which are formatted in HyperText Markup Language HTML or Portable Document Format PDF 4 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 1 wherein the reference materials comprise links to online videos and wherein displaying the reference materials comprises running an auxiliary application capable of dis playing online videos 5 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 1 wherein the first user interface and the plurality of additional user interfaces are provided on at least one of a mobile personal computer personal digital assistant PDA a cellular
21. ll in the art will further appreciate that other types of non transitory com puter readable media that can store data and or instructions may be used for this same purpose Examples of such media devices include but are not limited to magnetic cassettes flash memory cards digital videodisks Bernoulli cartridges random access memories nano drives memory sticks and other read write and or read only memories 0025 Anumber of program modules may be stored in one or more of the memory media devices For example a basic input output system BIOS 44 containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the processing device 20 such as during start up may be stored in ROM 28 Similarly the RAM 30 hard drive 38 and or peripheral memory devices may be used to store computer executable instructions comprising an operating system 46 one or more applications programs 48 such as a Web browser other program modules 50 and or program data 52 Still further computer executable instructions may be down loaded to one or more of the computing devices as needed for example via a network connection 0026 To allow a user to enter commands and information into the processing device 20 input devices such as a key board 54 and or a pointing device 56 are provided While not illustrated other input devices may include a microphone a joystick a game pad a scanner a camera touchpad touch screen virtual
22. p any auxiliary application necessary for displaying online videos Finally at step 1280 and only where appropriate the user can show the reference material to the store customer or the user may have the option of sharing such reference material with the store customer via email Facebook or other social media 0047 Although certain example methods and apparatus have been described herein the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto On the contrary this patent covers all methods apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents 1 A non transitory computer readable media having stored thereon computer executable instructions wherein the instructions perform steps for enabling a sales associate at a retail location to procure a variety of reference materials from central server via a mobile computing device comprising hosting a database of reference materials and operational information regarding a retail establishment and Dec 5 2013 providing a first user interface comprising user interface elements for allowing the sales associate at the retail location to access using a communication network a central server for the retail establishment the central server allowing a plurality of additional sales associates at the retail location on a corresponding plurality of additional mobile devices to access the centra
23. rk routing utilizing a cloud based network although any appropriate routing device software firmware hardware and or the like may he utilized The connection between the user 210 and the user 220 may be through the network 12 through a social network 68 and or through the host system 68 0034 The illustrated approach may take advantage of the convergence of mobile devices IP telephony e g VoIP SIP etc and Internet application such as for example Facetime Skype etc The example system 200 may also enable inter active communications amongst user across varied platforms e g 10S Android Windows etc devices e g Mobile phones PCs Macs Tablets etc networks e g Wi Fi 3G 4G etc and media e g voice text video etc 0035 For allowing a user to setup and or manage all of their sales associate tasks messages research information etc the host server system 68 may make available to the sales associate one or more tools by which sales associate can for example interact with graphical user interface elements to create perform manage and or receive information such as sales data point of sale interactivity sales and or marketing information rewards information credit information manu als retail store information employment data and or records and or any other suitable information 0036 By way of example only FIG 3 illustrates a screen shot of various management tools that may be provi
24. roduct page a search box 1110 will appear and the user can search for reference materials 1120 which will populate as the user enters text As shown in FIG 11 the application displays the title of reference materials 1120 alongside thumbnail previews 1130 for each such material The application also contains a path hierarchy 1140 which incorporates breadcrumb functionality to enable users to return to any of the menus previously viewed within the current search 0046 FIG 12 reflects a flowchart illustrating how a user can identify reference materials to answer questions posted by customers and potentially share such reference materials with the store customer At step 1210 a user has already opened the reference application and can begin by entering a search term into the search box as shown in FIGS 9 and 11 As the user enters text at step 1220 the application automati cally suggests frequently used search terms which the user can either select or ignore at step 1230 At step 1240 the application performs the search and displays the results of that search at step 1250 including the title of each reference material and a thumbnail preview thereof The user can then select one of the reference materials at step 1260 and the application will retrieve and display the content of that refer ence material at step 1270 whether that reference material is a PDF document or an online video in which case the appli cation will pull u
25. s a page indicator 506 to visually describe to the user what page the device is displaying in regard to the available applications As can be appreciated the applications dis played in the area 504 may be a inclusive and or exclusive set of the applications provided for in the application area 310 shown in FIG 3 While not shown in FIG 5 the subject reference application is among the several apps to be dis played in the area 504 0040 Referring now to FIG 6 there is illustrated an example interface 600 that may be used by the device 20 to cause the server 68 to modify the application and or number of applications displayed to the user in the area 310 as illus trated in FIG 3 In this way the application may be truly customized to meet each of the sales associate s individual needs Sales associates who use the reference application regularly would benefit from designating the reference appli Dec 5 2013 cation as a common app for ease of to be displayed in the area 310 as illustrated in FIG 3 0041 Turning now to FIGS 7 8 a dashboard view of the reference application is illustrated From the dashboard the user can select one of several menu options 710 in lower pane 720 by tapping one such option As shown in FIG 8 the user can also swipe upwards or downwards within the lower pane 720 to view additional menu options 710 or swipe leftwards or rightwards in the upper pane 730 to view additional options Swip
26. table instruc US 2013 0325891 Al Dec 5 2013 tions comprise code for communicating at least a portion of the reference materials from the first user interface to at least another user interface using a social network
27. tch the searched term and also dis plays thumbnail previews 950 of such search results 940 Reference materials 940 may take the form of HTML or PDF documents documents in other formats which may be dynamically converted to PDF format or links to online videos Once a user selects a specific reference material 945 the application opens and displays that reference material at step 960 In the case in which the reference material 945 is an online video the application would open and play such online video at step 960 using any auxiliary application necessary for playing such online video 0044 Notably a user can search for reference materials 940 using the document s title text within the document or through tags or metatags Document titles are provided according to naming conventions which includes information on the relevant store department product and date of posting By way of example the file naming convention may take the form of DEPT_DESCRIPTOR_DATE EXT where DEPT refers to the store department DESCRIPTOR relays descriptive information about the product and or model num ber thereof DATE refers to the date the document was uploaded and EXT refers to the file extension Thus an example file name for the owner s manual for a riding lawn mower may be entitled LawnGarden_JohnDeere1600__ 05272012 pdf where LawnGarden refers to the store department JohnDeere1600 refers to a make and model
28. ted in the exemplary form of a mobile communication device a processing device 20 illustrated in the exemplary form of a computer system and a processing device 20 illustrated in schematic form are provided with executable instructions to for example provide a means for a retail organization to provide standard connectivity to a sales associate for access ing a host system server 68 and among other things for connecting to a hosted online retail environment e g a retail store a social networking site a user profile customer and or sales support other sales associates personal shoppers etc Generally the computer executable instructions reside in program modules which may include routines programs objects components data structures etc that perform par ticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types Accordingly those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processing devices 20 20 20 illustrated in FIG 1 may be embodied in any device having the ability to execute instructions such as by way of example a personal computer mainframe computer a personal digital assistant FDA a cellular telephone a mobile device a tablet an creader or the like Furthermore while described and illustrated in the context of a single processing device 20 20 20 those of ordinary skill in the art will also appreciate that the various tasks described hereinafter may be practiced in a distributed
29. telephone a mobile device a tablet an ereader 6 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 1 wherein the first user interface and the plurality of additional user interfaces cause the central server to query the database in response to an input received from the sales asso ciate and or the plurality of additional sales associates 7 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 6 wherein the input comprises at least one search term 8 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 7 wherein the at least one search term corresponds to a title of a reference material 9 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 7 wherein the at least one search term corresponds to a metatag assigned to a reference material 10 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 7 wherein the at least one search term corresponds to text found within a reference material 11 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 1 wherein displaying the reference materials further includes displaying a thumbnail preview of said ref erence materials 12 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 1 wherein at least one of the plurality of additional user interfaces is of a type different from a type of the first user interface 13 The non transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 1 wherein the computer execu
30. tems and methods identified herein generally work for their intended purpose the subject disclosure provides improvements thereto particularly by providing systems and methods for connected sales associate services by provided mobile connectivity to various sales support systems through a single integrated mobile device 0006 Previously when a retail customer asked questions about specific products sales associates would have to rely on centrally located reference materials to determine the answer This entailed leaving the customer to go find for example a user manual usually located in the back of the store finding the user manual among numerous similar manuals locating the correct page with information relating to the customer s question and returning to the customer with the answer The present application discloses systems and methods enabling sales associates to remain with the cus tomer at all times and answer the customer s questions by locating the user manual and even the correct page by Dec 5 2013 searching through a database of reference materials available on the sales associates mobile devices SUMMARY 0007 Inthe present application the systems and methods disclosed provide for an integrated platform upon which vari ous tools for providing support to a sales associate are built Specifically the present application discloses an integrated system for electronically providing relevant sales informa
31. tion and or tools to a sales associate such that the sales associates are capable of actively performing their service jobs The system consolidates and centralizes various information and media content and places same at the fingertips of mobile device equipped sales associates BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0008 Fora better understanding of the present disclosure reference may be had to various examples shown in the attached drawings 0009 FIG 1 illustrates in block diagram form compo nents of an example computer network environment suitable for implementing the example methods and systems for con nected sales associate service disclosed 0010 FIG 2 illustrates an example connected sales asso ciate system in accordance with the present disclosure 0011 FIG 3 illustrates an example method by which a user may be presented with a dashboard view of the connect application 0012 FIG 4 illustrates an example method by which a user with different permissions may be presented with dash board view of the connect application 0013 FIG 5 illustrates an example method by which a user may view various applications associated with the user 0014 FIG 6 illustrates an example method by which a user may customize the application layout of the example connect system disclosed herein 0015 FIG 7 illustrates an example method by which a user may be presented with a dashboard view of the reference application 0016 FIG
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