JPH027761A - Retrieval type telephone service system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer new information abundantly upon the request of a customer by retrieving a desired area from an external storage device and replying a message according to the operation command commanded by the customer. CONSTITUTION:An information service center records information of commercial service by an information offer party in, e.g., voice, edits it and stores it in an area of an external storage device 24. The information stored by areas is able to be updated instantly. When a customer calls a prescribed information service center and selects an area of desired information according to the selection key word noticed in advance, a center computer 20 retrieves the information desired by the customer from the external storage device 24 according to the selection key word and replies a message of the area desired by the customer. Thus, the newest information is offered abundantly in response to the request of the customer such as a special membership by means of a telephone call.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a telephone service system for providing commercial service information to users.

[Prior Art] In recent years, in order to acquire customers in the distribution industry, efforts have been made to explore ways to provide new service information using network communication.

For example, representative examples include the VideoTex system, which is a two-way communication type using terminal devices at stores, and the telephone service system, which provides commercial service information by telephone over conventional communication lines.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] When providing service information using a network system, it is necessary to be able to provide a wealth of the latest information in response to user requests, and to be able to update data instantly. Therefore, when considering the above-mentioned Videotex system, although it is an interactive type of two-way communication, the current system has limits on the amount of data and the freshness of the data.
Unable to fully respond to user requests.

Also, it is not possible to provide information sound only to specific members.
The current situation is that it does not fully meet the demands of the distribution industry.

Next, providing service information over the telephone was possible only to provide information to specific members, but it was also possible to provide a wealth of up-to-date information in response to user requests, and moreover, it was possible to provide information immediately to specific members. It was not possible to update the data, and it was not possible to provide only the information desired by members through searches.

Therefore, it is possible to provide customers, such as specific members, with a wealth of the latest information over the phone according to their requests, to update the data instantly, and to provide only the information desired by the customer through a search. If a system that can do this is constructed, it will be possible to meet the demands of the -layer distribution industry.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the problems as described above, the present invention provides a telephone service system for providing commercial service information to users, in which commercial service information of an information provider is edited. a command execution means for recognizing and executing the customer's command; a retrieval means for retrieving audio information corresponding to the command from the external storage device; A search-type telephone service system characterized by having an access means for accessing the voice information from the external storage device according to an instruction from the means, and a response means for responding to the accessed voice information to a customer. This is what we provide.

When a customer who is a club member calls the designated information service center according to the telephone number notified in advance by email, etc., a customer who is a member of the club receives a response message from the center's computer and instructions to select the desired information. . According to the selected keywords that the customer is informed of in advance,
Select the desired area of information.

A computer at the center searches for information desired by the customer from an external storage device according to the selected keyword, and responds with a message in the area desired by the customer.

The information stored in the external storage device is classified into, for example, gourmet information, hot spring information, travel information, concert information, etc. For example, gourmet information is classified by region into Aoyama, Origin, Shinjuku, etc. For example, in Aoyama, information on multiple restaurants is stored by area.

The information service center records, for example, audio information on the commercial services of the information provider, edits it, and stores it in an external storage device by area. Note that the information stored by area can be updated instantly.

Customers can search for information on multiple restaurants stored by area, using the same fast-forwarding and rewinding techniques as with a tape recorder, according to pre-announced operating instructions. In the computer, according to the operation commands given by the customer,
A desired area is retrieved from an external storage device, a message is sent as a response, and when the message ends and there is no operation command instruction from the customer, an end message is announced to the customer and the call ends.

[Example] Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the flow of commercial service information provided by the search-type telephone service system of the present invention. It is the information service center 11 that provides commercial service information to the customer 12. The information service center collects commercial service information of a plurality of stores belonging to the organization from information providers such as credit companies, and edits the information based on the wishes of the information providers.

FIG. 2 shows a search type telephone service device installed in an information service center. A calling signal from the customer's telephone 26 is received by the personal computer 20 via the modem 23. A hard disk 22, a monitor 21, and an external storage device 24 are connected to the personal computer 22. The hard disk 22 is used to record data such as the number of usages by customers and the usage time.

In this embodiment, the commercial service information provided by the information provider is sent to the information service center in the form of an audio tape. This information is edited, registered on the voice storage board 25 via the voice input device, and loaded into the external storage device 24. The voice storage board 25 can be removed at will and the data can be updated instantly.

Note that the means for storing commercial service information provided by an information provider in an external storage device is not limited to this embodiment, and may also be a registration system that can provide information by voice in response to a request from a customer. If so, there are no particular limitations.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the personal computer 20 of the search type telephone service device shown in FIG. The customer call signal received from modem 23 is sent to microprocessing unit 30 via interface 34. The microprocessing unit 30 is connected to R via a pass line.
An external storage device 24 is connected via an OM 31, a RAM 32, and an interface 34. The ROM 31 stores a program that enables the calculation means of the control section shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4, which will be described later. The RAM 32 temporarily stores information accessed from an external storage device.

Next, the arithmetic processing of the microprocessing unit 30 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. 46 is i
This is the control section.

When a customer who is a member of the club calls a predetermined information service center according to a telephone number notified in advance by direct mail etc., the customer's call signal from the telephone 26 is recognized by the call recognition means 4G (Sl) and is stored in an external memory. device 24
The greeting message stored in is accessed by the access means 45 and responded to by the response means 41 (32).

Next, if the customer's selected command is not recognized by the command recognition means 43 (S3), the command execution means 42 accesses the set of information corresponding to the command and R
The information is temporarily stored in the AM 32, and the response means 41 responds with an instruction to select the desired area (34).

Once the customer's desired area selection command is recognized (S
5) Search for the desired area from the set of information retrieved by the area search means 44 (S6), and respond to the customer for the message of the desired area (S7). The desired area information is a collection of information on multiple restaurants, and the customer can recognize the area information and the first store information to the last store information, but the customer can When an operation command is instructed, the command execution means 42 can execute it in the same way as a tape recorder, such as fast forwarding and rewinding.

000 Club's response message: "Yes, this is OOO Club. Please select your desired area." The customer should search for 0# (indicating gourmet food) (S9) and respond with the customer's desired message (si
.

), when there is no operation command from the customer, the end of the message is recognized (11), a termination message is responded and the end is completed (S12).

Next, specific examples of information services based on the present invention will be described later.

The customer calls OOo Club OOO Information.

000 Club's response message: ``Yes, this is OOO Gourmet Club, please select your desired area.'' The customer searches for 4# (blue and white) on the code list given in advance.At No. 120 SSS Club, Valentine ○00 Club. Response message: ``Yes, we would like to inform you of the latest gourmet information in the Blue and White area.'' At No. 100... At SSS Club No. 120, we are holding a Valentine's Day service.

No. 123: The customer searches for 3* (rewind) according to the code list given in advance, and instructs 5* (stop) at an appropriate location.

We are running the 000 club response message service again...123...
...End message: ``Thank you for using the service.'' [Effects] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide customers, such as specific members, with a wealth of the latest information by telephone according to their requests. Furthermore, data can be updated instantly, and only the information desired by the customer can be provided through a search.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the flow of information provided to customers in the search-type telephone service system, Fig. 2 is a configuration diagram of the search-type telephone service device, and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the search-type telephone service device shown in Fig. 2. A block diagram of the personal computer 20, Fig. 4 is a mechanical diagram of the arithmetic processing performed by the microprocessing unit, and Fig.
The figure is a flowchart of arithmetic processing. 24--External storage device 41--Response means 43--Command recognition means 44--Area search means 45--Access means

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a telephone service system for providing commercial service information to users, an external storage device is used to edit and store the commercial service information of the information provider, and the customer's commands are recognized and executed. a command execution means for searching the external storage device for audio information corresponding to the command; an accessing device for accessing the audio information from the external storage device according to an instruction from the retrieval device; 1. A search-type telephone service system comprising: a response means for responding to a customer with said voice information.