JP2005284553A - Reservation status confirmation system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a customer who made a reservation, to know the unpurchased state of a reservation ticket after making the reservation. <P>SOLUTION: After making reservation by a reservation terminal 1 of the customer, a reserved time confirming means 11b of a customer management server 2 confirms the reserved time when the reservation was made, to a customer information database 13, and a reservation elapsed time confirming means 11c starts the execution of retrieval of items reserved but ticket issue not completed, setting the predetermined number of days after the reserved time before the execution day of the reservation object, as retrieval conditions. When an after-reservation settlement confirming means 11d finds an unsettled item by collating the reserved situation with the settled situation on whether settlement is made after reservation to a customer information database, a reservation validity confirming means 11e confirms with a reserved seat ticket server 3 on whether the reservation is still valid, and then a settlement promoting means 11f transmits notification of an unissued ticket of the item reserved but with its ticket unissued yet, to a reservation terminal. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a so-called online reservation sales system that accepts reservations on a network or the like and sells reserved tickets at a later window or the like when selling reserved seat tickets.

Conventionally, for example, the following two online reservation sales systems are known. In addition to accepting reservations for seat reservation tickets via the network, both of these are reserved seat reservation tickets when the customer who made the reservation did not purchase a seat reservation ticket. Can be resold to other customers (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
JP 2001-84414 A (first page, FIG. 1) Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-30465 (first page, FIG. 1)

However, in general, in online reservation via a network, there is a problem that the reservation itself is easily forgotten because of the simplicity of the procedure.
In particular, recently, reservation procedures can be performed using a mobile phone, etc., and reservations can be made anytime, anywhere, and there is no need for the customer to go to a predetermined window when making a reservation. For this reason, contrary to the convenience of the reservation procedure, even if a reservation can be made, there is an increased risk that the person who made the reservation will forget it.
This is a loss that is not negligible for both operators and customers. In particular, for customers, there is a problem that the loss that makes reservations wasted cannot be avoided by the above-described conventional online reservation sales system.

The reservation status confirmation system according to the present invention receives a reservation such as a seat designation input by a customer, and manages a received reservation content,
Of the reservation contents stored in the reservation management means, the date and time when the reservation content should be executed is compared with the current date and time, and the date and time when the reservation content should be executed is approaching within a predetermined period from the present time. Reservation matter extraction means for extracting existing reservation matters,
A settlement facilitating means for notifying that the date and time when the reservation content should be executed is approaching within a predetermined period from the present time to the customer who has input the reservation for the extracted reservation case. It is characterized by.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the reservation item extracting unit confirms the received reservation content, compares the date and time when the reservation content should be executed with the current date and time, and the date and time when the reservation content should be executed. Extracts reservation cases that are approaching within the predetermined period from the present, and for the extracted reservation cases, the date and time when the reservation contents should be executed for the customer who entered the reservation is within the predetermined period from the present The customer who made the reservation can know that the designated ticket has not been purchased after the reservation, and the customer who made the reservation forgets the purchase after the reservation. This can be prevented, and reservations are not wasted against the customer's will. As a result, in addition to improving customer convenience, there is an effect that the business operator can suppress the risk of losing business opportunities.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the reservation status confirmation system of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the customer management server of the reservation status confirmation system, and FIG. 3 is the CPU of the customer management server of the reservation status confirmation system FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the automatic ticket vending machine of the reservation status confirmation system, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the reservation status confirmation processing of the reservation status confirmation system.
In the embodiment of the present invention, as an example of a reservation status confirmation system, for the sake of convenience of explanation, it is assumed that seat reserved tickets for passenger trains are reserved and sold.

  The reservation status confirmation system of the present invention includes a reservation terminal 1 where a customer reserves a designated ticket, a customer management server 2 that manages reservation information such as reservation reception and ticketing for each customer, and a seat designated ticket for each train. A designated ticket server 3 that manages reservation information of the vehicle, a settlement server 4 that performs payment with a credit card, and an automatic ticket vending machine 5 that issues a seat designated ticket provided at a station or a travel agency. .

  The reservation terminal 1 and the customer management server 2 are connected via an Internet network 6 that is a communication network. The customer management server 2, the designated ticket server 3, the settlement server 4, and the automatic ticket vending machine 5 are connected to each other via a company dedicated network 7 operated by a transportation facility.

  The reservation terminal 1 has a function of displaying a homepage on the Internet and automatically executing a predetermined program stored in the homepage, a so-called Web access function, and a function of sending and receiving e-mail. Specifically, mobile phones, electronic notebooks, portable personal computers, and the like correspond to this.

  The customer management server 2 includes a CPU 11 as a control unit that controls the whole, a memory 12 in which a control program and the like are stored, and a customer information database that manages information on reservation status, ticketing status, and price settlement status for each customer. 13, a seat reservation ticket is reserved based on the input information from the reservation terminal 1, a seat reservation ticket reservation result is stored in the customer information database 11, and a seat reservation ticket reservation by the Web server 14. And a communication unit 15 for communicating with the reservation terminal 1 to the automatic ticket vending machine 5.

  The CPU 11 of the customer management server 2 has a built-in clock, system control means 11a for controlling the server system, reservation time confirmation means 11b for confirming when the reserved seat is reserved, and search time from the reserved seat reservation time Reservation elapsed time confirming means 11c for confirming the elapsed time until confirmation, post-reservation settlement confirming means 11d for confirming whether settlement has been made after the reservation, and reservation validity confirmation for confirming whether the reservation is valid Means 11e and settlement facilitating means 11f for executing communication for prompting settlement regarding unsettled and valid reservations.

The customer information database 13 of the customer management server 2 includes customer information such as name, address, contact telephone number, e-mail address, reservation procedure ID (given for each reservation), reservation date, train of the reservation target train The reservation status such as the number, the reservation target operation section, the reservation train's operation date (based on the departure date of the train starting station), the ticketed / unissued ticketing status, and the settled / unsettled price settlement status, etc. Stored.
Further, customization information is stored in a memory (not shown) of the Web server 14. This customization information is information such as screen data and a link destination address (URL) used for a function that allows the user to arbitrarily set the design of the screen displayed on the reservation terminal 1 and the display order of the screen.

The designated ticket server 3 includes a database relating to the seat designation situation for each train, and has a function of managing reservation information of the seat designated ticket such as which seat is reserved in a specific train.
The database stores the train number, car number, reserved seat number, presence / absence of reservation for each seat / service section, etc. for all trains to be serviced.

The settlement server 4 communicates between a function for collectively storing and managing personal credit information necessary for payment with a credit card or the like and an online system of a financial institution (not shown) to settle the payment. Each with a function to be executed.
The credit information includes personal information necessary for credit settlement such as name, age, address, occupation, transaction limit, accident information (payment delay, etc.), accumulated amount of unsettled transactions, and the like.

  The automatic ticket vending machine 5 includes a CPU 21 as a control unit that controls the whole, a memory 22 in which a control program and the like are stored, an input unit 23 that accepts operations by a staff of the operating company and a customer, and results of operations and communications A ticket processing unit 24 that issues a seat designation ticket based on the information, a display unit 25 that displays input information by operation, information on the seat designation ticket to be issued, and the like, and the customer management server 2 and the designated ticket via the dedicated network 7 A communication unit 26 that performs data communication with the server 3 is provided.

Next, the operation of the reservation status confirmation system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.
(1) First, preparation for reception is performed (step S1).
For the customer, in order to use the reservation status confirmation system using his / her reservation terminal 1, it is necessary to perform customer registration with the customer management server 2 and prepare for reception.
The customer registration is performed by inputting its own information (name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, etc.) according to the customer registration screen and transmitting it to the customer management server 2. The entered customer information is the system of the CPU 11 of the customer management server 2. It is stored and registered in the customer information database 13 by the control means 11a.

In addition, the operating company side needs to update the information of the designated ticket every day in the designated ticket server 3 and prepare for reservation reception.
Information on the designated ticket to be updated includes train number / train nickname, operation date, operation time (all schedules vary depending on the boarding station), stop station (station where passengers can get on and off), seat code, reservation status, etc. . With respect to these pieces of information, information that has passed the service deadline is deleted from a database (not shown) of the designated ticket server 3, and information that is newly accepted for reservation is recorded in the database instead.

(2) Next, the customer applies for a reserved seat ticket (step S2).
First, a customer who wants to reserve a seat reservation ticket operates the reservation terminal 1 himself and accesses the customer management server 2 via the Internet.
Next, the customer operates the reservation terminal 1 to inquire the customer management server 2 of seat availability by designating all or part of the train, boarding date, and boarding section.
In this case, the reception for the reservation is set to be any time for 24 hours.

(3) Transmission of seat availability by customer management server 2 (step S3)
In the customer management server 2, the system control means 11 a of the CPU 11 inquires the designated ticket server 3 about the seat availability of the train based on the information designated by the operation, and the customer management manages the answer from the designated ticket server 3. The system control means 11 a of the CPU 11 of the server 2 transmits to the reservation terminal 1. This answer, that is, the seat availability, is displayed on the reservation terminal 1.

(4) Reservation request by customer management server 2 (step S4)
When the customer sees the vacant seat status displayed on the reservation terminal 1 and the customer selects a specific train and operates the reservation terminal 1 again to make a reservation request, the reservation terminal 1 sends the reservation request to the customer management server 2. Send.
The system control means 11 a of the CPU 11 of the customer management server 2 transmits a seat designation request to the designated ticket server 3 based on the reservation request received from the reservation terminal 1. In the designated ticket server 3 that has received the seat designation request, the vacant seat of the train is reserved for the corresponding amount, and an e-mail reflecting the reserved contents in the text is sent via the customer management server 2 to the reservation terminal. 1 to send.
If the customer does not make a reservation request even if the customer sees the vacant seat status displayed on the reservation terminal 1, the process returns to the previous stage of step S2.

(5) Completion of reservation (step S5)
The system control means 11a of the CPU 11 of the customer management server 2 that has received the e-mail stores the reserved contents in the customer information database 13 as the reservation status, and transmits the e-mail to the reservation terminal 1 that requested the reservation. The reservation process is complete. When a reservation status is stored in the customer information database 13, a reservation date that is one of the reservation statuses is also recorded.

(6) Unpurchased search (step S6)
After the reservation processing is completed, the CPU 11 of the customer management server 2 selects a case that has been reserved and has not been issued (settled) from among the cases that have an operation date within a certain period from the completion date of the reservation process. The customer information database 13 is searched.
In addition, for a case for which ticketing (settlement) has been completed, settlement and ticketing information is sent from the settlement server 4 and the automatic ticket vending machine 5 to the customer management server 2 and stored in the customer information database 13.

  The procedure for searching for such reserved / unsettled matters will be described in detail. First, the reservation time confirmation means 11b of the CPU 11 of the customer management server 2 determines the reservation time when a predetermined reservation is made to the customer information database 13. Then, the reservation elapsed time confirmation unit 11c of the CPU 11 refers to the clock built in the system control unit 11a, and the elapsed time from the reservation time confirmed by the reservation time confirmation unit 11b to the date of the predetermined search time is calculated. Reading is started, and the execution of the search is started using a date that is a certain number of days later as a search condition.

When the execution of the search is started, the post-reservation payment confirmation unit 11d collates the reservation status with the payment status to determine whether or not the post-reservation payment has been made in the customer information database 13, and finds an unsettled case. .
If an unsettled case is found, the reservation validity confirmation means 11e confirms whether the reservation is still valid without canceling the designated ticket server 3 or the like.

(7) Not purchased (step S7)
In this way, if the customer management server 2 searches for a case that has been reserved and the ticketing (settlement) is not completed, the process proceeds to the next step.
If the reservation has been made and the ticketing (settlement) has been completed, the process ends here.

(8) Notification of unpurchased confirmation (step S8)
When the customer management server 2 retrieves a reserved / unsettled case, the settlement promotion means 11f of the CPU 11 of the customer management server 2
For items that have been hit by unpurchased search, insert necessary items such as operation date, train nickname, reserved section, ticketing price, etc. into the standard text, create a text for notification, and email of such text has been reserved, Moreover, it is transmitted to the reservation terminal 1 of the customer who has not issued (settled), and prompts the customer to settle.
The transmission of such an unpurchased confirmation e-mail is performed on the day before the reserved service date as an appropriate time after searching for unpurchased (reserved & ticket not completed).

Moreover, although the transmission frequency is once / day, it may be set to a frequency of 2-3 times / day in consideration of the convenience of the user (taking a grace time from notification mail to ticketing). .
It should be noted that the e-mail of the notification of unpurchased confirmation may be sent immediately after searching for unpurchased items. This is because the grace time from the notification mail to the ticketing can be maximized at this timing. However, if the reservation terminal 1 that receives the e-mail is a mobile phone, considering that the ringing sound will be generated when the e-mail is received, the reception time zone can be specified by the customer. You may make it do.

(9) Ticketing request (step S9)
A customer who has made a reservation after receiving an unpurchased confirmation notification by e-mail, but has not yet issued a ticket, issues a ticketing request to the automatic ticket vending machine 5.
In order to issue the ticket, the input unit 23 of the automatic ticket vending machine 5 is operated to input reservation information necessary for specifying the reservation contents and information necessary for the payment with the ticket.
For example, if a card reader (not shown) is installed in the input unit 23 and the customer passes a credit card through the card reader, the credit card number is read by the card reader, and this number information is sent to the customer management server 2 and the customer The management server 2 searches for reservation information based on this number information.
The reservation information found as a result of the search is sent to the ticket vending machine 5.

  In response to the ticket issue request, the automatic ticket vending machine 5 presents reservation information to the designated ticket server 3 to inquire whether or not the ticket is issued. In response to the inquiry, the designated ticket server 3 responds to the automatic ticket vending machine 5 as to whether or not the ticket is issued. At this time, if ticketing is permitted, the designated ticket server 3 provides information necessary for ticketing, that is, the train operation date, the train nickname, the train departure time at the boarding station, the designated ticket price, etc. In addition, the automatic ticket vending machine 5 is notified. The content of the notification is displayed on the display unit 25.

(10) Settlement (Step S10)
A customer who sees display of information necessary for ticketing on the display unit 25 of the automatic ticket vending machine 5 inputs personal information necessary for settlement to the input unit 23. The personal information necessary for settlement is a personal identification number of a credit card or biometric information corresponding to an authentication method, for example, an image of an iris or a fingerprint when biometric authentication is performed at a ticket machine. Alternatively, instead of inputting personal information, the customer may put cash into the ticket machine.
The personal information necessary for the payment input to the input unit 23 is sent to the payment server 7 and charged to the payment server 7 for payment processing.
The payment server 4 performs a series of payment processing, and when the processing is completed, notifies the automatic ticket vending machine 5 that the payment is completed.

(11) Ticketing (step S11)
In the automatic ticket vending machine 5, when both the ticket issue permission information is received from the designated ticket server 3 and the payment completion notification is received from the settlement server 4, the ticket issuing processing unit 24 executes the ticket issuing process and delivers the designated ticket to the customer.
When the ticket issuing process is completed, the automatic ticket vending machine 5 sends a notification to the customer management server 2 that the ticket issuing process has been completed.
(12) Reservation information update (step S12)
In the customer management server 2 that has received the notification that the ticketing process has been completed from the automatic ticket vending machine 5, the system control means 11a updates the reservation information stored in the customer information database 13 to the ticket issued and updates the database. The expired data is deleted.

  In this way, when the customer makes a reservation request to the customer management server 2 using the reservation terminal 1 and the reservation status is stored in the customer information data base 13, the reservation time confirmation means 11b of the customer management server 2 receives the customer information. The database 13 confirms when the predetermined reservation is made when the reservation is made, and the search elapsed time confirmation means 11c searches the reservation time confirmed by the reservation time confirmation means 11b before the reservation target execution date and after a predetermined number of elapsed days. As a result, search for a case where reservation / ticketing has not been completed is started, and the reservation confirmation unit 11d checks the reservation status against the customer information database 13 to confirm whether or not payment has been made after the reservation. Then, when an unsettled case is found, the reservation validity checking means 11e confirms whether or not the reservation is still valid with respect to the designated ticket server 3. Later, since the settlement promoting means 11f sends a notification of an unissued ticket for a reserved / issued ticket to the reservation terminal, the customer who made the reservation knows that the designated ticket after the reservation has not been purchased. It is possible to prevent the customer who made the reservation from forgetting the purchase after the reservation, and the reservation is not wasted against the customer's will. As a result, in addition to improving customer convenience, the business operator can suppress the risk of losing business opportunities.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the reservation status confirmation system of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the customer management server of the reservation status confirmation system. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of CPU of the customer management server of the reservation status confirmation system. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the automatic ticket vending machine of the reservation status confirmation system. It is a flowchart which shows the reservation status confirmation process of the reservation status confirmation system.

Explanation of symbols

1 reservation terminal, 2 customer management server, 3 designated ticket server, 4 payment server, 5 automatic ticket vending machine, 6 internet network, 7 dedicated network network, 11 CPU, 11a system control means, 11b reservation time confirmation means, 11c reservation elapsed time Confirmation means, 11d settlement confirmation means after reservation, 11e reservation validity confirmation means, 11f settlement promotion means, 12 memory, 13 customer information database, 14 Web server, 15 display section, 16 communication section.

Claims (3)

Reservation management means for accepting reservations such as seat designation entered by the customer and managing the received reservation contents;
Of the reservation contents stored in the reservation management means, the date and time when the reservation content should be executed is compared with the current date and time, and the date and time when the reservation content should be executed is approaching within a predetermined period from the present time. Reservation matter extraction means for extracting existing reservation matters,
A settlement facilitating means for notifying that the date and time when the reservation content is to be executed is approaching within a predetermined period from the present time to the customer who has entered the reservation for the extracted reservation case,
Reservation status confirmation system characterized by comprising each. The reservation status confirmation system according to claim 1,
The settlement facilitating means performs the notification regarding the remaining cases except for the case where the reservation has been canceled or the case where the settlement has already been completed among the reservation cases extracted by the reservation case extracting means. This is a reservation status confirmation system. The reservation status confirmation system characterized in that the notification by the settlement facilitating means is performed at least once before the implementation date of the reservation target.

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