JP2000231520A - Electronic mail transfer method and recording medium with electronic mail transfer program recorded therein - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail transfer method capable of specifying a transfer destination more accurately and also more quickly by specifying the transfer destination of a received electronic mail based on the text contents of the received electronic mail. SOLUTION: This electronic mail transfer method where an electronic mail transferring part 3 transfers a received electronic mail in which plural kinds of inquiry contents are text to plural inquiry windows 5a to 5n according to the kind of an inquiry content preliminarily produces a document showing a kind in charge of inquiry in each of the plural windows 5a to 5n and stores these produced documents in a document index file 9. Each time a received electronic mail arrives, a similarity retrieving part 2 retrieves the similarity between the inquiring text of the received electronic mail and each produced document in the file 9 and an electronic mail transferring part 3 transfers the received electronic mail to the window 5a to 5n corresponding to the produced document whose similarity is the highest.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an e-mail transfer method, and more particularly to a method for transferring a received e-mail having a text of an inquiry in accordance with the contents of an inquiry. The present invention relates to an e-mail transfer method in which the burden on the user is reduced.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the technical field of use of personal computers (PCs), a PC manufacturer or a PC seller needs to ask a PC user about measures to be taken when a user who purchases a PC encounters various problems while using the PC. Is a system that accepts various inquiries by e-mail, and multiple contact persons create appropriate answers to the received inquiries, and return the created answers to PC users by e-mail, so-called help A desk system has been built.

[0003] This help desk system usually uses a computer, and when an accepted e-mail is distributed to a plurality of persons in charge, it is handled by an automated or semi-automated process. If the number of inquiries is large and the content of the inquiries covers a wide range of technologies, a large number of contacts are required to prepare responses to the inquiries received by e-mail. These contact persons need technical knowledge in their own fields.

By the way, in such a help desk system, an accepted e-mail is promptly and appropriately sent to one of a plurality of contact persons in response to the contents of the inquiry. When transferring (sorting),
As a help desk system that automates the forwarding (sorting) of received e-mails without manual intervention,
The following are known.

[0005] One help desk system is an "e-mail distribution system" disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 3-232341, and another help desk system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-250950. "Mailbox management method".

Here, the "e-mail distribution method" disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 3-232341 distributes an accepted e-mail to a section mailbox or a plurality of personal mailboxes, and stores the received e-mail in the section mailbox. Is delivered, the section manager compares the content of the e-mail with the keyword extraction start position, keyword length, and the like registered in the distribution destination determination table to determine the distribution destination, and The distribution destination of the mail is allocated to any one of the personal mailboxes according to the result of the determination, and the efficiency of the operation for distributing the electronic mail can be improved.

A "mailbox management method" disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-250950 discloses a method in which a plurality of users set and register their own mailboxes in advance, and a sender and a sending date of an e-mail for each user. , And additional information including at least one of the titles, etc., are registered in the e-mail distribution condition storage unit. The unique mailbox in which the e-mail is stored is identified by comparing the extracted attached information with each of the attached information registered in the e-mail sorting condition storage unit, and the identified unique mailbox is assigned to the identified unique mailbox. It is designed to store e-mail,
The electronic mail is automatically group-managed according to the attached information included in the electronic mail.

[0008]

A known help desk system that automates the distribution (transfer) destination of an e-mail is to distribute (transfer) the received e-mail.
By comparing and comparing the contents of the e-mail with the keyword extraction start position and the keyword length registered in the distribution destination determination table, or the contents of the e-mail and the sender registered in the e-mail distribution condition storage unit Since it is set based on comparison and collation with attached information including at least one of a transmission date, a title, and the like, the distribution is not performed in consideration of the contents of the entire body of the e-mail. , The keyword in the email could be the wrong keyword,
If the attached information such as the title is mistakenly replaced with other attached information, when the e-mail is compared with the registered keyword or attached information, the registered own keyword or attached information Therefore, the user is assigned to another destination, or the destination cannot be specified.

The present invention has been made in view of such a technical background, and an object of the present invention is to specify a transfer destination of a received e-mail based on the entire contents of the text of the received e-mail, thereby to transfer the received e-mail. It is an object of the present invention to provide an e-mail transfer method that allows a destination to be specified more accurately and more quickly.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an electronic mail transfer method according to the present invention prepares documents indicating the contents of inquiries in its own field in advance for each of a plurality of inquiry windows. The created documents are stored in an index document file, and each time a received e-mail arrives, the similarity search unit performs similarity between the inquiry text of the received e-mail and each created document in the index document file. The electronic mail transfer unit is provided with means for searching for the degree, and transferring the received electronic mail to the inquiry window corresponding to the created document having the highest similarity.

According to the above-mentioned means, a representative document indicating the contents of the inquiry in the field in which it is responsible is created in advance for each of the inquiry windows, and the created documents are stored in the index document file. The similarity search unit sequentially searches the similarity between the query body of the incoming e-mail and a plurality of created documents read from the index document file every time the received e-mail arrives. The e-mail transfer unit transfers the received e-mail to the inquiry window corresponding to the created document having the highest similarity as a result of the similarity search performed by the similarity search unit. , The forwarding will be performed based on the body of the inquiry in the received e-mail, and the forwarding accuracy will be more accurate, and the wrong forwarding destination will be selected or the forwarding will be performed manually. That proportion is reduced, it is possible to lighten the work load of the person in charge of each query window at the time of transfer.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In an embodiment of the present invention, an e-mail transfer method comprises the steps of: receiving a received e-mail having a plurality of types of inquiry contents as a text in an e-mail transfer unit in accordance with the type of the inquiry contents; This is to be forwarded to the matching window. Documents indicating the contents of the inquiry in the field in which the user is responsible are created in advance for each of the plurality of inquiry windows, and these created documents are stored in the index document file. Each time a received email arrives, the similarity search unit searches for the similarity between the query body of the received email and each created document in the index document file,
The electronic mail transfer unit transfers the received electronic mail to the inquiry window corresponding to the created document having the highest similarity.

[0013] In a first specific example of the embodiment of the present invention, the e-mail transfer method is such that the contents of the inquiry of the received e-mail transferred to any of the plurality of inquiry windows are changed to the contents of the field in which the user is in charge. If they do not match, the received electronic mail is forwarded to the inquiry window corresponding to the created document having the next highest similarity.

In another second specific example of the embodiment of the present invention, in the electronic mail transfer method, the electronic mail transfer unit separately provides a destination to a transfer management window in addition to a plurality of addresses to an inquiry window. The similarity search unit searches for the similarity between the query body of the received e-mail and each created document in the index document file, and finds the difference between the query body of the received email and each created document in the index document file. If the similarity does not reach a certain threshold value in any case, the received electronic mail is transferred to a transfer management window.

In a preferred example of the second specific example according to the embodiment of the present invention, the electronic mail transfer method is such that, when a received electronic mail is transferred from the electronic mail transfer unit to the transfer management window, the transfer management window receives the received electronic mail. The e-mail is forwarded to the most appropriate contact person according to the contents of the inquiry.

In a third specific example according to the embodiment of the present invention, the electronic mail transfer method comprises the steps of: The operation of searching for the similarity between each created document and the operation of transferring the received e-mail to the contact person having the highest similarity performed by the e-mail transfer unit are stored in the storage medium in advance. In accordance with the operation program being executed.

According to these embodiments of the present invention, a representative document indicating the contents of the inquiry in the field in which the user is in charge is created in advance for each of the inquiry windows, and the created documents are stored. Each time an incoming e-mail arrives, a similarity search is sequentially performed between the query body of the incoming e-mail and a plurality of created documents read from the index document file. A similarity search unit for performing the search for the received e-mail and the result of the similarity search for the received e-mail performed by the similarity search unit are supplied to the e-mail transfer unit, and the e-mail transfer unit The received electronic mail is transferred to an inquiry window corresponding to the created document having the highest similarity based on the result of the search.

[0018] Therefore, the received e-mail is transferred based on the inquiry text of the received e-mail, and compared with a known help desk system of this kind,
The accuracy of incoming e-mail transmission is higher, and the rate at which incorrect destinations are selected and the need for manual transmission is reduced.Each e-mail contact is responsible for receiving e-mail. This can reduce the workload of the user.

In this case, if the inquiry content of the received e-mail transferred to each inquiry window does not match the inquiry content of its own field, the received e-mail is
For example, by transferring the created document having the next highest similarity to the inquiry window corresponding to the created document having the next higher similarity through the workflow management function, the transfer accuracy of the received e-mail can be further improved.

Further, a destination to a transfer management window is separately provided in the electronic mail transfer section, and the similarity between the inquiry text of the received electronic mail and each created document of the index document file reaches a certain threshold value in any case. If it is determined not to do so, the received e-mail is forwarded to the forwarding management window,
If the transfer management contact forwards the received e-mail to the most appropriate inquiry contact according to the contents of the inquiry, the transfer accuracy of the received e-mail can be further improved, and the person in charge of each inquiry contact Work load can be further reduced.

In addition, the operation of searching for the similarity between the inquiry text of the received electronic mail performed by the similarity search unit and each created document of the index document file, and the operation of the received electronic mail performed by the electronic mail sorting unit Program the transfer operation of the mail to the inquiry window with the highest similarity,
If the operation program is stored in the storage medium in advance and the operations of the similarity search unit and the e-mail transfer unit are executed according to the operation program, the operation programs of the similarity search unit and the e-mail transfer unit are individually set. It is unnecessary and convenient.

[0022]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a help desk system for implementing the electronic mail transfer method of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an electronic mail receiving unit;
Is a similarity search unit, 3 is an e-mail transfer unit, 4 is a control unit, 5
a is the inquiry window (A), 5b is the inquiry window (B),
5n is an inquiry window (N), 6 is a transfer management window, 7a is a document showing the inquiry contents of the inquiry window (A) 5a, 7
b documents showing the query contents of the query window (B) 5b, 7 _n documents showing the query contents of the query window (N) 5n, 8 index document input unit, 9 is an index document file.

The e-mail receiving section 1 receives an e-mail having the content of the inquiry addressed to the help desk system as a text, and sequentially supplies the received e-mail to the similarity search section 2. The similarity search unit 2 performs a similarity search between the queried text of the incoming received e-mail and each of the plurality of index documents stored in the index document file 9, and converts the received e-mail and the result of the similarity search into an electronic mail. This is supplied to the mail transfer unit 3. Email transfer unit 3
Is based on the result of the similarity search performed by the similarity search unit 2 supplied together with the received electronic mail, and the received electronic mail is sent to an inquiry window corresponding to the index document having the highest similarity, for example, an inquiry window (A 5) Transfer the received e-mail to the transfer management window 6 if the highest similarity is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold.

In the inquiry window (A) 5a, the inquiry window (B) 5b, and the inquiry window (N), a plurality of (N) different inquiry contents are processed. ing. In the transfer management window 6, a person in charge of management is arranged, and the received electronic mail transferred here is transferred to the most appropriate inquiry window, for example, the inquiry window (A) 5a based on the content of the inquiry. I do.

Before the similarity search is performed by the similarity search unit 2, the index document input unit 8 provides a plurality of (N) inquiry windows (A) 5a, inquiry windows (B) 5b, and inquiry windows (N). Received representative documents indicating the contents of inquiries handled by the respective inquiry windows (A) 5a, (B) 5b, and the inquiry window (N), that is, index documents, and index them. The document is input to the index document file 9. The index document file 9 stores the supplied plurality of index documents.

The control unit 4 is responsible for the control operation of the entire help desk system. The control unit 4 is connected to the similarity search unit 2, the e-mail transfer unit 3, the index document input unit 8, and the index document file 9. The similarity search operation between the contents of the inquiry of the received e-mail performed by the search unit 2 and each stored index document of the index document file 9 and the result of the similarity search of the received e-mail performed by the e-mail transfer unit 3 An internal or external CD-ROM that transfers the received e-mail
And the like according to an operation program stored in a storage medium such as

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the main part of the help desk system shown in FIG.

The operation of the help desk system shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to this flowchart.
In FIG. 2, steps S1 to S4 are operations performed by the similarity search unit 2, and steps S5 to S13
Is an operation executed by the electronic mail transfer unit 3 and the like.

First, in step S 1, the similarity search unit 2 determines whether or not a received electronic mail has arrived from the electronic mail receiving unit 1. When it is determined that the received e-mail has arrived (Y), the process proceeds to the next step S2. On the other hand, when it is determined that the received e-mail has not arrived (N), the received e-mail has arrived. Step S1 is repeatedly executed until the operation is completed.

Next, in step S2, the similarity search unit 2 accesses the index document file 9 and reads one index document stored therein.

Next, in step S3, the similarity search unit 2 performs a similarity search between the inquiry text of the received electronic mail and the read index document. The details of the similarity search at this time will be described later.

Subsequently, in step S4, the similarity search unit 2 determines whether a similarity search has been performed between the inquiry text of the received e-mail and all index documents stored in the index document file 9. I do. If it is determined that the similarity search has been performed with all index documents (Y), the process proceeds to the next step S5, while the similarity search has not yet been performed with all index documents. When it is determined (N), the process returns to step S2, and the similarity search is performed again with another index document for which the similarity search has not been performed.

Next, in step S5, the e-mail transfer unit 3 receives the received e-mail and the result of the similarity search for the received e-mail from the similarity search unit 2.

Next, in step S6, the e-mail transfer unit 3 sorts the received similarity search results in descending order.
That is, the index document with the highest similarity is the first, the next highest index document is the second, the next highest index document is the third, and the index document with the lowest similarity is the last. Rearrange them.

In the following step S7, the electronic mail transfer section 3 determines whether or not the similarity with the highest index document exceeds a predetermined threshold. When it is determined that the similarity exceeds the threshold (Y), the process proceeds to the next step S8. On the other hand, when it is determined that the similarity does not exceed the threshold (N), another step S8 is performed.
Move to 9.

Subsequently, in step S8, since the similarity of the inquiry body of the received electronic mail exceeds the preset threshold, the electronic mail transfer unit 3 responds to the index document having the highest similarity. Inquiry window,
For example, the inquiry window A5a is selected, and the received electronic mail is transferred to the selected inquiry window A5a.

In step S 9, the e-mail transfer unit 3 transfers the received e-mail to the transfer management window 6 because the similarity of the inquiry text of the received e-mail does not exceed the preset threshold. I do.

Next, in step S10, the transfer management window 6 (person in charge of the management window) examines the inquiry text of the received received e-mail, and checks the inquiry window most suitable for the inquiry content, for example, the inquiry window. Select the matching window A5a, and select the inquiry window A5a that has selected the received e-mail.
Transfer to

Next, in step S11, the inquiry window A5a (person in charge of the window) examines the inquiry text of the transferred received e-mail and determines whether or not the transfer of the received e-mail was appropriate. When it is determined that the transfer is appropriate (Y), the process proceeds to step S13, and when it is determined that the transfer is not appropriate (N), the process proceeds to another step S12. In this step S11, the inquiry window A5a is set to the other inquiry window B.
5b or inquiry window N5n, inquiry window A
The same operation as the operation performed in 5a is performed.

In the following step S12, the inquiry window A5a (contact person) uses, for example, a workflow management function or the like to contact the inquiry window corresponding to the index document having the next highest similarity, for example, the inquiry window B5b. This received e-mail is forwarded. Then, after this received electronic mail is transferred to the inquiry window B5b, step S5 is executed.
Then, the process proceeds to step S11, and the operation after step S11 is executed again. In step S12, the same operation as the operation performed at the inquiry window A5a is performed even if the inquiry window A5a is another inquiry window B5b or the inquiry window N5n.

Subsequently, in step S13, the inquiry window A5a (the person in charge of the window) prepares a response to the inquiry text of the received electronic mail. This answer may be an answer using a fixed phrase prepared in advance, or may be a newly created answer.

Although not clearly shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, this answer is returned to the user who transmitted the inquiry text from the help desk system in the form of an electronic mail.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the similarity search unit 2 shown in FIG.

[0046] In FIG. 3, 2 ₁ receives e-mail reception unit, 2 ₂ index document reading section, 2 _3, 2 ₄ word extractor, 2 ₅ word match section, 2 ₆ is a search result output unit .

[0047] The receiving e-mail receiving unit 2 ₁ is coupled to an electronic mail receiving unit 1, it receives an incoming e-mail received by the e-mail receiving unit 1. Index the document reading unit 2 ₂ is coupled to the index document file 9, reads the index documents stored in the index document file 9 to 1 by one order. Word extractor 2
₃ divides the text of the query text of the supplied received e-mail from the received e-mail receiving unit 2 ₁ a character type,
A plurality of words are obtained from the query text, and the appearance frequency of those words is calculated. Word extractor 2 ₄ divides the text index documents supplied from the index the document reading unit 2 ₂ shaped type, obtains the plurality of words as well from the index document, it calculates a revealing frequency of those words. Word match section 2 _5, and revealing the frequency of the word for a plurality of words obtained by the word extraction section 2 _3, and a revealing frequency of the word for a plurality of words obtained by the word extraction section 2 ₄ The comparison and collation are performed, and the matching rate of the appearance frequency for each word is calculated.

FIG. 4 is a characteristic table showing an example of the result of word matching between the query text of the received electronic mail and the index document performed by the word matching unit ₂₅ .

In the example shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of index documents A, B, C,... For each of a plurality of words, that is, words A, B, C, D, E,.
Indicates the number of times the appearance frequency matches. Then, in matching the query body of the received e-mail with the index document A, the number of matches for the word A is 1
Times, the number of matches for word B is two, and the number of matches for word C is five, and if there is no difference in importance between words A, B, and C, the total number of matches is 8 times. In the comparison between the query text of the received e-mail and the index document B, the number of matches for the word A is 2
If the number of matches for the word D is one and there is no difference in importance between the words A, B, C, and D, the total number of matches is three. Further, in matching the query body of the received e-mail with the index document C,
The number of matches for word C is one, the number of matches for word D is two, and the number of matches for word E is one, and between words A, B, C, D, and E If there is no difference in importance, the total number of matches is four.

From these collation results, the query body of the received e-mail has the highest similarity with index document A, the next highest similarity with index document C, and the highest similarity with index document C. It is low. In this case, in practice, a difference in importance is provided between the words A, B, C, D, and E, and the number of matches is weighted in the order of importance.

Returning again to FIG. 3, the search result output unit 2 ₆
As a result of the similarity search supplied from word collation unit 2 ₅ and, and a query body of the received e-mail that is similar search word match part 2 ₅ supplied them succeeding the mail transferring section 3
Output to

The similarity search of this type executed by the similarity search unit 2 has been filed by the present applicant as Japanese Patent Application No. 9-232654 “Similar document search system and storage medium used therein”. Is used.

In this case, each index document stored in the index document file 9 is stored in the inquiry window A
Creates a new index document 7a partially modified from the representative document 7a indicating the contents of the inquiry up to that time, and supplies the new index document 7a to the index document input unit 8. A new index document 7a is stored in place of the stored index document 7a, and the inquiry window B similarly changes the representative document 7b showing the contents of the inquiry so far. If the new index document 7b is created and supplied to the index document input unit 8, the new index document 7b is stored in place of the index document 7b stored in the index document file 9. Become.

As described above, according to the e-mail transfer method of the present embodiment, the received e-mail is supplied to the e-mail transfer unit 3 before the e-mail transfer unit 3 transfers the received e-mail to an appropriate inquiry window. The similarity search unit 2 performs a similarity search between the query body of the received e-mail arriving and each index document stored in the index document file, and the e-mail transfer unit 3 performs the similarity search based on the result of the similarity search. And forwards the received e-mail to the inquiry window corresponding to the index document with the highest similarity, so that the received e-mail can be forwarded based on the text of the inquiry, and this type of known help desk・
Forwarding (distribution) of received e-mail compared to the system
Accuracy is higher, and the rate at which the wrong destination is selected or the need to perform manual transfer is reduced, respectively, and the work burden of the person in charge of each inquiry window when received e-mail is transferred is reduced. Can be reduced.

Further, according to the electronic mail transfer method of this embodiment, if the inquiry content of the received electronic mail transferred to each inquiry window does not match the content of the field in charge of the window, the received electronic mail is not sent. Since the mail is transferred to the inquiry window corresponding to the created document having the next highest similarity, for example, through the workflow management function, the transfer accuracy of the received electronic mail can be further improved.

Further, according to the electronic mail transfer method of this embodiment, as a result of the similarity search, if the highest similarity does not reach the predetermined threshold, that is, if the contents of the inquiry are sent to any inquiry window, If the content is unfamiliar, the e-mail transfer unit 3 transfers the received e-mail to the transfer management window 6.
And the management window 6 decodes the contents of the inquiry and forwards it to an appropriate inquiry window, so that the transfer accuracy of the received e-mail can be further improved and each inquiry The work load of the person in charge of the counter can be further reduced.

[0057]

As described above, according to the present invention, a representative document (index document) indicating the contents of an inquiry in its own field is created in advance for each field in which a plurality of inquiry windows are in charge. In addition to providing an index document file that stores these created index documents,
Each time a received e-mail arrives, a similarity search unit is provided for sequentially searching for a similarity between a query body of the incoming e-mail and a plurality of created documents read from the index document file. The result of the similarity search for the received e-mail and the received e-mail performed by the similarity search unit is supplied to the e-mail transfer unit, and the e-mail transfer unit determines the highest similarity based on the result of the similarity search. Since the received e-mail is forwarded to the contact person corresponding to the created document, the received e-mail can be forwarded based on the text of the inquiry, and this kind of known help desk system The accuracy of forwarding received e-mails is higher than that of, and the rate at which an incorrect forwarding destination is selected or the forwarding by hand must be performed Hesi, incoming e-mail there is an effect that it is possible to reduce the work burden of the person in charge of each query window is done when it is transferred.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a help desk system for implementing an electronic mail transfer method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of a main part of the help desk system shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of a similarity search unit illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a characteristic table showing an example of a result of word matching between an inquiry text of an incoming electronic mail performed by a word matching unit and an index document.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 e-mail receiving unit 2 similarity retrieval section 2 ₁ receives e-mail receiving unit 2 ₂ Index document reading section 2 _3, 2 _4-word extractor 2 ₅ word collating unit 2 ₆ retrieval result output unit 3 mail transferring section 4 controller 5a Inquiry window (A) 5b Inquiry window (B) 5n Inquiry window (N) 6 Transfer management window 7a, 7b, 7n Document showing inquiry contents 8 Index document input unit 9 Index document file

Continued on the front page F-term (reference) 5B089 GA11 GA21 GB04 HA10 JA31 KA04 KB06 KC23 KC27 KC32 KC53 LA06 LA08 5K030 HA06 HB19 LA19 LD11 LE14 9A001 HH33 JJ14 JJ16 JJ17 KK60

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An electronic mail transfer method for transferring a received electronic mail having a plurality of types of inquiry contents as texts to a plurality of inquiry windows according to the types of inquiry contents in an electronic mail transfer unit. For each inquiry window, a document indicating the content of the inquiry in its own field is created in advance, and these created documents are stored in the index document file. Each time the received e-mail arrives, similar documents are created. A search unit searches for the similarity between the inquiry text of the received e-mail and each created document in the index document file, and the e-mail transfer unit corresponds the received e-mail to the created document with the highest similarity. An e-mail transfer method, wherein the e-mail is transferred to an inquiry window. 2. If the inquiry content of the received e-mail transferred to any one of the plurality of inquiry windows does not match the contents of its own field of charge, the received e-mail is sent to the next 2. The electronic mail transfer method according to claim 1, wherein the electronic mail is transferred to an inquiry window corresponding to a high created document. 3. An e-mail transfer unit is provided with a destination to a transfer management window in addition to the destinations to the plurality of inquiry windows, and an inquiry text of the received e-mail in the similarity search unit and the index document file are provided. As a result of searching for the similarity with each created document in the case where the similarity between the query body of the received e-mail and each created document of the index document file did not reach a certain threshold in any case, 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the received electronic mail is transferred to the transfer management window. 4. When the received electronic mail is transferred from the electronic mail transfer unit to the transfer management window, the received electronic mail is transferred to the most appropriate inquiry window according to the contents of the inquiry. Item 4. The electronic mail transfer method according to Item 3. 5. A recording medium on which a program for realizing the electronic mail transfer method according to claim 1 is recorded, wherein each time a received electronic mail arrives, the received electronic mail is performed by a similarity search unit. Operation of searching for the similarity between the query text and each created document of the index document file, and the operation of transferring the received electronic mail to the contact person having the highest similarity performed by the electronic mail transfer unit A recording medium on which a program is recorded.