JP2001236417A - System for providing service - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To actualize a system for providing service which can analyze purchases of articles by customers and provide specialized services for the customers. SOLUTION: A customer is identified by a living body feature acquisition part 1 and an authentication part 2. Discrimination information on the data and time of an article purchase and the article is obtained by an article information acquisition part 3. A customer database 6 is stored with personal information by customers and article information generated thus far. A customer information management part 7 determines a service, corresponding to an arbitrary information according to the article information in the customer database 6. A coupon ticket issuing device 4 issues coupons as a service to customers.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a service providing system that manages each customer based on personal authentication using biological characteristics such as an iris and provides services specialized for each customer. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the following methods have been used as services for individual purchasing activities.・ Issuing coupons ・ Issuing gift certificates ・ Other discount services

[0003] In the above service, especially for coupons, from a relatively small store to a large store, the customer collects points according to the purchase amount to obtain a certain discount,
By making some products available for free or at low prices, they are commonly used as an effective means of acquiring customers.

[0004] In this case, the coupon issuance conditions include a method in which a special card is issued to a customer in advance, a stamp corresponding to a point is pressed at the time of product purchase, and the service content is determined based on the number of stamps. General.

[0005]

However, the above method has the following problems. When a customer transfers or lends a card to another person, there is a case where a discount is given to a customer with a small purchase amount, and there is a possibility that an accurate service for a specific customer may not always be provided.

[0006] If the card is lost, the points accumulated by the customer may become invalid.

[0007] The customer is forced to maintain the card.

[0008] With a card using a stamp, it is not possible to collect information such as the accumulation status of customer points and customer preferences.

[0009]

The present invention employs the following structure to solve the above-mentioned problems. <Configuration 1> An authentication unit for performing personal authentication based on a biometric characteristic of a customer when purchasing a product, a product information obtaining unit for obtaining product information of a customer including at least a purchase date and time and product identification information, and an authentication unit A service providing system comprising: a customer information management unit that determines a service content to the customer based on the customer information and product information authenticated in the above.

<Configuration 2> In the service providing system according to Configuration 1, as a service to an arbitrary customer, a customer information management unit instructing issuance of a discount ticket corresponding to the customer;
A service providing system comprising: a product information acquisition unit that acquires information on the use of a discount ticket as product information when a product is purchased using the issued discount ticket.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to specific examples.

<Specific Example><Configuration> FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a specific example of a service providing system of the present invention. The system shown in the figure comprises a biological feature acquisition unit 1, an authentication unit 2, a product information acquisition unit 3, a coupon issuing device 4, a keypad 5, a customer information database 6, and a customer information management unit 7.

The biometric feature obtaining unit 1 is a functional unit that obtains a biometric feature of a customer used by the authentication unit 2 for personal authentication.
The authentication unit 2 is a functional unit that authenticates a customer based on the biological characteristic data acquired by the biological characteristic acquisition unit 1. In this specific example, a case will be described in which an iris authentication device using an iris (iris) is used as a personal authentication method based on biological characteristics. Therefore, in this specific example, the biological feature acquisition unit 1
The authentication unit 2 is configured by a camera or the like that acquires a customer's eye image.
Is composed of a collating unit that cuts out and codes an iris portion from an eye image acquired by a camera, performs collation with an iris code of an individual registered in the customer information database 6 in advance, and performs personal authentication. Since such an iris authentication device is known, a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

The merchandise information acquiring unit 3 is a functional unit for acquiring merchandise identification information such as the date and time of purchase, the name and price of the merchandise purchased by the customer, and includes, for example, a scanner that reads a bar code assigned to the merchandise, It is composed of a POS terminal including a control unit and the like for acquiring a product and a price from the read code.

The coupon issuing device 4 is a device for issuing a coupon for providing a service to a customer, such as a discount ticket for a specific product. The keypad 5 is an operation unit for the user to interactively operate the service received by the individual. The keypad 5 is also used as a password input device for a user who cannot collate because of a biological characteristic such that an iris image required for recognition cannot be obtained.

The customer information database 6 stores customer iris information (iris code), name, customer code, date of birth,
Personal information such as gender and address, product information for each customer,
That is, it is a database for storing merchandise information such as merchandise purchase date and time, merchandise name, price, and total price at the time of purchase.

The customer information management unit 7 has a function of storing and managing customer information authenticated by the authentication unit 2 and product information acquired by the product information acquisition unit 3 in the customer information database 6, and Based on the information for each customer stored in the database 6, the service content for that customer is determined,
For example, it has a function of instructing the coupon issuing device 4 to issue a coupon.

The authentication unit 2, the customer information database 6,
The customer information management unit 7 is provided in, for example, a personal computer, and the authentication unit 2 and the customer information management unit 7 are realized by software and a processor or a memory that executes the software. Further, the customer information database 6 is realized on a nonvolatile memory such as a hard disk device.

Such a service providing system is installed, for example, in the same store and has a PO
It is configured as an S terminal, or is configured such that a biometric feature acquiring unit 1, a product information acquiring unit 3, a coupon issuing device 4, and a keypad 5 are connected to a personal computer.

Further, such a service providing system may be realized by a large-scale system via a network. An example is shown below.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram when the service providing system is realized by a large-scale system. The illustrated system includes service providing terminals 10-1 to 10-1 installed in each store.
10-n is an example in which an iris authentication server 11 and an iris registration system 12 are connected via a network 13.

Each service providing terminal 10-1 to 10-n
Is a biological feature acquiring unit 1 excluding the authentication unit 2 in FIG.
1 is a terminal having the function of the customer information management unit 7, and the iris authentication server 11 is a server having the function of the authentication unit 2 in FIG. Also, the iris registration system 12
Is a functional unit for a customer to register his or her iris data when using this service providing system.

<Operation> In using this system, a user first registers his / her iris information as biometric information using an iris registration function. The registration information is stored in the customer information database 6 in the system of FIG. 1, and in the system of FIG. 2, any of the service providing terminals 10-1 to 10-
n to the iris registration system 12, and the iris registration system 12
Is stored in

This registration information includes various personal information such as name, customer code, date of birth, gender, address, etc. together with the iris information of the user.

Next, the operation of the present system during operation will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation during operation. When a customer purchases a product and pays for it, the user first performs personal authentication (step S1). That is, the biometric feature acquisition unit 1 acquires a customer's eye image, and the authentication unit 2 performs personal authentication. There are two types of verification methods in the personal authentication process: 1: 1 verification performed by inputting identification information such as a personal identification number from the keypad 5 and 1: N verification performed without inputting personal identification information. Can be selected.

As a result of the identity authentication processing in step S1, it is confirmed that the user is the identity (step S2), and a coupon issued previously at the time of settlement is used (step S3).
Acquires coupon information (information such as product name and discount rate) (step S4), discounts the amount corresponding to the coupon from the amount of the product (step S5), and adds points corresponding to the total amount (step S6). . These points are stored as accumulated points in the customer information database 6.

Next, the customer information management section 7 determines a coupon to be issued based on information such as the purchased items, accumulated points, and visit frequency of the customer stored in the customer information database 6 and issues the coupon. To the coupon ticket issuing device 4 (step S7).

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a coupon. As shown in the figure, in the present service providing system, a purchaser can be specified, so that a personal name can be described. For example, when the customer frequently purchases a specific product, a coupon for the product is issued, such as issuing a coupon for the product.

When a coupon is issued from the coupon issuing device 4, the customer information management unit 7 stores customer information including the coupon issuance information in the customer information database 6 (step S8).

If the identity cannot be confirmed in the identity authentication process (step S2), the identity is confirmed using another means such as verbal confirmation, or the use of the present system is prohibited. The process is not performed (step S9), but since the process in this case is not directly related to the specific example, detailed description of the process is omitted.

When the customer purchases some items at the store using the coupon thus issued, the bar code of the coupon is read by the product information obtaining section 3 so that the store can obtain the following information. Can be collected.

The fact that the customer purchased the product using the coupon. Names and prices of all products purchased by the customer, including discounted products.

Therefore, the store can collect various information on the sales strategy based on such information, and also can identify excellent customers based on each customer's preference and purchase price.

For example, by collecting and analyzing such information, the store can finally increase the profit by taking the following measures.

(1) The customer information is analyzed, and an assortment of attractive products of interest to the customer is made. (2) Set a more appropriate price based on the coupon usage. (3) Issue specific coupons to specific customers to provide effective product introductions such as new product introductions. (4) Increase the number of fixed customers by providing specialized services to specific customers. (5) Compared with the conventional method such as paper or point card, it is more certain that the person actually purchased the product, so that the discount rate can be improved compared with the conventional method. (6) Large-scale service operation becomes possible compared to the paper method. (7) Running costs in operation can be reduced as compared with card issuance.

Further, as a method of issuing a coupon after specifying a customer, the following form can be implemented.

[1] A coupon with a high discount rate is issued to a customer who purchases frequently and expensive products. [2] For customers who have a preference for a specific product, a coupon for that product or a similar product is issued. [3] For superior customers, secure fixed customers by providing services that further motivate purchasing, such as issuing gift certificates.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a coupon issuance situation. For example, in the case of the customer A, since the customer is not a frequent customer, a coupon of 10% discount on a specific product is issued each time the payment is made. In the case of the customer B, a 10% discount coupon is issued at first because the customer frequently visits the store temporarily, but a 20% discount coupon is issued when visiting the store for a predetermined number of consecutive days. In the illustrated example, if a customer visits a store for five consecutive days, a coupon of 20% discount is issued after that date. Then, if the customer does not visit the store for a while, the coupon is returned to the first 10% discount coupon.

On the other hand, in the case of the customer C who is a good customer who visits the store every day, a coupon with a high discount rate is issued when visiting the store for a certain number of consecutive days. For example, in the case of the illustrated example, it is the same as the customer B that the coupon is issued with a 20% discount from the fifth day of consecutive visits to the store.
In the case of, since the store has been visited every day thereafter, a coupon of 30% discount has been issued from the 10th day.

As described above, it is possible to secure a fixed customer such as the customer C by counting the coupon usage status. And
Select good customers and provide more advantageous services.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a coupon issuance status and a usage status. The illustrated example is the case of the customer C, and the usage status of the coupon is as follows. On the third and sixth days, the purchase of 2,000 yen including the use of the coupon is made. The customer has purchased 4000 yen together with the use of the coupon, and was determined to be a good customer. Additional services for such customers (special customer identification service)
Services are provided such as sending out gift certificates or providing information services for excellent customers after the tenth day.

Further, in the above description of the specific example, an example in which a coupon is issued each time a product is settled has been described. However, service provision such as issuing a coupon every time a settlement is performed may not be performed. For example, a coupon can be issued as follows.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of issuing a coupon. In the illustrated example, for example, a 10% discount coupon is issued on the third day, a 20% discount coupon is issued on the eighth day, and a 30% discount coupon is issued on the 10th day for the customer C who visits the store every day. . It should be noted that the customer information management unit 7 determines the coupon issuance frequency and which product coupon is to be issued based on the coupon usage status, the purchased product name, the purchase price, and the like. Such a coupon issuance frequency may be applied not only to the customer C but also to the customers A and B described in FIG. That is, it is not always necessary to provide the service every time the user is verified.

<Effect> As described above, in the above specific example,
After performing identity authentication based on iris recognition, customer information such as the purchased product name, purchase price, and visit frequency corresponding to the individual is accumulated, and services such as issuance of coupons are performed based on this customer information. A service specialized for the individual can be provided. In addition, since the result of the service is fed back, such as the customer information including the coupon usage status, more detailed customer information can be collected from the response to the customer's service provision. In addition, there is an effect that the customer can receive an effective service.

As described above, by using the present system,
Both the service provider and the service recipient can benefit.

<< Usage Form >> In the above specific example, the case where the iris is used as the biometric feature for performing the personal authentication has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the recognition means using other biometric feature is used. You may. For example, other recognition means include fingerprint recognition, face recognition, handprint recognition, voiceprint recognition,
There are retinal recognition and blood vessel shape recognition.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a specific example of a service providing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram when the service providing system of the present invention is realized by a large-scale system.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of an operation at the time of operation of the service providing system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a coupon.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a coupon issuance situation.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a coupon issuance status and a usage status.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of issuing a coupon.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Authentication section 3 Product information acquisition section 6 Customer information database 7 Customer information management section

Claims (2)

[Claims] An authentication unit configured to perform personal authentication based on a biometric characteristic of a customer when purchasing a product; a product information acquisition unit configured to acquire product information of the customer including at least a purchase date and time and product identification information; A service providing system, comprising: a customer information management unit that determines a service content for the customer based on the customer information authenticated by the authentication unit and the product information. 2. The service providing system according to claim 1, wherein, as a service to an arbitrary customer, a customer information management unit instructing issuance of a discount ticket corresponding to the customer, and using the issued discount ticket. And a product information acquisition unit that acquires information on the use of the discount coupon as product information when the product is purchased.