JP2001265885A - Home consultation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a home consultation system which can make evaluation fair when fees paid to plural home consultants are determined by taking not only the numbers, but also the quality of consultations into account. SOLUTION: A telephone consultation center 3 is provided with a connection state monitor device part 3-4 which monitor the contents of answers made by the home consultants, an evaluation device part 3-5 evaluates the levels of the consultants through this connection state monitor device part 3-4, and its evaluation output is stored for each consultant into a registration device part 3-6, thereby automatically evaluating the answering levels of the home consultants and also improving the quality of answers made by the home consultants.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a home consultation system, and more particularly, to a home consultation system in which a home counselor responds via a telephone consultation center when the user does not know how to use a personal computer or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a consultation system for calling a telephone consultation center when the user does not know how to use a personal computer or the like and consulting about how to use the personal computer has been operated. The number of such inquiries is increasing rapidly year by year, but telephone consultants cannot respond without knowledge of products, and the fact is that the number of telephone consultants has not been able to keep up with the rapid increase in inquiries. Even though there are requests for telephone consultation at night due to the work system of telephone consultants, it is difficult to respond.

[0003] For this reason, a home-based consultation system that enables specialized personnel to consult the telephone from home is desired. In this case, if a technician temporarily retiring from the company or a retired employee becomes a telephone consultant and a system that can handle telephone consultation from home is established, responding to the sudden increase of the above inquiries, Alternatively, nighttime telephone consultation is possible.

[0004] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-23163 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
No. 303158 and JP-A-9-62740 are known.

[0005] Hereinafter, a conventional home consultation system will be described.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 7 is an overall system configuration diagram, FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of devices in a telephone consultation center, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a flow of operations. In the figure, 11 is the telephone of the inquirer, 12 is the telephone line network, 13 is the telephone consultation center, and 14 is the telephone of the home consultant. The telephone consultation center 13 includes a reception support device 13-1, a home consultant registration list 13-2 in which home consultants are registered, and a transfer device 13-3. The reception support device 13-1 is connected to the telephone network 12.

The procedure of the conventional home consultation system configured as described above will be described below. The inquirer makes a telephone call to the telephone consultation center 13 using the telephone 11 through the telephone network 12. Then, the reception corresponding device 13-1 confirms the contents, and transfers the contents to the home consultant's telephone 14 via the telephone network 12 by the transfer device 13-3 based on the registered home consultant registration list 13-2. Thus, a series of flows shown in FIG. 9 occur, and the home counselor interacts with the inquirer via the telephone 14 connected thereto.

[0007]

In such a home consultation system, the level of the home consultant becomes a problem. When it is necessary to accurately understand the contents of consultations made by the inquirer and resolve the problem of the inquirer, but the impression and inconvenience of the inquirer may be adversely affected by the level of knowledge and experience of the home consultant There is. Another problem is how to determine the amount of remuneration for a plurality of home counselors. For example, if the home counselor uniformly determines the amount of compensation based on the number of consultations handled,
Since the home consultant seeks the number of cases, the quality of the response may be poor, and it may not be possible to give a good impression to the inquirer.

[0008] The present invention provides a home consultation system that can take into account not only the number of cases but also the quality of consultation support when determining the amount of compensation for a plurality of home consultants.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve this problem, the present invention relates to a connection status monitoring device for monitoring the connection status between a plurality of communication terminals of a home consultant and a communication terminal of an inquirer; The evaluation device unit automatically evaluates the consultation response level of the member, and the registration device unit stores the output of the evaluation device unit for each communication terminal of the home consultant.

[0010] Thus, by evaluating the counseling response of the home counselor and registering its level, it is possible to give fair evaluation and reward to a plurality of home counselors, and to provide telephone consultation to the inquirer. The response level is also improved.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is directed to a connection status monitoring device for monitoring the connection status between a communication terminal of a plurality of home counselors and a communication terminal of an inquirer; A home consultation system characterized by comprising an evaluation device unit for automatically evaluating a consultation response level of a member and a registration device unit for storing the output of the evaluation device unit for each communication terminal of the home consultant. Therefore, the home counselor can be imparted with a fair evaluation and reward, and the home counselor's response level can be improved.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the home consultation system according to the first aspect, the evaluation device section includes a consultation end detecting section for detecting whether or not the signal or the symbol is a predetermined end time of the consultation. A signal or a symbol indicating the quality of the predetermined response or an evaluation detection unit that detects whether or not the signal is a symbol, and when the consultation response is completed, a signal or a symbol indicating the consultation end from the communication terminal by the inquirer from the communication terminal, By transmitting a signal or a symbol indicating the quality of the response to the evaluation device unit, the consultation end detection unit detects the end of the consultation, and the evaluation detection unit detects the level of the quality of the consultation response of the home counselor. It is characterized by the fact that the inquirer can judge the quality of the counselor's consultation response and determine the evaluation of the in-home counselor with a simple operation by the inquirer. It is having an effect.

[0013] According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the home consultation system according to the second aspect, the communication terminal of the inquirer is a telephone, and the consultation end detecting unit detects the telephone consultation end with a predetermined push sound of the telephone. The evaluation detection unit detects whether or not the push sound of the telephone is a push sound indicating the quality of a predetermined consultation response, and when the telephone consultation ends. In the case of telephone consultation using a telephone, the inquirer presses a push button on the telephone to detect and determine the level of consultation response of the home consultant at the time of telephone consultation. By simply pressing the push button on the telephone, the inquirer can grasp the satisfaction level of the inquirer's telephone consultation and ensure the evaluation of the home consultant. To.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the home consultation system according to the second aspect, a consultation end detecting unit for detecting whether or not the push sound of the telephone is a predetermined push sound at the end of the telephone consultation; Completion of telephone consultation by an evaluation detecting unit including a voice dialogue unit composed of a voice synthesizer and a speech recognizer and an evaluation level determining unit for determining a level of correspondence based on a predetermined voice related to telephone consultation satisfaction. And continuously operate the voice dialogue unit and the evaluation level determination unit to determine the quality of the counselor's response at the time of telephone consultation. The expression has the effect that the operation of the telephone of the inquirer is simplified.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the at-home consultation system according to the second aspect, a consultation end detecting unit for recognizing only a predetermined voice related to the end of the telephone consultation and detecting the end of the telephone consultation, Termination of telephone consultation is completed by an evaluation detecting unit including a voice dialogue unit including a synthesizer and a speech recognizer, and an evaluation level determining unit that determines a level of correspondence based on a predetermined voice related to telephone consultation satisfaction. Detecting, and subsequently operating the voice dialogue unit and the evaluation level determination unit to determine the quality of the counselor's response at the time of telephone consultation. There is an effect that the satisfaction of the inquirer and the evaluation of the home counselor can be evaluated in a more natural manner.

Hereinafter, the home consultation system of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

(Embodiment 1) FIGS. 1 and 2 show a home consultation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of the system, and FIG. 2 shows a flow of operation. It is a flowchart. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a telephone of an inquirer, 2 denotes a telephone line network, 3 denotes a telephone consultation center, and 4 denotes a telephone of a home consultant. In addition, the reception support device 3-1 constituting the telephone consultation center 3, the home counselor registration list 3-2 in which home counselors are registered, and the transfer device 3-3 have the same contents or the same as those of the transfer device of the conventional example. It has an action. The connection state monitoring device 3-4 monitors the connection state between the telephone 1 of the inquirer and the telephone 4 of the home consultant, and performs processing of abnormal termination and interruption of telephone call upon termination of normal telephone consultation. Specifically, it has a function of applying to the telephone office so that the telephone consultation center 3, the telephone 1 of the inquirer, and the telephone 4 of the home consultant are connected at the same time. . Currently, in order to realize a function equivalent to a telephone conference service that allows simultaneous conversation with a plurality of telephones, the procedure is carried out with the central office. Also, it has a function of sending an abnormal termination notification signal 5 when the line is disconnected due to some abnormality before the output of the evaluation device unit 3-5 is stored in the registration device unit 3-6, The registration device section 3-6 stores the abnormal termination. In the case where the inquirer causes a problem in response to the counselor and unilaterally cuts off the telephone, the abnormal end is recorded in the registration device unit 3-6. further,
When the registration device unit 3-6 stores the output of the evaluation device unit 3-5, the line cutoff notification signal 6 from the registration device unit 3-6
It also has the function of interrupting the line. Evaluation unit 3-
5 further includes an end push sound detection unit 3-5-1 and an evaluation push sound detection unit 3-5-2. The evaluation push sound detector 3-5-2 is for detecting whether or not the sound is a sound, and detects whether or not the sound is a push sound indicating the quality of predetermined correspondence. The evaluation device unit 3-5 detects the satisfaction level of the inquirer and the evaluation result of the home counselor by using the end push sound detection unit 3-5-1 and the evaluation push sound detection unit 3-5-2. The registration device unit 3-6 stores the output value of the evaluation device unit 3-5.

The procedure of the home consultation system of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described below.
The inquirer uses the telephone 1 to call the telephone consultation center 3 through the telephone line network 2 and the home consultant interacts with the inquirer on the telephone 4 connected to the inquirer, so that the description is omitted since it is the same as the conventional example. When the telephone consultation is completed, the inquirer uses the telephone 1 to send a consultation end signal and an evaluation signal to the line. Specifically, by sending the end push sound and the evaluation push sound, the evaluation level is determined from the push sound. For example, the end push sound is generated when the existing telephone button “#” is turned on, and the evaluation push sound is the telephone button number “#”.
It is generated by turning on 0 ”,“ 1 ”to“ 9 ”, etc. The evaluation level is made into three levels,“ 1 ”of the numeric button is“ bad ”,“ 2 ”of the numeric button is“ normal ”, and the numeric button "3" is set to "good", and when the telephone consultation operation is completed, the home consultant requests the inquirer to perform satisfaction with a push button operation.

From this signal, the evaluation contents of the home consultant can be detected and registered in the registration device section 3-6. When the registration is completed, as described above, the line disconnection notification signal 6 is sent from the registration unit 3-6 to the connection state monitoring unit 3-4, the line is disconnected, and a series of telephone consultation processes is completed.
By doing so, the content of the evaluation can be known for each home consultant from the contents of the registration device unit 3-6, and can be used as data for determining the reward of the home consultant.

As described above, in this embodiment, when the telephone consultation is completed, the level of the level of the consultation response of the home consultant at the time of the telephone consultation is detected by the inquiry person pressing the push button of the telephone. Can be determined.
That is, in the case of a telephone consultation using a telephone, the satisfaction of the telephone consultation of the inquirer can be grasped only by the inquirer pressing the push button of the telephone, and the evaluation of the home counselor can be reliably performed.

(Embodiment 2) FIGS. 3 and 4 show a home consultation system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an overall configuration diagram of an evaluation device, and FIG. It is a flowchart which shows. The configuration other than the evaluation device is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the description is omitted.
In the figure, the evaluation device unit 7 includes an end push sound detection unit 7.
-1, an audio dialogue unit 7-2, and an evaluation level determination unit 7-3. The end push sound detecting unit 7-1 is the first
End push sound detector 3-5 described in the embodiment.
Acts the same as 1. FIG. 4 explains a series of flows, and explains from the end of the telephone consultation of FIG. 2 to the registration.

In response to a signal from the end push sound detector 7-1, the voice dialogue unit 7-2 and the evaluation level determination unit 7-3 start operating, and the voice dialogue unit 7-2 inquires of the degree of satisfaction of telephone consultation. A simple word of the respondent's answer is transmitted to the inquirer in a message format through a telephone line. The inquirer hears this message and answers the voice dialogue unit 7-2 in a predetermined language. The evaluation level determination unit 7-3 determines whether the result of the speech recognition from the voice interaction unit 7-2 is a word related to a predetermined evaluation level, and determines the evaluation level. For example, in advance,
The words "very good", "good", and "bad" are determined, and the words of this answer are recognized and set as the evaluation level.

In order to respond to the inquirer's answer such as "I think it was very good" to a more natural language, a recognition device including not only a simple word recognition but also a document recognition is provided to the evaluation level determination unit 7-3. We can cope by equipping.
Or, when the evaluation level determination unit 7-3 cannot determine,
The problem can be solved by providing a function of contacting the voice dialogue unit 7-2 and giving a message from the voice dialogue unit 7-2 to ask the inquirer to speak slowly.

As described above, since the degree of satisfaction of the telephone consultation is expressed by voice, the operation of the telephone of the inquirer is simplified.

In the above description, the speech dialogue unit 7-2
And the evaluation level determination unit 7-3, but the speech dialogue unit and the evaluation level determination unit may be integrally configured by a system such as speech synthesis, speech recognition, document recognition, and a knowledge database. .

(Embodiment 3) FIGS. 5 and 6 show a home consultation system according to a third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is an overall configuration diagram of an evaluation device unit, and FIG. It is a flowchart which shows. The configuration other than the evaluation device is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the description is omitted.
In the figure, the evaluation device unit 8 includes an end voice detection unit 8-1.
And a voice dialogue unit 8-2 and an evaluation level determination unit 8-3. The evaluation level determining unit 8-3 is equivalent to the evaluation level determining unit 7-3 of the second embodiment. In the case of the second embodiment, the voice interaction unit 7-2 and the evaluation level determination unit 7-3 start operating in response to a signal from the end push sound detection unit 7-1. In the case of this embodiment, The end sound detector 8-1 operates in the same manner as the end push sound detector 7-1 of the second embodiment. FIG. 6 illustrates a series of operations, similar to FIG. 4 of the second embodiment, from the end of the telephone consultation to the registration.

In the case of telephone consultation, the words to the inquirer at the end of the consultation are manualized. For example, "Did you understand the customer?" Or "Did you understand?" I do. " End voice detection unit 8-
1 detects these terminating words, and starts activation of the voice dialogue unit 8-2 and the evaluation level determination unit 8-3 as the end of the telephone consultation. Thus, after the dialogue between the home consultant and the inquirer at the time of telephone consultation, a conversation can be naturally connected to the voice dialogue unit 8-2 and the inquirer. After the fixed phrase, if the words "Please do not hang up the phone and leave it as it is. Return to the center once" are determined as the end detection voice, the end detection can be performed more reliably.

As described above, since the operation of the telephone of the inquirer is completely eliminated, the satisfaction of the inquirer and the evaluation of the home counselor can be evaluated in a more natural manner.

Incidentally, the end voice detecting section 8-1, the voice dialogue section 8
-2, the evaluation level determination unit 8-3 is integrally configured to more highly interact with the inquirer, detect the end of the telephone consultation, ask a question of the degree of satisfaction thereafter, and determine the evaluation level from further dialogue. A judgment system is also possible on these extensions.

Although the embodiment has been described with reference to a telephone consultation by voice, the present invention can be used also in a consultation system by a TV telephone or the like including a video, or can be expanded to a consultation system by text. For example, a special character may be assigned as a symbol indicating the end of the consultation and the evaluation level, or may be determined as a fixed phrase. The end push sound detection unit 3-5-1 and the evaluation push sound detection unit 3-5-2 in the first embodiment may be respectively assigned to characters as an end symbol detection unit and an evaluation symbol detection unit.
Further, the end voice detection unit 8-1 and the voice dialogue unit 8-2 of the third embodiment may be configured to detect a predetermined character string as an end character detection unit and a character dialogue unit. .

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, the degree of satisfaction felt by the inquirer at the time of telephone consultation and the evaluation of the at-home counselor can be automatically detected, the fairness of the evaluation to the at-home counselor, and An advantageous effect is obtained that leads to improvement of the quality of the home counselor.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a home consultation system according to a first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation flow of the home consultation system according to the first embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an evaluation device unit of the home consultation system according to the second embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation flow of the home consultation system according to the second embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of an evaluation device of a home consultation system according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation flow of the home consultation system according to the third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is an overall configuration diagram of a conventional home consultation system.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a device in a telephone consultation center of a conventional home consultation system.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation flow of a conventional home consultation system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Inquirer's telephone 2 Telephone line network 3 Telephone consultation center 3-1 Reception support device 3-2 At-home counselor registration list 3-3 Transfer device 3-4 Connection status monitoring device 3-5 Evaluation device 3-5 1 End Push Sound Detector 3-5-2 Evaluation Push Sound Detector 3-6 Registration Device 4 Telephone of Home Counselor 7 Evaluation Device 7-1 End Push Sound Detector 7-2 Voice Dialogue 7-3 Evaluation Level determination unit 8 Evaluation device unit 8-1 End voice detection unit 8-2 Voice dialogue unit 8-3 Evaluation level determination unit

Claims (5)

[Claims] A connection status monitoring device for monitoring a connection status between a communication terminal of a plurality of home consultants and a communication terminal of an inquirer; an evaluation device for automatically evaluating a consultation response level of the home consultant; A home consultation system comprising: a registration unit for storing the output of the evaluation unit for each communication terminal of the home consultant. 2. A consultation end detection unit for detecting whether or not a predetermined signal or symbol at the end of consultation is determined, and an evaluation unit for detecting whether or not a predetermined signal or symbol indicating the quality of the response. When the consultation response is completed, the inquirer sends a signal or symbol indicating the end of the consultation from the communication terminal and a signal or symbol indicating the quality of the response to the evaluation device unit when the consultation response is completed. 2. The home consultation system according to claim 1, wherein the consultation end detection unit detects the end of the consultation, and the evaluation detection unit detects the level of the consultation response of the home consultant. 3. The communication terminal of the inquirer is a telephone, the consultation end detection unit detects whether or not the push sound of the telephone is a predetermined push sound indicating the end of telephone consultation, and the evaluation detection unit is This function detects whether the push sound is a predetermined push sound that indicates the quality of the consultation service.When the telephone consultation is over, the inquirer presses the push button on the telephone, 3. The home consultation system according to claim 2, wherein the level of the quality of the consultation service of the home consultant is detected and determined. 4. A consultation end detecting unit for detecting whether or not a push sound of the telephone is a predetermined push sound indicating the end of a telephone consultation; a voice dialogue unit comprising a voice synthesizer and a voice recognizer; An evaluation level determination unit that determines a level of the response based on the voice regarding the telephone consultation response satisfaction level, detects the end of the telephone consultation, and subsequently activates the voice dialogue unit and the evaluation level determination unit. 3. The home consultation system according to claim 2, wherein the level of the consultation response of the home consultant at the time of telephone consultation is detected and determined. 5. A consultation end detection unit for recognizing only a predetermined voice regarding the end of a telephone consultation and detecting the end of the telephone consultation, a speech dialogue unit comprising a speech synthesizer and a speech recognizer,
An evaluation level determination unit including an evaluation level determination unit that determines a level of the response based on a voice regarding a predetermined telephone consultation response satisfaction level, detects the end of the telephone consultation, and continues the voice dialogue unit and the evaluation level determination unit 3. The home consultation system according to claim 2, wherein the system is operated to detect and determine the level of the counseling response of the home counselor at the time of telephone consultation.