JP2003281175A - Housing information providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a housing information providing system, enabling a person in charge to quickly respond to a customer's object inquiry by electronic mail, and present a suitable similar object satisfying the customer's desire. <P>SOLUTION: In retrieving WEB publicly traded object saved in an object database 20 of a server part 2, the customer can give priority to each retrieval item of a retrieval condition. When a request for description of either object found by the retrieval is transmitted to the server part 2, a notice is transmitted from the server part 2 to a terminal 4 of a person in charge of the object. The notice includes not only customer information and information on the inquired object, but also the result of retrieval for all objects, including WEB non-publicly traded objects, and retrieval condition (including the priority of retrieval items) set by the customer. The person in charge can quickly deal with the customer using the above information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for generally providing information on residential properties using a data communication network such as the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Today, the WWW (Wo
There are many housing information providing systems (hereinafter referred to as WEB systems) that use the rld Wide Web), and many of them accept inquiries about posted properties by e-mail. There is also a mail delivery service that provides customers who have registered desired conditions for properties in advance with information about the properties by e-mail each time a property matching the conditions comes out.

[0003]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the brokerage business of residential properties, it is difficult to complete the contract procedure online due to the nature of the property. For this reason, the business is still centered on store sales, and the WEB system is often introduced as a support means for promoting store promotion and improving the ability to attract customers. In addition, in order to register the handled property in the WEB system, it takes time and time to prepare the floor plan and the appearance image of the property and register it in the system. Therefore, it is often the case that only some of the properties are registered without registering all the properties in the WEB system. From the above,
The following problems have arisen in the operation of the WEB system.

(1) Even if an e-mail address for inquiring properties is prepared, it is not easy to promptly respond to inquiries by e-mail because business in the store is actually prioritized. . For this reason, there may be a situation where the property that was left at the time of the inquiry was already sold at the store when the inquiry was answered. And
If it becomes normal, it will damage the credibility of the customer with respect to the WEB system and the property providing store.

(2) If the inquired property has already been sold,
Alternatively, when the customer is not satisfied with the inquiry property, it is necessary to introduce a similar property to the customer. In such a case, the person in charge who usually deals with the customer will reconfirm the customer's desired conditions and search for all properties (including properties that are not disclosed on the WEB system) based on those conditions.
I do. However, from the customer's point of view, it is troublesome to explain the desired condition again even though the desired condition has been input during the search by the WEB system. Also, from the side of the person in charge, if all the properties are searched after listening to the customer's explanation, not only the search work will be troublesome, but also the customer will have to wait during the search, so smooth work I cannot hope to carry out. To solve this problem, a person in charge may estimate the customer's wishes based on the contents of the inquired property, search all properties in advance, and then contact the customer. However, in this case, if the estimation of the customer's wish is not appropriate, a property that does not meet the customer's wish will be presented as an alternative.

As described above, in the conventional housing information providing system, the characteristic of the Internet that the latest information can be obtained in real time has not been fully utilized.
The present invention, which was made to solve such a problem, enables a person in charge to promptly respond to a customer's property inquiry by e-mail or the like, and can present an appropriate similar property suited to the customer's request. To provide such a housing information provision system.

[0007]

A housing information providing system according to the present invention made to solve the above problems is a server unit which performs processing in response to a request sent from another terminal through a data communication network. In addition, the server unit stores information on housing properties, a property database in which at least some property information is open to customers on a data communication network, and search conditions for properties are set for each search item. A search screen forming data transmission unit for transmitting the data for forming the search screen for setting the customer including the priority on the customer terminal to the customer terminal, which was made public after receiving the search request from the customer A public property search unit that searches for candidate properties that satisfy the search conditions set by the customer among the properties and displays the information of the candidate property on the customer terminal. A request receiving unit for receiving a request for information provision regarding a selected specific property from a customer terminal through the data communication network, and when receiving the information provision request, all properties are searched by the search condition and the search condition is satisfied. All property search unit for extracting at least a part of properties as a group of similar properties, information on the specific property, information on each property included in the group of similar properties, and search conditions and each search set by the customer It is characterized by comprising a related information transmitting unit for transmitting information indicating the priority of the item as inquiry related information to a predetermined business operator terminal.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the housing information providing system according to the present invention, at least a part of the housing property information stored in the database is a customer (registered customer in the case of registration system, general consumer otherwise. Person) has been published. When the customer sends a search use request to the server section at his / her terminal, data or a program for forming a screen for allowing the customer to set the search condition on the customer terminal is sent from the server section to the customer terminal. For example, so-called WEB
The HTML document for displaying the input form for setting the search condition on the browser and the application program (so-called applet) for setting the search condition that operates on the WEB browser correspond to the above data or program.

The search screen formed on the customer terminal is provided with means for allowing the customer to set the priority of each search item of the search condition. The priority setting method is, for example, a method of setting the priority of search items, a mandatory item for each search item (an item that excludes all properties that do not meet the conditions of this item from candidates) or an optional item (this item It is not always necessary to satisfy the condition (1), but it is desirable to specify it as one of the items), or a method of assigning a value for weighting to each search item. The means for setting the priority in this way is, for example, various input elements (dropdown list, radio button,
It can be configured using a text box or the like).

When the customer sets the search condition and the priority of each search item on the search screen and sends the search request to the server unit,
The server unit searches the opened properties for candidate property (s) satisfying the search condition set by the customer, and displays the information of the candidate property on the customer terminal. In the search at this stage, it is not always necessary to consider the priority of each search item, but it goes without saying that the priority may be reflected in the search. For example, if there are no properties that satisfy all of the search conditions, or if the number of such properties is less than the specified number, exclude the search items with low priority from the search condition expression and use only other search items. The process of searching again may be repeated until a predetermined number or more of candidate properties are found. Further, for example, it is possible to rank each property based on which priority search item satisfies the condition and display the rank on the customer terminal.

The customer can select a desired property from the candidate properties displayed on the customer terminal as a specific property and send a request for providing information regarding the property to the server unit. The information provision here means, for example, the information is provided by a person in charge who directly explains the property by telephone or the like, or by sending materials related to the property by mail, fax, or e-mail to the customer. Means The request can be sent, for example, by entering the contact information (name, telephone number, etc.) in the customer information input form on the WEB page, or by sending an e-mail containing the contact information to the inquiry acceptance mail address. It is performed in the form of sending. Note that in the case of a registered customer, the customer identification information (customer ID, etc.) may be specified so that the contact information need not be input and transmitted.

Upon receipt of the information provision request, the server unit searches for all properties under the search conditions set by the customer. That is, W
When only some of the properties are disclosed to the customer in the EB system, the server unit searches for properties that are not disclosed to the customer. When all the properties are open to the customers in the WEB system, the result of the all property search is the same as the result obtained by the previous search by the WEB system, at least inside the server unit. At least some of the properties extracted by this all property search are selected as a group of similar properties. At this time, if the properties are evaluated based on the priority of the search item set by the customer and the properties are selected in descending order of evaluation, the property closer to the customer's wish can be selected preferentially.

After all properties are searched, the information of the specific property, the information of each property included in the similar property group, the search condition set by the customer, and the information indicating the priority of each search item, that is, the inquiry related information, is stored in the server unit. Sent to the sales terminal of the person in charge. Here, the person in charge is, for example, a person in charge of selling the relevant property, a person in charge of the corresponding customer on a daily basis, a person in charge of inquiring by e-mail, and the like. As for the inquiry related information, all the information may be transmitted to the terminal of the person in charge at one time, or may be divided into a plurality of pieces of information interconnected by a hyperlink or the like and transmitted.

As described above, in the housing information providing system according to the present invention, when the customer inquires about the property by e-mail or the like, the person in charge including the search condition set by the customer including the priority of each search item. Will be notified. By doing so, the person in charge can know the customer's request in advance before responding to the inquiring customer, and therefore can appropriately respond. In addition, not only information on the property selected by the customer but also information on similar properties is sent to the terminal of the person in charge, so the person in charge does not need to search all properties after receiving the notification, and the customer's response immediately. You can enter. Also, for example, if you use a mobile phone that has a mail sending and receiving function as the terminal of the person in charge and send a notification about the inquiry by e-mail, the notification will automatically reach the terminal of the person in charge. Does not need to voluntarily check for notification.

Further, in the system according to the present invention, it is possible to search for all properties including private properties by only opening some properties, so maintenance work for property disclosure (for example, WEB The cost of creating images and drawings for use) can be reduced, and public property information can be updated frequently.

In the system according to the present invention, when a business terminal equipped with a GPS receiver is used,
You may make it identify the present position of each business terminal using GPS, and may transmit the said inquiry relevant information to the business terminal nearest to the customer's address. In this way, for example, the person in charge first talks to the customer by telephone, and then immediately visits the customer if necessary, and can explain the property in more detail.

In addition, in the system according to the present invention, when a business terminal equipped with an image pickup means such as a camera is used, the server section includes an image storage section for storing an image of an article and a business terminal. An image management unit may be provided for receiving the property designation information and the image captured by the image capturing unit, and for storing the image in the image storage unit in association with the property designated by the property designation information.
By doing so, since the property image can be easily registered in the WEB system, many properties can be disclosed to the customer without trouble.

[0018]

EXAMPLE A house information providing system according to an example of the present invention will be described below.

1. Overall Configuration FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of the house information providing system of this embodiment. This system includes a server unit 2 which is a computer connected to the Internet 1. Server part 2
Performs processing according to requests sent from various terminals connected to the Internet 1. In FIG. 1, a customer terminal 3, a sales person's sales terminal 4 (hereinafter referred to as a person's terminal 4), a store terminal 5, and a headquarters terminal 6 are shown one by one, but in reality, all terminals are There can be multiple. Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of this system centering on the server unit 2 will be described in detail.

A predetermined server program is operating in the server unit 2, whereby the WEB server 10, the database management unit 12, the image management unit 14, the mail transmission / reception unit 1 are executed.
Functional units such as 6 are configured by software.
In addition, the server unit 2 includes a data storage unit 18 configured by a fixed magnetic disk or the like, and a database (hereinafter, appropriately abbreviated as “DB”) used by each functional unit and a WEB site 28 are provided therein. Software resources such as programs and data that configure the are stored.

FIG. 2 shows the schematic internal structure of the data storage unit 18. The property DB 20 is a database that stores basic information of each property. The “WEB disclosure presence / absence” field 201 of the property DB 20 is a flag indicating whether or not the property is disclosed to the customer on the WEB, and this flag is “present”.
The property set for is subject to the search performed by the customer. The “floor plan file” field 202, the “appearance image file” field 203, and the “interior image file” field 204 are information indicating the location of the floor plan file, the appearance image file, and the interior image file stored in the image storage unit 22 ( For example, the file name, the path to the file, etc.) are stored. The other fields correspond to basic information that is generally needed in the handling of residential properties.

The system of the present embodiment employs a membership system, and the customer DB 24 stores attribute information of registered customers. In addition, the person-in-charge DB 26 stores the attribute information of the person-in-charge who responds to customer inquiries about properties. Note that, in the person-in-charge DB 26, a full-time person for processing an inquiry (material request, explanation request) from a customer, which will be described later, may be selected and registered. Register the person in charge of the property as the person in charge of the property. By doing so, it becomes possible to promptly and accurately respond to the inquiry from the customer regarding the specific property.

The WEB site 28 stores software resources for forming an interface screen for using various functions of the server unit 2 on the terminal. In the system of the present embodiment, a so-called WEB browser (hereinafter referred to as a browser) is installed in each terminal, and this browser receives WEB contents such as programs or data from the WEB server 10 of the server unit 2 and analyzes the WEB contents.
The interface screen is formed on the terminal by performing the necessary processing. Examples of the WEB contents include HTML documents, images, scripts, plug-in data, Java (TM) applets, and the like.

2. FIG. 3 shows an example of the screen transition of the customer terminal in the search process of the WEB public property search. First, when the WEB page of a predetermined URL is opened using the browser of the customer terminal 3, the search condition setting screen (reference numeral 30) is displayed on the screen. On this screen, first, using the drop-down list group 301 on the left side of the screen, input desired conditions for the four items of railway line name, section within the route (station names at both ends), rent (lower limit and upper limit), and floor plan. Next, 4 drop-down list groups 3 on the right side of the screen
02, the priority of each item is set. When the "search execution" button 303 is pressed after the above operation is completed, the input information is transmitted to the server unit 2 together with the public property search request.

The server unit 2 that has received the public property search request
Then, the DB management unit 12 selects one of the properties registered in the property DB 20, which is disclosed on the WEB, that is, "WEB
A list of relevant properties is created by searching for properties whose value in the "Presence or absence" field is "Present" according to the search conditions set by the customer. This list is sent to the customer terminal 3 through the WEB server 10 and displayed as a candidate property list on the screen of the browser (reference numeral 32).

In the candidate property list 32, a part of the basic information of the candidate property is displayed. The “matching degree” shown in FIG. 3 is a value indicating how much the condition set by the customer is satisfied. For example, a property that satisfies all the conditions of the four items is “A”, and the priorities 1 to 3 are given. The property that satisfies only the rank condition is set in advance as “B”. Based on the information in the candidate property list 32, the customer examines the contents of each property, and when the property of interest is found, the customer presses the “detail” button 321 corresponding to that property. The property selected by the customer in this manner corresponds to the “specific property” of the present invention. When the “details” button 321 is pressed, the detailed information acquisition request is transmitted to the server unit 2 together with the identification information of the specific property.

In the server unit 2 that has received the detailed information acquisition request, the DB management unit 12 reads the information of the specific property indicated by the identification information from the property DB 20, and displays the H for browser display.
The TML document is dynamically generated and transmitted to the customer terminal 3 through the WEB server 10. In the customer terminal 3, the browser interprets the HTML document and displays a property detail screen such as 34. On the property detail screen 34, basic information 341 of the property, floor plan 342, appearance image 343, map 34
4, an inquiry destination 345, a “desired explanation” button 346, and a “material request” button 347 are displayed. When the “request explanation” button 346 is pressed on this screen 34, the server unit 2
A request for explanation is sent to.

3. When the server unit 2 receives the request for requesting explanation of all property search, it searches all properties under the search condition previously set by the customer and extracts a plurality of candidate properties. Here, if the number of properties that completely satisfy the search conditions does not reach the predetermined number, the process of excluding the search item with the lowest priority and performing an additional search is repeated until a predetermined number or more of properties are extracted. . The property group thus extracted corresponds to the “similar property group” of the present invention.

4. Notification to person in charge When extraction of similar property groups is completed, the person in charge of the specific property is identified by referring to the property DB 20 and the person in charge DB 26, and notification and inquiry related to the inquiry to the business terminal 4 of the person in charge. Send information. FIG. 4 shows an example of the screen transition of the person-in-charge terminal in the process of transmitting the notification and the related information to the person in charge. In this process, first, a simple message as indicated by reference numeral 40 (“the customer has inquired about your property”) is displayed on the screen of the person in charge 4 of the person in charge. A hyperlink to the authentication screen 41 is set in the character string “contents confirmation” below this message. The person in charge displays his own I
When D and the password are input and the "logon" button is pressed, the main screen as shown by reference numeral 42 is displayed.

On the main screen 42, the customer name (here, "Taro Suzuki") and the inquired property name (here, "Maison Kyoto No. 305") are displayed. A hyperlink to the property detailed information screen 43 is set in the character string “Property detailed information” below the property name. On the property detailed information screen 43, basic information (a part) of the inquiry property and the current status of the property are displayed. Below that are multiple strings "equipment",
Hyperlinks to the facility information screen, incidental condition screen, floor plan screen, appearance image screen, and map screen are set in the “incidental conditions”, “floor plan”, “appearance”, and “map” respectively (these are The screen is not shown). In this way, the person in charge can obtain detailed information about the inquired property from the property detailed information screen 43.

Further, in the character strings “similar property”, “customer desired condition” and “customer information” at the bottom of the main screen 42, a similar property list screen 44, a customer desired condition display screen 45 and a customer information display screen, respectively. A hyperlink to 46 is set. On the similar property list screen 44, a list of similar property groups previously extracted by the all property search is displayed. A hyperlink to the detailed information display screen of the corresponding property is set in the character string (consisting of the station name, floor plan and rent) indicating each property, and the detailed information display screen of each property is displayed through this link. be able to. The detailed information of each property is basically the detailed information screen 4
It is displayed in the same format as 3.

On the similar property list screen 44, WEB public property and WEB non-public property are displayed separately. "WE
The property in the “B public property” column has already been confirmed by the customer in the previous search (see screen 32 in FIG. 3). That is, the customer has evaluated the property (inquiry property) displayed on the main screen 42 higher than these properties.
Therefore, the person in charge can estimate which item the customer attaches importance to by comparing the inquiry property and the property in the “WEB public property” column. Further, the customer desired condition display screen 45 is displayed in the character string "customer desired condition" at the bottom of the screen.
A hyperlink to is set, and by displaying the customer desired condition display screen 45 through this link, the person in charge can know the priority of the search items set by the customer.

After sufficiently understanding the customer's wishes in advance from the above information, the person in charge displays the customer information display screen 46, calls the customer, and explains the property.
Further confirm the customer's wishes. Then, for example, when the property to be inquired already has a prior agreement and other properties must be recommended, or when it is found that the property that is more suitable for the customer than the property to be inquired is among the WEB private properties. , The person in charge can immediately recommend the property to the customer.

5. Material Request Processing When the “Material Request” button 347 is pressed on the property details screen 34 of FIG. 3, a material sending request is sent to the server unit 2. Upon receiving this request, the server unit 2 prints a manual of the inquired property, a similar property guide, a cover sheet (or address label) addressed to the customer with a printer (not shown), and a person in charge of the inquired property. A notification that the customer has requested the material is transmitted to the terminal 4. Further, when the customer owns a facsimile, the document may be sent directly to the customer by facsimile, and the person in charge of the property may be notified that the material has been sent to the customer by facsimile.

6. Selection of Person in Charge Using GPS In the above description, the inquiry contents and similar property information are transmitted to the actual person in charge of the property inquired by the customer, but this is not essential to the present invention. For example, if the person in charge 4 has a GPS receiver installed,
It is also possible to select the person in charge using the function. That is, when a request for explanation is received from the customer terminal 3, the server unit 2 first specifies the customer's address from the customer DB 24, then acquires the current position of each terminal 4 using GPS, and calculates the customer's address. The owner of the terminal 4 closest to is selected as the person in charge regarding this inquiry, and the inquiry contents, similar property information, etc. are transmitted to the terminal 4 of the person in charge. This makes it easy for the person in charge to visit the customer directly and give a detailed explanation.

7. Information Registration Support As shown in FIG. 2, in the system of this embodiment, the WEB
It is equipped with a WEB linked data management system including a server 10, a DB management unit 12, and an image management unit 14. Headquarters staff, store clerk or person in charge can use the browser of each terminal to access each database or image storage unit 22. Information and images can be registered. For example, in order to register a new property in the property DB 20, the property registration page prepared on the WEB site 28 is opened by a browser, basic property information is entered in the input form, and a transmission operation is executed. In the input form, it is possible to arbitrarily set / change whether or not the registered property is disclosed on the WEB.

To register an image, open the image registration page in the browser, specify the property for which the image is to be registered, and upload the image file prepared in advance to the storage device of the terminal. In particular, if you use a mobile phone with a built-in camera as the terminal 4 in charge, you can take a picture of the exterior and interior of the property
Images can be registered in the server unit 2 on the spot. The image is not limited to a still image, and may be a moving image. In addition, the server unit 2 has a function of automatically generating an animation image from a plurality of still images from a series of images that partially show the property.
May be provided. As described above, using a mobile phone with a built-in camera eliminates the troublesome work of taking a picture for WEB publication, converting the picture into a digital image, and registering the image in the server unit 2. But quickly WEB
You can publish it above. The person in charge may arbitrarily decide whether or not to actually open the property on the WEB,
The property whose image registration has been completed is considered to be ready for WEB disclosure, and the server unit 2 stores “WEB” in the property DB 20.
The "public" field may be automatically set to "present".

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, it goes without saying that the above embodiment is merely an example, and various other embodiments are possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a house information providing system that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration of a data storage unit.

FIG. 3 is an example of a screen transition of a customer terminal in a WEB public property search process.

FIG. 4 is an example of a screen transition of a person in charge in a process of transmitting a notification about a customer inquiry and related information to a person in charge of the property.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Internet 2 ... Server part 3 ... Customer terminal 4 ... Personnel in charge

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Hiromichi Kinoshita             3 Ryoanji Temple Kinugashita-cho, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto F term (reference) 5B075 ND02 PP13 PQ05 PR06 PR08

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A server unit for performing processing according to a request sent from another terminal through a data communication network, wherein the server unit stores information on residential properties, and at least a part of the properties is stored. Property database that information is open to customers on the data communication network, and data for forming a search screen on the customer terminal for allowing the customer to set property search conditions including the priority of each search item. Search screen forming data transmission unit for transmitting to the customer terminal, receiving a search request from the customer, searching for candidate properties that meet the search condition set by the customer from the published properties, and the information of the candidate property A public property search unit for displaying on the terminal, a request for providing information regarding a specific property selected by the customer from the candidate properties, and the data communication network from the customer terminal. Request reception unit for receiving all the properties, when receiving the information provision request, all properties for searching all properties with the search condition and extracting at least a part of properties satisfying the search condition as a group of similar properties The search section, information on the specific property, information on each property included in the similar property group, and information indicating the search condition set by the customer and the priority of each search item are provided as inquiry related information to the person in charge. A housing information providing system, comprising: a related information transmitting unit for transmitting to a business terminal. 2. The business terminal comprises a GPS receiver,
The server unit 2 identifies the current position of each business terminal using GPS and transmits the inquiry-related information to the business terminal closest to the customer's address. Housing information provision system described in. 3. The business terminal is provided with an image pickup means, and the server section is an image storage section for storing an image of a property, and the property designation information from the business terminal and the image taken by the image pickup means. The housing information provision according to claim 1, further comprising: an image management unit configured to receive the generated image, store the image in the image storage unit in association with the property designated by the property designation information. system.