JP2012098900A - Inquiry correspondence device, program and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inquiry correspondence device capable of notifying a user of an estimated value of a completion waiting time for obtaining a response.SOLUTION: An inquiry correspondence device includes inquiry processing means for: extracting a task ID (inquiry task ID) necessary for replying to an inquiry, from the inquiry inputted from a user terminal in a time order of the inputs; acquiring time required for executing a task that has the same ID as the inquiry task ID (correspondence time) from an inquiry history storage unit that stores correspondence time for every task ID; adding correspondence time of the latest inputted inquiry of the inquiries (new inquiry) and start waiting time that is calculated from correspondence time of other inquiries; and transmitting the time to the user terminal from which the new inquiry is made.

Description

  The present invention relates to an inquiry handling apparatus, a program, and a method.

  In the business of responding to inquiries from customers, it is important to respond to inquiries, complaints, and requests from customers in industries that provide products and services, and prompt responses are required. Therefore, there are many companies that configure and operate organizations that accept inquiries from customers. However, as the number of inquiries and the number of responders to the inquiries increase, it is difficult to manage who should be responsible for which inquiries and when the inquiries should be answered. It led to what I said. For this reason, in recent years, it has become possible to collectively manage queries by constructing a server that records all query contents.

  When responding to an inquiry, it is necessary to determine who needs to respond to an inquiry from which customer, and what kind of response must be performed by when. If it is not automated by the system, the administrator or the responder himself makes these decisions and takes action. The selection of responders to inquiries and the selection of response methods can be automated by previous inventions, but it is based on the personal judgment of when and in what priority order responses need to be performed. There is a need.

  If the response deadline or priority order is incorrect, customer satisfaction may be reduced, and personal judgment is included in the response flow. It will lead to an increase. Even if the responders are automatically assigned, if the number of inquiries per responder is large, it is difficult to answer all inquiries quickly, and this may cause an irritating mistake.

  Although it is ideal to answer all inquiries quickly, the answer time actually varies from inquiry to inquiry. In order to maintain and improve customer satisfaction, it is necessary to make an optimal answer to each inquiry in a short time. Even if it is not possible to answer in a short time, it is beneficial for the customer that the service provider informs the customer about when the answer can be obtained. Therefore, the inquiry response device is required to inform the customer of the waiting time as accurate as possible.

An example of the inquiry management method so far is described in Patent Document 1. This method responds to the questioner according to the following procedure.
1. An inquiry is sent from the questioner.
2. The query server receives the query.
3. The query server classifies the query and records it in the query database.
4). Request answers from respondents who can answer the earliest among multiple respondents and have a short cumulative answer time.
5. As a primary answer to the questioner, the inquiry server transmits a standard answer and a scheduled answer time.
6). If there is an answer from the respondent, the answer is returned to the questioner.

An example of the automation of query response is described in Patent Document 2. This method answers in the following procedure.
1. When the inquiry from the customer is received, the customer contract information is displayed on the screen of the terminal used by the operator.
2. The contents of the contract are confirmed when the inquiry is received, and a contract extension proposal is made if the contract is not handled.
3. If a trouble with the same product occurs multiple times, a warning email is sent to the administrator to encourage consideration of improvement.
4). If the inquiry cannot be resolved, the product provider is searched and displayed on the screen to guide the user to the correct escalation destination.
Patent Document 3 discloses that an average response time is calculated for each response content item.

JP-A-2005-84739 JP 2003-134239 A JP2009-3024A

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is to obtain an inquiry response device capable of notifying a customer of a predicted value of a waiting time until an answer is obtained.

  Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 discloses a method that enables selecting responders who can answer automatically and requesting answers. However, this method does not automate the setting of the response time for each customer and the setting of the priority order for the inquiry for each responder. Therefore, even with this method, the customer cannot predict the waiting time.

  Patent Document 2 is a method that enables the display of customer information and escalation destinations on a terminal, and confirmation / judgment of contract information. However, Patent Document 2 does not mention a technique for managing inquiry response time. Thus, with the method disclosed herein, the customer cannot predict latency.

  Patent Document 3 is a method that enables the customer to know the average response time. However, the average response time is not the waiting time itself. Thus, with the method disclosed herein, the customer cannot predict latency.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problem and to obtain an inquiry response device capable of notifying a customer of a predicted waiting time until an answer is obtained.

According to the present invention, IDs of tasks (inquiry task IDs) necessary for answering the inquiry are extracted from the inquiry input from the user terminal in the order of the input times, and the same ID as the inquiry task ID is extracted. The time required for executing the task (response time) is acquired from the query history storage unit that stores the response time for each task ID, and the response time of the most recently entered query (new query) among the queries, In addition, an inquiry response device having inquiry processing means for transmitting to the user terminal that has made the new inquiry by adding the start waiting time calculated from the response time of other inquiries is obtained.

  According to the present invention, IDs of tasks (inquiry task IDs) necessary for answering the inquiry are extracted from the inquiry input from the user terminal in the order of the input times, and the same ID as the inquiry task ID is extracted. The time required for executing the task (response time) is acquired from the query history storage unit that stores the response time for each task ID, and the response time of the most recently entered query (new query) among the queries, In addition, an inquiry response program that causes the computer to execute an inquiry process to be transmitted to the user terminal that has made the new inquiry is obtained by adding the start waiting time calculated from the response time of other inquiries.

  According to the present invention, IDs of tasks (inquiry task IDs) necessary for answering the inquiry are extracted from the inquiry input from the user terminal in the order of the input times, and the same ID as the inquiry task ID is extracted. The time required for execution of the task (response time) is acquired from the query history storage unit that stores the response time for each task ID, and the response time of the most recently entered query (new query) among the queries, In addition, an inquiry response method is obtained in which the start waiting time calculated from the response time of other inquiries is added and transmitted to the user terminal that made the new inquiry.

  An effect of the present invention is that an inquiry response device capable of notifying a customer of a predicted waiting time until an answer can be obtained is obtained.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of an inquiry handling apparatus according to the first embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram illustrating processing upon reception of an inquiry according to the first embodiment of this invention. FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram showing processing at the time of query information update according to the first embodiment of this invention. FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating processing at the time of input reception according to the first embodiment of this invention. FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram illustrating an operation of customer information according to the first embodiment of this invention. FIG. 6 shows the response time obtained from the inquiry history according to the present invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the progress status of an inquiry according to the present invention. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the process from search for corresponding time to transmission according to the first embodiment of this invention. FIG. 10 is a flowchart of priority order determination according to the first embodiment of this invention. FIG. 11 is a flowchart of priority order determination according to the first embodiment of this invention.

(First embodiment)
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention comprises a server-client system. The inquiry handling apparatus 100 corresponding to a server includes an inquiry reception unit 111, an inquiry processing unit 112, an inquiry analysis unit 113, and a customer management unit 114.

  When receiving the inquiry, the inquiry receiving unit 111 extracts contact information from the data of the inquiry. Subsequently, the inquiry receiving unit 111 refers to the corresponding data in the customer management database 121 based on the contact information, and sends the inquiry information to the inquiry processing unit 112.

  The inquiry processing unit 112 records inquiry information and sends inquiry information to the client devices 200 and 300 based on the inquiry information.

  The query analysis unit 113 calculates the response time and priority of the query based on the past query information. The response time means the time required from the start of a task required for answering the inquiry to the end thereof. In this embodiment, the remaining corresponding time is defined together with the corresponding time. The remaining response time is obtained by subtracting the task execution time from the response time. In the case of an in-process item, which will be described later, the remaining response time is obtained by subtracting the in-process time from the response time. Also, in the case of new inquiries to be described later and inquiries not yet started such as acceptance inquiries, the task execution time is zero, so the remaining response time is the response time itself.

  The customer management unit 114 operates customer data based on a request from a user.

The customer management database 121 stores customer contact information and information on responders in charge of customer inquiries.
The person-in-charge management database 122 stores information on responders, information on inquiries accepted by the responders, and information on terminals used by the responders.

  The query management database 123 stores information related to queries, such as a history of response times for each query. The query management database is also called a query management DB and a query history storage unit.

  The client devices 200 and 300 include inquiry processing units 211 and 311, screen display units 212 and 312, and input units 213 and 313. Hereinafter, the client device 200 will be described.

  The inquiry processing unit 211 transmits / receives inquiry information to / from the inquiry handling apparatus 100.

  The screen display unit 212 displays inquiry information on the screen of the client device 200.

  The input unit 213 receives an input from a user who is mainly a responder of the inquiry and sends it to the inquiry processing unit 211. The client device 300 differs from the client device 200 in that the user is an administrator, but the above functions are not different from the client device 200.

  The responder is a person who handles an inquiry using the client device 200, and the administrator is a person who uses the client device 300 to grasp the inquiry response status and manage customer data. Although this embodiment is an example in which two client devices, one responder, and one administrator are used, the number of client devices, the number of responders, and the number of managers are not particularly limited.

  The inquiry receiving unit 111, inquiry processing units 112, 211, 311, inquiry analysis unit 113, customer management unit 114, screen display units 212, 312, input units 213, 313 are realized by hardware configured with logic circuits and the like. Also good. Further, these may be realized by a processor (not shown) executing a program stored in a memory (not shown).

  The operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 shows an operation flow when receiving an inquiry. When the inquiry receiving unit 111 receives a new inquiry from a customer via a customer terminal (also referred to as a user terminal) (A1 in FIG. 2), the inquiry receiving unit 111 refers to the customer management database 121 and checks the contact source of the inquiry source. (A2 in FIG. 2). Subsequently, the inquiry receiving unit 111 determines whether or not this customer is a contract customer (A3 in FIG. 2). If the customer is not a contract customer, the inquiry is not advanced to the previous process and the process ends. (A4 in FIG. 2). If the inquiry is from a contract customer, the inquiry receiving unit 111 transfers the received inquiry information to the inquiry processing unit 112 (A5 in FIG. 2). In this embodiment, the inquiry means from the customer is an e-mail. The inquiry receiving unit 111 has a mechanism for extracting an e-mail address when receiving an inquiry by e-mail. The specific mechanism is not mentioned in the present invention.

  When the inquiry processing unit 112 receives the inquiry information, the inquiry processing unit 112 transmits a response time calculation request to the inquiry analysis unit 113 (A6 in FIG. 2). When the query analysis unit 113 receives the request from the query processing unit 112, the query analysis unit 113 refers to the query management database 123 (A7 in FIG. 2), and calculates the response time predicted to be required for the customer's request from the past query data. (A8 in FIG. 2). A history of past inquiry data is stored in the inquiry management database 123. At this time, the query analysis unit 113 extracts a task that needs to be handled from each query, and retrieves and obtains the corresponding time of the task from the query management database 123 using the task ID assigned to the task as a key. . The query analysis unit 113 transfers the calculation result of the corresponding time to the query processing unit 112 (A9 in FIG. 2). Here, it is assumed that the task ID is included as part of the text in the inquiry e-mail.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing from A7 to A9. The query analysis unit 113 searches the corresponding time t from the query management database 123 using the task ID as a key (9-1). The query analysis unit 113 determines whether the retrieved corresponding times t are plural or singular (9-2), and if there are plural (YES), the query analyzing unit 113 determines the average value tA of the corresponding times. Is calculated (9-3). Here, tA is the sum of the corresponding times divided by the number of extracted corresponding times.

The query analysis unit 113 sets the corresponding time as tA (9-5), and sends the value of tA to the query processing unit 112 as the new query corresponding time Tnew (9-6).
When the inquiry analysis unit 113 determines that it is singular in 9-2 (NO), the inquiry analysis unit 113 sends the extracted corresponding time as the corresponding time Tnew to the inquiry processing unit 112 (9-6).

  FIG. 6A is an example of the query management database 123. The query analysis unit 113 searches the history database for the corresponding time of the same task ID, and sends the corresponding corresponding time to the query processing unit 112. When there are a plurality of histories with the same task ID (9-2, YES), the inquiry analysis unit 113 obtains an average corresponding time (9-3) as shown in FIG. The data is sent to the processing unit 112.

  The inquiry processing unit 112 then refers to the person-in-charge management database 122 and confirms the corresponding person information (A10 in FIG. 2). Subsequently, the number of inquiries currently handled by the corresponding person is acquired, and it is determined whether or not the number is plural (A11 in FIG. 2). When the responder has already received one or more queries, the query processing unit 112 compares the new query with the query that has already been received, and determines the priority of correspondence (A12 in FIG. 2). Note that if there is no query corresponding to the responder other than the new query, the query processing unit 112 does not execute the above-described priority determination process (A12). In this case, the responder responds to the new inquiry with the second highest priority after finishing the current work in progress.

  Further, when there are a plurality of responders, the inquiry processing unit 112 selects responders with a small number of received queries as responders. When there are a plurality of responders with the same number of received queries, the query processing unit 112 randomly selects responders.

  Thereafter, the query processing unit 112 adds a new query and its corresponding person to the query management database 123, and updates the query management database 123 (A13 in FIG. 2).

  After that, the inquiry processing unit 112 refers to the person-in-charge management database 122, acquires information on the client device 200 used by the person in charge of the inquiry (also called a person in charge), and transmits the inquiry information to the client device 200. (A14 in FIG. 2). At the same time, the inquiry processing unit 112 transmits to the customer terminal that the inquiry has been accepted, and notifies the response time predicted from the priority order (A16 in FIG. 2).

  When the inquiry processing unit 211 of the client device 200 receives the inquiry information from the inquiry corresponding device 100, the inquiry processing unit 211 shapes the inquiry information display screen and requests the screen display unit 212 to perform display processing.

  The shaped query information display screen displays the queries in order from the highest priority query. This display makes it easy for the responder to understand which inquiry should be handled. The screen display unit 212 outputs the transmitted screen data to a display (not shown), and displays the inquiry information to the corresponding person (A15 in FIG. 2). With such a form, the responder can respond to the inquiry while being aware of the target response time set for each customer.

The following is a detailed description of the priority order setting. The inquiry processing unit 112 sets priorities based on a certain policy. In this embodiment, as an example, the priority order is determined under the following policies (1) to (3).
(1) The inquiry handling apparatus 100 completes the handling of any inquiry within a predetermined time limit. Here, an inquiry that has not been started when the response time is reached and the time limit is reached after the response time has elapsed is referred to as a stay inquiry.
(2) The inquiry handling apparatus 100 gives the highest priority to an inquiry whose response is completed earlier when (1) is satisfied, that is, an inquiry with a short response time.
(3) When there is a query in progress, the query handling apparatus 100 gives the highest priority to the query in progress.

  Based on the above policy, the query processing unit 112 accesses the person-in-charge management database 122 based on the information on the response time received from the query analysis unit 113, and makes a plurality of queries accepted by the responder. Determine the priority of the response. In the following, a new query or a query other than a stay query may be abbreviated as an unstarted query and an in-progress query as an in-process query. In the following, a query already accepted may be abbreviated as a reception query.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of processing for determining the priority order based on the above policy and calculating the completion waiting time. Here, the completion waiting time means a waiting time until the customer obtains an answer. FIG. 10 is a continuation of (A) of the flowchart of FIG. In this example, since the response time Tnew for a new case has already been determined, the description up to (A) is omitted. The inquiry processing unit 112 selects the responder P having the smallest number of received inquiries from the person-in-charge management DB (10-1). Subsequently, the inquiry processing unit 112 determines whether or not the responder P has a stay inquiry (10-2). Here, the response time of the stay inquiry is expressed as Td.
When the responder P holds the stay query (YES), the query processing unit 112 determines whether or not the number of received queries already held by the responder P is more than one (10-3), If there are many, it is determined whether or not there is an in-process inquiry (10-5). Here, the response time of the in-process inquiry is Ts, and the in-process elapsed time is Tp.

  When there is an in-process inquiry (YES), the inquiry processing unit 112 calculates the residual response time Tr required for the in-process inquiry by subtracting Tp from Ts and sets it as the in-process inquiry residual response time Tr (10-6). Next, the inquiry processing unit 112 determines whether or not the response time Tnew of the new inquiry is the minimum compared to the response time of the reception inquiry other than the in-process inquiry (10-7).

  When Tnew is the minimum (YES), the inquiry processing unit 112 sets the sum of the stay query response time Td, the in-process query remaining response time Tr, and the new query response time Tnew as a completion wait time (10-8) The message data is sent to the customer terminal that sent the inquiry. In this case, the priority of the response to the new query is the third highest following the stay query and the in-process query.

  When Tnew is not the minimum at 10-7 (NO), the inquiry processing unit 112 adds Td, Tr, Tnew, and the sum Σti of the corresponding response time shorter than Tnew among the unstarted queries other than the stay query Is sent to the customer terminal that sent the new inquiry as the completion waiting time (10-9). In this case, the priority of correspondence of the new inquiry is the fourth or lower.

  In 10-5, when there is no in-process inquiry (NO), the inquiry processing unit 112 determines whether or not the response time Tnew of the new inquiry is minimum as compared with other already accepted queries (10-110). . When Tnew is the minimum, the inquiry processing unit 112 sets the sum of the stay inquiry response time Td and the new inquiry response time Tnew as a completion waiting time (10-11), and transmits it to the customer terminal that has transmitted the new inquiry. In this case, the priority for responding to a new inquiry is the second highest following the staying case.

  When Tnew is not the minimum at 10-10, the query processing unit 112 adds the total of the response times shorter than Tnew and Tnew among Td and unstarted queries other than the stay query as a completion waiting time ( 10-12), to the customer terminal that sent the new inquiry. In this case, the priority order for handling a new inquiry is the third or lower.

  In 10-3, when the number of inquiries received by the responder P is 1 or less (NO), the inquiries received by the responder P are only one staying case. In this case, the sum of Td and Tnew is set as a waiting time for completion (10-4), and the new inquiry is transmitted to the customer terminal. In this case, the priority of correspondence of the new inquiry is the second highest following the staying inquiry.

  The case where there is no stay inquiry in 10-2 (NO) will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  The inquiry processing unit 112 determines whether or not the number of received inquiries of the correspondent P is greater than 1 based on the person-in-charge management DB (11-1). When the number of accepted queries of the responder P is not more than 1 (NO), that is, when only one query is accepted or there is no accepted query, the query processing unit 112 receives the accepted query. It is determined whether there is an in-process inquiry (11-2).

  When there is no in-process inquiry (NO), the inquiry processing unit 112 determines whether or not the response time of the inquiry accepted by Tnew is the minimum (11-3). When Tnew is the minimum (YES), the inquiry processing unit 112 transmits the completion waiting time to the customer terminal as Tnew (11-4). In this case, the priority for handling a new query is the first. When Tnew is not the minimum (NO), the inquiry processing unit 112 transmits the completion waiting time to the customer terminal as the sum (11-5) of the response time Ti and Tnew of the originally accepted inquiry. In this case, the priority of correspondence of the new inquiry is second.

  If there is an in-process inquiry in 11-2 (YES), the inquiry processing unit 112 determines the remaining response time required for the in-process inquiry and the in-process inquiry remaining response time Tr from the original response time Ts of the in-process inquiry. Obtained by subtracting the time Tp (11-6). The inquiry processing unit 112 transmits the completion waiting time to the customer terminal as the sum of Tr and Tnew (11-7). In this case, the priority of the response to the new query is the second highest after the response to the in-process query is completed.

  When it is determined in 11-1 that there are two or more received queries from the responder P (YES), the query processing unit 112 determines whether there is an in-process query (11-8). When there is an in-process query (YES), the query processing unit 112 subtracts the remaining in-process time and in-process query remaining response time Tr required for the in-process query from the original response time Ts of the in-process query. (11-9). Subsequently, the inquiry processing unit 112 determines whether or not the response time Tnew of the new case acquired from the inquiry analysis unit 113 is the minimum of the response times of unacknowledged queries that have been accepted (11-10).

  When it is the minimum (YES), the inquiry processing unit 112 transmits the completion waiting time to the customer terminal as the sum of Tr and Tnew (11-7). In this case, the priority of the response to the new query is the second highest after the response to the in-process query is completed. When Tnew is not the minimum (NO), the inquiry processing unit 112 sets the completion waiting time as Tr, the sum (Σ-11) of the total time Σti of the response times of unstarted queries that have already been received (11-11). Send to customer terminal. In this case, since the priority of the new query is after the query originally accepted after the response to the in-process query is completed, it becomes the third or lower.

  In 11-8, when there is no in-process inquiry (NO), the inquiry processing unit 112 determines whether or not the response time Tnew of the new case acquired from the inquiry analysis unit 113 is the smallest among the response times of unstarted queries that have already been accepted. (11-12). When Tnew is the minimum (YES), the inquiry processing unit 112 transmits the completion waiting time to the customer terminal as Tnew (11-4). In this case, the priority for handling a new query is the first. When Tnew is not the minimum (NO), the inquiry processing unit 112 transmits the completion waiting time to the customer terminal as the sum of the response times of the unstarted queries that have already been accepted ΣTi and the sum of Tnew (11-13). To do. In this case, the priority of the response to the new inquiry is the second response or lower because it corresponds to the next response of the inquiry with the response time shorter than the response time of the new inquiry among the cases that were originally accepted.

  Next, an example of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a part of the person-in-charge management database 122, and shows a result of searching for the progress of the inquiry correspondence using the name of the responder as a key. A, B, C, D, and Z are task IDs of tasks necessary for corresponding to the query extracted from each query, and are the same as those shown in FIG. Hereinafter, in the present embodiment, a plurality of queries are distinguished from each other by the name of query A, query B, query C, and query D to which each task ID is attached. In the present embodiment, a code “new” is attached to an inquiry immediately after being received from a customer terminal.

  In FIG. 7, the “response status” indicates whether the inquiry is in progress or not yet started. Hereinafter, an in-progress query may be abbreviated as an in-process query, and an unstarted query may be abbreviated as an unstarted query. “Correspondence time” is a value (value shown in FIG. 6B) received from the query analysis unit 113 stored in the person-in-charge management database 122. “Residence time” is the elapsed time since the completion waiting time notification (A 16 in FIG. 2) is sent to the customer terminal, and is sometimes referred to as “completion waiting time” by the customer side. In this example, the time limit is set to 24 hours, and the result obtained by adding the corresponding time to the residence time is 24 hours as the residence inquiry. In the present embodiment, a code “stay” is added to the stay query. The “priority order” is a result of the priority order determined by the inquiry processing unit 112 based on the above policy.

  Since the responder of a does not hold the stay inquiry (to FIG. 10 10-2 NO (B)), the policy of (1) is satisfied. The responder accepts a plurality of inquiries (11-1 YES in FIG. 11) and also has an in-process inquiry (11-8 YES in FIG. 11). The remaining response time Tr of the query Z, which is an in-process query, is 5 min by subtracting the elapsed time (in-process elapsed time) 5 min from the response time (in-process query response time) 10 min (minute) (11- in FIG. 11). 9). The response time Tnew of the new query D is longer than the response times of the unstarted queries A and B already accepted by the responder, and is not the smallest among the queries accepted by the responder (FIG. 11). 11-10, NO). In this case, based on the policies (2) and (3), the priority of the inquiry D is set to the fourth lowest position. The completion waiting time is the in-process inquiry remaining time of 5 minutes (FIG. 11 Tr), the response time of the higher priority inquiry 65 minutes (FIG. 11 11-11 Σti inquiry A5 minutes + inquiry B 60 minutes), and the correspondence of inquiry D The sum of the time of 300 minutes (FIG. 11 11-11 Tnew) is 370 minutes (11-11 in FIG. 11).

  The inquiry processing unit 112 transmits message data such as “I will reply to the target within 370 minutes of completion waiting time” to the customer terminal that has transmitted the inquiry D.

Since the responder of b does not have a stay inquiry (to 10-2 NO (B) in FIG. 10), the policy of (1) is satisfied. This responder also receives a plurality of inquiries (11-1 YES in FIG. 11), but does not have an in-process inquiry (11-8 NO in FIG. 11). The response time Tnew of the new query C is 1 minute, which is shorter than the response time of the unstarted queries A and B already accepted by the responder, and is the shortest among the queries accepted by the responder. (FIG. 11 11-12, YES). In this case, based on the policy (2), the priority of the inquiry C is set to the first. The completion waiting time is 1 minute equal to the corresponding time Tnew of inquiry C (11-4).
To the customer terminal that sent the inquiry C, the inquiry processing unit 112 sends message data such as “I will answer the goal within 1 minute of the completion waiting time”.

The responder of c holds the query B as a stay query (10-2 YES in FIG. 10) and accepts a plurality of queries (10-3 YES in FIG. 10). No (10-5 NO in FIG. 10). The response time Tnew of the new query C is 1 minute, which is shorter than the response time of the unstarted queries A and B already accepted by the responder, and is the shortest among the queries accepted by the responder. (FIG. 10 10-11, YES). In this case, based on the policies (1) and (2), the priority of the inquiry C is set to the second place following the staying inquiry B. The completion waiting time is 61 minutes, which is the sum of the response time of the inquiry C of 1 minute and the response time of the residence inquiry B of 60 minutes (FIG. 10 10-8). The inquiry processing unit 112 transmits message data such as “I will answer the goal for a little more than 1 hour of completion waiting time” to the customer terminal that has transmitted the inquiry C.
In the above example, the time other than the response time (Tnew) for the new inquiry in the completion waiting time is called the start waiting time.

  The language of the message is not particularly limited. The predicted value of the completion waiting time may include an appropriate margin so that the responder does not have difficulty.

  In addition, it is not always necessary to determine the stay inquiry so that the sum of the corresponding time and the stay time becomes the time limit as in the above embodiment. The method for determining the staying inquiry may be such that the staying time is determined so that the sum of the corresponding time and the staying time is less than the limit time, and the responder can respond with a margin.

  The policy is stored in a memory (not shown) in the inquiry handling apparatus 100 of FIG. 1, and the inquiry processing unit 112 determines the priority order in compliance with the set policy by accessing this memory. It can be performed.

  3 and 4 show an operation flow at the time of inquiry response. FIG. 3 shows processing at the time of information update. The inquiry processing unit 211 of the client device 200 periodically confirms update of inquiry information to the inquiry corresponding device 100. The inquiry processing unit 211 of the client device 200 transmits an inquiry information acquisition request to the inquiry handling device 100 (A21 in FIG. 3). When receiving the request, the inquiry processing unit 112 of the inquiry handling apparatus 100 acquires the inquiry information accepted by the corresponding person from the inquiry management database 123 and transmits it to the client apparatus 200 (A22 in FIG. 3). The inquiry processing unit 112 of the client device 200 sends the inquiry information received from the inquiry handling device 100 to the screen display unit 212 as a screen update request (A23 in FIG. 3). The screen display unit 212 updates a screen (not shown) with this information (A24 in FIG. 3).

  FIG. 4 shows processing at the time of accepting input to the client device 200. An operation input by the user of the client device 200 mainly corresponding to the inquiry is received by the input unit 213 (A31 in FIG. 4), and the inquiry is handled via the inquiry processing unit 211 (A32 in FIG. 4). It is transmitted to the apparatus 100 (A33 in FIG. 4). The inquiry processing unit 112 of the inquiry handling apparatus 100 updates the inquiry management database 123 according to the input content (A34 in FIG. 4). The updated inquiry information is transmitted to the inquiry processing unit 211 of the client device 200 (A35 in FIG. 4). The inquiry processing unit 211 makes a screen update request to the screen display unit 212 (A36). The screen display unit 212 displays the updated screen image on a screen (not shown) (A37).

  For example, when a responder who is a user of the client device 200 performs a query completion process, the content of the completion process is transmitted to the query processing unit 112 of the query handling apparatus 100, and the query processing unit 112 receives the query management database 123. Update the inquiry information. The inquiry processing unit 112 records the response time for the completed inquiry. When the updated inquiry information is transmitted to the inquiry processing unit 211 of the client device 200, the inquiry processing unit 211 performs a process of not displaying the inquiry in which the corresponding time is recorded, so that the completed inquiry is displayed on the screen of the client device 200. It is not displayed on the display unit 212.

  FIG. 5 shows an operation flow at the time of customer data management. When a user of the client device 300, mainly an administrator, inputs a customer information operation request to the client device 300, the input unit 313 receives the request (A41 in FIG. 5). The input unit 313 sends this to the inquiry processing unit 311. The inquiry processing unit 311 transmits a customer information operation request to the customer management unit 114 (A42 in FIG. 5). The customer management unit 114 checks the authority of the user (A43 in FIG. 5), and determines whether or not the client device 300 that transmitted the customer information operation request is an administrator device (A44 in FIG. 5). As a general rule, only the administrator can operate customer information.

  When a user who is not an administrator has issued a customer information operation request, the customer management unit 114 issues an error notification (A45 in FIG. 5), and the process ends (A46 in FIG. 5). When the administrator issues an operation request, the customer management unit 114 transmits an image of the operation screen to the client device 300 (A47 in FIG. 5). Upon receiving the operation screen, the input unit 313 of the client device 300 sends it to the screen display unit 312 and the screen display unit 312 displays it on a screen (not shown). The administrator inputs information on this screen, and the input unit 313 of the client device 300 receives the information (A48 in FIG. 5). The input unit 313 sends this information to the inquiry processing unit 311 and the inquiry processing unit 311 transmits the information to the customer management unit 114 (A49 in FIG. 5). Upon receiving this information, the customer management unit 114 updates the customer management database 121 (A50 in FIG. 5).

  The policy is not limited to (1) to (3) described above. An administrator or the like can freely determine according to the usage mode of the inquiry handling apparatus 100. For example, this example gives priority to in-progress queries, but the query processing unit 112 does not necessarily need to prioritize in-progress queries. The inquiry processing unit 112 may consider the time required to complete the response to the in-progress inquiry as the response time, and set the priority order based on the policy evaluated in the same way as the unstarted case.

  In addition, a policy may be set in which inquiries are answered on a first-come-first-served basis. In this case, the sum of the response times of inquiries accepted by the responder and the sum of the response times of new inquiries are transmitted to the customer terminal as a completion waiting time.

  Further, for example, the query processing unit 112 determines the priority based on a policy of determining the priority by comparing the priority originally given to the query with the priority given to the already accepted query. It doesn't matter.

  Further, for example, the inquiry processing unit 112 may determine the priority order based on a policy of changing the priority order according to the usage frequency of the customer inquiry handling apparatus 100. That is, the inquiry processing unit 112 can set a high priority for the customer depending on the policy.

  In addition, for example, the inquiry processing unit 112 may set the priority order according to a policy that when a task with the same response time exists, priority is given to a task related to an inquiry of a customer with high use frequency.

Note that the method of calculating the response time predicted to be necessary is not limited to the method of calculating the average value from the historical data regarding the same inquiry in the past as described in the above embodiment. The query analysis unit 113 may also employ a method of classifying queries into several categories and calculating an average value of corresponding times for each category.
(Second Embodiment)
In the second embodiment of the present invention, an ID of a task (inquiry task ID) necessary for answering the inquiry is extracted from the inquiry inputted from the user terminal in order of the inputted time, and the inquiry task ID is extracted. The time (corresponding time) required to execute the task with the same ID as the ID is acquired from the inquiry history storage unit that stores the corresponding time for each task ID, and the most recently entered inquiry (new inquiry) among the inquiries The inquiry handling apparatus 100 includes an inquiry processing unit 112 that adds the start waiting time calculated from the corresponding response time and the response time of another inquiry to the user terminal that has made the new inquiry.

  According to the above embodiment, the predicted value of the completion waiting time until an answer is obtained can be notified to the customer.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Inquiry corresponding apparatus 111 Inquiry receiving part 112 Inquiry processing part 113 Inquiry analysis part 114 Customer management part 121 Customer management database 122 Person in charge management database 123 Inquiry management database 200 Client apparatus 211 Inquiry processing part 212 Screen display part 213 Input part 300 Client apparatus 311 Query processing unit 312 Screen display unit 313 Input unit

Claims (6)

  From the query input from the user terminal, the task IDs (query task ID) necessary for answering the query are extracted in order of the input time, and it is necessary to execute the task having the same ID as the query task ID. The time (response time) is acquired from the query history storage unit that stores the response time for each task ID, and the response time of the most recently entered query (new query) among the queries, and other queries An inquiry handling device comprising inquiry processing means for adding a start waiting time calculated from the response time and transmitting the result to the user terminal that made the new inquiry.   The query processing means is a sum total of response times of queries that have a response time shorter than a response time of the new query among queries that have been input before the new query and have not started execution of the task, 2. The inquiry handling device according to claim 1, wherein the start waiting time is calculated from one or both of the remaining handling time calculated by subtracting the time when the task is executed from the handling time of the query at which task execution is started. .   From the query input from the user terminal, the task IDs (query task ID) necessary for answering the query are extracted in order of the input time, and it is necessary to execute the task having the same ID as the query task ID. The time (response time) is acquired from the query history storage unit that stores the response time for each task ID, and the response time of the most recently entered query (new query) among the queries, and other queries An inquiry handling program for causing a computer to execute an inquiry process for adding a start waiting time calculated from a response time to a user terminal that has made a new inquiry. Among the queries that have been input before the new query and have not started execution of the task, the sum of the response times of queries that have a response time shorter than the response time of the new query,
The inquiry processing for calculating the start waiting time based on one or both of the remaining response times calculated by subtracting the time for executing the task from the response time of the query for which execution of the task is started, 4. The inquiry corresponding program according to claim 3, which is executed by a computer.   From the query input from the user terminal, the task IDs (query task ID) necessary for answering the query are extracted in order of the input time, and it is necessary to execute the task having the same ID as the query task ID. The time (response time) is acquired from the query history storage unit that stores the response time for each task ID, and the response time of the most recently entered query (new query) among the queries, and other queries A query response method of adding a start waiting time calculated from a response time and transmitting the result to the user terminal that has made the new query. Among the queries that have been input before the new query and have not started execution of the task, the sum of the response times of queries that have a response time shorter than the response time of the new query,
An inquiry handling method for calculating the start waiting time based on one or both of the remaining handling times calculated by subtracting the running time of the task from the handling time of the query for which execution of the task is started.

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