JP2014052840A - Service support method and system using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To propose/provide high quality service to/for a customer on the basis of information about the customer, information about a service provider side, etc.SOLUTION: A service support method comprises: means which acquires information about features of a customer; means which acquires information about environment when the customer visits a store; means which acquires information about the store visited by the customer; and service selection means which selects service to be provided for the customer on the basis of the information about the features of the customer, information about the environment, and information about the store, and displays the selected service to the customer.

Description

  The present invention relates to a service providing support method in a customer visit type store and a system using the same.

  A conventional support service selection support system, for example, in a restaurant, stores a service that a customer has ordered in the past as a database, and when the same customer visits the store again, searches for the preference of the service provided from the past order information; It was. In addition, as a method for specifying an individual customer at that time, a method using an arbitrary character string called an ID or a password, or a method using face authentication or vein authentication has been adopted along with improvement in accuracy of biometric authentication technology. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a method for identifying an individual customer using a customer management ID. Further, Patent Document 2 uses a biometric authentication technology to identify individual customers, determine a group form of customers at a store from a video source such as a camera installed in a store, and select a provided service in consideration of the result. It is disclosed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-263481 JP 2011-141610 A

  However, when using the customer management ID, the support system disclosed in Patent Document 1 needs to be consciously presented to each individual customer, and the customer's trouble remains. In the support system disclosed in Patent Literature 2, there is a problem that it is difficult to select a service in consideration of the provision capability on the service provider side and it is difficult to provide an accurate service.

  The service support method according to the present invention includes means for acquiring information about customer characteristics, means for acquiring information about the environment when the customer visits, means for acquiring information about the store where the customer visited, Service selection means for selecting a service to be provided to the customer and displaying the information to the customer based on the information on the characteristics, the information on the environment, and the information on the store.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a more accurate service to the customer in consideration of the situation of the customer and the service provider.

Functional block diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention Table relating to customer information of customers who have visited the store according to an embodiment of the present invention Table relating to order history information of customers who have visited the store according to an embodiment of the present invention FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a selection process for providing a service using information on customer characteristics according to an embodiment of the present invention. The table regarding the group type by the member of a customer group based on the Example of this invention Table relating to service selection by group type according to an embodiment of the present invention FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a selection process for providing a service using information related to the environment according to the embodiment of the present invention. The table regarding the selection example of the provision service by the information regarding an environment based on the Example of this invention Provided service selection processing flow diagram using information about stores according to an embodiment of the present invention Proposal example of service provided to customers according to an embodiment of the present invention FIG. 4 is a video of a customer group taken at a store visit according to an embodiment of the present invention. The positional relationship figure of the customer group at the time of a store visit, and an entrance photographing camera device concerning the example of the present invention

  Examples according to the present invention will be described below. However, the present invention is not limited to the following examples. First, one of the features according to the embodiment of the present invention is a means for acquiring information relating to customer characteristics, a means for acquiring information relating to the environment when the customer visits, and information relating to the store where the customer visited And a service selection means for selecting a service to be provided to the customer based on the information on the customer's characteristics, the information on the environment, and the information on the store, and displaying the information to the customer. . By adopting such a configuration, a more accurate service proposal can be made to the customer. Here, the information related to the customer characteristics is information related to the number of customers, gender, height, or information related to customer order history. Moreover, it is preferable that the means for acquiring information related to the customer characteristics acquires a customer face image, and acquires information related to the customer order history based on the acquired face image. By considering the customer's order history in this way, a more accurate service proposal can be made based on information related to the customer's preference. Furthermore, the information regarding the environment is information regarding the weather, temperature, season, date and time, or day of the week.

  Moreover, the information regarding a store is the information regarding the stock or the expiration date of the material purchased in the store, or the information regarding the busyness of a store. Here, when the stock of the material purchased at the store is out of stock, it is preferable to display it excluding the service provided to the customer. When the period until the expiration date is less than the predetermined value, the material is displayed. A configuration that preferentially displays services that use the. By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to proactively propose to customers the services that the store wants to provide preferentially while not proposing the services that the store cannot provide. Thus, it becomes possible to simultaneously improve the service to customers and satisfy the demands of the service provider side (store side).

  Next, one of the features according to the embodiment of the present invention is acquired by customer image acquisition means for acquiring customer image information, customer determination means for determining the number and sex of customers from the acquired customer image, and Customer information extraction means for identifying a customer and extracting information about order history from a customer image, environmental information acquisition means for acquiring information on the weather and temperature when the customer visits the store, and information on the inventory of the store where the customer visited Based on inventory information acquisition means, customer number and gender information, customer order history information, weather and temperature information, and inventory information. And a service selection means shown to the customer. In this way, by considering information that can be acquired from the appearance of the customer, information about customer preferences, information about the environment when the customer visits the store, and information on the store side, not only improving service to customers but also providing services It becomes possible to satisfy the demands of the store side (store side) at the same time.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of a providing service support system that takes into account customer internal factors, customer external factors, and store-side provision capabilities in an embodiment of the present invention. The provided service support system that takes into account the customer's internal and external factors and the store's ability to provide, for example, manages service selection and order support for customers who visit the store such as restaurants. To do. Specifically, an entrance photographing camera device 11 installed at an entrance of a store corresponding to a means for acquiring information on customer characteristics, and a face portion is detected from an image photographed by the entrance photographing camera device 11 and cut as a face image. A face detection device 12 to be displayed, a face image that has been cut out, a customer face image with a history of visiting the store, or a database that stores individual face feature data necessary for face matching (face matching device 13 (face The detection device 12 and the face collation device 13 are collectively referred to as a face authentication device 14), a customer number determination device 15 that counts the number of customers visiting the store from an image photographed by the entrance photographing camera device 11, and the entrance photographing camera device 11. The sex determination device 16 that determines the gender of each customer from the video taken by the camera, and the video taken by the entrance photographing camera device 11 Having a height determining unit 17 determines each of the height of the customer. Also, the weather is determined (sunny, cloudy, snow, etc.) from the outside-camera camera device 21 installed outside the store, which is a means for acquiring information related to the environment, and the video shot by the outside-camera camera device 21. A weather determination device 22, an air temperature determination device 23 that measures the temperature outside the store (the weather determination device 22 and the temperature determination device 23 are collectively referred to as a weather determination device 24), a season determination device 25 that determines spring, summer, autumn, and winter , A day of the week determining device 26 for determining the day of the week, and a time zone determining device 27 for determining the time zone.

  In addition, the inventory information management device 41 that manages in real time the stock amount, consumption (best-before date), etc. of each material purchased in the store, and information on the busyness of the kitchen and the tendency of cooking (baking, frying, boiling, cooking, etc.) And a provided service time management device 42 for managing the provided service time in real time. Then, these devices are connected to the service selection support device 32 through a network environment 33 in which the devices are communicably connected. In this service selection support device 32, information from the customer information management device 31 that manages customer information such as the number of visits to the customer, sex, height, past order information, weather at the time of visit, temperature, season, day of the week, time zone, etc. Support service selection based on

  Further, in the face authentication device 14, if a collation result indicating that the corresponding person exists in the customer information management database is obtained, that is, the customer face image information is registered in the customer information management database that manages the customer information with a visit history. If so, it is determined that the customer has a history of visiting the store. In this case, corresponding customer information such as customer thinking information is used as part of information for selecting a service to be provided. This customer information includes customer-specific information such as customer identification ID, gender, height, number of visits, etc., as shown in FIG. 2, and the past order history of the customer as shown in FIG. Classification, number of orders, weather information at the time of order or visit, etc. are included.

  On the other hand, if the face authentication device 14 obtains a collation result indicating that the corresponding person does not exist, that is, the customer face image information is not registered in the customer information management database that manages the customer information with the store visit history. If so, it is determined that the customer has not visited the store. In this case, facial feature data necessary for face matching is created based on the face image cut out by the face detection device 12, and registered in the customer information management database by the customer information management device 31 together with a new customer identification ID and the like. Is done. At this time, in addition to the gender obtained by the gender judging device 16 and the height classification obtained by the height judging device 17, the weather obtained by the weather judging device 22 and the temperature judging device 23 were obtained at the time of visiting the store. Both the temperature, the season obtained by the season judging device 25, the day of the week obtained by the day of the week judging device 26, and the time zone obtained by the time zone judging device 27 are registered in the customer information management database. These series of processes are performed on all the customers in the customer group who visit the store while confirming the number of customers counted by the customer number determination device 15, so that the past order history information of each customer can be obtained with reference to the provided service and the customer Can be proposed.

  In addition, if there is no information about the past order history of each customer or if the customer has not visited the store for the first time, or if the customer visits the store for the first time in a long time, or the taste of eating and drinking changes, the customer will be in a group of multiple people When visiting the same store, there is a very high possibility that the taste of eating and drinking will differ depending on the number, composition, and nature of the group, the weather and temperature at the time of visiting the store, and the time zone. Therefore, in order to make up for the lack of information when selecting these service offerings, in addition to the past order history information of each individual customer, the customer group that visits the store was determined in what kind of customer group and what type of group. Comprehensively include information on customer characteristics (internal customer element information) and information on the customer-independent environment such as weather, temperature, and time of day (customer external element information). Support selection of the provided services. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, support for selecting a service to be provided that comprehensively considers elements on the customer side and elements on the service provider side (store side) is provided.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow up to the selection of the service to be provided using the customer's internal elements. First, individual face portions of the customer group who visits the store at the store entrance and the entire group are photographed to obtain a moving image. Next, the number of persons in the entire group is counted by determining the number of persons for the acquired video. At the same time, face detection and face extraction are executed from the same video, and the extracted face portion is stored as a face image. Face matching is performed on the face image stored at this time based on a customer information management database that manages store visit history, and a matching result is acquired. In this case, if the corresponding information exists, that is, if the matching is matched, the customer's past order history and preference information is acquired from the customer information management device or the customer information management database, and the provision service selection judgment material One of them.

  On the other hand, if the corresponding information does not exist as a result of the face matching, that is, if the matching does not match, the male / female of the customer is determined by the sex determination device, and the height determination device determines the height. The classification (adult / child) is determined and newly registered in the customer information management database together with the face image information (data necessary for face matching) of the customer whose face has been detected. These series of processes are repeated for all members while confirming the number of customers in the entire customer group. After a series of processing is completed for all the customer groups, as a result, it is determined what group (configuration) the customer group is visiting. As a determination method at this time, the determination is made using a table relating to the group type by the members of the customer group as shown in FIG. For example, in the case of a total of two customer groups composed of one adult male and one adult female, this is determined as a couple or a couple. Further, in the case of a total of four customer groups composed of one adult male, one adult female, and two children, this is determined as a family. The provided service is selected for the configuration determined here, and there is preference service information based on the customer group configuration shown in FIG. For example, for a couple or a customer group determined to be a couple, select a stylish service such as wine or French cuisine as a service provided, or for a customer group determined to be a family You can choose abundant services for children such as children's lunch and juice.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow up to service provision selection using customer-external elements that do not depend on each customer. First, when a customer visits a store, a moving image is acquired from a camera device installed outside the store. On the other hand, season information and day information are acquired from calendar information or the like. Moreover, time zone information is acquired from clock information or the like. Next, from the season information and the time zone information, it is determined whether the customer visits the store during the daytime or nighttime. As a result, it is determined whether it is sunny or cloudy or raindrops are reflected from the light amount of the acquired moving image during the daytime. Further, if it is night time, it is determined whether or not a moon or a star is reflected in the acquired moving image, whether raindrops are reflected, or the like. This determines the weather. Next, temperature information outside the store is acquired using a thermometer or the like. Such customer-external element information can be acquired via a network such as the Internet, for example.

  Here, based on the determined customer external element information, the provided service is selected. An example is shown in FIG. For example, draft beer tends to be selected by customers whenever the temperature exceeds 30 degrees on a sunny summer day. In addition, the probability that the customer will select the pan becomes higher on days when it falls below 0 degrees in winter and snow falls. Also, the amount of liquor is small on weekdays, but it increases on weekends. Based on these trends, services to be proposed to customers are selected. Here, FIG. 4 and FIG. 7 are shown as separate flowcharts, but are executed at the same timing when the customer visits the store, and influences each other on the selection of the service to be provided. In this way, by providing information related to customer characteristics such as the composition of customer groups and external customer element information such as weather and temperature, along with customer information with a history of visits (preference information including order history) Therefore, it is possible to propose and provide a selection service that is accurate and conforms to tastes to the customer group.

  Furthermore, the supply capability on the store side (service providing side) such as inventory information regarding purchased materials and the expiration date of inventory materials, which are important factors in operating the store, is constantly changing. In addition, the time from when an order is placed by the customer until the actual delivery to the customer is an important factor in considering customer satisfaction, but the busyness of the kitchen at that time, the tendency of cooking (baking, frying, cooking, cooking Etc.) always change. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a method of selecting a service to be provided in consideration of the service capability on the store side (service provider side). First, when purchasing materials at a store, tag information such as an IC chip is used to manage the quantity, consumption (expiration date), and order to be used. Next, the service that cannot be provided due to the inventory situation of the material is excluded from the provided services selected based on the customer internal factors and the customer external factors. Next, a provision service that uses a material that has been cut for a certain period (predetermined period) until the consumption (best-before) deadline is preferentially selected. Next, when an order is actually received from a customer, material stock is allocated and material stock information is updated in real time. In addition, when a customer places an order, it takes into account the busyness of the kitchen and cooking trends (baking, frying, boiling, cooking, etc.) in real time, and the time it takes for the customer to place the order and actually deliver it to the customer. Reflect the information in the provided service.

  FIG. 10 shows an example of selection of the provided service reflecting this information. Here, as shown in FIG. 10, (1) a past order history menu, (2) a selection menu, and (3) a general menu are displayed in a classified manner to allow a customer to select a service to order. Further, by displaying the waiting time together, a higher quality service can be provided. Furthermore, it is preferable that the selection service (menu) is displayed as a “recommended service (menu)” to the customer with priority over other services (menu). By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to provide an accurate service in consideration of not only customer preference information but also the situation on the service provider side.

  Here, with reference to FIG. 11 and FIG. 12, an information acquisition method and processing method of information related to the number of customers, gender, and height among information related to customer characteristics will be described. For example, from the video obtained from the entrance photographing camera device 11 installed at the entrance of the store, the number determination processing by the number determination device 15, the gender determination processing by the sex determination device 16, the height determination processing by the height determination device 17 (adult / child) Determination process). First, an accurate customer number determination process will be described. FIG. 11A is a frame taken at a certain point of time by the entrance photographing camera device 11 when the customer visits the store, and FIG. It is the next frame of a). In FIG. 11A, for example, it is assumed that the faces of three persons are detected. The face image detected at this time and the detected coordinate position 51 of each face image are temporarily stored. Also, the detected face images of the three persons and the detected coordinate position 51 of each face image are also temporarily stored in the next frame FIG. 11B. When the detected coordinate position 51 of the face image obtained at the time of FIG. 11B is very close to the detected coordinate position 51 of the face image obtained at the time of the previous frame FIG. There is a high possibility that they are the same person. Therefore, the face image of FIG. 11A temporarily stored and the face image of FIG. 11B are face-matched. By this face matching, it is possible to avoid double and triple counting of the same person between frames, and it is possible to grasp the exact number of customers visiting the store.

  Next, with regard to the gender determination process, the facial image gender is collated with the features of the facial image in the acquired video and the human facial features that have been manually registered in advance for each attribute. Estimate the attributes of Further, the height determination process will be described with reference to FIG. 12, which is an image diagram when the customer group visits the store. As can be seen from FIG. 12, the coordinate position 51 where the face is detected by the camera and the face is detected changes depending on the height. An actual photographing frame by the entrance photographing camera device 11 is as shown in FIG. Accordingly, the height of each customer can be determined by considering the positional relationship with the entrance photographing camera device 11. If necessary, the entrance photographing camera device 11 itself can be moved up and down to cover a wide area. Based on this information, if the height is above a certain level, it is determined that the person is an “adult”.

11: Entrance photographing camera device 12: Face detection device 13: Face matching device 14: Face authentication device 15: Customer number determination device 16: Gender determination device 17: Personal length determination device 21: Outside-shooting camera device 22: Weather determination device 23: Temperature determination device 24: Weather determination device 25: Season determination device 26: Day determination device 27: Time zone determination device 31: Customer information management device 32: Service selection support device 33: Network 41: Inventory information management device 42: Provision Service time management device 51: face image detection coordinate position in a video frame

Claims (8)

A means of obtaining information about customer characteristics;
Means for obtaining information about the environment when the customer visits the store;
Means for obtaining information about the store where the customer has visited;
Service selection means for selecting a service to be provided to the customer based on information on the customer's characteristics, information on the environment, and information on the store, and displaying the customer.
A service support method characterized by comprising:   The service support method according to claim 1, wherein the information relating to the customer characteristics is information relating to the number of customers, gender, height, or information relating to the customer order history.   The means for acquiring information related to the customer's characteristics acquires the customer's face image, and acquires information related to the customer's order history based on the acquired face image. Service support method.   The service support method according to claim 1, wherein the information on the environment is information on weather, temperature, season, date and time, or day of the week.   The service support method according to claim 1, wherein the information related to the store is information related to an inventory of a material purchased in the store or an expiration date, or information related to the busyness of the store.   6. The service support method according to claim 5, wherein when the stock of the material purchased at the store is out of stock, it is excluded from the service provided to the customer.   6. The service support method according to claim 5, wherein when the period until the expiration date is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the service using the material is preferentially displayed. Customer image acquisition means for acquiring customer image information;
Customer determination means for determining the number and gender of the customers from the acquired customer image;
Customer information extraction means for identifying the customer and extracting information related to the order history from the acquired customer image;
Environmental information acquisition means for acquiring information on the weather and temperature when the customer visits the store;
Inventory information acquisition means for acquiring information about the inventory of the store where the customer has visited;
Information about the number and gender of the customers, information about the order history of the customers,
Service selection means for selecting a service to be provided to the customer based on the information on the weather and temperature, and information on the inventory, and displaying the customer.
A service support system comprising:

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