JP4686882B2 - Information providing apparatus, method and program for holding telephone - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an information provision apparatus and method at the time of holding a telephone for providing information to a telephone at the other end when the telephone is on hold, and a program executed by a computer in this apparatus.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, when a call is put on hold during a telephone call, when the hold button is pressed and the receiver is placed, music, voice, etc. prepared in advance from the hold side unilaterally flow to the other side. Such on-hold music and voice are always the same, and many telephones play similar music and voice.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, even if music or voice prepared in advance when a call is put on hold, the other party does not show interest, and the other party is frustrated or bored during the hold. Also, when canceling a hold, it can only be released from the hold side, so even if the hold time is long, the other party could not unilaterally hang up the phone.
[0004]
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus that can provide information suitable for the other party when a call is put on hold.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the information provision apparatus at the time of holding a telephone according to the present invention provides a user information storage means for storing information relating to a user on the calling side, and a provision for storing provided information corresponding to the user. An information storage means; a user determination means for searching the user information storage means on the basis of an incoming signal to determine a user; a hold determination means for detecting that the called telephone is held during a call ; Information providing means for searching the provided information storage means based on the user determined by the user determining means when it is detected, obtaining provided information suitable for the user and transmitting it to the user; and And means for sending a voice from the called telephone to the user's telephone at the time of holding to enable the voice .
[0006]
The information provision method at the time of holding a telephone call determines the user by searching the user information storage means for storing information about the calling user on the basis of the incoming signal, and the called telephone is put on hold during the call. When it is detected, the provided information storage means for storing the provided information according to the user is searched based on the determined user, and the provided information suitable for the user is acquired to the user. The voice from the called telephone is transmitted to the user's telephone at the time of the hold so that the voice can be spoken .
[0007]
The program according to the present invention searches for user information storage means for storing information about a calling user based on an incoming signal, and a user determination process for determining a user, and a called telephone is put on hold. Search for a provision information storage means for storing provision information according to the user based on the user determined in the user determination process when the hold determination process for detecting the situation and the hold is detected during the call ; A program for causing a computer to execute information providing processing for acquiring provided information suitable for the user and transmitting the information to the user, and processing for enabling the voice from the user to be uttered from the called telephone at the time of the hold. is there.
[0008]
Therefore, according to the present invention, the user is identified from the incoming signal, and the provision information suitable for the user is transmitted to the user at the time of holding, so that the user can receive provision of information suitable for him / her. , Irritation and boredom are alleviated even if the hold time is long.
[0009]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In this embodiment, when a problem occurs in an information processing device such as a personal computer owned by a user, the user makes an inquiry to the service center of the manufacturer of the information processing device by telephone, and a support person in charge makes an inquiry. An example will be described in which a call is put on hold in order to allow the user to wait while examining the contents or searching for an answer.
The present embodiment is characterized by providing information suitable for the user at the time of the above-described holding.
[0010]
For this reason, in this embodiment, personal information (address name, gender, home phone number, work phone number, occupation, age, etc.) related to the user, information about information processing equipment owned by the user, etc. Acquire user information including it and register it together with the user phone number. The information regarding the information processing device owned by the user includes past support history information of the information processing device. Each of the above information can be acquired by listening to the user when responding to the first inquiry from the user, for example. On the other hand, information suitable for the user is created and stored.
Then, when the user makes an inquiry again by telephone and the corresponding support person puts the call on hold, the stored information is extracted based on the user's telephone number and sent to the user's telephone. ing.
[0011]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system using an information provision apparatus at the time of a call hold according to the first embodiment of the present invention for realizing the above operation.
In FIG. 1, a user telephone 10 and a support staff telephone (hereinafter referred to as a staff telephone) 20 are connected via a public network 30 and an information providing device 40.
[0012]
In the information providing apparatus 40, the user information storage unit 41 stores the user information. The user determination unit 42 specifies the inquired user by searching the user information storage unit 41 from the caller number (user phone number) obtained from the caller ID notification service, and determines a predetermined user. Classify into categories. The content information storage unit 43 stores content information created in advance corresponding to the user category. The hold determination unit 44 determines that the person-in-charge telephone 20 has been put on hold. When it is determined that the information provision unit 45 has been put on hold, the information providing unit 45 extracts the content information corresponding to the user category from the content information storage unit 43 and transmits the content information to the user telephone 10.
[0013]
Next, the operation according to the above configuration will be described.
When the person in charge telephone 20 receives an incoming call from the user telephone 10, the user determination unit 42 searches the user information storage unit 41 from the telephone number, identifies the user, and determines the user category. To the information providing unit 45. When a support person in charge of the person-in-charge telephone 20 presses the hold button during a call and puts the call on hold, the hold determination unit 44 detects it and notifies the information providing unit 45. When the hold is notified, the information providing unit 45 searches the content information storage unit 43 based on the user category notified from the user determining unit 44, and acquires content information suitable for the user as provided information. Then, it is converted into an audio signal and transmitted to the user telephone 10.
[0014]
Information provided to users includes, for example, music suitable for the user's age, advertisement, weather forecast for the area where the user is located, dealer information, news regarding information processing equipment suitable for the user, know-how, support Information on homepage, introduction of supplementary readers, support history of users, etc. Further, the provision information may be provided with reference to the support history. For example, keywords may be extracted from the contents of past inquiries and provided information including relevant know-how and common Q & A may be sent.
The user can hear the information that suits him / her while the call is on hold, so that he / she can be less interested in getting bored and irritated even if the hold time is a little longer.
[0015]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system using an information providing apparatus at the time of holding a telephone according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and parts corresponding to those in FIG.
The present embodiment is characterized in that the provision information to be provided to the user during the hold can be selected on the user side.
In addition, the number of times the provided information is provided to the user is counted for the sponsor (content provider) that provides the provided information, and the content provider is charged according to the number of times. .
[0016]
For this purpose, in FIG. 2, a guidance transmission unit 46, a provision information determination unit 47, a count unit 48, a billing processing unit 49, and a content provider 50 are provided.
[0017]
Next, the operation will be described.
When the hold button of the person-in-charge telephone 20 is pressed and the hold determination unit 44 detects hold, the notification transmission unit 46 is notified. When the guidance transmission unit 46 is notified of the suspension, the guidance transmission unit 46 plays a voice guidance that prompts the user to select desired provision information and sets the provision information determination unit 47 in a determination waiting state. When the user selects and determines information desired by the user using a push button or the like, the information provision determination unit 47 notifies the information provision unit 45 and the count unit 48 of the determined information. The information providing unit 45 takes out the determined content information from the content information storage unit 43 and transmits it to the user telephone 10.
[0018]
Further, the count unit 48 increases the determined number of times of providing information by one. The billing processing unit 49 notifies the content provider 50 of the count number of the count unit 48 and performs billing processing on the content provider 50 every time the count number increases by one or when a certain number of times is reached. In the billing process, a fee according to the type of information to be provided may be collected, or a fee according to conditions such as user information such as the user's age and residence area may be collected.
[0019]
Further, in each of the embodiments described above, the following functions can be added.
(1) Make sure that the person in charge of support can hear the voice of the user instead of holding it completely.
Thereby, for example, when the hold time becomes long, the user can speak, and the person in charge can cancel the hold and explain the current state.
[0020]
(2) Enables a two-way call between the user and the person in charge while keeping information on hold.
As a result, the person in charge of the support can sequentially explain the situation, or can provide a proposal or the like from the user. During a call, the volume may be lowered, or the volume may be lowered according to time.
In {circle around (3)} {2}, the user can select at any point during a call to make a call between the user and the person in charge.
[0021]
(4) The user can release the hold by a push button and notify the support staff that the release has been made. This notification is notified by voice from the person-in-charge telephone 20 or by light, vibration or the like.
[0022]
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation when the above function is added to the second embodiment described above as the third embodiment of the present invention.
In S1, there is an incoming call, and in S2, the support person answers the telephone and the telephone call between the user telephone 10 and the person in charge telephone 20 is started, and the user is specified in S3. In S4, the holding of the person-in-charge telephone 20 is detected, and if held, guidance information including information related to the provision information selection is sent in S5. When the provision information desired by the user is determined in S6 and the direction of the call is determined (initially from the support person to the user), the provision information is transmitted and the provision count X of the provision information is transmitted in S7. Increase by one.
[0023]
If there is a request from the user to request a two-way call with the support staff during the hold in S8, the hold and two-way call are enabled in S9. When there is a provision information switching request from the user in S10, the provision information is switched in S11 and the provision count of the provision information is increased by one. If there is a hold release request from the user in S12, the hold is released in S13 and the support staff is notified of the release. If there is no hold release request from the user in S12, the process returns to S8 and again waits for a call direction / provided information switching request.
Note that the billing process is performed every time the count X number increases by 1 or every time the count number reaches a certain number.
[0024]
In each of the above-described embodiments, a case has been described as an example in which an inquiry is made to a support person regarding a user's information processing device. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to various telephone consultation service systems. Can do. In addition, the present invention can be applied to a call between general individuals, and the information providing apparatus 40 may be installed on both the caller side and the callee side telephones.
[0025]
In each embodiment, the provision information is automatically selected and provided to the user. However, as another embodiment, the support person can select the provision information to be sent to the user at the time of suspension. It may be.
[0026]
Next, a program according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The program for the CPU in the information providing apparatus 40 to execute the processing based on the operation described above for each of the embodiments in FIGS. 1 and 2 constitutes a program according to the present invention.
[0027]
As this recording medium, a magneto-optical disk, an optical disk, a semiconductor memory, a magnetic recording medium, or the like can be used, and these may be configured in a ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, floppy disk, memory card, or the like.
[0028]
In addition, this recording medium can store a program for a certain period of time such as a volatile memory such as a RAM in a computer system as a server or a client when the program is transmitted via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line. The thing to hold is also included.
[0029]
The program may be transmitted from a computer system storing the program in a storage device or the like to another computer system via a transmission medium or by a transmission wave in the transmission medium. The transmission medium refers to a medium having a function of transmitting information, such as a network (communication network) such as the Internet or a communication line (communication line) such as a telephone line.
[0030]
The program may be for realizing a part of the functions described above. Furthermore, what can implement | achieve the function mentioned above in combination with the program already recorded on the computer system, what is called a difference file (difference program) may be sufficient.
[0031]
Therefore, each embodiment can also be realized by using this recording medium in a system or apparatus different from the system or apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2 and executing a program stored in the recording medium by a computer of the system or apparatus. Functions and effects equivalent to the functions and effects described in the above can be obtained, and the object of the present invention can be achieved.
[0032]
【The invention's effect】
According to the first, thirteenth and fourteenth aspects of the present invention, the user on the calling side is specified, and the provision information suitable for the user is transmitted when the telephone is put on hold. And the holding time can be used effectively. Moreover, even when the holding time becomes long, it is possible to reduce making the user unpleasant.
According to the inventions of claims 2 and 14, since the user can select the provided information, the user can be further interested.
[0033]
According to the third and sixteenth aspects of the present invention, since the provider of the provision information is charged, a new information provision business can be developed.
According to the fourth and 17th aspects of the invention, when charging processing is performed, charging is performed according to the number of use times and / or usage conditions of the provided information. Can do.
[0034]
According to the inventions of claims 5 and 18, since the voice from the user can be uttered from the called side telephone at the time of holding, or the telephone call between the user and the called side is made possible. Can respond to current inquiries, etc., and minimize user irritation.
According to the inventions of claims 6 and 18, since the voice from the called telephone is sent to the user's telephone at the time of holding and the voice can be spoken, the current situation or the like can be conveyed to the user at the time of holding. .
[0035]
According to the inventions of claims 7, 8, 20, and 21, since the hold can be released from the user, when the hold becomes longer or when a trouble such as the occurrence of a sudden errand occurs to the user, etc. The user can cancel the hold, and can notify the called telephone of the cancellation.
[0036]
According to the inventions of claims 9 and 22, since the user information is personal information such as the user's telephone number, address, name, gender, age, etc., the user information can be easily obtained.
According to the inventions of claims 10 and 23, the provision information suitable for the user is information regarding the information processing device owned by the user, so that the user can be more interested.
[0037]
According to the inventions of claims 11 and 24, the user can be easily specified based on the caller number by the caller telephone number notification service included in the incoming signal.
According to the inventions of claims 12 and 25, since the holder of the called telephone can select the provision information suitable for the user, the provision information considered to be particularly suitable for the user by the holder is selected. Can be provided to users.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system using an information providing apparatus at the time of holding a telephone call according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system using an information providing apparatus at the time of holding a telephone call according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the information providing apparatus at the time of holding a telephone call according to the third embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 User telephone 20 Person in charge telephone 30 Public line network 40 Information provision apparatus 41 User information storage part 42 User determination part 43 Content information storage part 44 Hold determination part 45 Information provision part 46 Information transmission part 47 Provision information determination part 48 Count unit 49 Charge processing unit 50 Content provider

Claims (23)

User information storage means for storing information about the calling user;
Provision information storage means for storing provision information according to the user;
A user determination means for searching the user information storage means based on the incoming signal and identifying the user;
A hold determination means for detecting that the called telephone is put on hold during a call;
Information providing means for searching the provided information storage means based on the user determined by the user determining means when a hold is detected, obtaining provided information suitable for the user, and transmitting it to the user ;
Means for enabling voice by sending a voice from the called telephone to the user's telephone at the time of holding;
An information providing device at the time of holding a telephone, characterized in that   2. A provision information determination unit for receiving and determining information indicating the provision information selected by the user is provided, and the information provision unit transmits the selected provision information in response to the determination. The information provision apparatus at the time of telephone holding described.   3. The information provision apparatus at the time of holding a telephone according to claim 1, further comprising billing processing means for billing a provider of the provided information.   4. The information provision apparatus at the time of call holding according to claim 3, wherein the billing processing means charges according to the number of times and / or conditions of use of the provided information. 5. The information provision device at the time of a call hold according to claim 1, further comprising means for enabling a voice from a user to be uttered from a called telephone at the time of the hold. Telephone hold time of the information providing apparatus according to any one of claim 1 to 5, characterized in that a hold release means for releasing the hold in accordance with a hold release request from the user. 7. The information provision device at the time of a call hold according to claim 6, further comprising a notification means for notifying the called telephone that the hold has been released. The information provision apparatus at the time of a telephone hold according to any one of claims 1 to 7 , wherein the user information is personal information such as a user's telephone number, address, name, gender, and age. . The information providing apparatus at the time of holding a telephone according to any one of claims 1 to 8 , wherein the provision information suitable for the user is information regarding an information processing device owned by the user. The user determining means, telephone on hold information providing apparatus according to any one of claim 1 to 9, characterized in that to determine the user based on the caller telephone number included in the incoming signal . 11. The information provision device at the time of call holding according to any one of claims 1 to 10 , further comprising selection means for selecting a provision information suitable for a user by a holder of the called telephone. When a user is determined by searching user information storage means for storing information about the calling user based on the incoming signal, and when it is detected that the called telephone is held during a call, Based on the determined user, the provided information storage means for storing the provided information according to the user is searched, the provided information suitable for the user is acquired and transmitted to the user, and the callee side at the time of the hold A method for providing information at the time of a call holding, characterized in that a voice from a telephone is sent to a user's telephone so that the user can speak . A user determination process for searching for user information storage means for storing information related to the user on the calling side based on the incoming signal, and determining a user;
A hold determination process for detecting that the called telephone is held;
When hold is detected during a call, based on the user determined in the user determination process, the provided information storage means for storing provided information corresponding to the user is searched, and provided information suitable for the user is obtained. Information provision processing to acquire and send to users ;
A process of enabling voice from the user to be uttered from the called telephone at the time of holding;
A program that causes a computer to execute. Providing information determination process determines provided by receiving information indicating the providing information selected by the user, according to claim 13 the said information providing process according to the determination, characterized in that it transmits the provided information selected The listed program. Claim 13 or 14, wherein the program, characterized in that a charging process of charging the source of the advertisement. 16. The program according to claim 15 , wherein the charging process charges according to the use frequency and / or use conditions of the provided information. The program according to any one of claims 13 to 16 , further comprising a process of sending a voice from the called telephone to the user's telephone at the time of the hold. The program according to any one of claims 13 to 17 , further comprising a hold release process for releasing the hold in response to a hold release request from the user. 19. The program according to claim 18, further comprising a notification process for notifying the called telephone that the hold has been released. The program according to any one of claims 13 to 19 , wherein the user information is personal information such as a user's telephone number, address, name, gender, and age. The program according to any one of claims 13 to 20 , wherein the provision information suitable for the user is information on an information processing device owned by the user. The program according to any one of claims 13 to 21 , wherein the user determination process determines a user based on a caller telephone number included in an incoming signal. 23. The selection process according to any one of claims 13 to 22 , further comprising a selection process for selecting provision information based on an instruction to select provision information suitable for a user by a holder of a called telephone. program.

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