JP5096290B2 - Call center system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a call center system serving as a window for receiving inquiries from customers and the like.

  In companies and public offices, there is a case where a contact center is provided for receiving a number of inquiries from outside about a predetermined product or service, and a call center is provided for an operator (person) to respond to such inquiries. By providing a call center, the operator can individually answer all external inquiries, so that the convenience of customers and residents can be improved.

FIG. 6 shows a configuration of a general call center system 10.
That is, in the call center system 10 shown in FIG. 6, the customer contact means 30 such as an e-mail or a telephone for making an inquiry from the outside communicates with the call center 20 provided in a company or a public office. The connection is made via the line 40.

  With this configuration, the call center 20 can accept an inquiry from the outside via the line 40, and can answer an inquiry from the outside via the line 40.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the call center 20.
That is, as shown in FIG. 2 (a), the call center 20 has a terminal 70 through which an operator 80 responds individually to an inquiry from the outside via a local area network (LAN). The server 60 is connected to a server 60 that receives inquiries from customers via the line 40.

  With this configuration, the server 60 can appropriately assign an inquiry from the outside to each terminal 70, and the operator 80 of each terminal 70 can answer the assigned inquiry.

FIG. 2B shows a general configuration example of the terminal 70 shown in FIG.
That is, the terminal 70 receives individual information such as a contact address of the inquiry source during the exchange of the inquiry from the outside, or information related to a predetermined product or service for the convenience of the operator 80 in answering the inquiry. Is displayed.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of contents displayed on the correspondence processing screen 90 of the terminal 70. That is, when the operator 80 is accepting an inquiry, the response processing screen 90 displays individual information such as the contact address of the inquiry source (call number in FIG. 7), or when the operator 80 answers the inquiry. Information to be referred to (in FIG. 7, it is an entry field for the group name of the person in charge, the name of the operator who is the person in charge, the problem details pointed out by the customer, and the answer details to be answered to the customer). Has been.

  In addition, the terminal 70 transmits predetermined information to the customer contact means 30 via the line 40 according to the content of the inquiry from the outside, for example, reply to the mail or verbal advice to the customer, An input means 100 such as a keyboard, a mouse, or a head system is provided for appropriately switching the display contents of the information with respect to the inquiry contents.

International Publication No. WO2002 / 052824

  In the call center 20 shown in FIG. 6, while responding to an inquiry from the outside, the operator 80 assigned to the terminal 70 may not be able to answer depending on the contents of the inquiry.

  Therefore, in such a case, an escalation for transferring the inquiry to the transfer destination 50 may be performed for a secondary responder (transfer destination 50 in FIG. 6) having deeper knowledge about the product or service than the operator 80. is there. Thereby, even when the operator 80 has little knowledge and an appropriate answer cannot be made to the inquiry, the secondary responder can make an appropriate answer.

  Here, in general, many external inquiries that can be answered by the operator 80 are mainly manual and simple obtained through training for the operator 80. On the other hand, inquiries that require responses from secondary responders are technical and complex, and the types are often wide.

  Therefore, when the operator 80 escalates, he / she wonders which secondary responder (which may be a group consisting of a plurality of responders) should be performed, and it takes time to escalate. It will make you wait. That is, as described above, since the contents of inquiries that need to be handled by the secondary responders have a wide range of expertise and complexity as described above, there are many candidates for secondary responders to which the inquiries should be transferred. It often becomes difficult for the operator 80 to know whether to transfer to the next responder.

  Accordingly, the problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a call center system that can easily transfer an inquiry received by an operator to an appropriate secondary responder.

The call center system according to the present invention includes at least a server device that accepts a predetermined communication related to an inquiry from the outside, receives the predetermined communication by connecting to the server device, and displays a corresponding processing screen corresponding to the predetermined communication. One terminal device, an input device that accepts an escalation operation for transferring the predetermined communication to any one of a plurality of predetermined transfer destinations to the server device, and the predetermined device Storage means for storing history information related to communication, the storage means storing information related to escalation performed by the server device together with history information related to the predetermined communication, , the storage means is small sectioned according to the contents of inquiries from the external Both each one category, the escalation performed by the server device stores the transfer count with the history information for each of the plurality of transfer destination, the terminal device, the input device accepts the operation of escalation When the escalation is performed, the number of transfers corresponding to the category of the content of the inquiry in the predetermined communication is read from the storage unit, and the transfer destinations with a higher transfer count in the category are given priority to the display order and the plurality of transfer destinations are set. indicate.

  The call center system of the present invention can easily transfer an inquiry received by an operator to an appropriate secondary responder.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a call center system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
That is, in the call center system 1 shown in FIG. 1, a customer contact means 30 such as an e-mail or a telephone for making an inquiry from the outside makes a communication contact with a call center 2 provided in a company or a public office. The connection is made through the line 40.

  With this configuration, the call center 2 can accept an inquiry from the outside via the line 40 and can answer an inquiry from the outside via the line 40.

  Furthermore, the call center 2 is also connected to the contact means of the transfer destination 50, so that the communication from the contact means 30 can be transferred to the transfer destination 50. Therefore, the call center 20 can escalate the inquiry received from the customer contact means 30 to the transfer destination 50.

  Furthermore, a management database 3 (DB) for storing a history of communication with the customer contact means 30 is connected to the call center 2. Note that the management database 3 is not necessarily provided outside the call center 2, and may be provided in the call center 2. Furthermore, the management database 3 does not necessarily have to be a database, and may use a normal storage unit in the server 60.

The history related to communication with the customer contact means 30 stored in the management database 3 includes personal information such as the name, address, telephone number, mail address, and the time when the communication was performed. .
In addition, as described above, escalation may be performed in which an inquiry received from the customer contact unit 30 is transferred to the transfer destination 50. Therefore, the management database 3 also uses the history of which escalation has been performed to which of the secondary responders (here, groups A to E) at the transfer destination 50 as communication history. Remember.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the call center 2.
That is, as shown in FIG. 2A, in the call center 2, a terminal 70 for an operator 80 to individually answer an inquiry from the outside is connected via the line 40 via a local line. It is configured to be connected to a server 60 that receives inquiries from customers.

The server 60 stores a program for controlling the operation of the entire system of the call center 2 and executes escalation for transferring an inquiry from the outside to the transfer destination 50 in addition to receiving an inquiry from a customer.
Further, when the management database 3 is provided in the call center 2 as described above, the server 60 can be provided with the function of the management database 3.

FIG. 2B shows a general configuration example of the terminal 70 shown in FIG.
That is, the terminal 70 receives individual information such as a contact address of the inquiry source during the exchange of the inquiry from the outside, or information related to a predetermined product or service for the convenience of the operator 80 in answering the inquiry. Is displayed.

  In addition, the terminal 70 transmits predetermined information to the customer contact means 30 via the line 40 according to the content of the inquiry from the outside, for example, reply to the mail or verbal advice to the customer, An input unit 100 such as a keyboard, a mouse, or a head system is provided for appropriately switching display contents on the response processing screen 90 with respect to the inquiry contents.

  Furthermore, the input unit 100 receives an escalation operation when the operator 80 performs an escalation to transfer an external inquiry to the transfer destination 50. As a result, as described in the following paragraphs, the server 60 can transfer an external inquiry to an appropriate transfer destination 50.

  As described above, when the management database 3 is provided in the call center 2, instead of providing the server 60 with the function of the management database 3, the management database 3 is individually provided for each terminal 70. It may have a function. That is, since each terminal 70 is mainly a computer terminal, the storage device of the computer can have the function of the management database 3.

  In the call center system 1 shown in FIG. 1, when the input unit 100 of the terminal 70 shown in FIG. 2 is operated, escalation that transfers an inquiry from the outside is performed based on the information about the escalation stored in the management database 3. The procedure for the case will be described.

  Such a procedure will be described with reference to FIG. 3 showing a flowchart showing the operation of the call center system 1 and FIG. 4 showing a state showing information related to escalation stored in the management database 3.

Here, there are various categories of external inquiry contents by the customer contact means 30.
That is, the inquiry about a predetermined product or service is, for example, an operation policy or after-sales service for the product or service, a method of using (using) the product or service, an opinion or a request about the product or service, or other contents. Thus, it is divided into a plurality of categories (for example, n types). However, there may be one category when the content of the envisaged inquiry is limited.

  Therefore, for convenience of explanation, each category regarding the inquiry content is assumed to be Xj (j: 1 to n). Further, when an escalation for transferring an inquiry in each category Xj is performed, the five secondary responders at the transfer destination 50 are, for example, A to E. The number of secondary responders is not limited to five, and may differ for each category Xj.

Based on the above assumptions, the escalation procedure will be described with reference to FIGS.
First, when the call center system 1 is operated for the first time, it is an initial stage of START in the flowchart of FIG. At this time, escalation has not yet been performed. In other words, the inquiry in each category Xj has not been transferred to any of the secondary responders A to E.

  Therefore, the escalation information in each category Xj (j: 1 to n) includes the number of transfers 0 for A, the number of transfers 0 for B, and the number of transfers 0 for C, as shown in FIG. , D are stored in the management database 3 as 0 transfers, and E is stored as 0 transfers. That is, the information regarding the escalation stored in the management database 3 is in an initial state.

However, as the operation of the call center system 1 is continued, escalation for transferring the inquiry in each category Xj to any one of the secondary responders A to E is repeatedly performed as follows.
Therefore, as will be described below, the information about the escalation stored in the management database 3 is updated by the server 60, for example, every time the escalation is performed from the initial state as shown in FIG.

  As a result of repeated escalations, for example, escalation in each category Xj (j: 1 to n) is 0 transfer times for A, 5 transfer times for B, 4 transfer times for C, and for D Assume that the number of transfers is 4 times, and that for E, the number of transfers is 1.

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 4B, the information on the escalation stored in the management database 3 is 0 transfer times for A, 5 transfer times for B, and 4 transfer times for C. , D, the number of transfers is four, and E, the number of transfers is one.

In addition, the storage state of the secondary responder stored in the management database 3 is changed and updated by, for example, sorting by the server 60 according to the number of transfers.
For example, as shown in FIG. 4B, the storage states of the secondary responders A to E are sequentially stored in the area of the management database 3 in the order of the number of transfers.

The operation of the call center system 1 under the above conditions will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, an operator 80 of a predetermined terminal 70 in the call center 1 receives an external inquiry (ST1).

  Then, after the operator 80 receives an inquiry from the outside, the communication is exchanged. While communication is being performed, individual information such as the contact address of the inquiry source and information related to a predetermined product or service for the convenience of the operator 80 in replying to the inquiry are displayed on the response processing screen 90. The state is displayed (see, for example, FIG. 7).

  In addition, while the operator 80 is exchanging communications for inquiries from the outside, a reply to predetermined information such as e-mail is sent to the customer contact means 30 via the line 40 according to the contents of the inquiries from the outside. And verbal advice to customers. Then, the operator 80 operates the input unit 100 such as a keyboard or a mouse according to the progress of the response to the inquiry, and appropriately switches the display content of the information displayed on the response processing screen 90.

  In this way, the operator 80 may not be able to answer while the operator 80 is responding to an inquiry from the outside. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether or not escalation is necessary (ST2).

When escalation is necessary, the operator 80 operates the input unit 100 according to the content of the inquiry to input the category Xj of the inquiry content (ST3).
When the information of category Xj is input by the input means 100, the information is transmitted to the server 60, and the server 60 receiving the information refers to the escalation information recorded in the management database 3 corresponding to the category Xj (ST4). . If escalation is unnecessary, it is determined whether or not escalation is necessary while continuing the inquiry (ST2).

  Consider a case where the server 60 refers to information related to an escalation recorded in the management database 3 when the state related to the escalation recorded in the management database 3 is the state shown in FIG. At this time, the information about the escalation referred to by the server 60 includes the number of transfers 0 for A, the number of transfers 5 for B, the number of transfers 4 for C, the number of transfers 4 for D, and the number of transfers E The number of transfers is one.

Further, in the case where the storage form has been changed by sorting or the like according to the number of transfers to the secondary responder, the escalation information is information according to the order of the secondary responders A to E in which the transfer count is large. Become.
Based on the information related to the escalation, the server 60 performs control to display the escalation destination candidates on the response processing screen 90 (ST5). For example, the server 60 controls the response processing screen 90 to prioritize the display order for secondary responders who have the highest number of transfers among the secondary responders A to E.

  When candidates for escalation destinations are displayed on the response processing screen 90, the operator 80 inputs which of the corresponding responders A to E is selected as the transfer destination while referring to the response processing screen 90. The means 100 is operated (ST6).

  When the server 60 receives an instruction from the input unit 100 regarding which respondent to select as a transfer destination, the server 60 performs escalation to transfer communication related to the inquiry to the selected responder (ST7). .

  When escalation is performed, if the secondary counterpart of the transfer destination is, for example, A, information on the escalation stored in the management database 3 shown in FIG. 4B is updated by the server 60 (ST8). . That is, in the information about escalation, the number of transfers for A before update is updated so as to be increased by one.

  The management database shown in FIG. 4B is the same even if the transfer destination secondary counterpart is not A but B, C, D, or E. The information about the escalation stored in 3 is updated by the server 60. In other words, the number of transfers in the secondary responder is updated so as to increase by one.

  When the information related to the escalation shown in ST7 and the management database escalation shown in ST8 is updated, the inquiry received in ST1 is temporarily ended, and the flow returns to ST1.

  In this way, when the operator 80 escalates, escalation candidates are displayed on the response processing screen 90 based on the history so far regarding information related to escalation. Therefore, the operator 80 can easily select a secondary responder in the escalation. Therefore, the inquiry received by the operator can be easily transferred to an appropriate secondary responder.

  Further, among secondary responders A to E, the secondary responder who has the highest number of transfers, the priority is the display order on the response processing screen 90. When properly answered, the operator 80 can understand. Therefore, the inquiry received by the operator 80 can be more easily transferred to an appropriate secondary responder.

Furthermore, when selecting a candidate for an escalation destination to which an inquiry should be transferred by the input means 100, the inquiry can be more appropriately transferred to the secondary responder if it is based on the category corresponding to the inquiry content.
In other words, as described above, inquiries that require a response from a secondary respondent are often technical and complex, so by transferring the contents of the inquiry for each category of the inquiry, The expertise of responders can be demonstrated. Therefore, the secondary responder can make an appropriate answer to the transferred inquiry content.

  Furthermore, since the escalation destination candidates are classified according to the specialty of the secondary responder, the escalation destination candidates do not increase. Accordingly, the operator 80 can select an escalation destination within the range of a predetermined number of secondary responders, so that the inquiry can be easily transferred to an appropriate secondary responder.

(Example)
A more specific example of the above embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
In the present embodiment, the corresponding processing screen 90 of a predetermined one of the plurality of terminals 70 shown in FIG. 2A in the call center 2 of the call center system 1 shown in FIG. 1 is shown. A specific example of the contents will be described.

  Further, the operation of the call center system 1 in the present embodiment is softwareized, and is stored in the installed server 60 shown in FIG. 2A in the call center 2 and the algorithm related to the operation of the call center system 1 described above. It is controlled by a program that embodies (see FIGS. 3 and 4).

  FIG. 5A shows an example of the contents displayed on the correspondence processing screen 90 of the terminal 70 as in FIG. That is, the display of the response processing screen 90 shown in FIG. 5A is a screen when the operator 80 of the predetermined one terminal 70 receives an inquiry from the customer contact means 30. .

  On the response processing screen 90 shown in FIG. 5A, a call number as a contact address of the inquiry source is displayed. In addition, as information to be referred to when the operator 80 answers the inquiry, the group name of the person in charge, the name of the operator as the person in charge, the details of the problem pointed out by the customer, and the entry column for the answer details to be answered to the customer Is displayed.

  While the operator 80 proceeds with inquiries with the customer contact means 30 while referring to the response processing screen 90 in FIG. 5A, the operator 80 cannot respond to the customer, and the customer inquiry is transferred. Consider a case where a situation occurs in which escalation to be transferred to the destination 50 must be performed.

In that case, the operator 80 determines what category the inquiry content belongs in consideration of the exchange with the customer contact means 30.
Here, in the category of the contents of the inquiry that can be in this embodiment, “yellowing” of the product is assumed for “product” itself, “discoloration” of the product, and so on.

Then, it is assumed that the operator 80 determines that the category of the content of the inquiry is “discoloration”.
In the response processing screen 90 shown in FIG. 5A, three inquiry categories are classified by icons so that they can be selected by the mouse of the input means 100 as statuses.

  Therefore, the operator 80 clicks the “color change” icon displayed on the response processing screen 90 with the mouse, and then clicks the escalation icon displayed on the response processing screen 90.

Then, the click signal from the input means 100 is transmitted to the server 60.
Upon receiving the signal, the server 60 selects the inquiry category Xn (when “n” is 1, “product” category, when “n” is 2, “discolored” category, when “x” is 3, “yellowing” category) ), Information related to the escalation for the inquiry category X2 corresponding to n = 2 is referred to from the management database 3.

As shown in FIG. 4, information related to the escalation for the inquiry category X2 (n is 2 in FIG. 4) is stored in the management database 3.
In the present embodiment, among the transfer destination groups A to E shown in FIG. 4B, four of B to E excluding A for convenience of description of the present embodiment are considered as transfer destination candidates.

  In that case, the forwarding destination candidates B to E in the inquiry category X2 are specifically, the group B is a “quality control group”, the group C is a “customer telephone window”, and the group D is a “support center”. And Group E is “security support”.

  Further, it is assumed that escalation has already been performed several times and information about the escalation has been accumulated in the management database 3 when a situation in which escalation to transfer the inquiry to the transfer destination 50 has occurred.

  Under such assumptions, escalation has been conducted 5 times in the “quality management group”, escalation has been conducted 4 times in the “customer telephone window”, and escalation has been conducted 4 times in the “support center”. Assume that escalation has been performed once for "security support".

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4B, in the management database 3, information related to escalation is made to correspond in the descending order of the number of escalations performed so far, and the “quality management group”, “customer telephone window”, Recorded in the order of “Support Center” and “Security Support”.

  Therefore, the server 60 that refers to the management database 3 obtains data including the order of “quality management group”, “customer telephone contact”, “support center”, and “security support” as candidates for the destination of the inquiry.

The server 60 that has obtained the data displays the transfer destination candidates in the above order on the corresponding processing screen 90. That is, as shown in FIG. 5 (b), in the escalation destination selection screen displayed on the response processing screen 90, the “quality control group”, “customer telephone window”, “support center”, “security support” Display destination candidates in order.
In this case, a group having a higher number of escalations is displayed in the upper row.

  Then, the operator 80 is the group that has been escalated most frequently among the four transfer destination candidates displayed in the escalation destination selection screen displayed on the response processing screen 90. I can recognize that. The “quality management group” is recognized as the most suitable candidate for escalation.

  For this reason, the operator 80 can easily select the transfer destination in the escalation. As a result, the inquiry received by the operator can be easily transferred to an appropriate secondary responder.

  Therefore, the operator 80 operates the mouse as the input unit 100, brings the cursor corresponding to the mouse operation to the “quality control group” area, and clicks the button of the mouse.

  Then, according to the program, the server 60 displays a candidate for a transfer destination other than the “quality control group” in the escalation destination selection screen displayed on the response processing screen 90 as shown in FIG. Turn off.

  When the operator 80 clicks the “OK” icon in the escalation destination selection screen with the mouse, a click signal is sent to the server 60, and the inquiry received from the customer contact means 30 by the server 60 is transferred to the transfer destination “ Escalation to be transferred to “Quality Management Group”.

  After executing the escalation, the server 60 updates information related to the escalation for the inquiry category X2 in the management database 3. That is, the server 60 updates the stored information in the management database 3 so that the number of escalations for the “quality management group” is 5 to 6 times.

It is a lineblock diagram of a call center system concerning an embodiment of the present invention. (A) shows a server used in a call center and a plurality of terminals, and (b) is a schematic view of a corresponding processing screen (display) and input means (keyboard, mouse) in the terminal as seen from the side. . It is an example of the flowchart which shows operation | movement of the call center system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. (A) is a figure which shows the initial state of the information regarding the escalation memorize | stored in the management database used with the call center system shown in FIG. 1, (b) is the escalation performed by the server apparatus of a call center. It is a figure which shows the state in which the information regarding was accumulated. (A) is a figure which shows the content displayed on the corresponding | compatible process screen of the terminal device of a call center, (b) is a figure which shows the state by which multiple escalation destination candidates were displayed on the corresponding | compatible process screen, (c ) Is a diagram showing a state in which the escalation destination is selected in the corresponding process. It is a block diagram of the conventional call center system. It is an example of the figure which shows the content displayed on the corresponding | compatible process screen of the terminal device of a call center.

Explanation of symbols

1 ... call center system, 2 ... call center, 3 ... management database,
10 ... call center system, 20 ... call center, 30 ... customer contact means,
40 ... Line, 50 ... Destination, 60 ... Server, 70 ... Terminal, 80 ... Operator,
90 ... corresponding processing screen, 100 ... input means

Claims (1)

A server device that accepts predetermined communications related to inquiries from outside;
At least one terminal device connected to the server device to receive the predetermined communication and displaying a corresponding processing screen corresponding to the predetermined communication;
An input device for accepting an escalation operation for transferring the predetermined communication to the server device with respect to any one of a plurality of predetermined transfer destinations;
Storage means for storing history information related to the predetermined communication, and storage means for storing information related to escalation performed by the server device together with history information related to the predetermined communication;
A call center system comprising:
The storage means, together with the history information, indicates the number of transfers for each of the plurality of transfer destinations in an escalation performed by the server device for each at least one category classified according to the content of the inquiry from the outside. Remember,
When the input device accepts an escalation operation, the terminal device reads the transfer count according to the category of the inquiry content in the predetermined communication for performing the escalation from the storage unit, and the transfer count in the category is A call center system that displays the plurality of transfer destinations by giving priority to the display order as the number of transfer destinations increases.

Images