JPH0268660A - Reservation ticket issuing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To level the business in reservation center and to offer convenience to customers by providing a means which updates and changes the order of automatic calling based on a record at a intervals of a certain number of times of calling. CONSTITUTION:When a user selects the reservation business, a main control part 1 automatically originates a call to a reservation center 13 by a telephone set 6, and the control part 1 originates the call repeatedly a prescribed number of times when the reservation center 13 is busy; and when speaking is impossible, the control part 1 changes the reservation center in accordance with a determined order to originate the call. Calling and connection actual results are accumulated and recorded on the memory of the main control part 1, and when the frequency of processing is over a constant frequency the order of destination reservation centers to be called is changed based on the record to originate the call. When it takes a long time to perform the business processing because reservation centers are busy, the reservation business is stopped. Thus, the business is reservation centers is leveled; and when the acceptance processing is difficult because reservation centers are busy, the function is stopped, and this stop is displayed to prevent customers from vainly queuing.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention is a reservation/ticketing device suitable for leveling operations at a reservation center and convenience for customers in reservation operations for theaters, event halls, hotels, transportation facilities, etc. Regarding.

(Prior Art) As a device for accepting and deciding reservations at a reservation/ticketing device terminal and transmitting the information to a host computer, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 62-108360 and 58-16648 are known.
There is an invention disclosed in Publication No. 5. In these systems, there is an operator at the reservation center, and the terminal user uses a telephone attached to the terminal to talk to the reservation center and register a reservation.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) The above-mentioned conventional technology has the advantage that reservation details can be obtained immediately because the reservation details are determined through conversation between the customer and the operator of the reservation center. It is necessary to connect a line from the terminal to the reservation center by automatic dialing, but especially at the time of starting reservations, reservation application calls are concentrated on a specific reservation center, making calls impossible, resulting in processing delays and terminal failures. In addition to outages, in extreme cases, lines can become paralyzed, which can spread to social problems. In addition, as in the embodiments described later, devices equipped with information terminal functions other than those for reservation and ticketing operations have the problem of problems when the processing time for reservation operations takes a long time.

The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a reservation/ticket issuing device suitable for leveling out operations on the reservation center side and convenience for customers.

(Means for solving the problem) The above purpose is to automatically call the reservation center by changing the order of calls to the reservation ticket issuing device terminal (hereinafter abbreviated as reservation terminal).
A reservation center with a high call connection rate is searched and controlled to accept reservations, and the actual connection rate of each reservation center is cumulatively recorded, and the automatic call order is changed every fixed number of times. When the actual connection rate is less than the reference value, the reservation task cannot be processed and other tasks are continued. In addition, information such as the reservation center's opening status, operating hours, telephone number, call order, call cost, etc. is transmitted from the host computer at the start of business and by contacting each time.

This is achieved by configuring the system so that control commands for the entire system are issued from the host side.

(Function) The reservation terminal has a means of connection with the host computer, a telephone that can communicate with the reservation center and others, an operation section that performs input and output for users and staff, a ticket issuing mechanism that prints tickets, and a system that processes slips and cards. It consists of a slip card mechanism (cash receipt and payment mechanism if necessary), a voice guidance section, and a main control section that controls each of the above mechanisms. Have the center automatically make a call to your phone. If the reservation center is busy, try calling again the specified number of times, and if the call is still not possible.

Calls are made to different reservation centers one after another according to a predetermined order. The call and connection results are cumulatively recorded in the memory of the main control unit. If the number of times this reservation service is processed exceeds a certain number of times, the calling order of the destination reservation center to which the call is made is changed based on the record.

If the reservation center is crowded and business processing takes a long time, the reservation business is stopped (functionality is degraded) and other business functions as a terminal are continued.

(Example) An example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a reservation terminal according to the present invention.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a main control unit composed of a microprocessor, memory, etc., 2 a transmission control unit for communicating with a host computer, and 3 an operation unit, which is composed of a CRT display 4, a touch panel 5, and a telephone 6. Reference numeral 7 represents a ticket issuing mechanism for issuing tickets, etc., and 8 represents a slip and card mechanism section, which is comprised of a magnetic card read/write mechanism 8a, a statement slip and journal printing mechanism 8b, and an imprint mechanism 8C. 9
10 is a payment mechanism that dispenses banknotes, and 10 is a voice guidance section that provides audio guidance. The reservation terminal 11 configured as described above selects a business from among reservations, ticketing, cash advance, etc., and performs operations regarding the business. FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of an embodiment of the reservation terminal according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the connection relationship in the embodiment of the present invention, in which the host computer 12 is connected to each reservation terminal 11a...
lln is connected, and is also connected to each reservation center 13a . . . 13n via a telephone line. One reservation center 13a includes reservation terminals 11a...lln,
- Reservation applications can also be accepted from customers outside the terminal through the general telephone 15i. In this case, the customer can receive a ticket by depositing money into the reservation terminal 11a...lln within a predetermined period using the reservation number received as proof. At this time, the reservation terminal only performs ticketing operations. Further, the reservation center notifies the host computer of the contents of the reservation. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the flow of business processing in (a) at the start of business and at the end of each-time contact business, (b) at the time of reservation business, and (c) at the time of ticketing business. The reservation terminal 11 shown in FIG. 1 is configured to be able to accept reservations, issue tickets, and perform cash advance operations.
An example of the flow of the above guidance display is shown in FIG. In other words, the customer selects "Cashing" and "Cashing" on the initial screen shown in the figure.
This figure shows the flow of processing when ``reservation ticketing'' is selected from ``reservation ticketing'' and ``ticketing''.

Next, the features of the reservation ticket issuing device of the present invention will be explained in detail. First, the reservation terminal 11 reads the status of the reservation center 13 shown in FIG. 6 from the host computer 12 at the start of business and when contacted each time. When the customer selects the reservation service as described above, a call is automatically made to the reservation center 13 using the attached telephone 6, and at this time, the destination reservation center 13 is selected according to the chart order shown in FIG. If the other party's reservation center is busy, the call is repeated a specified number of times.

If communication is still not possible, only the number of outgoing calls data in the chart of FIG. 6 is incremented and recorded, the next destination is read from the chart of FIG. 6, and the telephone automatically makes the call again.

When connected to the other party, the reservation center accepts the reservation and records the number of calls shown in the chart of FIG. 6 each time the call is made. While recording the above call and line connection status, the destination reservation center 13 is accessed in the order of access based on the connection status record as shown in No. 7, and when connection is not possible, the connection destination is changed one after another, and business processing is completed within the specified time. If the limit is exceeded, the reservation process is stopped, a message to that effect is displayed to the customer, and the screen returns to the initial screen.

When the number of processing times for the above reservation business reaches a certain number, the transmission order in FIG. 6 is rewritten as shown in FIGS. 8(a) to 8(b). There are various rewriting procedures, but as in this embodiment, for example, a method of calculating the connectable ratio by referring to the connection status record and arranging the rewriting in descending order of the ratio,
A leveling process such as connecting each terminal to the nearest reservation center can be considered.

Next, if the reservation center is crowded and business processing takes a long time, the reservation service will be stopped and this will be displayed on the function display section 14 of the reservation terminal 11 (Fig. 9), and this will be sent to the customer who is making the reservation application. By notifying applicants, we are taking care not to create unnecessary lines. That is, in the normal state, among the function display sections 14, the "caching" display 14a can be processed.

Both the "reservation" display 14b and the "ticketing" display 14c are turned on, but if the reservation service is stopped as described above, it is sufficient to turn off the "reservation" display 14b.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the judgment is made based on the congestion level of the line and the ratio of the actual number of times the line has been connected to the number of outgoing calls.
Furthermore, it is also possible to measure the time it takes to communicate with the other party after connecting and making a call, and to capture the data as data to determine the degree of congestion.

As mentioned above, each reservation terminal 11 performs reservation work, but each reservation terminal 11 reports the connection status to each reservation center 13 to the host computer 12 at the end of the work or by contacting each time. It is possible for the host computer to grasp the overall congestion level of the reservation center's telephone line.

Based on this overall situation, we formulate a procedure for operating the reservation business for each reservation terminal 11, and send the contents of the diagram in Figure 6 to the reservation terminal 11 at the start of business and in communication each time, and operate the business as described above. Processing will be carried out.

As another example, if the desired reservation ticket is sold out,
If it becomes clear in advance that the reservation application is useless or useless, the information may be sent to the reservation terminal 11 so that the customer can select from other options and display it. It is possible. In this case, if there are not many reservations, such as theaters, that handle more than 100 performances, an automatic reservation system can be configured by searching only with the reservation terminal 11. In that case, there is no need for personal inquiries to the reservation center, and reservations can be made by searching only with the reservation terminal 11. The terminal 11 makes a direct inquiry to the host computer 12. In this case, if a program is sold out, it is possible to display that the program is not available without inquiring the host. With this system, the same effect can be achieved by suspending the reservation process when all available performances are sold out and displaying this to the customer.

(Effects of the Invention) By implementing the present invention, it is possible to prevent a particular line from becoming unusable due to a concentration of reservation applications, and to level out the work on the reservation center side, making it difficult to process receptions due to congestion at the reservation center. If so, the function will be stopped and this will be displayed so that customers will not be forced to wait in line. Furthermore, when the reservation terminal has multiple functions, it is possible to effectively utilize functions other than reservation. In particular, by distributing the reservation center according to the present invention, reservation centers that accept a single telephone number for each sales company or region can avoid disruption of telephone lines in specific regions due to concentration of reservations. This is an extremely effective means of improving the efficiency of reservation reception operations.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a reservation ticket issuing device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of a reservation terminal according to the present invention,
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the connection relationship of the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 (a
), (b), and (c) are diagrams showing the flow of business processing according to the present invention, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the flow of guidance display on a CRT display according to the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the flow of business processing according to the present invention. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram for updating the transmission order of the present invention. FIGS. 8(a) and (b) are diagrams showing the display update of FIG. 7 based on the connectability rate. FIG. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the reservation ticket issuing device with functions displayed. 1... Main control section 2... Transmission control section 3...
・User operation unit 6...Telephone 7...Ticketing mechanism 11...Reservation terminal 12...Host computer

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a reservation and ticketing device that performs ticket reservation reception and ticket issuance operations, the reservation and ticketing device terminal communicates with the host and receives information from the host computer such as the opening status of the reservation center, operating hours, telephone number, means for reading information such as call costs; means for automatically calling the reservation center in a predetermined order set in advance; and accepting reservations at reservation centers that are capable of communication connection and accumulating a communication connection possibility rate for each reservation center. and means for updating and changing the automatic transmission order every predetermined number of times based on the recording. 2. The reservation ticket issuing device according to claim 1, wherein when the communication connection possibility rate is less than a predetermined reference value, it is determined and displayed that the reservation reception task cannot be processed.