KR100501408B1 - Method for providing a consultation service based on VoIP collect-call system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a collect call service method. In more detail, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing a professional counseling service using a VoIP based collect call system. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in the counseling service providing method in which a counselor wishes to first provide information necessary for counseling through a terminal, and the counselor answers a counseling result based on information provided in advance through a collect call. When the terminal of the counselor wishing to access the page transmits consultation basic information through the affiliated home page, the affiliated homepage identifier pre-assigned to the affiliated homepage, the collect call reception number requested by the counselor, and the counselor's selection Storing the counselor identifier corresponding to the database in the database; transmitting the counseling basic information, the cooperative home page identifier, and the collect call reception number to the terminal of the counselor corresponding to the counselor identifier; and the terminal of the counselor. Start a call to the collect call destination number If a call start time is recorded, and the call is terminated, a call service providing method using a VoIP collect call system is provided.

Description

Method for providing a consultation service based on a collect call system

The present invention relates to a collect call service method. In more detail, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing a counseling service using a VoIP based collect call system.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a consultation service providing process using a conventional ARS. Referring to FIG. 1, a counselor wishes to make a call using a phone number already known in order to receive a paid consultation (100). Paid counseling via wired / wireless telephones is provided through the Automatic Response System (ARS), which includes fortune-telling, securities, and tax consultations. The ARS receiving the counseling call outputs a menu of several items that can be selected by the counselor, for example, the type of counseling service desired and counselor selection, in a pre-stored voice, and then receives the counselor's selection. 105). When the call is connected with the counselor selected by the counselor (110), the counselor wishes to first discuss the counseling content (115) and then hear the counselor's results from the counselor (120).

Most ARS counseling services charge a fee for the counseling candidate after a certain amount of time has passed since the call with the counselor has been connected. A large part of the paid counseling time is required for selecting a counselor and explaining the counseling contents. If the counselor can not clearly explain the counseling contents, the talk time becomes long. In addition, since the ARS counseling service is limited to the voice exchange means of counseling between counselors and counselors, only some services (for example, fortune-telling or dream interpretation, etc.) that can sufficiently deliver counseling contents through counseling between counselors and counselors. Available through ARS. In addition, since the ARS counseling service is performed in real time, the counseling service cannot be provided when a counselor is absent or a plurality of counseling requests are requested at the same time. In addition, the ARS counseling service requires expensive CTI equipment, so the operator providing the counseling service has a burden of investing a large amount of capital at the beginning of the business.

In order to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to implement a method for providing a consultation service through the VoIP collect call system. In addition, an object of the present invention is to provide a counseling agent using the terminal to deliver counseling content information and / or counselor designation information, and the counselor derives sufficient counseling results based on a free form of counseling content information transmitted by the counselor. It is to make counseling possible.

In order to achieve the above object, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the counselor wishes to first provide information necessary for counseling through the terminal, the counselor counseling the counseling results based on the information provided in advance through a collect call In the providing method, when the terminal of the counselor wishing to access the affiliated homepage transmits consultation basic information through the affiliated homepage, the affiliated homepage identifier pre-assigned to the affiliated homepage and the collect call requested by the counselor wished are received. Storing a counselor identifier corresponding to the number and the counselor's selection in a database, and transmitting the counseling basic information, the cooperative home page identifier, and the collect call reception number to a terminal of an counselor corresponding to the counselor identifier. And the terminal of the counselor collects the Recording a call start time when a call to the call reception number is started; and calculating a call time by recording a call end time when the call ends, wherein the consultation basic information includes text data, image data, sound data, and the like. Provided are a counseling service providing method using a VoIP collect call system, which is one of these combined types of data. Here, the collect call reception number transmitted to the terminal of the counselor is not exposed to the counselor and may be deleted after the call is terminated.

The method may further include providing a list of counseling services selectable by the counseling applicant and at least one counselor list corresponding thereto when the terminal of the counseling applicant accesses the affiliated home page.

The counseling service providing method may further include selecting a valid call and an invalid call using at least one of the call start time, the call end time, and the call time and based on any one of an agent and an affiliated homepage. The method may further include calculating a total talk time of the selected valid call. Here, the selection of the valid call and the invalid call is performed by comparing the call start time, the call end time, the call time, and the CDR generated by the collect call exchanger which relayed the collect call recorded in the database. You can select a call.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, in the counseling service providing method in which the counselor wishes to first provide information necessary for counseling through the terminal, and the counselor answers the counseling result based on the information provided in advance through a collect call. When the terminal of the counselor wishing to access the management server transmits the consultation basic information to the terminal of the counselor connected to the counseling service management server, storing the collect call reception number and the counselor identifier requested by the counselor in a database; Calculating a call time by recording a call start time when a terminal of a counselor starts a call to the collect call reception number, and recording a call end time when a call is ended; the call start time, the call end time, Effective call using at least one of the talk time And selecting an invalid call and calculating a total call time of the selected effective call for each agent, wherein the consultation basic information includes any one of text data, image data, sound data, and data in a combined form thereof. Provided are a counseling service providing method using one VoIP collect call system.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the description of the present invention with reference to the embodiments is intended to facilitate understanding of the present invention by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains, and it is described in the accompanying drawings and the detailed description of the present invention. It is not limited to an Example. In addition, in the present specification, the gist of the present invention may be more clearly understood by omitting descriptions of well-known technologies that can be understood by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains and which can be easily used for the implementation of the present invention. Do it. In addition, the VoIP collect call system and method referred to herein refers to a VoIP based collect call service method and a system thereof filed by the applicant of November 14, 2002, but other modified VoIP based collect call. Of course, the present invention can be applied to a system.

2 is an exemplary view schematically illustrating a VoIP based collect call service method according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, the counselor selects a counseling service provided through a client program pre-installed in the terminal, and selects a desired counselor from a plurality of counselor lists providing the selected counseling service (200). Here, the terminal of the counselor may be any one of an electronic information processing device (for example, a computer, a PDA, a notebook, etc.) coupled to the wired / wireless internet, or a cellular phone coupled to a wireless communication network. In addition, the client program pre-installed in the terminal of the counselor may be either a general-purpose web browser or a dedicated browser. Here, a general-purpose web browser may be pre-installed with a plug-in necessary for using a consultation service, or may be automatically downloaded from a cooperative home page or a consultation service management server by a counselor when using the consultation service.

Counselors who have selected counseling services and counselors transmit counseling basic information to counselors (205). When the consultation service is provided through the affiliate home page, the counselor may post the consultation basic information on a bulletin board or the like, or may directly transmit the consultation basic material to the counselor through the affiliate home page. Here, the transmission of consultation basic information through the affiliate home page is (1) sent to the terminal of the agent via the consultation service management server, and (2) sent directly to the terminal of the agent from the affiliate home page (without the consultation service management server). And (3) the case where the agent's terminal is directly received from the affiliate homepage (via the consultation service management server). If the counseling service is provided in a P2P manner, counseling basic information is transmitted directly from the counselor's terminal to the counselor's terminal. Since information transmission is a well-known technique, detailed description is omitted in order to avoid the complicated description.

The consultation basic information transmitted may be text data, image data, sound data, or a combination thereof. In other words, the information that can be delivered by voice may differ depending on the counselor, and in the case of professional services, it may not be possible to deliver all the information by voice alone. It can be provided to counselors in various forms. For example, in the case of a fortune counseling service using a tarot card, a counselor may select a certain number of tarot cards to receive counseling. However, in the case of telephone counseling using the ARS, the counselor can not select the tarot card, so the counselor is currently provided with only simple text information on the Internet or directly to the fortune telling cafe to receive counseling. However, according to an embodiment of the present invention, if the counselor selects any number of counselors and counselors selected from the tarot cards displayed on his terminal, the selected counselor can check the tarot card selected by the counselor, and through the collect call It is possible to listen to the counseling result of the counselor by voice. In the case of patent counseling, counselors are often unable to accurately understand, on the telephone, inventions developed by counselors. Therefore, almost all consultations are face-to-face, which can result in time and money loss for the counselor. In other words, even in the case of an invention with a low value of a patent application, it is necessary to meet a patent attorney directly and then pass a sample or data on the developed invention to receive an accurate consultation result. In addition, it can be applied to various professional services such as medical care, taxation and law.

The counselor, who has received the counseling basic information from the counseling candidate, analyzes it (210) and makes a collect call to the counseling candidate (215). Here, the counselor can make a call by computer-computer or computer-general phone by pressing the call button displayed on his terminal.

The counselor who receives the collect call for the counseling result from the counselor determines whether to talk (220), and then listens to the counseling result from the counselor (225, 230).

Example 1

3 is a flowchart illustrating a counseling service providing process according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and illustrates a processing flow when providing a counseling service through an affiliate homepage. Referring to FIG. 3, the counselor wishes to cooperate with the homepages 310-1 to 310-n that provide counseling services to their terminals 300-1 to 300-n (hereinafter referred to as 300). After the connection, the desired counseling service and counselor are selected (S400). The counselor may select a specific counselor, and after selecting only a specific counseling service, the affiliated home page or the counseling service management server may select a counselor. The server managing the affiliated home page may be a server that is physically / logically separated from the consultation service management server or a server that is not physically / logically separated. In other words, the consultation service may be provided by one operator, or the consultation service may be provided by cooperation of different operators.

Corresponds to an affiliate home page identifier, such as a PIN previously assigned to each affiliate home page, a collect call reception number requested by the counseling applicant, and a selection of the counseling applicant through the affiliate home page which received an application for consultation from the terminal 300 of the counseling applicant. The counselor identifier such as the counselor identifier and the counselor's ID to be transmitted is transmitted to the counseling service management server, and the counseling basic information is passed through the counseling service management server or the counselor's terminals 330-1 to 330-n; Indicated directly) (S410). In another embodiment, the affiliate home page identifier, collect call reception number, and counselor wish identifier may be transmitted together to the agent's terminal. Of course, the counseling basic information may be notified that the counselor has requested a counseling while maintaining the status posted on the bulletin board of the affiliate homepage, and the counselor may directly view the counseling basic information through the bulletin board or download it to his terminal. Although any embodiment may modify the transmission method of the counseling basic data, if the counselor wishes to provide the basic information necessary for counseling in advance without limiting the format, and the counselor derives the counseling result through the counseling agent, the counselor may be in the scope of the present invention. It will only be a variant.

When the consultation service management server 320 receives the affiliate home page identifier, the collect call reception number, the agent identifier, and the counselor identifier from the affiliate home page 310, the consultation service management server 320 stores the result in a billing database and corresponds to the agent's terminal. In step S420, the affiliate home page identifier and the collect call reception number are transmitted. The counseling service management server 320 may further transmit an identifier (eg, a serial number assigned to each counseling request) for distinguishing multiple counseling applications of the same counseling candidate to the counselor's terminal 330. In another embodiment, when the counseling basic data is received from the affiliate homepage 310, the agent transmits it to the counselor's terminal 330 or notifies the counselor's terminal 330 that the counseling request has been received, and the counselor counsels directly. It may be configured to check the access to the service management server 320.

When the agent receives the affiliated homepage identifier and the collect call reception number from the consultation service management server to his terminal 330, checks the consultation basic data, and then calls the collect call number provided by the counselor, the agent's terminal 330 notifies that the call is started to the consultation service management server 320 (S430). Preferably, the terminal 330 of the counselor does not expose the collect call number to the counselor, and when the counselor presses a call button, the counselor deletes it from the counselor's terminal. This is to prevent the counselor from illegally using the personal information of the counselor. The counseling service management server 320 receiving the call start notification from the counselor terminal 330 stores the call start time to correspond to an affiliated home page identifier, a collect call reception number, an agent identifier, and a counseling candidate identifier related to the counseling request.

The terminal 330 of the counselor transmits the collect call number to the collect call exchanger 340 (S440). As a result, the counselor can talk to the counselor using the VoIP call path formed between his terminal 330 and the collect call exchanger 340. Detailed descriptions, such as signaling between the exchange terminal, the GW, and the GK, may be omitted for the counselor terminal 330, the collect call exchanger 340, and the call setup / voice call / call release. Since the actual billing is made by the operator having the collect call exchanger, the counselor terminal 330 preferably transmits the affiliate home page identifier and the agent identifier together with the collect call number to the collect call exchanger 340. The collect call exchanger 340 generates a CDR including an affiliate home page identifier and an agent identifier in addition to the call start time, call end time, and collect call number, and stores the generated CDR in the billing database. The CDR stored in the billing database can also be used to distinguish invalid calls that the counseling candidate has not received a collect call or abnormally terminated.

The collect call exchanger 340 forms a voice call path with the collect call number, and when the counselor wishes to accept the collect call to listen to the consultation result, the call call exchanger 340 connects the voice call path with the counselor (S450). When the call is normally terminated, the call end time is recorded by the collect call exchanger, and the consultation service management server 320 may also receive a call end notification from the terminal 330 of the counselor and record the call end time.

When the call is terminated, the consultation service management server 320 and the collect call exchanger 340 periodically select a valid call and an invalid call, calculate a total talk time effective for each affiliate home page and the agent, and set a predetermined rate. Distribute counseling service fees on a regular basis.

Example 2

4 is a flowchart illustrating a counseling service providing process according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, which illustrates an exemplary embodiment in which a counseling candidate and an agent communicate in a P2P manner through an instant messenger or an Internet messenger (IM). . Hereinafter, the differences from the embodiment using the affiliated home page shown in FIG. 3 will be mainly described.

When an arbitrary counselor logs in to the counseling service management server 320 to which a plurality of counselors are connected, a list of counseling services available to the counselor's terminal 300 and information on counselors who can apply for counseling for each list are displayed. It becomes (S500).

After the counselor selects an arbitrary counselor and inputs the counseling basic information, the counseling basic information input to the counselor's terminal 330 is transmitted (S320). In this case, when the counselor selects a counselor, a chat window that enables the counselor to talk with the counselor is displayed on the counselor's terminal and the counselor's terminal, and the counselor may input the counseling basic data through the chat. In addition, in the case of a counseling service in which the counselor needs to select from a list of choices provided by the counselor, such as a fortune counseling service using a tarot card, an input window including a list of choices that the counselor may select may be output on the counselor's terminal. have. The selection list selected by the counseling candidate is transmitted to the counselor's terminal 330 as counseling basic information. The subsequent steps are the same as the steps S430 to S450 in FIG.

In the present specification, a method of providing a counseling service using a VoIP-based collect call system has been described with reference to an embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and many variations are possible by those skilled in the art within the spirit of the present invention. In addition, the scope of the present invention can be interpreted only by the claims described below.

As described above, according to the present invention, since the counselor does not use the paid talk time to explain the counseling contents, the counselor can receive counseling from an expert at a low cost. In addition, according to the present invention, since the counseling candidate can deliver information related to the counseling content to the counselor in advance without limiting the format, the counselor can receive more faithful counseling from an expert.

In addition, according to the present invention, an expert who is a counselor no longer needs to respond to a counseling request of a counselor in real time, and at the same time, a plurality of counseling requests may be sequentially processed. In addition, according to the present invention, since the counselor receives in advance various contents of counseling contents provided by the counselor, the counselor can provide various types of counseling services that could not be provided through ARS, and provide more faithful counseling. can do.

Lastly, according to the present invention, an operator providing a consultation service can provide various high quality consultation services without purchasing expensive CTI equipment.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a consultation service providing process using a conventional ARS.

2 is an exemplary view schematically illustrating a process of providing a consultation service according to the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a consultation service providing process according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a consultation service providing process according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (6)

In the counseling service providing method for the counselor first provides information necessary for consultation through the terminal, the counselor answers the consultation result based on the information provided in advance through a collect call, When the terminal of the counselor wishing to access the affiliated homepage transmits the consultation basic information through the affiliated homepage, the affiliated homepage identifier previously assigned to the affiliated homepage, the collect call reception number requested by the counselor, and the counselor desired. Storing in the database an agent identifier corresponding to the selection of; Transmitting the consultation basic information, the affiliate home page identifier, and the collect call reception number to a terminal of a counselor corresponding to the counselor identifier; And Comprising a step of calculating the call time by recording the call start time when the terminal of the agent starts the call to the collect call reception number, and recording the call end time when the call is terminated, And the counseling basic information is any one of text data, image data, sound data, and data in a combined form thereof. The method of claim 1, The collect call reception number transmitted to the terminal of the counselor is not exposed to the counselor and is deleted after the call is terminated. The method of claim 1, When the terminal of the counselor wishes to access the affiliated home page, counseling using the VoIP collect call system, characterized in that it further comprises providing a list of counseling services selectable by the counselor and at least one counselor corresponding thereto. How we deliver the service. The method of claim 1, Selecting a valid call and an invalid call using at least one of the call start time, the call end time, and the call time; And On the basis of any one of the counselor and the affiliated home page, calculating the total talk time of the selected effective call further comprising the method of providing a consultation service using the VoIP collect call system. The method of claim 4, wherein Selection of effective currency and invalid currency, VoIP collect call, characterized in that the valid call and the invalid call is selected by comparing the call start time, the call end time, the call time and the CDR generated by the collect call exchanger relaying the collect call recorded in the database. Method of providing consultation service using the system. In the counseling service providing method for the counselor first provides information necessary for consultation through the terminal, the counselor answers the consultation result based on the information provided in advance through a collect call, When the terminal of the counselor wishing to access the counseling service management server transmits basic counseling information to the counselor's terminal connected to the counseling service managing server, storing a collect call reception number requested by the counseling counselor and a counselor identifier in a database; Calculating a call time by recording a call start time when the terminal of the counselor starts a call to the collect call reception number and recording a call end time when the call ends; Selecting a valid call and an invalid call using at least one of the call start time, the call end time, and the call time; And Computing the total talk time of the selected effective call for each agent, And the counseling basic information is any one of text data, image data, sound data, and data in a combined form thereof.