Information processing apparatus and data structure

Abstract

The objective of this invention is to improve the training efficiency of sales personnel. An information processing apparatus includes: a storage unit that stores information about a product, information about a negotiation scenario intended to encourage a customer to purchase the product, and information about the outcome of the negotiation in a manner that establishes a corresponding association; and a control unit that, when a condition is specified for the product or the outcome of the negotiation, outputs information about the scenario corresponding to that condition.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to an information processing device and a data structure. Background Technology

[0002] In various businesses, the quality of negotiations used to persuade customers to purchase goods depends on the individual skills of the salesperson; therefore, various technologies have been proposed to support and improve the negotiation skills of salespeople. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technology for searching for conversations that need to be monitored based on the content of the explanation given to the customer.

[0003] Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2019-28910 Summary of the Invention

[0004] Among the technologies that use machine learning and others to support improving salespeople's negotiation skills, there is room to improve the efficiency of salesperson training.

[0005] In view of the above, an information processing device that can improve the training efficiency of sales personnel is disclosed below.

[0006] The information processing apparatus of the present invention includes: a storage unit that stores information about a product, information about a negotiation scenario that prompts a customer to purchase the product, and information about the result of the negotiation in a manner that establishes a corresponding association; and a control unit that outputs information about the scenario corresponding to the specified conditions when conditions are specified for the product or the result of the negotiation.

[0007] The data structure in this invention establishes a corresponding association between product information, information about the negotiation scenario used to encourage customers to purchase the product, and information about the outcome of the negotiation. The data structure enables the information processing device to output information about the scenario corresponding to the conditions specified for the product or the outcome of the negotiation.

[0008] Invention Effects

[0009] The information processing device and the like of the present invention can improve the training efficiency of sales personnel. Attached Figure Description

[0010] Figure 1 This is a diagram illustrating an example of the structure of an information processing system.

[0011] Figure 2 This diagram illustrates the information in the negotiation records.

[0012] Figure 3 This is a flowchart illustrating the action steps of a server device. Detailed Implementation

[0013] The embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

[0014] Figure 1 This diagram illustrates a configuration example of one embodiment. The information processing system 1 includes one or more server devices 10 and terminal devices 12 connected to the server devices 10 via a network 11. The sales company server devices 10 are, for example, one or more server computers capable of communicating with each other, appropriately located, for example, in one or more sales offices of the vehicle sales company, one or more data centers, the cloud, or a combination thereof. The server devices 10 correspond to the "information processing device" in this embodiment. The terminal devices 12 are, for example, one or more information processing devices with communication and voice input functions, such as personal computers, portable tablet terminals, smartphones, etc. The terminal devices 12 are appropriately located, for example, in one or more vehicle sales offices and used by sales personnel. The terminal devices 12 have communication interfaces such as mobile communication and local area network (LAN) and are connected to the network 11 for information communication. Furthermore, the terminal devices 12 have microphones for acquiring the sound of conversations between sales personnel and customers and processors for processing sound information. Network 11 is, for example, a LAN within a business premises, the Internet, an ad hoc network, a metropolitan area network (MAN), a mobile communication network, or other networks or any combination thereof.

[0015] The information processing system 1 in this embodiment supports negotiations between vehicle sales personnel and customers. During these negotiations, sales personnel engage in various dialogues, including: listening to the customer's preferences or needs, providing information about products that align with those preferences or needs, and encouraging the customer to purchase the product when the customer has developed an understanding and acceptance of it. Hereinafter, "products" includes items and services. Items include, for example, vehicles such as cars and commercial vehicles, vehicle accessories, and maintenance supplies. Services include vehicle maintenance services and roadside assistance services.

[0016] The server device 10 of the information processing system 1 includes a storage unit 102 and a control unit 103. The storage unit 102 stores information about the product, information about the negotiation scenario used to encourage a customer to purchase the product, and information about the result of that negotiation (hereinafter referred to as the negotiation result) in a corresponding association manner in the negotiation record information 104. The negotiation result is the customer's agreement or refusal to purchase the product. Furthermore, when a user specifies conditions for the product or the negotiation result in the terminal device 12, the control unit 103 outputs scenario information (hereinafter referred to as scenario information) corresponding to the specified conditions. Upon receiving the scenario information, the terminal device 12 displays evaluation information to the user, i.e., the salesperson or their mentor. Thus, the salesperson or their mentor can learn from the negotiation scenarios previously conducted by the salesperson in charge of sales, thereby improving the efficiency of salesperson training.

[0017] Next, the communication unit 101, storage unit 102, and control unit 103 of the server device 10 will be described. When the server device 10 is composed of multiple server computers, the communication unit 101, storage unit 102, and control unit 103 can be appropriately distributed among the multiple server computers.

[0018] The communication unit 101 includes one or more communication interfaces. For example, a LAN interface. The communication unit 101 receives information for the operation of the server device 10 and sends information obtained through the operation of the server device 10. The server device 10 is connected to the network 11 via the communication unit 101 and communicates with the terminal device 12 via the network 11.

[0019] Storage unit 102 includes, for example, one or more semiconductor memories, one or more magnetic memories, one or more optical memories, or combinations of at least two of these, functioning as main storage, auxiliary storage, or cache memory. Semiconductor memories are, for example, random access memory (RAM) or read-only memory (ROM). RAM is, for example, static random access memory (SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (DRAM). ROM is, for example, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). Storage unit 102 stores control / processing programs required for the operation of server device 10, various information required by server device 10 to execute control / processing programs, and information obtained through the operation of server device 10.

[0020] The control unit 103 includes one or more processors, one or more dedicated circuits, or a combination thereof. The processor may be a general-purpose processor such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU) or a dedicated processor such as a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) for specific processing. The dedicated circuit may be, for example, a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). The control unit 103 controls the various parts of the server device 10 while performing information processing related to the operation of the server device 10.

[0021] In this embodiment, the storage unit 102 stores the negotiation record information 104. For example... Figure 2 As shown, the negotiation record information 104 contains one or more negotiation records 20. Each negotiation record 20 has scenario information and negotiation result information that are associated with the product information. The product information is used to identify the product, including the product name, price, and delivery method. The scenario information includes the negotiation date and time, scenario mode, and dialogue text used for analyzing the negotiation. The negotiation result information includes whether the customer agrees or refuses to purchase the product. The negotiation date and time included in the scenario information include the start date and time and the end date and time of the negotiation. The scenario mode is a distinction that can be arbitrarily set for the negotiation scenario, including "push mode," "trust building mode," "competitive comparison mode," and "data-driven mode." The dialogue text includes the text corresponding to the audio of the negotiation and its summary. The dialogue text includes phrases such as, "If we don't apply the coating, the car body will be damaged quickly, is that okay?" corresponding to the "Push-in Mode," "How is the coating usually applied?" corresponding to the "Trust-building Mode," "It's more durable than Company 00's coating" corresponding to the "Competitive Comparison Mode," and "Company 00's coating lasts for more than 00 days" corresponding to the "Data-driven Mode." Furthermore, the negotiation record information 104 contains analysis information 21 derived from multiple negotiation records 20. Analysis information 21 includes information on the agreement rate for each scenario mode corresponding to the product information. The agreement rate is the ratio of the number of combinations of agreed-upon negotiation outcome information to the total number of combinations, within a given combination of product information and scenario mode.

[0022] Return to Figure 1 Storage unit 102 also stores a Large Language Model (LLM) 105. In cases where server device 10 consists of multiple server computers, LLM 105 can be stored on any server computer, such as a server computer providing cloud services. LLM 105 is a machine learning model that uses large amounts of text data for natural language processing, and is a language model capable of performing natural language processing tasks such as information extraction, article summarization, and question answering in a general manner.

[0023] Figure 3 This is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation of server device 10. Figure 3 Each step in the process is executed by the control unit 103 of the server device 10.

[0024] Figure 3(A) is an example of the steps when storing negotiation record information 104 in server device 10, and is an example of the steps executed by the control unit 103 of server device 10 when a user uses terminal device 12 to start the negotiation support function of server device 10. When a salesperson operates terminal device 12 to request the negotiation support function, terminal device 12 sends the start request of the support function to server device 10.

[0025] When the control unit 103 of the server device 10 receives a request to activate the support function, it activates the negotiation support function in response to the request (S20). Next, the control unit 103 acquires dialogue information (S21). When a salesperson negotiates with a customer, if the audio of the negotiation is acquired in the terminal device 12, dialogue information including the audio data of the negotiation is sent from the terminal device 12 to the server device 10. Next, the control unit 103 generates the dialogue text of the negotiation (S22). For example, the control unit 103 is triggered by receiving information indicating that the negotiation has ended from the terminal device 12 (e.g., information indicating a period of silence). It then performs voice recognition processing on the audio data contained in the dialogue information to generate the dialogue text of the negotiation. At this time, the control unit 103 can perform speaker analysis, distinguish between the salesperson's and the customer's statements, and determine the salesperson's statement text. Next, the control unit 103 generates a negotiation record based on the dialogue text of the negotiation (S23). Control unit 103 derives the negotiation date and time based on the timestamp of the dialogue information, and uses LLM 105 to analyze the dialogue text, extracting product information, scenario information, and negotiation results for the target customer. Scenario information includes a summary or overview of the negotiation. The negotiation results are extracted from the text expressing the customer's willingness or refusal to purchase. Refusal to purchase includes situations where the customer hesitates to buy. Next, control unit 103 categorizes the scenario information into scenario patterns (S24). Control unit 103 uses LLM 105 to analyze the dialogue text, classifying the scenario information into scenario patterns based on the salesperson's dialogue style during the negotiation. Next, control unit 103 derives analysis information, namely the customer's agreement rate, for each product's scenario pattern (S25). Then, control unit 103 stores or updates negotiation record information 104 containing negotiation records and analysis information (S26). Finally, control unit 103 concludes the process. Figure 3 (A) steps.

[0026] Figure 3(B) is an example of a step in which the server device 10 searches for scenario information corresponding to a specified condition from the negotiation record information 104. It is also an example of a step executed by the control unit 103 of the server device 10, whereby a user uses the terminal device 12 to specify a specified condition to the server device 10. When a salesperson operates the terminal device 12 to specify a specified condition, the terminal device 12 sends the specified condition information to the server device 10. The specified condition information may be specified, for example, by presenting the user with product information pre-stored in the terminal device 12, allowing the user to appropriately select from the presented product information. Alternatively, the product information may be pre-stored in the storage unit 102 of the server device 10 and sent from the server device 10 to the user. Furthermore, the specified condition information may include an agreement rate. The user can operate the terminal device 12 to set any agreement rate.

[0027] When the control unit 103 of the server device 10 acquires information about specified conditions (S31), it searches for scene information matching the specified conditions from the negotiation record information 104 (S32). If scene information matching the specified conditions can be found (S33 "Yes"), the control unit 103 outputs the scene information to the terminal device 12 (S34). Conversely, if scene information matching the specified conditions cannot be found (S33 "No"), the control unit 103 outputs a search failure notification to the terminal device 12 (S35) and terminates the process. Figure 3 (B) Step. In addition, when outputting multiple scene information, the control unit 103 can sort them from high to low according to the agreement rate, or select the scene information with the highest agreement rate and prompt it.

[0028] When terminal device 12 receives the searched scenario information, it outputs the scenario information to the user. Conversely, when it receives a search failure notification, it outputs information indicating that no scenario information matching the specified conditions does not exist to the user. The user, i.e., the salesperson or their mentor, can learn negotiation techniques from experienced salespeople by visually recognizing the negotiation scenario patterns, summaries, and dialogue text contained in the displayed scenario information. In particular, when a desired agreement rate is specified as a condition, the salesperson or their mentor can learn negotiation techniques to achieve that desired agreement rate. Furthermore, even if the customer expresses difficulty midway through the negotiation, the salesperson or their mentor can learn dialogue techniques to obtain agreement. Therefore, the efficiency of salesperson training can be improved.

[0029] In the foregoing, the embodiments have been described based on the accompanying drawings and examples. However, those skilled in the art should note that various modifications and alterations can be easily made based on this invention. Therefore, it should be noted that these modifications and alterations are included within the scope of this invention. For example, the functions included in each mechanism, step, etc., can be reconfigured without logically contradicting each other, and multiple mechanisms, steps, etc., can be combined into one or divided.

[0030] Symbol Explanation

[0031] 10-Server device, 11-Network, 12-Terminal device, 101-Communication department, 102-Storage department, 103-Control department, 104-Negotiation record information, 105-Large-scale language model.

Claims

1. An information processing device, characterized in that, have: The storage unit stores product information, information about the negotiation scenario used to encourage customers to purchase the product, and information about the outcome of the negotiation in a manner that establishes corresponding associations; and The control unit, when specifying conditions for the product or the result of the negotiation, outputs information about the scenario corresponding to those conditions.

2. The information processing device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The outcome of the negotiations is either agreement to purchase or rejection.

3. The information processing device according to claim 2, characterized in that, The conditions for the results include the agreement rate for each mode of the scenario.

4. A data structure that establishes a corresponding association between product information, information about a negotiation scenario used to encourage a customer to purchase the product, and information about the outcome of the negotiation, characterized in that... The information processing device outputs information about the scenario corresponding to the conditions specified for the product or the result of the negotiation.

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