Response support apparatus, response support system, response support method, and program

Abstract

To provide an answer support device 12, an answer support system 1, an answer support method, and a program for creating an answer corresponding to a reception channel.SOLUTION: An answer support device 12 supports an answer to an inquiry, and includes a reception unit 31 capable of receiving the inquiry from a plurality of channels, an inquiry recognition unit 51 recognizing contents of the inquiry received by the reception unit 31, and an answer generation unit 44 creating an answer to the contents of the inquiry recognized by the inquiry recognition unit 51 according to a channel used for the inquiry.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an answer support device, an answer support system, an answer support method, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] In order to reduce the burden on operators and respond to customers quickly, there is a demand for more efficient customer service at contact centers and customer centers.

[0003] Patent Document 1 discloses a customer service support server that searches an inquiry / answer database for inquiry information similar to an inquiry entered on a predetermined inquiry screen, and delivers an answer screen displaying answer information corresponding to the inquiry information to a customer terminal. The technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 makes it possible to automatically return an appropriate answer to a customer's inquiry. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-149999 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, in addition to the traditional telephone, inquiries to customer support systems are increasingly being made through multiple channels, including email and chat. Similarly, responses to inquiries are also increasingly being made through multiple channels. In order to provide natural responses, it is desirable to create responses tailored to the reception channel, even if the response content is the same.

[0006] Patent document 1 discloses that an answer screen displaying answer information can be delivered in response to an inquiry entered on an inquiry screen in a predetermined format, but does not disclose creating an answer according to the reception channel.

[0007] The present invention has been made in consideration of such problems, and its purpose is to provide an answer support device, an answer support system, an answer support method, and a program that create answers according to the channel. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] An answer support device according to one aspect of the present invention is an answer support device that supports answers to inquiries, and includes a reception unit that can receive inquiries from multiple channels, an inquiry recognition unit that recognizes the content of the inquiry received by the reception unit, and an answer generation unit that creates an answer to the content of the inquiry recognized by the inquiry recognition unit, depending on the channel used for the inquiry.

[0009] An answer support system according to one aspect of the present invention is an answer support system that supports answers to inquiries, and comprises an answer support device, a customer terminal, and an intermediate device. The customer terminal accepts inquiries input by customers and outputs answers to the inquiries. The intermediate device receives the inquiries from the customer terminal, converts the inquiries into a format that can be accepted by the answer support device, sends the customer inquiries to the answer support device, accepts answers from the answer support device, converts the answers into a format that can be output by the customer terminal, and sends the answers to the customer terminal.

[0010] An answer support method according to one aspect of the present invention is a method for supporting answers to inquiries, and includes a reception step capable of receiving inquiries from a plurality of channels, an inquiry recognition step that recognizes the content of the inquiry received by the reception step, and an answer creation step that creates an answer to the content of the inquiry recognized by the inquiry recognition step according to the channel used for the inquiry.

[0011] A program according to one aspect of the present invention is a program for assisting in answering inquiries, which can be executed by a computer capable of exchanging information with an input / output device, and includes a reception step capable of receiving inquiries from multiple channels, a query recognition step that recognizes the content of the inquiry received by the reception step, and a response creation step that creates a response to the content of the inquiry recognized by the query recognition step depending on the channel used for the inquiry. [Effects of the Invention]

[0012] According to the present invention, a response can be created according to the channel. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0013] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a response support system 1 according to this embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the functional configuration of the response support device 12. As shown in FIG. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of the response support process. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 shows an example of an inquiry and a response when the reception channel is chat. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing examples of inquiries and answers when the reception channel is FAQ. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 shows examples of inquiries and responses when the reception channel is email. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 shows an example of an inquiry and a response when the reception channel is a telephone. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the configuration of a response support system 2 according to another embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0014] [One embodiment] (Configuration of Answer Support System 1) 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a response support system 1 according to this embodiment. The response support system 1 includes a customer terminal 11, a response support device 12, and a provider terminal 13. The customer terminal 11, the response support device 12, and the provider terminal 13 are connected via a network.

[0015] The customer terminals 11-1, 11-2, ... (hereinafter referred to as customer terminal 11 when there is no need to distinguish between them individually) are terminals of users who can make inquiries via the response support system 1. The customer terminals 11 are, for example, PCs (personal computers), smartphones, etc., and accept inquiries input by customers via, for example, chat, FAQ, email, or telephone channels (hereinafter referred to as reception channels when there is no need to distinguish between them individually), and output answers to the inquiries. For example, a keyboard, touch panel, microphone, etc. are used to input inquiries, and for example, an LCD panel, speaker, etc. are used to output answers. The input inquiries are sent to the response support device 12.

[0016] The reply support device 12 is, for example, a server, and creates a reply to an inquiry sent from the customer terminal 11 based on a knowledge database 23a described later, and sends the reply to the customer terminal 11. Hereinafter, an inquiry sent from the customer terminal 11 will be referred to as a customer inquiry.

[0017] The provider terminals 13-1, 13-2, ... are terminals of providers that can provide update information for the knowledge database 23a (Fig. 2) in the response support system 1. The provider terminal 13 is, for example, a PC or a smartphone, and provides information for updating the knowledge database 23a (hereinafter referred to as update information) to the response support device 12. Note that although Fig. 1 shows one provider terminal 13, there may be a plurality of provider terminals 13 of, for example, registered providers that can provide update information in the response support system 1.

[0018] (Functional configuration of response support device 12) As shown in FIG. 2, the response support device 12 includes a communication unit 21, a control unit 22, and a memory management unit 23.

[0019] The communication unit 21 is connected to the customer terminal 11, the provider terminal 13, and the like via a network.

[0020] The memory management unit 23 has, for example, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), and a non-volatile memory. The memory management unit 23 stores the application program for controlling the response support device 12, various data required for the execution of the program, and information created by processing.

[0021] The memory management unit 23 has, for example, a knowledge database 23a. The knowledge database 23a stores, for example, inquiries and answers from actual customers, which are provided from the provider terminal 13. The memory management unit 23 performs registration and updating of the knowledge database 23a based on the information provided from the provider terminal 13. For example, the provider terminal 13 may provide electronic files such as table files or text files that list inquiry IDs, inquiry candidates, and answer candidates, and the memory management unit 23 may register or update these in the knowledge database 23a.

[0022] The control unit 22 is composed of a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a memory management unit 23 (ROM (Read Only Memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), non-volatile memory, etc.), and other elements including hardware. The control unit 22 executes a control application program (not shown) stored in the memory management unit 23 to control the entire wave determination device and also functions as a reception unit 31, a channel determination unit 61, an inquiry recognition unit 51, a response generation unit 42, and a response transmission unit 33.

[0023] The reception unit 31 receives inquiries from customers via the network from the customer terminal 11. A reception unit 31 may be provided for each channel through which inquiries are received. For example, a plurality of reception units 31 may be provided, such as a reception unit 31 that receives inquiries via chat, a reception unit 31 that receives inquiries via FAQ, a reception unit 31 that receives inquiries via email, and a reception unit 31 that receives inquiries via telephone.

[0024] The response unit 32 utilizes AI (Artificial Intelligence) to provide an appropriate response or response immediately.

[0025] The answering unit 32 has a searching unit 41 and an answer generating unit 42. The searching unit 41 identifies the inquiry to be answered from the inquiry information from the customer and extracts the information to be answered from the knowledge DB. The answer generating unit 42 generates answer information according to the answer channel based on the information extracted by the searching unit 41.

[0026] The search unit 41 includes an inquiry recognition unit and an answer candidate extraction unit 52 .

[0027] When the reception channel is chat, FAQ, or email, the inquiry recognition unit 51 recognizes the text, PDF, image, etc. provided as the inquiry and identifies the inquiry content based on that information. When the reception channel is telephone, the inquiry recognition unit 51 converts the inquiry into text using, for example, a known voice recognition technique, and recognizes the content of the inquiry. The inquiry recognition unit 51 supplies the inquiry content to the answer candidate extraction unit 52 as a prompt.

[0028] The answer candidate extraction unit 52 extracts inquiry candidates that have a high degree of similarity to the customer inquiry from the knowledge database 23a, and also extracts answer candidates that correspond to the extracted inquiry candidates.

[0029] For example, the answer candidate extraction unit 52 first divides the sentence of the customer inquiry into words and calculates a vector value for each divided word using a known natural language processing method. Examples of natural language processing methods that can be used include Bag-of-Words, TF-IDF, and Word2Vec. Words with similar meanings are located close to each other in a vector space. Then, the sentence vector value of the inquiry is calculated by averaging the vector values ​​for each word. The answer candidate extraction unit 52 similarly calculates the sentence vector values ​​of the inquiry candidates stored in the knowledge database 23a. Next, the answer candidate extraction unit 52 extracts inquiry candidates with a high cosine similarity with the sentence vector value of the customer inquiry, i.e., inquiry candidates with a high similarity to the content of the customer inquiry. An "inquiry candidate with a high similarity to the content of the customer inquiry" is, for example, an inquiry candidate with a cosine similarity equal to or greater than a predetermined value, or an inquiry candidate with the highest cosine similarity among the inquiry candidates stored in the knowledge database 23a.

[0030] The answer generating unit 42 includes a channel determining unit 61 and an expression converting unit 62 .

[0031] The channel determination unit 61 determines the type of reception channel used for the inquiry. For example, if a reception unit 31 is provided for each channel that receives an inquiry, the channel determination unit 61 determines the reception channel by identifying the reception unit 31 that received the inquiry.

[0032] The channel determination unit 61 supplies a prompt for generating a reply sentence according to the reception channel to the expression conversion unit 62. The prompt set for each reception can be set as appropriate, for example, by the provider operating the provider terminal 13. For example, the prompt can instruct the expression method, the number of characters, whether a header or footer sentence should be added, etc.

[0033] The expression conversion unit 62 converts the sentence expressions of the answer candidates extracted by the answer candidate extraction unit 52 according to the reception channel determined by the channel determination unit 61, and creates an answer to the customer inquiry. For example, if the reception channel is chat, FAQ, or telephone, it converts it into colloquial expressions or short sentences. If the reception channel is email, it creates a header sentence such as the addressee, and converts the sentence into polite expression.

[0034] The expression conversion unit 62 is, for example, an AI (Artificial Intelligence), and converts the sentence expressions of the answer candidates to create an answer to the customer inquiry by inputting the customer inquiry recognized by the inquiry recognition unit 51, the answer candidates extracted by the answer candidate extraction unit 52, and a prompt set for each reception channel. The prompt set for each reception channel can be appropriately set, for example, by the provider operating the provider terminal 13. For example, the prompt can instruct the expression method, number of characters, addition of header and footer text, etc.

[0035] The response sending unit 33 sends the response created by the response generating unit 42 to the customer terminal 11 via the communication unit 21.

[0036] (Answer support processing) Next, a description will be given of the response support process performed by the response support device 12. The flow of the process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

[0037] The response support process starts, for example, when the response support device 12 is turned on.

[0038] In step S1, the reception unit 31 waits until it receives an inquiry.

[0039] When the reception unit 31 receives an inquiry in step S1, the inquiry recognition unit 51 recognizes the content of the inquiry received by the reception unit 31 in step S2.

[0040] In step S3, the answer candidate extraction unit 52 extracts inquiry candidates that have a high degree of similarity to the customer inquiry from the knowledge database 23a, and also extracts answer candidates that correspond to the extracted inquiry candidates.

[0041] In step S4, the channel determination unit 61 determines the reception channel used for the inquiry.

[0042] In step S5, the expression conversion unit 62 converts the expression of the answer candidate according to the reception channel determined by the channel determination unit 61, and creates an answer.

[0043] In step S6, the answer sending unit 33 sends the answer converted by the expression converting unit 62 to the customer terminal 11 via the communication unit 21.

[0044] Thereafter, the process returns to step S1. The response support device 12 may accept multiple inquiries at once, and each response support device 12 may be operated simultaneously.

[0045] (Example) A specific example will now be described: First, a customer makes an inquiry via the customer terminal 11 using one of the reception channels.

[0046] ((chat)) A case where the reception channel is chat will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an inquiry and a response when the reception channel is chat. For example, when a specific URL of an internet site is selected, a chat screen 71 is displayed on the customer terminal 11. The chat screen 71 is provided with a field 71a for entering the inquiry content and a send button 71b. When the send button 71b is pressed, the inquiry content is displayed in a speech bubble 71c, and the inquiry is sent to the response support device 12.

[0047] For example, suppose that "I can't log in to my page" is entered in the field on the customer terminal 11 where the inquiry is to be entered.

[0048] The reception unit 31 receives an inquiry from a customer device (step S1: Yes), and the inquiry recognition unit 51 recognizes that the content of the inquiry received by the reception unit 31 is "I can't log in to my page" (step S2). The answer candidate extraction unit 52 extracts inquiry candidates that are highly similar to the customer inquiry from the knowledge database 23a. It also extracts answer candidates that correspond to the extracted inquiry candidates (step S3). The channel determination unit 61 determines that the reception channel used for the inquiry is chat (step S4). The expression conversion unit 62 converts the answer candidates into sentence expressions suitable for chat and creates an answer (step S5). If the answer is long, it may be shortened to create multiple answers and the answers may be displayed in multiple speech bubbles. The reply sending unit 33 sends the reply to the customer terminal 11, and the customer terminal 11 displays the reply 71d on the chat screen 71 (step S6).

[0049] ((FAQ)) A case where the reception channel is an FAQ will be described. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an inquiry and a response when the reception channel is an FAQ. For example, when a predetermined URL of an internet site is selected, an FAQ screen 81 is displayed on the customer terminal 11. The FAQ screen 81 is provided with a search box 81a for entering the inquiry content and a search button 81b. When the inquiry is entered in the search box and the search button 81b is selected, the inquiry is sent to the response support device 12.

[0050] For example, suppose that "I can't log in to my page" is entered in the search box 81a.

[0051] The reception unit 31 receives an inquiry from the customer device via (Step S1: Yes), and the inquiry recognition unit 51 recognizes that the content of the inquiry received by the reception unit 31 is "I can't log in to my page" (Step S2). The answer candidate extraction unit 52 extracts inquiry candidates that are highly similar to the customer inquiry from the knowledge database 23a. The answer candidate extraction unit 52 also extracts answer candidates corresponding to the extracted inquiry candidates (Step S3). The channel determination unit 61 determines that the reception channel used for the inquiry is an FAQ (Step S4). The expression conversion unit 62 converts the expression of the answer candidate according to the reception channel determined by the channel determination unit 61, and creates an answer (Step S5). The expression conversion unit 62 converts the answer candidate into a sentence expression suitable for the FAQ, and creates an answer. The answer transmission unit 33 transmits the answer to the customer terminal 11, and the customer terminal 11 displays the answer 81c on the FAQ screen 81 (Step S6).

[0052] If the reception channel is an FAQ, the answer candidate extraction unit 52 may extract all inquiry candidates whose similarity to the customer inquiry is equal to or greater than a predetermined value and their corresponding answer candidates, and the customer terminal 11 may display the inquiry candidates and answer candidates 81d extracted by the answer candidate extraction unit 52 on the FAQ screen. Also, answer candidates summarized using the generation AI, general answers created by the generation AI, answers created by the expression conversion unit 62 when the reception channel is email, etc. may be displayed.

[0053] ((email)) The case where the reception channel is email will be described. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an inquiry and a response when the reception channel is email. For example, when a specific URL on an internet site is selected, an inquiry form 91 is displayed on the customer terminal 11. The inquiry form 91 has a field 91a for entering the name of the person making the inquiry, a field 91b for entering the email address of the response destination, a field 91c for entering the inquiry content, and a send button 91d. In this case, when the send button 91d is pressed, the inquiry is sent to the response support device 12.

[0054] For example, suppose that "○△" is entered in field 91a for entering the name of the person making the inquiry, "○△@×.com" is entered in field 91b for entering the email address of the person making the reply, and "I can't log in to my page" is entered in field 91c for entering the content of the inquiry.

[0055] The reception unit 31 receives an inquiry from a customer device (Step S1: Yes), and the inquiry recognition unit 51 recognizes that the content of the inquiry received by the reception unit 31 is "I can't log in to my page" (Step S2). The answer candidate extraction unit 52 extracts inquiry candidates that are highly similar to the customer inquiry from the knowledge database 23a. It also extracts answer candidates corresponding to the extracted inquiry candidates (Step S3). The channel determination unit 61 determines that the reception channel used for the inquiry is email (Step S4). The expression conversion unit 62 converts the expression of the answer candidate according to the reception channel determined by the channel determination unit 61, and creates an answer (Step S5). The expression conversion unit 62 creates a header sentence such as "Mr. / Ms. XX" or "Thank you very much for your inquiry," converts the answer candidate into a polite sentence, and creates an answer. The answer sending unit 33 sends the answer 91e to the email address entered in the inquiry form 91 (Step S6).

[0056] ((phone)) The case where the reception channel is a telephone will be described. Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an inquiry and a response when the reception channel is a telephone. For example, a customer calls a predetermined telephone number and speaks the content of the inquiry, whereby the inquiry is transmitted to the response support device 12.

[0057] For example, suppose a customer inquires, "I can't log in to my page" (reference numeral 101a).

[0058] The reception unit 31 receives an inquiry from a customer device (Step S1: Yes), and the inquiry recognition unit 51 recognizes through voice recognition that the content of the inquiry received by the reception unit 31 is "I can't log in to my page" (Step S2). The answer candidate extraction unit 52 extracts inquiry candidates that are highly similar to the customer inquiry from the knowledge database 23a. It also extracts answer candidates corresponding to the extracted inquiry candidates (Step S3). The channel determination unit 61 determines that the reception channel used for the inquiry is email (Step S4). The expression conversion unit 62 converts the expression of the answer candidate according to the reception channel determined by the channel determination unit 61, and creates an answer (Step S5). The expression conversion unit 62 converts the answer candidate into a sentence expression suitable for telephone use, and creates the answer by performing voice synthesis. The answer transmission unit 33 transmits the answer to the customer terminal 11, and the customer terminal 11 outputs the answer 101b by voice over the telephone (Step S6).

[0059] [Other Examples] (Multimodal support) In the above description, the answer generator 42 generates answers to inquiries using text or voice, but it may also generate answers to inquiries using images or videos. The answer support device 12 may be multimodal.

[0060] For example, a customer can attach an image or video to an inquiry form or a chat screen and send it. The reception unit 31 receives the image or video sent from the customer terminal 11, and the inquiry recognition unit 51 recognizes the customer inquiry by recognizing the image or video.

[0061] Specifically, the inquiry recognition unit 51 uses techniques such as image captioning to estimate the inquiry content indicated by the image or video. For example, the inquiry recognition unit 51 first performs image recognition to recognize objects and scenes in the image or video. Next, it extracts visual features from the image or video and expresses them as numerical data. Then, it converts the customer inquiry into text based on the extracted features using known natural language processing techniques. The inquiry recognition unit 51 may also use AI to estimate the inquiry content indicated by the image or video.

[0062] Then, the answer generation unit 42 creates an answer to the customer inquiry recognized by the inquiry recognition unit 51, and the answer transmission unit 33 transmits the answer to the customer terminal 11. The answer generation unit 42 may also create an answer that combines the content of the customer inquiry recognized by the inquiry recognition unit 51 with the answer to the customer inquiry. For example, the answer may be "Are you having trouble with XX? We can solve it with XX."

[0063] Before creating a response, the query recognition unit 51 may create a sentence asking whether the content of the customer query is correct, and the response sending unit 33 may send the sentence to the customer terminal 11. An example of a sentence asking whether the content of the customer query is correct is, "Are you having trouble with XX?" The customer may check the sentence output to the customer terminal 11 and select via the customer terminal 11 whether the content of the customer query recognized by the query recognition unit 51 is correct. If the content is correct, the response generation unit 42 creates a response, and if it is not correct, the query recognition unit 51 may perform image recognition again.

[0064] (Answer support system 1 that can be linked with other systems) The above-described response support system 1 is configured to include the customer terminal 11, the response support device 12, and the provider terminal 13, but the response support system 1 may further include an intermediate device 111.

[0065] Fig. 8 is a diagram showing the configuration of a response support system 2 according to another embodiment. Components having the same functions as those in the response support system 1 shown in Fig. 1 are given the same reference numerals, and descriptions thereof will be omitted where appropriate.

[0066] The response support system 2 includes a customer terminal 11, an intermediate device 111, a response support device 12, and a provider terminal 13. The customer terminal 11, the intermediate device 111, the response support device 12, and the provider terminal 13 are connected via a network.

[0067] The intermediate device 111 mediates data exchange between the customer terminal 11 and the response support device 12. The intermediate device 111 receives a customer inquiry from the customer terminal 11, converts the customer inquiry into a format that can be received by the response support device 12, and transmits the customer inquiry to the response support device 12, for example, using an API (Application Programming Interface). The intermediate device 111 also receives a response from the response support device 12, converts the response into a format that can be output by the customer terminal 11, and transmits the response to the customer terminal 11.

[0068] Because the intermediate device 111 mediates data exchange between the customer terminal 11 and the response support device 12, the customer inquiry sent from the customer terminal 11 does not need to be in a format that the response support device 12 can directly accept. This makes it possible, for example, to link the response support device 12 with a system for responding to customer inquiries provided by another company. This makes it possible, for example, to utilize an already existing chat UI, inquiry form UI, etc., and to use the response support device 12 without changing the UI. In addition, for example, development costs can be reduced.

[0069] [Note] The contents of the above-described embodiments can be understood, for example, as follows.

[0070] (1) The above-mentioned response support device 12 A response support device (12) that supports responses to inquiries, a reception unit 31 capable of receiving inquiries from a plurality of channels; an inquiry recognition unit (51) that recognizes the content of an inquiry received by the reception unit (31); a response generation unit (42) that generates a response to the content of the inquiry recognized by the inquiry recognition unit (51) in accordance with the channel used for the inquiry; Equipped with.

[0071] The reply generation unit 42 creates a reply depending on the channel used for the inquiry. For this reason, the reply support device 12 creates a reply that matches the email style for an inquiry made by email, and a reply that matches the chat style for an inquiry made by chat, so that it can automatically create natural reply sentences that match the reception channel used by the customer.

[0072] (2) The response support device 12 a memory management unit 23 for storing query candidates and answer candidates; an answer candidate extraction unit (52) that extracts inquiry candidates that are highly similar to the content of the inquiry received by the reception unit (31) and answer candidates that correspond to the inquiry candidates; Furthermore, The answer generating unit 42 can generate an answer based on the answer candidates extracted by the answer candidate extracting unit 52, in accordance with the channel used for the inquiry.

[0073] The memory management unit 23 stores the query candidates and answer candidates, and the answer generation unit 42 creates answers based on the answer candidates and in accordance with the reception channel. The response support device 12 can create answers using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). This allows the provider to update the query candidates and answer candidates by updating only the information stored in the memory management unit 23, and does not need to update the information for each reception channel. This simplifies management by the provider.

[0074] (3) The response support device 12 The reception unit 31 can receive an inquiry including an image or video.

[0075] With this configuration, the response support device 12 can further automatically respond to inquiries using images or videos.

[0076] (4) The answer support system 2 described above is A response support system 2 that supports responses to inquiries, The above-mentioned response support device 12, customer terminal 11, intermediate device 111, Equipped with The customer terminal 11 accepts inquiries input by customers and outputs responses to the inquiries. Intermediate device 111 Receives an inquiry from a customer terminal 11, converts the inquiry into a format acceptable to the response support device 12, and transmits the customer inquiry to the response support device 12; The answer support device 12 receives the answer, converts the answer into a format that can be output by the customer terminal 11, and transmits the answer to the customer terminal 11.

[0077] Because the intermediate device 111 mediates data exchange between the customer terminal 11 and the response support device 12, the customer inquiry sent from the customer terminal 11 does not need to be in a format that the response support device 12 can directly accept. This makes it possible, for example, to link the response support device 12 with a system for responding to customer inquiries provided by another company. This makes it possible, for example, to utilize an already existing chat UI, inquiry form UI, etc., and to use the response support device 12 without changing the UI. In addition, for example, development costs can be reduced.

[0078] [Supplementary explanation of the embodiment]

[0079] The above-described embodiments each show a preferred specific example of the present invention. The numerical values, components, arrangement positions and connection order of components, processing order in flowcharts, etc. shown in the following embodiments are merely examples and are not intended to limit the present invention. Furthermore, each figure is not necessarily a strict illustration.

[0080] The above-described series of processes can be executed by hardware or software. When the series of processes is executed by software, the program constituting the software is installed from a program recording medium into a computer incorporated in dedicated hardware, or into, for example, a general-purpose personal computer that can execute various functions by installing various programs.

[0081] The program executed by the computer may be a program that processes in chronological order according to the order described in this specification, or may be a program that processes in parallel or at the required timing, such as when called. [Explanation of symbols]

[0082] 1. Answer Support System 1 Answer support system 2. Answer support system 11 Customer terminal 12 Answer support device 13 Provider terminal 21 Communications Department 22 Control Unit 23 Memory Management Department 23a Knowledge Database 31 Reception 32 Answer section 33 Response sending section 41 Search Section 42 Answer generation part 51 Query Recognition Unit 52 Answer candidate extraction part 61 Channel determination unit 62 Expression Conversion Unit

Claims

1. A response support device that supports responses to inquiries, a reception unit capable of receiving the inquiry from a plurality of channels; an inquiry recognition unit that recognizes the content of the inquiry received by the reception unit; a response generation unit that generates a response to the content of the inquiry recognized by the inquiry recognition unit in accordance with the channel used for the inquiry; A response support device comprising:

2. The response support device according to claim 1, a storage management unit that stores query candidates and answer candidates; an answer candidate extraction unit that extracts the inquiry candidates that have a high degree of similarity to the content of the inquiry received by the reception unit, and answer candidates that correspond to the inquiry candidates; Furthermore, The answer generation unit generates the answer based on the answer candidates extracted by the answer candidate extraction unit in accordance with the channel used for the inquiry. Response support device characterized by:

3. 3. The response support device according to claim 1, the reception unit is capable of receiving the inquiry including an image or a video; Response support device characterized by:

4. A response support system that supports responses to inquiries, A response support device according to claim 1, a customer terminal, and an intermediate device, Equipped with the customer terminal accepts the input of the inquiry by the customer and outputs the response to the inquiry; The intermediate device receiving the inquiry from the customer terminal, converting the inquiry into a format acceptable to the response support device, and transmitting the customer inquiry to the response support device; Accepting a response from the response support device, converting the response into a format that can be output on the customer terminal, and transmitting the response to the customer terminal. An answer support system characterized by:

5. A response support method for supporting responses to inquiries, comprising: a receiving step capable of receiving the inquiry from a plurality of channels; an inquiry recognition step of recognizing the content of the inquiry received in the receiving step; a response generating step of generating a response to the content of the inquiry recognized in the inquiry recognizing step in accordance with the channel used for the inquiry; A response support method comprising:

6. A program for assisting in answering inquiries that can be executed by a computer capable of exchanging information with an input / output device, a receiving step capable of receiving the inquiry from a plurality of channels; an inquiry recognition step of recognizing the content of the inquiry received in the receiving step; a response generating step of generating a response to the content of the inquiry recognized in the inquiry recognizing step in accordance with the channel used for the inquiry; characterized in that it comprises A program that causes a computer to perform a process.

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