Information processing device and program

Abstract

We will evaluate real staff members by taking into account the activity record of virtual users acting as representatives of real users. [Solution] The information processing device receives information on the activity records of real staff from at least one of the SNS server and blog server, and calculates a real staff activity evaluation score that evaluates the proactive activities of real staff in at least one of the SNS and blog services based on the received information on the activity records of real staff, and receives information on the activity records of virtual staff dispatched on the EC site in response to requests from the EC site server as substitutes for real staff in the EC site, and calculates a virtual staff performance evaluation score that evaluates the results of customer service activities by virtual staff based on the received information on the activity records of virtual staff, and calculates a total score for real staff by adding the virtual staff performance evaluation score to the real staff activity evaluation score.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus and a program.

Background Art

[0002] Currently, EC sites (online sales) such as apparel have become widespread, and it is expected that opportunities to open virtual stores in shopping malls in virtual spaces (metaverses) on the Internet will increase in the future. In such a situation, as in physical stores, it is important from the perspective of sales promotion to provide one-on-one customer service in which staff introduce recommended products through interaction with users, dig out users' needs, materialize the products desired by users, and respond to various inquiries.

[0003] <--? Missing tag? -->Generally, the number of users visiting EC sites is much larger than the number of customers visiting physical stores. Therefore, it is not realistic for actual staff to serve each user visiting the EC site individually. It is assumed that a virtual staff (also called digital staff) will be constructed on a computer to serve users in place of actual staff. However, there has been no method for evaluating actual staff taking into account the customer service of virtual staff and the sales generated by the customer service at EC sites. [[ID=I8]]

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] An object is to provide a method for evaluating actual staff taking into account the performance of virtual staff acting as agents for actual staff.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0005] The information processing device according to this embodiment includes: a first receiving unit that receives information relating to the activity record of real staff in at least one of the SNS server that provides SNS-related functions and a blog server that provides blog service functions; a first calculating unit that analyzes the information relating to the activity record of real staff and calculates the number of posts made by real staff to at least one of the SNS and blog services and the number of followers who follow the real staff's account in at least one of the SNS and blog services; a second receiving unit that receives information relating to the activity record of virtual staff in the EC site that are dispatched in response to a request from the EC site server that provides EC site functions and act as proxies for real staff on the EC site; a second calculating unit that analyzes the information relating to the activity record of virtual staff and calculates the number of customers served by virtual staff and the sales amount made by virtual staff on the EC site; and a total score calculating unit that calculates a total score for real staff based on the number of posts, number of followers, number of customers served, and sales amount. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0006] [Figure 1] Figure 1 is a diagram showing the overall system configuration including the information processing device according to this embodiment. [Figure 2] Figure 2 shows the hardware configuration of the information processing device shown in Figure 1. [Figure 3] Figure 3 shows an example of a rule sheet for evaluating the activity performance of actual staff members, stored in the memory device shown in Figure 2. [Figure 4] Figure 4 shows an example of a rule sheet for evaluating the activity performance of virtual staff stored in the memory device shown in Figure 2. [Figure 5] Figure 5 shows the functional configuration of the information processing device shown in Figure 2. [Figure 6] Figure 6 shows the data flow of the overall system in Figure 1 and the processing of the information processing device. [Figure 7] Figure 7 shows an example of the chat room in Figure 6. [Figure 8] Figure 8 is a diagram that assists in explaining the effects of the information processing device according to this embodiment. [Figure 9] Figure 9 shows the functional configuration of an information processing device according to a modified example of this embodiment. [Figure 10] Figure 10 is a supplementary diagram illustrating the processing of the distribution calculation unit shown in Figure 9. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0007] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The inventors anticipate that in the future, virtual staff on the internet, acting as agents or substitutes for real staff, will be dispatched to e-commerce sites to actually serve customers. They believe that an evaluation method is needed that takes into account the customer service and sales generated by these virtual staff as part of the evaluation of the real staff from which the virtual staff were created, and thus arrived at the present invention.

[0008] In this embodiment, "real staff" refers to actual store staff who sell products such as clothing, and "virtual staff" refers to virtual staff on the internet who act as agents or substitutes for the real staff.

[0009] For example, virtual staff members are made to refer to content actually created and posted by real staff members themselves on social networking services (SNS), which are community-type services that promote and support connections between real people, and blog services, where users post articles about their daily lives and thoughts and these are displayed. By having a generation AI generate responses to customer statements based on this content, the content of the virtual staff member's statements is made to sound as if it were spoken by the real staff member it represents, and to sound natural using language that the real staff member would use. Of course, the virtual staff member may also be software created based on the profile information, behavioral history, preference information, etc., of the real staff member it represents.

[0010] Examples of social networking services (SNS) include Instagram (registered trademark), Facebook (registered trademark), and Twitter (registered trademark), which is now known as X. A representative example of a blogging service is FC2 (registered trademark). While e-commerce malls like Rakuten (registered trademark) are typical e-commerce sites, a brand-owned e-commerce site operated directly by the company itself is also acceptable.

[0011] The information processing device according to this embodiment is a computer device that has the function of comprehensively evaluating real staff by taking into account the activity record of real staff on SNS and blog services, as well as the activity record of virtual staff on e-commerce sites, and is typically configured as follows.

[0012] As shown in Figure 1, the information processing device 1 according to this embodiment is typically connected to an Internet network 9 as a communication network, along with an SNS server 2-1 that provides SNS, a blog service server 2-2 that provides blog services, an EC site server 3 that provides functions related to EC sites, a virtual staff dispatch device 4 that dispatches virtual staff to EC sites, a staff terminal 5 used by real staff, a customer terminal 6 used by real customers, and a company terminal 7 managed by the company to which the real staff belong. The staff terminal 5, customer terminal 6, and company terminal 7 are implemented using PCs, smartphones, tablets, etc.

[0013] As shown in Figure 2, the information processing device 1 has a processor 11. RAM 12, ROM 13, storage device 14, and communication interface (I / F) 17 are connected to the processor 11 via a system bus 10. SNS server 2-1, blog service server 2-2, EC site server 3, staff terminal 5, customer terminal 6, and company terminal 7 are connected to the processor 11 via the communication interface 17. The processor 11 is composed of, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The processor 11 executes programs loaded from the storage device 14 and ROM 13 into RAM 12 to perform various calculation processes. RAM 12 functions as the main memory, work area, etc., of the processor 11. ROM 13 or storage device 14 stores the BIOS (Basic Input Output System), operating system program (OS), comprehensive score calculation program according to this embodiment, and various data necessary for processing related to the comprehensive score calculation program, etc., executed by the processor 11. Examples of the various types of data include a database containing activity information of real staff on social networking services and blogging services (real staff activity information database), a database containing activity information of virtual staff on e-commerce sites (virtual staff activity information database), a sheet describing the rules for scoring the activities of real staff (real staff scoring sheet), and a sheet describing the rules for scoring the activities of virtual staff (virtual staff scoring sheet).

[0014] Various data, such as the overall score calculation program stored in the storage device 14, may be distributed to users by being recorded on removable media (non-temporary storage media) such as a USB drive, or by being downloaded to the information processing device 1 via the network 9.

[0015] Figure 3 shows an example of a scoring sheet for actual staff stored in memory device 14. As shown in Figure 3, the scoring sheet for actual staff contains multiple evaluation items for evaluating the activity performance of actual staff on SNS and blog services. The multiple evaluation items include the number of posts, the number of comments (by the user), the number of reach (by the user), the number of likes (by the user), the number of saves (by the user), the number of followers, the number of impressions, the number of reach (by others), the number of likes (by others), the number of saves (by others), and the number of website clicks (by others).

[0016] The number of posts represents the number of times an actual staff member posted an article on social media and blogging services. The number of comments (by the user) represents the number of times an actual staff member commented on an article posted by another user on social media and blogging services. The number of reaches (by the user) represents the number of times an actual staff member viewed an article, photo, video, or other content posted by another user. The number of likes (by the user) represents the number of times an actual staff member showed a positive reaction (empathy) to an article posted by another user. The number of saves (by the user) represents the number of times an actual staff member saved an article, photo, video, or other content posted by another user. The number of followers represents the number of other accounts that an actual staff member follows. The number of posts, comments (by the user), reach (by the user), likes (by the user), saves (by the user), and followers represent the active activities of an actual staff member on social media and blogging services and can serve as indicators to evaluate the activities of an actual staff member on social media and blogging services. These counts represent the number of times an actual staff member showed a positive reaction (empathy) to an article posted by another user.

[0017] The number of followers represents the number of users who follow the accounts of actual staff members, and is an indicator that reflects the popularity and influence of actual staff members. The number of impressions represents the number of times articles and the like posted by actual staff members are viewed by users, and is an indicator that reflects the popularity and influence of such articles. The reach (by others) refers to the number of times content such as articles, photos, and videos posted by actual staff members are viewed by unique users. Even if the same user views the content multiple times, the reach of the content is counted as 1. The number of likes (by others) represents the number of times a favorable reaction (sympathy) is shown for articles posted by actual staff members. The number of saves (by others) represents the number of times users save content such as articles, photos, and videos posted by actual staff members. The number of website clicks (by others) represents the number of times links included in articles posted by actual staff members or in the profiles of actual staff members are clicked by users and the user is redirected to the corresponding website. The number of followers, the number of impressions, the reach (by others), the number of likes (by others), the number of saves (by others), and the number of website clicks (by others) represent the evaluation results of others on the active activities of actual staff members on SNS and blog services, and can be indicators for evaluating the achievements of actual staff members on SNS and blog services. These numbers represent the number of times others show a favorable reaction (sympathy) to the posts of actual staff members.

[0018] Comments, reach, likes, saves, and website clicks, etc. are indicators that represent what actions users have taken with respect to a post (article), and are also called engagement for measuring the connection with users and the degree of user interest. The reach, the number of likes, the number of saves, and the number of website clicks are collectively referred to as the engagement number.

[0019] Note that at least the number of followers is an indicator that represents the ability of actual staff members to attract customers (sales ability) on SNS and blog services, and can also be said to be an indicator for evaluating the original abilities of actual staff members on SNS and blog services.

[0020] For each evaluation item, rules for scoring the evaluation item are set. For example, for the evaluation item "number of posts", a scoring rule of "+20 / 1 time" is set. This means that in the evaluation institution, every time an actual staff member posts an article once, "+20" is accumulated as the actual performance score of the staff member's activities. Similarly, for the evaluation items "number of comments (by oneself)", "reach number (by oneself)", "like number (by oneself)", "save number (by oneself)", "reach number (by others)", "like number (by others)", "save number (by others)", and "number of clicks on the website (by others)", the corresponding scores are accumulated as the actual performance scores of the staff member's activities every time they are carried out once during the evaluation period. Also, for the evaluation item "number of followers", a scoring rule of "+10 / 1 person" is set. This means that during the evaluation period, every time the number of followers increases by one person, a score of "+10" is accumulated as the actual performance score of the staff member's activities. Similarly, for the evaluation item "number of impressions", a scoring rule of "+1 / 1 time" is set. This means that during the evaluation period, every time the number of impressions increases by one, a score of "+1" is accumulated as the actual performance score of the staff member's activities.

[0021] In addition, conditions for counting as one time may be provided. For example, for the evaluation item "number of posts", conditions such as the number of characters and the presence or absence of images may be set so as not to count a simple post as one time. For the evaluation item "like number (by others)", conditions for counting multiple "likes" by the same user as one time may be set.

[0022] Furthermore, the scoring rules are not limited to those described above. For example, the scoring rules for the evaluation items "Number of Followers" and "Number of Impressions" may use the absolute values ​​of the number of followers and impressions at the time of evaluation, or they may use the change (increase or decrease) since the previous evaluation. Similarly, the scoring rules for each of the evaluation items "Number of Comments (by myself)", "Number of Reach (by myself)", "Number of Likes (by myself)", "Number of Saves (by myself)", "Number of Reach (by others)", "Number of Likes (by others)", "Number of Saves (by others)", and "Number of Website Clicks (by others)" may use the change (increase or decrease) since the previous evaluation. Additionally, for the evaluation items "Number of Followers" and "Number of Impressions", a condition may be set that the number of users with specific attributes is included in the scoring. Attributes here refer to information about followers such as age, gender, place of residence, hobbies, and preferences. For example, even if someone has 1000 followers, the 700 followers who meet the criteria of being in their "20s" and "female" could be included in the scoring. Similarly, each evaluation item may have specific criteria for inclusion in the scoring.

[0023] Figure 4 shows an example of a scoring sheet for virtual staff stored in the storage device 14. As shown in Figure 4, the scoring sheet for virtual staff describes multiple evaluation items that evaluate the activity performance of virtual staff on the e-commerce site. The multiple evaluation items include the number of customers served (new), the number of customers served (existing), the number of sessions, the number of referrals, the number of DM replies, the sales amount, the number of items sold, the number of customers who made a purchase (new), the number of customers who made a purchase (existing), the conversion rate, the repeat purchase rate, and the average customer spending.

[0024] The "Number of Customers Served (New)" and "Number of Customers Served (Existing)" represent the number of new customers and the number of existing customers (repeat customers) who have been served by the virtual staff during the evaluation period. The "Number of Sessions" represents the number of times the virtual staff responded to customer messages within the chat room during the evaluation period. For example, if the virtual staff responds to a customer's question in the chat room, it is counted as 1 session. The "Number of Referrals" represents the number of times customers served during the evaluation period transitioned to a website directed by the virtual staff within the chat room. The "Number of DM Replies" represents the number of replies received to DMs, such as product introductions, sent by the virtual staff during the evaluation period. For example, DMs from virtual staff are sent to customers who have been served by that virtual staff in the past. The "Number of Customers Served (New)", "Number of Customers Served (Existing)", "Number of Sessions", "Number of Referrals", and "Number of DM Replies" represent the content of the virtual staff's customer service activities on the e-commerce site and can serve as indicators for evaluating the virtual staff's activities on the e-commerce site.

[0025] Sales amount and sales units represent the sales amount and sales units of the virtual staff during the evaluation period, respectively. Number of purchasers (new) and number of purchasers (existing) represent the number of new customers and existing customers who were served by the virtual staff and actually made a purchase during the evaluation period. The conversion rate (CV) represents the percentage of customers who were served by the virtual staff during the evaluation period and subsequently made a purchase. The repeat rate represents the percentage of customers who were previously served by the virtual staff and made a purchase and then requested the same virtual staff again. The average customer value represents the average amount of money spent by customers who were served by the virtual staff and made a purchase. Sales amount, sales units, number of purchasers (new), number of purchasers (existing), conversion rate, repeat rate, and average customer value represent the results of the virtual staff's customer service activities on the e-commerce site and can serve as indicators for evaluating the performance of the virtual staff on the e-commerce site.

[0026] As shown in Figure 4, for example, a scoring rule of "+2 / person" is set for the evaluation item "Number of customers served (new)," and a scoring rule of "+1 / person" is set for the evaluation item "Number of customers served (existing)." This means that during the evaluation period, each time a virtual staff member serves a customer on the e-commerce site, if the customer is a new customer, the virtual staff activity performance score is increased by "+2," and if the customer is an existing customer, the virtual staff activity performance score is increased by "+1." In addition, a scoring rule of "-1 / session" is set for the evaluation item "Number of sessions." The number of sessions tends to increase when the virtual staff member is unable to provide appropriate answers to customer questions, etc., or when the virtual staff member is unable to successfully guide customers to product pages. Therefore, a scoring rule is set for the evaluation item "Number of sessions" so that the virtual staff activity performance score decreases as the number of sessions increases.

[0027] For the evaluation item "Sales Amount," a scoring rule of "10% of Sales Amount" is set. This means that 10% of the amount sold by the virtual staff during the evaluation period will be added to the virtual staff activity performance score. For the evaluation item "Repeat Customer Rate," a scoring rule of "Repeat Customer Rate × 10000" is set. This means that the repeat customer rate calculated for the evaluation period will be multiplied by 10000 and added to the virtual staff activity performance score. A high repeat customer rate indicates that the quality of customer service provided by the virtual staff, including the content and attitude of the service, is high, and that customers at least have a positive impression. Therefore, a scoring rule is set for the evaluation item "Repeat Customer Rate" that will increase the virtual staff activity performance score.

[0028] For the evaluation item "Conversion Rate," the scoring rule "Conversion Rate × 1000" is set. This means that the value obtained by multiplying the conversion rate calculated for the evaluation period by 1000 will be added to the virtual staff activity performance score. For the evaluation item "Average Customer Spending," the scoring rule "5% of Average Customer Spending" is set. This means that 5% of the average customer spending calculated for the evaluation period will be added to the virtual staff activity performance score. A high conversion rate and average customer spending indicate high customer service efficiency by virtual staff, and scoring rules are set for the evaluation items "Conversion Rate" and "Average Customer Spending" in a way that increases the virtual staff activity performance score.

[0029] As shown in Figure 5, the processor 11 functions as a real staff activity information acquisition unit 111, a real staff activity performance score calculation unit 112, a virtual staff activity information reception unit 113, a virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit 114, a recording unit 115, a comprehensive score acquisition request reception unit 116, a comprehensive score calculation unit 117, and a transmission unit 118 by executing a comprehensive score calculation program.

[0030] The Real Staff Activity Information Acquisition Unit 111 sends activity information acquisition requests to the SNS server 2-1 and the blog service server 2-2, along with the accounts of each real staff member, and receives the real staff activity information (real staff activity information) from the SNS server 2-1 and the blog service server 2-2, respectively. The Recording Unit 115 records the received real staff activity information in the real staff activity information database, associating it with the real staff member's identification ID. The real staff activity information includes information on multiple evaluation items that evaluate the real staff member's activity performance, such as the number of posts, the number of comments (by the user), the number of reach (by the user), the number of likes (by the user), the number of saves (by the user), the number of following, the number of followers, the number of impressions, the number of reach (by others), the number of likes (by others), the number of saves (by others), and the number of website clicks (by others), or information for deriving these.

[0031] The Actual Staff Activity Performance Score Calculation Unit 112 calculates an Actual Staff Activity Performance Score, which represents the degree of activity performance of the actual staff on at least one of the SNS and blog services, based on the actual staff activity information. Specifically, the Actual Staff Activity Performance Score Calculation Unit 112 analyzes the actual staff activity information during a predetermined evaluation period, counts the number of times and the number of people for each evaluation item to be evaluated as actual staff activity performance, scores the count results for each evaluation item according to the rules specified in the scoring sheet for actual staff, and normalizes the summed score to calculate the actual staff activity performance score during the evaluation period.

[0032] The evaluation period may be a period specified by the user, or it may be a predetermined period such as one month or one year.

[0033] The method for scoring the performance of actual staff members is not limited to the above. A function may be used that uses multiple evaluation items as variables to calculate the performance score of actual staff members. Furthermore, instead of summing and normalizing the scores for each evaluation item, other methods may be employed. For example, a weighted average may be used, where different weighting coefficients are assigned to the scores of each evaluation item, and the score is adjusted according to its importance. The weighting coefficients and importance levels may be user-modifiable. Alternatively, the score for each evaluation item, or the sum of the scores for each evaluation item, may be converted into a ranking among multiple actual staff members being evaluated, and the score corresponding to that ranking may be used as the actual staff member activity performance score. Another method may be to use the standard deviation, which represents how far the score for each evaluation item deviates from the mean.

[0034] The virtual staff activity information receiving unit 113 receives virtual staff activity information (virtual staff activity information) from the EC site server 3. The recording unit 115 records the received virtual staff activity information in the virtual staff activity information database, associating it with the identification ID of the real staff member that the virtual staff member is representing. The virtual staff activity information includes information on multiple evaluation items that are evaluated as the virtual staff member's activity performance, such as the number of customers served (new), the number of customers served (existing), the number of sessions, the number of referrals, the number of DM replies, the sales amount, the number of items sold, the number of purchasers (new), the number of purchasers (existing), the conversion rate, the repeat rate, and the average customer spending, or information for deriving these items.

[0035] Virtual staff activity information includes virtual staff customer service information. Virtual staff customer service information refers to chat logs between customers who use the chat service provided on the e-commerce site and the virtual staff who serve the customers on the chat service. Chat logs include information about the message content, the sender of the message, the date and time the message was sent, the recipient of the message, and the customer's actions. By analyzing the chat logs, it is possible to identify the number of customers served (new), the number of customers served (existing), the number of sessions, and the number of referrals.

[0036] Furthermore, virtual staff activity information includes virtual staff sales information. Virtual staff sales information includes a customer ID that identifies the customer, the products purchased by that customer, the price of the purchased products, the date and time of purchase, etc. By analyzing the sales information, it is possible to identify the virtual staff's sales amount, the number of items sold, the number of customers who purchased products through the virtual staff's service (new), the number of customers who purchased products (existing), the conversion rate, the repeat purchase rate, and the average customer spending.

[0037] The virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit 114 calculates a virtual staff activity performance score that represents the degree of activity performance of virtual staff on at least one of the SNS and blog services, based on virtual staff activity information. Specifically, the virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit 114 analyzes virtual staff activity information during a predetermined evaluation period, counts the number of times, number of people, and amount for each evaluation item to be evaluated as virtual staff activity performance, scores the count results for each evaluation item according to the rules specified in the scoring sheet for real staff, and normalizes the summed score to calculate the virtual staff activity performance score for the evaluation period. The evaluation period may be a period specified by the user, or it may be a predetermined period such as one month or one year. Furthermore, the method of scoring the activity performance of virtual staff is not limited to the above, and various methods such as functions, weighted averages, score assignment from rankings, and standard deviations can be adopted, similar to the calculation of the real staff activity performance score.

[0038] The overall score acquisition request receiving unit 116 receives an overall score acquisition request from the company terminal 7. The overall score acquisition request includes an identification ID that identifies the actual staff member whose overall score is to be calculated, and information regarding the evaluation period specified by the user, which is the period for which the overall score is to be calculated.

[0039] The overall score calculation unit 117 calculates an overall score representing the degree of sales contribution of real staff by adding the virtual staff activity performance score of virtual staff acting as substitutes for real staff to the actual staff activity performance score of real staff during a predetermined evaluation period. Specifically, the overall score calculation unit 117 calculates the overall score of real staff as the average of the actual staff activity performance score and the virtual staff activity performance score. Of course, the method of calculating the overall score of real staff is not limited to this, as a higher actual staff activity performance score results in a higher overall score of real staff, and a higher virtual staff activity performance score also results in a higher overall score of real staff. For example, the overall score calculation unit 117 may calculate the overall score of real staff as a weighted average of the actual staff activity performance score and the virtual staff activity performance score, or it may rank the scores obtained by adding the actual staff activity performance score and the virtual staff activity performance score among the staff being evaluated, and use the score corresponding to that rank as the overall score of real staff. The weighting (sequence of weights) assigned to the actual staff activity performance score and the virtual staff activity performance score may be changeable by the user.

[0040] The transmission unit 118 transmits the overall score of the actual staff member, along with an identification ID that identifies the staff member, to the company terminal 7.

[0041] The following is a specific example of the processing of the virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit 114, with reference to Figure 7. Figure 7 shows the content of messages sent and received between a customer and a virtual staff member via a chat room. As shown in Figure 7, for example, when there are 6 message exchanges between an existing customer and a virtual staff member in the chat room, the virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit 114 analyzes the content of the total 6 sessions and counts the number of people, number of sessions, amount, and score for each evaluation item. Here, the number of people served (existing): 1, number of sessions: 6, number of customers referred: 3, sales amount: 30,000 yen, number of items sold: 2, and number of purchasers: 1 are counted. The virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit 114 then refers to the virtual staff scoring sheet (see Figure 4), scores the content of each identified evaluation item, and calculates a virtual staff activity performance score of "3175 points" by summing them up.

[0042] The procedure for calculating the overall score by the information processing device 1 according to this embodiment will be described below with reference to Figure 6. Figure 6 shows not only the overall score calculation process, but also the pre-processing for collecting and storing various information that will be used as the basis for calculating the overall score.

[0043] As shown in Figure 6, the actual staff activity information acquisition unit 111 sends a request to acquire actual staff activity information along with the account information of the actual staff member to the SNS server 2-1 and the blog service server 2-2, respectively (S11). The actual staff activity information along with the account information of the actual staff member is received from the SNS server 2-1 and the blog service server 2-2, respectively (S12). The recording unit 115 then records the received actual staff activity information along with the identification number of the actual staff member in the actual staff activity information management database (S13). The processes related to steps S11 to S13 are executed, for example, at a fixed time every day, and the activity information of the actual staff member from the previous day is acquired. Of course, the processes related to steps S11 to S13 may be repeated at shorter or longer intervals.

[0044] As shown in Figure 6, the virtual staff dispatch device 4 dispatches virtual staff to the EC site server 3 to serve customers. Specifically, the virtual staff dispatch device 4 transmits information about the virtual staff, such as the virtual staff's identification number and profile information (virtual staff information), to the EC site server 3. The EC site server 3 registers the virtual staff information received from the virtual staff dispatch device 4 (S21). The process related to step S21 is repeatedly executed each time a virtual staff member is dispatched from the virtual staff dispatch device 4, and multiple virtual staff members are registered in the EC site server 3.

[0045] When a customer has questions about a product while shopping on an e-commerce site, they send a request to the e-commerce site server 3, which operates the e-commerce site, via the customer terminal 6, to open a chat room (chatbot) for one-on-one conversation. The e-commerce site server 3 selects a virtual staff member from several virtual staff members to serve the customer and opens a chat room between the customer and the virtual staff member (S22). For example, a virtual staff member who has served the same customer in the past is selected, or if the customer has been served by a real staff member at a physical store, a virtual staff member who will act as a substitute for that real staff member is selected. The method of determining the virtual staff member is not limited to these methods.

[0046] Customers can send messages to virtual staff via a chat room, asking questions about products, etc. When the EC site server 3 receives a message from the customer terminal 6, it forwards the received message, along with the customer's profile information and the identification ID of the selected virtual staff member, to the virtual staff dispatch device 4. The virtual staff dispatch device 4 refers to information about the real staff member that the virtual staff member is representing, which is stored in the SNS and blog services, to generate a response message from the virtual staff member in response to the customer's message (S23), and sends the generated response message to the EC site server 3. As a result, the response message from the virtual staff member dispatched by the virtual staff dispatch device 4 is displayed in the chat room.

[0047] When the customer closes the chat room, the EC site server 3 sends customer service information (chat log), which represents the history of messages sent and received between the customer and the virtual staff via the chat room, to the information processing device 1. Customer service information is an example of virtual staff activity information. Of course, the timing of sending customer service information may be in real time or periodically. The virtual staff activity information receiving unit 113 receives customer service information from the EC site server 3 (S24), and the recording unit 115 records it in the virtual staff activity information management database (S25). The processes related to steps S22 to S25 are repeatedly executed each time a virtual staff member serves a customer, and as a result, virtual staff activity information is accumulated in the information processing device 1.

[0048] As shown in Figure 7, when the EC site server 3 receives a purchase request from the customer terminal 6, it performs various processes such as payment processing and delivery arrangement processing (S31), and transmits sales information to the information processing device 1, along with the product ID that identifies the purchased product, the price of the purchased product, the customer ID that identifies the customer who made the purchase, and the identification ID of the real staff member who served the customer on behalf of the virtual staff member. Sales information is an example of virtual staff activity information. The virtual staff activity information receiving unit 113 receives the sales information from the EC site server 3 (S32), and the recording unit 115 records the received sales information in the virtual staff activity information database (S33). The processes related to steps S31 to S33 are repeatedly executed each time a customer served by a virtual staff member makes a purchase, and as a result, virtual staff activity information is accumulated in the information processing device 1.

[0049] As shown in Figure 7, the overall score acquisition request receiving unit 116 receives an overall score acquisition request from the company terminal 7 (S41). Upon receiving the overall score acquisition request, each unit executes the calculation process for each score during the evaluation period specified by the user. The actual staff activity performance score calculation unit 112 analyzes the actual staff activity information by referring to the actual staff activity information database and calculates the actual staff activity performance score for the evaluation period according to the scoring sheet for actual staff (S42). The virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit 114 analyzes the virtual staff activity information by referring to the virtual staff activity information database and calculates the virtual staff activity performance score for the evaluation period according to the scoring sheet for virtual staff (S43). The overall score calculation unit 117 calculates the overall score of the actual staff during the evaluation period by adding the virtual staff activity performance score for the evaluation period to the actual staff activity performance score for the evaluation period (S44). The transmitting unit 118 transmits the total score of the actual staff member, along with an identification ID that identifies the actual staff member, to the company terminal 7 in response to the request for acquisition of the total score from the company terminal 7 (S45). Note that the calculation and transmission of the total score of the actual staff member may be performed periodically, not triggered by the receipt of an acquisition request.

[0050] The effects of the information processing device 1 according to this embodiment will be explained below with reference to Figure 8. As shown in Figure 8, the information processing device 1 according to this embodiment provides a new evaluation method for calculating a total score representing the degree of sales contribution by real staff by adding a virtual staff activity performance score, which represents the degree of activity of virtual staff acting as proxies for real staff on e-commerce sites, to a real staff activity performance score, which represents the degree of activity of real staff acting as proxies for real staff. One feature of this new evaluation method is that the calculation of the total score for real staff includes not only the activity performance of real staff but also the activity performance of virtual staff. Since virtual staff are proxies (clones) of real staff and are generated using information about real staff, the activity performance of said virtual staff can be considered as the activity performance of real staff. Therefore, by adding the activity performance of virtual staff to the total score for real staff, real staff can be evaluated fairly.

[0051] It is also important to evaluate the performance of real staff based on their proactive activities on social media and blogging services, such as the number of posts, comments (by the user), reach (by the user), likes (by the user), saves (by the user), and followers. Such proactive activities by real staff on social media and blogging services can increase the number of users who show interest in them, and these users may purchase products recommended by the real staff. Therefore, considering the evaluation of real staff's proactive activities on social media and blogging services when calculating their performance score (overall score) is important for fairly evaluating real staff. In particular, as in this embodiment, when a virtual staff member interacts with a customer, the customer's statements are generated by a generation AI that references past posts by real staff members on social media and blogging services. In such cases, the proactive activities of real staff members on social media and blogging services influence the quality of customer service, including the virtual staff member's knowledge, statements, and tone of voice. Therefore, the proactive activities of real staff on social networking services (SNS) and blogging services indirectly contribute to the performance record of virtual staff. For this reason, considering the evaluation of the proactive activities of real staff on SNS and blogging services when calculating the performance score (overall score) of real staff is important for fairly evaluating real staff.

[0052] Similarly, it is important to evaluate the performance of actual staff members based on the results of other people's evaluations of their proactive activities on social media and blogging services, such as follower count, impression count, reach (by others), likes (by others), saves (by others), and website clicks (by others). Since the results of other people's evaluations of the proactive activities of actual staff members can be said to represent the popularity and influence of those staff members, naturally, products introduced by popular (influential) staff members are more likely to be purchased by others who rate those staff members highly. Therefore, considering the results of other people's evaluations of the proactive activities of actual staff members on social media and blogging services when calculating the performance score (overall score) of actual staff members is important for fairly evaluating them.

[0053] It is also important to evaluate the performance of virtual staff based on the content of their customer service activities on the e-commerce site, such as the number of new customers served, the number of existing customers served, the number of sessions, the number of referrals, and the number of DM replies. Naturally, the more opportunities virtual staff have to serve customers online, and the more people they refer to product sites, the higher the likelihood that customers will purchase products. Therefore, considering the content of virtual staff's customer service activities on the e-commerce site when calculating the virtual staff's performance score (the overall score of real staff) is important for fairly evaluating real staff.

[0054] Furthermore, it is important to evaluate the performance of virtual staff based on the results of their customer service activities on the e-commerce site, such as sales amount, number of items sold, number of new customers, number of existing customers, conversion rate, repeat purchase rate, and average customer spending. Since these evaluation items directly represent the sales contribution of virtual staff, considering the results of customer service activities by virtual staff on the e-commerce site when calculating the virtual staff's performance score (overall score of real staff) is important for fairly evaluating real staff.

[0055] In this embodiment, the overall score of the actual staff was calculated from two types of scores: a virtual staff activity performance score and an actual staff activity performance score. As shown in Figure 8, the actual staff activity performance score can be divided into several types of scores depending on the content of the activity performance. For example, the actual staff activity performance score can be divided into the actual staff activity evaluation score, which is an indicator that evaluates the proactive activities of actual staff on SNS and blog services, and the actual staff performance evaluation score, which is an indicator that others have evaluated the proactive activities of actual staff on SNS and blog services. The actual staff activity evaluation score is calculated based on the number of posts, the number of comments (by the user), the number of reach (by the user), the number of likes (by the user), the number of saves (by the user), and the number of followers. The actual staff performance evaluation score is calculated based on the number of followers, the number of impressions, the number of reach (by others), the number of likes (by others), the number of saves (by others), and the number of website clicks (by others).

[0056] As shown in Figure 8, the virtual staff activity performance score can be divided into several types of scores depending on the content of the activity performance. For example, the virtual staff activity performance score can be divided into a virtual staff activity evaluation score, which evaluates the content of the virtual staff's customer service activities on the e-commerce site, and a virtual staff performance evaluation score, which evaluates the results of the customer service activities by the virtual staff. The virtual staff activity evaluation score is calculated based on the number of customers served (new), the number of customers served (existing), the number of sessions, the number of referrals, and the number of DM replies. The virtual staff performance evaluation score is calculated based on sales amount, the number of items sold, the number of purchasers (new), the number of purchasers (existing), the conversion rate, the repeat purchase rate, and the average customer value.

[0057] The overall score of real staff may be calculated based on at least one of the real staff activity evaluation score and one of the virtual staff activity evaluation score and virtual staff performance evaluation score. Of course, the overall score of real staff may also be calculated based on at least one of the four types of scores shown in Figure 8, or on at least one of the evaluation items.

[0058] A key concept of this invention is to evaluate real users based on the online activity records of virtual users acting as their representatives. Virtual users are evaluated for their personality, knowledge, speaking style, and other characteristics, and are dispatched to e-commerce sites, virtual art museums, virtual exhibitions, virtual companies, and virtual research laboratories. The personality, knowledge, speaking style, and other characteristics of virtual users are influenced by the information about real users used to create them. This information about real users includes profile information of real staff, posts made by real staff on social networking services and blog services, and written information created by real staff to generate virtual users, reflecting the thoughts, experiences, and backgrounds of real users. Therefore, the online activity records of virtual users should be evaluated as the activity records of the real users from whom they were created, and evaluating real users based on the activity records of virtual users ensures a fair evaluation of real users.

[0059] Therefore, the methods for evaluating the activity performance of real users, the methods for evaluating the activity performance of virtual users, and the methods for comprehensively evaluating real users based on the activity performance of real users and virtual users are not limited to this embodiment. Furthermore, the methods for obtaining various information necessary for calculating the overall score of real staff are not limited to this embodiment. For example, the information obtained from the SNS server 2-1, the blog service server 2-2, and the EC site server 3 may be obtained via other servers, or it may be obtained by connecting an external storage device such as a USB memory containing the information obtained from the SNS server 2-1, the blog service server 2-2, and the EC site server 3 to the information processing device 1.

[0060] In this embodiment, the activity record of real staff on SNS and blog services was taken into account along with the activity record of virtual staff on e-commerce sites. However, real staff may be comprehensively evaluated by including not only the activity record of real staff on SNS and blog services, but also the activity record of real staff in physical stores. Alternatively, the activity record of real staff in physical stores may be used instead of the activity record of real staff on SNS and blog services. Furthermore, the destination of virtual users is not limited to e-commerce sites. That is, the information processing device may calculate a comprehensive evaluation of real users by taking into account the activity record of real staff on at least one of SNS and blog services, along with the activity record of virtual users on the internet. For example, a virtual user may be dispatched as a virtual guide to a virtual museum or virtual exhibition realized on the internet, or as a virtual receptionist to a virtual company realized on the internet, or as a virtual researcher to a virtual research institute on the internet.

[0061] In this embodiment, the information processing device 1 performed the calculation of the overall score of the actual staff, but it may also be configured to perform the calculation of the distribution amount based on the overall score of the actual staff. Hereinafter, an modified version of the information processing device 1 will be described with reference to Figures 9 to 11.

[0062] As shown in Figure 9, the processor 11 functions as a real staff activity information acquisition unit 111, a real staff activity performance score calculation unit 112, a virtual staff activity information reception unit 113, a virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit 114, a recording unit 115, a total score acquisition request reception unit 116, a total score calculation unit 117, a transmission unit 118, a distribution calculation request reception unit 121, and a distribution calculation unit 122 by executing a distribution calculation program stored in the storage device 24. Here, the distribution calculation request reception unit 121 and the distribution calculation unit 122, and the components related to these processes will be explained.

[0063] The distribution calculation request receiving unit 121 receives distribution calculation requests from the company terminal 7. The distribution calculation request includes an identification ID that identifies each of the multiple actual staff members to be calculated, and information regarding the evaluation period. The evaluation period is specified by the user.

[0064] The distribution calculation unit 122 calculates the total sales amount via virtual staff from the virtual staff activity information acquired by the virtual staff activity information receiving unit 113, and calculates the total amount of distribution funds to be distributed by multiplying the total sales amount by a predetermined percentage. Of course, the method of knowing the total sales amount is not limited to the above. For example, information on the total sales amount via virtual staff may be received from the EC site server 3. The distribution calculation unit 122 calculates the distribution rate for each real staff member based on the overall score of each real staff member, and calculates the distribution amount to be distributed to each real staff member by multiplying the total amount of distribution funds by the distribution rate of the real staff member. For example, real staff members may be ranked according to their overall score, and a predetermined distribution rate for each rank may be determined as the distribution rate for that real staff member. Of course, the method of calculating the distribution rate is not limited to this, and various calculation methods can be adopted so that the higher the overall score, the higher the distribution rate. For example, as shown in Figure 10, if 10% of the total sales revenue via a virtual staff member is the source of the distribution (N yen), and the distribution rate to a real staff member A with a total score of 95 is 20%, then 20% of the source (N × 0.2) will be calculated as the distribution. The transmission unit 118 sends information regarding the distribution (N × 0.2) to the company terminal 7, along with an identification ID that identifies the corresponding real staff member. Of course, the company can calculate the distribution amount to be distributed to each real staff member, so the transmission unit 118 may also send information regarding the distribution rate (20%) to the company terminal 7, along with an identification ID that identifies the corresponding real staff member.

[0065] In this embodiment, the distribution amount to be distributed to each real staff member was calculated from the total sales amount via the virtual staff member based on the overall score of each real staff member. However, the method for calculating the distribution amount to be distributed to each real staff member from the total sales amount via the virtual staff member is not limited to this. For example, the distribution amount to be distributed to each real staff member acting on behalf of the virtual staff member may be calculated from the total sales amount via the virtual staff member based on the activity performance score of each virtual staff member.

[0066] While several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented as examples only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These embodiments can be carried out in a variety of other forms, and various omissions, substitutions, and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. These embodiments and their variations are included in the scope and spirit of the invention, as well as in the claims and their equivalents. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0067] 1... Information processing device, 2-1... SNS server, 2-2... Blog service server, 3... E-commerce site server, 4... Virtual staff dispatch device, 5... Staff terminal, 6... Customer terminal, 7... Company terminal.

Claims

1. A first receiving unit receives information relating to the activity records of actual staff members in at least one of the SNS server and blog server, from at least one of the SNS server and blog server that provides functions related to the blog service. A first calculation unit analyzes information relating to the activity record of the actual staff member and calculates the number of posts made by the actual staff member on at least one of the SNS and the blog service, and the number of followers who follow the account of the actual staff member on at least one of the SNS and the blog service. A second receiving unit receives information from an e-commerce site server that provides functions related to the e-commerce site, regarding the activity record of virtual staff who are dispatched on behalf of the actual staff in response to a request from the e-commerce site server on the e-commerce site, A second calculation unit analyzes information related to the activity record of the virtual staff and calculates the number of customers served by the virtual staff and the sales amount generated by the virtual staff on the e-commerce site. A comprehensive score calculation unit calculates the overall score of the actual staff member based on the number of posts, the number of followers, the number of customers served, and the sales amount. An information processing device equipped with the following.

2. The first calculation unit analyzes information relating to the activity record of the actual staff member and calculates at least one of the following: the number of posts, the number of followers, the number of comments made by the actual staff member on posts by others, the reach number representing the number of times the actual staff member viewed articles posted by others, the number of likes representing the number of times the actual staff member gave a favorable reaction to articles posted by others, the number of saves representing the number of times the actual staff member saved content posted by others, and the number of follows representing the number of accounts of others that the actual staff member follows. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the overall score calculation unit calculates the overall score of the actual staff member based on the number of posts, the number of followers, the number of customers served, the sales amount, and at least one of the number of comments, the reach, the likes, the saves, and the following.

3. The first calculation unit analyzes information relating to the activity record of the actual staff member and calculates the number of posts, the number of followers, and at least one of the following in at least one of the SNS and the blog service: the number of impressions, the number of times the content posted by the actual staff member was viewed by others; the number of reach, the number of times the content posted by the actual staff member was viewed by others; the number of likes, the number of times the content posted by the actual staff member received a positive response; the number of saves, the number of times the content posted by the actual staff member was saved by others; and the number of website clicks, the number of times others transitioned to a website directed by the actual staff member. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the overall score calculation unit calculates the overall score of the actual staff member based on the number of posts, the number of followers, the number of customers served, the sales amount, and at least one of the number of impressions, the number of reach, the number of likes, the number of saves, and the number of website clicks.

4. The second calculation unit analyzes information relating to the activity record of the virtual staff and calculates at least one of the following: the number of customers served, the sales amount, the number of sessions representing the number of times the virtual staff responded to customer messages on the e-commerce site, the number of referrals representing the number of times customers served by the virtual staff transitioned to the website to which the virtual staff directed them, and the number of replies to emails sent by the virtual staff. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the overall score calculation unit calculates the overall score of the actual staff member based on the number of posts, the number of followers, the number of customers served, the sales amount, the number of sessions, the number of customers referred, and the number of replies.

5. The second calculation unit analyzes information relating to the activity record of the virtual staff and calculates at least one of the following: the number of customers served, the sales amount, the number of items sold by the virtual staff on the e-commerce site, the number of customers who purchased products through the virtual staff's service, the conversion rate representing the percentage of customers served by the virtual staff who ended up purchasing products, the repeat rate representing the percentage of customers previously served by the virtual staff who specifically request the virtual staff, and the average customer spending representing the average amount of money spent by customers who ended up purchasing products. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the overall score calculation unit calculates the overall score of the actual staff member based on the number of posts, the number of followers, the number of customers served, the sales amount, the number of items sold, the number of customers who made a purchase, the conversion rate, the repeat customer rate, and the average customer spending.

6. A computer connected to at least one of the following servers: an SNS server that provides SNS-related functions and a blog server that provides blog service-related functions, and an EC site server that provides EC site-related functions, A means for receiving information from at least one of the SNS server and the blog server regarding the number of posts made by a real staff member to at least one of the SNS and the blog service, and the number of followers following the real staff member's account on at least one of the SNS and the blog service. A means for receiving information from the EC site server regarding the number of customers served by virtual staff acting as substitutes for real staff on the EC site and the sales amount generated by the virtual staff, A program to function as a means for calculating the overall score of the actual staff member based on the number of posts, the number of followers, the number of customers served, and the sales amount.

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