Information processing device and data structure

Abstract

To improve the training efficiency of sales representatives. [Solution] The information processing device includes a storage unit that stores product information, a sales scenario for encouraging a customer to purchase the product, and information on the outcome of the sales negotiation in association with each other, and a control unit that outputs the scenario information corresponding to the conditions specified for the product or the outcome of the sales negotiation.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a data structure.

Background Art

[0002] In various businesses, since the skill of negotiation for promoting the purchase of products by customers depends on the personal skills of the salesperson, various technologies for supporting the improvement of the negotiation skills of the salesperson have been proposed. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for searching for a dialogue that needs to be monitored from the content of the explanation to the customer.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] In the technology for supporting the improvement of the negotiation skills of salespersons using machine learning or the like, there is room for improving the training efficiency of salespersons.

[0005] In view of the above, an information processing apparatus and the like that enable improvement of the training efficiency of salespersons will be disclosed below.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] The information processing apparatus in the present disclosure includes a storage unit that stores, in association with each other, product information, information on a negotiation scenario for promoting the purchase of the product by a customer, and information on the result of the negotiation, and a control unit that outputs information on the scenario according to the condition when a condition regarding the product or the result of the negotiation is specified.

[0007] The data structure in this disclosure is a data structure that associates product information, a sales scenario for encouraging a customer to purchase the product, and information on the outcome of the sales negotiation, and causes an information processing device to output the scenario information according to specified conditions regarding the product or the outcome of the sales negotiation. [Effects of the Invention]

[0008] The information processing device described in this disclosure makes it possible to improve the training efficiency of sales personnel. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0009] [Figure 1] This is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an information processing system. [Figure 2] This is a diagram explaining the sales negotiation history information. [Figure 3] This is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation procedure for a server device. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0010] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

[0011] Figure 1 shows an example configuration of one embodiment. The information processing system 1 comprises one or more server devices 10 and terminal devices 12 connected to the server devices 10 via a network 11 for information communication. The server devices 10 are, for example, one or a plurality of server computers capable of information communication with each other, and the server computers are appropriately installed, for example, in one or more sales offices of a vehicle sales company, one or more data centers, on the cloud, or a combination thereof. The server devices 10 correspond to the "information processing device" in this embodiment. The terminal devices 12 are, for example, one or a plurality of information processing devices capable of information communication with each other, equipped with communication functions and voice input functions, such as personal computers, portable tablet terminal devices, smartphones, etc. The terminal devices 12 are appropriately installed, for example, in one or more vehicle sales offices and used by sales staff. The terminal devices 12 are equipped with communication interfaces such as mobile communication and LAN (Local Area Network) and are connected to the network 11 for information communication. The terminal devices 12 also have a microphone to acquire the voice of conversations between sales staff and customers and a processor to process the voice information. Network 11 may be, for example, a LAN within a branch office, the Internet, an ad-hoc network, a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network), a mobile communication network, or another network, or any combination thereof.

[0012] The information processing system 1 in this embodiment supports sales representatives of vehicles in negotiations with customers. During negotiations with customers, the sales representative engages in various conversations, such as listening to the customer's preferences or needs, providing information on products that match those preferences or needs, and encouraging the customer to purchase the product once they have gained an understanding of and are satisfied with it. In the following, "products" include both goods and services. Goods include, for example, vehicles such as passenger cars and commercial vehicles, vehicle accessories, maintenance supplies, etc. Services include vehicle maintenance services, roadside assistance, etc.

[0013] The server device 10 of the information processing system 1 has a storage unit 102 and a control unit 103. The storage unit 102 stores sales history information 104 that associates product information, sales scenario information for encouraging customers to purchase the product, and the results of the sales negotiation (hereinafter referred to as sales negotiation results). The sales negotiation results are the customer's acceptance or rejection of the purchase of the product. Furthermore, when a user specifies conditions regarding the product or sales negotiation results via the terminal device 12, the control unit 103 outputs scenario information (hereinafter referred to as scenario information) corresponding to the specified conditions (hereinafter referred to as specified conditions). The terminal device 12 that receives the scenario information presents evaluation information to the user, i.e., the salesperson or their supervisor. In this way, the salesperson or their supervisor can learn the sales scenarios of past sales negotiations conducted by salespeople for the products they are responsible for selling, thereby improving the training efficiency of salespeople.

[0014] Next, the communication unit 101, storage unit 102, and control unit 103 of the server device 10 will be described. If the server device 10 is composed of multiple server computers, the communication unit 101, storage unit 102, and control unit 103 may be appropriately distributed and arranged across multiple server computers.

[0015] The communication unit 101 includes one or more communication interfaces. These communication interfaces are, for example, LAN interfaces. The communication unit 101 receives information used in the operation of the server device 10 and transmits information obtained through the operation of the server device 10. The server device 10 is connected to the network 11 via the communication unit 101 and communicates information with the terminal device 12 via the network 11.

[0016] The storage unit 102 includes, for example, one or more semiconductor memories, one or more magnetic memories, one or more optical memories, or a combination of at least two of these, which function as main memory, auxiliary memory, or cache memory. The semiconductor memory is, for example, RAM (Random Access Memory) or ROM (Read Only Memory). The RAM is, for example, SRAM (Static RAM) or DRAM (Dynamic RAM). The ROM is, for example, EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM). The storage unit 102 stores control and processing programs necessary for the operation of the server device 10, various information required by the server device 10 to execute the control and processing programs, and information obtained through the operation of the server device 10.

[0017] The control unit 103 includes one or more processors, one or more dedicated circuits, or a combination thereof. The processors are, for example, general-purpose processors such as CPUs (Central Processing Units) or dedicated processors such as GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) specialized for specific processing. The dedicated circuits are, for example, FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays) or ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits). The control unit 103 controls each part of the server device 10 and performs information processing related to the operation of the server device 10.

[0018] In this embodiment, the storage unit 102 stores negotiation history information 104. As shown in Figure 2, the negotiation history information 104 has one or more negotiation histories 20. Each negotiation history 20 has scenario information and negotiation result information associated with product information. Product information is information for identifying a product and includes information such as product name, price, and delivery method. Scenario information includes negotiation date and time, scenario pattern, conversation text, etc., for analyzing the negotiation. Negotiation result information includes information on whether the customer accepted or rejected the purchase of the product. The negotiation date and time included in the scenario information includes the start date and time and the end date and time of the negotiation. Scenario patterns are classifications arbitrarily set for the negotiation scenario and include "pushing pattern," "trust building pattern," "competitive comparison pattern," "data-driven pattern," etc. The conversation text includes text corresponding to the audio of the negotiation and its summary. The conversation text includes phrases such as, for example, corresponding to the "pushing pattern": "If you don't apply a coating, the body will deteriorate quickly, is that alright?", corresponding to the "trust-building pattern": "How do you usually apply coatings?", corresponding to the "competitor comparison pattern": "It lasts longer than coatings made by company XX", and corresponding to the "data-driven pattern": "XX coating lasts for more than XX days". In addition, the negotiation history information 104 has analytical information 21 derived from multiple negotiation histories 20. The analytical information 21 includes information on the acceptance rate for each scenario pattern corresponding to the product information. The acceptance rate is the number of combinations in a given combination of product information and scenario pattern where the negotiation result information indicates acceptance, relative to the total number of combinations.

[0019] Returning to Figure 1, the memory unit 102 also stores the Large Language Model (LLM) 105. If the server device 10 consists of multiple server computers, the LLM 105 may be stored in any server computer, for example, a server computer that provides cloud services. The LLM 105 is a model that has been machine-learned using a large amount of text data to perform natural language processing, and is a language model that can perform natural language processing such as information extraction, text summarization, and question and answer in a general-purpose manner.

[0020] FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation example of the server device 10. Each step in FIG. 3 is executed by the control unit 103 of the server device 10.

[0021] The procedure example in FIG. 3(A) is a procedure example when the negotiation history information 104 is stored in the server device 10, and is a procedure example executed by the control unit 103 of the server device 10 when the user activates the negotiation support function of the server device 10 using the terminal device 12. When the salesperson operates the terminal device 12 to request the negotiation support function, the terminal device 12 sends a startup request for the support function to the server device 10.

[0022] When the control unit 103 of the server device 10 receives a request to activate a support function, it activates the negotiation support function in response to the activation request (S20). Next, the control unit 103 acquires conversation information (S21). When a salesperson conducts a negotiation with a customer, the terminal device 12 acquires the audio of the negotiation, and the terminal device 12 sends conversation information, including the audio data of the negotiation, to the server device 10. Next, the control unit 103 generates the conversation text of the negotiation (S22). For example, when the control unit 103 receives information from the terminal device 12 indicating that the negotiation has ended, such as information about a period of silence lasting a certain amount of time or longer, it triggers speech recognition processing on the audio data included in the conversation information to generate the conversation text of the negotiation. At this time, the control unit 103 may perform speaker analysis to distinguish between the utterances of the salesperson and the customer and identify the text of the salesperson's utterances. Next, the control unit 103 generates a negotiation history from the conversation text of the negotiation (S23). The control unit 103 derives the negotiation date and time from the timestamp of the conversation information, and analyzes the conversation text using the LLM 105 to extract product information, scenario information, and negotiation results. The scenario information includes an abstract or summary of the negotiation. The negotiation results are extracted from text indicating the customer's intention to accept or reject the purchase. Rejection of purchase includes cases where the customer is hesitant to purchase. Next, the control unit 103 classifies the scenario information into scenario patterns (S24). The control unit 103 analyzes the conversation text using the LLM 105 and divides the scenario information into scenario patterns based on the salesperson's conversational approach during the negotiation. Next, the control unit 103 derives analysis information, i.e., the customer acceptance rate, for each product's scenario pattern (S25). Then, the control unit 103 stores or updates negotiation history information 104, which contains the negotiation history and analysis information (S26). Finally, the control unit 103 completes the procedure shown in Figure 3(A).

[0023] The procedure example in FIG. 3(B) is a procedure example when the server device 10 searches for scenario information corresponding to specified conditions from the negotiation history information 104, and is a procedure example executed by the control unit 103 of the server device 10 when the user designates the specified conditions to the server device 10 using the terminal device 12. When the salesperson operates the terminal device 12 to designate the specified conditions, the terminal device 12 sends the information of the specified conditions to the server device 10. The information of the specified conditions is specified, for example, by presenting product information pre-stored in the terminal device 12 to the user and the user appropriately selecting from the presented product information. Alternatively, the product information may be pre-stored in the storage unit 102 of the server device 10, sent from the server device 10, and presented to the user. Also, the information of the specified conditions may include a commitment rate. The user can operate the terminal device 12 to set an arbitrary commitment rate.

[0024] When the control unit 103 of the server device 10 acquires the information of the specified conditions (S31), it searches for scenario information matching the specified conditions from the negotiation history information 104 (S32). When the control unit 103 can find scenario information matching the specified conditions (Yes in S33), it outputs the scenario information to the terminal device 12 (S34). On the contrary, when it cannot find scenario information matching the specified conditions (No in S33), it outputs a search failure notification to the terminal device 12 (S35) and ends the procedure in FIG. 3(B). When outputting a plurality of scenario information, the control unit 103 may sort them in descending order of the commitment rate or select and present the scenario information with the highest commitment rate.

[0025] When the terminal device 12 receives retrieved scenario information, it outputs the scenario information to the user. Conversely, when it receives a search failure notification, it outputs information to the user indicating that no scenario information matching the specified conditions exists. The user, i.e., the salesperson or their supervisor, can learn from past sales negotiation methods, such as those of experienced salespeople, by viewing the scenario patterns, summaries, and conversation texts of the sales negotiations included in the displayed scenario information. In particular, if the salesperson or their supervisor specifies a desired acceptance rate as a condition, they can learn how to conduct a sales negotiation to achieve that desired acceptance rate. Furthermore, the salesperson or their supervisor can learn how to conduct a conversation to obtain acceptance even if, for example, the customer expresses reluctance midway through the negotiation. Thus, it becomes possible to improve the training efficiency of salespeople.

[0026] As described above, embodiments have been explained based on various drawings and examples, but it should be noted that those skilled in the art will find it easy to make various modifications and alterations based on this disclosure. Therefore, it should be noted that these modifications and alterations are within the scope of this disclosure. For example, the functions, etc., included in each means, each step, etc., can be rearranged in a logically consistent manner, and multiple means, steps, etc., can be combined into one or divided. [Explanation of symbols]

[0027] 10: Server equipment, 11: Network, 12: Terminal equipment, 101: Communications department 102: Memory unit, 103: Control unit, 104: Business negotiation history information, 105: Large-scale language models

Claims

1. A storage unit that stores product information, information on a sales negotiation scenario to encourage a customer to purchase the said product, and information on the results of the said sales negotiation in association with each other. When conditions for the aforementioned product or the outcome of the aforementioned negotiation are specified, a control unit outputs information for the aforementioned scenario according to those conditions, An information processing device having

2. In claim 1, The outcome of the aforementioned negotiation is either acceptance or rejection of the purchase. Information processing device.

3. In claim 2, The conditions for the above results include the acceptance rate for each pattern of the above scenario. Information processing device.

4. A data structure that associates product information, information on a sales negotiation scenario to encourage a customer to purchase the said product, and information on the outcome of said sales negotiation, A data structure that causes an information processing device to output information of the scenario according to specified conditions regarding the product or the outcome of the business negotiation.

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