Customer information sharing system and computer program

Abstract

In a customer information sharing system, while keeping confidential information confidential in principle, the system should allow for the easy creation of shared pairs where businesses with special personal relationships can share their unique confidential information through mutual agreement. [Solution] The first member company sends a letter to the second member company offering to share their respective unique confidential information, and the second member company responds with a reply acknowledging the sharing, thereby establishing the sharing of their respective unique confidential information between the first and second member companies through this round-trip communication.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to a customer information sharing system for sharing evaluation information regarding customer behavior among a plurality of pre-registered merchants.

Background Art

[0002] Industries where a large number of unspecified general consumers often become customers include, for example, restaurants and accommodation facilities such as inns and hotels. In these customer service facilities, while many customers abide by social rules, maintain a good relationship with the facility, and are welcomed as repeat customers, there are also customers who engage in nuisance behavior that disrupts the business of the facility or makes other customers feel uncomfortable. Examples of such nuisance behavior include unauthorized cancellations, non-payment of fees, violent behavior, and the spread of negative reviews of the store using SNS. And such troublesome customers often repeat similar nuisance behavior at the same store.

[0003] For this reason, each merchant often records information identifying troublesome customers they have actually encountered, and when such a troublesome customer attempts to use the customer service facility again, they take extra care in dealing with the customer and remain vigilant as a form of self-defense.

[0004] Also, when the cause of such nuisance behavior lies in the nature of the troublesome customer themselves, the troublesome customer often engages in similar nuisance behavior not only at one customer service facility but also at other customer service facilities in the same industry or in different industries. Therefore, it is an effective measure to not only hold information on such troublesome customers alone in one store but also share it among all the chain stores of the merchant or among multiple merchants.

[0005] A technology for sharing such information using a computer network is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6840344. In this publication, when a business registers information on problematic customers (bad customers), it is possible to specify whether the information should be shared with all businesses nationwide (a nationwide group) or only within a "specific business group" to which businesses with a particular relationship belong, depending on the type of behavior of the problematic customer (paragraphs

[0040] to

[0042] of the same publication). [Prior art documents] [Patent Documents]

[0006] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 6840344 [Overview of the project] [Problems that the invention aims to solve]

[0007] By the way, if we focus on businesses as information providers, not all information about problematic customers that a business has experienced is necessarily information that should be shared with other businesses. For example, a customer who engaged in extremely malicious behavior at a business's service facility might be considered problematic but within acceptable limits by another business.

[0008] In other words, if a business providing information shares details about how it handles problematic customers with all businesses or businesses belonging to a specific group, it may lead to excessive restrictions on those customers. Therefore, it may be better not to disclose such information to other businesses with whom there has been no prior interaction.

[0009] On the other hand, even with such information, if a business has a close relationship with the information provider and is considered to be "familiar with them," they often know the circumstances of the information provider and the personal characteristics of the staff. Taking this into consideration, the information will be understood, and there is no need to excessively restrict the disclosure of information. In some cases, it can be judged that the benefits of sharing the information outweigh the disadvantages of sharing the customer's information.

[0010] In other words, among the customer evaluation information registered in such a system, some may be shared with other businesses, some may not be shared with other businesses, and some may only be shared with specific other businesses. In the conventional systems disclosed in the prior art documents mentioned above, it is possible to choose whether to make the accumulated customer evaluation information public to all businesses or only to the group, but it is not possible to distinguish between public and private information and flexibly specify the scope of sharing for each type of information.

[0011] This invention has been made in view of the above problems, and aims to provide a customer information sharing system in which multiple businesses share customer evaluation information, which distinguishes between public and private information among customer evaluation information, keeping private information private in principle, and enabling flexible and limited sharing within a limited human scope, as well as a computer program for that purpose. [Means for solving the problem]

[0012] To solve the above problems, the first aspect of this invention is a customer information sharing system configured by networking a server and information terminals of a plurality of member businesses that have been registered in advance, for sharing customer evaluation information regarding the words and actions of customers among the plurality of member businesses, comprising: (a) a customer evaluation information storage unit that stores customer evaluation information entered by each of the plurality of member businesses acting as information providers using their own information terminals, across the plurality of member businesses as a customer evaluation information database; and (b) a search unit that allows each of the plurality of member businesses acting as information searchers to search the customer evaluation information database using their own information terminals, and outputs and displays the customer evaluation information of the customer being searched on the information searcher's information terminal, wherein the customer evaluation information includes unique confidential information that is not disclosed to anyone other than the information provider of the customer evaluation information, and in the search output by the search unit, the confidential information is excluded from the output, and the customer information sharing system further (c) A customer information sharing system is provided, characterized in that (c) round-trip communication between a pair of first and second member businesses among the plurality of member businesses, comprising: an outgoing message sent to the second member business by the operation of the information terminal of the first member business, offering to share confidential information unique to each of the first and second member businesses; and a reply message sent to the first member business by the operation of the information terminal of the second member business, acknowledging the offer and approving the sharing in response to the offer, thereby establishing the sharing of confidential information unique to each of the first and second member businesses; and a confidential information sharing unit that allows the information terminals of the first and second member business pairs, where the sharing has been established, to allow the other party to view confidential information unique to them; and that among the plurality of member businesses, different combinations of the first and second member businesses are permitted, thereby allowing the formation of multiple pairs, and that the sharing of confidential information is performed on a pair-by-pair basis.

[0013] A second aspect of this invention is a customer information sharing system of the first aspect, characterized in that each member business is permitted to belong to a plurality of pairs, and the scope of non-public information to be shared is determined for each pair.

[0014] A third aspect of this invention is a customer information sharing system according to the second aspect, characterized in that the non-public information sharing unit outputs and displays to the information terminal of each member business constituting the pair a sharing destination list that enumerates the recipients of the non-public information, and a shared customer evaluation list that includes the non-public information specific to the recipients of the non-public information.

[0015] A fourth aspect of this invention is the customer information sharing system of the third aspect, 1 The non-public information sharing unit is characterized in that it has a sharing pair dissolution control unit which, by performing a predetermined operation input from either the information terminal of the first member business operator or the second member business operator, dissolves the pair of the first and second member business operators without requiring consent from the other party's information terminal, thereby stopping the sharing of the non-public information of the first and second member business operators.

[0016] A fifth aspect of this invention is a customer information sharing system according to the first aspect, wherein the customer evaluation information includes a tiered evaluation that expresses the quality of the customer's behavior at the member business's store or facility on one of several levels, and the non-public information is used for customers whose behavior is particularly bad. member This customer information sharing system is characterized by including an evaluation of whether a business operator has prohibited entry to a store or facility.

[0017] A sixth aspect of this invention is a customer information sharing system according to the first aspect, wherein the system further comprises (d) a background image display control unit that displays visible information identifying the member business operator who is logged into the system from each of the information terminals as a background image on the screen of the information terminal.

[0018] A seventh aspect of this invention is the customer information sharing system of the first aspect, Search section The search output includes the customer evaluation information database. S This customer information sharing system is characterized by including a comprehensive evaluation index obtained by comprehensively evaluating multiple customer evaluation information stored for a customer specified in a search, according to a predetermined evaluation rule, from among the accumulated customer evaluation information.

[0019] An eighth aspect of this invention is a computer program that, when installed and executed on a computer that functions as a server having a computing device and a storage device, causes a computer system comprising the server and a plurality of information terminals connected to the server via a network to function as a customer information sharing system according to any of the first to seventh aspects. [Effects of the Invention]

[0020] In the first aspect of this invention, a sharing pair is formed through round-trip communication between pairs of member businesses from among a plurality of member businesses, that is, round-trip communication consisting of an outgoing message offering to share confidential information and a reply in response approving the sharing of confidential information. Mutual sharing of confidential information can be established among member businesses forming such a sharing pair. Therefore, even for information that is generally kept confidential, rather than the entire customer evaluation information, it is possible to select limited partners to share the confidential information with and share it with those partners.

[0021] Therefore, compared with the case of uniformly sharing customer evaluation information within a group of operators uniformly determined by formal conditions such as "franchised stores" or "competitors", each member operator can freely select the sharing partner for the non-public information for each, distinguishing between public information and non-public information in customer evaluation information, and limited sharing of non-public information can be flexibly carried out within a limited range.

[0022] Furthermore, it is possible to coexist various sharing pairs among multiple member operators, and the sharing of non-public information of each member operator can be carried out in various combinations in units of sharing pairs.

[0023] In the second aspect of this invention, since one member operator can belong to multiple sharing pairs and the scope of non-public information to be shared is determined for each pair, a wide selection of sharing partners for non-public information can be made.

[0024] In the third aspect of this invention, since the list of partners (sharing destination list) sharing one's own non-public information is displayed on one's own information terminal, it is currently possible to easily confirm with which member operator a sharing pair is formed.

[0025] In the fourth aspect of this invention, the pair between the first and second member operators can be dissolved without the consent operation of the partner of the pair by any operation on the information terminals of the first and second member operators. Therefore, when the personal trust relationship is lost, etc., the sharing pair can be dissolved only by operating one's own information terminal without obtaining the consent of the partner of the pair. For this reason, it is possible to prevent the sharing of non-public information from continuing in an involuntary situation against the will of one party.

[0026] In a fifth aspect of this invention, the confidential information includes an evaluation that a customer whose behavior was particularly malicious was prohibited from entering the business's store or facility. This severe evaluation of the customer being banned can be communicated only to the other member business, selected as the partner in a shared pair, particularly trustworthy businesses. This prevents unnecessary friction with the customer by not uniformly disclosing the evaluation that the customer was banned to all member businesses.

[0027] In a sixth aspect of this invention, visible information that identifies the member business operator logged into the system from each of the information terminals is displayed as a background image on the screen of the information terminal, thereby providing a psychological deterrent against information leakage, such as the screen being leaked to external parties (other than the member business operator).

[0028] In the seventh aspect of this invention, the search results include a comprehensive evaluation index obtained by comprehensively evaluating multiple customer evaluation information for the target customer according to predetermined evaluation rules. Therefore, when a large number of customer evaluation information from member businesses is registered, member businesses searching for this information can easily understand the general trends.

[0029] The computer program according to the eighth aspect of this invention can be installed on a computer to construct the systems of each of the above aspects. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0030] [Figure 1] Figure 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of a system according to an embodiment of this invention. [Figure 2] Figure 2 is a configuration diagram showing the functional blocks of the system according to the embodiment. [Figure 3] Figure 3 shows the contents of the unique list registration section. [Figure 4] Figure 4 is a flowchart of the member registration process. [Figure 5] Figure 5 shows an example of a membership application screen. [Figure 6] Figure 6 shows an example of a member list. [Figure 7] Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating the process of providing customer evaluation information and displaying the My Information List and My Banned List. [Figure 8] Figure 8 shows an example of the display layout on the My Page. [Figure 9] Figure 9 shows an example of how the My Page is displayed. [Figure 10] Figure 10 shows an example of items in a customer evaluation information database. [Figure 11] Figure 11 shows an example of the contents of a customer evaluation information database. [Figure 12] Figure 12 shows an example of the contents of a customer evaluation information database. [Figure 13] Figure 13 shows an example of the contents of a customer evaluation information database. [Figure 14] Figure 14 shows an example of how the My Information List is displayed. [Figure 15] Figure 15 shows an example of how your banned list is displayed. [Figure 16] Figure 16 is a flowchart of the data retrieval process. [Figure 17] Figure 17 shows an example of a search page with a background image. [Figure 18] Figure 18 shows an example of search results. [Figure 19] Figure 19 shows another example of a background image for a search page. [Figure 20] Figure 20 is a flowchart illustrating the limited sharing of information regarding bans. [Figure 21] Figure 21 shows an example of the display layout on a page for sharing information about being banned from a premises. [Figure 22] Figure 22 shows an example of how a page for sharing information about being banned from a venue is displayed. [Figure 23] Figure 23 shows an example of a display of a list of people who share information about being banned from an establishment. [Figure 24] Figure 24 shows an example of how a shared access ban list is displayed. [Figure 25] Figure 25 shows a pair of shared confidential information in this embodiment. [Figure 26] Figure 26 shows the information sharing relationship of the comparative example. [Figure 27] Figure 27 shows a modified version of the actual device. [Figure 28] Figure 28 is a diagram showing the interrelationships of the various display screens of the information terminal in the embodiment. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0031] The embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[0032] <(A) System Hardware Configuration> Figure 1 is a conceptual diagram of the hardware configuration of a customer information sharing system, which is an embodiment of the present invention. In Figure 1(A), the customer information sharing system 1 is configured around a server 100, which is a computer comprising an arithmetic unit 101 consisting of a CPU and the like, and a storage unit 102 consisting of a hard disk and semiconductor memory. The server 100 also includes a communication unit 103 and a control unit 104. The server 100 is connected to the Internet INT via the communication unit 103, and information terminals 2, 3A, 3B, 3C, ..., 3M, 3N, ... capable of communicating information with the server 100 are network-connected to the Internet INT. The control unit 104 of the server 100 controls each part of the server 100. Communication between the server 100 and the information terminals 2, 3A, 3B, 3C, ..., 3M, 3N, ... and the Internet INT may be either a wired or wireless connection. Hereafter, when referring to information terminals 3A, 3B, 3C, ..., 3M, 3N, ... collectively, we will refer to them as "information terminal 3".

[0033] Each of the information terminals 2 and 3 can be a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet terminal, or a smartphone, and they are capable of communicating information with the server 100 via the Internet (INT), and also communicating information with other information terminals among the information terminals 2 and 3 (excluding themselves) via the server 100.

[0034] In this embodiment, the computer programs that implement each of the functions of this embodiment are installed on the server 100. The server 100 functions as a web server, and the information terminals 2 and 3 can log in to the main system services of the server 100 via the web.

[0035] Information terminal 2 is a terminal used by business operator R, which is the operator of the customer information sharing service using this system 1, and this business operator will be referred to as the "operating business operator" below. In addition, each of the other information terminals 3 (a set of multiple information terminals 3A, 3B, 3C, ..., 3M, 3N, ...) is an information terminal owned by each business operator (member business operator) A, B, C, ..., M, N, ... that has been pre-registered as a user of the customer information sharing service.

[0036] Hereafter, each of these member businesses A, B, C, ... M, N, ... will be referred to as "Member Business P" as a representative, and the information terminal held by Member Business P will be referred to as Information Terminal 3P (the symbols P and 3P are not shown in the diagram). Also, the operating company R is not included in Member Business P.

[0037] As shown in Figure 1(B), each information terminal 3 has a processing unit 151 such as a CPU, a storage unit 152 consisting of a hard disk or semiconductor memory, a display unit 153 such as an LCD screen, an operation input unit 154 such as a keyboard, mouse or touch panel, a communication unit 155 that communicates via the Internet INT, and a control unit 156 that controls each unit. The information terminal 2 for the operating company R has the same hardware configuration as the information terminal 3 for member companies.

[0038] Since the functions described below, according to the characteristics of this embodiment, are implemented on a web-based server 100, each information terminal 2, 3 does not need to be a special device; ordinary information terminals with an internet browser installed can be used. If each information terminal 2, 3 is a smartphone or tablet, some of the functions of this embodiment can also be implemented on the information terminal 2, 3 side by downloading and using a dedicated application program (so-called app) on those information terminals 2, 3.

[0039] <(B) System Functional Configuration> Figure 2 is a functional block diagram showing the main functions of System 1, which are realized by the software (computer programs) installed on each of the components of the device configuration shown in Figure 1.

[0040] The general functions of each illustrated block are as follows:

[0041] • Member List Registration Section 201: This is a functional block that stores (registers) member lists (digital data lists) containing information about each member business (companies, individual stores, sole proprietors, etc.).

[0042] • Customer Evaluation Information Storage Unit 202: This functional block stores customer evaluation information provided by each of the multiple member businesses P (P=A, B, C, ..., L, M, N, ...) using their own information terminal 3P, aggregating it across all of these member businesses P and storing it as a customer evaluation information database CD. In this system 1, each of the multiple member businesses P plays both the role of an "information provider," providing individual customer evaluation information and storing it in the customer evaluation information database CD, and the role of an "information retriever," searching for multiple (usually many) customer evaluation information stored in the customer evaluation information database CD and viewing the necessary customer information. In other words, in this system 1, information providers and information retrievers are not separated; rather, the customer evaluation information provided by each member business is shared among these multiple member businesses.

[0043] • Search Unit 203: This is a functional block that allows multiple member businesses P to act as information searchers and use their own information terminals 3P to search the customer evaluation information database CD, thereby outputting and displaying the customer evaluation information of the target customer on the information searcher's information terminal 3P.

[0044] · Background image display control unit 204... As will be described later, when any member business P uses this system 1 to search for customer evaluation information and view the information extracted from the customer evaluation information database CD, in order to prevent the content of the screen display during operation from being inappropriately leaked to the outside, the name of the member business P is displayed as a text background image on the screen of the information terminal 3P being used as a background image to identify the member business P (Figures 17, 18, 19, etc.). Such processing can be performed not only on the search screen, but also in each situation where it is desired to prevent the content of the screen display from being inappropriately leaked to the outside, and this background image display control unit 204 is a functional block that controls the generation of such a background image and its display on the screen of the information terminal 3P.

[0045] ·Confidential Information Sharing Unit 211: Customer evaluation information may include unique confidential information that is not disclosed to anyone other than the member business that provided the customer evaluation information. However, in the search output by the search unit 203, such confidential information is excluded from the output (display). However, this is a general rule, and the system 1 is configured to allow exceptions to be made, such as allowing a specific pair of member businesses that have mutually agreed to share their unique confidential information to view the confidential information of the other party in such a pair. For this purpose, the confidential information sharing unit 211 is a functional block that enables any two member businesses to perform round-trip communication consisting of mutual communication between them (a combination of an outgoing message from one party offering to share confidential information and a reply from the other party approving it), and for member businesses that have been paired together, the sharing of their unique confidential information is automatically performed.

[0046] This non-public information sharing unit 211 has a shared pair registration unit 212, and when a new shared pair is established between a first and a second member business operator through mutual communication, information identifying the pair of the first and second member business operators is registered in the shared pair registration unit 212. This is executed and controlled by the shared pair formation control unit 211A.

[0047] Each time a new shared pair is established, information identifying that new shared pair is added to the shared pair registration unit 212.

[0048] When an operation is performed to dissolve any shared pair, the shared pair dissolution control unit 211B automatically deletes the information identifying that shared pair from the shared pair registration unit 212.

[0049] • Unique List Registration Unit 220: As shown in Figure 3, its internal function is illustrated, and the following list is registered for each member business P (P=A,B,…).

[0050] (1) Unique Customer Information List MCL(P)... This is a list compiled for each member company P, containing only customer evaluation information provided by that member company P itself. Because the information provided is unique to each member company P, it is called unique customer information. This unique customer information may include information that is not disclosed to anyone other than the member company itself, but in principle, such confidential information is not disclosed to other member companies.

[0051] (2) Unique Non-Disclosed Information List MSL(P)... This is a list extracted from the Unique Customer Information List MCL(P) that contains only customer evaluation information that is not disclosed to anyone other than the company itself. As will be described later, the non-disclosed information in this embodiment is information that the customer's behavior is particularly malicious and that the customer will be treated as "banned from the premises". In other words, in this embodiment, only the information of customers that the member company P has designated as "banned from the premises" from the individual customer evaluation information included in the Unique Customer Information List MCL(P) is included in this Unique Non-Disclosed Information List MSL(P).

[0052] (3) Unique Sharing List MJL(P)... This is a list of member companies to which a member company shares its unique confidential information when it is shared with a paired member company.

[0053] <(C) System Operation> In the following section, we will describe the operation of this system 1, which has the above configuration, at each processing stage.

[0054] <(C-1) Member Registration> First, Figure 4 shows the process for member registration. Member business P, which wants to share customer evaluation information (especially evaluation information about problematic customers) with other member businesses, first uses its own information terminal 3 to display the new membership application screen 10 (Figure 5) to the operating company R, and applies for membership registration from this screen (step S101). This application information is sent to the operating company R's information terminal 2 via the server 100, and when the operating company R sees it and performs a terminal operation to approve the application, the member business P's information is newly registered as a member in the member list (digital data list) ML set in the member list registration unit 201 (Figure 2), and the server 100 notifies the member business P's information terminal 3P, the applicant for membership, that membership registration has been approved (steps S102, S103, S104).

[0055] When a member business P applies for membership registration, they enter information such as their business name (company name, trade name), industry, nationality, address, telephone number, email address, and contact person's name into the input fields 11 on the screen 10 of their information terminal (Figure 5), and then click or tap the membership application button 12. If membership registration is approved, this information is registered in the member list ML (Figure 2). Furthermore, after receiving the registration approval notification, member business P will have their own email address set as their login ID and password PW set as unique authentication information used when logging into this system 1 thereafter. Member business P decides their own password PW. Since their own email address is used as the login ID, the login ID is unique to them and will not overlap with other members' login IDs. Note that other authentication methods such as fingerprint authentication may be used instead of password PW.

[0056] If operator R rejects member company P's application, operator R can use information terminal 2 to perform a terminal operation to instruct the rejection, and the server 100 will notify the applicant company P's information terminal 3P that the membership registration has been rejected (S105). In this case, member company P will not be registered in the member list ML, and a login ID and password PW will not be issued.

[0057] By repeatedly registering members in this manner over time, the member list ML will contain information on multiple (usually many) member businesses. Hereafter, all member businesses P(A, B, ... M, N, ...) will be considered businesses that have been registered as members here.

[0058] Figure 6 shows some examples of member information recorded and registered in the member list mailing list.

[0059] The "Business Name" field is the name that identifies the business (company name, trade name, store name), and if there are branches or multiple chain stores, each store can be registered separately. The "Name" field is the name and title of the person in charge of using this system 1 at the member business, and other titles can also be registered. The "Address" field is the address information of the member business, and the "Region" field is specifically specified at the prefectural level.

[0060] The "telephone number" is the contact number for the member business, but it also functions as an ID to distinguish each member business. The "email" is the email address, and membership history (such as the date of joining and membership fee payment history) is also recorded.

[0061] In Figure 6 and subsequent figures, telephone numbers and some names are represented using symbols such as "*" and "○" for illustrative purposes only; in reality, specific numbers and letters will be used.

[0062] <(C-2) Provision and registration of customer evaluation information> The following sections will explain the details of each process while showing examples of various display screens of the information terminal 3. To facilitate understanding of their interrelationships, these relationships are shown in Figure 28. The figure numbers in Figure 28 indicate the figure numbers corresponding to the relevant parts of the display screen. The arrows indicate destinations that can be accessed by operating the operation buttons on the display screen. Please refer to Figure 28 as needed in the following explanation.

[0063] First, the process by which each member business provides customer evaluation information based on their own experience and registers it in the customer evaluation information database CD is as follows:

[0064] <Outline Flow> Refer to Figure 7(A). Each member business P displays its own unique webpage ("My Page") on the screen of its information terminal 3P (step S201), and uses that information terminal 3P to input customer evaluation information about the quality of customer behavior experienced at its business premises (store, etc.) (S202). This information is added to the customer evaluation information database CD built in the customer evaluation information storage unit 202 (Figure 2) and digitally registered (S203, S204). As each member business provides customer evaluation information to the extent of its own experience, and this information is added to the customer evaluation information database CD, a large amount of customer evaluation information collected from all member businesses is accumulated in the customer evaluation information database CD.

[0065] <Information provision operation screen (My Page) and information input> Figure 8 is a layout diagram of the My Page 20 screen used for the above information input. The My Page 20 screen, which is the operation screen for information input (information provision), is displayed as a series of pages vertically on the screen of the information terminal 3. For the sake of illustration, it is conceptually explained as being divided into the upper display 20A and the lower display 20B. Details of the upper display 20A are shown in Figure 9, and details of the lower display 20B are shown in Figure 14 (see also Figure 28 for their relationship).

[0066] Any registered member business can act as an information provider, but such information provision is done through their own dedicated information provision page (My Page). Therefore, for example, the information provision page (My Page) for member business P is only accessible to member business P.

[0067] In the screen section 30 of Figure 9, which corresponds to the upper part 20A of the My Page 20 display, the customer specification field 31 is used to enter the name or phone number of the customer to whom the information will be provided (in this case, customer C1) as text, and the gender is selected in the gender specification field 32. Even if customer C1 belongs to a company or organization, this information is entered as information about the individual who made the reservation request.

[0068] Member business P selects one of four levels—"Excellent," "Caution," "Warning," and "Severe Warning"—as an evaluation level for customer C1, displayed as a dropdown menu in the evaluation field 33. Then, enter the date of the behavior that led to that evaluation in the incident date field 35.

[0069] If customer C1's behavior is particularly bad and it is decided that "from now on (at member business P's own store, etc.), reservations from customer C1 will not be accepted (i.e., they will be banned), then check the box in the "banned" setting column 34 and enter the information.

[0070] In comment section 36, you can freely enter text describing the actions and statements of customer C1 that resulted in that rating. This could be information such as "unauthorized cancellation," but if the rating specified in rating section 33 is "excellent," comment section 36 may be left blank.

[0071] Once these entries are complete, pressing the registration button 37 will add this information to the customer evaluation database CD as new customer evaluation data.

[0072] <Contents registered in the customer evaluation information database CD> Figure 10 shows the registration items of the customer evaluation information database CD, and Figures 11 to 13 show examples of their specific contents. In Figure 10, each column represents the name of the registration item, and each row (1, 2, 3…) represents each record of the customer evaluation information. However, for illustrative purposes, the column and row directions are reversed in Figures 11 to 13 compared to Figure 10. In other words, the information arranged vertically in column "1" in Figure 11 corresponds to the information record in row "1" in Figure 10.

[0073] Referring to Figure 10, the items of registration content for each customer evaluation information can be broadly divided into the following three categories: (1) to (3).

[0074] (1) Reporting store information (member business information): This is attribute information about the member business that provided the customer evaluation information.

[0075] In the three customer evaluation information sets shown in Figure 11, the "store name" (member business name) is "Washoku XXan", "Karaoke XX", and "Hair Salon XX", respectively, and the "report date" is the date on which the customer evaluation information was reported (registered) for the actual customer behavior experienced by each member business. For the sake of convenience below, we will assume that "Washoku XXan", "Karaoke XX", and "Hair Salon XX" are member businesses A, B, and C, respectively.

[0076] "Industry," "Telephone Number," "Email Address," and "Region" refer to the telephone number, email address, and region (prefecture) of the member business that submitted the report. Since all of this information is registered in the member list mailing list, when a member enters their own telephone number as key information (ID) when providing customer evaluation information, the member information of the member business corresponding to that telephone number is retrieved from the member list mailing list and transcribed into the relevant information record in the customer evaluation information database CD.

[0077] (2) Customer information: This is information that identifies the customer to whom the information was provided. In Figure 11, the following information is shown in each column for three customers (assuming they are customers C5, C8, and C2, who are identified by their telephone numbers, etc.). • "Phone": The phone numbers for customers C5, C8, and C2. • "Name": The names of customers C5, C8, and C2 (can be used as a search key for the customer if their phone number is unknown).

[0078] The same applies to Figures 12 and 13, where customer evaluation information is registered for each customer for whom information is provided. Customer evaluation information may be provided for multiple customers, and conversely, there may be customers for whom no information has been provided yet. For example, while a large amount of information has already been provided and accumulated for customers C5 and C8, there is still no customer evaluation information for customer C4 (not shown in Figures 11-13).

[0079] Each information record in the Customer Evaluation Information Database CD records individual customer evaluation information from member businesses. For example, information provided by member business A and information provided by member business B regarding customer C5 will coexist and be recorded in the Customer Evaluation Information Database CD. Furthermore, if the same member business A provides information about customer C5 multiple times at different times, those records will also coexist and be recorded.

[0080] • "Individual Evaluation": This is an index that expresses how each member business A, B, and C who provided information evaluated customers C5, C8, and C2, using one of several levels. In System 1, as mentioned above, this is the evaluation specified in evaluation column 33 of Figure 9, and is expressed in one of three levels: "Severe Warning," "Caution," or "Warning," depending on the severity of the misconduct. Furthermore, System 1 can provide evaluations not only for problematic customers but also for good customers, and this information is also registered in the customer evaluation information database CD. Although it is displayed in monochrome in the figure, in reality, different colors are used to make each level stand out; for example, "Severe Warning" is displayed on a red background, "Caution" on an orange background, and "Warning" on a yellow background.

[0081] • "Date of Incident": This is the date on which customers C5, C8, and C2 engaged in problematic conduct at member businesses A, B, and C, respectively. The "Date of Incident" entered on the input screen in Figure 9 is reproduced here.

[0082] "Comments": These are comments from member businesses A, B, and C regarding the behavior of customers C5, C8, and C2, and the text entered in comment field 36 in Figure 9 is registered here.

[0083] (3) Evaluation Information: This section contains numerical and evaluation information that is automatically generated by System 1 and processed by Operator R as needed. This includes the following:

[0084] "Number of Reports": As a result of the information search described later, when already registered customer evaluation information is displayed on the screen of the member business operator's information terminal 3 as the searcher, if the member business operator who reads the comment thinks, "This comment is defamatory" or "This comment is contrary to public order and morals," they can operate the "Report" button (Figure 18 described later), and the "Number of Reports" in the corresponding information record in the customer evaluation information database CD will be counted up by "1". This counting process is performed automatically by System 1.

[0085] Operator R can use its own information terminal 2 to check the number of reports and the content of comments, and if it deems it inappropriate to record and publish the information, it can delete the information record of the customer evaluation information or set it to be unavailable (so that it is not displayed even if it is found in a search).

[0086] "Overall Evaluation" and "Numerical Value": For customers C5, C8, and C2, the numerical value obtained by automatically calculating the "(overall evaluation) numerical value" using a predetermined algorithm by the operating company R, based on the "individual evaluation" information provided by each member business, is the "(overall evaluation) numerical value," and the evaluation identified according to that "numerical value" is the "overall index." These are automatically calculated and registered by System 1.

[0087] For illustrative purposes, Figures 11 to 13 show a total of nine information records as examples, but in reality, a large amount of customer evaluation information is registered in the customer evaluation information database CD. Therefore, for example, multiple pieces of customer evaluation information may have been provided for a single customer C5 in the past. Each customer evaluation information record may come from a different member business, and the same member business may have provided separate customer evaluation information for different reservations made by customer C4 on different days. For example, customer C4 may have received separate customer evaluation information from 20 member businesses, and some of those member businesses may have provided multiple customer evaluations.

[0088] In such cases, for member businesses searching and viewing this customer evaluation information, while the individual customer evaluation information provided by each member business in each information record is significant, being able to easily understand the overall evaluation level of customer C4 allows them to get a general idea of ​​customer C4's evaluation at a glance.

[0089] Therefore, in this embodiment, the calculation rules for the "overall evaluation value" and the "overall index" are defined as follows.

[0090] First, if the individual evaluation by the member business that provided the customer evaluation information is "Severe Warning," a unit evaluation point of "12" is assigned; for "Caution," it is "8"; for "Warning," it is "4"; and for "Excellent," it is "-2".

[0091] For the same customer C4, System 1 automatically calculates a "numerical value for overall evaluation" by extracting a predetermined number of information records (for example, 5) in order of the most recent date the customer evaluation information was provided, and then automatically calculating the sum of their "individual evaluation points." Here, when there are many information records for the same customer, only those with relatively recent dates are considered because it takes into account that a customer who was considered a bad customer in the past may no longer behave problematicly, and vice versa. Furthermore, assigning "-2" to "excellent" is because even if a relatively large number of member businesses judge the customer as a bad customer, if a considerable number of member businesses have a positive impression of them, it means that "evaluations of that customer are divided," and the numerical value (for overall evaluation) is intended to balance such positive and negative evaluations.

[0092] Therefore, for example, if the five most recent information records for a single customer show two "Caution," two "Warning," and one "Severe Warning," then the "Overall Rating Score" would be: 4 × 2 + 8 × 2 + 12 × 1 = 36 And if there is one "Caution," two "Warning," and two "Excellent," the "Overall Rating" will be: 4 × 1 + 8 × 2 + (-2) × 2 = 16 This is the result.

[0093] This "overall evaluation score" is discriminated against using one or more thresholds and assigned to one of several "overall indicators." For example, an algorithm could be defined where an "overall evaluation score" of "0 or less" is classified as "excellent," "1 to 21" as "caution," "22 to 41" as "warning," and "42 or more" as "severe warning."

[0094] Furthermore, if the number of individual evaluation records registered for a particular customer is less than five, an exception can be made to determine the "overall evaluation score," for example, by determining the "overall evaluation score" based on the average value of those "individual evaluation points."

[0095] In this way, for each customer, the overall rating can be determined based on a collection of individual customer evaluation information from multiple (in this case, five) recent information records provided up to that point. The "numerical value of the overall rating" and the "overall indicator" are then written into each customer evaluation information for that customer in the customer evaluation information database CD.

[0096] Therefore, if a member business that wishes to obtain information retrieves each information record (individual customer evaluation information) using the information search described below, they will be able to see the individual evaluation indicators provided by the member business that provided each information record, as well as the overall evaluation obtained from the collection of individual evaluation indicators from multiple member businesses.

[0097] In other words, in this system 1, a comprehensive index (comprehensive evaluation index) is provided as an index obtained by comprehensively evaluating multiple customer evaluation information about a customer of interest according to predetermined evaluation rules.

[0098] <Unique Customer Information List MCL (My Information List 41)> Returning to Figure 7, Figure 7(B) shows the routine for member businesses that have provided customer evaluation information to check the history of the customer evaluation information they have provided. When My Page 20 is displayed in step S211, the content of the screen portion 40, which corresponds to the lower part 20B of the screen, is illustrated in Figure 14.

[0099] For example, if the member business accessing this My Page is member business P, then only the customer evaluation information that member business P has previously provided and that is stored in the customer evaluation information database CD will be displayed on this screen as My Information List 41 (step S212).

[0100] This My Information List 41 corresponds to the Unique Customer Information List MCL(P) in Figure 3, which corresponds to Member Business Operator P (P=A,B,C,…). As can be seen from Figure 14, this My Information List 41, which corresponds to the Unique Customer Information List MCL(P), also includes confidential information specific to Member Business Operator P, such as information that customers who Member Business Operator P has banned are designated as such.

[0101] Generally, "banned" information, which is kept confidential, can only be viewed on screen by the member business that designated it, and other member businesses cannot access it.

[0102] However, in System 1, it is exceptionally possible to pair specific member businesses and share each other's unique, non-public information by following special procedures. This will be explained in detail later, with reference to Figure 20 and beyond.

[0103] Furthermore, a background image (in the illustrated example, "Washoku ○○an") consisting of the member name (company name, trade name, etc.) of member business P, who provides information using this My Page, is displayed as visible information behind the string of characters that constitute the actual information in My Information List 41. This superimposed display of background images is also performed in the screens shown in Figures 17, 18, 19, 23, and 24, which will be explained later, but its purpose will be described in detail later.

[0104] <Private, confidential information list MSL (My banned list 51)> When member business P accesses this My Page, clicking or tapping the operation button 42, which acts as a transition button to the My Ban List in Figure 14, switches the screen display in Figure 14 to the screen section 50 that displays the My Ban List 51 in Figure 15 (step S213 in Figure 7(B)). Member business P's My Ban List 51 corresponds to the contents of the unique confidential information list MSL(P) in Figure 3, and lists only customer evaluation information that has been designated as "banned" as confidential information (only those with a circle in the "banned" column of My Information List 41). The "Entry Date" is automatically recorded as the date on which the customer evaluation information was entered and the registration button 37 (Figure 9) was operated.

[0105] Member business P can easily identify only the customers they have designated as "banned" and will not accept reservations from by referring to this My Ban List 51.

[0106] <(C-3) Searching for Customer Information> Any member business can use its own information terminal to search for evaluation information about customer behavior experienced at its business premises (such as a store) from the customer evaluation information database CD on server 100. In the following, we will assume that the member business performing the search is member business A. However, if member business P, as exemplified in the explanation of the information provision stage above, is actually member business B, then member business A performing the search may be a different member business from member business B, or it may be the same member business as member business B.

[0107] In other words, this System 1 is a mutually beneficial system in which member businesses can be both "information providers" and "information retrievers (through searches)." Of course, there is a practical benefit in obtaining comprehensive evaluation information about customer C1 from System 1, including evaluation information already provided by other member businesses B, C, D, etc. and registered in the customer evaluation information database CD, rather than a member business that has provided customer information only retrieving the information it has provided from System 1.

[0108] For example, when member business A receives a new reservation call from customer C1, a customer A has never dealt with before, member business A can use customer C1's specific information (for example, customer C1's phone number) as search key data to find out if customer C1 is a problematic customer who has caused trouble with other member businesses in the past. By knowing the content and evaluation of customer C1's behavior in the past and the experiences of other businesses, member business A can use this information to guide how to deal with customer C1. For example, if member business A obtains information at this stage that customer C1 frequently cancels at the last minute and does not pay cancellation fees, member business A can handle the reservation from customer C1 carefully, for example, by requesting a deposit from customer C1.

[0109] It's possible that customer C1 is not a new customer for member business A, but has made reservations with member business A in the past. In this case, member business A may have already provided evaluation information about customer C1's behavior to system 1. Then, when member business A searches for customer C1 using system 1, the evaluations of customer C1 provided by other businesses and the evaluations of customer C1 provided by member business A in the past are integrated and output, allowing for the acquisition of more comprehensive information.

[0110] The specific search procedure is as follows:

[0111] <Search Input> First, in step S301 of Figure 16, member company A displays the search page of system 1. Figure 17 is a diagram showing the operations performed by member company A on information terminal 3A to search for customer evaluation information about a specific customer (in this case, customer C1), and an overview of the search page 60 that displays the search results.

[0112] Member business A enters customer C1's phone number into the search box 61 as information to identify customer C1, who is the target of the search. Normally, customer contacts to member businesses for reservations and other matters are made by telephone, email, fax, or mail, but in any case, the business will request customer C1 to provide their phone number for subsequent communication, so customer C1 and their phone number function as information that links on a one-to-one basis. Not only are reservations made directly by customer C1, but even when reservations are accepted from travel agencies or online travel sites, as is the case with accommodation businesses, customer C1's phone number is essential information for the reservation to be completed, and in most cases, the member business will be able to obtain it.

[0113] In the example shown, the phone number of customer C1, "090123****", is entered.

[0114] <Background image> The background image display control unit 204 (Figure 2) of System 1 automatically generates a background image representing the name (store name, company name, trade name, etc.) of member business A who has logged into System 1 and is displaying this search page 60 as a text image, and displays it as a background image in the search window 61 in Figure 17 (step S302 in Figure 16).

[0115] In the example in Figure 17, the name of member business A is shown as "Washoku ○○an". The background text of the name of member business A is obtained by extracting the names of members with login IDs for member business A from the member list ML (Figure 2), converting them into text images, and displaying the repeated images as visible information in the background of almost the entire search window 61. The telephone number of customer C1, "090123****", is displayed in the foreground, partially overlapping with this background image.

[0116] As described later, when you perform a customer search (for example, a search for customer C1) on this search page 60, a list of customer evaluation information for customer C1 will be displayed on this search page 60 based on the customer evaluation information currently registered in the customer evaluation information database CD for that customer C1. However, this information is provided only to each member business registered in this system 1 and is not intended to be publicly disclosed to the general public outside of the member network. When each member business joins, they agree not to indiscriminately disseminate the information obtained through the output of this system 1. However, it is possible that someone with malicious intent might take a screenshot of the display screen of this search page 60 and leak it externally, or photograph the displayed screen with a separate digital camera and leak that information.

[0117] Therefore, by displaying a background image on at least a portion of the search page 60 that identifies the member business displaying that search page 60, if the display screen of this search page 60 is leaked as image data or printout, the operating company R can identify which member business's search page was leaked. While displaying such a background image does not physically prevent the leakage of information, it has the effect of psychologically deterring the leakage and misuse of information by making the source of the information easily discernible.

[0118] Such background images are also superimposed on the screen display of the customer evaluation information list 63 (Figure 18) as a search result, which will be described later. In addition to the My Information List 41 in Figure 14, which corresponds to the lower part 20B of the My Page 20 display as described above, this is also done on the screen display of the My Sharing Destination List (Banned Information Sharing Destination List) 86 in Figure 23 and the Sharing Destination Banned List 88 (Figure 24), which are displayed on the screen during the limited sharing of the My Banned List, which will be described later. As will not be repeated in the following explanation, the purpose is the same as on the search page 60 screen: to psychologically deter information leakage. The background image display control unit 204 in Figure 2 is activated when these screens are displayed and controls the generation and superimposition of such background images.

[0119] Figure 19 shows the search page 60F screen as another example of background image display. In this example, the text image of the name of logged-in member business A is spatially repeated as a background image across a large portion of the search page 60F screen. As such, various forms are possible for the background image display area.

[0120] <Search operation and result display> Returning to Figure 17, after entering the phone number "090123****" of customer C1 that you want to search for, member business A clicks or taps the "Search" button 62 (step S303 in Figure 16). Then, on the search page 60 screen, two indicators appear, namely: Based on multiple customer evaluation data previously provided for customer C1 registered in the customer evaluation information database CD, System 1 automatically generates a comprehensive index GI (which is the same as "Overall Evaluation" in Figure 10 and can generally be called the "Comprehensive Evaluation Index") using the algorithm described above. • Among the customer evaluation information that member business A has previously provided to System 1 regarding customer C1, the My Metric MI (the same as "Individual Evaluation" in Figure 10) is included in the most recently provided information as customer evaluation information, These are displayed in parallel (step S304 in Figure 16).

[0121] The example diagram shows that the overall index GI is "caution," meaning that customer C1 is a customer that should be viewed with caution. It also assumes that customer C1 is a new customer for member company A, and member company A has never provided evaluation information about C1 in the past. Therefore, the My index MI is displayed as "no information available."

[0122] Additionally, a customer evaluation information list 63 for customer C1, extracted from the customer evaluation information database CD, is displayed in the lower half of the search page 60 screen. Any remaining portion that does not fit within the screen area of ​​search page 60 can be displayed on subsequent pages by switching screens.

[0123] <Customer Review Information List (Search Result Extraction List)> As shown in Figure 18, in the customer evaluation information list (search result extraction list) 63, which extracts customer evaluation information only for the target customer C1, the following information about customer C1 is displayed for each individual information record from the customer evaluation information database CD: "Industry," "Region," "Date of Incident," "(Individual) Evaluation," and "Comments (by) the Affected Store."

[0124] Furthermore, since the "Excellent" information record indicates that customer C1 was deemed to have no problems, it is acceptable for the victim store's comment field to be left blank.

[0125] In other words, even for the same customer C1, evaluations may differ among member businesses. Customer C1 does not always engage in misconduct, and there is variation in how one judges the degree of misconduct. Therefore, by providing information from multiple (as many as possible) member businesses, member business A, which performs the search, can comprehensively review this information and gain a more accurate understanding of what kind of customer C1 is.

[0126] The "Industry" column is a dropdown menu, allowing you to select only specific industries. This allows you to narrow down the display to only information from businesses in the industry you are interested in (usually the same or similar industry as member business A, which is currently being searched). If you do not select a specific industry, it will be treated as "All Industries." Figure 18 shows an example where all industries are displayed.

[0127] If member business A sees a line of information and believes that the content in the "Victim Store Comments" section is defamatory or offensive beyond objective facts, or violates public order and morals, they can press the "Report" button on that line to send a report to operator R's information terminal 2. Operator R can then review the reported information record and make a judgment, and delete any inappropriate content.

[0128] <(C-4) Limited sharing of my banned list (private information)> When a member business operator operates the operation button 42 on the screen portion 40 displaying the My Information List in Figure 14, or when a member business operator operates the operation button 52 on the screen displaying the My Banned List 51 in Figure 15, the screen of the information terminal 3 transitions to the Banned Information Sharing Page 70. Figure 21 shows the arrangement of the upper part 70A, middle part 70B, and lower part 70C of the Banned Information Sharing Page 70. Specific examples of these displays are shown as the Banned Information Sharing Communication Screen 80A in Figure 22 for the upper part 70A, the Banned Information Sharer Display Screen 80B in Figure 23 for the middle part 70B, and the Sharer Banned List Display Screen 80C in Figure 24 for the lower part 70C. This banned information sharing page 70 has the following purpose and structure:

[0129] Each member business's personal blacklist 51 (Figure 15) is unique to that member business and is not meant to be disclosed to anyone other than itself. However, due to the circumstances described below, sharing the contents of each member business's personal blacklist 51 with a limited number of other member businesses may be an effective use of the customer information provided by each.

[0130] Such cases include groups of businesses defined by specific conditions (hereinafter referred to as "conditional groups"), which include, for example, "groups consisting of the head office and each branch," "groups consisting of the headquarters and each franchise store (member store)," "industry associations," and "local organizations (such as local merchants' associations)."

[0131] However, in such conditional groups, the members and shared content are determined by the specific conditions that define the group. For example, when a business entity's head office and branches share confidential information (information that prohibits customers from entering a store), the head office designates itself and each branch as the scope of information disclosure, thereby forming a business group. However, the designation of members in such group conditions tends to be fixed, and although the number of members may fluctuate depending on the increase or decrease in branches, if the condition of a head office and branches within a single business entity is fixed, all stores that meet that condition automatically become members, and the customer evaluation information shared among them also becomes common.

[0132] Therefore, while the principle is to keep information confidential, we cannot accommodate the need to share confidential information only with a limited number of specific parties.

[0133] Therefore, in System 1, which is an embodiment of this invention, instead of uniformly sharing all customer evaluation information based on the formal conditions described above, the system is configured to share information, even information that would normally be kept confidential, to a limited extent for each "pair of member businesses" that are connected by personal relationships between individual member businesses and are flexibly formed based on mutual agreement and trust among the member businesses.

[0134] In this specification, "disclosure" refers to disclosure within member businesses registered as users of System 1, and is distinguished from "(external) public disclosure," which refers to the provision of information to the general public.

[0135] Figure 20 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure for limited sharing of such confidential information and the operation of System 1. To the left of the central vertical dashed line, the operations performed by Member Business M (the first Member Business) on its information terminal 3M, which is requesting the sharing of confidential information (ban list), and the corresponding operation of System 1 are shown. To the right of the vertical dashed line, the operations performed by Member Business N (the second Member Business) on its information terminal 3N, which is receiving the request to share confidential information (ban list), and the corresponding operation of System 1 are shown. The blocks on the vertical dashed line (steps S403, S407) indicate the operations performed by Server 100 via the Internet INT. Member Businesses M and N may be any of the member businesses.

[0136] In step S401 of Figure 20, member business M first designates the recipient of the sharing request (the person to whom the sharing request will be made).

[0137] Specifically, if member business M wishes to request that another member business N share their personal blacklist list 51M with the other party's personal blacklist list 51N, member business M enters the telephone number of the other member business N as identifying information in the designated recipient field 81 (Figure 22) on the blacklist sharing page of their own information terminal 3M. Member business N can be a member business selected based on personal relationships, such as having a long-standing friendly relationship with member business M and a relationship of mutual trust. In other words, there is no need for a relationship between member business M and member business N based on specific attribute conditions, such as being in the same industry or having a head office and branch office relationship. Of course, member business M and member business N may be in the same industry or have a head office / branch office relationship, but member business N is not designated as a recipient of the request for sharing simply because they are in the same industry and therefore sharing specific information; rather, member business N is a recipient selected by member business M based on personal relationships, regardless of the other party's industry or region. Therefore, it is assumed that member businesses M and N know each other's information, such as phone numbers, and can identify each other by their phone numbers. Identification by name or other means is also acceptable, but phone numbers are preferable because they avoid accidental matches with third parties and allow for a completely one-to-one identification of each member business.

[0138] When member business operator M operates the request submission button 82 on the banned sharing page of their own information terminal 3M, a request signal indicating the request is sent as an "outgoing message" via the server 100 to member business operator N's ​​information terminal 3N, and the telephone number of member business operator M, who is the sharing requester making the sharing request, is displayed in the requester display field 83 of member business operator N's ​​information terminal 3N (steps S402, S403, S404 in Figure 20).

[0139] For convenience, Figure 22 shows the screen configurations of information terminals 3M and 3N of member businesses M and N in a single diagram. However, in the process described above, the content displayed on information terminals 3M and 3N at the same time is not identical. Therefore, in Figure 20, the two are distinguished by step S402 on information terminal 3M and step S404 on information terminal 3N.

[0140] For example, if member company M's phone number is "090125*****" and member company N's phone number is "080456*****", then "080456*****" will be entered into the designated field 81 of member company M's information terminal 3M. When this is sent by operating the send button 82, "090125*****" will be displayed in the requester display field 83 of member company N's information terminal 3N. Since member company N has a personal relationship with member company M in which they know M's phone number, they can understand who member company M is from M's phone number "080456*****". However, since system 1 holds the member list ML, system 1 may also refer to the member list ML to display member company M's name in the requester display field 83 of member company N's information terminal 3N.

[0141] Incidentally, at the time a sharing request signal is sent from member company M, member company N is often not logged into system 1 from its own information terminal 3N. However, server 100 remembers that a sharing request signal was sent from member company M, and when member company N later operates its own information terminal 3N to log into system 1 and displays its own banned information sharing page 70, the phone number of member company M, who has offered to share the My Ban List 51, is displayed in the requester display field 83 on member company N's information terminal 3N.

[0142] When server 100 detects that member company M has sent a sharing request signal, system 1 may be configured to automatically send an email notification message to member company N's email address stating, "There is another member company (phone number 090125*****) that has requested mutual sharing of the blacklist." System 1 can identify member company N's email address from the registered information in the member list mailing list.

[0143] If member company N, who is the recipient of the request to share the My Ban List 51, refuses the request, they operate the reject button 85 (Figure 22) on their own information terminal 3N. In response, the phone number displayed in member company N's requester display field 83 disappears. In this case, the sharing of each member company's unique ban list (non-public information) between member companies M and N does not occur.

[0144] When member business N, the recipient of the request to share the banned list, approves the request from the sharing requester (member business M), it operates the approval button 84 on its own information terminal 3N. In response, the information terminal 3N sends a "reply" (approval signal) to the server 100 indicating approval ((steps S405, S406 in Figure 20). The shared pair formation control unit 211A (Figure 2) recognizes this round-trip communication, and the shared pair registration unit 212 (Figure 2) registers that the pair of member business M and N has been established as a limited sharing pair of non-public information. The server 100 then adds information identifying member business N to the My Shared Destination List (Banned Information Sharer List) 86 displayed on the Sharer Display Screen 80B (Figure 23) of the information terminal 3M of the sharing requester (member business M), as follows: Shareholder information, including the store name and phone number of member business N, is automatically added. Then, the essential parts of the information registered in the shared ban list 88 (Figure 24) of the sharing approver (member business N) (information of customers designated as banned) are automatically copied and displayed (Figure 20: Steps S408M, S409M). In these cases, if the ban list has already been shared with another member business (for example, member business C), the shared ban list 88 displayed here will show the contents of the ban list unique to member business N, in addition to the contents of member business C's unique ban list.

[0145] In parallel with this, information identifying member company M is automatically added to the list of people sharing the banned list (non-public information) on member company N's information terminal 3N, and the essential parts of the information registered in member company M's personal banned list 51M (information of customers designated as banned) are automatically copied and displayed in member company N's shared banned list 88 (Figure 20: Steps S408N, S409N). Similarly to the above case, if member company N has already shared the banned list with another member company D, the shared banned list 88 displayed here will show the contents of member company M's banned list in addition to the contents of member company D's unique banned list.

[0146] For these operations, the unique list registration unit 220 in Figure 3 contains information for each member business P (P=A,B,…,M,N…), • A unique customer information list MCL(P) equivalent to "My Information List 41", • A unique, non-public information list MSL(P) equivalent to "My Ban List 51", • A unique customer information list MJL(P) corresponding to "My Shared List 86", It is registered in the settings.

[0147] When displaying "My Information List 41," "My Banned List 51," and "My Sharing List 86" on one's own information terminal on the My Page or the Banned Information Sharing Page, or when displaying the contents of one's own "My Banned List" to a member business that has shared the My Banned List, System 1 generates information to be displayed on each information terminal based on the information of each list registered in these unique list registration units 220.

[0148] However, since some of this information overlaps with the contents of the member list ML and the customer evaluation information database CD, it is not necessary for server 100 to always maintain each of these lists MCL(P), MSL(P), and MJL(P) in their complete form at any given time. By storing these as relational databases, redundant storage can be avoided, and only the minimum necessary information can be stored as lists. When it becomes necessary to update or display the information, server 100 can temporarily reconstruct it as a complete list and output it to the information terminal requesting the display of the list.

[0149] In other words, in this system 1, multiple pairs can be formed as different combinations of member businesses, and the limited sharing of confidential information unique to each pair is carried out on a unit basis. Focusing on each member business, confidential information unique to each of the one or more (other) member businesses that are counterparts in each pair to which the member business belongs is disclosed to that member business only.

[0150] On the other hand, by operating the "Delete" button 87 in the "Delete" section of the My Shared Partners List 86 in Figure 23, the member business operator can be excluded from sharing unique confidential information and the pair can be dissolved (sharing of confidential information through pair formation can be stopped). Such a pair dissolution operation can be performed independently by either member business operator M or N constituting the pair from their own information terminals 3M or 3N, and does not require the consent or terminal operation of the other party in the sharing pair.

[0151] When such a pair dissolution operation is performed, the information of these member businesses M and N is deleted from the shared pair registration unit 212 (Figure 2). Then, the information of the other member businesses N and M disappears from the banned information sharing list 81 displayed on each information terminal 3M and 3N, and the information of banned customers provided by each other disappears from the shared banned list 88. The execution control of this pair dissolution process is performed by the shared pair dissolution control unit 211B in Figure 2.

[0152] The system is designed so that the sharing of confidential information, which is unique to each party, can be initiated by a terminal operation that expresses the mutual consent of both member businesses sharing that information. On the other hand, the dissolution of the sharing of confidential information can be done by a terminal operation initiated by only one of the member businesses sharing it. This is because such a confidential information sharing relationship is designed to be established between member business pairs based on mutual personal trust between the members sharing the information, and if the trust of one party is lost, it is better not to continue such a sharing relationship.

[0153] Although not explicitly shown in the flowchart in Figure 20, when member businesses M and N display their My Shared List 86 or Shared List Banned List 88 on their respective information terminals 3M and 3N, the step of activating the background image display control unit 204 in Figure 2 is executed, generating a text background image that identifies each member business and overlaying it as the background for each list on the screen.

[0154] <The significance of pairing member businesses in the limited sharing of confidential information> This will allow member businesses M and N to share information about customers registered on their respective private blacklists, 51M and 51N, as unique, confidential information between them.

[0155] When focusing on a single member business M, the unique confidential information can be shared not only with one member business N, but can also be shared with multiple member businesses individually, forming sharing pairs. In such cases, multiple business names are registered in the ban information sharing list 81, and the unique confidential information shared with each of these multiple businesses is aggregated and displayed in the sharing destination ban list 88. The information displayed in the sharing destination ban list 88 may consist only of the ban information of the other party in the pair, such as the sharing destination member business N's My Ban List 51N, or it may also include the contents of the member business M's own My Ban List 51M.

[0156] Figure 25 is a diagram illustrating the relationships in which unique, confidential information is shared among various businesses. Each line segment represents a pair of businesses that have agreed to share confidential information. Because there are many member businesses listed, member businesses A, B, C, ..., M, N, ... are represented by the symbols P1, P2, P3, ....

[0157] Of the customer evaluation information, all information other than confidential information (public information) will be made public and shared with all member businesses P1, P2, P3… (within the dashed rectangles).

[0158] On the other hand, in the illustrated example, member company P1 forms a non-public information sharing pair with member company P2, and also forms individual sharing pairs with member companies P3, P4, and P5.

[0159] Member companies P1 and P2 share their unique confidential information (ban list) with each other, and member companies P1 and P3 share their unique confidential information with each other. No sharing pair exists between member companies P1 and P4 in Figure 25, so these member companies P1 and P4 only share the portion of customer evaluation information that does not contain confidential information with other member companies.

[0160] In other words, when focusing on a single member business, that member business may form a shared pair with only one other member business, or it may form and coexist with multiple member businesses by individually forming shared pairs with each of them.

[0161] Member company P1 has different sharing pairs with member companies P2, P3, P4, and P5, but it should be noted that the confidential information shared by all of these member companies P1 through P5 is not necessarily the same. Confidential information unique to member company P2 is shared with member companies P1 and P4, but not with member companies P3 and P5. In other words, even though they are connected by a chain of sharing pairs, the entire group of member companies connected by that chain does not form a group that shares the same confidential information; rather, the content of the shared confidential information is determined on a "sharing pair basis."

[0162] Therefore, member companies P1 and P4 can view member company P2's unique confidential information on their respective information terminals, and member company P2 can view the unique confidential information of member companies P1 and P4, but member companies P1 and P4 cannot view each other's unique confidential information. Member companies P26 and P27, which do not form any shared pairs, cannot obtain the unique confidential information of others.

[0163] Let's compare this situation with a method of managing customer evaluation information using condition groups (Figure 26). In Figure 26, a condition group GR is formed, which may be a peer group or a regional group.

[0164] In this case, customer evaluation information is made public to all member businesses, and all member businesses P1, P2, P3, and P4 belonging to the conditions group GR can see all of the customer evaluation information provided by each of the member businesses P1, P2, P3, and P4. Therefore, for example, member business P2 cannot share information it wishes to keep private only with a specific member business P3. In other words, within the conditions group GR, customer evaluation information is either "all customer evaluation information is visible" or "all of the customer evaluation information of member businesses P1, P2, and P4 is not shown" by excluding it from this conditions group GR, and flexible information sharing that gives special treatment to private information is not possible.

[0165] In contrast, in the method of combining individual pairs adopted in the embodiment of this invention (Figure 25), as described above, each member business is on equal footing in the formation and dissolution of non-public information sharing pairs. Any member business can be either a requester who arbitrarily selects other member businesses and offers (inquires) to share their respective unique non-public information, or a person who decides whether or not to accept (approve) such an offer of sharing. A non-public information sharing pair is formed only with the consent of both parties, and if one party wishes to dissolve it, it can do so without the consent of the other party. Customer evaluation information that is not confidential can be made public to all member businesses without forming such sharing pairs, while a flexible information sharing relationship can be generated for non-public information.

[0166] <(D) Variation> In the above embodiment, the information that a customer was "banned" is taken up as unique, confidential information, but other information can also be subject to limited sharing as confidential information.

[0167] In other words, non-public information is not limited to information that would be disadvantageous to a customer, such as information that would ban a customer from a business. When a business wants to share information with only a minimum number of people, such as information that, if made public (searchable) to all member businesses, could potentially lead to the spread of the customer's privacy, the limited sharing configuration of this invention can be used.

[0168] For example, one customer may have many food allergies, so it would be beneficial for restaurants to carefully inquire about their allergies before taking their order. While such information is beneficial to the customer, it also protects their privacy. Therefore, it is preferable to avoid widely disclosing this information. This invention can be used to limit the sharing of such information to only restaurants with which the customer has a close relationship.

[0169] As another example, if it is discovered by chance that a customer is an employee of a company that "rates" restaurants, and such information is discreetly shared only with a select group of member businesses with whom the company has a close relationship, then such information can be treated as confidential information shared only with a limited number of people.

[0170] The shared pair method in the above embodiment can also be implemented in combination with the existing condition group method. In such a case, as shown in Figure 27, the sharing of uniform customer evaluation information within a group, such as the relationship between the head office and branches, can be done using the condition group method, while the sharing pair method can be selected and used for sharing confidential information. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0171] 1. Customer Information Sharing System 100 servers 101 Member List Registration Department 102 Customer Evaluation Information Database Registration Department INT Internet 2,3,3A,3B,…,3N Information terminal A, B, C, ..., M, N, ... Member Businesses R Operating Company C1,C2,C3,… Customer 211 Private Information Limited Sharing Department 211A Shared Pair Formation Control Unit 211B Shared pair resolution control unit 212 Shared Pair Registration Section 20 My Page 20A Top of My Page Display 20B Bottom of My Page Display 30. Input screen section of My Page 31 Customer specification field 33. Evaluation section 34 Banned from entering section 40. The display screen portion of the My Information List. 41 My Information List 50. Display screen of my banned list. 51 My Ban List 60, 60F Search Page 61 Search box 63 Customer Review Information List (Search Results List) 70 Banned Information Sharing Page 70A Top of the page displaying information about being banned from certain establishments 70B Middle of the page displaying information about being banned from certain establishments 70C Banned Information Sharing Page (Bottom of Display) 80A Screen for sharing information about being banned from a facility 80B Screen showing who shares the ban information 80C Shared User Ban List Display Screen 86 My shared contacts list 87. Unpair shared device button 88. List of people who are banned from sharing information (list of people who share information about being banned) CD Customer Review Database LM Member List GI (Gross Index) - Overall Evaluation Index MI (My Metrics) MCL Unique Customer Information List (My Information List 41) MSL's unique confidential information list (My banned list #51) MJL Unique Shared Destination List (My Shared Destination List 86)

Claims

1. A customer information sharing system configured by connecting a server and information terminals of multiple pre-registered member businesses via a network, for sharing customer evaluation information regarding customer behavior among the multiple member businesses, (a) A customer evaluation information storage unit that collects customer evaluation information entered by each of the multiple member businesses using their own information terminals as information providers and stores it as a customer evaluation information database, (b) A search unit that allows each of the multiple member businesses to act as an information searcher and search the customer evaluation information database using their own information terminal, thereby outputting and displaying the customer evaluation information of the customer being searched on the information searcher's information terminal, Equipped with, The aforementioned customer evaluation information includes unique, confidential information that is not disclosed to anyone other than the information provider of the customer evaluation information. In the search output by the aforementioned search unit, the confidential information is excluded from the output. The aforementioned customer information sharing system further, (c) Round-trip communication between a pair of first and second member businesses among the plurality of member businesses, An outgoing message sent to a second member business operator by the operation of the first member business operator's information terminal, offering to share confidential information specific to each of the first and second member business operators, An operation of the information terminal of the second member business operator results in a reply being sent to the first member business operator in response to the request, approving the sharing, Through the aforementioned round-trip communication, the sharing of unique confidential information is established between the first and second member businesses, and the confidential information sharing unit enables each of the pair of first and second member businesses to view the other party's unique confidential information using their respective information terminals. Equipped with, Among the aforementioned multiple member businesses, multiple pairs can be formed by allowing different combinations of the first and second member businesses. A customer information sharing system characterized in that the sharing of the aforementioned non-public information is carried out in units of the aforementioned pairs.

2. In the customer information sharing system described in claim 1, A customer information sharing system characterized in that each member business is permitted to belong to multiple pairs, and the scope of non-public information to be shared is determined for each pair.

3. In the customer information sharing system described in claim 2, The aforementioned non-public information sharing unit, for each member business constituting the pair, A list of recipients that enumerates the recipients of the aforementioned confidential information, A shared customer evaluation list containing the aforementioned confidential information, which is specific to the recipient of the confidential information, A customer information sharing system characterized by outputting and displaying the information on the information terminals of each member business operator constituting the pair.

4. In the customer information sharing system described in claim 3, A customer information sharing system characterized in that the non-public information sharing unit includes a sharing pair dissolution control unit which, by performing a predetermined operation input from either of the information terminals of the first and second member businesses, dissolves the pair of the first and second member businesses without requiring consent from the other party's information terminal, thereby stopping the sharing of the non-public information of the first and second member businesses.

5. In the customer information sharing system described in claim 1, The aforementioned customer evaluation information includes a tiered evaluation that expresses the quality of the customer's behavior at the member business's store or facility on one of several levels. A customer information sharing system characterized in that the aforementioned non-public information includes an evaluation of whether a member business has prohibited a customer whose conduct is particularly malicious from entering its stores or facilities.

6. In the customer information sharing system described in claim 1, The aforementioned system further, (d) A background image display control unit that displays visible information identifying the member business operator who is logged into the system from each of the information terminals as a background image on the screen of the information terminal. A customer information sharing system characterized by further features.

7. In the customer information sharing system described in claim 1, A customer information sharing system characterized in that the search output from the search unit includes a comprehensive evaluation index obtained by comprehensively evaluating multiple customer evaluation information stored in the customer evaluation information database for a customer specified in the search, according to a predetermined evaluation rule.

8. A computer program that, when installed and executed on a computer that functions as a server having a computing device and a storage device, causes a computer system comprising the server and a plurality of information terminals connected to the server via a network to function as a customer information sharing system according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

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