Information processing device and program

Abstract

This information processing device comprises: a reception unit that receives activity information about a real staff member from an SNS server; a calculation unit that calculates an activity performance score of the real staff member on the SNS on the basis of the activity information about the real staff member; a reception unit that receives activity information about a virtual staff member as a substitute for the real staff member from an EC site server; a calculation unit that calculates an activity performance score of the virtual staff member on the basis of the activity information about the virtual staff member; and a total score calculation unit that calculates a total score of the real staff member on the basis of the activity performance score of the real staff member and the activity performance score of the virtual staff member. The virtual staff member is generated on the basis of profile information about the real staff member. The activity result score of the existent staff includes the number of posts of the existent staff to the SNS. The activity performance score of the virtual staff member includes the number of customers served on the EC site.

Description

Information Processing Apparatus and Program

[0005]

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

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

[0003] Generally, the number of users visiting EC sites is much larger than the number of customers visiting physical stores. Therefore, it is not realistic for actual staff to serve each user who visits the EC site individually. It is assumed that a virtual staff (also referred to as digital staff) will be constructed on a computer to serve users in place of actual staff. However, there has been no method for evaluating actual staff considering the customer service provided by virtual staff and the sales generated by such customer service on EC sites.

[0004] An object is to utilize the performance of virtual staff acting as agents for actual staff in the evaluation of actual staff.

[0005] The information processing device according to this embodiment comprises: a first receiving unit that receives information relating to the activities of real staff in at least one of the following servers, an SNS server that provides functions related to SNS and a blog server that provides functions related to blog services; a real staff activity performance score calculation unit that calculates a real staff activity performance score representing the degree of activity performance of real staff in at least one of the SNS and blog services based on the received information relating to the activities of real staff; a second receiving unit that receives information relating to the activities of virtual staff in the EC site, dispatched in response to a request from the EC site server that provides functions related to EC sites, as a substitute for real staff in the EC site; a virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit that calculates a virtual staff activity performance score representing the degree of activity performance of virtual staff in the EC site based on the received information relating to the activities of virtual staff; and a total score calculation unit that calculates a total score of real staff based on the real staff activity performance score and virtual staff activity performance score in at least one of the SNS and blog services. Virtual staff are generated based on the profile information of real staff. Information regarding the activities of real staff members represents customer acquisition activities aimed at driving users to the e-commerce site and includes the number of posts made by real staff members on social media and blog services. Information regarding the activities of virtual staff members represents customer service activities for users who visited the e-commerce site and includes the number of people they served.

[0006] Figure 1 is a diagram of the overall system including the information processing device according to this embodiment. Figure 2 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the information processing device in Figure 1. Figure 3 is a diagram showing an example of an activity performance evaluation rule sheet for real staff stored in the storage device of Figure 2. Figure 4 is a diagram showing an example of an activity performance evaluation rule sheet for virtual staff stored in the storage device of Figure 2. Figure 5 is a diagram showing the functional configuration of the information processing device in Figure 2. Figure 6 is a diagram showing the data flow of the overall system in Figure 1 and the processing of the information processing device. Figure 7 is a diagram showing an example of the chat room in Figure 6. Figure 8 is a diagram that assists in explaining the effects of the information processing device according to this embodiment. Figure 9 is a diagram showing the functional configuration of an information processing device according to a modified example of this embodiment. Figure 10 is a supplementary diagram for explaining the processing of the distribution calculation processing unit in Figure 9.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[0017] Follower count represents the number of users following the accounts of real staff members and is an indicator that reflects the popularity and influence of those staff members. Impression count represents the number of times articles and other content posted by real staff members have been viewed by users and is an indicator that reflects the popularity and influence of those articles. Reach (by others) refers to the number of times content such as articles, photos, and videos posted by real staff members has been viewed by unique users. Even if the same user views the content multiple times, the reach of that content is counted as 1. Likes (by others) represent the number of times a post made by a real staff member has received a positive reaction (empathy). Saves (by others) represent the number of times a post made by a real staff member has been saved by a user. Website clicks (by others) represent the number of times a link included in an article posted by a real staff member or in a real staff member's profile has been clicked by a user and the user has navigated to the corresponding website. Follower count, impression count, reach (by others), like count (by others), save count (by others), and website click count (by others) represent the results of others' evaluations of the proactive activities of real staff members on SNS and blog services, and can serve as indicators for evaluating the performance of real staff members on SNS and blog services. These counts represent the number of times others have shown a positive reaction (empathy) to the posts of real staff members.

[0018] Comments, reach, likes, saves, and website clicks are metrics that show what users did to a post (article), and are also called engagement metrics that measure the level of connection with users and their level of interest. Reach, likes, saves, and website clicks are collectively referred to as engagement metrics.

[0019] Furthermore, the number of followers is at least an indicator of the ability to attract customers (sales power) possessed by actual staff members on social media and blogging services, and can also be considered an indicator of the inherent abilities of actual staff members on social media and blogging services.

[0020] Each evaluation item has a set rule for scoring it. For example, the evaluation item "Number of Posts" has a scoring rule of "+20 / post". This means that for each article posted by an actual staff member during the evaluation period, "+20" is added to the actual staff activity score. Similarly, for the evaluation items "Number of Comments (by yourself)", "Number of Reach (by yourself)", "Number of Likes (by yourself)", "Number of Saves (by yourself)", "Number of Reach (by others)", "Number of Likes (by others)", "Number of Saves (by others)", and "Number of Website Clicks (by others)", the corresponding score is added to the actual staff activity score for each instance during the evaluation period. In addition, the evaluation item "Number of Followers" has a scoring rule of "+10 / follower". This means that for each follower added during the evaluation period, "+10" is added to the actual staff activity score. Similarly, a scoring rule of "+1 / 1 time" is set for the evaluation item "Number of Impressions". This means that for every increase in the number of impressions during the evaluation period, a score of "+1" is accumulated as part of the actual staff activity performance score.

[0021] Furthermore, you may set conditions for counting each post as one. For example, in the evaluation item "Number of posts," you may set conditions such as the number of characters or the presence or absence of images so that simple posts are not counted as one. In the evaluation item "Number of likes (by others)," you may set a condition so that multiple "likes" by the same user are counted as one.

[0022] Furthermore, the scoring rules are not limited to those described above. For example, the scoring rules for the evaluation items "Number of Followers" and "Number of Impressions" may use the absolute values ​​of the number of followers and impressions at the time of evaluation, or they may use the change (increase or decrease) since the previous evaluation. Similarly, the scoring rules for each of the evaluation items "Number of Comments (by myself)", "Number of Reach (by myself)", "Number of Likes (by myself)", "Number of Saves (by myself)", "Number of Reach (by others)", "Number of Likes (by others)", "Number of Saves (by others)", and "Number of Website Clicks (by others)" may use the change (increase or decrease) since the previous evaluation. Additionally, for the evaluation items "Number of Followers" and "Number of Impressions", a condition may be set that the number of users with specific attributes is included in the scoring. Attributes here refer to information about followers such as age, gender, place of residence, hobbies, and preferences. For example, even if someone has 1,000 followers, the 700 followers who meet the criteria of being in their "20s" and "female" could be included in the scoring. Similarly, each evaluation item may have specific criteria for inclusion in the scoring.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[0044] As shown in FIG. 6, the virtual staff dispatching device 4 dispatches virtual staff for receiving customers to the EC site server 3. Specifically, the virtual staff dispatching device 4 transmits information related to virtual staff (virtual staff information) such as the identification number and profile information of the virtual staff to the EC site server 3. The EC site server 3 registers the virtual staff information received from the virtual staff dispatching device 4 (S21). The process according to step S21 is repeatedly executed each time a virtual staff is dispatched from the virtual staff dispatching device 4, and a plurality of virtual staff are registered in the EC site server 3.

[0045] When a customer has a question about a product or the like during shopping on the EC site, the customer transmits a request to open a chat room (chatbot) for one-on-one conversation to the EC site server 3 that operates the EC site via the customer terminal 6. The EC site server 3 selects a virtual staff for receiving the customer from among the plurality of virtual staff and opens a chat room between the customer and the virtual staff (S22). For example, if a virtual staff who has received the customer in the past is selected for the same customer, or if a real staff has received the customer in a physical store for the customer, a virtual staff who acts as an agent for the real staff is selected. The method for determining the virtual staff is not limited to these methods.

[0046] The customer can send a message regarding a question about a product or the like to the virtual staff via the chat room. When the EC site server 3 receives a message from the customer terminal 6, the received message is transferred to the virtual staff dispatching device 4 together with the customer's profile information and the identification ID of the selected virtual staff. The virtual staff dispatching device 4 refers to the information related to the real staff represented by the virtual staff stored in the SNS and blog service, generates a response sentence of the virtual staff in response to the customer's message (S23), and transmits the generated response sentence to the EC site server 3. As a result, the response sentence of the virtual staff dispatched by the virtual staff dispatching device 4 is displayed in the chat room.

[0047] When the customer closes the chat room, the EC site server 3 transmits to the information processing apparatus 1 customer service information (chat log) representing the history of message transmission and reception between the customer and the virtual staff via the chat room. The customer service information is an example of virtual staff activity information. Of course, the timing of transmitting the customer service information may be real-time or periodic. The virtual staff activity information receiving unit 113 receives the customer service information from the EC site server 3 (S24), and the recording unit 115 records it in the virtual staff activity information management database (S25). The processing according to steps S22 to S25 is repeatedly executed every time the virtual staff serves a customer, and thereby, virtual staff activity information is accumulated in the information processing apparatus 1.

[0048] As shown in FIG. 7, when the EC site server 3 receives a purchase request for a product from the customer terminal 6, it executes various processes such as settlement processing and delivery arrangement processing (S31), and transmits sales information to the information processing apparatus 1, including the product ID identifying the purchased product, the price of the purchased product, the customer ID identifying the customer who made the purchase, and the identification ID of the actual staff acting as an agent for the virtual staff who served the customer. The sales information is an example of virtual staff activity information. The virtual staff activity information receiving unit 113 receives the sales information from the EC site server 3 (S32), and the recording unit 115 records the received sales information in the virtual staff activity information database (S33). The processing according to steps S31 to S33 is repeatedly executed every time a customer served by the virtual staff purchases a product, and thereby, virtual staff activity information is accumulated in the information processing apparatus 1.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Claims

1. A first receiving unit that receives information relating to the activity performance of real staff members in the SNS and blog service from an SNS server that provides SNS-related functions and a blog server that provides blog service functions; a real staff activity performance score calculation unit that calculates a real staff activity performance score representing the degree of activity performance of the real staff members in the SNS and blog service based on the received information relating to the real staff members' activity performance; a second receiving unit that receives information relating to the activity performance of virtual staff members acting as proxies for the real staff members in the EC site from an EC site server that provides EC site functions; a virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit that calculates a virtual staff activity performance score representing the degree of activity performance of the virtual staff members in the EC site based on the received information relating to the virtual staff members' activity performance; and a total score calculation unit that calculates a total score for the real staff members based on the real staff activity performance score and the virtual staff activity performance score, wherein the virtual staff members are generated based on the profile information of the real staff members. Information relating to the activity record of the real staff includes the number of posts made by the real staff on the SNS and blog service, representing customer acquisition activities to guide users to the EC site, and information relating to the activity record of the virtual staff includes the number of people served, representing customer service activities for users who visited the EC site, in an information processing device.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the actual staff activity performance score calculation unit calculates, based on the received information relating to the actual staff's activity performance, an actual staff activity evaluation score that evaluates the content of the actual staff's proactive activities on the SNS and the blog service, and an actual staff performance evaluation score that represents the evaluation of the actual staff's proactive activities by others, and calculates the actual staff activity performance score based on the actual staff activity evaluation score and the actual staff performance evaluation score.

3. The information processing device according to claim 2, wherein the actual staff activity evaluation score is calculated based on the number of posts.

4. The information processing device according to claim 2, wherein the information relating to the actual staff member's activity record includes the number of followers following the actual staff member's account on the SNS and the blog service, and the number of impressions representing the number of times the article posted by the actual staff member has been displayed, and the actual staff member's performance evaluation score is calculated based on the number of followers and the number of impressions.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the virtual staff activity performance score calculation unit calculates a virtual staff activity evaluation score that evaluates the content of customer service activities performed by the virtual staff on the e-commerce site and a virtual staff performance evaluation score that evaluates the results of customer service activities performed by the virtual staff, based on the received information relating to the activity performance of the virtual staff, and calculates the virtual staff activity performance score based on the virtual staff activity evaluation score and the virtual staff performance evaluation score.

6. The information processing device according to claim 5, wherein the virtual staff activity evaluation score is calculated based on the number of customers served.

7. The information processing device according to claim 5, wherein the information relating to the activity record of the virtual staff includes the sales amount generated by the virtual staff on the e-commerce site, and the virtual staff performance evaluation score is calculated based on the sales amount.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a distribution calculation unit that calculates a distribution to the actual staff or a percentage of the distribution to the actual staff based on the overall score of the actual staff, wherein the distribution is distributed to the actual staff based on the sales made through the virtual staff on the e-commerce site.

9. A computer connected to an SNS server providing SNS-related functions and a blog server providing blog service functions as follows: means for receiving information relating to the activity performance of real staff in the SNS and the blog service from the SNS server and the blog server; means for calculating a real staff activity performance score representing the degree of activity performance of the real staff in the SNS and the blog service based on the received information relating to the activity performance of the real staff; means for receiving information relating to the activity performance of virtual staff dispatched as substitutes for the real staff in the EC site in response to a request from the EC site server providing EC site functions; means for calculating a virtual staff activity performance score representing the degree of activity performance of the virtual staff in the EC site based on the received information relating to the activity performance of the virtual staff; and means for calculating an overall score of the real staff based on the real staff activity performance score and the virtual staff activity performance score in the SNS and the blog service, wherein the virtual staff are generated based on the profile information of the real staff. The program includes information relating to the activity record of the real staff, which includes the number of posts made by the real staff on the SNS and blog service, representing customer acquisition activities to guide users to the e-commerce site, and information relating to the activity record of the virtual staff, which includes the number of customers served, representing customer service activities for users who visited the e-commerce site.

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