Web-assistant based e-marketing method and system

• US 20020161626A1
• Filed: 04/26/2002
• Published: 10/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alain Thibault, Efoe Wallace, Pierre Plante
• Original Assignee: Alain Thibault, Efoe Wallace, Pierre Plante
• Inventors: Plante, Pierre, Thibault, Alain, Wallace, Efoe
• Application Number:
  US10/133,069
• Publication Number:
  US 20020161626A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls

Abstract

An e-marketing system and method using a web-assistant system are provided. The web-assistant gives answers to customer questions all in a web format. The web-assistant is pushed to the prospective customers of a business through e-mail. Preferably, the web-assistant uses a knowledge database built using a natural language processing engine.

Claims

1. An e-marketing system for a business to market its wares to prospective customers over a network, said system comprising:

a web-assistant system for receiving questions of the prospective customers and providing answers thereto in a web format, the web-assistant system being accessible through the network; and

an out-bound e-mailer connected to said network for sending therethrough an e-mail to said prospective customers, the e-mail including accessing means for providing access to said web-assistant system.

2. The e-marketing system according to claim 1, wherein said e-mail further includes a visual representation of a web-assistant.

3. The e-marketing system according to claim 1, wherein said accessing means comprise a web-link to the web-assistant system.

4. The e-marketing system according to claim 1, further comprising a web site of said business, the web-assistant being accessible on said web site, the accessing means connecting the prospective customer thereto.

5. The e-marketing system according to claim 1, wherein said e-mail further includes interacting means for interacting with said web-assistant system.

6. The e-marketing system according to claim 5 wherein said interacting means comprise an input field for receiving a question of the prospective customer.

7. The e-marketing system according to claim 1, wherein the e-mail further includes a message prompting the prospective customer to ask the web-assistant system a question.

8. The e-marketing system according to claim 4, further comprising a web server hosting said web site.

9. The e-marketing system according to claim 1, further comprising a web-assistant server hosting the web-assistant system.

10. The e-marketing system according to claim 1, wherein the answers provided by the web-assistant system include a choice from a set of questions bearing similarities to the question asked by the prospective customer.

11. The e-marketing system according to claim 1, wherein said web-assistant system comprises a knowledge database containing information about the wares of the business, said information being used to generate said answers.

12. The e-marketing system according to claim 11, wherein the web-assistant system comprises a knowledge building module for generating said information.

13. The e-marketing system according to claim 12, wherein the knowledge building module comprises a list of frequently asked questions.

14. The e-marketing system according to claim 12, wherein the knowledge building module includes a natural language processing engine.

15. The e-marketing system according to claim 1, further comprising an in-bound e-mailer for receiving e-mail questions from the prospective customers.

16. The e-marketing system according to claim 1, further comprising an e-market database including information about said prospective customers.

18. The e-marketing system according to claim 17, wherein said e-mail further includes a visual representation of a web-assistant.

19. The e-marketing system according to claim 17, wherein said accessing means comprise a web-link to the web-assistant system.

20. The e-marketing system according to claim 19, further comprising a web server connected to the network, a web site of said business being provided thereon, the web-assistant being accessible from said web site.

21. The e-marketing system according to claim 17, wherein said e-mail further includes interacting means for interacting with said web-assistant system.

22. The e-marketing system according to claim 21 wherein said interacting means comprise an input field for receiving a question of the prospective customer.

23. The e-marketing system according to claim 17, wherein the e-mail further includes a message prompting the prospective customer to ask the web-assistant system a question.

24. The e-marketing system according to claim 17, wherein the answers provided by the web-assistant system include a choice from a set of questions bearing similarities to the question asked by the prospective customer.

25. The e-marketing system according to claim 17, wherein said web-assistant system comprises a knowledge database containing information about the wares of the business, said information being used to generate said answers.

26. The e-marketing system according to claim 25, wherein the web-assistant system comprises a knowledge building module for generating said information.

27. The e-marketing system according to claim 26, wherein the knowledge building module comprises a list of frequently asked questions.

28. The e-marketing system according to claim 26, wherein the knowledge building module includes a natural language processing engine.

29. The e-marketing system according to claim 17, further comprising an in-bound e-mail server for receiving e-mail questions from the prospective customers.

30. The e-marketing system according to claim 17, further comprising an e-market database including information about said prospective customers.

17. An e-marketing system for a business to market its wares to prospective customers over a network, said system comprising:

a web-assistant server connected to the network, a web-assistant system being provided thereon for receiving questions of the prospective customers and providing answers thereto in a web format, the web-assistant system being accessible through said network; and

an out-bound e-mail server connected to said network for sending therethrough an e-mail to said prospective customers, the e-mail including accessing means for providing access to said web-assistant system.

31. An e-marketing method for a business to market its wares to prospective customers over a network, said method comprising the steps of:

a) providing a web-assistant system for receiving questions of the prospective customers and providing answers thereto in a web format, the web-assistant system being accessible through the network; and

b) sending through the network an e-mail to said prospective customers, the e-mail providing access to the web-assistant system.

32. The e-marketing method according to claim 31, wherein said e-mail further includes a visual representation of a web-assistant.

33. The e-marketing method according to claim 31, wherein a step b) comprises including a web-link to the web-assistant system in said e-mail.

34. The e-marketing method according to claim 31, wherein step b) comprises connecting the prospective customer to a web site of said business, the web-assistant system being accessible thereon.

35. The e-marketing method according to claim 31, wherein step b) comprises including interacting means for interacting with the web-assistant system in said e-mail.

36. The e-marketing method according to claim 35 wherein said interacting means comprise an input field for receiving a question of the prospective customer.

37. The e-marketing method according to claim 31, wherein step b) further comprises including a message in said e-mail prompting the prospective customer to ask the web-assistant system a question.

38. The e-marketing method according to claim 31, wherein the answers provided by the web-assistant system include a choice from a set of questions bearing similarities to the question asked by the prospective customer.

39. The e-marketing method according to claim 31, wherein said web-assistant system comprises a knowledge database containing information about the wares of the business, said information being used to generate said answers.

40. The e-marketing method according to claim 39, wherein step a) comprises a sub-step i) of generating said information.

41. The e-marketing method according to claim 40, wherein sub-step a) i) comprises a first stage of providing data related to said wares of the business.

42. The e-marketing method according to claim 41, wherein sub-step a) i) comprises a second stage of linguistically analyzing said data.

43. The e-marketing method according to claim 42, wherein said second stage of sub-step a) i) comprises a natural language processing of said data.

44. A method for generating a structured knowledge database about a subject matter, said knowledge database being usable by a web-assistant system to provide answers to questions about said subject in a web format, the method comprising the steps of:

a) providing a knowledge repository containing unstructured information about said subject matter;

b) performing a linguistic analysis of the unstructured information for conceptually indexing the same, thereby obtaining the structured knowledge database, said analysis including natural language processing of the unstructured information.

45. The method according to claim 44, wherein said subject matter includes the wares of a business.

46. The method according to claim 44, wherein step b) comprises sub-steps of:

i) segmenting the unstructured information into word constituents;

ii) mapping each of said word constituents to a corresponding canonical form thereof; and

iii) assigning a grammatical category to each of said word constituents.

47. The method according to claim 46, wherein the assigning of sub-step iii) takes into account a contextual positioning of said word constituents.

48. The method according to claim 47, wherein step b) comprises a further sub-step of:

iv) performing a syntactic analysis of the unstructured information for identifying groups of words collectively denoting a single concept.

49. The method according to claim 48, wherein step b) comprises a further sub-step of:

v) performing a lexico-semantico-conceptual analysis of said information for mapping word constituents and groups of word relating to a same concept.

50. The method according to claim 49, wherein step b) comprises a further sub-step of:

vi) extracting key concepts of said unstructured information.

51. The method according to claim 50, wherein step b) comprises a further sub-step of:

vii) performing saliency calculations on said unstructured information.

52. The method according to claim 44, comprising a further step c) of clarifying said structure knowledge database, said step c) comprising sub-steps of:

i) testing a web-assistant system using said structured knowledge database; and

ii) adjusting the structured knowledge database based on results of said testing.