METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RESPONDING TO INQUIRIES FROM USERS

• US 20070150618A1
• Filed: 12/18/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Yoshida, Ryo
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,609 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A method for responding to inquiries from a user by a response support system. A request displaying a second screen is received from a user terminal of the user in which a first screen is being displayed. An inquiry destination of the response support system is identified in the first screen. Screen data pertaining to the second screen and containing an operation object is retrieved. The second screen is configured to be sent to the inquiry destination in response to an operation performed on the operation object by the user. Screen transition information containing screen identifiers of screens previously displayed by the user terminal, including the first screen, is retrieved. The second screen is assembled by inserting the retrieved screen data and the retrieved screen transition information into the second screen. The assembled second screen is sent to the user terminal.

Claims

1. A method for responding to inquiries from a user by a response support system, said method comprising:

receiving from a user terminal of the user in which a first screen is being displayed, a request for displaying a second screen, an inquiry destination of the response support system being identified in the first screen;

after said receiving the request for displaying the second screen, retrieving screen data pertaining to the second screen, said retrieved screen data comprising an operation object, wherein the second screen is configured to be sent to the inquiry destination in response to an operation performed on the operation object by the user;

after said receiving the request for displaying the second screen, retrieving screen transition information comprising an identifier of each screen of at least one screen displayed by the user terminal prior to said receiving the request for displaying the second screen, said at least one screen comprising the first screen;

assembling the second screen, said assembling the second screen comprising inserting the retrieved screen data and the retrieved screen transition information into the second screen; and

sending the assembled second screen to the user terminal,

wherein said receiving the request for displaying the second screen, said retrieving the screen data pertaining to the second screen, said retrieving the screen transition information, said assembling the second screen, and said sending the assembled second screen to the user terminal are performed by the response support system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

after said retrieving the screen transition information, adding an identifier of the second screen to the retrieved the screen transition information to generate updated screen transition information; and

recording the updated screen transition information,

wherein said adding the identifier of the second screen and said recording the updated screen transition information are performed by the response support system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said adding the identifier of the second screen and said recording the updated screen transition information are both performed before said assembling the second screen is performed.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said adding the identifier of the second screen and said recording the updated screen transition information are both performed after said assembling the second screen is performed.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises prior to said assembling:

determining a model identifier that identifies the model of the user terminal, wherein said assembling the second screen further comprises inserting the model identifier into the second screen, and wherein said determining the model identifier is performed by the response support system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises after said determining the model identifier:

forwarding the received request for displaying the second screen to a first operator terminal of a plurality of operator terminals such that a first operator associated with the first operator terminal is responsible for handling inquiries specifically pertaining to the model of the user terminal identified by the model identifier, and wherein said forwarding the received request is performed by the response support system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one screen comprises a plurality of screens displayed by the user terminal prior to said receiving the request for displaying the second screen.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the retrieved screen transition information is configured as a character string, and wherein the identifiers of the screens of the plurality of screens appear in the character string in a sequential order corresponding to an order in which the screens of the plurality of screens were displayed in the user terminal.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the sequential order is from left to right in the character string.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises displaying a screen transition diagram comprising a graphical image that describes the screen transition information as rectangles connected in a sequence by arrows between the rectangles to define the sequence, wherein each rectangle includes an identifier of a screen of the plurality of screens, and wherein said displaying the screen transition diagram is performed by the response support system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the screen data specifies an image file of an image to be displayed as the operation object in the second screen.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the screen data specifies an operation type of the operation.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the operation type is a pressing of a button.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the screen data specifies the inquiry destination.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the screen data specifies a subject field and a body field of an email message, and wherein said assembling the second screen comprises inserting the screen transition information into the subject field or the body field.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises recording a uniform resource locator (URL) of an initial screen page of an application program that allows the first screen and the second screen to be displayed, and wherein said recording the URL of an initial screen page is performed by the response support system.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the first screen is a first web page in hypertext markup language (HTML) format, and wherein the second screen is a second web page in HTML format.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the user terminal is a mobile phone.

19. A computer system comprising a processor and a computer-readable data storage medium coupled to the processor, said storage medium containing program code that when executed by the processor performs the method of claim 1, said computer system comprising the response support system, said response support system comprising the processor and the computer-readable data storage medium.

20. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code configured to perform the method of claim 1 when executed by a processor of the response support system.