JP2933100B2 - Automatic call answering system for telephone - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic telephone call answering system used in a terminal unit of a telephone network or the like, and more particularly to a telephone automatic answering system for a call receiving service incorporated in a private branch exchange system or the like. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, when a telephone receives an incoming call by another caller during a call, the telephone simply sends a busy signal to the other caller indicating that the caller is busy.

[0003] The private branch exchange system of the telephone network has a reception desk (called party) on the extension side when an incoming call comes in from the line as a service for a receiving system business such as various reservation business and telephone shopping business. Until the call is answered, some callers automatically answer the incoming line and automatically output a waiting message such as "Please wait".

[0004]

If a busy signal is returned during a call, no call charge is required, but the caller cannot always know the state of the callee.

In an automatic answering system which outputs a waiting message at the time of automatic answering, the caller simply listens to the waiting message and does not know how long it is necessary to wait. This can be irritating to the caller, resulting in poor service to the caller, for example, the customer.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems in the conventional telephone and incoming call automatic answering system, and provides a perfect automatic answering service to a caller and makes a call by automatic answering. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic telephone answering system that does not irritate a caller.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a database relating to the average call time of each call partner is constructed based on the call time with each call partner, and another caller during a call is established. Automatic response to the incoming call, read the average talk time of the other party from the database,
The call termination time of the current call is estimated based on the difference between the time from the start of the call to the reception of the call by another caller during the call and the average call time. This is achieved by an automatic telephone call answering system, wherein the call is output to the incoming call line of the other caller.

[0008]

According to the above-described automatic telephone call answering system, when an incoming call is automatically answered to another caller during a call, the estimated call termination time is estimated in accordance with the current caller. A voice message is output to the other caller, so that the other caller can clearly recognize how long to wait before talking.

[0009]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows a telephone communication system including an automatic telephone call answering system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a digital private branch exchange, to which a plurality of telephones 2 for incoming telephone service are connected.

A computer 3 is connected to the private branch exchange 1 by an RS-
They are interconnected by a serial interface such as 232C. The computer 3 may be a personal computer, to which a hard disk unit 4 storing a database as a file is connected.

The private branch exchange 1 is connected to a public telephone network 5 and selectively connects a private telephone 2 to external telephones 6 of a plurality of customers via the public telephone network 5 by automatic transmission.

The database of the hard disk unit 4 has, for each communication partner, data on the average communication time calculated from the past communication times over a predetermined number of times. The average call time of each call partner is updated by taking in the latest call time by making a call with the call partner.

The private branch exchange 1 automatically answers an incoming call when all of the telephones 2 connected to the telephone are busy or when the telephone 2 cannot answer the call, and each telephone 2 is currently busy. The computer 3 retrieves the average call time of the communication partner from the database of the hard disk unit 4 by using the computer 3 and reads it out. End time of the current call
And outputs a voice message about the estimated call termination time based on this to the incoming line of the automatic incoming call response. In this case, the voice message regarding the estimated call end time may be given based on the average value of the call end times estimated for each telephone 2 or the shortest of the call end times.

Next, an operation example of the automatic telephone call answering system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The private branch exchange 1 monitors whether there is an incoming call detection (step 10). If there is an incoming call detection, next, if there is an empty telephone 2 at the reception desk of the private branch, Is determined (step 20).

If there is an available telephone set 10, an incoming call notification signal is transmitted to the available telephone set 2 under the incoming call even distribution function (step 30), and then the reception of a response signal from the available telephone set 10 is awaited (step 30). Step 40). Private branch exchange 1
When a response signal is received from the corresponding empty telephone 2, the measurement of the talk time is started (step 50). Thereafter, the line disconnection is monitored (step 60). When the line disconnection is detected, the measurement of the talk time is stopped, and the average talk time is recalculated by incorporating the newly measured talk time. The data of the average call time of the corresponding call partner in the database of the unit 4 is updated.

On the other hand, when there is no empty telephone 2, the average talk time of the other party of the telephone 2 during the call is read from the database of the hard disk unit 4, and the time from the start of the call to the detection of the incoming call is averaged for the other party. The end time of this call is estimated by subtracting it from the call time (step 80).

Next, it is determined whether or not the estimated call termination time is a predetermined value, for example, about one minute or more (step 9).
0) If the estimated call end time is equal to or longer than a predetermined value, a voice message indicating that it takes time to end the call is transmitted to the incoming line (step 100), whereas the estimated call end time is not equal to or longer than the predetermined value. In this case, a voice message indicating that the call is about to be ended is sent to the incoming line (step 110).

After the transmission of the voice message as described above, the monitoring of the line disconnection is performed (step 120), and the voice guidance is continued unless the line disconnection is performed. When the line disconnection is performed, the transmission of the voice message is stopped. (Step 13
0).

In this embodiment, two types of voice messages are sent depending on whether or not the estimated call end time is equal to or longer than a predetermined value. The voice message may be the estimated call end time itself.

[0022]

As will be understood from the above description, according to the automatic telephone answering system according to the present invention, when an automatic incoming call is answered to another caller during a telephone call, the other party who is currently talking is called. In response, the estimated call termination time is estimated and a voice message associated with it is output to another caller, so that the other caller can clearly recognize how long to wait before calling, As a result, it is possible to prevent the caller from being irritated by the automatic response and from increasing the call charge burden against the caller's will.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a telephone communication system including a telephone automatic answering system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a control flow of the automatic telephone call answering system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Private branch exchange 2 Telephone for incoming call business 3 Computer 4 Hard disk unit 5 Public telephone network 6 Customer telephone

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A database for an average call time of each call partner is constructed based on a call time with each call partner, an automatic answer is made for an incoming call by another caller during a call, and a call is made from the database. The average call time of the other party is read out, and the call end time of the current call is estimated based on the difference between the time from the start of the call to the time of receiving the call by another caller during the call and the average call time. A telephone call automatic answering system for outputting a voice message regarding an estimated call end time to an incoming line of another caller.