JP7486451B2 - Computer system and recommendation method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to recommendation technology for repair shops that perform product maintenance.

Maintenance of products such as vehicles is important from the perspective of ensuring the safety of the product. Generally, product maintenance is performed at a maintenance facility, so a customer who owns the product must make a reservation for maintenance at a maintenance facility of their choice and transport the product to the maintenance facility using a means of transportation of their choice. Technologies described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 are known as technologies for assisting in vehicle maintenance.

Patent Document 1 discloses a customer vehicle management system that includes a service in which a host computer collects POS data from a service station's POS terminal via a communication network, extracts consumable parts in the customer's vehicle that are close to needing replacement based on the POS data, and sends direct mail to the customer. When a customer visits the service station, delivery information for direct mail that has already been sent and car care purchase history information for the customer's vehicle since the direct mail was sent are displayed on the display unit of the service station terminal.

Patent document 2 describes how, "When a computer processes reservations for vehicle maintenance in response to access from a user terminal via a network, in response to a request from the user terminal, reservation information is retrieved from a reservation storage means that stores reservation information for maintenance factories, a web page based on this reservation information is provided, a reservation for maintenance based on the web page is accepted, and the information on the accepted reservation is stored in the reservation storage means to update the reservation status."

JP 2006-058926 A JP 2003-030354 A JP 2020-86512 A

Since product maintenance is carried out from the perspective of ensuring product safety, the difference in the quality of maintenance at each maintenance facility is small. This makes it difficult to increase the appeal of maintenance facilities to customers.

The present invention aims to realize a system that recommends highly appealing repair shops to customers.

A representative example of the invention disclosed in the present application is as follows: That is, a computer system including at least one computer holds service usage history information storing usage history of services not related to maintenance of a product owned by a customer, and service information storing data associating a maintenance facility performing maintenance of the product with the service available in the vicinity of the maintenance facility during maintenance of the product at the maintenance facility , and the at least one computer selects a recommended maintenance facility to be recommended to the target customer based on a customer characteristic feature amount calculated based on the service usage history information and indicating a tendency of the service to be used by a target customer, and a maintenance facility characteristic feature amount calculated based on the service information and indicating a tendency of the service available in the vicinity of the maintenance facility during maintenance of the product at the maintenance facility, refers to the service information, identifies candidate services available in the vicinity of the recommended maintenance facility during maintenance of the product at the recommended maintenance facility , generates recommendation information indicating a combination of the recommended maintenance facility and the candidate service, and outputs the recommendation information to the target customer.

According to the present invention, it is possible to recommend repair shops that are highly appealing to customers. Problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above will become clear from the explanation of the following examples.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system configuration according to a first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of customer information according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of maintenance shop information according to the first embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of service information according to the first embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of history information according to the first embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of history information according to the first embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of matching information according to the first embodiment. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a customer type setting process executed by the maintenance shop recommendation system of the first embodiment. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a maintenance shop characteristic setting process executed by the maintenance shop recommendation system of the first embodiment. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a matching information generation process executed by the maintenance shop recommendation system of the first embodiment. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a recommendation information generating process executed by the maintenance shop recommendation system of the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a screen presented by the maintenance shop recommendation system of the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a screen presented by the maintenance shop recommendation system of the first embodiment.

The following describes an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention should not be interpreted as being limited to the description of the embodiment shown below. It will be easily understood by those skilled in the art that the specific configuration can be changed without departing from the concept or spirit of the present invention.

In the configuration of the invention described below, the same or similar configurations or functions are given the same reference symbols, and duplicate explanations are omitted.

The terms "first," "second," "third," and the like used in this specification are used to identify components and do not necessarily limit the number or order.

Figure 1 shows an example of the system configuration of Example 1.

The system is composed of a maintenance shop recommendation system 100 and multiple terminals 102. Each terminal 102 is connected to the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 via a network 105. The network is, for example, a LAN (Local Area Network). The connection method of the network 105 may be either wired or wireless.

The maintenance shop recommendation system 100 recommends maintenance shops that perform maintenance on products owned by customers. In this embodiment, a "car" is used as an example of a product. Note that the product is not limited to a car. The maintenance shop recommendation system 100 recommends maintenance shops and accepts maintenance reservations from customers for the maintenance shop. The customer brings the car to the maintenance shop and uses the service while the car is being maintained. Here, the services include food and drink, shopping, entertainment, etc.

The maintenance shop recommendation system 100 is composed of at least one computer 101. The maintenance shop recommendation system 100 shown in FIG. 1 is composed of one computer 101.

The computer 101 has a processor 110, a network interface 111, a main memory device 112, and a secondary memory device 113. The computer 101 may also have input devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a touch panel, as well as an output device such as a display.

The processor 110 executes a program stored in the main memory device 112. The processor 110 executes processing according to the program, thereby operating as a functional unit (module) that realizes a specific function. In the following explanation, when the processing is explained using the functional unit as the subject, this indicates that the processor 110 is executing a program that realizes the functional unit.

The network interface 111 is an interface for communicating with external devices via the network 105.

The main memory 112 stores the programs executed by the processor 110 and information used by the programs. The main memory 112 is also used as a work area. The main memory 112 is, for example, a dynamic random access memory (DRAM).

The main memory device 112 stores programs that realize the recommendation unit 120, the information management unit 121, and the reservation management unit 122. The recommendation unit 120 recommends maintenance facilities to customers. The information management unit 121 manages various information. The reservation management unit 122 makes reservations for maintenance facilities.

The above-mentioned units of functional units are merely examples and are not limiting. Multiple functional units may be combined into one functional unit, or one functional unit may be divided into multiple functional units for each function. Furthermore, if the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 has multiple computers 101, the functional units may be distributed across the multiple computers 101. Furthermore, the programs and information stored in the main memory device 112 may be stored in the secondary memory device 113. In this case, the processor 110 reads out the programs and information from the secondary memory device 113 and loads them into the main memory device 112.

The secondary storage device 113 is a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD), and stores data permanently.

The secondary storage device 113 stores customer information 130, maintenance facility information 131, service information 132, history information 133, and matching information 134. Customer information 130 is information for managing customers. Maintenance facility information 131 is information for managing maintenance facilities. Service information 132 is information for managing services available during product maintenance at maintenance facilities. History information 133 is information for managing the usage history of maintenance facilities and services. Matching information 134 is information used to select a maintenance facility to recommend to a customer.

The secondary storage device 113 may also store information for managing information on products owned by customers.

The terminal 102 may be a general-purpose computer, a smartphone, a tablet terminal, or the like, and has a processor, a network interface, a storage device, an input device, and an output device (not shown).

Customers use terminal 102 to input customer information, receive recommended information on maintenance facilities, and make reservations for maintenance facilities. Maintenance facility operators use terminal 102 to input information on maintenance facilities and accept reservations from customers. Service providers use terminal 102 to input service information.

The details of the information managed by the system are explained using Figures 2 to 6.

Figure 2 shows an example of customer information 130 in Example 1.

The customer information 130 stores entries (customer data) including a customer ID 201, a name 202, a gender 203, an age 204, and a customer type 205. There is one entry for each customer. Note that the fields included in an entry are not limited to those described above. An entry may not include any of the fields described above, or may include other fields.

Customer ID 201 is a field that stores identification information (customer ID) for uniquely identifying a customer. Name 202 is a field that stores the name of the customer. Gender 203 is a field that stores the gender of the customer. Age 204 is a field that stores the age of the customer. Customer type 205 is a field that stores a tag that indicates the nature of the customer.

Figure 3 is a diagram showing an example of maintenance facility information 131 in Example 1.

The maintenance site information 131 stores entries (maintenance site data) including a maintenance site ID 301, a maintenance site name 302, a location 303, and maintenance site characteristics 304. One entry exists for one maintenance site. Note that the fields included in an entry are not limited to those described above. An entry may not include any of the fields described above, or may include other fields.

Maintenance facility ID 301 is a field that stores identification information (maintenance facility ID) for uniquely identifying a maintenance facility. Maintenance facility name 302 is a field that stores the name of the maintenance facility. Location 303 is a field that stores information related to the location of the maintenance facility. For example, a pair of latitude and longitude, or an address is stored in location 303. Maintenance facility characteristics 304 is a field that stores features (maintenance facility characteristic features) that indicate the tendency of services available when maintaining a product at a maintenance facility.

Figure 4 shows an example of service information 132 in Example 1.

The service information 132 stores entries (service data) including a service ID 401, a maintenance facility ID 402, a name 403, a location 404, content 405, and service characteristics 406. One entry exists for one service. Note that the fields included in an entry are not limited to those described above. An entry may not include any of the fields described above, or may include other fields.

Service ID 401 stores identification information (service ID) for uniquely identifying a service. Maintenance facility ID 402 is a field that stores the maintenance facility ID of the maintenance facility associated with the service. In this embodiment, services available in the vicinity of the maintenance facility are associated. Name 403 is a field that stores the name of the service or the service provider. Location 404 is a field that stores information about the location where the service is provided. For example, a pair of latitude and longitude, or an address is stored in location 404. Content 405 is a field that stores information representing the content of the service. Text, images, etc. are stored in content 405. Service characteristics 406 is a field that stores features that represent the characteristics of the service (service characteristic features).

Figures 5A and 5B are diagrams showing an example of history information 133 in Example 1.

History information 133 includes service usage history information 500 and maintenance facility usage history information 510. Service usage history information 500 stores the usage history of services used by the customer, and maintenance facility usage history information 510 stores the usage history of maintenance facilities used by the customer.

The service usage history information 500 shown in FIG. 5A includes a customer ID 501, a service ID 502, a date and time 503, and a score 504. One entry exists for one service usage history. Note that the fields included in an entry are not limited to those described above. An entry may not include any of the fields described above, or may include other fields.

Customer ID 501 is a field that stores the customer ID of the customer who used the service. Service ID 502 is a field that stores the service ID of the service used. Date and time 503 is a field that stores the date and time when the service was used. Score 504 is a field that stores a score that indicates the satisfaction level of the service. The score may be entered directly by the customer, or may be calculated based on the results of a survey of the customer and the number of uses, etc.

The maintenance facility usage history information 510 shown in FIG. 5B includes a customer ID 511, a maintenance facility ID 512, and a date and time 513. One entry exists for one maintenance facility usage history. Note that the fields included in an entry are not limited to those described above. It is possible for an entry to not include any of the above-mentioned fields, and it may also include other fields.

Customer ID 511 is a field that stores the customer ID of the customer who used the maintenance facility. Maintenance facility ID 512 is a field that stores the maintenance facility ID of the maintenance facility that was used. Date and time 513 is a field that stores the date and time when the maintenance facility was used.

Figure 6 is a diagram showing an example of matching information 134 in Example 1.

The matching information 134 stores entries including a customer type 601, a maintenance facility ID 602, and a score 603. There is one entry for each combination of customer type and maintenance facility. Note that the fields included in an entry are not limited to those described above. An entry may not include any of the above-mentioned fields, or may include other fields.

Customer type 601 is a field that stores a tag that represents the characteristics of the customer. Maintenance facility ID 602 is a field that stores the maintenance facility ID of the maintenance facility. Score 603 is a field that stores a score that represents the compatibility between a customer of a particular customer type and a maintenance facility.

Next, we will explain the processing that the system performs.

The customer uses the terminal 102 to send a registration request including data about the customer to the maintenance shop recommendation system 100. In this case, the information management unit 121 adds an entry to the customer information 130 and generates a customer ID. The information management unit 121 sets the generated customer ID to the customer ID 201 of the added entry, and sets values in each field of the added entry based on the registration request. At this point, the customer type 205 is blank. The customer type is set in the customer type setting process described below.

The maintenance site operator uses the terminal 102 to send a registration request including data related to the maintenance site to the maintenance site recommendation system 100. In this case, the information management unit 121 adds an entry to the maintenance site information 131 and generates a maintenance site ID. The information management unit 121 sets the generated maintenance site ID to the maintenance site ID 301 of the added entry, and sets values in each field of the added entry based on the registration request. Note that at this point, the maintenance site characteristics 304 are blank. The maintenance site characteristic features are set in the maintenance site characteristic setting process described below.

The maintenance facility operator requests the service provider to register the service. Upon receiving the request, the service provider uses the terminal 102 to send a registration request including data related to the service to the maintenance facility recommendation system 100. The registration request includes the maintenance facility ID of the maintenance facility operated by the maintenance facility operator that made the request. In this case, the information management unit 121 adds an entry to the service information 132 and generates a service ID. The information management unit 121 sets the generated service ID to the service ID 401 of the added entry, and sets values in each field of the entry added based on the registration request. At this point, the service characteristic 406 is blank. The service characteristic feature amount is set in the maintenance facility characteristic setting process described below.

In addition, a service provider may voluntarily register a service. In this case, the information management unit 121 identifies the nearest maintenance facility based on the location of the maintenance facility and the location where the service is provided, and sets the maintenance facility ID of the identified maintenance facility to the maintenance facility ID 402 of the added entry.

Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a customer type setting process executed by the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 of Example 1.

The information management unit 121 of the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 executes the customer type setting process when the customer information 130 is updated or when an execution instruction is received. The information management unit 121 may execute the customer type setting process periodically.

The information management unit 121 determines the customer type of each customer using the customer information 130 and the maintenance facility usage history information 510 (step S101). The customer type is determined, for example, using the method described in Patent Document 3. As described in Patent Document 3, the customer type may be determined taking into account the type of product and the usage status of the product, etc.

Next, the information management unit 121 updates the customer information 130 based on the processing result of step S101 (step S102). After that, the information management unit 121 ends the customer type setting process.

Specifically, the information management unit 121 sets the determined customer type to the customer type 205 of each entry in the customer information 130. Note that if a tag has already been stored in the customer type 205, the information management unit 121 updates the tag in the customer type 205.

In addition, customer type setting may be performed by an external system.

Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a maintenance site characteristic setting process executed by the maintenance site recommendation system 100 of Example 1.

The information management unit 121 of the maintenance site recommendation system 100 executes the maintenance site characteristic setting process when at least one of the maintenance site information 131 and the service information 132 is updated or when an execution instruction is received. The information management unit 121 may execute the maintenance site characteristic setting process periodically.

The information management unit 121 refers to the service information 132 and calculates content features based on the content of each service (step S201).

For example, the information management unit 121 calculates a value indicating the presence or absence of a keyword for a given topic, and a vector composed of image features using a model generated by machine learning or the like, as content features.

Next, the information management unit 121 calculates the service characteristic feature of each service using the content feature (step S202). The information management unit 121 sets the calculated service characteristic feature to the service characteristic 406 of each entry in the service information 132.

For example, the information management unit 121 calculates the weights (probability values) of the clusters using a clustering method such as a Gaussian mixture model, and calculates a vector whose elements are the weights of the clusters as the service characteristic feature.

Next, the information management unit 121 calculates the maintenance site characteristic feature quantity for each maintenance site based on the maintenance site information 131 and the service information 132 (step S203). After that, the information management unit 121 ends the maintenance site characteristic setting process. In step S203, for example, the following process is executed.

(S203-1) The information management unit 121 selects one entry (maintenance facility data) from the maintenance facility information 131. Here, the maintenance facility corresponding to the selected entry is described as the target maintenance facility.

(S203-2) The information management unit 121 refers to the service information 132 and searches for an entry in which the maintenance facility ID of the target maintenance facility is stored in the maintenance facility ID 402.

(S203-3) The information management unit 121 calculates the maintenance site characteristic feature of the target maintenance site based on the service characteristic feature (vector) stored in the service characteristics 406 of the searched entry. The information management unit 121 sets the calculated maintenance site characteristic feature to the maintenance site characteristics 304 of the entry corresponding to the target maintenance site.

For example, the information management unit 121 calculates the average value of each element of the vector, and calculates a vector having these average values as its elements as the maintenance site characteristic feature.

(S203-4) The information management unit 121 determines whether or not processing has been completed for all entries in the maintenance facility information 131. If processing has not been completed for all entries in the maintenance facility information 131, the information management unit 121 returns to S203-1 and executes the same processing.

(S203-5) When processing has been completed for all entries in the maintenance facility information 131, the information management unit 121 ends the processing of step S203.

As described above, in this embodiment, the characteristics of the maintenance facility are determined based on the characteristics of the services available when maintaining the product at the maintenance facility.

The process of calculating the service characteristic feature quantity and the process of calculating the maintenance facility characteristic feature quantity may be performed at different times.

Figure 9 is a flowchart that explains an example of a matching information generation process executed by the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 of Example 1.

The information management unit 121 of the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 executes the matching information generation process after executing either the customer type setting process or the maintenance shop characteristic setting process, or when an execution instruction is received. The information management unit 121 may execute the matching information generation process periodically.

The information management unit 121 references the customer information 130 to generate a list of customer types (step S301).

Specifically, the information management unit 121 extracts customer types by referring to the customer type 205 in the customer information 130, and generates a list of customer types based on the extraction results.

Next, the information management unit 121 starts a loop process of the customer type (step S302).

Specifically, the information management unit 121 selects one customer type from the list of customer types. The information management unit 121 also refers to the customer information 130, searches for an entry in which the selected customer type is set, and generates a list of customer IDs 201 for that entry.

Next, the information management unit 121 obtains the service usage history of the customer to whom the selected customer type has been assigned from the service usage history information 500 (step S303).

Specifically, the information management unit 121 searches for an entry in which the customer ID 501 is set to a customer ID registered in the list of customer IDs 201.

Next, the information management unit 121 calculates customer characteristic features that indicate the tendency of the services used by the customers assigned the selected customer type (step S304). Specifically, the following process is executed.

(S304-1) The information management unit 121 selects one service usage history from the service usage history acquired in step S303.

(S304-2) The information management unit 121 refers to the service information 132, searches for an entry corresponding to the service ID 502 of the selected service usage history, and acquires a service characteristic feature from the service characteristics 406 of the entry. The information management unit 121 corrects the acquired service characteristic feature based on the score 504 of the selected service usage history. For example, the information management unit 121 multiplies each element of the vector representing the service characteristic feature by the value of the score 504. The information management unit 121 stores the corrected service characteristic feature in the work area.

(S304-3) The information management unit 121 determines whether or not processing has been completed for all service usage histories acquired in step S303. If processing has not been completed for all service usage histories acquired in step S303, the information management unit 121 returns to S304-1 and executes the same processing.

(S304-4) When processing has been completed for all service usage histories acquired in step S303, the information management unit 121 calculates customer characteristic features based on the corrected service characteristic features. After that, the information management unit 121 ends the processing of step S304.

For example, the information management unit 121 calculates the average value of each element of a vector corresponding to the corrected service characteristic feature, and calculates a vector having the average value as an element as the customer characteristic feature.

As described above, in this embodiment, the characteristics of a customer (customer type) are determined based on the characteristics of the service used during product maintenance at a maintenance facility.

Next, the information management unit 121 starts loop processing of the maintenance facility (step S305).

Specifically, the information management unit 121 selects one entry (maintenance facility data) from the maintenance facility information 131.

Next, the information management unit 121 calculates a score for the combination of customer type and maintenance facility based on the customer characteristic feature of the customer type and the maintenance facility characteristic feature of the maintenance facility (step S306).

Specifically, the information management unit 121 calculates the inner product of the vectors as the score. Note that the method of calculating the score is an example and is not limited to this. The information management unit 121 adds an entry to the matching information 134, stores the customer type selected in step S302 in the customer type 601, stores the maintenance facility ID of the maintenance facility selected in step S305 in the maintenance facility ID 602, and sets the calculated score in the score 603.

Next, the information management unit 121 determines whether the processing has been completed for all maintenance facilities (step S307). If the processing has not been completed for all maintenance facilities, the information management unit 121 returns to step S305 and executes the same processing.

When processing has been completed for all maintenance facilities, the information management unit 121 determines whether processing has been completed for all customer types (step S308). If processing has not been completed for all customer types, the information management unit 121 returns to step S302 and executes the same processing.

When processing has been completed for all customer types, the information management unit 121 ends the matching information generation process.

In this embodiment, the score is calculated for each customer type, but the score may be calculated for each customer. In this case, the customer's service usage history may be used to calculate the customer characteristic feature of that customer.

Figure 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a recommendation information generation process executed by the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 of Example 1. Figures 11A and 11B are diagrams showing an example of a screen presented by the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 of Example 1.

The recommendation unit 120 of the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 executes a recommendation information generation process when the product maintenance time has passed or when an instruction to do so has been received from a customer. The product maintenance time may be managed by the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 or by the maintenance shop operator.

Here, customers who own the products to be maintained are referred to as target customers.

The recommendation unit 120 refers to the customer information 130 to identify the customer type of the target customer (step S401).

Next, the recommendation unit 120 refers to the matching information 134 based on the identified customer type and selects a recommended maintenance facility (step S402).

Specifically, the recommendation unit 120 searches for an entry in which the specified customer type is set in the customer type 601. The recommendation unit 120 selects a recommended maintenance site based on the value of the score 603 of the specified entry. For example, the following selection method is possible.
(1) The recommendation unit 120 selects n maintenance facilities in descending order of score.
(2) The recommendation unit 120 selects a maintenance facility whose score is greater than a threshold value.

The recommendation unit 120 may check the reservation status of the selected maintenance facility and exclude maintenance facilities with a large number of maintenance reservations from the recommended maintenance facilities.

Next, the recommendation unit 120 identifies services that can be used during product maintenance at the recommended maintenance site as candidate services based on the service information 132 (step S403). If there are multiple recommended maintenance sites, candidate services are identified for each recommended maintenance site.

Next, the recommendation unit 120 generates recommendation information for presenting recommended maintenance sites and candidate services (step S404), and transmits the recommendation information to the terminal 102 operated by the target customer (step S405). After that, the recommendation unit 120 ends the recommendation information generation process.

The matching information 134 does not have to be generated in advance. For example, in step S402, the recommendation unit 120 may instruct the information management unit 121 to execute the processes from step S303 to step S307.

When the terminal 102 receives the recommendation information, a screen like that shown in Figures 11A and 11B is displayed.

Figure 11A shows a screen 1100 that displays an overview of recommended maintenance sites and candidate services. Screen 1100 includes a recommended maintenance site display field 1101. The recommended maintenance site display field 1101 is displayed as many times as the number of recommended maintenance sites.

The recommended maintenance site display field 1101 includes a maintenance site name display field 1102 and a candidate service display field 1103. The maintenance site name display field 1102 is a field that displays the name of the recommended maintenance site. The candidate service display field 1103 is a field that displays the name of the service provider that provides the candidate service and an overview of the content, etc.

When a customer selects the recommended maintenance site display field 1101, a screen 1110 as shown in FIG. 11B is displayed. The screen 1110 includes a candidate service selection field 1111, a reservation date and time input field 1112, and a reservation button 1113.

The candidate service selection field 1111 is a field for selecting a service to be used when maintaining a product at a recommended maintenance site. The candidate service selection field 1111 displays one or more entries including a check box, a name, and content details. The customer selects the service to be used by operating the check box.

The reservation date and time input field 1112 is a field for entering the date and time when maintenance will be performed.

The reservation button 1113 is an operation button for making a reservation for maintenance. When a customer operates the reservation button 1113, the terminal 102 sends a reservation request including the maintenance facility, the service to be used, and the reservation date and time to the maintenance facility recommendation system 100. The reservation management unit 122 of the maintenance facility recommendation system 100 sends reservation information including the date and time, etc. to the terminal 102 of the specified maintenance facility.

When product maintenance is completed at a maintenance shop, the maintenance shop operator uses the terminal 102 to send a maintenance shop usage history to the maintenance shop recommendation system 100. In addition, when a service is used by a customer, the service provider uses the terminal 102 to send a service usage history to the maintenance shop recommendation system 100. The information management unit 121 of the maintenance shop recommendation system 100 registers the maintenance shop usage history and the service usage history in the history information 133.

According to this embodiment, the appeal of a maintenance facility can be improved by presenting the maintenance facility as well as the services that can be used when the product is being maintained at the maintenance facility. The appeal can be further increased by selecting a maintenance facility based on the tendency of the customer to use the services. In addition, by encouraging the use of services during maintenance at the maintenance facility, the opportunities to use the services can be expanded. In addition, customers can make effective use of their time by using the services when the product is being maintained.

Representative aspects of the invention other than those described in the claims are as follows:
(1) A computer system including at least one computer,
Customer information storing customer data associating a customer with a customer type that represents a characteristic of the customer;
service information storing service data associating a maintenance facility that performs maintenance on a product owned by the customer with a service that can be used at the maintenance facility when the product is maintained;
service usage history information that stores the service usage history of the customer;
selecting a recommended maintenance facility to be recommended to the target customer based on a customer characteristic feature amount calculated based on the service usage history information and indicating a tendency of the services used by customers assigned to the customer type of the target customer, and a maintenance facility characteristic feature amount calculated based on the service information and indicating a tendency of the services available at the time of maintenance of the product at the maintenance facility;
By referring to the service information, a candidate service that can be used during maintenance of the product at the recommended maintenance facility is identified;
generating recommendation information that displays a combination of the recommendation preparation site and the candidate services;
A computer system that outputs the recommendation information to the target customers.
(2) The computer system according to (1),
The at least one computer
calculating a score representing a compatibility of the maintenance facility with the customer type of the target customer based on the customer characteristic feature amount and the maintenance facility characteristic feature amount;
A computer system that selects the recommended maintenance site based on the score.
(3) The computer system according to (2),
the service data includes a service characteristic feature calculated based on a content of the service;
The at least one computer
Identifying the services used by customers of the target customer type by referring to the service usage history information;
acquiring the service characteristic feature amount from the data corresponding to the specified service by referring to the service information;
A computer system comprising: a service management system for managing a service characteristic feature quantity; a service characteristic feature quantity storing means for storing the service characteristic feature quantity;
(4) The computer system according to (3),
The usage history includes an evaluation score representing an evaluation of the customer who used the service,
The at least one computer
correcting the service characteristic feature amount using the evaluation score;
A computer system comprising: a service characteristic feature quantity corrected by the customer characteristic feature quantity;
(5) The computer system according to (3),
The at least one computer
Select the target maintenance area,
With reference to the service information, the service characteristic feature is acquired from the service data related to the target maintenance facility;
A computer system comprising: a computer that calculates the maintenance facility characteristic feature of the target maintenance facility based on the acquired service characteristic feature.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but includes various modified examples. For example, the above-described embodiments are provided to explain the present invention in detail, and are not necessarily limited to those including all of the described configurations. In addition, it is possible to add, delete, or replace part of the configuration of each embodiment with another configuration.

The above-mentioned configurations, functions, processing units, processing means, etc. may be realized in part or in whole by hardware, for example, by designing them as integrated circuits. The present invention can also be realized by software program code that realizes the functions of the embodiments. In this case, a storage medium on which the program code is recorded is provided to a computer, and a processor included in the computer reads the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-mentioned embodiments, and the program code itself and the storage medium on which it is stored constitute the present invention. Examples of storage media for supplying such program code include flexible disks, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, hard disks, SSDs (Solid State Drives), optical disks, magneto-optical disks, CD-Rs, magnetic tapes, non-volatile memory cards, and ROMs.

In addition, the program code that realizes the functions described in this embodiment can be implemented in a wide range of program or script languages, such as assembler, C/C++, perl, Shell, PHP, Python, Java (registered trademark), etc.

Furthermore, the program code of the software that realizes the functions of the embodiment may be distributed over a network and stored in a storage means such as a computer's hard disk or memory, or in a storage medium such as a CD-RW or CD-R, and the processor of the computer may read and execute the program code stored in the storage means or storage medium.

In the above examples, the control lines and information lines are those that are considered necessary for the explanation, and not all control lines and information lines in the product are necessarily shown. All components may be interconnected.

100 Maintenance shop recommendation system 101 Computer 102 Terminal 105 Network 110 Processor 111 Network interface 112 Main memory device 113 Sub-memory device 120 Recommendation section 121 Information management section 122 Reservation management section 130 Customer information 131 Maintenance shop information 132 Service information 133 History information 134 Matching information 500 Service usage history information 510 Maintenance shop usage history information 1100, 1110 Screen

Claims (12)

A computer system comprising at least one computer,
Service usage history information that stores the usage history of services not related to the maintenance of products owned by the customer;
service information that stores data associating a maintenance facility that performs maintenance on the product with the services that are available in the vicinity of the maintenance facility during maintenance of the product at the maintenance facility ;
Hold
The at least one computer
selecting a recommended maintenance facility to be recommended to the target customer based on a customer characteristic feature amount calculated based on the service usage history information and indicating a tendency of the service to be used by the target customer, and a maintenance facility characteristic feature amount calculated based on the service information and indicating a tendency of the service available in the vicinity of the maintenance facility during maintenance of the product at the maintenance facility;
By referring to the service information, candidate services available in the vicinity of the recommended maintenance site during maintenance of the product at the recommended maintenance site are identified;
generating recommendation information that displays a combination of the recommendation preparation site and the candidate services;
A computer system that outputs the recommendation information to the target customers. 2. The computer system of claim 1,
The at least one computer
calculating a score representing a compatibility of the maintenance facility with the customer based on the customer characteristic feature amount and the maintenance facility characteristic feature amount;
A computer system that selects the recommended maintenance site based on the score. 3. The computer system of claim 2,
the data stored in the service information includes a service characteristic feature calculated based on the content of the service,
The at least one computer
Identifying the services used by the target customers by referring to the service usage history information;
acquiring the service characteristic feature amount from the data corresponding to the specified service by referring to the service information;
A computer system comprising: a service management system for managing a service characteristic feature quantity; a service characteristic feature quantity storing means for storing a service characteristic feature quantity; 4. The computer system of claim 3,
The usage history includes an evaluation score representing an evaluation of the customer who used the service,
The at least one computer
correcting the acquired service characteristic feature quantity using the evaluation score;
A computer system comprising: a computer that calculates the customer characteristic feature quantity based on the corrected service characteristic feature quantity. 4. The computer system of claim 3,
The at least one computer
Select the target maintenance area,
With reference to the service information, the service characteristic feature is acquired from the data related to the target maintenance facility;
A computer system comprising: a computer that calculates the maintenance facility characteristic feature of the target maintenance facility based on the acquired service characteristic feature. 6. The computer system of claim 5,
The computer system, wherein the product is a car. A recommendation method executed by a computer system, comprising:
The computer system includes:
At least one computer,
Service usage history information that stores the usage history of services not related to the maintenance of products owned by the customer;
service information that stores data associating a maintenance facility that performs maintenance on the product with the services that are available in the vicinity of the maintenance facility during maintenance of the product at the maintenance facility ;
Hold
The recommendation method includes:
a first step of selecting a recommended maintenance facility to be recommended to the target customer, based on a customer characteristic feature amount calculated based on the service usage history information and indicating a tendency of the service to be used by the target customer, and a maintenance facility characteristic feature amount calculated based on the service information and indicating a tendency of the service available in the vicinity of the maintenance facility during maintenance of the product at the maintenance facility;
A second step of the at least one computer referring to the service information to identify candidate services available in the vicinity of the recommended maintenance site during maintenance of the product at the recommended maintenance site;
a third step of generating recommendation information by the at least one computer, the recommendation information displaying a combination of the recommendation preparation field and the candidate services;
a fourth step in which the at least one computer outputs the recommendation information to the target customer. The recommendation method according to claim 7,
The first step includes:
a step of calculating a score representing a compatibility of the maintenance facility with the customer based on the customer characteristic feature amount and the maintenance facility characteristic feature amount,
and selecting the recommended maintenance site based on the score by the at least one computer. The recommendation method according to claim 8,
the data stored in the service information includes a service characteristic feature calculated based on the content of the service,
The recommendation method includes:
a fifth step in which the at least one computer refers to the service usage history information to identify the service used by the target customer;
a sixth step of acquiring the service characteristic feature from the data corresponding to the specified service by the at least one computer with reference to the service information;
and a seventh step in which the at least one computer calculates the customer characteristic feature based on the acquired service characteristic feature. The recommendation method according to claim 9,
The usage history includes an evaluation score representing an evaluation of the customer who used the service,
The seventh step includes:
a step of correcting the acquired service characteristic feature quantity by the at least one computer using the evaluation score;
and calculating, by the at least one computer, the customer characteristic feature amount based on the corrected service characteristic feature amount. The recommendation method according to claim 9,
the at least one computer selecting a target maintenance site;
The at least one computer refers to the service information and acquires the service characteristic feature amount from the data related to the target maintenance facility;
A recommendation method comprising: a step of calculating, by the at least one computer, the maintenance facility characteristic feature of the target maintenance facility based on the acquired service characteristic feature. The recommendation method according to claim 11,
The recommendation method is characterized in that the product is a car.

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