JP5064650B2 - E-mail transmission system - Google Patents

Description

  The invention of the present application relates to communication using a network such as the Internet, and particularly relates to a technique such as transmission of e-mail and confirmation and collection of will by e-mail.

  The spread of computer network technology such as the Internet has a great influence on communication between companies and individuals. In business-to-business (B to B) transactions, computer networks are widely used for ordering and settlement, and are becoming a kind of social infrastructure as a communication method.

  On the other hand, in the business-to-consumer (B to C) transactions, the world of communication through computer networks is expanding as seen in online information transmission such as information transmission on web pages and virtual shopping malls. Recently, an increasing number of interactive (interactive) web pages are available for ordering products on the web page.

  However, in B to C communication, the use of a computer network is still insufficient. For example, many companies send information on web pages, but they are only advertising on TV and newspapers on the network, and it cannot be said that they fully utilize the characteristics and advantages of the network. . In addition, too much information is provided to the information receiving side, and it is very time-consuming to search for information that is really necessary from among them. There are many information search sites, but it takes time to learn the search method, and it takes time to search the search site (to find out which search site is better).

  Furthermore, information transmission from individuals to companies is still not sufficient, and the use of computer networks is still insufficient as a means of grasping customer opinions and needs. In addition, it is often not practical to have a large-scale computer system such as a web server in a private store or a small business in a shopping street. Also, it may be difficult to open a web page at your own place because of inexperience with computers. Even in such a case, it is expected that there are various merits when B to C communication is performed using a computer network. However, a system that enables this is not proposed yet.

On the other hand, as communication using a computer network, there is a web page (HTML file), but electronic mail is more widely used. Communication by e-mail is indispensable because the contents can be sent instantly, the sent contents can be read at any time, and it can be easily saved and replied. It has become. Recently, transmission and reception of e-mails by mobile phones are also widely performed, and the momentum surpasses ordinary telephones as a means of individual-to-person communication.
It is important that e-mail communication is not unilateral but bilateral, but in order to reply to sent mail, enter the contents and select an address. It takes a certain amount of work. Therefore, there is a risk of becoming unilateral.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-63590

  The invention of the present application has been made to solve such a problem, and further facilitates communication by e-mail and applies the communication using e-mail to a business process, so that the customer's will and needs There is technical significance to provide new communication tools that can deal with such things in detail.

[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
To solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 is an electronic mail sending system to send e-mail via the network to the customer member information terminal customer members to operate, enterprise side members operating This is a system that can send e-mails to corporate member information terminals that
Storage means for storing e-mail data to be transmitted;
Transmission means for transmitting an email in which data is stored in the storage means to the customer side member information terminal according to a predetermined protocol,
The data of the e-mail storage means is stored, a specific question contents, and the answer content to the question contents be those to be displayed on the customer member information terminal, customer member information terminal Includes a command statement for transmitting the response content to a response destination computer at a predetermined location on the network when a predetermined operation is performed in
This command statement transmits the response contents without inputting the location of the answer destination computer in the customer side member information terminal, and the customer side member information is in a location different from the e-mail transmission source. The content of the answer is transmitted from the terminal,
The command statement, are described the name of the program for processing the location and the answer contents of the response destination of the computer, the command statement, I der thing to run the program on the response destination of the computer The program has a configuration in which an e-mail including the transmitted response content and the transmitted customer member personal information is automatically generated and transmitted to the company member information terminal .
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention of claim 2 includes the predetermined button in the configuration of claim 1, and the command statement is provided to be executed when the button is clicked. It has a configuration that is.

As will be described below, according to the e-mail transmission system of the present invention , a reply message can be sent by a simple operation because the command message for sending the response content is included in the e-mail to be transmitted. Therefore, bidirectional communication using electronic mail becomes easier and more dense communication can be performed.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described .
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of an invention of an e-mail transmission system, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of e-mail sent by the e-mail transmission system shown in FIG.
The e-mail transmission system of the present embodiment transmits an e-mail to a partner information terminal 3 via a network, and stores a file (hereinafter referred to as an e-mail file) 11 describing data of the e-mail to be transmitted. Storage means, and transmission means for transmitting the electronic mail file 1 stored in the storage means to the other party according to a predetermined protocol.

  The network is the Internet 2 in this embodiment. FIG. 1 shows the simplest embodiment of an electronic mail transmission system. The electronic mail transmission system shown in FIG. 1 can operate as a mail client for the mail server 3 on the Internet 2. Specifically, the e-mail transmission system is configured by a computer 1 including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a hard disk as storage means. The computer 1 is equipped with a TCP / IP protocol and is connected to the Internet 2 via a route control device (not shown) such as a router.

Also, a MUA (Mail User Agent, mailer) 12 is installed in the hard disk as a storage means. The MUA 12 can send an e-mail in the HTML format like Microsoft's OUTLOOK EXPRESS. In addition, the computer has acquired an account from the provider, and the MUA 12 sends an e-mail to the designated SMTP server, whereby the e-mail is transferred to an arbitrary information terminal 3 connected to the Internet 2. It is like that.
The storage means is constituted by a memory such as RAM or ROM, or a hard disk. The transmission means is composed of an MUA, which will be described later, and an interface, modem, or TA (terminal adapter) that conforms to the TCP / IP protocol.

  A major feature of the e-mail transmission system according to the present embodiment is the data content of the e-mail to be transmitted. A major feature of the e-mail transmission system of this embodiment is that the data content of the e-mail to be transmitted always includes a specific question content 41 and an answer content 42 for the question content. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, the question content 41 is for inquiring whether or not a certain contract needs to be updated, and the response content 42 is “yes, no”.

The e-mail data shown in FIG. 2 is described in HTML as described above, and uses a FORM tag. The answer contents 42 are actually processed by a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) program. The FORM command command statement of the FORM tag describes the URL of the WWW server where the CGI program exists and the name of the CGI program.
As can be seen from FIG. 2, the response content 42 is created with radio buttons. Although not shown in FIG. 2, there is a “Send” click button. This button is a Submit button. When this button is clicked, data is passed to the CGI and the CGI program is started.

  As another example, the response content 42 can be transmitted by e-mail. That is, a predetermined e-mail address is described after mailto: as a command statement of FORM ACTION. When the send button is clicked, the data will be sent to that address in the form of an email. However, in i-mode, when mailto: is executed, an e-mail transmission screen is displayed. Click the send button again here.

  In any case, in the e-mail transmission system of this embodiment, the person who receives the e-mail can reply to the e-mail with a very simple operation of selecting the radio button and clicking the send button. In this specification, such electronic mail is named “easy return mail”.

  As described above, the easy return mail includes a reply part in the e-mail to be sent, and can be replyed only by clicking the send button. Usually, it takes time and effort to enter the contents of the reply, select the address, and click the send button. However, according to the easy return mail, it is very easy to select a reply and click the send button. Therefore, bidirectional communication using electronic mail becomes easier and more dense communication can be performed.

  In this embodiment, a destination to which the reply content 42 is returned may be displayed on the information terminal 3. For example, if mailto: is executed when the email address is not displayed, the email creation / sending screen will be displayed. Include a part to display the reply email address in the email. To. Further, when the reply of the response content 42 is processed by the CGI program, the URL of the server where the CGI program is located may be displayed on the information terminal 3 in some cases. This also has the advantage that you can see where your reply is being sent.

Next, an embodiment of the will confirmation method and system invention will be described.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of the will confirmation method and system. The will confirmation system shown in FIG. 3 uses the e-mail transmission system shown in FIG. 1 and is a system for confirming a person's will through the Internet 2.
More specifically, the will confirmation system shown in FIG. 3 includes an e-mail transmission unit 5 that sends an e-mail including a specific question content 41 to the information terminal 3 held by the other party seeking the will via the Internet 2. The receiving unit 6 accepts a reply from the other party to whom the electronic mail has been sent via the Internet 2.

  The e-mail transmission unit 5 can be configured in the same manner as the e-mail transmission system shown in FIG. There are two configurations of the e-mail receiving unit 6 depending on the configuration of the command sentence described above. When the command statement is for executing a CGI program, the receiving unit 6 is a WWW server for executing the CGI program. When the command statement is an email transmission, the receiving unit 6 is a mail client that holds the email address.

  In the example shown in FIG. 3, both configurations are provided. That is, the receiving unit 6 includes a WWW server 61 and a mail client 62. The WWW server 61 is a computer running on a known OS such as UNIX (registered trademark), and has an httpd (hyper text transfer daemon) program 611 and the CGI program 612 described above installed therein.

  As a language for describing the CGI program 612, any language such as “pearl” or “PHP” can be used. The contents of the CGI program 612 are also selected as appropriate so that arbitrary processing is performed. For example, it is possible to describe the sent data in a file in the WWW server 61 together with the personal information of the person who sent it. Specifically, data in the sent form (data of response contents) is taken out, and personal information of the person who sent it is taken out from the environment variable of httpd. The personal information includes the number of the mobile phone that is the information terminal 3 that is the transmission source. Specifically, the environment variable takes out data of “phone number@docomo.ne.jp”, trims it, and takes out the phone number.

  The answer content data and the personal information data extracted in this way are described in a file in the WWW server 61. The WWW server 61 is installed with a program that can open the file and display it on the display, and display it on the display using the program. Alternatively, the client installed with such a program accesses the WWW server 61 and displays the response contents.

  Further, the mail client 62 can employ almost the same configuration as the electronic mail transmission system shown in FIG. The MUA of the mail client 62 corresponds to a protocol for retrieving mail from a mail server such as pop or imap. Note that the e-mail transmission unit 5 and the mail client 62 can be configured by a single computer having an MUA, and in that case, there are more cases. In any case, the mail client 62 accesses a mail server (not shown), retrieves the reply content mail, and displays it on the display.

  With such a display, an answer to the above-described electronic mail can be confirmed. Confirming an answer is synonymous with confirming the will of the person who sent the e-mail. That is, in the above-described example, the will of renewing the contract is confirmed. In the present specification, “will” is a concept that includes, but is not limited to, “will” that accompanies the generation or change of rights and obligations. For example, it may be an opinion on a certain problem.

The configuration of this embodiment uses an easy return mail for confirmation of a person's will. In order to confirm a person's will, some kind of reply is necessary, but when using e-mail, the e-mail is sent to the person seeking the will, and the other person simply reads the e-mail at a spare time and performs a reply operation. It's so simple. Furthermore, according to the easy return mail, it is even easier because a reply can be made simply by selecting a reply and sending a send button. Therefore, confirmation of a person's will can be performed very easily.
In the example shown in FIG. 2, the answer contents 42 are two, yes and no, but this may be one. For example, even if the answer is only yes, it is only necessary to treat that the answer of yes within a predetermined period of time indicates the intention of yes.

Next, embodiments of the invention of the will collection method and system will be described.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a will collection method and system. The will collection system shown in FIG. 4 sends an e-mail containing a specific question content to the information terminal 3 held by the other party seeking the will via the Internet, similar to the will confirmation system shown in FIG. And a receiving unit 6 for receiving a reply from the other party to whom the e-mail is sent via the Internet 2. Since these e-mail transmission unit 5 and reception unit 6 can be configured in the same manner as in the will confirmation system, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

A major feature of the will collection system of the present embodiment is that it has a database unit that stores the response contents and personal information received by the trust unit in a database. The database unit is configured by the database server 7 in the present embodiment.
More specifically, the WWW server 61 and the mail client 62 constituting the receiving unit 6 are connected to the intranet 60. The intranet 60 is connected to the Internet 2 via a route control device 600 such as a firewall or a router. The database server 7 is connected to this intranet 60.
The database server (hereinafter referred to as DBS) 7 includes a database file 71 and a database management system (DBMS) 72 that is a program for managing the database file.

The CGI program 612 takes out the data of the response content 42 sent from the information terminal 3 as described above, and sends it to the DBS 7 together with the personal information of the person who sent it. Further, the e-mail sent to the information terminal 3 is preliminarily assigned with a mail content ID corresponding to the content. The mail content ID is also described in the e-mail sent to the information terminal 3. The mail content ID may be displayed on the information terminal 3, but may not be displayed on the information terminal 3 by specifying INPUT TYPE = “hidden”. The CGI program 612 takes out the mail content ID together with the data of the response content 42 sent, and sends these data to the DBS 7.
When the data is sent, the MBS 7 describes the data in the DBF 71 by the DBMS 72. Accordingly, the DBF 71 is a database that stores the results of who answered what to the electronic mail with which mail content ID. In other words, it is a database that collects the will of multiple people.

  Next, another embodiment of the will collection system will be described. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of another embodiment of the will collection system. This embodiment is a business model using the will collection system shown in FIG. More specifically, this business model is a business model that mediates communication between a company using the Internet 2 and a general customer, and provides a service that can also be called a B to C communication agent.

  The hardware that achieves this business model is configured by computer groups 81, 82, 83, and 84 connected to the intranet 80 via a route control device 800 such as a firewall, as in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the computer groups 81, 82, 83, 84 are a WWW server 81, a mail server 82, a DBS 83, and a management computer 84.

  As in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the WWW server 81 has a CGI program 811 that is executed by a command statement included in an e-mail transmitted to the information terminal 3. In the present embodiment, in addition to this, the WWW server 81 displays on the information terminal 3 a web page for introducing this service (hereinafter referred to as an “introduction page”), a web page for performing membership registration for becoming a member of this service, and the like. It has become a thing.

  There are two types of membership in this service. One is B, that is, a membership on the side of a company that wants to send a product information mail. The other is C, the customer's membership to receive email. Accordingly, the WWW server 81 includes a web page HTML file (hereinafter referred to as a corporate member registration file) 812 for registering a company side member and a web page HTML file (hereinafter referred to as a customer) for registering a customer side member. Side member registration file) 813.

  Further, the DBS 83 includes a DBF (hereinafter referred to as a company-side member DBF) 831 in which company-side members are converted into a database and a DBF (hereinafter referred to as customer-side DBF) 832 in which customer-side members are converted into a database. Further, the WWW server 81 has a CGI program 814 executed with a command statement included in the company-side member registration file 812 and a CGI program 815 executed with a command statement included in the customer-side member registration file 813. ing.

The mail server 82 constitutes an electronic mail transmission unit and a reception unit in this embodiment. Specifically, the mail server 82 is a mail that is a storage means such as an MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) 821 such as sendmail that sends and receives electronic mail to and from the outside, and a hard disk or the like that stores received or transmitted electronic mail. An internal delivery agent 823, such as mail.local, which is a program for delivering an email between the box 822 and the mail within the server, that is, the mail box 822 and the MTA, and an external mail client. An external delivery agent (popd or imapd or the like) 824 which is a program for sending an e-mail in the box 822 is provided.
As in the case of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, it is also possible to configure an e-mail transmission unit and a reception unit with a mail client. However, in this embodiment, the mail server 82 is constructed in consideration of the large number of e-mails sent and received.

  In addition to the above-mentioned company-side member DBF 831 and customer-side member DBF 832, the DBS 83 is a DBF 833 similar to that shown in FIG. 4 or a DBF (hereinafter referred to as a database) of e-mails sent by the customer-side members. , Answer mail DBF) 834.

  The management computer 84 performs management work necessary for implementing this service. The management computer 84 can function as a client for the WWW server 81, the mail server 82, the DBS 83, and the like.

The operation of the system of the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 will be described below.
First, company-side member registration will be described.
The company-side member registration is finally completed by registering a new record in the company-side member DBF 831 of the DBS 83, but this method can be divided into two types. One is to register from the management computer 84 in accordance with an application by mail or FAX. The other is that a company that wishes to register accesses the WWW server 81 and performs online registration.

  In the case of the former, you will be asked to fill out a predetermined form on a form and send it by mail or fax. Then, the operator operates the management computer 84 to register it as a new record in the company member registration DBF 831 of the DBS 83. In the latter case, the person in charge on the company side browses the company-side member registration file 812 with a browser, inputs a predetermined item, and transmits it to the WWW server 81. In the WWW server 81, the CGI program 814 is activated, and the sent data is converted into a predetermined format and passed to the DBS 83. The DBS 83 registers the received data as a new record in the company member registration DBF 831.

Next, customer side member registration will be described.
Customer-side member registration is divided into a case where registration is performed according to a customer list sent from a company-side member and a case where the customer himself accesses the WWW server 81 for registration. In the former case, the operator inputs from the management computer 84 in accordance with the presented customer list. When registered as a customer member, an e-mail is sent as will be described later, so it is preferable to confirm with the corporate member that the customer has been approved in advance.

  In the latter case, a customer member registration file 813 of the WWW server 81 is displayed on his / her information terminal 3 for registration. The customer-side member registration file 813 is displayed on the information terminal 3 linked to the introduction page. The introduction page (or the top page to which it is linked) is registered in a predetermined search engine so as to hit with keywords such as “electronic mail” and “product introduction”.

  When the person who has seen the introduction page wants to register, the user jumps to the customer-side member registration page and inputs a predetermined item. This item includes an e-mail address or Internet-enabled mobile phone number and other personal information (name, occupation, etc.). When input is made and the transmission button is clicked, these data are sent to the WWW server 81 and registered in the customer side member DBF 832 of the DBS 83 via the CGI program 815.

  Note that the customer-side member registration may be input from the management computer 84 even when not using the customer list presented by the company-side member. For example, a company that develops this service advertises with a magazine or the like and requests customer-side membership registration. Then, the customer who responds to the registration informs the operator of the mobile phone number, the e-mail address, and other personal information by telephone or FAX, and the operator performs the customer side member registration based on this.

Next, e-mail transmission will be described.
The e-mail is transmitted based on a request from a corporate member. This request is made by specifying the content of the electronic mail to be sent, that is, the content of the question to be sent and the content of the answer to that, and the other party (customer side member) to which such electronic mail is to be sent. Specifically, this content is transmitted to the operator by telephone or FAX, and the operator operates the management computer 84 to create an e-mail file. The e-mail file is written in HTML as described above, and includes a command sentence for sending response contents.

  In some cases, an e-mail file may be automatically created by input from a corporate member. Specifically, an HTML file for displaying the mail creation page on the information terminal 3 of the person in charge on the company side is provided in the WWW server 81. In this HTML file, a text box for inputting the question contents, a part for selecting the answer contents and display method (radio buttons, check boxes, etc.), a part for inputting the destination e-mail address or mobile phone number, including. It is preferable that a plurality of destinations can be input. In some cases, only the customer's name or a member ID may be input as the destination.

  The WWW server 81 is provided with a CGI program for processing data transmitted from this page. This CGI program automatically creates an e-mail file from the sent data. That is, the contents of the question and the answer are inserted while using the FORM tag, and an HTML-format e-mail file is automatically created by inserting a command for executing the CGI program or a mailto: command.

  CGI may be programmed so that the created e-mail file is automatically sent to the mail server 82, but there is a problem if it is sent without the check of the operator of this service. It is good to provide. Specifically, a DBF that temporarily stores an automatically created electronic mail file is provided in the DBS 83. Then, using the management computer 84, the operator periodically opens the DBF and reads out the newly stored e-mail file. If it is determined that there is no problem, it is sent to the mail server 82 and actually transmitted.

Next, processing of a reply returned from a customer side member will be described.
Responses sent back from customer-side members are immediately communicated as information to company-side members (hereinafter referred to as emergency delivery), and when they are stored for a certain period or in quantities (hereinafter referred to as post-storage delivery). There is. When an e-mail is sent from the mail server 82 to the customer-side member, data for identifying which one or both of the processes is performed is sent together with the contents of the question. When a company member requests to send an e-mail, it specifies which processing is to be performed or both are to be performed. This data is sent to the customer-side member information terminal 3 together with the mail content ID, and is not displayed on the customer-side member information terminal 3 as necessary.

  First, processing using the CGI program 811 will be described. In the case of urgent delivery of an e-mail reply, the CGI program 811 sends the sent data to the management computer 84 as it is. On the display of the management computer 84, there is a frame or window in which data sent from the CGI program 811 is always displayed. The operator confirms on the display that emergency delivery data has been sent from the CGI program 811, and specifies the company member who requested the transmission of the e-mail by searching the DBS 83 or the like. Then, the contents of the response and the name of the customer member who responded are reported to the company member by telephone or FAX.

  As another configuration, the CGI program 811 may be programmed so as to automatically generate FAX data and e-mail and send them to the corporate member. The FAX data and the e-mail include personal information such as the contents of the question sent to the customer side member, the content of the answer to the question, and the name of the customer side member who answered.

  If the sent response is post-storage delivery, the CGI program 811 sends the data to the DBS and stores it in the response DBF 833. This part is the same as the embodiment shown in FIG. However, the reply DBF 833 is a mail content ID that identifies the content of the email sent to the customer side member, the member ID of the company member who requested the transmission of the email, and the personal information (name) of the customer side who made the reply , Address, occupation, etc.) and response data etc. are stored in one record.

Next, a case where the response content is sent by e-mail will be described.
When the reply is urgent delivery, an email (hereinafter referred to as reply mail) for sending the reply is set to mailto: to be sent to the mail address held by the management computer 84. The management computer 84 is configured to accept a connection from the mail server 82, and the mail server 82 sends the received reply mail to the management computer 84 as it is. Alternatively, a message indicating that the reply mail for emergency delivery has arrived at the mail server 82 is sent to the management computer 84. The operator accesses the mail server 82 according to the received reply mail or message, sees the received mail, and informs the company member of the reply by telephone or FAX.

  In this case, it is preferable to transmit the answer to the corporate member by FAX or electronic mail. When communicating an answer by e-mail, the mailto: setting may simply be set to an e-mail address held by a corporate member. In this case, the reply mail may reach the corporate member without going through the mail server 82 of this system. Further, the reply mail received by the management computer 84 may be transferred to the corporate member as it is. At this time, it is preferable to add the contents of the question, the personal information of the customer member who has answered, etc. and transfer it. Also in the case of FAX data, it is preferable to automatically generate FAX data and output it by FAX transmission.

Next, when the answer is delivered after saving, the address of the answer mail is set in the mail box 822 in the mail server 82. The operator periodically accesses the mail server 82 and reads the answer mail. Then, the contents of the read answer mail are sent to the DBS 83 and stored in the answer mail DBF 834.
At this time, the operator accesses the DBS 83 and specifies a company member who has requested transmission of an electronic mail (hereinafter referred to as a question mail) that is a source of the reply mail according to the mail content ID included in the reply mail. Further, the customer side member who sent the reply is also identified from the information of the sender of the reply mail. Then, the mail content ID of the question mail, the member ID of the requested company member, the personal information of the responding customer member, etc. are registered in the reply mail DBF 834 as one record together with the reply mail.
A program for automatically reading the reply mail from the mail server 82 and saving the reply mail together with the mail content ID in the reply mail DBF 834 is created, installed on the management computer 84, and executed. You may make it do.

The data of the answer DBF 833 and the data of the answer mail DBF 834 are read out by an operation from the information terminal 3 of the company member or an operation from the management computer 84. Hereinafter, this point will be described.
When reading from the management computer 84, a certain condition is set, the answer DBF 833 and the answer mail DBF 834 are searched, and the result is printed out by a printer. For example, all the records storing the answers to the question mail transmitted at the request of a specific company member are read and launched. There, the question mail title that expresses the contents of the question mail in one word and the personal information of the customer side member who sent the answer are listed. Such an output list is sent to the corporate member by mail or FAX.

The WWW server 81 is used when operating the information terminal 3 of the company member. That is, the WWW server 81 has a site HTML file (hereinafter referred to as an answer pickup file) 816 for an enterprise member to pick up an answer to a question.
The answer pickup file 816 displays a column for inputting a member ID and password of a company member, a column for inputting an extraction condition for an answer to be picked up, and the like. The extraction condition includes a mail content ID for identifying the question mail that is the source of the answer mail, a question mail title, and the like.

  When the answer pickup file 816 is displayed on the information terminal 3 of the company member, and the data is input and transmitted, the WWW server 81 starts the answer pickup CGI program 817. The CGI program 817 creates an SQL sentence (inquiry sentence) from the sent data and accesses the DBS 83. The DBS 83 searches the answer DBF 833 or the answer mail DBF 834 according to the SQL sentence, reads the corresponding record, and sends it to the CGI program 811. The CGI program 817 converts the sent data into the HTML format and sends it to the information terminal 3 of the accessing company member.

  The configuration of this embodiment is very suitable for developing a business of B to C communication agents using easy return mail. Even if there is no means for sending e-mail to the company member, the company member can send e-mail to the customer simply by making a request to the service operating company by telephone or FAX. And since the reply with respect to the electronic mail is easy to transmit, the probability of replying is high, and the corporate member who is the client can easily and quickly obtain the reply. In addition, since the answers can be received together, it is easy to conduct marketing activities such as customer questionnaires for their products and services.

  It is also possible to limit the customer side members who send e-mails to a specific segment. For example, a company member requests a transmission of an e-mail specifying a transmission destination such as a female in their teens to 20s, and an operator searches the customer side member DBF 832 of the DBS 83 to search for the e-mail of the corresponding customer side member List addresses and mobile phone numbers. Then, an e-mail is sent to the listed customer member. In this way, detailed will confirmation can be performed by segment (age, gender, occupation, region, etc.), which is very useful for marketing and promotion.

In addition, the sent reply can be picked up freely by the company member by setting the extraction condition as described above, which is very effective for marketing and promotion. For example, a large-scale questionnaire is performed using this system, and a detailed analysis of the questionnaire results can be performed by extracting collected answers using extraction conditions such as age and sex.
In addition, in the case of a reply of yes to the e-mail indicating the necessity of contract renewal, there is a thing that the company side member needs to carry out the necessary paperwork after that. You can select and pick up. Therefore, paperwork after will confirmation can be performed very efficiently.

  The configuration of this embodiment can be applied to various industries. For example, the above-described example of contract renewal can be applied to the insurance industry such as non-life insurance. In addition, as a business that needs to confirm the customer's will, there is an industry that makes some reservations. For example, ticket reservations for airplanes and trains, ticket reservations for concerts, reservations for product reservations, and the like.

  Further, since the system of this embodiment takes the style of providing information by e-mail, it is very easy to provide timely and daily information. For example, a daily lunch menu at a restaurant or the like can be provided to customers by e-mail to inquire whether or not to reserve a seat. In this case, the contents of the e-mail sent are different every day. Such promotions are almost impossible due to the high cost of existing media such as flyers. You can create a web page and rewrite it every day, but it's still not very good as a promotion method because it takes a lot of time and you can't think of a customer checking the web page every day. The promotion by the web page is a “waiting attitude” waiting for the customer to come in, but in this system, the e-mail is always sent to the customer and an active attitude is waited for an answer. Therefore, it is extremely excellent as a promotion method.

  The configuration of this embodiment can be used not only for sales of products and services but also for temporary staffing, introduction of workplaces, introduction of job offers, and the like. For example, in the case of a job recruitment introduction business, a job seeker (job seeker) registers his / her ability, desired wage, desired work location, etc. in advance. It is preferable to create and register in advance such as an electronic resume (recorded resume with electronic data). A company seeking a person (recruiter) also registers information such as job type, ability, and wage.

  Information on job offers of job seekers is notified to job seekers via easy return mail. The contents of the e-mail include job offer information such as company information, job type, wage, etc. of the job seeker, and the answer content is “I want to interview” or “I want to know more information”. The response to the e-mail is sent directly to the job seeker. Job seekers may make interviews based on the answers they receive, but they may want to know who the job seeker is, so be sure to be able to refer to the system operator. . When there is an inquiry request, information on job seekers registered in advance (preferably in the form of an electronic resume, etc.) is transmitted to the job seeker.

  In this way, easy return mail can be used for providing information to registered job seekers, responding to job seekers, and inquiring for job seekers. Can introduce human resources. The existing temporary staffing business can also provide the optimal workplace and the optimal human resources as soon as possible, but there is a problem that the cost of the job seeker increases. If this system is used, workplaces and human resources can be introduced in a short time and at a low cost, which may surpass human resource dispatch.

  It is also possible to add a banner advertisement business to this system. Specifically, a banner advertisement is added to the e-mail sent to the customer side member. For example, a banner advertisement of a car repair service company is provided in an e-mail asking whether or not a contract for car insurance is required. Technically, a command is written in Javascript (Java is a registered trademark) or the like so that an advertisement text of the repair service company is displayed when the click button of the banner advertisement is clicked. The displayed advertisement text of the repair service company has the same configuration as the easy return mail. For example, it is assumed that the answer content “yes, no” is displayed for the question content “Can I send a detailed pamphlet?”. This will increase the profitability of this business because it will increase the handling fee for banner advertisements in addition to the fee income for agent services such as sending emails and collecting responses.

  In each of the above-described embodiments, the network is the Internet 2, but the present invention can also be implemented in a network other than the Internet 2 (simple external network, intranet, etc.). The information terminal 3 may be a mobile phone that can receive e-mails, or a personal computer or PDA (Personal Data Assistant) that is connected to a network and can receive e-mails. The language for describing e-mail is not limited to HTML, but may be another language such as XML (Extensible Markup Language).

In the case of a mobile phone, J-sky or EZ-Web may be used in addition to i-mode. Accordingly, there is a case where the configuration conforms to WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), and there is a case where an electronic mail or a web page is described in HDML (Handheld Device Markup Language).
In each embodiment, “e-mail data” means the data of a letter (e-mail) transmitted electronically or recorded, and includes a program called “command sentence”.

It is a figure which shows schematic structure of embodiment of invention of an electronic mail transmission system. It is a figure shown about the example of the email sent by the email transmission system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows schematic structure of embodiment of the will confirmation method and system. It is a figure which shows schematic structure of embodiment of the will collection method and system. It is a figure which shows schematic structure of another embodiment of a will collection system.

Explanation of symbols

11 E-mail file 12 MUA
2 Internet 3 Information terminal 41 Question content 42 Answer content 80 Intranet 81 WWW server 811 CGI program 82 Mail server 83 DBS
84 Administrative computer

Claims (2)

An e-mail transmission system for sending e-mail via a network to a customer-side member information terminal operated by a customer-side member, and a system capable of sending e-mail to a company-side member information terminal operated by a company-side member And
Storage means for storing e-mail data to be transmitted;
Transmission means for transmitting an email in which data is stored in the storage means to the customer side member information terminal according to a predetermined protocol,
The data of the e-mail storage means is stored, a specific question contents, and the answer content to the question contents be those to be displayed on the customer member information terminal, customer member information terminal Includes a command statement for transmitting the response content to a response destination computer at a predetermined location on the network when a predetermined operation is performed in
This command statement transmits the response contents without inputting the location of the answer destination computer in the customer side member information terminal, and the customer side member information is in a location different from the e-mail transmission source. The content of the answer is transmitted from the terminal,
The command statement, are described the name of the program for processing the location and the answer contents of the response destination of the computer, the command statement, I der thing to run the program on the response destination of the computer This program automatically generates an e-mail including the transmitted response contents and the transmitted personal information of the customer-side member and transmits it to the company-side information terminal. system.   2. The e-mail transmission system according to claim 1, further comprising a predetermined button, wherein the command statement is executed when the button is clicked.

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