December 4, 2000

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Internet Telephony On Hold For Web Sites

By Charles Waltner

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o take live Internet customer service to the next level, retailers would like to add some sound to their efforts. Specifically, they want to integrate voice communications with their Web sites so they can talk to users over their PCs, while they're trying to resolve an issue.

Internet telephony technology breaks voice into data packets and transmits them over the Net directly to computers, where users can conduct conversations just as if they were on the phone. Quality sometimes gets choppy, but there's no incremental cost to make or receive the call. And computer users wouldn't need a separate telephone line, so they could stay on the Web site and talk to a customer-service rep simultaneously.

"When companies and customers are set up to conduct Internet telephony, that will be the best of all possible worlds," says Susan Knight, VP of customer care at Eddie Bauer Inc.

Vendors have been dangling Internet telephony products and services in front of eager E-merchants for a couple of years, but few have actually bought into the technology.

What's the holdup? Many consumers don't have speakers or microphones wired to their computers, although most new PCs come with such hardware, says Barrett Ladd, an analyst with market research firm Gomez Inc. Plus, most click-to-talk communications require the site visitor to download a small application--yet another barrier to adoption. User bandwidth constraints and general unfamiliarity with Internet telephony also are hindering acceptance, says Brian Tuller, senior VP of marketing for Brightware Inc. Those hurdles lead experts to predict that Internet telephony is still 12 to 18 months away from widespread adoption among Web retailers.

The impediments to Internet telephony haven't stopped some vendors from pushing the technology. Application service provider WebTelecom Inc. promises to deliver live chat, voice, and video to customers of Web sites enabled with its software for $75 a month per customer-service agent. Site visitors must install free Microsoft NetMeeting 3.01 software on their computers to use the voice or video communications.

The WebTelecom service has only been on the market since August, but it's starting to recruit customers. I-Legions Inc., a Las Vegas ASP that provides private-branded applications, has added WebTelecom's Live Contact Service suite to its product lineup.

So far, WebTelecom's technology has worked well in i-Legions tests, says Vito Sgaraglino, president of i-Legions. Voice quality was good on any connection from 56 Kbps and above. Test calls to the Philippines sounded fine, Sgaraglino says. His company also has tested the viability of the video option of WebTelecom's applications, which Sgaraglino says worked well with connections as low as 56 Kbps.

"The quality is to the point where it's not irritating to you," he says. Sgaraglino views it mainly as a way to let customers see "a friendly face" when calling a Web merchant. But so far, none of i-Legion's customers is using the voice or video tools.

It could be awhile before voice, let alone live video, becomes a viable option for customer communications with Web sites. But like text chat, its day will come, claim experts. Says Ladd: "Maybe voice over IP will be the next holiday phenomenon."

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