ADDING THE HUMAN TOUCH TO E-BUSINESS
Lynk White Paper

Call-Me Buttons
A customer browsing the company's Web site can click a "Call-Me" button to initiate a request for callback by a company representative. After clicking the button, the customer is asked to type in personal details, including his or her telephone number and may enter a queue to receive a call from the next available agent. An alternative approach is to enable the customer to schedule a convenient time for the callback.

The appeal of this technology is that it is simple for customers to understand and use and offers global users the advantage of being able to "order" a free call at their convenience. The major disadvantage is that most residential customers use a single telephone line for both telephone calls and Internet connection. Thus, the customer is forced to disconnect their Internet session and wait for the call from the agent. Another issue is that the company must have enough free agents to complete all calls at the time scheduled or risk losing customer faith.

Online Interaction

Online technologies enable companies to roll out new services that target the growing online customer base. Online methods of interaction are particularly appealing because they let customers communicate with the company in real-time, while still browsing the company Web site.

Text Chats
Text chat facilities allow customers to use their keyboard to communicate with a company representative while viewing the company's Web pages. A large number of Internet users are familiar with text chat technology and are comfortable using it. To initiate a chat session, the customer simply clicks a hot link button that opens up the chat window. The customer can type a question and receive a reply practically in real-time. Chat sessions are especially handy when there is a language barrier between the customer and the agent. Chat technology can be blended with Screen Synchronization or Push technology, which enable the agent to see where the customer is on the company Web site, as well as send pages to the customer during the chat session.

While chat is very convenient, it cannot emulate the natural speed and flow of a voice conversation. Typing is always slower than speaking. If the agent is engaged in several chat sessions at once, the response rate is even slower. Moreover, words on a monitor do not carry the intonation, expression and intimacy of the human voice. Therefore, text chat makes it difficult for the agent to "read" the customer and develop a relationship, and it does not provide a good platform for the agent to advise and even up sell.

Another consideration is the real problem of finding qualified workers at reasonable wages who can spell, use good grammar and type quickly.

Web Call-Through
Web call-through is the most advanced Web-based human interaction technology available at the time of this writing. Web call-through allows customers to participate in a real-time voice conversation with an agent through the Internet. It uses IP (Internet Protocol) telephony or Voice over IP technology to enable the agent to speak with the customer using a multimedia PC-while the customer is still connected to the Internet. Typically a "click & talk" button is integrated on the company's Web site, just like the "Call Me" button or chat button. The customer clicks on the click & talk button to place a call from their browser straight through to the service agent's phone (or, as the case may be, to a telephony server or PBX that routes the call to the agent). Customers communicate via a microphone connected to their PC sound card.

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The benefits of Web call-through are impressive. Customers can speak to a company representative instantly, and continue to browse as they speak. When completing transactions using online order forms, E-mail or text chat customers are required to type in sensitive information including their credit card number and personal details. Many customers who are not willing to send such data over the Internet for fear of cyberspace bandits are comfortable providing the data to a customer agent over the telephone.

Web call-through allows customers to enjoy the most personal form of communication short of a face-to-face meeting-a conversation with a real person. Offering customers the human service that they prefer greatly enhances customer satisfaction and sales and help turns current customers into repeat business. Being able to communicate directly with your customer gives you the opportunity to gather valuable firsthand feedback and to be more responsive to your customer. The cost benefits are also impressive. Your company no longer foots the bill for costly 800 service, callback or collect dialling.

The main hurdle is that many people do not have a microphone handy. But since Web call-through and other multimedia technologies are expected to grow in popularity, increasingly people will equip their PCs with microphones or get full multimedia systems when purchasing a new PC.

Web call-through is a particularly compelling solution for business-critical online applications and for companies that are seeking new ways to stay one step ahead in a competitive environment. The following sections explore the technology, applications, and Lynk's unique E-TeleLynk solution.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF WEB CALL-THROUGH

Web call-through can be activated using any kind of tag desired such as a text link, a button or another image file. The first time a customer clicks on the "click & talk" tag on a Web page, a small client file is downloaded to the customer's PC. The client file can be a program (EXE file) that the user must launch each time the Web call-through application is used, or it can be a plug-in that works with the customer's Internet browser. A plug-in is a small software module that extends the functionality of a Web browser. Unfortunately the leading browsers, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, support different plug-in standards (Internet Explorer uses ActiveX controls, for example). The plug-in should accommodate whichever Web browser the customer is using.

The click & talk button "hides" information that is set in advance by the company's Webmaster or network manager and can easily be changed as needed. This information includes the destination telephone number as well as the IP number of the telephony gateway through which the call will be terminated. When the customer clicks the &qot;click & talk" button, Voice over IP (VoIP) technology is employed to transmit voice signals from the customer's PC to the agent's phone and vice versa. A VoIP gateway is needed to seamlessly bridge the gap between the packet switched public Internet and the traditional circuit-switched Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The gateway converts analogue voice to digital voice packets and vice versa and transfers these packets between the Internet data network and telephony network. This makes it possible for customers to surf the Web and conduct voice calls at the same time, without going offline. Some gateways also provide advanced features including least cost routing, authorization/authentication instructions, and billing information.

Before adopting a Web call-through solution, an important consideration is voice quality. Congestion on the Internet is variable and may affect quality of service to the point that speech is incomprehensible. A good Web call-through solution will account for changes in bandwidth and provide cellular telephone call quality or better.

Another concern is security. Web call-through applications are susceptible to a variety of assaults by hackers including attempts to change the program's settings such as the phone number to be dialled when the user clicks the click & talk button. Another example is flooding, a type of attack on a network that is designed to disable the network by flooding it with useless traffic, and in the case of a VoIP network, possibly cause calls to be disconnected. Firewalls can be implemented to protect the gateway from unauthorized access from the Internet. But firewalls do not provide adequate security when using systems based on the ITU's (International Telecommunication Union) H.323 standards, since H.323 uses dynamic ports and requires multiple open ports to enable a VoIP channel.

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