Hosts Reach Customers With VoIP

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Hosts Reach Customers With VoIP
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Rawlson O’Neil King, theWHIR.com
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July 8, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY
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REVIEW) — A new voice over IP application can enable Web hosts to
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provide quick responses and efficient service to both current and
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prospective customers.
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Budget Minutes (budgetminutes.com),
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an Internet telephony solution provider, has introduced a new service
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that allows online buyers to obtain instantaneous access to a hosting
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firm’s support or sales staff through the Web.
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The online telecom is marketing a “click
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to talk” application, which it bills as an “express lane to live
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interaction.” The application works by inserting a button onto the
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hosting company’s Web site. When online customers want assistance, they
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simply click the button and enter their telephone number. The
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application then connects the customer by phone to the Web host’s sales
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staff or support team.
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Budget Minutes claims to provide this
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enhanced communication feature to Web site owners at a fraction of the
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cost of regular toll-free telephone service.
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“In terms of cost our product is very
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economically priced,” states Paul Arun Singh, Budget Minutes’
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president. “Our product is also more competitive because, unlike
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toll-free service, it provides a log if your calls are not attended.
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Telephone numbers are therefore recorded in the call log not unlike
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call display.”
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The company offers a basic plan, which
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forwards calls from Canada and the US for only five cents a minute.
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Budget Minutes also offers a premium service that will forward calls
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from anywhere on the globe for 4.5 cents per minute. The company
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leverages VoIP technologies to forward the call request to the hosting
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firm call center for follow-up.
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“We understand that consumers are looking
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for more interactive Web sites and want immediate answers to their
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questions,” says Singh. “Our application provides immediate answer
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capabilities which increases the value of the site. We developed an
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application on the ASP model, so that all the firm needs to do is
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insert a hosted link into their Web page.”
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That hosted link uses VoIP technologies to automatically dispatch the call through to a physical or mobile telephone line.
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VoIP uses standard Internet Protocol to
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convert an analog voice signal into data packets, pass them over a data
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network and assemble the packets into audible signals on the other end
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to complete a call.
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The technology has caught on with large
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enterprises, as it can offer significant cost savings by allowing
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enterprises to avoid the long distance charges that come with standard
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telephone calls. This is especially true with the large number of calls
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that many companies make between their own branch offices. These calls
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can now be routed along standard computer networks with other
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communications. VoIP can also result in more sophisticated telephone
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systems that are far cheaper and easier to manage than traditional
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telephone systems. As a result, VoIP has mainly been used for large
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business applications rather than by small- or medium-sized businesses.
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Budget Minutes is attempting to bridge the gap by providing voice and
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telecommunication-driven services to both SMEs and large enterprises.
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The firm also offers more complex services such as business
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teleconferencing.
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One of the pioneers of Internet voice service solutions, Net2Phone (net2phone.com),
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has long offered broadband telephony to large enterprise. Back in 1999,
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that firm also struck deals with hosting providers to allow their Web
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sites to accommodate voice-driven communications.
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The company then offered a service called
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Click2CallMe, which allowed Web surfers to initiate a call with a
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hosting firm call center and designate a time for a call back.
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Net2Phone also offered another service called Click2Talk, which allowed
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users to speak through their multimedia computers to sales and/or
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customer service representatives via the Internet. Click2Talk offered
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Web users a live phone connection without the inconvenience of having
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to log off the Internet to place a call when dial-up connections
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pre-dominated.
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With 89 percent of computer users in 1999
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worrying about transactional security,according to a Dell/Louis Harris
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& Associates poll, Click2Talk enabled users to speak to a “live”
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human representative, resolving security fears and adding a human
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element to Web site transactions.
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These tools are powerful examples of how
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VoIP applications can assist larger business operations. Such
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technology has been in place for businesses for a long time. However,
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VoIP is now posed to make in-roads in the residential marketplace, and
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with small-to-mid sized businesses, due to the wide propagation of
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broadband Internet throughout North America.
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