TriNet Upgrades Internet/Voice Online Customer Service

TriNet Services announced it updated its Internet Voice Button Service, which initiates a voice connection over standard phone lines to a business with the click of a button on a Web site.

The service enables customer service representatives to push Web pages directly to the screens of online users.

The Internet Voice Button, developed by Nortel (Northern Telecom), allows a Web user to notify a company's customer representative that a call has come in. The service then asks if he or she would like to accept the call. When the representative clicks "yes," the service puts the call through and indicates where the caller is on the Web site.

During the call the representative can push URLs directly to the screen of the caller and at the same time allow the caller to push URLs back.

"This service opens a voice dialogue in conjunction with an online dialogue to help a user quickly and effectively, without losing the context and richness of the Web environment," says Frank Taylor, CEO of TriNet Services. "The integration of normal telephony with the Web will have far-reaching results for e-commerce."

In essence, the service gives online users a "help me, I'm stuck" button, the company said. Users can click on the button and talk to a customer representative over a second phone line or a commonly available "Voice-over-IP application" that carries phone calls over the Internet.

For businesses, the Internet Voice Button features the ability to add announcements that are played to customers when calls are received, and ring multiple numbers simultaneously so that anyone in a business group can answer. It informs the business of who is calling and from which Web page. Pricing was not disclosed.

To use Internet Voice Button, consumers need Internet access, a Web browser (Netscape 3.0, Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0, or later editions), a second phone line, or a multimedia personal computer with Voice-over-IP software such as Microsoft NetMeeting.