You happen upon a set of Wusthof kitchen knives on eBay and want to know if the set includes the 8-inch Chef's knife or the 10-inch knife? You could use the "Ask the Seller a Question" feature, but wouldn't it be neat if you could ask a seller a question about an item in real time? By phone? With the click of a button?

Well now you can with a new service called ThinkingVOICE (http://www.thinkingvoice.com). ThinkingVOICE enables buyers and sellers to easily contact each other via phone with the click of a button to enhance the online shopping experience.

One of the "perks" of publishing an online newsletter about auctions is that occasionally I get a chance to try out a new product before it hits the market. Several months ago, I was contacted by ThinkingVOICE CEO, DC Cullinane, and given a tour of the service while it was still in stealth mode and I have to say, the concept and the execution of the service impressed me.

Here's how it works. A ThinkingVOICE "Click-To-Call" button can be added to an online auction listing or listing on your own eCommerce site. If a customer has a question about an item, they can click on the "Click-To-Call" button and a pop-up Tele-Form appears. The customer can initiate a call and ask a text question within the Tele-Form.

When the customer submits the Tele-Form inside an auction description or on a product page, the information is instantly sent to the seller. The seller receives a Screen Pop-Up on their computer, notifying them that a customer has a question about one of their products. The pop-up message can include product details, the Web page the buyer was browsing, price of the product, and the customer's questions. This information can significantly cut down the amount of time necessary for the customer service, since the Seller will have this information before ever taking the call.

When the seller clicks to accept the call, ThinkingVOICE rings both parties' phones, and they are connected. It's as easy as that. If the call doesn't go through, the caller can leave a text message that the seller will see the next time they check their email.

For sellers who are hesitant to put their phone number on the Internet, there is no public display of your phone number. This is a good thing, since sellers may want to turn off the service and not have people still calling them when they're trying to sleep.

You don't have to worry about missing calls, though. ThinkingVOICE keeps a log of calls that were placed, and you can return them at your convenience.

ThinkingVOICE isn't limited to eBay auctions. You can embed a "Click-To-Call" in your emails. You can create online business cards with a "Click-to-Call" button or have a "Live Help" button on your Web Site. It can even be used in a Google Adword Ad . (If you buy a Google Adword, you can have it link to a tele-form instead of a Web site and contact the advertiser via ThinkingVOICE.)

Here's a page on the ThinkingVOICE site that shows the different implementations of the service: http://thinkingvoice.com/tv_marketplaceService.html. There is no set up fee, and the monthly service is $4.95 plus usage (10 cents/minute for calls placed in the continental U.S.).

You don't have to take my word for it - you can try it out for free. ThinkingVOICE is officially launching their marketing today, and as an introductory offer to AuctionBytes readers, ThinkingVOICE will let you try 50 minutes or 60 days (whichever comes first) of their service free. There is no obligation if you decide that you do not want to continue the service.

To register, go to https://thinkingvoice.com/signup/signup.aspx, the service will be active later today.

I'd love to hear some feedback from users who try it out, send me your comments at dsteiner@auctionbytes.com