Welp, what is the real problem here? Shouldn't we ask that? You touch on the problem: the "Internutters" are foreign; the people at the desk have not matriculated through this new "culture" and don't know how to react/interact with them.
Why not? Ask yourself how "visible" the process is to management. They are used to managing what they see, right? Customer on the floor is with Joe Sales Guy -- manager can see that. How do they see the Internutters?
If it was easy for managers to have visibility into the process -- the goings-on of cyberspace -- would it be different?
If you argue "Yes," then you have a clear direction to pursue: make is easy for management to have visibility into the process. You then just have to answer "how."
Now that we know that John is weeks away from enlightening us on this, I would still like to hear from some internet departments that pencil their own deals and how that has helped their departments.