[November 14, 2000]

RightNow Technologies Upgrades Its Web Customer Service Solution

RightNow Technologies announced RightNow Web 4.0, the next generation of the company's Web customer service solution. RightNow Web 4.0 has been dramatically enhanced with unique new customer feedback tools, a new user interface, advanced search capabilities, and an array of new system management and report functionality.

"A complete Web customer service solution should include self-service, e-mail management, live chat, dynamic knowledge management, backend workflow management features and an effective customer feedback loop," said Kirsten Cloninger, e-commerce industry analyst with Cahners In-Stat Group, a leading industry research firm based in Scottsdale, Ariz. "RightNow Web 4.0 delivers this and more. The system's depth of functionality, rapid implementation and ease-of-use has established RightNow as a front-runner in the Web customer service space."

"The launch of RightNow Web 4.0 solidifies RightNow's leadership position in the Web customer service space," said Greg Gianforte, founder and CEO of RightNow Technologies. "The product represents the next step in Web customer service. By combining the essential elements of online support, with a closed loop customer feedback tool and enhanced system management features, we believe RightNow Web 4.0 has raised the bar with a Web customer support solution that will deliver increased customer satisfaction and loyalty."

RightNow Web 4.0 builds upon RightNow's patent pending customer-driven dynamic knowledge base technology. The product enables companies to dramatically improve the quality and responsiveness of their Web customer service, while at the same time helping to reduce support expenses. RightNow Web's technology allows businesses to quickly implement a complete Web customer service solution that is proven to provide rapid return on investment (ROI).

"With RightNow Web, our customers can use the Web to instantly access the most frequently asked for information on our hundreds of thousands of automotive-related parts with the click of a mouse," said Larry Shimel, Internet content strategist for Dana Corporation, a $13 billion parts supplier to vehicle manufacturers. "Web requests for personal assistance are becoming rare because of the product's ability to help customers help themselves. By limiting the handling of repetitious questions, we have improved our response to the really important, one-of-a-kind requests that help our customers the most."

"Providing exceptional customer service is important to every Dana person," added Mr. Shimel. "RightNow Web's low cost of ownership, quick implementation, ease-of-use and ability to scale has enabled us to achieve a return on our investment sooner than we expected. We look forward to version 4.0's new enhancements, as they will further increase the product's effectiveness for both our customers and our Web support team."

RightNow Web 4.0 introduces a new tabbed user interface to make finding information faster than ever for online visitors. When customers visit a company's support site, they are directed to a Support Home page which provides a fast and easy overview of services available on the support site. Customers can also create a personal portal page, called "My Info," where they can establish a personal profile and view and update questions they have submitted.

RightNow has enhanced the customer self-service features through the use of powerful new search technologies. The new search capabilities build upon RightNow's patent-pending technology and enable customers to find relevant and accurate responses to their questions faster and more easily than ever before. For example, customers can conduct narrow searches using exact phrases, or they can conduct broad searches using wild cards or synonym searches.

In conjunction with the launch of RightNow Web 4.0, the company also announced that new customers will receive the RightNow Metrics 3.0 customer feedback tool bundled with RightNow Web.

RightNow Metrics allows companies to reach out to their customers by automatically launching surveys following customer interactions. The feedback surveys, which can be launched via e-mail or through a company's Web site, collect and capture customer feedback so companies can cultivate customer loyalty, improve service, and quickly identify potential problems or selling opportunities.

RightNow Web 4.0 dramatically improves customer response flexibility with its SmartAssistant technology. SmartAssistant enables companies to leverage knowledge across their Web site by creating context sensitive help buttons that can be placed on any page within a site. SmartAssistant also helps companies proactively recommend solutions to customers by automatically suggesting related answers during searches or in response to a customer e-mail. To improve service quality, SmartAssistant provides customer support representatives (CSRs) with suggested responses to customer inquiries. CSRs can then customize the response or send an information link to the customer.

Several new features added to RightNow Web 4.0 are designed to improve the productivity of Web customer service representatives and their supervisors. For example, RightNow Web 4.0's enhanced reporting and analysis functionality enable support professionals to gain improved insight into customer issues, system use and staff performance.

The system offers support managers 14 system-generated reports and provides the ability to create custom reports, including graphical reports. In addition, new dynamic drill down capabilities enhance reporting with real time decision analysis.

RightNow Web 4.0 improves integration support for companies who want to integrate the product's functionality with other CRM, sales force automation, call center or help desk environments. RightNow Web's integration options include real time database integration, event driven data transfer which utilizes the product's open application programming interface (API), and batch data transport with import and export support.

RightNow Web 4.0 is now available. RightNow Web supports SQL databases such as Oracle8 and Oracle8i, Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL, and server operating systems such as Windows NT, Linux and Sun Solaris.

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