CRM's August '08 Released by RightNow

By David Sims

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

RightNow Technologies (News - Alert) has introduced August '08, the latest version of the company's on demand, customer relationship management (CRM) product.

 

Company officials say the product is for organization to "transform their static Web site support environments into branded, highly interactive online service experiences for customers."

 

With the RightNow customer portal, organizations can "brand and personalize the Web site service experience," using "interactive Web 2.0 information resources," company officials say.

 

The customer portal is part of RightNow Service and includes best practices for online customer self-service, and is designed to support consumers' "increased reliance on digital mediums to make informed buying decisions, with the ability to incorporate Web 2.0 technologies in the form of widgets, video, forums, and blogs."

 

The product also includes a studio development environment to create and manage the online service experience, including integration with Adobe Dreamweaver.

 

There's also something company officials are calling "The Collaboration Key: Co-Browse and Proactive Chat," offering "live, interactive assistance exactly when online consumers need it."

 

Evidently the products' co-browse feature lets consumers securely invite an agent, either on the phone or during an online chat session, to share their desktop and navigate or browse together, whether for resolving a problem, filling out a form, or guiding them through an online purchase.

 

Proactive chat is described by RightNow officials as "a new feature of RightNow chat that presents a chat invitation to a consumer based on specific, definable circumstances, such as being a premier or gold customer or spending a certain amount of time on a site."

 

"With more access to information, more sensitivity to price, and less sensitivity to advertising, customers are getting harder to win and keep. Organizations try to woo these empowered consumers with mediocre experiences – but it won't work. Firms need to dramatically raise the bar on the customer experience they provide," wrote Bruce D. Temkin of Forrester Research (News - Alert) in the January 2007 report "Experience-Based Differentiation."

 

Australia's Virgin Mobile network provider will go live next month with RightNow Technologies' on-demand CRM product to provide customer service.

 

Virgin Mobile (News - Alert) officials say they will use RightNow on all contact center agent desktops to track and manage all incoming calls and e-mails. The product will also provide agents with a single system of record where they can find a history of all previous customer interactions which can then be used to enhance all communications with customers, customer officials said.

 

Virgin Mobile receives more than two million inbound calls each year. The company's marketing and sales operations can cross and up sell to existing customers, and with the new system the company can better track, analyze and act upon customer feedback.

 

"The RightNow product presents a complete feature set that matches our requirements to resolve all customer issues in one contact," said Robert Tihanyi, Director, Customer Care, Virgin Mobile, adding that the multi-channel capabilities that RightNow offers are "especially important to Virgin Mobile as we gear up support to offer the iPhone (News - Alert)."

 

Virgin Mobile Australia launched in 2000 and employs over 600 people across Australia and has over 600,000 customers using either Virgin Mobile or Virgin Broadband.

 

Last month RightNow Technologies announced that Allen E. Snyder joined its board of directors this week. Snyder was appointed to fill a Class II vacancy on the Board of Directors, to serve until RightNow's 2011 annual meeting of stockholders.

 

He also has been appointed to serve on the compensation committee of RightNow's board of directors. Snyder is currently the CEO of Aepona, a leading supplier of telecom service layer products and products to telcos globally.