Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

CRM From RightNow Updated to May '08 Version

May 27, 2008

CRM vendor RightNow Technologies, the pride of Bozeman, Montana, has introduced RightNow May '08, the latest version of its enterprise-class, on demand customer relationship management (CRM) product.

 
With new online chat capabilities, RightNow is offering what company officials characterize as "complete enterprise feedback management capabilities that cover customer contact points including phone, e-mail and Web, across service, marketing and sales operations."
 
RightNow May '08 also has multi-channel capabilities to capture the voice of the customer.
 
Customer feedback comes from satisfaction surveys conducted over the phone, via e-mail, on the Web and now with online chat. The product then gathers and unifies customer opinions and feedback. It can trigger a survey after an online chat interaction with a service agent, and feedback can be gathered from anonymous online consumers, such as someone who recently abandoned a shopping cart.
 
The product compiles results for trend analysis, and individual responses are included within customer profiles to enable future, more personalized service.
 
In its February '08 release, RightNow added topic monitoring capabilities that automate the review of customer sentiment by grouping or clustering common topics within unstructured text responses.
 
Last August, RightNow added emotion detection features to gauge customers' opinions by applying an emotional rating to text-based customer communications.
 
Jim Davies, Research Director, CRM for Gartner, has said that "as customers are increasingly looking to engage with companies via multiple channels, vendors will need to respond by embedding multi-channel functionality into their products to support a
comprehensive feedback strategy."
 
In April, according to company officials, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign had adopted using RightNow Technologies' CRM.

The Illinois senator's campaign is using a RightNow e-mail response system for people with questions about the campaign, said Colin Jones, senior account executive at RightNow.

The Bozeman (Mont.) Daily Chronicle says the e-mail system helps the campaign respond to questions about how to volunteer and where Obama stands on issues, among other things, citing information provided by Jones.

"The system, developed in February 2007, just before Obama officially announced his run for the White House, also allows the campaign to 'monitor trends in requests, such as location, requesting organizations, outcomes, etc.,'" the Daily Chronicle reported, quoting blogger Bill Ives.

Obama is the only candidate using any sort of CRM technology, according to industry magazine CRMBuyer. "There are other (CRM) products being used by other candidates," Colin told the Daily Chronicle, but "those candidates have dropped out."
 
 
David Sims is a contributing editor for ContactCenterSolutions. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
 
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