As most of you, we work through an annual business planning cycle to arrive at our specific goals for the following (now current year). Having just released our year-end results for 2008, I thought I would share our key themes for 2009:
1. Take Care of our Customers
This is #1 and probably high with many of you as well. Most of our business each quarter is with existing customers. If we don’t take great care of our existing customers this follow-on opportunity just dries up. Plus, if we don’t model fantastic Customer Experience how can we expect anybody to come to us for advice?
So, most of our investment for 2009 is going into customer care related initiatives.
How will we measure our CE improvements? Primarily with NetPromoter scores. We have automated customer feedback across all departments and channels that touch our customers. This Voice of Customer (VOC) system solicits feedback following each meaningful customer interaction whether it is sales, marketing, technical support, hosting or professional services. Escalations and proactive intervention are now automatic whenever we miss the mark. Plus our exec team reviews departmental scores, trends and action plans quarterly.
2. Expand Profitability
We did over $140M in revenue during 2008 which was 25% growth over 2007. At this level of revenue and in the current economic environment, we need to be profitable. We have made great progress on bottom line margins in the past two years and in Q4 we returned to GAAP profitability; this was a huge milestone for us. We plan to further expand these margins during 2009.
No one can know exactly what the year holds, however, we gave guidance during our Q1 earnings call that we expect to grow recurring revenue an additional 15% this year.
What are you planning at your company?
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
Greg’s blog contains forward-looking statements that are based on RightNow’s current expectations, estimates and projections about the industry in which RightNow operates, management’s beliefs, and certain assumptions made by RightNow, all of which are subject to change. The risks and uncertainties referred to above include, but are not limited to, risks associated with general economic conditions; RightNow’s business model; RightNow’s ability to develop or acquire, and gain market acceptance for, new products in a cost-effective and timely manner; the gain or loss of key customers; competitive pressures; RightNow’s ability to expand or contract operations; fluctuations in RightNow’s earnings as a result of the impact of stock-based compensation expense; interruptions or delays in RightNow’s hosting operations; breaches of security measures; RightNow’s ability to protect its intellectual property from infringement, and to avoid infringing on the intellectual property rights of third parties; RightNow’s ability to manage and expand its partner relationships; any unanticipated ambiguities in fair value accounting standards; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange; the amount and timing of any stock repurchases under its stock repurchase program; and RightNow’s ability to expand, retain and motivate its employees. Further information on potential factors that could affect RightNow’s financial results is included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports of Form 10-Q, and in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of the date they are made. RightNow undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.
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