Corel Delivers Free Lifetime Technical Support To Customers With RightNow®
Goals:
- Provide customers with free lifetime technical support via internet channels
- Optimize profitability of paid support services
- Support customers worldwide in eight languages
Achievements:
- 24/7 service in eight languages with response times of less than 24 hours
- 60 percent reduction in email volume and 40 percent reduction in call volume
- 50 percent of contact center staff re-assigned to higher-value tasks
Great technical support is a key differentiator in the software business. Free lifetime technical support is an even more powerful competitive advantage. And thanks to RightNow, that's exactly what software industry leader Corel is offering its customers worldwide.
In the past, Corel offered purchasers of its popular desktop applications thirty days of free unlimited phone support under their standard warranty. But, in a bold marketing move, the company decided to eliminate the phone as a channel for free technical support—in exchange for providing free lifetime support via its internet channels.
That move turned out to be a win-win for Corel and its customers. Customers now get answers to their questions 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for as long as they own their Corel product, and Corel has gained a marketing advantage over its competitors. The company has also eliminated the high cost of providing free phone support for the first thirty days after purchase.
Reduced Support Workload Allows Corel To Reallocate Staff
RightNow has enabled Corel to offer this free lifetime support without breaking the bank. In fact, thanks to RightNow's award-winning technology, Corel is currently enjoying a 97 percent knowledge base efficiency rate on its website. In other words, only three percent of the customers who go to the site seeking answers submit a question to the Corel contact center via the Ask-a-Question web form.
The remarkable effectiveness of Corel's web based customer relationship management channel has resulted in a 60 percent reduction in email volume and a 40 percent reduction in call volume—with even greater reductions overseas. This, in turn, has allowed Corel to reallocate about half of its contact center staff to revenue-generating activities (including paid phone services) and high-value premium support functions. This has enhanced the financial performance of Corel's customer service organization, while also increasing customer and employee satisfaction.
"Corel wanted to find a better way to serve our customers, while improving the overall efficiency of our support organization," said Corel's director of worldwide support Robert Berndt. "RightNow enables us to achieve these objectives by enabling us to redirect large volumes of standard replies to our online channels, allowing us to devote more time to revenue-related activities."
On Demand Model Eases Global Deployment And Outsourcing
Corel has implemented RightNow in eight languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, and Traditional Chinese-Taiwan. RightNow's fully web based crm solution greatly facilitated Corel's deployment of the solution within its internal contact center and to its outsourcing partners worldwide. And now, because everyone everywhere uses the same knowledge base, the answers customers receive are consistent, accurate and up-to-date regardless of where they are or how they contact the company.
One reason for Corel's success in supporting customers via the internet is the size of its knowledge base, which currently contains over 3,500 documents. Most of these documents already existed in one form or another before Corel implemented RightNow. All Corel had to do was re-organize this content to make it easier for customers to use.
The company is also leveraging RightNow to cross-and up-sell customers by adding links to its online store in appropriate knowledge base Answers.
Robust Features And Integration Improve Corel's Operational Efficiency
Corel selected RightNow after an extensive evaluation of competitive contact center technologies. RightNow was selected based on the sophistication of its knowledge base technology, the integration of that technology with its email management functions, and its value-added features such as SmartAssistant™ (which 'scans' the text of customer emails and automatically suggests possible answers from the knowledge base) and Notify on Change (which allows customers to subscribe to specific answers and automatically receive email notification when those answers are updated). The ability to easily integrate with other enterprise applications was also a factor.
A rollout of Corel's RightNow/Onyx integration in the call center is planned for later this year. This integration will allow agents to see all customer contact in one location, creating greater efficiencies and allowing the agents to better serve the customers.
In addition to his satisfaction with RightNow's technology, Berndt also expresses his appreciation for RightNow's professional staff. "RightNow clearly practices what it preaches when it comes to customer service," he says. "They've been extremely responsive to our needs and have proven to be a real partner in our efforts to optimize both the quality of our customer service and the cost-efficiency of our operations."
Corel Support Site | Corel Homepage
About Corel Corporation
Corel Corporation provides innovative software solutions that help millions of value-conscious businesses and consumers in over 75 countries improve their productivity. The Company is renowned for its powerful software portfolio that combines innovative photo editing and graphics creation, vector-illustration, and technical-graphics applications along with office and personal productivity solutions. Corel's flagship products include the CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, the WordPerfect® Office Suite, the Corel Painter Natural-Media™ painting and illustration software and the Paint Shop™ Family of digital photography and image-editing software. Corel was acquired by San Francisco-based Vector Capital in August 2003, and since that time, has re-established growth for its flagship product lines and achieved multiple consecutive quarters of corporate profitability. Founded in 1985, Corel is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. For more information, please visit http://www.corel.com/.
Greg Gianforte