Fellowes Satisfies Customers’ Internet-based Service Demands With RightNow
Goals
- Respond to growing use of the internet by consumers and business customers
- Support brand identity with excellent customer service
- Keep costs under control
Achievements
- Responsive, effective service via the web and email
- 90 percent reduction in email volume and approximately 67 percent reduction in remaining email response times
- Flat headcount and phone volume despite growing business volume
- No additional IT costs or workloads
You don't survive and thrive over nearly a century without responding to your customers' changing needs. So as global office products leader Fellowes found more and more of its customers using the internet for service, it had to respond. And, as so many other companies around the world have done, it made RightNow the foundation of that response.
As a result, Fellowes is now fully leveraging the internet as a channel for providing the excellent service customers expect from such a well-established and historic brand. Just as important, it is doing so in a very cost-efficient way.
That's because RightNow enables Fellowes to answers customers' questions online in a highly automated way. This, in turn, allows the company to keep its payroll costs down even as both its business and its customers' use of the internet grow.
"If you keep throwing bodies at your internet volume, you're just going to see your costs go up and up over time," declares John Purcell, Fellowes' senior manager of customer relations. "With RightNow, on the other hand, you're letting technology carry the brunt of the load—so you can provide highly responsive service without having to hire more staff."
Purcell points to the 90 percent reduction in Fellowes' email volume as a particularly dramatic example of how RightNow has helped the company get its internet channel under control. Prior to deploying RightNow's on demand CRM software system, Fellowes was receiving an average of 450 emails per day. On a busy Monday morning, that number might be as high as 700.
Once RightNow's on demand CRM software system was up and running, things really changed. Customers coming to the Fellowes website were able to find their own answers in the company's RightNow-powered knowledge base without personal assistance. Email volume dropped to about 40 per day, taking a huge burden off contact center staff. In addition to allowing Purcell to avoid additional hiring, this reduced volume also enabled his staff to respond more quickly to the remaining questions. So the company can now respond to all email inquiries within 24 hours instead of three or four days.
Purcell points out that this level of service is critical for the continued growth of the business. "There is a whole new generation of customers who greatly prefer to use the internet as their primary communication channel," he explains. "By meeting their internet service needs, we are helping to secure Fellowes' market leadership."
Purcell is a strong proponent of RightNow's on demand delivery model. "Hosting is a big plus for us, because it means we don't have to devote any internal resources to the support and maintenance of the technology," he explains. "That further increases the total return on investment we are realizing with RightNow."
Purcell also gives RightNow high marks for its own performance. "RightNow is an extremely responsive business partner that has consistently fulfilled our needs," he says. "I would highly recommend the company and its solutions to any customer service manager who wants to satisfy both the growing internet market and their CFO."
Fellowes Manufacturing Support Site | Fellowes Manufacturing Homepage
About Fellowes Manufacturing
Founded in 1917, Fellowes develops and markets a broad range of popular products including business machines, media labeling and storage, desktop and office essentials, and mobile accessories. The company also markets products under a variety of other brands, including Bankers Box, Body Glove and Neato. With 1,500 employees worldwide, Fellowes owns and operates subsidiaries in Australia, Holland, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Poland, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Greg Gianforte