Customer Service Software White Paper Library
RightNow is pleased to offer the following white papers for your educational and research needs.
Zero
Contact Resolution
Steve Daines, Vice President of Customer Delivery, RightNow Technologies
This white paper explains the forces that are making Zero Contact Resolution(ZCR) a business imperative for companies seeking to survive and thrive under current market conditions. It also offers concrete, practical examples of how to achieve ZCR—as well as how to improve true first contact resolution(FCR) and second contact resolution(SCR).
Governing
in a Time of War:
Five Ways to Improve Constituent Services on a Tight Budget
Chris Sortzi, Vice President of Public Sector, RightNow
Technologies
This Public Sector Brief summarizes five key best practices that are proving to be effective as agencies struggle to do more with less. By adapting these best practices to your agency's particular situation, you can significantly reduce costs while quantifiably improving service levels across all communication channels.
Merging Tactical and Strategic Information to Perfect the Customer
Interaction Experience
Ken Landoline, Senior Analyst, Yankee Group
This whitepaper distills the advantages of an intelligent contact center or multichannel customer service environment built around a unified, seamless customer data model.
This white paper provides a simple introductory guide to speech recognition solutions and enables readers to learn about the technology, understand the business benefits, gain visibility into market trends, learn the various components of speech solutions, and differentiate between numerous vendor products and offerings.
Great
Expectations:
Self-Service Success Can Happen
Yankee Group
With continued demand for self-service capabilities, companies need to evaluate newer technologies to meet the needs of sophisticated customers. The ultimate goal of selfservice is to enhance the customer experience by delivering immediate relevant information, facilitating a much quicker, better experience for customers. Read more...
Customer-Focused
Self-Service:
Building the Balanced Business Case
Peppers & Rogers Group
Whether it's over the Web, email, at a kiosk, or on the telephone, countless customers are engaging in self-service. In the process, they're helping companies to save millions by deflecting service interactions to cheaper channels. At many organizations, the cost-savings alone have made the investment in self-service worthwhile. But going forward, the self-service business case won't be built on cost-savings alone. There is a bigger, more customer-focused picture to consider, where the customer experience also plays a key role.
Voice Self-Service Leverages the Knowledge Base to Improve Customer Interactions
Art Schoeller, Yankee Group Research
The benefits of deploying voice self-service (VSS) are undeniably attractive to enterprises. ROI is easily recognized with the improved speed, convenience and consistency of information to consumers and the decrease in operating costs because of the reduced utilization of live agents.
Turning Customer Experiences
Into Competitive Edge:
Nikon's Journey to Leadership
Peppers & Rogers Group
Drawing from the real-world savvy of Nikon, the thought leadership of Peppers & Rogers Group and the technology expertise of RightNow Technologies, this white paper is a guide for improving the customer experience. It discusses why managing the customer experience remains the best path to differentiation and maintaining a competitive edge. Following a deep look at Nikon's s journey, the paper wraps up with five best practices for improving the customer experience.
The
Killer App for On Demand CRM:
Multi-Channel Customer Service
Allen Bonde Group
In this white paper, you'll learn why combining the power of an integrated knowledge base and true multi-channel service with the software-as-a-service delivery model creates a potential perfect storm of benefits for both the business and the user — and offers the first real killer app for on demand CRM.
Driving Differentiation and Profitability
with On Demand Software:
A White Paper for Contact Center Outsourcers
Dean Brown, VP Channels, RightNow Technologies
Lowell Knighton, President, Solid Ground Technologies
This white paper describes how outsourcers can apply technology to drive differentiation and profitability. It also explains how to best acquire that technology. By incorporating these technology acquisition principles into their business strategies, outsourcers can successfully move up-market into customer care solutions and avoid the unhappy fate awaiting those that remain in commoditized, low-margin call center services.
Driving
the Brand Experience Through Great Online Service:
Ten Secrets for Delighting Customers and Reducing Costs
Greg Gianforte, CEO and Founder, RightNow Technologies
In the retail world, competing on product or price is a thing of the past, leaving the customer experience as the only sustainable brand differentiator. Customer satisfaction is the primary driver of success. Measured as a group, businesses that consistently rate high in customer satisfaction also consistently outperform other businesses financially. Why? Because adding value to your customers' experience builds loyalty, and is one of the best ways to overcome competitors that rely solely on price.
How
to Produce Great Customer Service in the Financial Services
Industry:
Ten Secrets for Delighting Customers and Reducing Costs
Greg Gianforte, CEO and Founder, RightNow Technologies
With increased competition due to consolidation and razor-thin profit margins, it has become particularly important for financial services companies to deliver great customer service as a market differentiator. Superior service is the key to keeping customers close, but in today's reality of increased emphasis on cost management, how can you provide the quality service your customers demand while keeping costs low?
Tame
the Two-Headed Monster:
Cost Efficiency and Revenue in Customer Service
Peppers & Rogers Group
Best-in-class customer service organizations view cost efficiency and revenue as allies, not enemies. Success requires an incremental strategy that starts with efficiency but steadily incorporates revenue-driving activities enabled by technology, improved processes and cultural change. Helping decision makers understand this transition is the focus of this paper. Learn why customer service is fast becoming a vital strategic asset and five best practices for achieving higher cost efficiency and revenue in service.
The
Insider's Guide to Self-Service Knowledge Retrieval Technology
Doug Warner, Head of Applied Research, RightNow Technologies
The benefits of effective self-service are well known: cost savings, higher service levels, happier customers. But the ramifications of poor self-service can be significant. Failure or difficulty in finding information can result in increased user frustration and ultimately attrition. Someone who doesn't find quality online self-service with one company will likely look elsewhere and an existing or potential customer will be lost.
Poor self-service can and does take many forms including: hard-to-use, non-intuitive interfaces; search engines that return reams of irrelevant information or nothing at all; outdated knowledgebase content; lack of escalation to assisted support.
This paper discusses various technologies available today for the retrieval and presentation of online information for the purpose of self-service, and highlights RightNow's unique and award-winning approach. Specifically, the paper delves into RightNow's various innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies that are the basis of this information quest, the implications for AI in this area, and how we expect to expand this approach into additional areas.
Proactive
Service:
The Next-Generation Contact Center
The Aberdeen Group
Growing revenue is no longer simply about finding new prospects and customers, nor is it solely the domain of sales and marketing. In today's highly competitive marketplace, companies must focus resources on retaining their existing customer base, and also on expanding both share of mind and wallet. While the desire to derive growth from existing customers — and customer service operations — is present in almost all companies, relatively few have mastered the skills necessary to retain, cross-sell, and up-sell existing customers — to use customer service as a proactive driver of growth.
Four
Great Revenue Strategies for Customer Service
Greg Gianforte, CEO & Founder, RightNow Technologies
Your customer service department represents a tremendous untapped source of revenue opportunities for your company. This paper outlines four such revenue strategies: aggressive mining of customer service data, context-sensitive online promotions, real-time lead generation and referral and real-time transactions.
The
Loyalty Connection:
Secrets to Customer Retention and Increased Profits
Bob Thompson, CEO, CustomerThink Corporation and Founder,
CRMGuru.com
Do you know how to stop customer churn? Although most business leaders say they are devoted to loyalty, their management systems and budgets don't back that up, according to new CRMGuru.com research. Yet, loyalty experts agree that it is more cost-effective to retain customers than to acquire them. In this white paper you will learn how customer retention can help you grow your business.
For government agencies it has become critical to manage all communication channels in a more integrated way. The impact of the integrated approach is substantial. In this paper you will learn how cross-channel contact centers enable agencies to provide more responsive service, support more programs, and deliver consistently accurate information - within existing resource constraints. Learn the five reasons why every agency needs a multi-channel contact center strategy.
Proactive
Customer Service:
Seizing the Initiative to Exceed Customer Expectations, Cut Costs and
Out-Service the Competition
Greg Gianforte, CEO & Founder, RightNow Technologies
While most customer service organizations (CSOs) have traditionally operated almost exclusively in reactive mode—responding to customer queries as they arrive—it is also possible to address customer service issues proactively. With a simple shift in thinking and the appropriate enabling technology, CSOs can seize the initiative and become highly proactive in their communications and problem solving. This paper describes the mechanisms and techniques companies are using to deliver proactive customer service.
From
Call Center to Contact Center:
How to Successfully Blend Phone, Email, Web and Chat to Deliver Great
Service and Slash Costs
Greg Gianforte, CEO & Founder, RightNow Technologies
Giga Information Group recently declared: "It is essential that companies communicate across organizational boundaries to develop a plan for supporting their customers across channels with intelligence information that recognizes individual customers and offers consistent levels of support." This white paper distills how easy it is transition from call center to complete contact center using one integrated knowledge base.
Your Guide to Integrating RightNow Service™ with Other Enterprise Applications
RightNow Service is a flexible and multi-functional system that can be easily integrated with common enterprise applications. The specific applications and processes outlined in this white paper are examples of specific business processes that can be achieved and completed through integration. Typical methods include using the HTTP post method to transfer XML information from one application to another. These methods are adopted by vendors of many different applications to ensure the ease of application integrations.
Delivering UK Public Sector eService
As eGovernment targets move closer they look increasingly challenging: despite the proliferation of technology and usability of web sites to convey council information, citizens persist in face-to-face and telephone contact. This white paper outlines the role an intelligent, self-learning information source plays in supporting call center staff, delivering online access to information and services and improving the perceived value of the organization. By creating this information source that supports all citizen interactions, councils can begin to attain a return on investment from eGovernment initiatives without being dependent upon high levels of Internet adoption within the community.
This white paper distills the experience and best practices of successful customer service offerings from a wide range of industries. It also provides a simple test you can use to determine your company's "Service Quotient." With this information, you'll be able to plan and implement your own web-based customer service strategy, and then join the ranks of successful companies who consistently delight customers by giving them the power to find their own answers.
Communicating
with Constituents:
Proven High-ROI Technology for Government Agencies
The bottom line is that government agencies must improve and streamline their communication with constituents in order to meet service-level objectives within increasingly tight budget constraints. Service technologies have already proven themselves to be extraordinarily effective in addressing this growing challenge. This white paper describes this technology and its benefits. It also includes real-world examples of agencies that have seen substantial improvements in the quality and efficiency of communications with their constituents.
The right knowledge base technology properly implemented can significantly impact communications with students, the quality of campus life and the operational efficiency of multiple departments. Prospective students, current students and internal constituencies all need a reliable, centralized source of information they can access whenever they need an answer to a question. University staffs need a way to get out from under the relentless deluge of questions they receive every day. Knowledge base technology addresses both of these needs in a highly efficient and elegant manner.
eService:
Strategies for Success in the Customer Age
Bob Thompson, CEO, CustomerThink Corporation and Founder,
CRMGuru.com
Internet-based customer service, or eService, enables smart businesses to improve service levels and increase loyalty, while saving money. Companies large and small are adopting innovative Internet-based technologies such as web self-help, email response, live chat, and voice over IP. But technology is only part of the puzzle. This paper provides concrete strategies to maximize the success of an eService initiative.
The
Future of Customer Service:
The Road to Top-Line Impact
Greg Gianforte, CEO, RightNow Technologies, Inc.
In this paper you will learn how customer service organizations are uniquely positioned to transform themselves from low-value cost centers to powerful agents for business transformation. CSO managers that catch the vision of top-line service and take the steps necessary to make that vision a reality will reap significant rewards for themselves, their departments and their companies.
Technical
Brief:
RightNow Voice™
RightNow Technologies, Inc.
Discover how you can provide customers and front-line personnel the ability to make timely and educated decisions via the phone. This technical white paper details how RightNow Voice leverages the RightNow knowledge base to offer an intuitive, well-designed and natural phone-based user interface for fast and easy access to pertinent and consistent information.
ITIL
Compatibility Report
RightNow Technologies
When IT organizations embark on improvement initiatives for whatever the reason, they are instantly confronted with a myriad of decisions. The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) has established a set of standards to help. This whitepaper explores a product suite from RightNow Technologies, whose product, sufficiently meets and exceeds various criteria that enable it to be termed "ITIL compatible."
