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CRM's RightNow And The 8,732 Percent ROI

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Normally we don't report on such news, but The Colorado Department of Revenue has won Nucleus Research's 2008 Technology ROI Award for realizing a return of 8,732 percent on its investment in RightNow's on demand customer relationship management (CRM) product.

 

I mean, an 8,732 percent return, that's… noteworthy.

 

The award honors companies whose deployment of IT products "has produced a positive, bottom-line financial ROI," RightNow officials say. RightNow customers that have previously won the award are Nikon (3,431 percent ROI), Audiovox (1,989 percent ROI), Remington Arms (1,989 percent ROI), and nanoCom (978 percent ROI).

Colorado DOR uses RightNow to provide responses to taxpayer questions via the telephone, e-mail and the Web. The department's site now averages more than one million hits each year, and 90 percent of site visitors are able to quickly find answers to questions online, without having to contact the department.

 

As a result, call center and e-mail volumes have been reduced by 45 percent, saving the department more than $5 million. A salute to the Colorado DOR is certainly in order.

 

Yesterday, RightNow Technologies and UCN (News - Alert) announced their integration between UCN inContact and RightNow CRM to help companies deliver customer service through their contact centers.

 

RightNow's on-demand CRM products give contact center agents the information and customer interaction history needed to deal with consumers over the phone or via e-mail. UCN's on-demand ACD with skills-based routing of phone calls and e-mail hands off customers to different agents.

 

The UCN product routes incoming inquires to specific agents, including those in multi-site and at-home environments. RightNow can present aforesaid agents with a single view of previous customer interactions.

 

"With RightNow every agent has a single view of the customer which includes a history of all phone and e-mail interactions," and "by adding UCN's inContact, organizations can ensure that the best suited agent serves the customer," said Scott Creighton, Vice President, Business Development, RightNow Technologies (News - Alert).

 

Earlier this week, RightNow officials announced that BT (News - Alert) Business is rolling out RightNow Chat to let contact center agents "respond to customer queries via its BT Business' help and support Web site."

 

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

 

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