RightNow Enhances Customer-Service Suite

RightNow Technologies, a
provider
of Internet customer service solutions, Thursday unveiled an upgrade to its
product line.

The RightNow Web 3.2 suite incorporates patent-pending
technology designed to make relevant customer support
information more accessible to Web site visitors, improve backend
management capabilities and tighten integration with help desk and
sales force automation systems.

The integrated Web suite
offers self-help, e-mail management, live chat, issue tracking and
service contracts management.

“Customers will quickly leave a Web site if the information they seek
is not easy to find,” said Ana Volpi, a senior analyst at IDC, an industry
research firm.
“The enhancements to this product are positioned to address this challenge
by making
relevant support information more accessible to visitors. The product
Web support for context sensitive help, for example, will allow
customer support organizations to stay one step ahead of the curve.”

New features of the product include SmartAssistant?, which presents
Web site visitors with recommended answers, and knowledge aging, which
applies the concept of “half lives” to
solution documents, so that responses that become less relevant over time
will automatically drop in accessibility.

Expanded self-service functions include natural
language searches, which allow visitors to ask questions in
normal language, such as “What is the best way to transport your product?”

The company simultaneously launched RightNow Premier, a customer-
service solution that combines RightNow Web 3.2 with comprehensive
system hosting and professional services.

Premier benefits include onsite training, Web customer service strategy
development, knowledge base architecture design, implementation and
dedicated support.

A complete
implementation of RightNow Web costs between $34,995 to $64,995 for a
two-year license, and includes unlimited product updates and support.
RightNow Premier is priced at $119,000 for a
two-year license.