I have covered RightNow, provider of CRM and customer service support systems, on a number of occasions and wrote about their last release (see – RightNow November ‘08 Release Focuses on Call Center Agent Support). Recently, I spoke with Andrew Hull, Director of Product Marketing at RightNow. Andrew said that in the past people generally bought consumer goods from local stores and went back to those stores for support. They had little connection with the product manufacturer. Now the web has opened up many new channels to make purchases, and, at the same time provided consumers with an easy means to reach out to the manufacturer. Feeling less connected to the direct supplier, they more often turn to the manufacturer when they need support.

RightNow heard about this trend from their customers in the consumer products manufacturer space who now faced new customer support needs. When the close connection occurred at the local sales channel, there was a fairly low percentage of people who actually registered their products with the manufacturer. Now manufacturers need this registration information to more cost effectively support their customers. So, in February ’09, RightNow has built in a number of features to help promote self-service production registrations, making the task easier andensuring higher completion rates. 

The process starts when a customer first turns to the manufacturer for support. RightNow will enable them to determine if the product has been registered and encourage this registration if it has not yet occurred. The registration will then open up a number of options for customer self-service, as well as a more focused response, regardless of the channel, including email, live chat, web self-service, or phone.

Increased product registration has benefits for both the manufacturer and the consumer. For the manufacturer, they can gain a better understanding of customers and their buying behavior and build a more personalized relationship with customers. In addition, they can gather critical feedback to guide future product development and proactively communicate relevant sales offers such as warranties, accessories, and upgrade offers based on the products customers currently own and ultimately, increase brand loyalty.

The consumer can more easily find the information they are looking for based on the products they’ve registered; create service requests with a single click that will pre-populate the incident with product information; and view a consolidated list of all products registered. Here is a sample product registration screen.

As someone who has struggled at times with product support, I can see the value here. Companies that provide good support are the ones who get repeat customers. Here is a short video on the new product registration capabilities.

I also asked Andrew how RightNow is doing in the down economy. Like many others in the enterprise 2.0 space, they are doing quite well. The last quarter reported, 4Q 2008, was their best quarter ever. Andrew said that they are more recession resistant than other software companies because they offer a solution that targets cost savings while increasing customer loyalty.

I also asked Andrew how they are using Twitter. He said that they are using Twitter to listen to the issues their customers are facing. Many of their customers are, in turn, using Twitter to monitor their customers, uncover issues, offer support, and better serve their customers. Andrew said that while customer service issues are often uncovered through Twitter, their resolution usually requires moving off Twitter to more robust channels. This is where the range of electronic support tools that RightNow provides can come into play. RightNow is continuing to watch the Twitter space closely, especially as it relates to customer service.