New Australian Express Airline Delivers Great Customer Service at Reduced Costs with RightNow Technologies (email this article)

RightNow Technologies (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), the world’s leading provider of hosted customer service and support solutions, today announced Australia’s Regional Express airline has deployed RightNow eService Center to optimize the quality and cost-efficiency of its combined call center, email, and Web customer service operations.  By deploying RightNow, Regional Express, better known as “Rex”, has been able to maximize ticket sales.  It has maintained customer satisfaction and eliminated obstacles to online purchases, while it keeps its operational costs low—a critical business requirement in the price-sensitive airline market.

Rex uses RightNow’s patented, award-winning customer service technology to provide customers with fast, accurate answers to their questions, regardless of whether they contact the company on the Web, via email, or by phone.  By answering a large percentage of those questions via the Web, Rex has substantially reduced its costs - - while its customer base keeps growing -- without having to hire more customer service representatives.  The immediate availability of answers online around the clock also helps boost ticket sales by eliminating the need for customers with dial-up Internet connections and one phone line to interrupt their Web sessions whenever they have a question.

“With RightNow, our customers can do business with us online, via email or over the phone and still receive the same consistent and reliable service no matter which channel they use,” Hans van Pelt, executive general manager of Rex’s commercial division, said.  “That quality of service, combined with the tremendous cost- efficiencies RightNow provides, is an essential success factor for a dynamic, growing company like ours.”

Rex is also taking advantage of RightNow’s other high-value features, including online chat sessions for real-time support.  Using RightNow’s hosting services, Rex has been able to avoid all the costs, complexity, and risk associated with internal deployment of software, servers, storage, databases, and other associated IT infrastructure.

Now offering more than 1,500 flights every week to thirty destinations in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, and Canberra, Rex recently flew its 500,000th passenger since it was established in August 2002.

“Growing companies have to deliver competitively superior service and keep their overhead low in order to gain marketshare and achieve profitability, particularly in price- sensitive industries,” Sean Forbes, vice president of marketing and business development at RightNow, said.  “RightNow has helped hundreds of successful private companies achieve these twin objectives by providing innovative technology and best-practices expertise they need to get the job done.”

About Regional Express
Headquartered in Sydney. Regional Express is Australia’s new regional airline formed through the acquisition of Hazelton and Kendell Airlines. The name Regional Express sums up what the airline is all about: fast, efficient, high quality aviation services between regional Australia and the capital cities. The short version, Rex, captures the company’s promise of friendly, relaxed, comfortable and caring service.

About RightNow Technologies
RightNow Technologies is the leading customer service and support solutions company that radically and rapidly improves the effectiveness of service and support operations with easy-to-implement/easy-to-use technology, replicable best practices drawn from the industry's broadest base of successful implementations, and engagement terms that create accountability for delivering quantifiable results.

RightNow delivers these benefits to more than 1,000 customers worldwide such as: Air New Zealand, Ben & Jerry's, Briggs and Stratton, British Airways, Cisco, Dolby Laboratories, Inc., Electronic Arts, Pioneer, Raymarine, Remington, Sanyo, Specialized Bicycles, and more than 150 public sector clients including the Social Security Administration and the State of Florida.

Founded in 1997, RightNow has offices in Bozeman, Dallas, San Mateo, London, and Sydney, with an associated office in Tokyo.  RightNow's products are available in 17 languages worldwide.  For further information visit http://www.rightnow.com/.
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