Delta Employees Credit Union Deploys RightNow Across Call Center, Internet, and In-Office Channels(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 Delta Employees Credit Union (DECU) has successfully deployed RightNow’s customer service solution across its call center, email, Web, and bricks-and-mortar channels to enhance member services and reduce its operational costs.  The solution reduced emails by 80 percent and monthly phone volume by approximately 5,000 calls.

By applying RightNow across all of its communications channels, the Georgia-based Delta Employees Credit Union has maximized returns on its investment in RightNow’s technology and has ensured its members receive prompt, consistent answers to their questions -- regardless of which channel of inquiry they use to originate contact.

DECU, members of which represent active, retired, and former employees of Delta Air Lines, Inc., and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, has achieved particularly significant cost savings as a result of its improved use of the Web as a self-service channel under the RightNow system.  Before deploying RightNow, DECU was receiving about 2,600 email messages from members every month.  Since the RightNow deployment, that number has been reduced 80 percent.  Monthly call volume has been reduced by approximately 5,000—which, because DECU contracts with an outsourced call center services provider, translates directly into reduced costs.  These reductions were achieved even as DECU’s membership grew by 6,000.

DECU has also adapted RightNow’s incident management functionality to manage walk-in traffic at its offices.  This capability has improved the efficiency of operations and has eliminated the potential privacy issues raised by its previous paper-based system.

“RightNow’s knowledge base and incident management tools have enabled us to improve both the quality and cost-efficiency of our customer service,” Holly Chapman, DECU’s Project Manager, said.  “The only limit we’ve found to the technology’s usefulness is our own imagination.”

DECU’s customer service system is hosted by RightNow, eliminating the costs of acquiring and maintaining the necessary systems infrastructure.

“In applying RightNow across its call center, email, Web, and bricks-and-mortar channels, DECU has demonstrated tremendous business creativity and a clear commitment to delivering excellent service to its members” Sean Forbes, global vice president of marketing and business development at RightNow, said.  “That creativity and commitment, when combined with the unmatched power of RightNow’s technology, has resulted in a showcase example of state-of-the-art customer service.”

About Delta Employees Credit Union
Delta Employees Credit Union (www.decu.org) is a $2.5 billion financial institution serving active and retired employees of Delta Air Lines, Inc., Delta Technology, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Inc., Comair, Song, and their immediate families with a wide range of financial services, including deposit accounts, personal loans and electronic bill payment.

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 has delivered 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/.