RightNow Knowledge Base Saves First Tech Credit Union Hundreds of Hours of Staff Productivity Every Month(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 First Tech Credit Union has implemented RightNow’s customer service solution in its call center as a knowledge base platform for its customer service representatives.  By providing representatives with answers to more than 2,500 common customer questions, RightNow has substantially improved staff productivity and helped ensure First Tech’s ability to quickly provide its customers with accurate, up-to-date information.

First Tech Credit Union is a full-service credit union for more than 100,000 employees at more than 800 different organizations.  First Tech must daily field questions related to a tremendous range of topics, from lending policies to wire transfer procedures.  To answer these questions, service representatives would either have to refer to a number of different reference materials or—as was more often the case—ask each other.  This would result in multiple representatives losing several minutes of productivity every time a customer asked a question that could not be immediately answered.

By providing answers in an easy-to-search knowledge base, First Tech director of human resources and training Wayne Young therefore estimates that RightNow is saving his company 250 hours a month in employee productivity.

“RightNow has delivered tremendous business value by enabling First Tech to support more customers with less call center staff,” Young said.  “Now, even new employees can answer questions quickly and authoritatively.”

First Tech has also begun to selectively expose portions of the knowledge base directly to customers via the Web as a self-service resource—with excellent results.  The posting of self-service knowledge items in support of its online banking service, for example, led to a 44 percent reduction in emails and a three percent reduction in call center volume.

First Tech selected RightNow after an extensive evaluation of alternative products.  Not only did RightNow provide greater breadth of functionality, but RightNow also was able to provide First Tech with a fully functional pilot implementation.

First Tech has also embraced RightNow’s hosted delivery model, which enables the company to enjoy all the benefits of RightNow’s technology without having to shoulder the financial and management burdens of internal hosting.

“First Tech offers a classic example of how RightNow’s knowledge base technology is enabling organizations of all kinds to both enhance the quality of customer service and slash operational costs,” Sean Forbes, global vice president of marketing and business development at RightNow, said.  “First Tech also illustrates how the business benefits that companies reap from RightNow continue to grow over time, as they expand their knowledge base content, apply the knowledge base to more areas of their business, and fine-tune various aspects of their knowledge base implementation.”

About First Tech Credit Union
Established in 1952, First Tech is celebrating 50 Years. Forward. Employer to over 200, First Tech serves over 80,000 members from over 800 high tech and telecommunication companies throughout the Silicon Forest. With the highest percentage of online banking usage in the world, 62% of First Tech members use online banking as compared to a 17.9% national average (from US Census Bureau current population survey). In addition to traditional credit union services, First Tech also offers: tax planning, auto buying, estate and financial planning, mortgages, insurance and online brokerage services available worldwide at www.1sttech.com or at physical branches in the Portland and Seattle areas.

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., 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/.