RightNow Technologies (Company
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Studies), the world’s leading provider of hosted customer service and support solutions, today announced Pioneer GB Limited has completed the initial
phase of its implementation of RightNow and has already realized significant business benefits.
Because of its best practices in deployment and hosting, RightNow had Pioneer’s customer service system operating in only four days. With just 10 answers in that
initial knowledge base, Pioneer experienced an immediate decrease in the number of emails that its customer service staff had to handle. In the next 14 months, the
number of answers in the knowledge base has grown to 177 and the total reduction in email workload has reached 65 percent. This reduction has occurred even as
Pioneer’s installed base grows and more of its customers use the Internet to find answers to their questions.
As a result, Pioneer can support more customers and more products without having to increase the size and cost of its customer service operations proportionally.
“RightNow’s hosted solutions revolutionize both the economics of customer service and the economics of software deployment,” Colin Bartlett, General Manager, Service,
Pioneer GB Limited, said. “The magnitude of the benefits we are experiencing and the speed with which we have experienced them are remarkable.”
Pioneer is using RightNow’s self-learning knowledge base technology to provide its customers with answers to their questions via email and the Web. With RightNow,
Pioneer’s knowledge base continually adapts to the changing needs of its customers. RightNow also provides the incident tracking functions necessary to ensure
that emails are properly routed and are responded to in a timely manner. In addition, RightNow automatically handles customers’ online requests for Pioneer
brochures, which are maintained as PDF files. This further reduces the workload on customer service staff.
By using multiple interfaces, Pioneer can also use RightNow to support its dealers and service centers. These users get access to additional knowledge base
content and other key data such as purchase histories and credit limits.
Because the system is hosted by RightNow, Pioneer is gaining all these business benefits without having to acquire and manage additional IT infrastructure. This
reduces costs, eliminates headaches, and avoids additional workloads for its IT staff.
“Pioneer provides an ideal example of how hosted applications can ensure both rapid time-to-benefit in the short term and higher ROI over the long term,” Sean Forbes,
global vice president of marketing and business development at RightNow, said. “Pioneer’s experience also clearly demonstrates that RightNow is a powerful solution
for supporting business growth while keeping customer service expenditures flat.”
About Pioneer
Pioneer Corporation is a global leader in electronics and audio/video products for the home, car, commerce and industry, particularly in the two core multimedia
technologies: Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) and plasma display panels (PDP). Its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: PIO), Euronext
Amsterdam, Tokyo Stock Exchange, and Osaka Securities Exchange.
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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