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Planar Deploys RightNow eService Center to Improve Customer Service and Build Enterprise Technical Knowledge BaseLeading Information Display Maker Captures Subject-Matter Expertise to Deliver Fast Answers to Customers and Employees Via the WebBozeman, MT (October 8, 2002) – RightNow Technologies, a leading global provider of eService solutions expertise, today announced that its flagship RightNow eService Center solution is being deployed by information display pioneer Planar Systems to both improve customer service and give its own employees better access to institutional knowledge. As a result of this two-fold implementation, Planar has been able to maximize customer retention, reduce call center costs, optimize knowledge worker productivity, and enhance product development.Planar originally implemented RightNow to enhance the efficiency of its customer support operation. As the company began to receive more and more emails from customers seeking answers, its manual approach to routing and responding to those emails quickly became impractical. With RightNow, emails could be easily routed to the right subject-matter expert and Planar could monitor response times to make sure customers received prompt answers. At the same time, Planar began to follow RightNow’s best practice recommendation of capturing these email support events and turning them into items in the company’s RightNow knowledge base. This served a dual purpose. First, it meant that Planar’s customer service personnel only had to answer questions once. Once they gave an answer and it became part of the RightNow knowledge base, customers could then find the answer for themselves on the company’s Web site. Second, the dynamically growing knowledge base creates a highly valuable resource for Planar’s own staff. “It’s very inefficient to have people repeatedly ask around the office for an answer until they find the right person,” says Terry Trover, Director of Field Technical Support at Planar Systems, Inc. “With RightNow, they can find the answers they need quickly right from their desktops without disturbing anyone else.” Trover also notes that this knowledge base is crucial for retaining institutional expertise over time. “People leave,” he explains. “You don’t want what they know to leave with them.” Planar realized immediate benefits from its customer-facing Web knowledge base. RightNow currently answers approximately 300 questions per month, saving Planar from having to hire an additional technical support person. Planar has also been able to reset response-time expectations, both internally and with customers, enabling the company to quickly move to providing world-class support. Planar can also use RightNow’s historical reporting features to zero in on patterns and trends that may be useful for product development or marketing. “RightNow does a great job of capturing customer service histories and turning them into highly actionable reports,” says Brian Yeomans, technical support manager of the desktop monitor business at Planar Systems, Inc. “It actually gets you closer to your customers even as it relieves you of having to personally handle too many of their queries.” Planar opted to have RightNow host its solution, which allowed for both a faster implementation and lower ongoing ownership costs. “An easy-to-search knowledge base can offer tremendous business value as both a customer service solution and an intranet portal, but it can only deliver high ROI if it’s highly automated and requires minimal manual maintenance,” said Sean Forbes, vice president of marketing and business development at RightNow. “Planar offers an excellent example of how RightNow’s hosted solution enables companies to use information more effectively without forcing them to take on counter-productive development or maintenance workloads.” About Planar Systems Planar Systems is a worldwide leader in the development and marketing of electronic information display systems. The company specializes in collaborative relationships with customers, designing and producing flat-panel display solutions ranging from desktop monitors to high-performance displays for challenging field applications in medical and industrial markets. Founded in 1983 and publicly traded on The NASDAQ National Market as ‘PLNR’, Planar is headquartered in Oregon, USA, and operates manufacturing and sales in the United States and Europe. For more information please visit www.planar.com. About RightNow Technologies RightNow Technologies, a recipient of UPSIDE Magazine’s 2002 Hot 100 Private Companies Award, is the leading eService solutions expert, engineering business solutions that deliver rapid time-to-benefit and quick return on investment. RightNow delivers these benefits to more than 1,100 customers such as: Air New Zealand, Ben & Jerry's, British Airways, Cisco, Fujitsu, Maxtor, Orbitz, Remington, Sanyo, and more than 100 public sector clients including the Social Security Administration and the State of Florida. RightNow's multi-channel eService suite, which is Section 508 certified, supports Web-based self-service, email response management, live chat and collaboration, and reporting and service metrics. RightNow Locator, which directly links a company’s Web presence with its real-world locations, provides customers the information they need to purchase products or obtain services locally. Founded in 1995, RightNow has offices in Bozeman, Dallas, London, and Sydney, with an associated office in Tokyo. RightNow's products are available in 14 languages worldwide. For further information visit http://www.rightnow.com/ Editorial Contact: Monica L. Remely RightNow Technologies 406/522-4264 mremely@rightnow.com top of page |
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