RightNow Embraces “Social CRM,” Upgrades Analytics

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As part of its May ’09 release, available now, RightNow is introducing a new “cloud monitoring” feature that enables agents to enter search terms (e.g. brand or product names) and find posts on the social web. Initially Twitter and YouTube, with Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace to come later.

But monitoring is just the start. RightNow’s “SmartSense” emotion technology can help identify unhappy customers and put them toward the top of the queue so agents can post a reply directly in the social media (e.g. tweet), create an incident or even direct the customer to another support channel.

This new service is included at no extra charge with RightNow’s enterprise and contact center suites, and priced at $40/seat for the entry-level solution.

Here’s a graphic that shows RightNow’s approach:


Source:RightNow

Social CRM

Earlier this year, RightNow CMO Jason Mittelstaedt gave a strong indication that RightNow was heading this direction, when he told me: “We believe that leading customer service organizations will treat social channels just like another interaction channel.” Couldn’t agree more. Increasingly, customers expect you to join their conversation and use their preferred method of communication.

This announcement brings RightNow in line with what other E-service vendors have already announced, including Parature and Salesforce.com. I think adding a “social” channel has already become a must-have feature for E-Service suites. But is it driven by customers, or vendors jumping on the social bandwagon?

Andrew Hull, RightNow director of product management, agreed that “social” is a hot topic in the media, which has caught the attention of some of its customers. Some large customers are already monitoring blogs, Facebook and Twitter in an ad hoc fashion, and are looking for something more integrated.

We need to keep in mind that the so-called “Social CRM” wave is still in the early stages. So it’s good that RightNow has officially joined the movement, but what will be more interesting to me is to see what companies actually do with the new social integration tools in the months ahead.

Those interested in seeing a demo of Twitter integration from RightNow and other vendors are invited to tune into our E-Service Showcase event on May 28.

On-demand analytics

Another addition to the May ’09 release is a new analytics tool which Hull says is mainly designed to help existing customers “augment existing systems internally.”

Contact centers generate a massive amount of data. Now RightNow customers can do more advanced analytics without jumping through the hoops necessary to use more conventional (installed) data warehouse and BI solutions. The new analytics offering is part of an OEM deal with Birst, which is fully integrated into the agent destop and supported by RightNow.

6 COMMENTS

  1. We do not have a single customer interested in Fuze integrating Twitter or Facebook as an extension of their support channel. I personally also have a hard time believing that consumers are turning to these sites for support. There are just too many alternatives that are far superior to getting a consumer to a resolution.

    Do any of your non-vendor readers see twitter or facebook as a place that consumers turn to for getting support? Are you aware of any statistics that break down the frequency that these social sites are successfully used to get support on a product or service not related to the site?

    Primarily because of all the free Twitter add-on software products to centrally manage all incoming SMS messaging, I do see Twitter as an effective place to send various notifications from eService offerings. However, until I see a material consumer usage rather than financially motivated vendors trying to hype and ride the wave, I will have to conclude that all of this is pure hype to sell product and consulting services. It’s always easier for product managers to ride what’s hot rather than come up with true innovation and I see this as no exception.

    Regarding monitoring social sites for consumer sentiment, I see value, but I am not sure how it scales. In a recent twitter conversation with Graham Hill, I posed the question: “@grahamhill Seems to me like twitter will quickly become a symphony of squeaky wheels expecting VIP treatment. Let’s see that scale” and Graham responsed “How right you could be if Corps don’t see that different customers need to be treated differently. Can’t oil all the wheels.” I am still waiting for a response to my follow-up question: “@gramhill any thoughts on a strategy for what wheels need to be oiled?” I am not quite sure how companies are expected to differentiate who get’s the oil in a way that is manageable and still considered equitable by the community of consumers.

    Bob, I look forward to reading articles on your site that separate the hype from real consumer value on how these social sites truly need to become part of the eService ecosystem.

    Chuck Van Court
    President and Founder
    Fuze Digital Solutions

    http://www.fuze.com
    Enterprise-grade customer care and knowledge sharing without the enterprise price.

  2. Chuck, you ask a great question. We’re currently running a survey which includes a question about usage of Twitter and other social media sites. Results will be available later this month.

    I’ve personally talked to JetBlue which uses Twitter to help customers on service issues, and plans to analyze Twitter content with a text mining solution in the future. See JetBlue uses Twitter – Listens to Customers, Grabs New Business.

    Comcast has also made news by using Twitter to proactively connect with consumers. http://twitter.com/Comcastcares

    Yes, there’s plenty of hype in social media, but my take is that large consumer-oriented companies, and the vendors that support them, are a good fit to leverage social media in customer service and other areas. Perhaps your customer base doesn’t fit that profile.

    Or, they could be out of touch with their consumers. Do your own research and see if you can find your customers’ consumers posting about their experiences on Twitter, Facebook, etc. If they are, then it may be worth exploring.

    Bob Thompson, CustomerThink Corp.
    Blog: Unconventional Wisdom

  3. Hi Bob,

    As mentioned, I definitely see value in monitoring consumers comments in social media sites. However, there are plenty of other vendors out there that are making social site monitoring their core competency and I believe they will ultimately do a better job than any eService vendor in that role. As such, we plan to partner with someone once things settle out some.

    Any thoughts on how a company can best deal with the potential landslide of squeaky wheels, per my interaction with Graham?

    However, as recently demoed at your webinar by the other vendor, I do not see people looking to get customer care for unrelated products on these sites. Monitoring and managing consumer perceptions, certainly. Creating KB content and as a source for escalation into the eService channel, I have a hard time seeing it.

    Chuck

    http://www.fuze.com
    Enterprise-grade customer care and knowledge sharing without the enterprise price.

  4. Chuck, time will tell whether social media becomes a bona fide customer service channel. I think it will.

    I don’t mean that consumers will use it as the “official” channel to report a problem. Rather, I think a more likely scenario is that a consumer has a problem, doesn’t want to take the time to use the official channels, but nevertheless has time to post a comment on Twitter or Facebook. So, they’re not “asking for help” but just sharing an experience. Nevertheless, this is an opportunity for companies to proactively contact that consumer and offer to help. That’s customer service in my book.

    Today companies like Comcast, JetBlue and Zappos are monitoring social media and engaging with customers in that media. It’s something like the early days of email response and web chat — a disconnected channel that didn’t work with the rest of a CSS solution.

    Just as email and chat are now integral channels in most e-service suites, I believe the same will happen with social media. Of course, that doesn’t mean that every channel is right for every company.

    Regarding “squeaky wheels” and how to scale… the risk with social media is that vocal complainers go viral. Even if they are “wrong” — the best strategy is to find and deal with them early, before a “Dell hell” situation emerges. Text mining technology can help find and prioritize social media posts from angry consumers and put them in the queue for agents to resolve the situation. That’s how to solve the scaling problem.

    Bob Thompson, CustomerThink Corp.
    Blog: Unconventional Wisdom

  5. Hi Bob,

    As mentioned, I definitely see value in monitoring consumers comments in social media sites. However, there are plenty of other vendors out there that are making social site monitoring their core competency and I believe they will ultimately do a better job than any eService vendor in that role. As such, we plan to partner with someone once things settle out some.

    Any thoughts on how a company can best deal with the potential landslide of squeaky wheels, per my interaction with Graham?

    However, as recently demoed at your webinar by the other vendor, I do not see people looking to get customer care for unrelated products on these sites. Monitoring and managing consumer perceptions, certainly. Creating KB content and as a source for escalation into the eService channel, I have a hard time seeing it.

    Chuck

    http://www.fuze.com
    Enterprise-grade customer care and knowledge sharing without the enterprise price.

  6. Bob:

    Sorry about the unintentional, duplicate post.

    When consumers turn to social media sites for airing their dissatisfaction, I believe it is a clear indication that something is not working with the company’s customer care channels. Of course, that conclusion is not true for the folks that just are trying to game the system and get their way.

    For those trying to game the system, I think they will also be able to easily game the text mining analytics tools you speak of.

    Chuck

    http://www.fuze.com
    Enterprise-grade customer care and knowledge sharing without the enterprise price.

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