RightNow’s Professional Services Team Integrates RightNow With Mainframe For Efficient Processing Of Replacement Orders
Goals
- Streamline replacement orders and integrate into parent company mainframe
- Ramp up outsourced call center in India
- Integrate phone inquiries with other channels for maximum ROI
Achievements
- RightNow’s professional services organization executed an XML-to-EDI initiative to streamline workflow, which delivered a staff reduction of 60 percent
- Self-service knowledge base helped outsourced call center easily come up to speed
- Boosted productivity: Fewer screens helped call center staff reduce average call wait times by 85 percent
When Kensington sought to streamline the way it handled replacement orders, it turned to RightNow's professional services organization. With an average of 100 orders for replacement parts coming in through the RightNow CRM system daily, Kensington knew it could greatly improve efficiency by integrating RightNow with the mainframe that was already handling customer orders.
In the span of just over a quarter, Kensington upgraded its RightNow CRM solution to RightNow's customer service software solution, outsourced its call center to Hyderabad, India and established that organization on RightNow, and worked with professional services to integrate the customer service software solution with the enterprise mainframe environment. The benefits include: a revamped order processing system that reduced staff by 60 percent; an integrated, multi-channel service solution that allows call center reps to do in one screen what Kensington's previous call center solution did in three; and a highly leveraged knowledge base that has made remote call center operators immediately productive while helping Kensington be more proactive about delivering a superior customer experience.
A manufacturer of award-winning computer accessories, such as the PocketMouse Pro Wireless mouse, Kensington often finds it more efficient to replace a faulty part rather than repair it, noted Darryl Garcia, technical support lead at Kensington. In the old process, when a customer incident resulted in the decision to replace a defective part, the resulting replacement order that came in through the technical support system had to be manually entered into the EDI system, first at the San Mateo, CA support center, then again at the company's fulfillment center in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
Through an XML-to-EDI integration, replacement orders are now funneled into the new orders system still with their own tracking ticket to manage inventory and business information but parts are getting out to the customer faster and at a much cheaper cost to Kensington. RightNow's team set up a staging server to test the new CRM system before production, and visited onsite during the integration process to ensure that the two organizations were in sync.
"The RightNow team we worked with was great," said Jeff Nagy, web project manager, who was on Kensington's integration team along with Garcia. "They were very attentive to our needs."
The integrated RightNow-EDI system processes about 2,000 replacement parts a month. Kensington estimates that the cost of processing replacement parts in the newly integrated solution is saving them more than 60 percent compared to the previous manual system.
RightNow The Solution Of Choice For Call Center
RightNow has brought many other benefits to Kensington. Already in use for email management and its self-service knowledge base, Kensington was impressed enough to select RightNow for its call center solution. When they decided to outsource the call center to Hyderabad, India, Kensington had to make a choice—adopt the call center solution already used by the India firm, or upgrade to RightNow to leverage one solution across all service channels. Even though it meant training the outsourced service people, Kensington chose RightNow's call center solution for its ease of use, good call tracking and trouble ticketing abilities, and because it made sense to standardize on one solution to optimize insight into customer interactions. Garcia, who led training efforts in India, said it has been easy to bring the agents up to speed because RightNow is so simple to use.
"Another plus in choosing RightNow for our call center was that RightNow is hosted," noted Garcia. "If we'd had to provide IT support in order to have the outsource firm use RightNow, we probably would have had to go with what they used."
Simplified Processes: Fewer Screens, Fewer Clicks
Since going live with RightNow, call abandonment rates have gone from 15 percent to less than five percent. Thanks to the RightNow knowledge base, which allows service representatives to easily find answers to caller's questions or to view previous incidents, average call times have gone from 20 minutes to less than three minutes. Garcia noted that first call resolution rates have actually gone down, from about 85 percent to 60 percent, but he attributes this to increasing call complexity due to many customers getting simple answers on the web. Moreover, RightNow is a much more efficient interface than what they were using before their previous contact center program took four screens to do what RightNow does in one.
"Our reps were spending a lot of time navigating from screen to screen," noted Nagy. "They had to duplicate data entry in some places too. With RightNow, the representatives use just one screen. For instance, they can process a replacement order in one step."
Multi-channel customer service is also a huge plus to Kensington, noted Garcia. "No matter how the customer contacts us, we have a single thread," he said. "RightNow helps us fine-tune our customer relationships."
RightNow's ticketing system is a compelling feature of its call center abilities, along with incredible price-performance. Garcia, who implemented Siebel at another company prior to joining Kensington, said RightNow provides all the benefits and functionality of Siebel at about a tenth of the cost.
Knowledge Base Delivers Better Insight
The knowledge base deflects a lot of customer questions, noted Garcia. It has reduced the number of email inquiries received weekly by more than 25 percent for Kensington's best-selling Pocketmouse Pro.
RightNow is also providing insight into customer service issues. With phone calls tracked through the same solution as web and email inquiries, it's easy to spot trends and even anticipate future issues, report Nagy and Garcia. Almost one-third of inquiries relate to the Pocketmouse Pro Wireless. The ability to easily pull reports in RightNow helps Kensington see month-to-month trends, said Garcia.
When there's a spike in email or phone inquiries about a particular product, they can add an answer to the knowledge base. Used by customers through online self-service and by support representatives to more quickly resolve phone and email inquiries, the value of the knowledge base rapidly compounds. When Kensington introduced its first Bluetooth-compliant product, the Bluetooth Adapter, the RightNow knowledge base was ready, easily handling the spike of inquiries that usually follows any product introduction.
"The RightNow solution is teaching us to be more proactive about customer questions prior to a product launch," said Nagy. "We can set up business rules to defer questions—anticipating customer issues and providing answers to enhance the customer experience while simultaneously reducing emails and phone calls."
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About Kensington Technology Group
Kensington Technology Group, a division of ACCO Brands, Inc., based in San Mateo, CA, manufactures computer accessories such as wireless mice & keyboards, laptop accessories and security cables for laptops. Within Kensington, ACCO has created the Web Center of Excellence, handling all web development for ACCO, including Swingline, Wilson Jones and Apollo/Boone.
Greg Gianforte