Focus on the Family Reaps $500,000 in Productivity Savings with RightNow’s On Demand CRM Solution (email this article)

RightNow® Technologies (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), the leading on demand CRM company focused on customer service, today announced implementation of RightNow’s flagship customer service solution, RightNow Service™, has delivered Focus on the Family more than $500,000 in productivity savings during the first 18 months of use and has significantly improved communications of the worldwide ministry with its global constituency.
 
Focus on the Family’s RightNow-based web self-service system answers more than 100,000 questions a month—greatly reducing the volume of incoming phone calls and emails the ministry staff must individually answer.
 
RightNow Service also optimizes the effectiveness of web, email and call center operations at Focus by providing an easy-to-use incident management and workflow automation tool. A common knowledge base is used across all three channels, ensuring the information Focus provides is accurate, up-to-date and consistent among all constituencies.
 
The effectiveness of the RightNow knowledge base is demonstrated by the fact that fewer than three percent of web self-service sessions on the Focus site result in a question being escalated to a Focus staff member. The availability of that same knowledge base to Focus staffers also enables them to respond to approximately 73 percent more inquiries a day than they could handle before the RightNow implementation. Email response times have dropped from an average of three weeks to fewer than 72 hours.
 
“RightNow’s technology and services have had a tremendous impact on the efficiency and quality of our communication processes,” Ed Cantu, manager of online customer service at Focus on the Family, said. “Just as important as the cost savings is the fact that we are now better able to make a difference in more people’s lives.”
 
RightNow is used by some of Focus on the Family’s 250 first-tier “constituent response” agents and an additional 75 second-tier staff in its Correspondence Department, who together handled a total of three million inquiries in 2003.
 
“Focus on the Family has to answer a tremendous volume of questions about a wide range of issues across multiple communication channels every day,” Sean Forbes, vice president of Marketing and Business Development at RightNow, said. “The results Focus has achieved with RightNow prove once again that RightNow’s on demand CRM solutions can handle even the most challenging customer service environments and deliver tangible value.”
 
The online component of Focus on the Family’s RightNow-based customer service system can be viewed on the web at http://family.custhelp.com/.
 
About Focus on the Family
Founded by Dr. James Dobson in 1977, Focus on the Family is one of the world’s leading Christian ministries. Its syndicated radio programs are heard by over 220 million listeners in 122 countries and its publications reach 2.5 million readers. The organization also manages a variety of counseling and outreach services, as well as several online ministries. For further information, visit http://www.family.org.
 
About RightNow Technologies
RightNow Technologies is the leading on demand CRM company focused on customer service. RightNow improves the effectiveness of service and support operations with easy-to-implement 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., 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, New Jersey, 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/.