the role of cloud computing in customer-centric success

© 2009 RightNow Technologies, Inc.

The Cure For The Common Call Center

With AMR Research & drugstore.com


Keynote Presentation:

Janet SherlockRetail Research DirectorAMR Research

© 2009 AMR Research, Inc. |

Retail Contact Center Management & CRM: Trends & Opportunities in a Challenging Economic Environment

Janet Sherlock

AMR Research


AGENDA

• Introductions

• The Classic “Cost versus Customer Service Challenge” in Retail

• AMR Investment Studies

• It’s a Multi-Channel World

• Trends in Contact Center Management and CRM in Retail

• Conclusions

• Q & A– After final presentation


The Retailer’s Challenge:Cost vs. Customer Service –Achieving the Balance

COST SERVICE


Strategically important investments, 2008-2010

27%

21%

19%

17%

10%

6%

24%

21%

19%

15%

11%

10%

Customer Mgmt

BI/Perf. Mgmt

ERP

Mfg Operations

SCM

HCM

2008

2010

Source: AMR Research 2008U.S. Enterprise Spending Study


2009 Plans for Customer Relationship Marketing Technology Investment in Retail Environment by Segment

Retail Segment Annual Sales Store Locations

FMCG

Mass Merch/ Dept Store

Specialty Soft

Goods

Specialty Hard

Goods <$2.5B $2.5B+ 1-499 500+

First time 33% 0% 10% 14% 8% 17% 14% 10%

Add to or improve 33% 75% 20% 43% 33% 42% 43% 30%

Replace 0% 0% 10% 0% 8% 0% 7% 0%

Maintain 0% 0% 20% 29% 8% 25% 14% 20%

2010 Roadmap 0% 25% 30% 14% 33% 8% 21% 20%

Not using 33% 0% 10% 0% 8% 8% 0% 20%


It’s a Multi-Channel World


Multi-Channel Path to Contact Center

Customer

Shops On-Line

Visits Store

Cro

ss-C

hann

el S

hop

Search forProduct orInformation

or

Sale Tendered

SOLUTION NOT FOUND

CONTACTCENTER

Email

Call

Chat


Trends in Contact Center Management and CRM in Retail

• Diminishing use of Contact Center for Order Entry and more for

Customer Service

• Pure plays have set bar for customer service—brick and mortar

retailers are trying to catch up

• Web Self Service—Creating efficiencies and cost savings

• Cross-Channel activity is increasing. Functions, service, and

information needs to be available in contact center.


Trends in Contact Center Management and CRM in Retail (con’t)

• Contact Center apps growing from being simply “Call Center Support” to Enterprise Information Accessibility and Action Support Hub:

• 360 View of Customer

• All purchases, not just direct

• All interactions

• Demographic & Psycho demographic data

• Customer Preferences—KEY

• Comprehensive View of Product Data and Statuses

• Order Statuses

• Inventory Statuses

• Comprehensive view and knowledge base of product information

• Extensible to all Associates, including Store Personnel

• Cross-Channel Transactions and Interactions

• Knowledge Management


Single Knowledge Base


Call Center Evolution

Simple transactions 360 View of all customer transactions

Customer Centric

Company Centric

Industry leaders

Call Center Evolution to Multi-Channel Customer-Centricity


Other Trends

• Social Networking and Word of Mouth have made Customer Service

requisite

• Use of Call Center for Clienteling or Co-Clienteling

• Requisite use of Contact Center for Proactive treatment of recalls

• Support for Loyalty Programs, Electronic Wallet, Electronic Receipts

• Call Center Consolidation

• Leveraging technology, telephony

• Leveraging people

• Metrics and Reporting are key—More important than ever


Conclusions

• The Multi-Channel retailing environment is changing the functional

requirements and informational/knowledge management

requirements for the traditional Contact Center environment

• Social Networking and the Channel Agnostic nature of today’s

consuming public necessitates superior customer service, supported

by effective tools and processes

• While IT investment has decreased since the economic downturn,

AMR Research asserts that projects focusing on the following will

remain part of their 2009/2010 slate:

• Customer Investment

• Process Improvement

• Cost Containment


Thank You!

Janet Sherlock

Research Director

AMR Research

617-447-5158

[email protected]

For more information about AMR Research, please visit

www.amrresearch.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.amrresearch.com/


The Experience/Cost Dilemma

Spend money to improve the customer experience

OR

cut costs and risk losing customers


RightNow’s Breakthrough Approach

Improve customer experience while reducing costs

Follow 8 proven steps to success

Software as a service reduces risk

Highly modular solution – focus on areas with highest impact first

Unique knowledge foundation infused across entire solution suite

Immediate results


1,900 Clients are Delivering Superior Customer Experiences… So Can You


Live Interview:

Ron KellyVP Customer & Pharmacy Servicesdrugstore.com

About drugstore.com, inc.

• Founded in 1998; 700 Employees• NASDAQ: DSCM; $365mm in Annual Revenue• 4 Online Brands:

– drugstore.com– Beauty.com– VisionDirect.com– Online Pharmacy

• More than 40,000 product SKUs• Nearly 150 agents in 2 contact center

locations• 80,000 to 100,000 support inquiries per month

Ron Kelly’s Bio

• VP Customer & Pharmacy Services– Oversee all customer care, logistics and

pharmacy business• Joined drugstore.com in 1999• Past roles include senior positions with:

– Finance– Procurement– Site Development– Merchandising

• Prior to drugstore.com:– Deloitte & Touche retail specialist

The Bottom Line

Meeting Increasing Customer Expectations…

RightNow CRM Project Goals:

• Provide a competitive customer experience• Answer questions regarding thousands of products• Improve agent productivity, decrease call handle

times• Use the contact center to drive revenue

Background

• High income/highly educated demographic wanted to solve issues on their own

• Contact Center was growing at same rate as Company

• Existing FAQ’s required IT involvement …and were outdated

• Customer experience implications … 3 in 10 customers needed to contact us

• “Industry Standard” …Cost Containment

Why RightNow?

• Web self-service

• Voice for order tracking

• Live chat

• Email management

• Agent desktop

• Hosted solution

More Inventory = More Questions

• Extreme competition

• Extreme customer expectations

• More than 4x the typical drugstore

inventory

• 80,000-100,000 inquiries / month

Empowering Customers

Incoming e-mail reduced by 20%...

• Web self-service• Voice self-service• Email management

Making Agents More Efficient

15% Drop in Agent Handle Times…Steady Increase in Customer

Satisfaction…

• 150+ Contact Center Agents– Halifax, Nova Scotia– Bellevue, WA– At Home Agents

• Before RightNow – 10 agent desktop apps

Driving Revenue

25% Chat Sessions Convert to Sale…

• Beauty.com agents provide expert advice

• Live, online chat sessions

• Trained beauty advisors

• Cross-selling

• Up-selling

The Philosophy

It’s all about Customer Experience…

“Our brand IS our customer experience, and RightNow ensures that we don’t miss a step.”

– Ron Kelly, vice president, customer and pharmacy services, drugstore.com

What’s Next?

1. Continue to provide our Beauty Advisor with

specialized vendor training …Prestige beauty

brands love our chat capabilities

2. Roll chat out to other business segments and

explore “service chat” to further reduce

contact center costs

3. Analyze customer feedback on success of “help

topics” and use data to optimize customer

experience

4. Social Media ….it will impact the contact

center ….

Top Advice

1. Listen to Your Customers

2. Power of Knowledge

3. Protect & Monitor “brand” image


Question/Answer Session

Janet Sherlock, AMR ResearchRon Kelly, drugstore.com


Learn More!

How Successful Companies Overcome the Experience/Cost Dilemma:

– 8 Steps Video: http://www.rightnow.com/resource-video-8-steps.php

– 8 Steps Strategy: http://www.rightnow.com/strategy-eight-steps.php

http://www.rightnow.com/resource-video-8-steps.php

http://www.rightnow.com/strategy-eight-steps.php