Right Now and Dave Carroll Make Network News

For Immediate Release

RightNow Raises the Bar for Customer Experience, Consumer Empowerment and
Cloud Computing at Annual Summit

BOZEMAN, MONT. — NOVEMBER 12, 2009 — RightNow (NASDAQ: RNOW) kicked off its global user conference series with a song heard around the world. At its North America Summit in Colorado Springs, Colo., RightNow invited Dave Carroll, a Canadian singer made famous for his United Breaks Guitars video on YouTube, to take the stage in the opening keynote and provide a firsthand look at the repercussions of a bad customer experience left unresolved.

In addition to singing his now infamous song, Carroll also told the nearly 800 attendees from big brand companies such as Black & Decker, drugstore.com, Electronic Arts, Motorola, and MySpace, that United had actually lost his luggage on the way to the event. The irony of his missing luggage combined with his keynote to customer experience executives kicked off a second media storm of attention for Dave as news networks across the country covered the story, putting United in a bad light.

Carroll’s use of social media is not unique; many consumers are turning to the power of the social web to express their frustrations and disappointment with organizations that turn a blind eye. According to the 2009 Customer Experience Impact Report, 86 percent of consumers quit doing business with a company due to a bad customer experience; and 82 percent of consumers that had a bad experience told others about it. With social tools at their disposal, the repercussions of this can be enormous.

The RightNow Summits —hosted in Colorado, the United Kingdom and Australia — gathered customer experience executives and professionals from leading consumer companies, higher education institutions and government agencies to discuss the power of today’s consumer, the value of delivering great customer experiences and the technology solutions required to ensure exceptional customer experiences, even on the social web.

“Consumers are forcing change in the way companies interact with them— customers are in control and set the tone for every interaction. The consensus from the attendees at the Summit was that organizations can’t manage the customer, but they can control the experience they deliver.”
Jason Mittelstaedt, chief marketing officer, RightNow

RightNow CX, the Customer Experience Suite, Launched at Summit

Announced for the first time at the RightNow Summit in Colorado, RightNow CX, the customer experience suite, helps organizations provide exceptional customer experiences, delivered in the cloud. RightNow CX addresses three primary customer engagement points—the Web Experience, the Social Experience, and the Contact Center Experience— to ensure a seamless experience, regardless of the number or type of interactions initiated. RightNow CX is rooted in the end consumer, and marks the shift from solutions that focus internally to solutions that focus externally and deliver superior customer experiences that drive revenue.

To see RightNowCX in action, click here.

Comments on RightNow

“At its user conference in Colorado Springs, RightNow Technologies announced a new mission: To rid the world of bad experiences… I’ve seen many vendors create missions like this; announcing audacious statements about how they want to be perceived. Most fail miserably. But RightNow’s announcement is different from most…Ridding the world of bad experiences is more than just a slogan for RightNow, it’s a commitment to an operating model that’s driving all of its key decisions. I am particularly impressed by the company’s commitment to align itself more fully with its customers’ success – instead of just selling software. If successful, RightNow might actually redefine a more customer-centric model for software companies. That would certainly rid the world of many bad experiences!”
Bruce Temkin, Customer Experience Matters Blog, 10/29/09

“At RightNow’s user summit, [RightNow] demonstrated industry thought leadership and announced steps to help its clients deliver better customer experiences… RightNow has been the quiet giant in the business-to-consumer customer support market for at least a decade.”
Eric Pendleton, senior analyst, Nucleus Research
Nucleus Research Note: RightNow Pushes the Customer experience, 11/09

“The reason for my enthusiasm is that RightNow’s message of customer experience is now a product and a strategy, CX. The social CRM and SaaS stars are finally in alignment, and the RightNow CX customer experience suite that Greg Gianforte announced on Tuesday was born under those auspices… RightNow takes the position that customer experience is everything, and is making “ridding the world of bad experiences” its goal.”
Marshall Lager, 3rd Idea Consulting Blog
Keeping Busy with RightNow, 10/28

About RightNow

RightNow is helping rid the world of bad experiences one consumer interaction at a time, seven million times a day. RightNow CX, the customer experience suite, helps organizations deliver exceptional customer experiences across the web, social networks and contact centers, all delivered via the cloud. With more than eight billion customer interactions delivered, RightNow is the customer experience fabric for nearly 2000 organizations around the globe. To learn more about RightNow, go to www.rightnow.com.

RightNow is a registered trademark of RightNow Technologies, Inc. NASDAQ is a registered trademark of the NASDAQ Stock Market.