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RightNow Technologies (Nasdaq: RNOW) has introduced two new voice applications that provide contact center agents with enough identifying information about the customer 
to eliminate the need to repeat information when a call is transferred to a new agent.
The new functionality addresses a long-standing customer complaint: having to enter name, account and other identifying information into a self-service application, along with information on what the call is about -- and then having to provide it all over again when a live rep gets on the phone.
"It is frustrating to have to call in and repeat over and over again the details about who you are and why you are calling," Joseph G. Brown, RightNow's vice president of voice solutions, told CRM Buyer. "These applications are designed to overcome that problem. They are able to capture the context of the call when it is transferred to the agent and then update the agent's desktop."
For New and Existing Customers
The two applications, Voice contact management and Voice caller ID, are complementary, in that one has been designed to identify existing customers and the other supports calls from customers new to the system.
RightNow Voice contact management uses automatic number identification (ANI), touch-tone interactive voice response (IVR) input or human speech to identify known customers when they call. Once the caller is identified, the application initiates the necessary action, such as a "screen pop" on an agent's desktop or retrieval of certain data from the back-end system.
RightNow Voice caller ID identifies callers based on ANI, even if the caller is not in the existing customer database. The application uses data services from Vienna, Va.-based TargusInfo, which can provide all sorts of information about callers.
CTI Link
Because RightNow Voice integrates with RightNow CRM, as well as other third-party applications and telephony infrastructure applications, it is able to provide that missing link of functionality, Brown explained. "This is how we are able to capture what has taken place on the phone with the customer. We leverage the back-end CRM module and then update the desktop for the agent."
Most vendors focus on informing the agent that a certain customer is on the phone, he added, "but they have not taken the extra step of identifying for the agent what that customer has asked for."
RightNow gained some of this functionality last year with its acquisition of Convergent Voice, a voice automation vendor. Since that time, RightNow has expanded and incorporated the functionality into its own suite, Brown said.
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