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RightNow (Nasdaq: RNOW) has updated its flagship Software as a Service CRM product with new agent desktop functionality, customer-tracking abilities, enhanced analytics and chat features.
The new version, which it calls "February '08," also includes a contextual workspace -- that is, a user interface for contact center 
service reps that changes dynamically based on the context of the agent's task and information about the customer .
Tough-Enough Job
Say, for example, that a customer calls in to register a product. The agent's desktop screen displays the product registration tab while the conversation with the customer is taking place. The next customer calls with a billing question -- the relevant data appears on the agent's screen.
Integration with relevant applications -- such as the return merchandise authorization system -- is also part of the application. In this particular case, if a customer calls to return a product, the integrated desktop automatically presents the necessary data along with the steps the customer must take to make the return.
The new feature is strictly an internal productivity play, but a necessary one given the increasingly complexity of most contact center agents' roles, Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of Nucleus Research, told CRM Buyer.
"Agents have a tough enough job," she said. "You don't want to give them more tasks to accomplish or things to read than you have to."
Monitoring Topics
RightNow has also added a feature called "topic monitoring," which captures and automatically categorizes common topics based on textual feedback -- say, a survey sent to customers who purchased a new product. As the surveys come in, the application can identify complaints about product defects, for instance, which then can be routed to the appropriate department for review.
"You can watch for key themes like that coming across from customers' interactions," Wettemann said, adding that she has not seen anything similar integrated into a CRM application in the SaaS environment.
Other features include chat customer wait time, which tells users the amount of time before a chat agent will be available to assist them; a streamlined agent desktop and administrator user interface based on Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Office Fluent; import/export for reports and workspaces, which gives users the ability to share report/workspace templates within an organization; and additional analytics enhancements.
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