So here’s a new feature: We’re going to start aggregating each month’s posts, for easier reference.

We’ll start this off with a few groupings from the month of October — which, if you’ll permit a moment of horn-blowing, I have to say I’m really proud of. We covered a lot of ground in the month, literally and figuratively, with staffers filing on-the-scene dispatches from nearly a dozen events at various locations nationwide, and guest-blogposts from not only our regular contributors but several newcomers as well.

October also marks the introduction of these monthly archives (which, one hopes, will appear sooner after the end of each month), and compendiums of coverage from all the big events (which, one hopes, will appear sooner after the end of each event). In the Comments below, I hope you’ll let us know if we’re giving you the kind of material you want.

For starters, here’s a blog-only exclusive, one I hope you’ve been watching all along:

Eric Barkin’s “Eric Across America” series of blogposts, a firsthand look at JetBlue’s “All-You-Can-Jet” promotion from the perspective of a participant:

• Eric Across America, Part I: The Story of One Man’s Journey into the Heart of JetBlue and JetBlue’s Entry into the Heart of That Man http://sn.im/dcrmblog100909b
• Eric Across America, Part II: Buying the JetBlue Pass http://sn.im/dcrmblog101209b
• Twitter Drove JetBlue Promotion — Eric Across America, Part II(b) http://sn.im/dcrmblog101309c
• Eric Across America, Part III: Booking Flights http://sn.im/dcrmblog101509a
• Eric Across America, Part IV: Trouble in the Contact Center http://sn.im/dcrmblog102009b
• Eric Across America, Part V: JetBlue Levies a Penalty? http://sn.im/dcrmblog102609b

And our posts from this year’s Oracle OpenWorld #oow09:

• Hello From OpenWorld ’09 http://sn.im/dcrmblog101209a
• GUEST-BLOG: The Perplexities (and Fun) of Oracle OpenWorld, by Beagle Research Group’s Denis Pombriant http://sn.im/dcrmblog101309b
• A Keynote That Will Pump (Clap) You Up http://sn.im/dcrmblog101409b
• GUEST-BLOG: Overloading on Oracle, Both Good and Bad http://sn.im/dcrmblog101409c, by Third Idea Consulting’s Marshall Lager
• GUEST-BLOG: Cloudy Computing at Oracle OpenWorld http://sn.im/dcrmblog101409d, by Third Idea Consulting’s Marshall Lager
• Also keep an eye out for our compendium post of #OOW09 coverage from across the Web.

The rest of the month’s posts — including coverage from The Conference Board’s Social Media Summit, the DMA 2009 show, eMetrics ‘09, the RightNow Summit ‘09, and Forrester Research’s Forrester Consumer Forum — are after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

After RightNow Technologies CEO Greg Gianforte gave his company update and thoughts on why customer experience is going to have a major play in many businesses’ strategies moving forward here at the RightNow Summit 2008, Vice President of Products David Vap took the stage to take the crowd on a road trip through the company’s product offerings this year as well as a glimpse into the future.

Vap explained that there are several trends that “consistently bubble to the top” amidst conversations and observations from analysts, competitors, customers, engineering, and the sales team:

• offering a multichannel choice, which Vap admitted isn’t new — adding companies have been working on this for the past decade — but cited extreme customer demand as the continued driver;
• service is the new sales, he explained his company continues to look for ways to help customer service organizations influence revenue;
• proactive customer care, which has the ability to “head off a lot of cost and pain” according to Vap;
• augmentation of traditional agents, which he assured software-as-a-service (SaaS) is well positioned for since many contact centers are now becoming niche and spread out globally; and
• the growing communication, influence, and power of consumers themselves.

These trends, along with the four pillars RightNow fervently abide by, drive the products Vap’s team designs.

Vap added the company is committed to delivering the same quarterly release cycle as this year (February, May, August, and November)–which is the beauty of the SaaS model in his eyes. “We don’t expect you to follow [the release schedule] because you should upgrade when it’s best for you,” he told the crowd.

I had the chance to have a follow-up conversation with Vap here at The Broadmoor, the site for this year’s summit, and I asked him about the biggest obstacle he and his team face in the product realm. He explains that many companies may want to jump ahead of the release cycle and customize their current RightNow offering.

That in itself isn’t the problem, according to Vap. It’s when the customizations are available out-of-the-box in ta future release and the companies jumping the gun want the productized version to then be migrated immediately to their solution that the issues begin. “There’s no direct way to do that,” he laments.

In a sense, this could be both a blessing and curse for SaaS. On the one hand, you don’t have to upgrade with each new release (RightNow keeps the releases generally and fully supported for 24 months). Vap even admits that would be virtually impossible for large enterprises, as they would have to continually retrain and get used to new functionality every few months. So there’s some flexibility and wiggle room there.

That said, if companies want to join the early adopter train and customize to the hilt, they may run into trouble when the upcoming releases have their “specially tailored” functionality right out-of-the-box, since there’s no straight-and-narrow path to forging the two sides together — at least in RightNow’s case.

The best way to try and avoid this problem, though, isn’t to forgo any customization or innovation. “We love getting customer feedback, even criticism, because it makes our product better,” Vap explains. “We’ll work with our clients to figure out the best way to tackle specific business needs.”

For others carrying the SaaS flag, is this a common problem you face as well? How do you handle trying to stay ahead while at the same time waiting (maybe not-so) patiently to see what is coming down the pike in the next quarterly release?

In the ramp up for Bozeman, Mont.-based on-demand customer experience management provider RightNow Technologies’ Summit 2008 here in Colorado Springs, you can expect many of the attendees to yearn for — and ask about — ways to continue to improve their companies’ customer experiences amidst an economy that has taken the country for a roller-coaster ride in the past several weeks.

Expect some more “on-the-scene” blog posts after some conversations with key executives and customers as the summit officially kicks off in a couple of hours with a keynote speech from RightNow Chief Executive Officer Greg Gianforte.

Nevertheless, there was a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive (and in the pursuit of transparency, sponsored by RightNow) on the impact of customer experience. In its third year, the study finds that the experience is becoming more important as consumers continue to demand the service bar to be raised.

Here are some highlights drawn from the poll of 2,112 United States consumers (age 18 and older):

• 87 percent will discontinue business with a company after a negative customer experience, an increase of 7 percentage points from 2007;
• 58 percent will “always or often” pay more for a better experience during a down economy;
• 84 percent of those polled will tell others about a bad customer experience, up 10 percentage points since last year; and
• 51 percent of consumers want the option of a live Web chat session.

What was particularly interesting was the way in which consumers react to poor service. According to the study:

• 26 percent have sworn;
• 17 percent have shouted;
• 9 percent have felt sick;
• 5 percent of males say they hit or break something; and
• 9 percent of females cry.

With customer service hubs becoming the first interaction touchpoint for many consumers, the study finds it is imperative for companies to ensure they are doling out the goods for both instant and future business success. Fifty-eight percent of respondents are “at least somewhat likely” to make a purchase during a service engagement. Additionally, outstanding service is the top reason respondents would recommend a company to someone else–coming in at 58 percent. Low prices and product/service quality came in second and third, respectively.

Now for the call to action. For the companies out there waging the war of customer service every single day, are these stats surprising to you? CRM magazine and other media publications have been writing about the customer experience for some time now, but is it really hitting home or is it just another nice-to-have for you at this time?