ABSTRACT
The relationship between the customer and a product company has always been dominated by questions and issues around the products delivered by these companies. These questions can be asked before a product is acquired and will help the customer during the decision process toward the purchase of the product. If the product has been bought, the customer can have questions about product characteristics or wants to report and discuss issues regarding the product. During the early 1990s, a large part of this communication was done via e-mail. RightNow jumped into this market by delivering customer services via a software-as-a-service (SAAS) platform aimed at lowering the amount of e-mail inquiries for a company. In this solution RightNow delivered websites with strong knowledge capabilities in order to deliver customers services via a self-service model. This platform helped to accelerate winning new customers, maximize customer retention, and improve operational efficiency. Oracle acquired RightNow technologies in 2011, for its cloudbased customer service capabilities.
