Online Product Registration is the key to unlock the value in your customer relationships.

1. Product registration:
the Foundation oF customer relationshiPs
©2009 RightNow Technologies. All rights reserved. RightNow and RightNow logo are trademarks of www.rightnow.com
RightNow Technologies Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 9007

2. Product registration:
the Foundation oF customer relationshiPs
taBle oF contents
Online Product Registration Helps Build Brand Loyalty, Deepen Customer Relationships ..........1
Product Registration- The Foundation of Customer Relationships ..........1
How Online Product Registration Works: A Day in the Life ..........3
Product Registration Adds Significant Value ..........4
Two Companies that Listen and Respond ..........5
Nikon ..........5
IRobot ..........6
RightNowService: The Proven Leader ..........6
About RightNow ..........7
www.rightnow.com

3. Online PrOduct registratiOn HelPs Build Brand lOyalty,
deePen custOmer relatiOnsHiPs
Call centers today are at the heart of a paradigm shift in the relationship between companies
and the people who buy and use their products. As recently as ten years ago, manufacturers
and customers seldom interacted. Products were distributed to consumers through retailers
and to businesses through resellers. The manufacturers invested in mass marketing to raise
brand awareness, but had very little contact with end users. Specialty retailers provided post-
sale support, and the reseller channel took care of end users in exchange for pricing and
other incentives.
The internet changed all that. Customers now have a direct line to the brand for both
purchase and support. Meanwhile, big-box retailers have used large inventories and low
prices to drive out the smaller specialty stores who had product expertise and time to spend
with customers. The result: a boomerang effect that is sending frustrated customers back
to the manufacturer. In the new paradigm, manufacturers have multi-channel strategies
that combine direct and indirect sales, and customers are demanding post-sales service and
support via the manufacturer’s website or call center.
“In the past, customers would go back to their local camera store to learn how to use their
camera. Now most of the larger retailers don’t do that, so consumers come to us directly and
we need to be prepared to help them.”
David Dentry, general manager of technical support , Nikon
Unfortunately, the new model creates new headaches for call center managers. In the brave
new world of customer service, what you don’t know can hurt you… and often does. In
most cases, call center agents have no knowledge of customer purchase history, no means to
easily communicate with customers online, and no systematic way to cross-sell new features
and services. This leads to frustrated, disappointed customers, and lost opportunities for
incremental sales.
These problems can be directly addressed by adding to or enhancing a critical, but often
overlooked, feature of the company website: online product registration.
PrOduct registratiOn – tHe FOundatiOn OF custOmer
relatiOnsHiPs
Today, product registration is largely a one-way street. Customers give data but get little
in return, and typically don’t bother to fill out the information requested. By giving
customers a simple way to register their products online and providing value in return, the
company gains the ability to build brand loyalty, while call center agents attain the means
to deepen their relationships with customers. Through online product registration, they can
easily share news and gather feedback, as well as provide valuable customer input to product
development, marketing and sales.
1
www.rightnow.com
Share This

4. “Product registration information is the first step in understanding our customers, and
knowing our customers, specifically what products they have purchased, is important to
customer retention. We can build more robots, but we can’t manufacture more customers.
Customer retention is absolutely critical.”
Maryellen Abreu, director of global technical support, iRobot
Product Registration enables companies to
· Know who their customers are
· Know what products they have purchased
· Know what information they are looking for
· Communicate with their customers
· Share enhancements and new releases
-Alert to support issues and recalls
· Ask their customers
-Feedback on purchase process
-Feedback on product and future requests
· Sell to their customers
-Cross-sell accessories and new features
-Warranties and service agreements
2
www.rightnow.com
Share This

5. HOw Online PrOduct registratiOn wOrks: a day in tHe liFe
To better understand how online product registration serves as a key to unlocking the value
in any customer relationship, let’s take a simple example. James is a typical consumer who
recently purchased two cell phones, one for his wife and one for himself.
James has a question about downloading a custom ringtone to his new cell phone. When
he goes to the manufacturer’s website to look up information, he sees a box marked “For
Better Service,” with a reminder to register his new purchases.
James clicks on the link and follows instructions to create an account. This gives call center
agents what they need to follow up with James, measure his satisfaction with his buying
experience or gather other relevant information. The account creation form is completely
customizable according to the company’s specific requirements.
Once he has created an account, James clicks through to a product registration form where
he can easily register his new purchases. Pre-populated fields make it easy to register any
number of products. Within minutes, James receives an email letting him know that he has
successfully registered his products and thanking him for doing so. This email not only
confirms James’ registration, but offers him 15 percent off accessories for the cell phone he
just registered.
After successfully registering his purchases, James has a question about how to download
a custom ringtone. When he logs into the support site, he sees all of the products he
previously registered in one location, so he can easily track and manage all his product
registrations. In addition, with a single click, James can easily search the manufacturer’s
knowledge base for relevant answers.
3
www.rightnow.com
Share This

6. James does not find the specific answer to his question, so he creates an email incident
directly from the product registration page. Because he’s registered his products, his contact
information is pre-populated, and a customer service agent is able to quickly respond to
James’s email. After his question is answered, the manufacturer sends James a survey asking
him how satisfied he was with the answer and if he would recommend his cell phone to
friends.
By capturing all interactions with James – product registrations, support incidents, feedback
surveys, and promotions – this manufacturer has caught the boomerang. They will be able
to provide James the service he wants, communicate to him in a relevant manner, and build
long-term loyalty.
PrOduct registratiOn adds signiFicant Value
By establishing direct, one-to-one customer relationships, online product registration opens
the door to a wealth of opportunities for call center representatives to better serve their
customers, their company, and their own careers. It enables them to add significant value to
the rest of the business, including critical feedback for development and manufacturing in
such areas as desired enhancements and potential future products.
4
www.rightnow.com
Share This

7. From a company perspective, the benefits are many. With product registration integrated
into their Customer Service operations, companies can:
· Empower customers to take the first step towards a better service experience
· Gain a better understanding of customers and their buying behavior
· Build a personalized relationship with customers
· Gather critical feedback to fuel future product development
· Proactively communicate relevant sales offers such as warranties, accessories, and
upgrade offers based on the products customers currently own
· And ultimately, increase brand loyalty
twO cOmPanies tHat listen and resPOnd
Many companies are successfully building relationships with their customers through great
customer service. Here are two examples of companies that use web-based service to
improve their customer experience and reduce their operational costs.
nikOn: gets tHe Picture
Nikon, Inc. had to deliver high-quality support that would satisfy customers even
as growing sales were taxing existing support resources—and increasing resources
was not an option.
A powerful platform for optimizing phone, email ,product registration and web
communication with customers, Nikon’s new service system allows contact center
staff to view customers’ complete service histories across all contact points—phone,
web, and email.
This ensured effective, personalized support and improved responsiveness to
customers while the company’s unit sales volume increased substantially. To make
this achievement more remarkable, department headcount remained flat for two
years while productivity increased substantially.
Nikon gained unprecedented visibility into its customers’ issues and concerns,
furthering their ability to deliver great service. By providing extremely valuable
customer information to the company’s designers and marketers, Nikon better
responded to the ever-changing needs of the buying public. That’s an important
competitive advantage for Nikon and a big win for Nikon’s customers, since it
helps put them at the center of everything Nikon does.
The company continually scores over 95 percent in its customer satisfaction
surveys, and that satisfaction translates into more sales opportunities for Nikon.
“When you satisfy your customers, they come back and buy from you again,” says
David Dentry, general manager of Nikon’s Technical Office. “They also say great
things about you to their friends, and that’s the best advertising there is!”
5
www.rightnow.com
Share This

8. irOBOt: sweePing uP
When pioneering a new market, it’s critical to essential to deliver great service and
support—since your customers have no previous experience with your product.
It’s also critical to listen and quickly respond to customers.
iRobot listens to their more than 2.5 million customers worldwide. Faced
with a rapidly growing number of incoming service and technical support calls
iRobot deployed a single customer service platform for web self-service, phone,
chat, email and product registration. Contact center staff has a complete view
of all past service interactions with every customer. This helps them get to the
root of the customer’s issue more quickly. The company has grown revenue
while simultaneously delivering a superior customer experience and keeping its
operating costs under control.
Even though the company sells its products primarily through retail distribution,
it is able to open up this direct dialog with its customers in a variety of ways.
When customers register their products or contact technical support, for example,
iRobot can capture the information it needs to send them appropriate offers.
iRobot also sends a questionnaire to 4,000 different customer every month. This
helps them the impact of the improvements it continues to make in its customer
experience—and pinpoint any emerging problems before they adversely impact
the business.
rigHtnOwserVice: tHe PrOVen leader
Fortunately, there is an effective, easy-to-implement solution for companies that want to
strengthen relationships with their customers —and who want to do it fast. RightNow
Service is the industry’s most complete solution for assisting customers via self-service,
chat, email, and voice all leveraging product registration. It is the only customer service
solution to leverage a single knowledge base and a common incident tracking system across
all communication channels—enabling companies to gain a true 360-degree view of the
customer and ensure a consistent, high-quality service experience.
RightNow’s patented, intelligent knowledge base technology keeps online content fresh,
customer-driven, and easy to find. It also provides a wide range of critical capabilities
including natural language searching, automated answer ranking, SmartAssistant (which
scans the text of incoming emails and automatically suggests appropriate answers), and co-
browsing.
RightNow transforms websites into highly effective information resources for customers,
prospects and other business partners. Just as important, RightNow’s powerful self-learning
capabilities and hosted delivery model enable consumer products companies to reap the
quantifiable benefits associated with effective online service without extensive up-front
investments in content development and IT infrastructure.
6
www.rightnow.com
Share This

9. With RightNow, you can:
· Achieve contact center efficiencies that reduce costs while improving service
· Create a consistent, unified customer and brand experience across all channels
· Build relevant relationship with customers through integrated product registration
· Dramatically improve “one-and-done” contact resolution rates
· Accurately measure performance with powerful reporting and service analytics
The average RightNow customer:
· Is up and running from purchase order to production in just a few weeks
· Reduces call center workloads by at 25% within 30 days
· Reduces email workloads by 50% within 60 days
· Automatically answers 86% of customers’ questions on the web without escalation
· Achieves measurably higher customer satisfaction within weeks
As internet use continues to grow—and as customer expectations for online service grow
as well—companies in all markets must make sure that their web-based service capabilities
fulfill or exceed those expectations. Companies that want to retain customers and control
costs must therefore remain aggressive about customer service on the web—and integrate
web-based service into their overall customer strategies.
Try Us RightNow
If you’d like a first-hand view of how RightNow can radically improve your company’s
customer service, effectively collect product registration information and transform your
website into a powerful information center for customers, visit us at www.rightnow.com.
You can request a free demo of RightNow Service and see how our customers are already
using it on their websites. You can also call us at 877-363-5678 to speak with one of our
knowledgeable sales representatives.
aBOut rigHtnOw
RightNow (NASDAQ: RNOW) delivers the high-impact technology solutions and
services organizations need to cost-efficiently deliver a consistently superior customer
experience across their frontline service, sales, and marketing touchpoints. Approximately
1,900 corporations and government agencies worldwide depend on RightNow to achieve
their strategic objectives and better meet the needs of those they serve. RightNow is
headquartered in Bozeman, Montana.
RightNow is a registered trademark of RightNow Technologies, Inc. NASDAQ is a
registered trademark of the NASDAQ Stock Market.
Contact us today to find out how we can help you create the best possible customer
experience for your customers.
7
www.rightnow.com
Share This

10. Our solutions:
RightNow CX RightNow Social Experience RightNow Engage
The Customer Experience Suite
RightNow Web Experience RightNow Contact Center Experience RightNow CX Cloud Platform
Be social with us:
RightNow.com Twitter Facebook
YouTube LinkedIn RightNow Blog
8
www.rightnow.com
Share This