RightNow Acquires Q-go

RightNow yesterday signed a definitive agreement to acquire Q-go.com, a natural language search solutions provider, for $34 million. Q-go is headquartered in Amsterdam and has subsidiary operations in Germany, Spain, and the United States.

The acquisition is expected to:

• Open new sales opportunities in key industries with both new and existing clients;
• Create a significant, new session-based revenue opportunity, as RightNow expands from the support page to the home page;
• Further strengthen RightNow’s relationship with senior marketing buyers, in addition to operations, support and IT.

With the Q-go Natural Language Search technology, the new RightNow CX Intent Guide understands the intent behind what Web site visitors are seeking and immediately delivers high-value, highly relevant content, enabling companies to:

• Increase sales by improving online conversion rates;
• Deliver premium customer experiences for high-value interactions;
• Drive loyalty through deep behavioral insight into consumer intent.

RightNow CX Intent Guide enhances Web sites with four types of interaction overlays:

• Question Matching enhances existing Web site search and navigation to understand a customer’s intent, and increases online conversion rates.
• Virtual Assistant provides a personal, natural conversation interaction, enhancing a customer’s experience while driving conversion and reducing live assistance costs.
• Web Form Assistant increases online form conversions by proactively helping users complete forms using previously captured visitor information to pre-fill Web forms.
• Contextual Online Offers deliver real-time, relevant offers based on the context of a page or the user’s intent, dramatically increasing conversion rates to drive sales.

With the addition of Q-go, RightNow will also add a natural language search engine to the RightNow CX Cloud Platform, elevating online search beyond keywords to a rich, highly relevant results set. It includes:

• Intent Matching: Natural language search technology to capture queries, understand intent, and match it to high-value content and interactions. For example, “open a savings account” and “start an account for saving” are different phrases, but with the same intent.
• Industry-Specific Linguistic Dictionaries: >Branded terminology is tailored with industry-specific dictionaries and linguistic fine-tuning to optimize the natural language search relevancy to the user’s intent. For instance, for a financial institution the word “bank” will always refer to a financial institution, not a river bank, and “interest” will always refer to the returns on savings or what one pays for a loan, not the emotion.
• Language Identification: Using localized language packs, the natural language search automatically recognizes the user’s local language to identify his intent, such as “cuenta de ahorros” versus “savings account.”

“RightNow CX Intent Guide with Q-go’s natural language search technology is a powerful addition to RightNow CX and will help us redefine the way consumers experience a brand. By capturing queries, understanding intent, and matching that to high-value content, RightNow CX can improve consumers’ online experiences, increase customer loyalty, and drive sales, “ said David Vap, chief solutions officer at RightNow.

RightNow CX Intent Guide and RightNow Natural Language Search will be available immediately following the acquisition and will be integrated into RightNow CX in February.

“I am excited to add Q-go’s solutions and talent to the RightNow organization. We expect this acquisition to help further accelerate our growth,” said Greg Gianforte, RightNow’s CEO. “Q-go’s leading-edge technology has been proven to drive higher conversion rates, increase revenue, and improve Web visitor experiences for companies. We will also gain additional critical mass in Europe with approximately 60 new clients and 70 talented employees.”

“Like RightNow, Q-go is committed to improving the customer experience with a suite of natural language search solutions. The acquisition expands RightNow CX’s ability to provide relevant answers to customers. We expect to be able to dramatically increase adoption of RightNow CX Intent Guide and leverage our joint expertise to develop the next generation of online customer experience solutions,” said Marcel Smit, CEO of Q-go.