RightNow Releases CX Intent Guide

RightNow yesterday released its CX Intent Guide with Natural Language Search, which provides marketers with advanced technology and industry-specific dictionaries designed to capture and interpret customer intent, deliver deep insights into consumer behavior, and more accurately tailor online engagements.

RightNow Intent Guide uses existing Web site technologies, as well as mobile and kiosk interfaces, to gather customer information for brands and marketers. The product also has four types of interaction overlays that are intended to deliver high-value, relevant content for improving sales. They are:

• Question Matching, which seeks to understand a consumer’s intent and leads him to relevant content;
• Virtual Assistant, a personalized conversation interface for an organization’s brand;
• Web Form Assistant, which uses previously captured visitor information to decrease online form frustration and abandonment by consumers; and
• Contextual Online Offers, which delivers updated and relevant offers based on the context of the page or the user’s intent.

According to Jason Mittelstaedt, chief marketing officer at RightNow, RightNow CX Intent Guide can make every consumer search an opportunity for new revenue. “When a consumer comes to you, you have their time, attention, and permission. Make the most of it,” he said in a statement. “You can create meaningful, intelligent interactions across a Web site and turn every search interaction into a brand-building, revenue-generating opportunity.”

Marketers must understand the importance of the consumer online experience for the brand to prosper, says Adam Sarner, research director at Gartner. He believes every visit to a Web site is an “opportunity to shape the experience, build the brand, and influence a purchasing decision.”

“Marketers who aren’t paying close attention to these interactions are missing prime opportunities, potentially damaging their brands and losing revenue,” he said in a statement.

Roy Scheerder, vice president of marketing at KLM, says RightNow’s new product sheds light on what customers actually want instead of just what they do on a site. “We are able to deliver quality support as well as effectively market information and services that are relevant to the customer’s interest,” he said in a statement. “Providing our customers with a superb online experience supports a positive brand image and online sales conversion.”

Although Esteban Kolsky, principal and founder of ThinkJar, says innovation has the potential to benefit marketers and consumers, he is somewhat skeptical about the successful implementation of RightNow’s new product in the marketplace. “Even though they have made a lot of progress with this application and other applications, what they call progress or innovation doesn’t always translate into market adoption,” he says. “This sometimes turns into to a game of marketing one-up-manship more than actual innovation.”