RightNow (NASDAQ:RNOW) recognized the winners of its Second Annual Public Sector Awards of Excellence during a November 30 ceremony at RightNow offices in Reston, VA. The event lauded customer experience achievement in government, non-profit, and higher education. Winners included the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of Veterans Affairs Education Services, USDA Food Safety & Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Air Force, IBM, International Baccalaureate, and Alexandria Technical & Community College with Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU).

"The winning organizations and individuals have shown true leadership in the area of customer service excellence, providing best practice examples for other institutions to follow. These leaders have proven that public sector organizations can deliver customers access to the most relevant, accurate, and timely information, even when operating under tight budget constraints."
Kevin Paschuck, Vice President, Public Sector & Canada, RightNow

RightNow issued a formal, internal call for nominations from staff. Public sector clients, programs, and initiatives were evaluated on various criteria including overall innovation, agency impact, and results that demonstrated significant benefits to the customer or organization.

Awards were distributed in the following categories:

Advancements in Customer Experience: These awards recognize innovation through technological advancement and a willingness to push the envelope by implementing RightNow solutions in support of enhancing the citizen, student, constituent, or donor experience within three categories:

  • Web Experience Winner: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was honored for its web self-service program that provides answers to more than 80 million program beneficiaries, healthcare service providers, and CMS staff.
  • Contact Center Experience Winner: United States Air Force received this award for consolidating several customer service programs that support thousands of active duty, guard, reserve, civilian, and retired military personnel worldwide under the Total Force Program. These programs utilize RightNow CX to deliver consistent service levels across agency websites, call centers, and social media platforms.
  • Social Experience Winner: Department of Veterans Affairs Education Services was recognized for its pioneering efforts to implement social customer service solutions to reach its constituents. RightNow CX for Facebook allows the VA to manage its social interactions efficiently and routes support issues to customer service agents for timely resolution.

Industry Collaboration Winner: IBM was acknowledged as the leading channel partner teamed with RightNow to help public sector organizations provide great customer experiences.

Individual Excellence Winner: David Terry, Deputy Director, Information Resource Center, at the Department of Education was honored for going above and beyond to ensure the successful implementation of RightNow to better serve department customers.

Streamlining Service Delivery Winner: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service was acknowledged as the agency most closely aligned to the mission and objectives outlined in Executive Order 13571, "Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service".

Best Practices in Optimizing Member and Donor Engagement Winner: International Baccalaureate was recognized for improving engagement and maximizing the overall service experience for donors and supporters across communication channels.

Head of the Class Winner: Alexandria Technical & Community College and MnSCU were honored for delivering superior student experiences across the academic lifecycle.

Read more about the RightNow Public Sector Awards of Excellence here.

About RightNow Technologies

RightNow is helping rid the world of bad experiences one interaction at a time, eight million times a day. A leader in bringing the Cloud delivery model to government, RightNow has successfully served the U.S. government for more than ten years. Over 170 government agencies including nearly every U.S. cabinet level agency, Army, Marines, Air Force, members of the Intelligence Community, and DoD, rely on RightNow's cloud based solutions to answer the call for better citizen service--providing the right information, at the right time, seamlessly across multiple channels. With more than ten billion customer interactions delivered, RightNow is the customer experience fabric for nearly 2000 organizations around the globe. To learn more about RightNow, go to www.rightnow.com.

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FRNOW

RightNow
Christine Randle, 571-455-0415
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Sage Communications
Lauren Christian, 703-584-7250
laurenc@aboutsage.com