Customer relationship management software vendor RightNow Technologies has launched the latest upgrade to its flagship service, designed to help firms engage better with their customers through more interactive online services.

August '08 features a new Customer Portal which allows organisations to brand their own online customer service experiences, according to RightNow's vice president of products, David Vap.

"Service is not a silo – how you pull together and present it will affect the overall customer experience, and expectations today are very high," he argued.

The Customer Portal comes with 35 out-of-the-box widgets and a framework allowing developers to create their own, where customers can complete tasks such as keyword searches, frequently asked questions and feedback forms.

A co-browse feature, meanwhile, allows firms to give their customers the choice of interacting with a service agent via chat or phone if that appears to be the best way to solve a particular issue. The tool also enables the service agent to share the customer's desktop, facilitating a speedy resolution to any problem, said Vap.

The final key feature in this release is a proactive chat function which gives firms the ability to present a chat invitation to a customer depending on predefined criteria, such as the length of time they have spent on a site.

"The aim of this release was to harness the capabilities coming out under the Web 2.0 banner and to provide a highly interactivce branded and collaborative service environoment for customers," said Vap.