Ask the Experts

Ask the Experts

• What's the difference between CRM and database marketing?

  Database marketing is a component of customer relationship management. CRM includes all processes, strategies and tools to support sales, marketing and customer service initiatives.  Continue Reading

• Revenue operations vs. sales operations: What's the difference?

  While revenue operations focus on revenue growth and integration of sales, marketing and service departments, sales operations keeps its focus on sales department efficiency.  Continue Reading

• How to calculate call center utilization rates

  Call center utilization rates provide managers with information about agent productivity, and businesses can use these rates to calculate efficiency of agents.  Continue Reading

• 9 skills that call center agents need for success

  Contact centers accommodate all channels of communication, which means hiring managers must train call center agents to keep up with customer demands.  Continue Reading

• What roles are essential on a content marketing team?

  There are a number of people involved in business content marketing teams. Some of those roles include content managers, content strategists and content creators.  Continue Reading

• CEM vs. CRM: Which platform is best for your business?

  Businesses must be familiar with CEM and CRM if they want to improve customer experience. While these acronyms sound similar, they are different.  Continue Reading

• The role and responsibilities of a customer relationship manager

  The customer relationship manager has a challenging and ever-evolving role to play when it comes to optimizing the customer experience.  Continue Reading

• What are the differences between CRM, CDP and DMP platforms?

  Sales and marketing terms are like alphabet soup, and the different acronyms can get confusing. Find out the difference between three major platforms: CRM, CDP and DMP.  Continue Reading

• What are 4 ways to improve content experience?

  Thoughtful presentation of content enables businesses to engage customers. Methods of improving content experience include social media and tailored content.  Continue Reading

• How does AI in sales improve staff performance?

  AI can assist in many aspects of the sales process, including analyzing calls, making employees more productive and retaining talented representatives.  Continue Reading

• What are some benefits of SSO in contact centers?

  Contact center agents often need to remember a number of passwords to log in to multiple applications. Single sign-on can alleviate that pain point and increase productivity.  Continue Reading

• What are some useful Salesforce CPQ features?

  CPQ tools help speed up the quote process while providing accurate pricing, along with other features. Here's how this technology can help your organization.  Continue Reading

• What chatbot evaluation metrics do you use to measure performance?

  Chatbots are an important contact center component -- as is measuring their performance. Learn how to measure chatbot performance in your organization.  Continue Reading

• How can you best use contact center AI?

  While AI is still an evolving technology, agent assist benefits contact center employees by improving agent efficiency improve the overall customer experience.  Continue Reading

• What is the role of a customer success manager?

  The customer success manager is an essential CX role that takes a proactive approach to ensuring customer loyalty and retention, balancing out automated CRM functions.  Continue Reading

• How can customer relationship metrics benefit CX?

  Companies often look at customer relationship metrics to determine how customers feel about a brand. Here are examples of how to obtain and use information to qualify customer relationships.  Continue Reading

• Learn how to build a Salesforce app in 4 steps

  Salesforce users can follow these steps to create sophisticated codeless apps that integrate the Next Best Action feature using the Lightning App Builder.  Continue Reading

• Digital CX vs. customer experience: What's the difference?

  While similar, digital CX and customer experience are different. The former focuses on digital communication tool experiences, while the latter is the overall brand perception.  Continue Reading

• How do multichannel and omnichannel environments differ?

  Omnichannel is the evolution of the multichannel environment; however, they do work together. Learn how these two terms differ and where they intersect.  Continue Reading

• How do customer service and customer success differ?

  Tripped up on the difference between customer service and customer success? In short, service is reactive and success is proactive, but both aim to solve problems for the customer.  Continue Reading

• What are the most effective uses of AI in marketing automation?

  AI is beneficial in many marketing automation processes. Organizations use the technology in chatbots, personalization, voice and visual search, frequency optimization and more.  Continue Reading

• Why use third-party marketing automation instead of native CRM tools?

  Though many CRM platforms offer native marketing automation tools, many organizations find it beneficial to use a third-party application, such as Eloqua or Marketo.  Continue Reading

• How do Salesforce Next Best Action and Prediction Builder differ?

  The Salesforce Einstein Prediction Builder and Next Best Action components look similar to the untrained eye, but each product works in a different manner.  Continue Reading

• How do you turn customer feedback into actionable insights?

  Actionable insights can be gleaned from brand surveys and reviews, competitor reviews and social media. However, not all insights are insightful or actionable.  Continue Reading

• How do you determine the right point for chatbot-human handoff?

  Customer experience can be adversely affected when chatbots don't transfer the call to a live agent at the right time. Here are some guidelines and best practices for initiating that handoff.  Continue Reading

• 3 ways the data scientist role benefits CX teams

  CX teams don't traditionally include the data scientist role, but adding one can help derive more value from customer data than a CX analyst or canned analytics software can.  Continue Reading

• What are 4 essential social CRM strategies?

  Social CRM continues to evolve, using additional social media channels and techniques such as social media mining, advertising and listening.  Continue Reading

• What is the role and responsibility of a chief experience officer?

  The chief experience officer is an increasingly vital member of the C-suite who ensures that an organization's customers have positive interactions with the brand.  Continue Reading

• 5 common customer support problems that affect CX

  In customer support, common customer experience issues include lengthy hold times, scaling, failure to follow up, lack of human touch and a lack of personalization.  Continue Reading

• 6 must-have roles on your customer experience team

  Customer experience is the most important differentiator between enterprise competitors today, and CX teams are essential to ensuring customer loyalty and retention.  Continue Reading

• 4 chatbot success metrics to bolster CX

  Chatbot success can be measured using a number of metrics. Each helps improve the customer experience. Read on to learn which KPIs are beneficial for improving CX.  Continue Reading

• How does the chief customer officer role benefit CX?

  The chief customer officer serves in many capacities, some of which include overseeing customer experience, sales, and service and support contacts, as well as unifying customer contact.  Continue Reading

• How are Nonprofit Cloud and Philanthropy Cloud different?

  Charitable organizations partner with Salesforce.org through two cloud services: Nonprofit Cloud and Philanthropy Cloud. Read on to discover how the two differ.  Continue Reading

• Is dialer technology relevant to CX projects?

  Live chat is still the preferred method of communication in contact centers, and the use of autodialers helps free up salespeople to speak with callers.  Continue Reading

• How do you create a chatbot and connect it to Salesforce?

  There are two ways for Salesforce users to create a chatbot -- the easy way and the hard way. Read on to discover what your options are in the creation process.  Continue Reading

• Why is the Salesforce administrator role so crucial?

  Salesforce administrators serve as analysts, trainers and advisers in their roles. Companies can employ one or more Salesforce admins, depending on how the business is organized.  Continue Reading

• Which vendors make the best CRM for small businesses?

  Choosing a CRM for small businesses can be difficult, as the most well-known CRM vendors cater to large enterprises. Others, however, create products with SMBs in mind.  Continue Reading

• What was the purpose of Salesforce's MuleSoft acquisition?

  Salesforce completed the acquisition of MuleSoft in May 2018, gaining large customers, such as Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch, and adding beneficial technology to its platform.  Continue Reading

• How do Salesforce Success Cloud and Trailhead differ?

  Success Cloud and Trailhead work hand in hand, enabling Salesforce users to make the most out of the platform and overcome obstacles along the journey.  Continue Reading

• How does Salesforce Einstein Bot differ from other AI?

  Salesforce's no-code bot authoring tool competes with Google, Amazon and Microsoft, but differentiating capabilities make it potentially more useful for the Salesforce user base.  Continue Reading

• How does Salesforce lead scoring benefit Sales Cloud?

  Einstein lead scoring offers a customizable workflow and strives to get better at prediction over time, and Salesforce is one of the top three vendors in the field.  Continue Reading

• How can I maximize the Salesforce-Google Cloud integration?

  Find out four new ways to make the most of the Google and Salesforce integration, including updates to the Salesforce data connector for Google Sheets.  Continue Reading

• 5 ways to improve call center agent performance

  Side-by-side evaluations, reinforcement, training resources and coaching can help wayward contact center agents improve performance and catch up to the pack.  Continue Reading

• How does Salesforce Einstein Language NLP improve productivity?

  Salesforce NLP learns in a manner similar to that of the human brain, performing a variety of functions, such as semantic parsing, summarization and more.  Continue Reading

• What do GDPR principles mean for CRM data management?

  Avoiding General Data Protection Regulation penalties means getting your CRM compliance program in order before the sweeping regulation goes into effect late this spring.  Continue Reading

• Which tools should we use for marketing automation for SMBs?

  Small and medium-sized businesses looking to implement marketing automation should start with email, social media and internal communications tools, according to expert Matt James.  Continue Reading

• How to calculate abandoned call rate for a contact center

  Experts offer an abandoned call formula and advice on what to include when calculating call abandonment rates.  Continue Reading

• What should I tell my CEO in a comparison of CRM software?

  I have a presentation to give to the C-suite explaining differences among Pegasystems, Microsoft, SAP and Oracle CRM. How do I do that?  Continue Reading

• What features can users expect from Salesforce Einstein AI?

  Expert Scott Robinson explains how Salesforce Einstein AI tools augment the vendor's CRM functionality, and how lessons learned from IBM Watson will affect the platform.  Continue Reading

• How can Salesforce DX help project managers and workers?

  Salesforce DX has a number of features that make it a convenient platform for both project managers and developers alike, explains expert Scott Robinson.  Continue Reading

• How do we choose a CRM system for small business?

  The largest companies can choose the largest CRM platforms, but what's left for small- and medium-sized businesses? How should they choose the right systems?  Continue Reading

• What problems need solving to create smoother customer interactions?

  While many factors can make or break a sales-service platform merge, three challenges stand out when combining service, sales strategies.  Continue Reading

• Why do we need the CRM platform wars in the enterprise?

  The platform wars between Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, etc., feed innovation in the marketplace, but they can also be detrimental to the cause.  Continue Reading

• Is MSFT or Salesforce leading the market in business app development?

  Microsoft is trying to lead the market in business app development, but is struggling to hold on as Salesforce easily creates user-friendly applications, platforms and processes.  Continue Reading

• How advantageous is Microsoft's ERP-CRM integration within the market?

  With the ERP-CRM integration, Microsoft may have a leg up in the Salesforce arena, where Salesforce has dominated in CRM but hasn't grabbed a foothold in the ERP space.  Continue Reading

• How does data insight remove human bias from customer research?

  Integrating IoT analytics with supply chain management helps create an efficient and successful customer experience by utilizing data insight not found anywhere else.  Continue Reading

• How do IoT analytics enhance customer experience with quality data?

  IoT analytics helps companies create a better customer experience by providing quality data that allows for the reduction of costs and a more efficient work day.  Continue Reading

• How will Microsoft Dynamics 365 benefit the enterprise marketplace?

  Is Microsoft Dynamics 365's role in the enterprise marketplace actually beneficial for users? Expert Brent Leary discusses Microsoft's upcoming product.  Continue Reading

• What's behind the expansion of the Salesforce CRM platform?

  The Salesforce CRM platform has been growing quickly with one acquisition after another. Expert Brent Leary discusses the possible motivation behind the quick expansion.  Continue Reading

• Why does AWS as a cloud infrastructure provider matter for Salesforce?

  After experiencing a data outage in May, Salesforce turned to Amazon Web Services. It was a huge move, but probably a necessary one, expert Brent Leary explains.  Continue Reading

• What are the implications of the Salesforce acquisition of Demandware?

  Buying Demandware has helped Salesforce round out its portfolio in order to offer end-to-end technology for the customer journey, expert Brent Leary explains.  Continue Reading

• What is the most important technology for a virtual contact center?

  An expert shares four technologies that are key to successful virtual contact centers: integrated contact routing, workforce management, computer-based training and gamification tools.  Continue Reading

• Why is customer self-service critical for contact centers?

  Contact centers have embraced and improved self-service options like conversational voice response systems and mobile websites -- but there are still some challenges with the tech.  Continue Reading

• What are the best new skills for contact center managers?

  While basic contact center manager skills haven't changed, they have broadened and will continue to evolve as contact center management technology evolves.  Continue Reading

• Is customer self-service replacing contact center service?

  Helping customers help themselves through self-service can reduce costs, but your self-service strategy should include monitoring and supporting internal operations, expert Scott Sachs advises.  Continue Reading

• How has mobile CRM software affected contact center service?

  Consumers are using mobile devices to shake up customer service. Expert Scott Sachs explains how and offers advice for how to transition to support mobile CRM.  Continue Reading

• What is the role of contact center compliance?

  Expert Scott Sachs offers tips for contact centers looking to improve customer data protection and meet data security regulations. Learn how a clean desk fits into the equation.  Continue Reading

• How does the virtual contact center model affect the market?

  The virtual contact center has become increasingly compelling. Why?  Continue Reading

• How does social customer service affect contact centers?

  As more consumers utilize social media customer service options, organizations are finding it's important to create strategies to handle company responses.  Continue Reading

• Will a registration wall help or hurt my content strategy?

  A registration wall can provide vital information for nurturing sales leads. But there are drawbacks and it's not the best approach for all content.  Continue Reading

• How should companies tackle IoT in a customer-centric way?

  Companies that are overly concerned with what IoT technology to invest in are missing the point: They need to determine how it will bring them closer to their customers.  Continue Reading

• What does Salesforce Lightning, Wave enable for users?

  Salesforce's latest upgrades to its Lightning and Wave platforms show that the cloud CRM company is trying to bring analytics closer to the individual user.  Continue Reading

• How can you align customer service strategy with marketing?

  As companies put customer experience at the forefront, it's never been more important to align customer service strategy with marketing tactics.  Continue Reading

• Why Web real-time communications helps omnichannel customer experience

  WebRTC is open source code that could make a measurable difference in omnichannel customer experience.  Continue Reading

• How can proactive customer support improve customer experience?

  A proactive approach to customer support can help build brand loyalty. But companies often overlook this opportunity-- at their own risk.  Continue Reading

• Should you use demographics in contact center agent routing?

  Demographic-based routing for contact center agents can provide more effective customer service.  Continue Reading

• Does gamification drive success in contact centers?

  Gamification -- typically used to boost sales performance -- can motivate contact center agents to provide better customer service.  Continue Reading

• Can workforce optimization impact the customer journey?

  Workforce optimization software can make contact center agents more efficient and help them provide timely service to customers.  Continue Reading

• Why are companies rejecting offshore contact centers?

  Companies are responding to customer pressure to bring contact center operations back to the U.S. But how do they battle the cost burdens that brings?  Continue Reading

• What should contact center agent training systems focus on?

  Some contact center agent training systems miss the mark. When choosing technology, managers must be in tune with the frontline's needs.  Continue Reading

• Have customer-centric processes arrived in the contact center?

  It's been a long journey, but are companies finally ready to incorporate customer-centric processes into their contact center operations?  Continue Reading

• Are Microsoft customers cooling on cloud concerns?

  As cloud platforms mature and become more mainstream, on-the-fence Microsoft users are taking another look at adopting them.  Continue Reading

• How is mobility changing the role of marketing?

  Marketing departments are starting to help other areas of business, using their wealth of data to build better, deeper customer relationships.  Continue Reading

• Tips for benchmarking call center metrics

  Get our top tips for benchmarking call center metrics in this expert answer.  Continue Reading

• The pros and cons of real-time speech analytics to monitor agents

  Expert Lori Bocklund weighs in on using real-time speech analytics to monitor your agents.  Continue Reading

• Give agents varied challenges during contact center downtimes

  Contact center managers can give agents a change of pace with varied tasks to take on during idle time.  Continue Reading

• Treat CEM as core task, not add-on

  Make customer experience management a central piece of corporate strategy instead of treating it like an optional plan.  Continue Reading

• Expand loyalty programs to reward social activity

  Plan to reward customers for social network activity and consider “lifestyle” rewards instead of just discounts -- a cooking lesson, maybe?  Continue Reading

• Set strategy to target social media influencers

  Forrester's Zach Hofer-Shall outlines how to set a startegy to help identify social media influencers.  Continue Reading

• Is your call center multichannel or cross-channel?

  Multichannel contact centers are evolving into cross-channel centers. Lori Bockland examines the differences between the two contact center concepts.  Continue Reading

• Improving end-to-end processes to help customer service

  Expert Lori Bocklund explains how improving your end-to-end processes in the contact center can help you improve customer service and workflow in your center.  Continue Reading

• What to consider when planning a Siebel CRM upgrade

  What’s the best way to present your case for a Siebel CRM upgrade? Expert William Band breaks down the process behind an application upgrade for Siebel.  Continue Reading

• Which call center billing model should I use?

  What’s the best call center billing model measurement – charging for calls per month or per call? Expert Donna Fluss explains the methods behind both and how to best apply them in the contact center.  Continue Reading

• Using a customer segmentation strategy for better customer retention

  Find out the best way to use a customer segmentation strategy to design a retention model that allows you to hold onto current customers and provide good customer service.  Continue Reading

• Understanding call center occupancy vs. call center adherence

  Our expert Lori Bocklund explains what’s important about call center occupancy and call center adherence, and how and why both metrics are vital to the operation of any call center.  Continue Reading

• How to increase call center staffing with Erlang C calculator

  Expert Lori Bocklund explains the best way call center management can calculate call volume and help with the need to increase call center staffing with Erlang C.  Continue Reading

• Understanding the Microsoft CRM sales process and how to convert leads

  Find out what you need to know about the Microsoft CRM sales process to convert leads to opportunities and accounts and complete the Microsoft Dynamics CRM sales cycle.  Continue Reading

• How can I measure call center agents' unavailable and "not ready" time?

  Find out how to measure call center agents' unavailable and not ready time in this expert tip and get a formula for calculating unavailable time in your call center.  Continue Reading

• Methods to increase customer lifetime value via customer loyalty

  Don Peppers discusses some effective methods to increase customer lifetime value via customer loyalty in this expert tip.  Continue Reading

• In calculating utilization rate, should we subtract time for break/lunch?

  In calculating utilization rate for the call center, should you subtract out the time that call center agents are on break/lunch? Get expert advice about how to calculate utilization rate in this tip.  Continue Reading