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Bring yourself up to speed with our introductory content.
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Bring yourself up to speed with our introductory content.
chief experience officer (CXO)
A chief experience officer (CXO) is an executive who ensures positive interactions with an organization's external customers. Continue Reading
B2C (Business2Consumer or Business-to-Consumer)
B2C -- short for business-to-consumer -- is a retail model where products move directly from a business to the end user who has purchased the goods or service for personal use. Continue Reading
Tips for call center crisis management amid coronavirus pandemic
Call centers can receive an influx of calls from customers during times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some steps businesses can take handle the call volume. Continue Reading
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Mystery shopping software key to customer experience management
Businesses use mystery shopping platforms, comment cards, brand reputation management and more to identify customer pain points and improve customer experience. Continue Reading
Personalized digital experiences for customers begin at home
Learn how implementing a rewarding digital experience for savvy customers starts with digitally transforming corporate culture and nurturing a customer-facing staff. Continue Reading
Contact center workforce management keeps pace with consumers
Workforce management software improves customer interactions with contact center agents and helps transform customer service from a cost center into a profit center.Continue Reading
Contact center AI opens new frontiers for customer engagements
Learn how AI and automation technologies like machine learning, chatbots and NLP are transforming one-dimensional call centers into multidimensional contact centers.Continue Reading
5 terms to know before creating a sales enablement strategy
Sales enablement is important for companies to drive efficiency, maintain customer satisfaction and stay organized. Sales enablement uses different tools and strategies to do this.Continue Reading
The contact center of the future is here
What started as a call center phone bank has morphed into a multipurpose operation aided by AI. This guide explores the contact center as it evolves into a critical CX force.Continue Reading
5 tips for an effective marketing automation implementation
Successful marketing automation implementations require steps beyond those that go into the usual technology rollouts. Here are some tips to help businesses along the way.Continue Reading
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6 ideas to consider before making a C/4HANA SAP cloud migration
Moving to SAP's C/4HANA platform may lead to improved CX. However, companies should make some considerations before starting an on-premises to SAP cloud migration.Continue Reading
5 common call center terms to know
Businesses interact with customers in a variety of ways, including via phone calls and chatbots. Here are some call center terms that define these interactions.Continue Reading
virtual agent
A virtual agent (sometimes called an intelligent virtual agent, virtual rep or chatbot) is a software program that uses scripted rules and, increasingly, artificial intelligence applications to provide automated service or guidance to humans.Continue Reading
chatbot
A chatbot -- sometimes referred to as a chatterbot -- is programming that simulates the conversation or "chatter" of a human being through text or voice interactions.Continue Reading
contact center
A contact center -- also referred to as a customer interaction center or e-contact center -- is a central point from which all customer interactions across various channels are managed.Continue Reading
actionable insights
Actionable insights are conclusions drawn from data that can be turned directly into an action or a response.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
cost per engagement (CPE)
Cost per engagement (CPE) is an advertising pricing model in which digital marketing teams and advertisers only pay for ads when users interact with their campaign in some way.Continue Reading
owned media/earned media/paid media
Owned, earned and paid media are three different types of advertising content used by digital marketing teams to create a complete and effective marketing strategy.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 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
BOPUS (buy online, pick up in-store)
BOPUS -- or buy online, pick up in-store -- is a business model that allows consumers to shop and place orders online and then pick up their purchases in the brick-and-mortar store, often within the same day.Continue Reading
real-time analytics
Real-time analytics is the use of data and related resources for analysis as soon as it enters the system.Continue Reading
These are the ABCs of marketing in the digital age
Audience understanding, behavior analysis, marketing convergence and accessible design are the ABCs of marketing in the digital age, according to Microsoft's Purna Virji.Continue Reading
Best practices for initiating chatbot-to-human handoff
Customers can become frustrated with chatbots, so it is important for contact centers to design AI that can recognize this and perform a timely handoff to live agents.Continue Reading
Evolving contact center services reshape engagement strategies
As consumer expectations increase the need for more satisfying omnichannel engagements, the role of the contact center takes on greater importance and complexity.Continue Reading
social media influence
Social media influence is a marketing term that describes an individual’s ability to affect other people's thinking in a social online community.Continue Reading
The difference between autodialers and predictive dialers
Some people don't know that a predictive dialer is a type of autodialer. There are, in fact, five broad categories of autodialers contact centers need to know about.Continue Reading
8 live chat best practices for organizations to consider
Organizations find that live chat can be a means to improve customer experience -- when implemented correctly. Here are some best practices to put into action.Continue Reading
10 things to know about Google Cloud Contact Center AI
Google has partnered with more than 90 different companies to roll out its contact center AI. This article lists 10 important things you need to know about the program.Continue Reading
The art and science of digital experience management strategies
Businesses need a well-rounded view of customers to provide innovative, personalized digital experiences. In this handbook, learn the techniques and tools of the trade.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
Customer data management tools shape personalization, boost CX
In this guide, learn about the many tools, including customer data platforms, that collect and analyze data from disparate sources and provide a single, 360-degree customer view.Continue Reading
5 Gen Z marketing trends for businesses to consider
Those born after 1995 are driving trends online for themselves and older generations. These shared experiences are important for marketers to understand. Here are some tips.Continue Reading
customer experience (CX)
Customer experience (CX) is the sum total of customers’ perceptions and feelings resulting from interactions with a brand’s products and services.Continue Reading
How to create a great customer experience strategy in 6 steps
In today's business landscape, a powerful CX strategy is key to gaining customer loyalty and a competitive advantage. Here's how to deliver a great customer experience.Continue Reading
Customer service vs. customer experience: What's the difference?
Customer service is an age-old concept, but where does it fit into the customer experience? Here's how the two are different and where they intersect.Continue Reading
relationship marketing
Relationship marketing is a customer relationship management strategy designed to encourage strong, lasting customer connections to a brand. The goal is to generate repeat sales, encourage word-of-mouth promotion and gather customer information.Continue Reading
call center
A call center is a centralized department to which phone calls from current and potential customers are directed.Continue Reading
AI converts consumer analytics into potent sales weapons
Surveys, social media monitoring and loyalty cards are just some of the ways to collect customer data. Consumer analytics can help businesses analyze that data.Continue Reading
The evolution of call centers to experience centers
The call center has evolved over the years, moving from phone-based systems to multichannel contact centers. The next move is toward a customer experience center.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
Multipronged digital customer experience strategy enriches CX
The digital experience is an everyday facet of life. Learn how businesses are using tools and technologies to engage consumers and devise and manage effective CX strategies.Continue Reading
5 tips for creating customer journey maps from buyer personas
Comprehensive customer personas are important tools in coping with the increasing complexity of customer journey mapping. Here are some tips on how to do it best.Continue Reading
4 steps to create a digital marketing strategy
This four-step approach will help organizations build a digital marketing strategy designed to increase their online presence and attract new customers.Continue Reading
6 live chat benefits to consider in a CX strategy
Live chat enables customers to solve problems quickly and agents to multitask, but it also can be difficult to implement well and requires synchronous communication.Continue Reading
brand ambassador
A brand ambassador is an advocate of a particular company's products and services. In marketing, brand ambassador may actually be a paid position and job title.Continue Reading
Prepare for California Consumer Privacy Act with these 5 questions
At Oracle's Modern Customer Experience conference, a privacy professional shared tips on incorporating privacy into CX systems so businesses are ready for the CCPA.Continue Reading
customer lifecycle
In customer relationship management (CRM), customer lifecycle is a term used to describe the progression of steps a customer goes through when considering, purchasing, using and maintaining loyalty to a product or service.Continue Reading
customer acquisition cost
Customer acquisition cost is the fee associated with convincing a consumer to buy your product or service, including research, marketing and advertising costs.Continue Reading
How to use live chat for lead generation
Live chat can successfully generate sales leads -- if done right. Here are four steps organizations can take to boost brand loyalty and close the deal.Continue Reading
How to gather and evaluate customer sentiment
Businesses can harvest customer sentiment from a number of places, including social media, surveys, likes, comment cards, contact centers and word of mouth.Continue Reading
marketing-qualified lead (MQL)
A marketing-qualified lead (MQL) is a website visitor whose engagement levels indicate that he is likely to become a customer. Continue Reading
Salesforce learning resources include free and paid options
While Salesforce offers a number of free and paid customer success tools to users, nonusers can also benefit through the use of Trailhead and the Trailblazer Community.Continue Reading
7 customer segmentation methods to help connect the dots
Customer segmentation is essential to marketing, enabling businesses to provide the right people with the right products -- and is a move away from bulk appeals.Continue Reading
5 things to know about Salesforce Customer 360
Salesforce Customer 360 -- a tool that connects customer data stored in multiple silos -- is currently in beta and will be available to all users later this year.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
customer segmentation
Customer segmentation is the practice of dividing a customer base into groups of individuals that are similar in specific ways relevant to marketing, such as age, gender, interests and spending habits.Continue Reading
autoresponder
An autoresponder is a computer program that automatically sends an email, SMS or a series of emails to a contact list subscriber based on time or event triggers.Continue Reading
marketing automation
Marketing automation is a type of software that allows companies to effectively target customers with automated marketing messages across channels including email, websites, social media and text messages to generate sales leads.Continue Reading
5 crucial ways to prepare for the CXO role
Technophiles who have experience in sales and marketing, as well as social media awareness, may be best prepared for success in the role of chief experience officer.Continue Reading
How to improve customer experience with mystery shopping
Mystery shopping -- among other CX management tools -- enables businesses to collect the data necessary to identify customer pain points and improve CX.Continue Reading
10 ways to improve the customer experience today
Many organizations struggle with where and how to improve CX, as the focus shifts from CRM to customer experience. Here are 10 strategies to use for a successful journey.Continue Reading
brand recognition
Brand recognition is the extent to which a consumer can correctly identify a particular product or service just by viewing the product or service's logo, tag line, packaging or advertising campaign.Continue Reading
needs assessment
A needs assessment is an exercise that identifies the difference between a current condition/state and the desired condition/state. Improvements can then be made to improve performance or fix a deficiency.Continue Reading
moment of truth (marketing MOT)
A moment of truth is marketing lingo for any opportunity a customer (or potential customer) has to form an impression about a company, brand, product or service.Continue Reading
showrooming (reverse showrooming)
Showrooming is the practice of examining a product in a brick-and-mortar store, then purchasing it online for a lower price.Continue Reading
Q&A: How to narrow down your CRM vendor choices
SaaS consultancy Lunar goes over the dos and don'ts for choosing a CRM system, whether you're licensing one for the first time or migrating to a new system.Continue Reading
5 sales enablement best practices to drive growth
Sales enablement consists of tools and processes that can help sales agents succeed in their roles, including training, resource availability and team involvement.Continue Reading
Our rebrand: Customer experience strategy, platforms, best practices
Customer experience strategy blurs lines between sales and marketing automation, customer service and e-commerce as they come together on next-generation customer experience platforms.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
Liferay digital experience platform helps company improve CX
Jack Maina, group chief operations officer of Britam, talks about how the financial services group rebuilt the way it interacts with customers and partners using Liferay.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
CRM (customer relationship management)
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the combination of practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving customer ...Continue Reading
6 tips for driving adoption of self-service platforms
Self-service platforms should be visible to customers, emphasized across all channels of communication and well-promoted. These and more tips are discussed here.Continue Reading
Salesforce.org's CRM for education helps UVA students succeed
The University of Virginia is one of a number of institutions using Salesforce.org's Education Cloud CRM to recruit students, track student success and manage alumni relations.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
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
customer service and support
Customer service and support (CSS) is the part of a company's customer relationship management (CRM) department that interacts with a customer for their immediate benefit, including components such as the contact center, the help desk, and the call ...Continue Reading
outbound call
An outbound call is one initiated by a call center agent to a customer on behalf of a call center or client.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
Salesforce Circles of Success help SMBs get up to speed
Circles of Success participants connect with other Salesforce users to swap challenges, tips and tricks for rolling out the platform in their businesses.Continue Reading
chat channels
Chat channels are technologies enabling companies to engage with customers in live conversations.Continue Reading
8 tips for a successful Einstein artificial intelligence rollout
You'll fail a few times before you succeed with Einstein, Salesforce customers said at Dreamforce. Once you dial it in, though, success can follow. Here are eight ways to get there.Continue Reading
conversational commerce (voice commerce)
Conversational commerce is the process of interacting with a brand or buying a product or service through non-traditional channels, such as voice assistants, SMS text and online and social media chat.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
Customers buy more and more into voice shopping
It's still early days for voice commerce and voice customer service channels. But companies are testing and investing in this new way to engage customers.Continue Reading
Loyalty rewards program fuels convenience store's CX
Since launching a loyalty rewards program last year, convenience store and gas station Yesway has driven 45.2% of loyalty members from the pump to the store.Continue Reading
actionable intelligence
Actionable intelligence is information that can be followed up on, with the further implication that a strategic plan should be undertaken to make positive use of the information gathered.Continue Reading
Dreamforce 2018 conference highlights and key takeaways
Salesforce will reveal new features, tools and platform updates at Dreamforce 2018 in San Francisco Sept. 25-28. Use this guide to stay up to date.Continue Reading
revenue operations (RevOps)
Revenue operations (RevOps) is the strategic integration of sales, marketing and service departments to provide a better end-to-end view to administration and management, while leaving day-to-day processes within the departments.Continue Reading
lead scoring
In the B2B industry, lead scoring is a methodology used by sales and marketing departments to determine the worthiness of leads, or potential customers, by attaching values to them based on their behavior relating to their interest in products or ...Continue Reading
omnichannel
Omnichannel -- also spelled omni-channel -- is a multichannel approach to sales that seeks to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience, whether they're shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, by telephone, or in a ...Continue Reading
Albuquerque Amazon Alexa skill takes heat off call center
Tens of thousands of Alexa skills -- voice-activated apps -- exist, with more to come. Learn how a city government's call center created one to help residents.Continue Reading
partner relationship management (PRM)
Partner relationship management (PRM) is a combination of the software, processes and strategies companies use to streamline business processes with partners who sell their products.Continue Reading
Marketing automation platforms merge CRM and content
Building a martech stack includes a main automation hub such as Marketo, Eloqua, HubSpot or Pardot. Then comes the hard part: picking complementary applications.Continue Reading
emotions analytics (EA)
Emotions analytics (EA) software collects data on how a person communicates verbally and nonverbally to understand the person's mood or attitude.Continue Reading
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated telephony system that interacts with callers, gathers information and routes calls to the appropriate recipients.Continue Reading
customer experience management (CEM or CXM)
Customer experience management (CEM or CXM) is the collection of processes a company uses to track, oversee and organize every interaction between a customer and the organization throughout the customer lifecycle.Continue Reading