Get started

Get started

Bring yourself up to speed with our introductory content.

• Five call center sales tips and techniques

  In difficult economic times, ramping up sales in the call center can provide another outlet to help companies meet sales quotas and drive sales effectiveness. We've gathered these five tips for companies looking to improve call center sales and ... Continue Reading

• How to use Web 2.0 technology for customer service, marketing, sales

  As more customers head to the Web to review products, make purchases and find information, forward-thinking companies need to learn how to leverage Web 2.0 to stay competitive. Here are a few ways you can use Web 2.0 technologies to improve your ... Continue Reading

• Leveraging speech recognition technology in call centers

  Learn more about speech recognition technology in this special report, where we've outlined the basics of this up-and-coming call-center technology and what you need to know about speech recognition software for the call center. Continue Reading

• neuromarketing

  Neuromarketing is the study of how people's brains respond to advertising and other brand-related messages by monitoring brainwave activity, eye-tracking and skin response...(Continued) Continue Reading

• loyalty punch card

  A loyalty punch card is a token that lets a customer earn free merchandise or discounts after a certain number of purchases. Continue Reading

• Definitions to Get Started

  • content personalization
  • Salesforce Service Cloud
  • customer journey map
  • voice of the customer (VOC)

  • chief experience officer (CXO)
  • buyer personas
  • customer experience (CX)
  • Salesforce Trailhead

  View All Definitions

• loyalty card program

  A loyalty card program is an incentive plan that allows a retail business to gather data about its customers. The goal of a loyalty card program is to build repeat business by offering participating customers something that isn't available to ...Continue Reading

• transactional marketing

  Transactional marketing is a business strategy that focuses on single, "point of sale" transactions. The emphasis is on maximizing the efficiency and volume of individual sales rather than developing a relationship with the buyer. (Continued)Continue Reading

• The top 10 customer experience questions

  Read our list of the top ten customer experience questions from expert Lior Arussy. Learn about customer experience mapping, the chief customer officer position and more.Continue Reading

• SOA and CRM: Top 10 headlines

  A service-oriented architecture (SOA) can help enable integration between CRM and other applications in the enterprise. These headlines will get you up to date on the latest news and information on SOA and CRM.Continue Reading

• Five best practices for starting a call center

  When starting a call center, use these best practices from the experts.Continue Reading

• Workforce optimization (WFO) quiz

  Workforce optimization (WFO) is still an emerging call center technology, but in recent years the call center market for WFO has experienced tremendous growth as companies look to optimize their business processes through one unified system. Whether...Continue Reading

• CRM jobs and careers: Special report

  In this CRM jobs and careers special report, you'll find popular news articles, expert advice and other resources to help with a job search or career advancement. Get the latest CRM job market news and headlines from SearchCRM.com and other sources....Continue Reading

• Vertical industry CRM: Special report

  In this vertical industry CRM special report, we've compiled popular news articles and case studies on implementing, managing and maintaining CRM in vertical industries.Continue Reading

• Call center management training

  We've gathered these tips and advice on call center management training to help you train current and future call center managers in your organization.Continue Reading

• Customer surveying and feedback: Top 10 headlines

  The best way to keep your customers satisfied is to solicit their feedback -- and act on it. Failure to do this can be catastrophic for any organization, big or small. We've gathered these headlines on customer surveying and feedback to help you ...Continue Reading

• Quality of Experience (QoE or QoX)

  Quality of Experience (QoE or QoX) is a measure of the overall level of customer satisfaction with a vendor. QoE is related to but differs from Quality of Service(QoS), which embodies the notion that hardware and software characteristics can be ...Continue Reading

• What is the industry standard for service level?

  Test yourself on service level in this question from the Call Center Metrics School quiz.Continue Reading

• If a call center has an 80% occupancy rate, what does that mean?

  Test yourself on occupancy in this question from the Call Center Metrics School quiz.Continue Reading

• Call center metrics quiz answers

  With answers from the Call Center Metrics School quiz, learn about call center metrics like average handle time, occupancy and schedule adherence.Continue Reading

• Customer experience management: Top five headlines

  In an attempt to build customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, many companies have turned their attention to the customer experience. We've gathered our most popular headlines on customer experience management (CEM) to get you up to date on the ...Continue Reading

• CRM ROI quiz.

  For many years, the return on investment (ROI) from CRM implementations was dissapointing -- at one point, analysts suggested that eight out of 10 projects failed to deliver on ROI promises. Today's reports are more optimistic, and many ...Continue Reading

• Evaluating sales force automation (SFA) software vendors

  In this section of the sales force automation (SFA) guide, review top vendors and options including hosted SFA to help you decide if SFA is the right choice for your organization.Continue Reading

• Salesforce Automation Learning Guide

  This sales force automation (SFA) guide covers critical components of building and managing a successful and effective sales force. Learn how to get started with a sales strategy, the most important things to evaluate in sales force automation ...Continue Reading

• market leadership

  Market leadership is when an individual or company owns the largest market share or highest profitability margin in a given market for goods and services. Market share may be measured either the volume of goods sold or the value of those goods. (...Continue Reading

• Web 2.0 and CRM quiz

  This quiz on Web 2.0 and CRM was designed to test your knowledge of Web 2.0 technology and social networking and open your eyes to how this technology can help advance CRM initiatives.Continue Reading

• Web 2.0 and CRM quiz answers

  Test yourself on Web 2.0 and social networking and how this technology is impacting CRM, with the answers to SearchCRM.com's quiz.Continue Reading

• Call Center Performance Management Learning Guide

  Performance management skills are essential, yet they aren't easy to master. As a call center manager, you are tested on all aspects of monitoring agents in the call center, including call center planning, developing agent skills, rating agents ...Continue Reading

• abandoned call

  An abandoned call is a call or other type of contact initiated to a call center that is ended before any conversation occurs... (Continued)Continue Reading

• Preventing call center attrition quiz answers

  Discover how to prevent call center attrition with the answers to SearchCRM.com's quiz.Continue Reading

• ContextAds

  ContextAds is a targeted advertising program designed for the Linden Lab Second Life virtual community... (Continued)Continue Reading

• Call center interactive voice response (IVR) system quiz answers

  Find out how you did on SearchCRM.com's call center IVR system quiz with these answers.Continue Reading

• Call center interactive voice response (IVR) system quiz

  Call center interactive voice response (IVR) systems continue to expand their functionality. Find out how much you know about today's IVR technology with this quiz.Continue Reading

• silent monitoring

  Silent monitoring refers to the practice of call center managers or senior agents listening to the interaction between an incoming caller and an agent. Silent monitoring is generally used in training and to ensure that customer service and ...Continue Reading

• Apex

  Apex is a development platform for building software as a service (SaaS) applications on top of Salesforce.com's customer relationship management (CRM) functionality.Continue Reading

• skill-based routing (SBR)

  Skill-based routing (SBR) is a component of automatic call distributor (ACD) systems that filters and directs incoming inquiries to call center agents with the most applicable skill sets.Continue Reading

• Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction Learning Guide

  Find out about customer loyalty and satisfaction, marketing, metrics and advice on the best ways to retain customers. This SearchCRM.com guide will lead you through defining, measuring and maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty. Also, learn ...Continue Reading

• Customer loyalty case studies and industry-specific strategies

  This section of the Customer Loyalty Learning Guide provides a look at other businesses that have implemented customer loyalty programs and examines innovative strategies and industry-specific challenges.Continue Reading

• Case studies of call center best practices

  Discover call center best practices in case studies for call center managers. Learn how some of the best call centers operate.Continue Reading

• Call Center Manager Learning Guide

  This guide helps call center managers better understand the most critical issues in today's call centers from strategy to technology.Continue Reading

• Customer self-service case studies

  These customer self-service case studies examine how other companies have implemented self service and what challenges and benefits they've encountered.Continue Reading

• Evaluating and implementing customer self-service technology

  This section of the guide to self service offers explanations of self-service terms and expert advice on customer self service.Continue Reading

• contextual marketing

  Contextual marketing is an online marketing model in which people are served with targeted advertising based on their current page or recent browsing behavior... (Continued)Continue Reading

• sales cycle

  The sales cycle is the sequence of phases that a typical customer goes through when deciding to buy something.Continue Reading

• one-to-one-marketing (1:1 marketing)

  One-to-one marketing (sometimes expressed as 1:1 marketing) is a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy emphasizing personalized interactions with customers.Continue Reading

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM quiz answers

  Looking for answers to SearchCRM.com's quiz on Microsoft Dynamics CRM? Read the answers plus detailed information from our most popular news articles on Microsoft CRM here.Continue Reading

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM quiz

  If you missed Microsoft's Convergence 2007 conference, use this quiz to catch up on the latest Microsoft CRM news. Read our most popular news articles on Microsoft CRM as well as announcements from the conference. Find out how much you know -- and ...Continue Reading

• customer relationship analysis (CRA)

  Customer relationship analysis (CRA), sometimes termed customer relationship analytics, is the processing of data about customers and their relationship with the enterprise in order to improve the enterprise's future sales and service and lower cost.Continue Reading

• marketing encyclopedia

  A marketing encyclopedia is an application with an online interface to a database of information that a sales person might want to help a customer make a purchase decision.Continue Reading

• customer valuation

  In customer relationship management (CRM), customer valuation is a scoring process used to help a company determine which customers the company should target in order to maximize profit.Continue Reading

• skyscraper

  A skyscraper ad is a tall and narrow banner advertisement usually placed to the right of content on a Web page.Continue Reading

• intellectual capital

  Intellectual capital is knowledge that can be exploited for some money-making or other useful purpose.Continue Reading

• direct email marketing

  Direct email marketing is a format for email-based campaigns in which standalone advertisements are sent to a targeted list of recipients.Continue Reading

• Shoshkele

  A Shoshkele (pronounced Shosh-KEY-lee) is a proprietary type of floating ad developed by United Virtualities.Continue Reading

• database marketing

  Database marketing is a systematic approach to the gathering, consolidation, and processing of consumer data (both for customers and potential customers) that is maintained in a company's databases.Continue Reading

• up-sell

  Up-sell is a marketing term for the practice of suggesting higher priced products or services to a customer who is considering a purchase.Continue Reading

• Learn IT: How Spam Affects Email Marketing Campaigns

  1. What's the difference between spam and legitimate email marketing? Spam is unsolicited bulk email (UBE).Continue Reading

• Permission Marketing

  Permission marketing is an approach to selling goods and services in which a prospect explicitly agrees in advance to receive marketing information.Continue Reading

• bid for placement

  Bid for placement is a paid inclusion search engine marketing model in which advertisers select keywords and bid per click for first link placement in search results using those terms.Continue Reading

• leaderboard

  A leaderboard is a popular type of banner advertisement.Continue Reading

• Camram (Campaign for Real Mail)

  Camram -- the name derives from "Campaign for Real Mail" -- is a method for controlling spam that requires spammers to spend resources for each piece of mail sent.Continue Reading

• nagware (annoyware)

  On the Web, nagware (sometimes called "annoyware") is programming that presents the user with one or more pop-up windows or alerts when an application is launched or closed (sometimes both), reminding the user to register, purchase the application, ...Continue Reading

• cannibalization

  In marketing, cannibalization is the decreased demand for an existing product that occurs when its vendor releases a new and similar product.Continue Reading

• video e-mail

  Video e-mail is an e-mail message with a video file either inserted in the body of the message or accessible through a hypertext link.Continue Reading

• clicks and mortar

  Clicks and mortar, sometimes seen as clicks-and-mortar or clicks and bricks, is a type of omnichannel business model that takes advantage of both online and offline operations.Continue Reading

• Floating Ad

  A floating ad is a type of rich media Web advertisement that appears uninitiated, superimposed over a user-requested page, and disappears or becomes unobtrusive after a specific time period (typically 5-30 seconds).Continue Reading

• collaborative CRM

  Collaborative CRM is an approach to customer relationship management (CRM) in which the various departments of a company, such as sales, technical support, and marketing, share any information they collect from interactions with customers.Continue Reading

• customer-managed relationship (CMR)

  A customer-managed relationship (CMR) is a relationship in which a business uses a methodology, software, and perhaps Internet capability to encourage the customer to control access to information and ordering.Continue Reading

• do not call list

  The "do not call" list is a registry of phone numbers in the United States that telemarketers are prohibited from calling in most circumstances.Continue Reading

• readerboard

  A readerboard is a visual display board that conveys information about a wide variety of subjects, including advertising for products or services, travel, news or event information.Continue Reading

• longest delay in queue (LDQ)

  Longest delay in queue (LDQ) is the longest time period that a customer in a queue waits before either connecting with an agent or hanging up.Continue Reading

• automatic callback

  Automatic callback is a telephone system feature that permits a caller who gets a busy signal to instruct the system to establish the connection when the line becomes available... (Continued)Continue Reading

• click-to-callback

  Click-to-callback is a Web-based customer relationship management (CRM) technology that enables users browsing a company's Web site to leave a phone number where a company representative can call them back with more information.Continue Reading

• ANI (Automatic Number Identification)

  ANI (Automatic Number Identification) is a service that provides the receiver of a telephone call with the number of the calling phone.Continue Reading

• customer service chat (CSC)

  In customer relationship management (CRM), customer service chat (CSC) is an Internet service that allows the user to communicate in real time with a customer service agent by using an instant messaging (IM) application that's built into the ...Continue Reading

• escalation plan

  An escalation plan is a set of procedures set in place to deal with potential problems in a variety of contexts... (Continued)Continue Reading

• fast clear down

  A fast clear down is a call center term for a caller who hangs up upon hearing a delay notice.Continue Reading

• collaborative browsing (co-browsing)

  Collaborative browsing (also known as co-browsing) is a software-enabled technique that allows someone in an enterprise contact center to interact with a customer by using the customer's Web browser to show them something.Continue Reading

• e-support

  Part of the growing trend toward online customer relationship management (CRM), e-support is the electronic (usually Web-based) version of customer service that would otherwise have required either a visit to a company or a telephone call.Continue Reading

• level of support (support level)

  Level of support indicates a specific extent of technical assistance in the total range of assistance that is provided by an information technology product (such as a software product) to its customers.Continue Reading

• talking translator

  A talking translator is a program that translates words and phrases from one language to another language and delivers the translation to the user as audio information.Continue Reading

• issue tracking system (ITS)

  An issue tracking system (ITS) is a software application that allows an enterprise to record and follow the progress of every problem or "issue" that a computer system user identifies until the problem is resolved.Continue Reading

• trouble ticket (trouble report)

  A trouble ticket (sometimes called a trouble report) is a mechanism used in an organization to track the detection, reporting and resolution of some type of problem.Continue Reading

• Digital Silhouettes

  Digital Silhouettes is the trademarked name that Predictive Networks has given to user profiles that are established through gathered click stream data and artificial intelligence (AI) processes.Continue Reading

• Customer loyalty quiz answers

  Every organization struggles with customer loyalty. Find out how much you know about customer loyalty with the answers to SearchCRM.com's Customer loyalty quiz.Continue Reading

• Customer loyalty quiz

  Figuring out how to attract and retain happy customers is a struggle for every organization. Find out how much you know about customer loyalty with this quiz. You'll find the most common terms related to customer loyalty, as well as technology ...Continue Reading

• geotargeting

  Geotargeting is the practice of customizing an advertisement for a product or service to a specific market based on the geographic location of potential buyers. Every country, province, state, county or city in the world can constitute a niche ...Continue Reading

• service assurance (SA)

  Service assurance (SA) is a procedure or set of procedures intended to optimize performance and provide management solutions in communications networks, media services and end-user applications. Service assurance is an all-encompassing paradigm that...Continue Reading

• crowdcasting

  Crowdcasting is a problem-solving and idea-generating tactic in which a corporation disseminates details of a specific problem or situation to a carefully chosen group of people for possible solutions. The process is often conducted as a contest. ...Continue Reading

• Streamlined Sales Tax (SST)

  The Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) program is a cooperative arrangement among states in the United States for the collection and payment of retail sales taxes when the seller and the purchaser are located in different taxing jurisdictions... (Continued)Continue Reading

• Customer self-service quiz answers

  Looking for a cheat sheet to SearchCRM.com's Customer self service quiz? Read answers and get detailed information on all related CRM topics, including the benefits of self service technology and how to select and manage self service ...Continue Reading

• Customer self-service quiz

  Many CRM practitioners are aware of the cost savings associated with self service. But there is a lot more you need to know in order to use self service effectively in your organization. Test your self service savvy with this quiz from SearchCRM.com.Continue Reading

• Employee self service quiz answers

  Employee self service (ESS) is an up-and-coming technology that can help employees perform routine tasks and assist customers more quickly. Find the answers to SearchCRM.com's employee self service quiz here.Continue Reading

• Employee self service quiz

  Employee self service (ESS) can be used to help employees handle routine tasks and for help desk employees and call center agents to assist customers better. Test your knowledge of employee self service with this quiz from SearchCRM.com.Continue Reading

• Google bomb

  A Google bomb is an attempt to bias a search result on Google by increasing a Web page's PageRank. ...(Continued)Continue Reading

• database of record (DBOR)

  A database of record (DBOR) is a repository for centralized storage of information about objects or people... (Continued)Continue Reading

• 6. A call center agent is replaced by this automated program in an organization

  A virtual agent takes the place of a customer service representative to assist customers.Continue Reading

• 4. Call center ROI can be used to grade how well a company is managed

  Return on investment (ROI) measures the profit realized as the result of a specific use of money. The ROI for a call center is used as a way to grade how well a company is managed.Continue Reading

• astroturfing (astroturf marketing)

  Astroturfing is the artificial creation of a grassroots buzz for a product, service or political viewpoint. ... (Continued)Continue Reading

• call logging

  Call logging (also known as call recording or call monitoring) is the practice of listening to, recording and assessing interactions between agents and callers.Continue Reading

• Incremental Revenue (Value) Analysis

  Incremental Revenue (Value) Analysis is a process used to calculate the value of each agent in a call center.Continue Reading