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• Marketing automation software buying considerations

  Marketing automation tools have progressed, but the field is still developing. Here are buying considerations for marketing automation software. Continue Reading

• A guide to call center metrics

  Call center metrics have changed over the years, especially with the advent of social media. Discover how call centers have kept pace with the times. Continue Reading

• Why workforce management and customer experience go hand in hand

  Associate workforce management, or WFM, and customer experience have more in common than you might think. Continue Reading

• A guide to mobile CRM applications

  Mobile CRM applications help organizations keep up with their on-the-go customers, improve customer service and retain customer loyalty. Continue Reading

• The future is now for mobile contact center apps

  Mobile contact center applications are still maturing, but they should service the new default: Consumers' mobile way of life. Continue Reading

• CRM metrics: Why it's time to get innovative

  For CRM metrics to be meaningful and work for different business units, resist the impulse to over-measure. Justin Robbins explains why.Continue Reading

• Case Study: Can field service management ring a telecom's bell?

  Field service management is an area of CRM you may have forgotten about, but it's alive and well and using analytics to improve service levels.Continue Reading

• Test your knowledge of customer experience management best practices

  Take this short quiz to test your knowledge about customer experience management best practices.Continue Reading

• Mobile technology makes time management challenging

  Mobile technology has made it easier to solve problems at the office while we aren't at the office. But all that connectedness could mean more work and less play.Continue Reading

• People, technology make a customer experience management strategy work

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• A winning mobile engagement strategy requires integration, good design

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• Tie contact center and IT for strong customer experience management

  The contact center and IT are often worlds apart, and the customer experience suffers as a result. But industry observers say a few simple principles can change all that.Continue Reading

• Successful CEM strategy, study finds, calls for higher employee wages

  A retailer's successful CEM strategy, study finds, requires above-average employee wages.Continue Reading

• Inside the Salesforce App Exchange: A developer's perspective

  Force.com MVP Michael Farrington explains the Salesforce.com App Exchange's security review process.Continue Reading

• MLB teams batting a thousand with social CRM strategy

  Companies building CRM strategies can learn from how Major League Baseball uses social media to connect with fans.Continue Reading

• Gartner: Companies must master Master Data Management best practices

  Companies should put aside internal differences to get handle on MDM, a Gartner researcher says at the group’s CRM conference.Continue Reading

• A question of contact center metrics

  One of the best tools for reorienting the contact center to be more CEM-driven is to change up the metrics commonly used for evaluating its performance.Continue Reading

• Contact center strives for strategic role in customer experience management

  It may live on the front lines of day-to-day customer interaction, but the contact center is not always a pivotal piece of companies' customer experience management (CEM) plans. Here's how to transform the contact center into a strategic CEM asset.Continue Reading

• Tips for benchmarking call center metrics

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

• Employee focus transforms customer experience management strategies

  CEM initiatives suffer when employees can’t provide their perspectives on customer concerns.Continue Reading

• Planning and allocating resources for customer experience management

  Customer experience management (CEM) crosses multiple departments and IT systems. How should organizations tackle the enormous task of mapping out a CEM transformation?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

• PCI DSS offers call center PCI compliance tips

  The payment card industry compliance standards body has released a new document to help contact centers protect sensitive customer data.Continue Reading

• Workforce management software

  Workforce management (WFM) software is an umbrella term for desktop and mobile programs that help a business manage staff scheduling. The term originated in contact centers and other service businesses that employ a large number of workers who are ...Continue Reading

• Workforce management (WFM) software

  Workforce management (WFM) software is an umbrella term for desktop and mobile programs that help a business manage staff scheduling. The term originated in contact centers and other service businesses that employ a large number of workers who are ...Continue Reading

• A new approach to sales lead generation, management, and nurturing

  The best practice for leads generation comes from hiring outside help; a company with people who can act as lead farmers, managing leads in a way that promotes long-term success. Sales and marketing departments are not configured in a way that ...Continue Reading

• The importance of long-term sales lead management

  Companies frequently fail to see the value of long-term sales lead management, instead pursuing short-term, hot leads that often fail to result in sales. Approaching a sale with foresight and a focus on prospect development produces better results.Continue Reading

• 10 steps to a practical social media business strategy

  Leveraging social media is an increasingly important -- and rewarding -- project, but it takes careful planning. Columnist Allen Bonde explains.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

• Three management tips for overseeing call center agents on night shift

  There are psychological and medical challenges for call center agents working the night shift. Hear management tips from Donna Fluss for managing night shift call center agents.Continue Reading

• Managing customer conversations in the call center

  Get tips for managing customer conversations in the call center and find out how call center agents can deal with chatty or emotional customers.Continue Reading

• Developing a CRM implementation schedule

  Get tips for developing a CRM implementation schedule and setting executive expectations for your CRM or SFA project in this chapter excerpt. Also, learn some rules to follow if you're thinking about outsourcing some aspects of your CRM project ...Continue Reading

• Beginning a Salesforce.com CRM or SFA project

  A key success factor for any CRM or or sales force automation (SFA) project is making sure to plan out the project ahead of time. This chapter explains the requirements, schedules and costs that are involved in completing a Salesforce.com project ...Continue Reading

• Creating a Salesforce.com CRM business case

  This chapter excerpt outlines steps for building a Salesforce.com CRM business case. Estimating costs is a big part of this process. Learn about the three main cost areas: procurement, implementation, and ongoing user expenses and get tips for ...Continue Reading

• 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

• The emergence of Web 2.0 and mashups

  Get an overview of Web 2.0 and mashups and learn about Enterprise 2.0 and RSS and Atom formats in this chapter excerpt. Discover the definition of mashup.Continue Reading

• Consumer and enterprise mashups

  Learn about the various types of mashups and the difference between consumer mashups and enterprise mashups. You'll also learn about potential sources for mashup data.Continue Reading

• Tips for converting a lead to a contact in Microsoft CRM

  Learn to use Microsoft CRM to convert leads, including two ways to covert a lead to a contact and how to map CRM data from lead fields to a contact form.Continue Reading

• How to develop a new customer strategy

  Find out how a new business should go about developing a new customer strategy for the first time. Learn the importance of establishing customer worth.Continue Reading

• The top 10 CRM analytics buzzwords

  Get the top CRM analytics terms and definitions and learn how analyzing customer interactions can help improve the customer experience and marketing efforts.Continue Reading

• Four tips for downgrading customer status

  Learn four steps to take when downgrading customer status and altering the customer tier, including offers that might build customer loyalty again.Continue Reading

• What's the best way to manage unprofitable customers?

  Learn tips for turning unprofitable customers into profitable customers in this tip. Find out who in the organization should manage unprofitable customers.Continue Reading

• Customer retention vs. value retention

  Studies have shown that many customers are more likely to change their buying behavior than they are to defect. Because of this, it's important that companies not only manage customer retention, but keep an eye on value retention as well. In this ...Continue Reading

• Customer retention management

  Most experts will tell you that retaining a customer is easier (and more cost-effective) than aquiring a new one. Because of this, it's important that all companies have established customer retention strategies. In this chapter excerpt, you'll find...Continue Reading

• Understanding customer commitment

  Research shows that there are three forms of customer commitment: relational commitment, instrumental commitment and value-based commitment. In this chapter, learn about all three types of customer commitments and get key performance indicators (...Continue Reading

• Creating positive customer retention strategies

  Is your organization deploying positive customer retention strategies or negative ones? In this chapter excerpt, learn about a number of positive customer retention strategies, including how to add customer-perceived value, create social and ...Continue Reading

• Customer development and termination strategies

  As most successful CRM practitioners know, there's a time to develop customer relationships and a time to unload unprofitable customers. In this chapter excerpt, learn strategies for developing profitable customers and get tips for using CRM ...Continue Reading

• SIP in the call center: Top 10 buzzwords

  In many of today's call centers, session initiation protocol (SIP) allows customers and call center agents to connect through various forms of multimedia communications. We've gathered these terms and definitions to help you better understand SIP ...Continue Reading

• Tips for calculating maximum occupancy in the call center

  Expert Lori Bocklund defines maximum occupancy in the call center and explains the maximum occupancy formula in this tip.Continue Reading

• Four steps for an effective mobile CRM implementation

  Implementing mobile CRM applications on mobile devices doesn't have to be challenging. Follow these four steps from a CRM implementation expert and discover how to overcome integration challenges.Continue Reading

• Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code

  In this tip, you'll find advice for sales managers and sales forces to create simple, effective sales strategies. This chapter focuses on utilizing the power of resource management as an important sales tool.Continue Reading

• Managing call center stress: Three stress management training courses for agents

  In order to deal with the tension of emotional calls, call center agents often require stress management training. Expert Donna Fluss names three companies who have developed stress management courses for call center agents in this tip.Continue Reading

• Call center workforce optimization (WFO): Pros and cons

  Workforce optimization software is being deployed in more and more call centers as organizations look to optimize their call center and other business processes in a single, unified system. Learn the pros and cons of workforce optimization and get ...Continue Reading

• Call center eLearning: Top 10 buzzwords

  Providing ongoing call center agent training and coaching should be a high priority for call centers of any size. We've gathered these call center eLearning buzzwords to help you understand the basics of eLearning technology and decide if it's right...Continue Reading

• Difficulties in selling and sales management

  Learn about the difficulties in selling, sales management and executive management that are addressed in the solution selling sales process. This chapter lists the many challenges salespeople, sales managers and executives face on a daily basis.Continue Reading

• Integrating CRM with business intelligence tools

  Integration between CRM and business intelligence (BI) tools can be a challenge. Learn about a proven methodology for BI-CRM integration that can speed up the integration process.Continue Reading

• Call center technologies: Top 10 buzzwords

  Call center technology is constantly evolving, so it can be difficult to keep track of the latest innovations in the market. We've compiled this list of the top 10 call center technologies to consider for today's call centers.Continue Reading

• Integrating Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM and ERP applications

  Successful integration between Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM and ERP systems depends on a number of factors that differ according to complexity. CRM integration is a major challenge for organizations of all sizes. In this new series, ...Continue Reading

• CRM application integration using Web services

  More and more organizations are turning to Web services to help ease application integration pains. In fact, when it comes to integrating new and legacy CRM applications, Web services can be a cost-effective and valuable solution.Continue Reading

• Office poker games to break the ice in the call center

  Office poker games are a fun way to encourage your employees to get to know each other better. This chapter excerpt from "More Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers" gives step-by-step instructions for starting an interactive game of ...Continue Reading

• Team building games for call center employees

  This chapter includes three team building games for call center employees. These activities can be used to encourage team building in call centers and motivate call center staff.Continue Reading

• Cell phone activities for call center teams

  Cell phone activities are a great way to encourage team building in call centers. This chapter outlines a few cell phone activities call center managers can use to introduce new employees to the call center team and break the ice in the office.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

• Advanced Find in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

  The Advanced Find tool in Microsoft Dynamics CRM has some powerful and useful capabilities. This section gives step-by-step instructions for using Advanced Find in Microsoft CRM, complete with detailed screenshots of the tool in use.Continue Reading

• Salesforce.com for dummies: Creating daily reports

  Use this step-by-step guide to create daily reports from scratch in Salesforce.com.Continue Reading

• Salesforce.com for Dummies: Report features and functionality

  Learn about Salesforce.com report features and functionality in this chapter from Salesforce.com for Dummies.Continue Reading

• Measuring customer service excellence

  Start measuring customer service in your organization with this chapter from "Delivering and Measuring Customer Service." Learn the three ways any company can measure the level of service their employees are providing and get the pros and cons of ...Continue Reading

• Best customer retention strategies

  Explore information for developing a customer retention strategy, find tips for implementation of a customer retention program and learn how to calculate retention rate in this guide.Continue Reading

• Customer loyalty concepts: Top 10 buzzwords

  While the idea of keeping customers loyal is timeless, new ideas and theories regularly emerge about the best ways to build and maintain customer loyalty. Along with these new ideas come new terms you need to learn to help you keep your loyalty ...Continue Reading

• Call center chatting: Top 10 buzzwords

  Today's customers are going to the Web instead of the phone when they need to place an order, pay a bill or get an answer to a question. Because of this, chat technology, which allows call center agents to communicate with customers online, has ...Continue Reading

• Designing a call center metrics strategy

  In this podcast, get advice from Lori Bocklund and Steve Suhn of Strategic Contact on the top 10 metrics to consider in the call center.Continue Reading

• Knowledge management in the call center: Top 10 buzzwords

  Knowledge management is a complex concept that has a wide variety of terms and definitions associated with it. We've compiled this list of knowledge management buzzwords specifically for the call center.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

• Beyond customer satisfaction: Know your customers intimately

  This chapter from "Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service" examines why customer satisfaction isn't enough to ensure customer retention, and urges managers to engage customers emotionally.Continue Reading

• Mobile marketing: Understanding the wireless world

  Interested in learning more about mobile marketing? This chapter provides an overview of messaging, including four main messaging technologies: SMS, smart messaging, EMS and MMS. Learn how to use messaging as part of your own mobile marketing ...Continue Reading

• Using middleware for SAP CRM: Optimizing inbound queues

  This chapter focuses on the different causes of problems for inbound queue processing in SAP CRM middleware. Each section covers a specific problem in depth and outlines possible solutions.Continue Reading

• How are current trends affecting marketing strategies?

  Expert Lior Arussy discusses how businesses are adapting their marketing strategies to meet their customer's changing expectations.Continue Reading

• Is your call center team leader ready for a management position? 10 ways to tell

  It can be difficult to evaluate a team leader's potential for a higher-level call center management position. Read 10 tips from Donna Fluss to determine whether your call center team leader is ready to be a call center manager.Continue Reading

• Self-service technology: Top five buzzwords

  Self-service is a version of electronic support that allows customers to access information and perform routine tasks over the Internet. More and more frequently, businesses are implementing self-service applications to improve their customer ...Continue Reading

• Call center staffing: The importance of hiring well

  This chapter offers advice on hiring call center agents, with tips on interviewing, recognizing service-oriented candidates and making the offer. It includes a sample call center job analysis, and top interview questions.Continue Reading

• Web 2.0: Top ten buzzwords

  Read the top definitions related to Web 2.0, the advanced Web that is creating a more interactive and participatory internet. Web 2.0 affects how customers relate to their businesses, and continually evolving technologies ensure that Web 2.0's ...Continue Reading

• Call center scheduling: How to manage Auxiliary or unavailable time

  Expert Lori Bocklund advises a reader on managing a call center agent's Auxiliary or unavailable time.Continue Reading

• Customer service excellence best practices: Tip #6

  In the final tip of the series, learn about customer service best practices and read case studies of organizations that achieved customer service excellence.Continue Reading

• Change management in a customer service strategy: Tip #5

  This tip provides ways that change management should be incorporated into a company's customer service strategy and how it can contribute to overall customer service excellence.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

• Customer service excellence: Six tips in six minutes

  This tip series can get you on the path to company-wide customer service excellence. Each tip explores one component of a thorough customer service strategy, including using customer intelligence, company employees, leadership and organizational ...Continue Reading

• Call center utilization (occupancy) -- tips on using and calculating

  Expert Lori Bocklund gives tips on how to calculate call center utilization, or occupancy, and how to best use and interpret this metric.Continue Reading

• Negotiating skills and strategy: Top five buzzwords

  Negotiation skills are essential in the business world. These top buzzwords offer some tips on common negotiation tactics, so you'll be prepared for any situation where you need to use your negotiating skills or prepare a strategy.Continue Reading

• Calculate average speed of answer (ASA) with workforce management

  Call center expert Lori Bocklund offers tips on using workforce management tools to calculate average speed of answer (ASA) and other call center metrics.Continue Reading

• Working the call center night shift -- tips for agents

  The trick to working the call center night shift is to get into a routine, says Donna Fluss in this expert tip.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

• Managing remote call center agents: 14 best practices

  Many organizations are embracing the concept of remote call center agents, but the most significant concern is how to manage these agents without personal contact from the call center supervisor. In her latest column, Donna Fluss outlines best ...Continue Reading

• Building customer equity: How to create addicted customers

  This sample chapter on building customer equity and loyalty, from "Addicted Customers: How to Get Them Hooked on Your Company," offers tips on attracting customers who will remain loyal to your business.Continue Reading

• The top five sources of increased customer power

  Learn how to advocate for customers and earn their trust in this chapter download. MIT professor Glen Urban will show you why you should do this, how you can do this, and what other leading edge companies are doing in this arena.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

• How to Conduct a Call Center Performance Audit

  This guide explains how to conduct a performance audit and understand more than 50 specific aspects of a call center that must be running smoothly in order to achieve maximum performance in both efficiency and effectiveness of handling inbound ...Continue Reading

• Customer loyalty: Top five buzzwords

  Find out more about the top five customer loyalty buzzwords that every call center manager and marketer should know. SearchCRM.com's extensive glossary includes these key terms: churn rate, customer lifecycle, customer service and support, ...Continue Reading

• Using subject matter experts (SME) to develop call center managers

  Learn the benefits of promoting star agents to subject matter expert positions (SME) where they work under the call center supervisor.Continue Reading

• Agent performance management for the help desk

  Call center expert Lori Bocklund answers a reader question about the best ways to score help desk agents and which metrics to use for a fair assessment. She suggests service levels, quality and customer satisfaction to start, with varying metrics ...Continue Reading

• CRM success relies on managing a project post-implementation

  CRM managers need to monitor and steer a CRM project after the implementation to ensure success, according to Gartner.Continue Reading