News, Analysis and Opinion for CustomerExperience - Page 8

September 15, 2010 15 Sep'10

Enterprise Feedback Management – Special Report

There are more ways to survey and listen to customers than ever but organizations must approach it carefully. This special report offers real world examples, pitfalls and best practices for EFM.

September 08, 2010 08 Sep'10

Ten best practices for implementing marketing automation software

Like any software implementation, marketing automation poses risk. These 10 tips can help you avoid failure.

September 08, 2010 08 Sep'10

Marketing automation benefits can extend beyond automation and tracking

Marketing automation provides three core benefits and can extend into other areas of the business.

September 08, 2010 08 Sep'10

Navigating the marketing automation software market must still focus on the customer

Marketing automation can help a department, with information housed in a central location, but it's a complicated technology.

September 08, 2010 08 Sep'10

Start the business case for marketing automation with savings, but complement it with revenue

A compelling business case for marketing automation software starts with savings and efficiencies but should also show revenue potential.

August 26, 2010 26 Aug'10

Running customer service on Facebook takes tools and training

Rosetta Stone has launched a program to use Facebook as a customer service channel. It’s all part of a company-wide initiative to be more social.

August 13, 2010 13 Aug'10

IBM buys Unica, gets into marketing automation

Big Blue is digging deeper into the CRM market with the acquisition of Unica for $480 million, building on its Coremetrics and Sterling Commerce deals.

August 10, 2010 10 Aug'10

iPad for CRM finds a start in mobile field service

One furniture maker is rolling out the iPad with its delivery team, to improve the customer experience, go paperless and create efficiencies.

August 03, 2010 03 Aug'10

Five mistakes to avoid when implementing self-service CRM

When launching a customer self-service CRM initiative, it's important to avoid these five common pitfalls.

August 03, 2010 03 Aug'10

Look within when staffing customer self-service programs

Self-service doesn't mean hands-off. Successful self-service and social CRM efforts require committed employees to manage, monitor and develop content.

July 20, 2010 20 Jul'10

Avaya overhauls contact center suite, includes Nortel functionality

With a new midmarket contact center suite, an upgrade to its analytics and its entrance into WFO, Avaya is following through on its Nortel promises.

July 16, 2010 16 Jul'10

Best practices for a CRM integration strategy

It's not always easy to integrate CRM with other applications, but Jill Dyche says it's worth it. Learn more from this podcast on CRM integration.

July 15, 2010 15 Jul'10

Sword Ciboodle software demonstration

In this short software demonstration, Sword Ciboodle shows off its new Crowd application for social CRM and how it integrates with its contact center software.

June 29, 2010 29 Jun'10

Gartner outlines CRM's past, present and future

The renamed Customer 360 Summit, Gartner revealed its analysis of CRM's past and how that history is affecting the present CRM market, plus its predictions of CRM’s future.

June 22, 2010 22 Jun'10

Making sense of contact center metrics and customer satisfaction

Stop getting caught up in measuring contact center metrics and concentrate on what’s important: customer satisfaction.

June 11, 2010 11 Jun'10

South Africa Tourism ramps up call center, social CRM for World Cup

With the world's attention turning to South Africa for the World Cup, the call center for the country's tourism board had to ramp up operations fast.

June 10, 2010 10 Jun'10

NICE to acquire eglue

Call recording and performance management vendor NICE said today that it will acquire eglue for $29 million.

June 01, 2010 01 Jun'10

SAP, RightNow make CRM more mobile

With SAP's acquisition of Sybase and RightNow's new mobile capabilities, mobile CRM is taking off. Some early adopters are optimistic.

May 28, 2010 28 May'10

Best practices for quality monitoring in the contact center

Get advice and tips on quality monitoring of calls and learn more about analyzing the monitoring data from Deelee Freeman of The Call Center School.

May 27, 2010 27 May'10

Monsanto ties together SAP CRM, Portal KM and Cisco telephony

Monsanto revamped its customer service operations with an upgrade to SAP CRM 6.0 that leveraged the KM portal and a Cisco infrastructure.

May 20, 2010 20 May'10

NPS, follow-up helps Sony Canada improve customer experience

At SAP's Sapphire conference, Sony Canada's CIO explained how the net promoter score helped his business improve the customer experience.

May 11, 2010 11 May'10

Are engineers the next wave of CRM users?

Social networks and the expanded use of CRM are bringing engineers and product development people into contact with customers. Is that a good thing, and is it worth it?

May 06, 2010 06 May'10

Gartner's Magic Quadrant for customer service contact centers finds best-of-breed market

Gartner has released its Magic Quadrant for customer service contact centers but finds that no single vendor has it all.

May 03, 2010 03 May'10

Social CRM demands a solid business case

While some of the benefits of embarking on a social media initiative tied to CRM may be "understood," the business case still needs to be laid out carefully.

May 03, 2010 03 May'10

Measuring the ROI of social CRM no easy task

Many social CRM projects are justified by "soft" returns, and while those add benefits to the bottom line, a social CRM project can provide plenty of hard ROI figures.

April 29, 2010 29 Apr'10

Twitter Customer Service – Three Use Cases for More Social CRM

There's more than one way to use Twitter as a vehicle for social CRM and customer service. Columnist Allen Bonde outlines three use cases.

April 27, 2010 27 Apr'10

Microsoft provides glimpse of CRM roadmap, details on CRM 5

At Convergence, Microsoft gave a high-level view of its CRM strategy, including ripping out Siebel internally, and previewed some features in the next release.

April 26, 2010 26 Apr'10

Switching your focus from B2B to B2C with social media and CRM

Getting the word out to your customers isn’t just a matter of buying simple advertising anymore -- it’s about engaging with them socially. Denis Pombriant explains the ideas behind this new trend.

April 22, 2010 22 Apr'10

OBIEE for Siebel analytics project at McKesson overcomes hurdles

Facing an existing BI system as competition, objections from some executives and myriad spreadsheets, McKesson still successfully rolled out OBIEE for Siebel.

April 16, 2010 16 Apr'10

Best (and worst) practices for speech analytics in the contact center

Wondering what some best and worst practices are for using speech analytics in the call center? Our resident expert Lori Bocklund explains the dos and don'ts behind the technology.

April 15, 2010 15 Apr'10

Social CRM software ranges from cheap to free

There are myriad free or low-cost software options out there for social CRM initiatives; but beware -- you may get what you pay for.

April 12, 2010 12 Apr'10

SugarCRM software demonstration

SugarCRM has released a new version of Sugar 6. Clint Oram, co-founder and vice president of products, shows off the new user interface.

March 31, 2010 31 Mar'10

An introduction to using speech analytics in the call center

Get an introduction to using speech analytics in the call center, including what to look for, a basic definition of the technology and who should "own" it, from SearchCRM.com contributor Lori Bocklund.

March 18, 2010 18 Mar'10

CRM analytics seeing investment

IBM is focusing on predictive analytics; and now, so is Accenture with SAS. Much of the interest is in CRM analytics, but experts say companies needn't go to outside tools.

March 15, 2010 15 Mar'10

Pegasystems to buy Chordiant, add CRM, analytics to BPM

Pegasystems has reached an agreement to buy Chordiant for $161 million, bringing BPM together with CRM, customer experience and analytics.

March 12, 2010 12 Mar'10

Salesnet re-emerges from RightNow acquisition with new SaaS SFA

Four years after it was acquired by RightNow and two years since revamping its strategy, Salesnet is returning to the market for SaaS SFA software.

March 04, 2010 04 Mar'10

Successful social CRM looks back to get ahead

Are all the elements of social media and CRM so new? No, says columnist Allen Bonde. He suggests three questions to ask when looking at the past.

March 02, 2010 02 Mar'10

SAP and Sybase come through on mobile CRM for iPhone, Windows Mobile

SAP and Sybase have released SAP CRM to the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices. This brings to an end SAP's collaboration with RIM for the BlackBerry.

March 01, 2010 01 Mar'10

Using social CRM for sales, customer service analytics

Companies are learning how effective social media can be for sales and customer service. Columnist Denis Pombriant muses on what this means for the future of social CRM.

February 11, 2010 11 Feb'10

Customer experience rankings show bottom-line benefit

Forrester's latest customer experience index is out, and Barnes & Noble, Marriott and firms in retail and hospitality got good news. It may mean future profits.

February 09, 2010 09 Feb'10

Social CRM customer data management can be the hard part

Some companies are diving headfirst into social CRM initiatives, but as with traditional CRM, they need to be sure to address the data.

January 27, 2010 27 Jan'10

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.

January 21, 2010 21 Jan'10

How on-demand technology is changing marketing

How can you use marketing automation software rather than face time to close more deals? Columnist Denis Pombriant explains how marketing on-demand technology could change the industry.

January 18, 2010 18 Jan'10

SAP demos new Twitter integration

Like many in the CRM market, SAP is seeking to tie emerging social media networks into its CRM software. In this video demonstration, SAP shows off its Twitter integration.

January 12, 2010 12 Jan'10

When should you outsource customer analytics?

IBM recently rolled out a Voice of the Customer program to help companies analyze customer data, but outsourced analytics isn't right for everyone, according to some analysts.

December 17, 2009 17 Dec'09

CRM sustainability in a post-recession economy

Sustainability will be the next big issue for CRM, according to columnist Denis Pombriant. Find out what it means in a post-recession economy.

December 14, 2009 14 Dec'09

The five dimensions of a social media persona

Taking a "persona" view toward social media channels can help marketers build campaigns and craft the right tone for their message.

December 01, 2009 01 Dec'09

Customer service strategy more important in emerging markets

A recent Accenture survey found that consumers in emerging markets are more likely to switch vendors because of poor customer service and more likely to share their experiences.

November 25, 2009 25 Nov'09

Understanding customer expectations

What's the best way to turn potential customers into actual customers? Consultant Martha Rogers gives advice on building customer loyalty and using social media and social CRM.

November 10, 2009 10 Nov'09

Social media and CRM -- The marketing perspective

In his first article evaluating the marketing side of social CRM, Allen Bonde offers up some definitions and a framework for discussion.

October 28, 2009 28 Oct'09

ERP customer relationship management guide

ERP CRM modules can help manufacturers with customer MDM across the enterprise, including sales, marketing and services. Discover the features of CRM software in the ERP customer relationship management guide.

October 20, 2009 20 Oct'09

Siemens’ long journey to CRM: Custom to SAP to Oracle and more

At one point, Siemens had 500 CRM systems across the company. It has tried custom development, SAP and now Oracle CRM in an attempt to standardize.

October 13, 2009 13 Oct'09

Oracle's CRM roadmap includes running Siebel in Outlook, social CRM

Oracle executives outlined the company's plans for CRM in the coming year, including a REST API, running Siebel in Outlook out of the box and social data mining.

October 05, 2009 05 Oct'09

Salesforce.com and Cisco offer fully cloud-based call center

Salesforce.com is combining its on-demand call center software with on-demand IP telephony. It will allow companies to launch a call center without hardware, software or data centers.

October 01, 2009 01 Oct'09

Self-service software demands a strong knowledge base

The recession has companies looking harder at customer self-service technology, but the underlying knowledge base must be carefully constructed, according to a Gartner CRM Summit speaker.

September 29, 2009 29 Sep'09

Contact center benchmarking study finds emphasis on profits, processes

Despite the economic downturn, contact centers are working toward providing profit and streamlining their business processes, an annual call center benchmarking study has found.

September 23, 2009 23 Sep'09

Work-at-home agents part of a shifting tide for West Marine

With an aging contact center infrastructure and an expiring building lease, West Marine shifted its call center agents to a work-at-home model with some innovative approaches.

September 17, 2009 17 Sep'09

Gartner: Now is the time to buy marketing resource management (MRM) software

Marketing budgets were hit hard by the recession, but buying MRM now can lead to quick returns and position organizations to move quickly when the economy recovers, Gartner said.

September 15, 2009 15 Sep'09

Gartner outlines five technology trends changing CRM architectures

Cloud computing, social networks, analytics, unified communications and Web-oriented architectures are among the things that will change CRM architectures.

September 10, 2009 10 Sep'09

The back end matters too: Social CRM and the customer-centric supply chain

Think Social CRM is purely a sales, service and marketing phenomenon? Think again. Columnist Paul Greenberg explains how it can impact the supply chain.

September 09, 2009 09 Sep'09

SaaS CRM vendors get serious about Web self-service features

Oracle, Salesforce.com and RightNow all took significant steps toward beefing up their customer service capabilities with customer communities and self-service features.

September 08, 2009 08 Sep'09

Mobile e-commerce and CRM strategy dictated by business type, Gartner says

There are four types of e-commerce websites, and each has a different imperative in approaching mobile e-commerce, according to Gartner.

September 08, 2009 08 Sep'09

RightNow buys HiveLive to deliver customer communities integrated with CRM

RightNow became the latest CRM vendor to offer a social CRM component, this time buying HiveLive to help organizations build their own customer communities integrated with CRM.

September 01, 2009 01 Sep'09

A guide to using customer data and analytics tools for customer loyalty

After years of collecting customer data, companies have a wealth of information about who their customers are and who's loyal, but finding and managing that data is daunting.

August 13, 2009 13 Aug'09

SugarCRM's new CEO on open source CRM and cloud computing

Open source luminary Larry Augustin -- the new CEO at SugarCRM while the company looks for a permanent replacement for John Roberts -- discusses the CRM market and cloud computing.

August 06, 2009 06 Aug'09

How to maximize customer interactions to build customer equity

Get expert advice on how to maximize customer interactions to build customer equity. Learn effective ways to measure customer value, determine the cost of keeping a customer and how to set metrics that encourage call center agents to build customer ...

July 23, 2009 23 Jul'09

When is it time to buy sales performance management software?

These days, businesses need all the help they can get. Sales performance management (SPM) applications provide insight into sales activities, streamline operations, and open the door to new opportunities.

July 20, 2009 20 Jul'09

How important will social CRM be for tomorrow's CRM users?

In this column, Denis Pombriant discusses social media and its implications for CRM. He says establishing sales and marketing as thought leaders is key to social CRM success.

June 23, 2009 23 Jun'09

Tips for customer service and sales to build customer trust

Get tips to improve customer interaction and build customer trust in this podcast. Learn how to train employees on the importance of trust and how to measure the effectiveness of customer service initiatives.

June 17, 2009 17 Jun'09

Understanding the opportunities and challenges of sales performance management

In this podcast, Denis Pombriant gives an overview of sales performance management and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of SPM. Pombriant also talks about what types of organizations are deploying SPM today.

June 16, 2009 16 Jun'09

Building a business case for self-service

Get tips for using self-service technology effectively in this podcast. Best practices for building a business case for self-service and getting upper-management support for a self-service technology initiative are also discussed.

June 10, 2009 10 Jun'09

Using Web 2.0 technology to build customer loyalty

Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way companies build customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. In this podcast, Don Peppers talks about Web 2.0 technology must-haves, how to use social networks to improve customer satisfaction and how ...

June 04, 2009 04 Jun'09

Text analytics software, net promoter score helps JetBlue take off with customer service

A flood of emails that followed the Valentine's Day ice storm of 2007 demonstrated the need for -- and the power of -- text analytics software for JetBlue.

June 04, 2009 04 Jun'09

The executive's guide to contact center technology planning

According to some experts, there are six contact center technology trends that will have significant implications for your business in the coming years. In this article, find out about those trends and newer call center software options like Web 2.0...

May 27, 2009 27 May'09

The future of cloud computing and what it means for CRM

Get one expert's take on the future of cloud computing and its impact on the CRM market. Learn about new cloud computing vendors and the importance of compatibility.

May 26, 2009 26 May'09

RightNow joins CRM movement to extend customer service to social networks

CRM vendors are developing new capabilities to integrate customer service software with social networking and Web 2.0 sites. RightNow is the latest.

May 21, 2009 21 May'09

Forrester offers ways to mine more value from CRM implementations

Companies looking to get more value from their existing CRM implementation without spending more should focus on user training and hidden functionality, according to Forrester.

May 14, 2009 14 May'09

New SAP CRM ordering system helps Coke roll out new dispenser

A new beverage dispenser designed to revolutionize Coke's distribution system demanded a new way for the soda giant to service customers.

May 12, 2009 12 May'09

Salesforce.com lets customers share customer service data

Salesforce.com is extending its Salesforce-to-Salesforce connectors to include customer service information and added new visualization tools to its latest release.

May 04, 2009 04 May'09

Evaluating VoIP for your call center

Get help evaluating VoIP for your call center in this expert podcast. Find out about VoIP benefits and drawbacks, building a VoIP business case and using VoIP to connect remote call center agents.

April 28, 2009 28 Apr'09

Relationship marketing and customer equity with Don Peppers

Find out how relationship marketing and customer equity are linked in this podcast. Learn the difference between relationship marketing and transactional marketing.

April 23, 2009 23 Apr'09

Call center workforce management software the choice for PlumChoice

Managing 465 remote call center agents servicing 102 consumer technology products 365 days a year meant significant scheduling headaches for PlumChoice, but moving from Excel to workforce management (WFM) has made a huge difference.

April 14, 2009 14 Apr'09

Six smart CRM strategies for meeting sales quotas in a down economy

A recession doesn't mean sales reps can't sell -- it just means it's tougher. There are a number of strategies and technologies to help organizations cope with the downturn.

April 14, 2009 14 Apr'09

Building an ecommerce website that works: How to offer customers a superior online experience

Get tips for building a customer-focused ecommerce website in this podcast. Learn about ecommerce website development and how ecommerce websites can improve the customer experience.

April 14, 2009 14 Apr'09

Five lessons learned from successful CRM-ERP integration projects

Get help building a successful CRM-ERP integration project in this podcast. Learn the importance of setting integration goals for your project ahead of time.

April 07, 2009 07 Apr'09

Building a business case for a CRM upgrade can ensure ROI

Most businesses are hip to the idea that deploying CRM demands a carefully planned business case, but organizations can benefit from building a case for a CRM upgrade as well.

April 02, 2009 02 Apr'09

Leveraging customer loyalty in a down economy

There's nothing like a recession to make customer loyalty a priority. Companies that collect feedback, leverage social media and segment their customers can emerge stronger.

March 31, 2009 31 Mar'09

Secrets to success in using technology to optimize your online customer experience

Get tips for optimizing the online customer experience through technology in this podcast with expert Martha Rogers. Learn how to deploy online self-service technology effectively.

March 17, 2009 17 Mar'09

Marketers not seeing big budget cuts, survey says

Senior marketers report that they're not being forced to cut budgets significantly, but they are being asked for more demand gen and are spending less on advertising.

March 05, 2009 05 Mar'09

Should marketing or customer service manage your social networking efforts?

The emergence of Web 2.0 and social networks has left many wondering who should take responsibility for the new channel.

March 03, 2009 03 Mar'09

CRM's future looks much like its past

While social networking, software delivery and pricing have changed significantly over CRM's past 10 years, the core challenges remain, according to Gartner.

February 25, 2009 25 Feb'09

Understanding customer trust and its impact on the customer experience

Get help understanding customer trust and its impact on the customer experience in this podcast. Learn how to improve the customer experience by building customer trust.

January 29, 2009 29 Jan'09

Building a customer strategy with Martha Rogers

According to experts, a customer strategy should always be designed in the customer's best interest. In this podcast, expert Martha Rogers gives tips for updating customer strategies, building a customer strategy from scratch and adjusting an ...

January 27, 2009 27 Jan'09

Oracle updates SaaS CRM, takes aim at Salesforce.com

Oracle is offering a second single-tenant option, disaster recovery and unlimited custom objects with its SaaS CRM as it seeks to win enterprise customers from Salesforce.com.

January 26, 2009 26 Jan'09

Marketers failing to measure customer feedback, communities

Most marketers are not monitoring online message boards and communities and are failing to measure the customer experience, a CMO Council survey finds.

January 08, 2009 08 Jan'09

Aspect takes AIM at contact center performance management

Aspect's acquisition of AIM's performance management software will bring in-house capabilities it previously provided through an OEM with Merced.

December 31, 2008 31 Dec'08

Building the trust of customers with Don Peppers

There are many methods for building the trust of customers, but which work the best? In this installment of our Creating Customer Value podcast series, Don Peppers discusses the effectiveness of customer testimonials and word of mouth. He provides ...

December 30, 2008 30 Dec'08