Tips

Tips

• How to reduce the number of clicks in Salesforce

  Users don't want to work with applications that aren't intuitive or require too many clicks to complete a task. An expert shares how to streamline things in Salesforce.  Continue Reading

• Service Cloud brings intuitive UI to customer service and support

  Here's why the Salesforce Service Cloud and its console are designed to make customer service and support more efficient and intuitive.  Continue Reading

• Getting that elusive ROI from digital marketing technology

  Don't get hung up with ROI as you try to justify spending on marketing technology, an expert advises. Start at the beginning: Define your business goals and needs and move forward.  Continue Reading

• Five common pitfalls in content marketing strategies

  Companies still need to be convinced that content marketing strategies are must-haves in the marketing toolkit.  Continue Reading

• Six Salesforce marketing automation pros and cons

  Salesforce Marketing Cloud is chock full of features to help you manage customers, but it still lacks some important features. Consider these strengths and weaknesses.  Continue Reading

• Can Salesforce Wave answer data integration challenges?

  Like other products, Salesforce Wave promises to make it easy to stitch together data silos. Is data integration as easy as it sounds? An expert offers some insight.  Continue Reading

• Mobile marketing strategy isn't a bolt-on to existing strategy

  Too often, companies falter in their marketing strategies by tacking mobility onto what they already do. Instead, you should create 'mobile moments.'  Continue Reading

• Don't alienate customers with forced context marketing

  Using data for context marketing can help target new prospects and retain existing customers. But companies have to travel the line between effective and intrusive.  Continue Reading

• Sentiment analysis tools amp up customer-centric strategy

  Companies are turning to sentiment analysis to learn what customers think. But customer sentiment is complex and can fall prey to misinterpretation.  Continue Reading

• Five must-have features in a marketing automation platform

  If you're buying an enterprise marketing automation platform, which features are must-haves? We look at five key areas, including multichannel marketing, lead management and more.  Continue Reading

• Don't let data integration issues hold your business hostage

  Data is an important commodity for businesses -- but only if it's clean. Use these data quality and data enrichment tips to keep your CRM system in shape.  Continue Reading

• Reality check on your Salesforce data integration project

  If you're embarking on a Salesforce data integration project, you shouldn't forget these three overlooked considerations, expert Eric Borthwick cautions.  Continue Reading

• Dynamics CRM and NAV integration tips to boost efficiency

  Microsoft Dynamics CRM and NAV integration is more art than science, but this tip provides the steps and paths to some readily available tools that can help.  Continue Reading

• Stop chasing KPIs to power proactive customer service

  Contact centers focused heavily on key performance indicators may improve only short-term results, an expert cautions. Find out how a knowledge management system can help.  Continue Reading

• What you can expect in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016

  The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 spring wave is about to hit, offering social engagement features, integration with recently acquired technologies and more.  Continue Reading

• When you buy CRM software, it's a business decision

  Many companies falter in buying CRM software because they don't consider the decision in the context of their business needs and existing technology, advises an expert.  Continue Reading

• How data democratization can enhance decision making

  In order to have a positive effect on decision making, users need access to data that is accurate, digestible and updated in real time. But that's easier said than done.  Continue Reading

• Contact center software updates shouldn't waylay operations

  To keep pace with customer expectations, contact centers must evaluate their technologies and make some difficult decisions about investments in the tools they've used for years.  Continue Reading

• Are you ready for an enterprise marketing platform?

  Has your company's needs outpaced the abilities of your marketing platform? It may be time to make the jump to the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Here's what to consider.  Continue Reading

• Can predictive analytics make sales funnel management work?

  If your organization is trying to rein in an erratic sales funnel and get a handle on the deals that will really close, predictive analytics may help.  Continue Reading

• Is SteelBrick CPQ on Salesforce a killer app?

  The SteelBrick CPQ tool is now part of Salesforce. Expert Eric Borthwick offers best practices for using it, and looks at how this affects Apttus CPQ.  Continue Reading

• Salesforce Community Cloud opens doors for partners

  The Salesforce Community Cloud brings partners into business processes in new ways -- but documentation and licensing caveats could derail your efforts.  Continue Reading

• Lack of customer understanding can undercut companies

  Companies may think they're doing a terrific job with personalized marketing, but studies show customers have another view. It's time to understand your customer.  Continue Reading

• Don't get buried by a Salesforce Sales Cloud implementation

  Bringing Salesforce Sales Cloud to your sales reps doesn't have to be a revolution. It can be an evolution in their way of working.  Continue Reading

• What's behind the proliferation of Salesforce PaaS offerings?

  Salesforce has announced its vision for a single app development platform. But as more PaaS offerings launch, meeting that goal isn't likely in the immediate future.  Continue Reading

• Top contact center management dos and don'ts

  Customer service agents set the tone for a customer's interactions with a company. Learn how to improve the experience with contact center management dos and don'ts from an expert.  Continue Reading

• It's about the customer lifecycle, not just closing the deal

  A shortsighted focus on closing the deal can cause a company to come up short of its real goal of nurturing consumers throughout the customer lifecycle.  Continue Reading

• Simplifying CRM with the release management process

  Don't get blindsided by the release management process. Protect users and your CRM from the unintended consequences of unanticipated changes.  Continue Reading

• Why multichannel analytics is in your company's future

  Data silos are killing company productivity, but also blocking companies from deriving key insights.  Continue Reading

• Putting contact centers at center of customer experience strategy

  Contact centers were historically viewed as cost centers rather than locus points for enhancing customer experience.  Continue Reading

• Reaching new heights in omnichannel customer service

  Contact center agents can better approximate an omnichannel customer experience with the right tools, such as a single user interface for customer information.  Continue Reading

• How to plan for a Salesforce server switch

  If your company has alerted you about an imminent Salesforce server switch by the CRM provider, here's a step-by-step process to ensure a smooth transition.  Continue Reading

• Building customer loyalty with surprise-and-delight marketing

  To foster brand loyalty, companies can forge emotional connections with customers by giving them unexpected discounts and perks.  Continue Reading

• Evangelizing clean data in Salesforce

  Salesforce can power serious business insight with analytics and other tools, but only when the system houses clean data that's well-maintained.  Continue Reading

• Why Alibaba's social media engagement strategy paid off

  Alibaba broke sales records on Singles Day 2015. What does the Chinese retailer's social media engagement strategy tell us about traditional marketing?  Continue Reading

• Handling unwieldy data with Salesforce Wave Analytics

  With sales teams struggling to access and consume data, Salesforce Wave Analytics promises ease of use and accessibility.  Continue Reading

• Employee engagement strategy improves customer experience

  Contact centers already suffer from turnover that puts customer experience strategies at risk. Companies need to tackle better customer experience via employee engagement strategy.  Continue Reading

• Boost employee retention through descriptive analytics

  Companies are now on a constant hunt for competitive edge via analytics. What they may not know is that descriptive analytics aids in the realm of employee retention strategies.  Continue Reading

• Why killing customer data silos can win you customers

  Customers care about having a great experience. To create that, sales, marketing and service departments need to combine data to provide a complete picture of the customer experience.  Continue Reading

• Despite cloud-based CRM success, data silo issues remain

  While cloud-based CRM tools are making inroads in bridging data silos, smaller, niche tools are becoming more necessary to solve data management challenges.  Continue Reading

• Three global contact center benchmarking mistakes to avoid

  The process of contact center benchmarking is fraught with missteps. Here are some mistakes to avoid if you want to truly create useful metrics and gain a competitive edge.  Continue Reading

• CRM marketplace could undergo new competition

  While the CRM market has long been dominated by a small cohort of established providers, new niche players could shake up the landscape.  Continue Reading

• How to deliver quality mobile customer service

  Companies need to focus on molding a customer experience that meets the needs of their increasingly mobile customer bases.  Continue Reading

• Despite spruce-up, is the Salesforce Lightning UI fully baked?

  Salesforce Lightning UI was updated this fall, enabling even greater ease of use, but pain points still exist in the platform.  Continue Reading

• Marketing automation platform needs integration, not features

  One company has tested several marketing automation software platforms and discovered that, with existing Salesforce technology, features may matter less than integration.  Continue Reading

• The challenges of a global contact center

  In order to handle calls successfully, a global contact center needs its agents to have a background in multiple products and to understand multiple cultures.  Continue Reading

• SAP's customer engagement strategy could trump CRM

  SAP is trying to broaden the boundaries of CRM in service of a customer engagement strategy.  Continue Reading

• Salesforce's foray into IoT extends personalized CRM

  Salesforce's venture into the IoT Cloud is yet another prong in its strategy to create personalized CRM and tailor customer experiences.  Continue Reading

• The importance of keeping a brand promise

  In today's competitive landscape, companies need to keep their promises to ensure they retain the trust of their customers.  Continue Reading

• Offering free content attracts customers

  Offering free content may seem counterintuitive when the goal is to sell, but educating consumers -- not just selling to them -- is better for a long-term marketing strategy.  Continue Reading

• How to address the mobile customer experience

  Retailers are coming to understand that mobile devices are increasingly part of the in-store customer experience. But using them correctly is a delicate balancing act.  Continue Reading

• Location-tracking apps help pinpoint customers, workers

  With the power of location-tracking apps, businesses are able to enhance customer service and sales.  Continue Reading

• Interconnected campaigns central to omnichannel marketing

  Digital marketing works best when campaigns are linked using a omnichannel marketing approach to provide a consistent and frictionless customer experience.  Continue Reading

• How predictive marketing analytics is revolutionizing your department

  Marketers, take note: Predictive marketing analytics is changing the way you do your job.  Continue Reading

• How to establish meaningful contact center KPIs

  For contact center KPIs to have meaning and bring success, companies need greater visibility into what these metrics are measuring.  Continue Reading

• Contact center management gains insight with talent management

  Talent management software can help contact centers make more technology-driven decisions to better judge recruiting and agent retention practices.  Continue Reading

• Are chock-a-block CRM features bloating CRM platforms?

  CRM systems abound with different functionality and features in today's market. But is that a blessing or a curse for CRM buyers?  Continue Reading

• Mobile location-based services require customer trust

  Mobile location-based services enable companies to enlist data for greater insight about their customers. But success in LBS isn't guaranteed.  Continue Reading

• Wearable technologies still need to hit their enterprise stride

  Wearable technologies represent a $7 billion industry, but they haven’t yet made their stake in the ground for knowledge workers.  Continue Reading

• Call routing practices focused on customer journey

  Demographic-based call routing has refocused old techniques to provide the best customer journey.  Continue Reading

• Lead-to-revenue management is at the heart of marketing ROI

  Marketing departments are often criticized for their lack of ROI. Lead-to-revenue management helps optimize a company's marketing investment.  Continue Reading

• Productivity applications get boost from the cloud

  By untethering applications from a company's servers or an employee's individual desktop, cloud computing has enabled workers to collaborate in new and more efficient ways.  Continue Reading

• Create a social media engagement strategy to drive connection

  Intelligent use of social media enables companies to engage customers and build credibility online, which underscores the importance of a social media engagement strategy.  Continue Reading

• Developing a social media presence starts with the right platform

  Picking the best social network for your business requires careful planning and knowledge of customer preferences, but doing it right can help expand your company's social media presence in major ways.  Continue Reading

• Personalized marketing rooted in customer insight

  Knowing as much as possible about customers is the first step in personalized marketing. But these practices mean nothing without customer trust.  Continue Reading

• Social media customer service presents new challenges

  Effective social media customer service requires companies to make some key decisions on staffing and division of labor.  Continue Reading

• Diverse content strategy can foster brand loyalty

  If they aren't valued and engaged, customers won't come back to your company. Here’s how to create a diverse content strategy to produce a base of brand loyalists.”  Continue Reading

• CRM and marketing: Terms you should know

  What is a marketing-qualified lead? Do you know what constitutes a 360-degree view of the customer? This glossary highlights these marketing terms and others.  Continue Reading

• Data-driven marketing strategy mixes old, new practices

  The wealth of customer data available today has changed marketers' job descriptions. But the more things change when developing a data-driven marketing strategy, the more they stay the same.  Continue Reading

• Enterprise video metrics a must to measure success

  Increasingly, companies have turned to video for customer service, product demos and branding. But they need to measure success with enterprise video metrics.  Continue Reading

• CRM documentation paves way to successful release management

  As companies use a CRM system in the wild, they need to be able to make tweaks, and those changes need to be well-documented.  Continue Reading

• Roofing company shatters the ceiling on sales technology

  Kelly Roofing turned to Microsoft Dynamics to increase communications among salespeople and the back office -- and improve customer service.  Continue Reading

• Sales management software helps teams get a jump on leads

  As customers become more knowledgeable about products, sales reps can't just rely on the gift of gab. Today they need sales management software that help target people who are ready to bite.  Continue Reading

• Workforce management software in contact centers: Pros and cons

  Workforce management software can help contact centers run more efficiently, but it's not a panacea for cost savings.  Continue Reading

• Has Salesforce Wave lived up to the hype?

  Six months after its launch, Salesforce Wave, or Analytics Cloud, may not be delivering on its high post-Dreamforce expectations.  Continue Reading

• Enhancing customer engagement strategy through a mobile experience

  Consumers use mobile devices constantly. Marketers can capitalize on this by developing a rich, engaging mobile experience to drive sales.  Continue Reading

• Sales and marketing alignment strategies to avoid self-sabotage

  Marketing automation and CRM systems can help, but proactive cohesion among sales and marketing teams is the main driver of better service offerings.  Continue Reading

• Are customer experience analytics just the flavor of the month?

  Customer service initiatives come and go. Could customer experience analytics be here to stay?  Continue Reading

• The benefits of a virtual contact center model

  Company investments in contact center agents, facilities and technology can be an enemy to profits. The virtual contact center model may defray some costs.  Continue Reading

• Post-sale interaction helps to build customer relationships

  Companies tend to focus on the events leading up to a sale. But research suggests that post-sale interaction is key for long-term relationships.  Continue Reading

• Microsoft's Power BI puts business users at forefront

  With Microsoft Power BI, the company is demonstrating a shift in focus to enable business users to better analyze data.  Continue Reading

• Omnichannel customer experience takes aim at information silos

  Companies still struggle to join multiple communication channels to create a seamless experience for customers, whether it's that be for shopping or sales or service.  Continue Reading

• Evaluating Salesforce Lightning

  Salesforce's application builder, Lightning, aims to democratize the app creation process by putting tools in the hands of business users.  Continue Reading

• Using CRM systems for more than your sales department

  You can use CRM systems to manage processes in business units other than sales.  Continue Reading

• How direct mail can enhance your marketing strategy

  While marketers increasingly rely on digital marketing methods, don't overlook direct mail. When used correctly, it can foster customer engagement.  Continue Reading

• Has Microsoft cloud strategy evolved?

  Microsoft is trying to lead customers to the cloud with hybrid offerings, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM. But will that succeed?  Continue Reading

• Beyond metrics: Putting call center data analysis into action

  How can the numbers enable decision-makers to translate the 'science' of the numbers into the 'art' of analysis?  Continue Reading

• Contact center automation takes flight

  Contact centers are wrestling with how to incorporate new communication channels into their strategies while reducing costs and boosting efficiencies. Enter automation.  Continue Reading

• Personalized marketing and customer trust go hand in hand

  Marketers strive to provide personalized experiences to their customers. But customers will only reveal personal information in exchange for trust.  Continue Reading

• If you need to close more deals, consider predictive lead scoring

  Today, companies struggle to find the most promising sales leads. Predictive lead scoring can make the process more efficient.  Continue Reading

• CRM skills training essential for system management

  The right CRM training is crucial to the management and development of a CRM system. Make sure your staff has the right CRM skills to survive.  Continue Reading

• Salesforce vs. Microsoft Dynamics: Why I choose Salesforce

  While Salesforce can be more costly than Microsoft Dynamics, ease of use and a healthy ecosystem of support can make it a persuasive choice.  Continue Reading

• Video, live chat usher in multichannel customer service challenges

  Multichannel customer service now encompasses mediums like video and live chat. But these forums have their own requirements to be effective.  Continue Reading

• Improving data quality with better CRM system design

  If your CRM system isn't designed for ease of data entry, it can undermine data analysis and decision making. Here's how to promote cleaner data.  Continue Reading

• Why designing for mobile CRM has been falling flat

  While companies are hot to trot on mobile CRM, they can lose sight of the purpose of mobile tasks: to bring efficiency and productivity.  Continue Reading

• Want to get into mobile marketing? Know your customer

  In this book excerpt, author and industry watcher Chuck Martin shows how customers' mobile behaviors should dictate companies' marketing strategies.  Continue Reading

• Are marketing automation tools the greatest asset in the sales arsenal?

  The more your sales reps know about prospects, the faster they can close deals. Here's why marketing automation tools deliver real sales intelligence.  Continue Reading

• Social engagement opportunities about more than selling

  In this book excerpt, thought leader and author David Giannetto discusses ways companies can cost-effectively identify and gain customers.  Continue Reading

• Which data tools do you need to make information actionable?

  Organizations now know that lost employee productivity comes from data overload. Which data tools can help workers sift through the information?  Continue Reading

• Is your digital content strategy achieving business outcomes?

  Raise your hand if your digital content strategy includes ways to measure the impact of content on business outcomes.  Continue Reading