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Strike While the Social CRM Iron Is Hot March 18, 2010 
"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." If you haven't heard that one multiple times, you aren't really in business. It's a truism -- and part of being a truism is that it's true, for the most part. When a new business strategy emerges, it can temporarily topple truisms -- but soon, they're back and as applicable as ever.
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Talking to Your Tribe March 17, 2010 
I recently read Tribes by Seth Godin and I think it might hold some clues to the future of CRM. Godin is a business blogger and author of more than a dozen books with titles like Permission Marketing and Purple Cow. He's not about the status quo, he's all over change and leadership like a junkyard dog.
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The Empty Promise of Experience Without Engagement March 10, 2010 
I wasn't sure what the reaction would be to last week's column on customer experience.
Maybe I hang around with vendors and other analysts too much, because customer experience is a hot topic among, us and it's generally seen as a good thing. However, judging by last week's mail and some further digging at the Harvard Business Review's Web site, it appears that there are at least two camps with decidedly different views.
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The Sometimes-Deadly 'Customer Experience' Strategy March 03, 2010
Customer experience reared its head in my life this month. My phone service went out, which was not a catastrophe for me because in addition to the landline, I have a cell and a nifty VoIP line that lets me talk through my computer. Parenthetically, I love my VoIP line because, though I live in the Boston area, the VoIP line has a 415 area code, which you may know is San Francisco's.
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VCs' Confidence Crisis February 24, 2010 
In our industry, we live on innovation, and innovation takes capital -- something that has been in short supply over the last couple of years. Venture funding took a massive hit in 2009, but there are signs that the trend might be bottoming out. If it is, we might all learn to exhale again.
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Unified Communications: Decidedly Sustainable February 17, 2010 
I almost never attend a webinar unless I am speaking. When I need to know something, I usually get a one-on-one with a CEO or other leader of a company. They're very gracious with their time, and the tutelage helps me as an analyst, though often I don't run out and write something about my experience.
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The Year of the Customer: Balancing Service and Efficiency February 09, 2010 
The big question as we move through 2010 may be, "What does the future hold?" But really, the past year will give us a clearer glimpse into the future than any crystal ball possibly could. 2010 is the year of the customer. December 31st, 2009, marked the end of one of the toughest years companies have faced in decades.
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Airlines Set Flight Path for Better Customer Experience February 08, 2010 
The commercial airline business -- ever sensitive to booms ands busts -- is struggling to maintain traffic in the short run while also trying to build a customer base for the future. Rather than compete on price and schedule alone, airlines are moving away from a mass marketing and commodity approach to sales promotion. Instead, a greater focus on customer relations is emerging.
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The Golden Age of Marketing January 27, 2010 
One of the reasons that sustainability is such a big issue for all of us is the way the marketplace has shaped up in the last few years. A telltale sign is the initial public offering market. The once-vibrant activity of bringing new companies to the stock markets has shriveled up, and with it you have a graphic description of a relative lack of innovation in the economy.
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CRM and the Hospitality Sector: It's All About Value January 25, 2010 
Major hotel chains have been wooing travelers for years with CRM tools focused mainly on "loyalty" or rewards programs. The CRM programs help hotels and resorts determine which customers patronize the same hospitality brand on a regular basis. However, there is a growing awareness that such programs may not be as valuable to either to the hotel, or to the customer, as once thought.
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The Next Big, Green Thing in CRM January 13, 2010 
News that the economy shed an additional 85,000 jobs in December is enough to put a damper on any New Year's celebration, and it was a sobering reminder as we trudged back to work in January that we are only in the early stages of a recovery. Just to review, we know that employment is a lagging indicator and that nothing moves in a straight line.
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Business Sustainability: Closing the Loop January 06, 2010 
A new year! Blank screen! OK, let's talk! I think sustainability will be a big theme for me from this year onward. If your idea of sustainability is mostly about rain forest preservation and similar topics, I hope you will read on and think new. The thing that keeps coming back to me is that sustainability is only partly about the rain forests.
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The Retail Industry's CRM Implementation Problem January 04, 2010 
Cyber Monday may be the most visible symbol of the increasing use of e-commerce technology in the retail sector. On just one day, Nov. 30, consumers operating from home or office computers in the U.S. spent $887 million on Internet purchases. The spending level amounted to a gain of 5 percent versus Cyber Monday of 2008, and it matched the heaviest online spending day on record.
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Customers Give Big E-tail Big Love in Holiday Satisfaction Survey December 30, 2009 
More shoppers went online to retailers' Web sites this holiday season, and overall they were happier with their visits than they were in 2008, a survey by ForeSee Results found. For the second straight year, Amazon.com led ForeSee's pack of top 40 U.S. e-retailers in terms of customer satisfaction.
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2010: The Year of Living Sustainably December 23, 2009
Am I kidding me? Forecasting the year ahead? Sheesh! One of the reasons the task I set for myself is so daunting this year is that I believe we are in a massive transition state that affects the whole economy, CRM included. I think Tom Friedman got it right in version 2.0 of his Hot, Flat and Crowded.
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The Social Piece of the Customer Service Puzzle December 17, 2009 
With social networks, forums, blogs and so on, customers now possess powerful, public channels for voicing their opinions, crowdsourcing and, ultimately, exercising their influence over how brands are perceived. Businesses are no longer in complete control of their images.
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