CRM News: Customer Service

When Your Business Goofs, CRM Can Be Your Best Friend
May 10, 2012

There are three things certain in life. We all know the two cited by Benjamin Franklin, but there's a third certainty that we all face regularly and have to cope with constantly. That's the certainty that we'll make mistakes. Everyone makes them; if it hasn't happened to your business, you haven't been in business long.

Making Customers the Object of Devotion
May 07, 2012

The proliferation of customer service channels can be both a blessing and a curse. It can be a blessing in that companies now have more ways than ever to address customer needs and resolve customer issues, potentially leading to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. At the same time, the proliferation of customer service channels can be a curse.

3 CRM Traits Shared by Good People and Great Companies
May 03, 2012

I just wrote a note to a friend of mine thanking him for his participation at a conference I recently helped organize. It was a thank you note, and he's a CRM industry influencer; I won't divulge names, because it's not important to my point, nor do I want to seen like too much of a suck-up. In any event, I was grateful for his participation in the show -- not just for his session, but for his behavior at this and every other CRM event he goes to.

Social Dynamx Turns CSRs Into Rock Stars
April 30, 2012

Social Dynamx has just launched a new enterprise-class social customer care platform that will allow customer support and community management teams to identify, prioritize and handle millions of one-on-one customer social media conversations daily. As a subscription-based platform, it is designed to quickly identify relevant conversations and intelligently route them to the appropriate customer service agents.

Walmart Lets Customers Shop Online, Schlep to a Store to Pay
April 27, 2012

Walmart is targeting an interesting customer segment -- shoppers with access to the Internet but perhaps no credit card to use for purchases -- with its newly launched "Pay with Cash" initiative. It allows a customer to shop at the Walmart.com website and then pay for the order at a local Walmart store. Walmart will then ship the order to the customer.

inContact Smooths the Way for Better Customer Interactions
April 09, 2012

Cloud contact center provider inContact has released the first of what will be three major upgrades to its flagship product this year. New features in the release touch upon many areas, from agent scripting to a Web-connect module, new unified agent desktop tools and an expanded blended dialer. Most intriguing of all the new features, though, is a CRM plug-in agent, which offers a new streamlined interface for agents.

Automating Social: The Perils of Trying to Fake Sincerity
April 05, 2012

"The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made." This quote, often bandied about, is attributed to Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944), who was a French diplomat, dramatist and novelist. And, judging by his best-remembered quote, kind of a jerk. I'm not saying this specifically as an attempt at character assassination of a 68-year-dead raconteur -- no, there's a reason that I bring it up, and it has to do with social CRM.

Customer Relationship Metrics Takes On the Unstructured Data Challenge
April 02, 2012

Customer Relationship Metrics has launched Text BI, its latest offering in its suite of managed analytics solutions. Text BI enables companies to take unstructured text-based data from surveys, emails, social media, CRM systems and other applications, and organize it into a format that makes it easier to analyze.

Fee-Hungry Banks May Test Customers' Patience Again
March 02, 2012

Bank of America appears poised to ignite the wrath of its customer base once again by introducing a new fee structure for basic checking accounts. The company reportedly is readying changes that will require users of basic checking accounts to pay a monthly fee. If the customers agreed to bank online or, buy more products, or maintain a certain balance, the fee may be waived.

Sports CRM App Helps Boston Red Sox Cater to Fans
February 13, 2012

If you are a Boston Red Sox fan who splurges on luxury seats, don't be surprised if the organization suddenly seems much more familiar with your tastes and preferences. Last year, toward the end of the season, the team deployed parts of Green Beacon Solutions' Sports CRM app, which is based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Customer Focus Is an All-Hands Exercise
February 10, 2012

Last week, after dropping off my Prius at the dealership for routine service -- as I've done regularly since I bought the car in 2007 -- I ambled over to the shuttle stop for a ride home. "Where you headed?" barked the driver, never raising his head from his newspaper. When I let him know where I was going, he immediately recognized me and his demeanor changed entirely.

Microsoft Dynamics Update Promises 'CRM Anywhere'
February 06, 2012

Microsoft has taken the wraps off of its forthcoming service update to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which will be released in Q2 2012. The service update will build on Microsoft's rollouts last year in such areas as social CRM and mobile. "We are on the path to deliver a significant new set of capabilities," said Craig Dewar, director of Microsoft Dynamics CRM's product management group.

Vendor Videos With a Spark of Personality
February 01, 2012

I take briefings from all sorts of vendors every day, from established companies with a new release to emerging companies with what they hope will be The Next Great Idea that the market will seize on. I am always happy to give my opinion and advice, and sometimes it's even taken. But I am usually reticent to write about most of them simply because it's not my job to provide free advertising.

Oracle Adds RightNow to Cloud Wars Arsenal
January 30, 2012

Oracle has closed on its $1.5 billion acquisition of RightNow, developer of a cloud-based customer self-service application. Oracle announced the deal in October 2011. For Oracle, the deal makes eminent sense: It fills in a missing gap in its cloud-based CRM functionality and gives it a broader base from which to compete against Salesforce.com.

No Rest for the E-tailer
January 28, 2012

Your online store did record sales this past holiday and you are a happy person at the start of the year. After a few days of rejoicing, it is time to get back to the grind and look at how you can move forward and take your online store to even greater heights. There are a few fallouts of the holiday season that you will need to manage, and then there are some initiatives that you should plan.

Customer Experience Problems: More Diagnoses Than Prescriptions
January 18, 2012

Customer experience is leading off the year as an idea that we need to pay more attention to. In the last week, two important publications have surfaced that highlight this importance. SAP gurus Reza Soudagar, Vinay Iyer and Volker Hildebrand collaborated on a new book, The Customer Experience Edge: Technology and Techniques for Delivering an Enduring, Profitable and Positive Experience to Your Customers.

Riding the Tumultuous Retail Waves
January 12, 2012

The retail space is changing. Twenty years ago we used to shop and buy in person at retail stores. Ten years ago, the Internet started a change Wave. We could buy online but were not ready yet. So we shopped online, but we still bought in person at stores. Now we have reversed this trend completely. Today we shop in retail stores to see and touch, but we buy online because prices are lower.

New Challenges in Store for Customer-Facing Gov Websites
January 11, 2012

Just how much information about the U.S. government is available on the Internet is anybody's guess. But U.S. citizens should be comfortable knowing that if they are persistent enough, they should find much of what they are looking for regarding the federal government online -- whether it's tax information from the Internal Revenue Service, benefits data from the Social Security Administration, or some obscure economic table.