Customers

Zendesk, a Web-based help desk software provider, has not shied away from the mobile market, despite the traditional view of a help desk or customer service rep working at a desktop. It has introduced applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android and now, the iPad. This application is the...

The cheapest available resources no longer necessarily come from the business next door. Any product or service that can be outsourced is more than likely being offered in some other region of the world for a competitive price, and it's up to consumers to decide where to spend their dollars. This m...

When Microsoft began demoing early betas of its newest CRM iteration, Dynamics CRM 2011, it used map-based examples to show off the functionality. Problem was, there were no robust mapping features actually embedded in the application, which got Paul Reitmeyer, senior CRM consultant at Planet Techno...

The emergence of the social customer is forcing businesses to think differently about how they reach the people to whom they sell, and much has been written about ways for businesses to cope with this. However, as is all too common in CRM discussions, the customer is often forgotten as we default to...

Wouldn't it be great if customers who had questions about your products could get the answer from other customers? Wouldn't it be wonderful if customers brainstormed on ways you could improve your service processes? Wouldn't it be tremendous if you could see trends in service needs and adjust your p...

McDonald's used to have a hamburger called the "McDLT." The peculiar selling point of this burger was that it was served in a two-compartment Styrofoam container that "kept the warm side warm and the cool side cool." The diner would then put the two halves together. I was blissfully unaware that war...

Pegasystems has introduced its second major cloud offering within the last year: Pega Cloud for CRM. It follows the company's release of Pega Cloud for BPM. While the functionality is different, the application's approach to cloud computing is the same. In both cloud applications, the company takes ...

In November, as the crowds of caffeinated holiday shoppers began to swell, Starbucks baristas received a corporate edict: slow down. Going forward, they were to make only one drink at a time, no matter how many customers were waiting in line. According to sources, Starbucks customers were complainin...

The cost of business travel is going up and up and up and, oh yeah, Happy New Year. Forget all the CRM prognostications you've been reading over the holidays, the only one of significance to your business and to CRM is what you'll be paying to get in front of customers. Last week a former Shell Oil...

Self-service is a concept that has been evolving. In decades past, self-service meant providing a detailed manual. The downside, of course, was that a printed manual could not be updated dynamically and was costly to distribute. In the late 1990s, with the advent of the Web and content management, s...

LiveOps, a contact center software and call center outsourcing provider, recently announced six new features designed to enhance its contact center cloud solution. The enhancements include Call Flow Authoring Studio, configurable recording, real-time configurable dashboards, call visualization repor...

With helpdesk, knowledge management, customer portal, email auto response, project management, and mobile access capabilities, Soffront prides itself on being a one-stop shop for customer service solutions. "The customer service solution we offer is pretty comprehensive," said Manu Das, CEO of Soffr...

FuzeDigital characterizes its customer service solution as social business software that uniquely blends comprehensive multichannel support and online community technologies. "The Fuze Suite is a blending of SCRM and E2.0 technologies," said Chuck Van Court, president of FuzeDigital. The community k...

LiveOps is a cloud-based company that has two businesses. It began by providing call center outsourcing services through a network of more than 20,000 independent home-based agents, then began offering its contact center Platform as a Service. Monster.com describes LiveOps as the nation's largest do...