Customers

One of the benefits from the explosion of sales effectiveness solutions has been the effect on the marketing process. For too long, selling was regarded as a pseudo science while marketing was regarded as an art that needed to be tightly controlled to prevent waste. So it was no surprise to hear d...

Measuring a Web site's performance isn't what it used to be. Site operators are increasingly turning to outside sources for the components of their Web pages. That can muddy the metrics for companies trying to get a handle on how their sites are really performing. Gomez Inc., though, believes it has...

Consumer loyalty has become such a ubiquitous goal for marketers that its definition is murky, at best. Ten years ago, a loyal customer participated with a chosen brand more frequently than the average shopper. For marketers, the term has evolved to encompass frequency, recency of interaction and mo...

There's an oft-heard slight in professional realms: "Those who can't do, teach." If taken seriously, this notion would leave marketers lost in their attempts to build consumer loyalty. Loyalty-building efforts are far-reaching and far-roaming, having scaled a precipice of marketing interest in the l...

Digital dashboards for the corporate world usually employ the typical "green light, yellow light, red light" motif, giving you an at-a-glance view of the company's bottom line (except, of course, for the color-blind -- like myself). However, the Holy Grail for metric gazers is not where the busines...

A survey of online banking illustrates how banks can cement brand loyalty and even increase market share through a thoughtful redesign of their online channel. The survey was one of three extensive research studies released by Keynote Competitive Research, measuring the performance and competitive ...

What should companies do -- and what should they refrain from doing -- when reacting to blog postings about their products or services? Robert Cox, president of the New York-based Media Bloggers Association and a consultant to consumer packaged goods companies, has very specific ideas on the subject...

In considering whether or how to reorganize customer service and back-office functions offshore, the option to open a captive subsidiary service center may not receive full consideration in comparison to outsourcing options. Here we look at the case for Western companies to establish their own dedi...

ATG has announced that it will acquire e-commerce best-of-breed vendor eStara in a US$48.3 million cash-and-stock transaction that will increase ATG's market share and bring new niche functionality under its umbrella. eStara specializes in click-to-call technology -- an online e-commerce tool that l...

Most people can visualize the classic customer service environment: hundreds of agents sitting side-by-side in a large contact center, all working off the same script, working the same shifts and being monitored in the same manner. The mass media has reinforced this vision of customer service facili...

A new product from eTalk, Qfiniti Assist, provides contact center agents with knowledge management support while they are on the line with a customer. The tool combines speech recognition and enterprise search technology to identify the information the agent needs in order to answer a client's quest...

CosmoCom has introduced Version 4.6 of its Universe contact center software platform. New enhancements include improved reporting functionality, IP Centrex integration, and new networking functionality -- namely, the introduction of a new, proprietary NAT Traversal capability. Also, this version co...

CTI Group, a provider of online billing, self-care and communication management applications, has released a hosted call recording product. In general, on-demand contact center applications have been proliferating over the last year. CTI Group's new product, called "SmartRecord IP," differentiates i...

Salesforce.com has unveiled its Winter 07 upgrade, which features first-time support for softphone -- that is, computer telephony integration, or CTI -- connectivity. It also includes new interactive calendar design and task management capabilities, as well as additional integration tools. A new AJA...

As if the airlines haven't had enough challenges since Sept. 11, 2001, British authorities were compelled to introduce a new one at the beginning of August. In addition to weathering economic downturns, volatile bankruptcies and merger flirtations, airlines now must comply with new carry-on restrict...