Tools

Modernizing customer relationship strategies for some companies means refining their CRM platforms to encourage customer loyalty. Today, the customer experience journey can no longer fully succeed without bringing social media channels into the mix.

Virtual or hybrid work environments are likely to become standard fixtures for organizations. Knowledge management will play and imperative role, as the need for collaboration and the ability to share and find organizational information virtually, and at any time, only increases.

Automation is the key to future-proofing a company’s customer service journey. Oracle’s innovative solutions solve two inherent stumbling blocks with turn-key effectiveness. One is providing effective customer service by having the ability to respond to every customer’s unique issu...

Businesses across all industries are competing in the experience economy. The best way to stand out from the competition and retain customers is with optimal customer experiences, according to cloud technology firm Oracle. While this sounds simple, differentiation is a daunting task for many busines...

INSIGHTS

CRM’s Virtuous Circle

First, cloud-based CRM democratized business information, then it erased the distance between customers and vendors. Now it is poised to expand into other areas with similar democratizing opportunities. I am speaking about how we work -- at least those of us in the knowledge economy -- but there's a...

More consumers are shopping via phones and other mobile devices, and companies that use chat with commerce are reaping rewards while improving the customer experience. New commerce research reveals that at least two-thirds of firms using chat apps such as WhatsApp and WeChat see greater commerce gai...

ANALYSIS

It’s Still a Young CRM Market

The IDC CRM market share numbers are in for 2019. For the seventh consecutive year Salesforce leads the pack, this time with 18.4 percent of the market. Other big vendors trailing the leader include, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and Adobe. After 25 years of competition, the runners-up have a combined sha...

RESEARCH

Improving Company Performance

A recent study found that businesses across North America are led well and staffed with people who are engaged in what they're doing. But technology is barely adequate -- and because of this, managers should devote their attention to improving systems whenever they think about how to improve overall...

In order for SMBs to compete with larger firms when it comes to customer reach, they need to approach their marketing plan with a strategic mindset. Marketing automation not only provides important opportunities for interaction with the customer, but also saves time.

Pitney Bowes has unveiled Consumer Connect, a self-service post-purchase marketing solution for retailers and brands. The service helps retailers drive new revenue after shoppers press the buy button. It enables retailers to create a branded tracking and post-purchase experience. "Retail marketers s...

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Nimble CEO Jon Ferrara: The Beauty of the CRM Beast

"The reality of relationships is that people buy from people they like, know and trust," said Nimble CEO Jon Ferrara. "In the old days, before we ever engaged in selling, we made a connection by looking at books, things on the shelves, that kind of thing. Today, we're doing that more and more electr...

INSIGHTS

Dreamforce Considerations

The Salesforce people whom I speak with are all heads down and breathing hard in the big push to Dreamforce. In other words, things are normal for this part of the cycle. The big questions for each show are, "What will the vendor emphasize this time?" and "Will that be a tone set for the industry fo...

HubSpot has rolled out platform integrations with Shopify and Workplace by Facebook, which are designed to support the marketing and sales efforts of small and mid-sized businesses. The Shopify integration lets e-commerce marketers sync specific merchant sales data from Shopify into HubSpot for use ...

"The rise of artificial intelligence, for sales teams both internally and externally, is the biggest trend in the industry," observed Rodrigo Vaca, vice president of marketing for CRM at Zoho. "If you think of CRM as the centerpiece for your company, and you marry that with the escalating amount of ...

CRM Buyer Channels