CUSTOMER — JUNE 2013

Analyzing Data to Enable Real-time Response: How It Can Elevate, Differentiate the Customer Experience

Customer research traditionally has been about influencing strategy, a longer-term type of effort; meanwhile, CRM is typically more operational and tends to focus on serving specific customers, says Andrew McInnes, director of product marketing .... Read More >>>

Phone or No Phone? The UC Debate
First, let's clarify that there are situations where phones are mandatory for public safety reasons - school class rooms, elevators, emergency call stations, hotel pools and other spaces that are required by either building or fire codes. Phones are expected items in conference rooms, shared office space locations, unstaffed lobbies and similar locations.

A Custom B2B approach: InfoCision's BAM Model is Ramping up the Growth of its Business Services Division
While InfoCision's roots lie in nonprofit fundraising, the company has made major inroads over the last decade serving commercial businesses in a range of industries, including consumer services, telecommunications and media.

TMC Reveals 2013 CUSTOMER Contact Center Technology Award Winners
A new business mantra has arisen in recent years. It says customer service is the new marketing. If that is the case, then the contact center has become an even more important, and strategic, part of organizations around the world.

Crowdsourcing for Customer Service
As someone who's worked in the call center/customer care industry for more than 25 years, I've been increasingly interested in the opportunity that crowdsourcing now provides to extend and enhance customer service, while lowering costs. I call this crowd for care.

SilkRoad Helps Smooth the Ride for Employees, Promises Best Results for Businesses
Milestone, which provides technology support for such companies as eBay and Facebook, is among the users of the SilkRoad services. Boyle says the company is a fast-growing company that needed a tool to do hires quickly and effectively. All of SilkRoad's customers are using the system to leverage social media in the recruitment process, adds Boyle, explaining that the SilkRoad service enables businesses to provide tools so candidates can see who at the company they know.

Are We There Yet? Not When it Comes to Personalizing the Customer Experience within the Contact Center
However, despite this awareness, the vast majority of companies continue to fall behind in their ability to move the needle on delivering a truly differentiated customer experience. The Forrester 2013 Customer Experience Index report shows that 61 percent of companies are rated OK, poor, or very poor by their customers, which is only a slight improvement of 2 percent compared to 2012.

Diamond Candles Illuminates the Benefits of Smart Social Media Strategy
Facebook has been a particularly effective means for Diamond Candles to push its $25 product, which is targeted a mid-market females in the 23- to 55-year-old age range. Diamond Candles, which boasts a quarter million Facebook fans, frequently used Facebook contests to try to boost user engagement. But the company wanted to make sure it was optimizing its promotional efforts on Facebook, so it tapped a company called SumAll to help out, said Justin Winter, co-founder and CEO of Durham, N.C.-based Diamond Candles.

Citrix Renders the Benefits of Multi-channel Support Crystal Clear for Avigilon
Yet, along with an intensifying demand for support, new support needs are emerging that are placing even greater challenges on contact centers to find ways to respond effectively. Customers now want to access support in the exact channel they prefer and have instant resolution to their issues, wherever they may be. The service agent must be always available and more efficient than ever before.

Understanding Your Customers' DNA: The Key to Intelligent Connections
Your contact center can handle hundreds of millions of customer interactions each year. At iQor, we believe each and every one of these calls, emails, chat sessions, and social media responses generates a series of important data points - small but useful clues, like strands of DNA. Utilizing the right digital network, infrastructure, tools, and processes to analyze, innovate and act, today's advanced contact centers can assemble these strands to help organizations develop a deeper understanding of their customers and, in turn, connect with and delight them more intelligently.

Mobile Analytics in Action: The Key to Building Customer Loyalty on Your Mobile App
Thousands of game publishers are vying for Joe's attention, trying to pull him away from Deer Crossing. But Joe is loyal to that app. That's because he's a member of an online mobile loyalty program, which rewards him for his very frequent play with a virtual currency. Using his newly earned currency, Joe can buy real-world rewards such as a free music downloads or discounts on gift cards for his favorite clothing store.

Shopping for Statistics: Survey Indicates Retail Consumers are Open to New Experiences, But Social's Impact May be Waning
A new study of the retail clothing space by Market Force Information reveals that more consumers are open to trying and buying new brands, most often prompted to do so by sales and promotions. The same study indicates social media may be having a diminishing impact on customer behavior relative to retail decisions.

Don't Leave Money on the Table: A 360-degree View of the Customer Can Help Financial Firms Lift the Bottom Line
Your customer-facing reps have to trudge through system after system to respond to customers or prepare for customer calls. They simply can't win in a competitive environment where firms are arming their reps with next-generation sales enablement platforms. Whether your company gains or loses market share will depend on how effective you make your brokers, agents, and reps - not how efficient (more calls), but how effective (better calls, higher value content).