CUSTOMER — OCTOBER 2012

Nothing Personal, But It Isn't About You

For all the talk about putting customers first, businesses frequently focus primarily on their own internal requirements when making decisions and investments related to the contact center. Customer considerations typically fall further down the priority list, if they make that list at all. ... Read More >>>



FEATURES

Strategic Solutions Series

Media Call Center Delivers Expansive Functionality at an Affordable Price
Selecting a restaurant based on past preferences, an advertisement, or a well-known brand can work out just fine. But acting on a recommendation from someone you know and trust can be your entree into a new and wonderful experience. Word of mouth is also a pretty great way to find new solutions for your business.

Deliver

Is Knowledge Management the Next Frontier in Customer Support?
Too often, people think of KM only as technology that manages data, information and electronic files, sometimes referred to as data warehousing. But it's really a managed process to harness, develop and make available a sustainable base of knowledge that's used across the organization - and with your customers. It becomes a living, breathing asset.

Deliver

Taking the Pain Out of Change: Five Tests to Ensure Contact Center Performance
Optimum contact center performance is essential for satisfying the needs of today's always-on customers, but it can be difficult to maintain in the face of constant change. Unfortunately, these changes - whether they include the introduction of a new service or an upgrade to existing technologies - must be made in highly complex, multi-vendor environments where network issues are extremely difficult to detect and diagnose.

Deliver

The Most Popular CRM Customization Equals Deeper Integration
Customer relationship management is one of the most important investments a business can make in today's unpredictable environment. According to a study conducted by Gartner Research, chief information officers ranked CRM in their top 10 technology priorities for 2012, a major jump from its ranking in 2011. With rules and regulations becoming stricter, and the economy remaining rocky, companies must differentiate themselves by the way they manage their customer and prospect experiences.

Engage

Mobile Applications Shift to Function Over Fun
Early applications for mobile novices did not yet grasp the transformative power of mobile technologies and how quickly users would adopt and demand more advanced solutions. In the early stages, many developers participated in a gold rush of applications, where the newness of the entire app realm allowed developers to earn substantial sums quickly. The real-world usefulness of the app was not always important; the fact that it existed and was able to excite enough users was enough. Early applications included simple games, rudimentary to-do lists, and alarm clock applications that were mainly novelties designed to attract only short-term users.

Engage

How to Make Your Website Truly Useful and Valuable
We've all been there. You're on a website browsing and maybe hoping to buy a product or service, and you leave before finalizing a transaction either because you didn't find what you were looking for or because you couldn't figure out how to buy the thing.

Target

Marketing Mojo: New Tools Help Businesses Better Identify & Connect with Prospects, Customers
The shotgun approach to customer targeting is so passe. Businesses today increasingly want to use tools and technologies that enable them to identify and focus as much as possible on their particular interest groups, and to cater to their unique needs. Among the tools and services that are enabling companies to do that are lifecycle maps, mobile messaging, on-demand mobile ad buying and analytics solutions, and new CRM offerings.

ACCOLADES

CUSTOMER Introduces TMC Labs Innovation Awards - Part 2
This year marks the thirteenth installment of the prestigious TMC Labs Innovation Awards, for which TMC Labs analyzes dozens of applications to find the most unique and innovative products.

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Excelling at Mobile Customer Service
Smartphones and mobile applications have given consumers a whole new way to interact with businesses. Call it newfound freedom and convenience. For businesses themselves, the mobile approach provides a way to serve customers better and - if done correctly - to form stronger, more lasting relationships. But that's the problem. Many businesses are still struggling to determine how best to use tools such as mobile apps to their advantage.