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9/12/06 - Reference Incentives
Yesterday, I mentioned that references often provide their services to the benefit of the vendor and prospective buyer. In short, there is nothing in it for the reference.
That is typically the case and that is what you want in a reference. However, you should be aware that some vendors have reference programs chalked full of neat incentives. These incentives might be simple thank-you gifts, more valuable perks like vacations, or even discounts on maintenance agreements or future purchases.
Although well intentioned, incentives could have a consequence that doesn't work in your favor. Might the incentives condition a response more favorable to the vendor? Is the customer willing to say nicer things or omit harsh statements in anticipation of those incentives? You might want to add a question about what incentives a reference has to be a reference. Just so you know.
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
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TODAY'S NEWS (more)
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etalk announced the availability of Qfiniti Assist to enable knowledge and information for agents providing service to their customers. Qfiniti Assist uses speech recognition technology to understand the customer conversation with the agent, and then offers the agent accurate responses using advanced information retrieval.
CDC Software announced the acquisition of Brilliant Training and Consulting (Brilliant) in Australia. Brilliant has built a reputation of success in Australia over the past 13 years for their CRM and business intelligence services, and have been providing these services to many large commercial clients as well as local and state governments.
FrontRange announced the general availability of version 5.0.3 of IP Contact Center (IPCC), the communications interaction management solution which provides an integrated voice communications platform that extends the functionality of other FrontRange software products, such as the HEAT Service and Support.
Sage Software announced availability of the new Sage CRM SalesLogix v7 product suite. Sage CRM SalesLogix v7 expands on the product's integrated sales, marketing, customer service and support automation capabilities with feature additions driven by the needs of small and mid-sized businesses.
Informiam announced that it has established an alliance with IEX by joining the IEXchange Technology Partnership Program.
HigherGround released version 7.6 of its Fusion Series 7 software. HigherGround simultaneously launched a microsite, www.speech2money.com, to promote its speech analytics module, Sertainty, via their recent partnership with SER Solutions, Inc.
Parature announced that The Weather Channel Interactive is leveraging Parature's Customer Support Solution across seven departments to gain detailed insight into customer perceptions and behaviors, and provide high quality, proactive support.
Envision Telephony announced the availability of an identity protection solution. Envision's Identity Protection solution provides contact centers with a solution for protecting sensitive customer data captured in millions of customer-agent interactions that occur daily.
SoundBite Communications launched version 6.0 of the SoundBite automated voice messaging solution. The new release adds enhancements that increase the ability to create, manage and execute automated voice messaging campaigns.
Verint announced record sales of $92,258,000 for the second quarter of fiscal 2006, ended July 31, 2006, an increase of 23.5% compared with $74,709,000 in sales for the second quarter of fiscal 2005. Verint's sales increased 5.2% sequentially, compared with $87,736,500 for the first quarter of fiscal 2006.
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 50.96 |  | 1.06% |
| Dow Jones | 11,445.10 | | 0.49% |
| Nasdaq | 2,187.48 | | 0.78% |
| S&P 500 | 1,305.71 | | 0.57% |
| Top Gainers |
| SAP | 47.5 | | 1.16 |
| salesforce.com | 34 | | 0.84 |
| Verint | 32.21 | | 0.71 |
| Top Losers |
| Unica | 10 |  | -0.17 |
| ICT Group | 27.68 | | -0.14 |
| SPSS | 24.08 | | -0.14 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 09/11/06 | |
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| (Feature)
The Ongoing On-Demand Software Wars - Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP each have natural advantages and disadvantages when it comes to on-demand suites. But in the view of analysts and customers, one thing matters most: commitment. Unlike earlier software revolutions that were sparked by snazzy new technology, this one isn't centered on the next big thing. If anything, the features and technology are stripped down.(CRMDaily)
|  | | Make marketing measurement count: Easier said than done - A very large company formed a task force to identify the value gained from the obscene amounts of money it spent on customer information, marketing analytics and reporting. No marketing representative was on the task force, even though marketing knew about the initiative and was consulted during deliberations. The person running the task force? An IT executive.(CMO Magazine)
| | | American Power Conversion Gets Serious About CRM - APC's CRM program identifies customers' touch points with the company, captures information on failed interactions, and figures out what's needed to make the fix.(InformationWeek)
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