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11/27/06 - Customer Self Service
A CIO Magazine article called Customer Self-Service: Automat Redux talks about how self-service makes small companies seem bigger and big companies more personal. Both are traits that can make a business more effective.
The article goes on to address trends on the increasing importance of self-service. Gartner believes that self-service interactions will account for 58 percent of all service interactions, up from 35 percent in 2005. I always caution people about such projections. Averages are averages and not indicative of any particular business. Some customer bases will support self-service interactions that are the norm (90-plus percent) while others will not be conducive to self-service reporting self-service penetrations below 10 percent.
If you want to learn more about how to optimize the customer experience for self-service, I encourage you to listen to our on-demand self-service webcast. If you want to learn how to integrate self-service with CRM, apply proven frameworks and checklists, and improve the overall customer experience, this webcast is for you.
Gary Lemke, Publisher
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TODAY'S NEWS (more)
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Salesforce.com announced ApexConnect, which aims to provide customers a family of solutions for on-demand integration success, including the new ConnectOut feature of the Apex on-demand platform.
Parature announced that Caselle has incorporated client self-service and is managing their service quality levels through Parature's Customer Support Solution.
ClickSoftware announced further expansion into the United States West Coast utility market. Southern California Edison (SCE) is the latest to commit to ClickSoftware's array of tools for demand forecasting, capacity planning, scheduling and analytics.
CDC Software announced that Softrax has increased its marketing-campaign responses by 4,400 percent in the last five years since implementing Pivotal MarketFirst.
Aspect Software announced that Aspect Customer Self Service 7.2, the newest version of its voice portal platform, has received formal certification for deploying Open Call Steering functionality from Aspect Alliance Partner, Nuance Communications.
Kentico CMS 2.0, the web content management system designed for ASP.NET developers, has been released. The new version enables developers to build dynamic web sites and portals through a web browser, without writing custom code in Visual Studio.
ATG announced that Woolworths is deploying additional ATG software to power its online storefront and call center operations. Using ATG applications such as ATG Commerce Assist and ATG Outreach, Woolworths will be able to offer an even stronger multi-channel experience to its customers.
FTS announced that Euroset has selected FTS' Leap Billing and customer care solution for its MVNO, Broadband and fixed-line telephony services. The contract will provide Euroset with a rating, billing, customer care and business management tool designed for quick service introductions in multi-service environments.
Pegasystems announced it has signed a technology partnership agreement with Business Objects. With this alliance, Pegasystems will work with Business Objects to help customers optimize business processes using real-time data analysis.
CosmoCom announced the appointment of Hamamedia as a Master Value Added Reseller in Korea. CosmoCom is working with Hamamedia to strengthen support for current customers in the region, and to create new opportunities for its unified customer communications platform.
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 FEATURE WEBCAST (more) |
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"Optimizing the Customer Experience for Web Self-Service "
Allen Bonde, Senior VP, Strategy & Marketing, eVergance
Customers want - and have come to expect - great service. But, when it comes to self-service, many sites are still offering only static search and simple FAQs... with poor customer satisfaction and high escalation rates as a result. Get expert advice from self-service guru Allen Bonde and KNOVA Software CTO Mark Angel as they explore new ways to create an online self-service experience that cuts costs and delights customers with personalization and efficient resolution. You'll learn how to align business and user needs, drive adoption and measure the impact of your solution via targeted self-service metrics.
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 59.19 |  | -1.72% |
| Dow Jones | 12,126.91 | | -1.58% |
| Nasdaq | 2,409.90 | | -1.96% |
| S&P 500 | 1,383.31 | | -1.46% |
| Top Gainers |
| Witness | 18.55 |  | 18.55 |
| Astea | 7.32 | | 2.20 |
| Unica | 12.58 | | 0.58 |
| Top Losers |
| ICT Group | 33.43 | | -1.74 |
| Amdocs | 37.49 | | -1.41 |
| SPSS | 27.6 | | -1.21 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 11/22/06 | |
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 White Papers (more)
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Defining CEM - When Joe Wheeler and Shaun Smith wrote "Managing the Customer Experience - turning customers into advocates" in 2001, they did not realize that it would help to stimulate a worldwide interest in CEM that is growing all the time. For example, a 2005 Forrester survey found that 83% of executives considered customer experience to be more important than in the previous year. This year the figure is even higher. The question is why has CEM become such an issue for organizations.(GCCRM)
| | | Marketing Automation: The New Automation Frontier - Marketing, it's show time. Finance was automated in the 1960s, HR in the 1970s, manufacturing in the 1980s, and sales and customer service in the 1990s. This is the decade for marketing automation.(MarketingCentral)
| | | Contact Center Manager KPI Survival Guide - Contact center managers are confronted with volumes of data and dozens of reports generated by automated and manual systems and processes. They may have a surfeit of metrics, but lack the fundamental information needed to manage their operating environment. Too often contact centers have no way of systematically measuring and communicating how well internal and corporate objectives are being met and identifying where change is required.(DMG Consulting)
| | | A Strategic Guide to Self-Service for the IT Help Desk - Self-service support can be a make-or-break proposition. A self-service strategy that is properly developed, tested, implemented, and managed over time can add remarkable business value through saved costs and improved employee productivity.(Pete McGarahan)
| | | Seven Actionable Tactics for Critical Contact Center Improvement - In this white paper, Tim Montgomery, founder of The Service Level Group and Certified Associate of the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), shares a career worth of valuable research to help your organization take its contact center to a more customer-centric level.(etalk)
| | | Customizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Complex Field Service and Sales Organizations - Microsoft Dynamics CRM software is the fastest and easiest way to customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities to any organization that uses Microsoft Office programs or the Microsoft outlook messaging and collaboration client. Because it was designed to partner with Outlook, Microsoft CRM delivers lower training cost, broader user adoption, less application-switching, higher productivity and and incredibly rapid impact on investment.(Microsoft)
| | | The Myths and Realities of Marketing Resource Management Systems - CRM systems have traditionally focused on the tracking of leads generated from various marketing programs and tying those leads back to the sales that occur from the marketing efforts. While certainly valuable, this functionality does not address the needs resulting from the level of effort, coordination and communication required up front in order to plan, create and execute those programs.(MarketingCentral)
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