 OUR TAKE -
Really, What Can I Do?
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| Lasting Impressions:
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
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P. J. O'Rourke
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In the last edition of this column, I offered what I believe is the number one, ultimate customer service question. Did you miss it? If so, read "What Can I Do For You?"
Today, I want to follow up with a bit of reader input as well as a homework assignment. First the reader comments:
"We are not able to put ourselves in our customer's shoes and not able to look at things from their perspective. The best opportunity to engage the customer about a product or service is when the customer *is* engaged with the product or service. This requires trained employees who are attentive and act in the moment to gain customer feedback and then bring the information to the back-office."
To be in the mind of the customer, the customer must be clear what they really want. That is the power of the question. Now, for the homework assignment. Today, ask at least one customer "What Can I Do For You" and write with your story on what happened next. That's my take. What's your take?
Gary Lemke, Publisher
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| Stock Ticker |
| Selectica | 0.46 |  | 0.06 |
| NCR | 9.59 | | 0.89 |
| Epicor | 4.62 | | 0.36 |
| CDC | 1.21 | | 0.09 |
| Interactive | 11.26 | | 0.71 |
| Convergys | 9.59 | | 0.59 |
| Amdocs | 19.98 | | 1.07 |
| APAC | 3.87 | | 0.19 |
| Pegasystems | 19.09 | | 0.9 |
| Teletech | 12.88 | | 0.6 |
| Rainmaker | 0.86 | | 0.04 |
| Sykes | 17.71 | | 0.81 |
| ClickSoftware | 4.25 | | 0.17 |
| HP | 34.43 | | 1.37 |
| Jacada | 2.93 | | 0.1 |
| SPSS | 31.11 | | 1.03 |
| ATG | 2.88 | | 0.09 |
| eLoyalty | 4.57 | | 0.13 |
| Oracle | 19.11 | | 0.54 |
| Vignette | 7.04 | | 0.19 |
| NetSuite | 11.8 | | 0.3 |
| RightNow | 7.69 | | 0.18 |
| Tekelc | 13.64 | | 0.26 |
| Chordiant | 3.76 | | 0.07 |
| SAP | 38.6 | | 0.69 |
| NICE | 26.09 | | 0.44 |
| ICT | 6 | | 0.07 |
| Astea | 2.2 | | 0.02 |
| LivePerson | 2.46 | | 0.01 |
| Salesforce | 37.4 | | 0.02 |
| Unica | 5 |  | -0.05 |
| SupportSoft | 2.35 | | -0.03 |
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As of 4:00 p.m. on 4/10/09 |
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 NEW IN CRM
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Sentiments are very different from conventional facts. Cultural and contextual factors come into play: who's "speaking," where is that person speaking, who is he or she speaking to? There's lots of slang -- phat, cool, bomb, snap -- and ambiguity -- "sinful" is a good thing when applied to chocolate cake -- as well as sarcasm, irony, and idiom. You don't see "Genistein inhibits protein histidine kinase... Not!" in a scientific paper.(Intelligent Enterprise
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Softtrends announced availability of its latest Mobile CRM+ software for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Mobile CRM+ makes all Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Sales Force Automation (SFA) features available on Windows Mobile, Symbian Series 60 and Blackberry Smartphones. Based on Smart-Client design, Mobile CRM+ allows on-the-go sales professionals and executives to view and update information anywhere, anytime in Online, Offline, and Semi-connected mode. Mobile CRM+ is loaded with a host of features to extend Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online server Transactions, Information and Interactivity to mobile sales professionals. (SoftTrends
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Companies like BazaarVoice do a great job for setting up authentic review programs for their clients, programs that benefit both the business and the customers. On their site they provide statistics on the efficacy of such program. Here’s the issue. Peer reviews work when they authentically capture the opinions of other people and accurately represent true range of reviews posted about a product or company. But now we are discovering that some peer review sites are manipulating the reviews so they can garner more advertising review from sponsors.(CustomerThink
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Benefits are the things which are derived from an organization. For example, a pensions provider's main benefit to those buying its service is a confidence for the customer that their financial future is secure. It has nothing to do with how quickly they answer the phone - although this might help the feeling of security. It is to do with the maturity values and a confidence in the integrity of the company. Transactions are the things which people and organizations do. So the transactions associated with the pension provider might be ensuring a quick answer to problems and queries, and regular and easy to understand updates on the fund. But transactions use up resources, be they time, energy or materials.(MyCustomer
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Technology to help businesses focus on customer service and follow profitable leads, has taken a step forward today with the availability of Ribbit for Salesforce from BT Business. The application enables all Salesforce CRM customers to link mobile voice communications with their existing Salesforce CRM account. Already available in the US, the application is the first UK service from the Ribbit Communications Platform following BT’s acquisition of the Silicon Valley start-up last year, and signals the company’s entry into the enterprise cloud services market. (Ribbit
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