 OUR TAKE -
Paid to Pitch
 |
| |
| |
 | Accelerate Call Center Performance
|
| Lasting Impressions:
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects!
-
Robert A. Heinlein
|
Yesterday, I wrote about the suspect nature of some customer reviews. Do we really know who wrote the product review and their motivation for writing the review? Independent if it was a good or bad review. (See "Wag the Dog".) Not every review comes with the scrutiny of an Oprah Winfrey review, you know.
As it would happen, the Wall Street Journal just wrote a piece about the rampant use of paid blogging. They reported that the Federal Trade Commission, which is chartered with protecting consumers against false advertisements, is considering the need to keep a closer eye on what people write in blogs, reviews, etc. We may be seeing new rules and penalties. But will they work in the wild west world of the Internet?
If consumers looking for earnest customer reviews spend more time trying to sniff out a rat, will they stop paying attention to all reviews? Are we looking at a day in the not so distant future when even good reviews actually work against your efforts to create the social CRM everyone writes about?
What can you do to make sure customer reviews are credible when the spirit of customer review is independence and disassociation from the seller? What does one do to find the non-biased review? That's my take. What's your take?
Gary Lemke, Publisher
|
|
|
Action Center
 Free Subscription
Submit Content
Industry Events
Webcasts
Archive
| Stock Ticker |
| Amdocs | 20.47 |  | 1.1 |
| Selectica | 0.44 | | 0.02 |
| SAP | 40.23 | | 1.59 |
| NetSuite | 11.92 | | 0.3 |
| APAC | 4.2 | | 0.09 |
| Epicor | 4.94 | | 0.09 |
| Oracle | 19.68 | | 0.33 |
| NICE | 24.48 | | 0.23 |
| Tekelc | 14.83 | | 0.13 |
| HP | 34.76 | | 0.08 |
| Sykes | 18.23 |  | -0.01 |
| Vignette | 7.5 | | -0.02 |
| Teletech | 12.97 | | -0.06 |
| Rainmaker | 1.02 | | -0.01 |
| ICT | 6.79 | | -0.08 |
| Astea | 2.32 | | -0.03 |
| eLoyalty | 6.1 | | -0.08 |
| SPSS | 30.18 | | -0.49 |
| CDC | 1.2 | | -0.02 |
| Salesforce | 39.28 | | -0.72 |
| Pegasystems | 17.55 | | -0.44 |
| ATG | 2.9 | | -0.09 |
| Convergys | 9.57 | | -0.3 |
| Unica | 4.45 | | -0.15 |
| SupportSoft | 2.18 | | -0.09 |
| Interactive | 11.15 | | -0.64 |
| LivePerson | 2.43 | | -0.14 |
| RightNow | 7.4 | | -0.53 |
| ClickSoftware | 3.27 | | -0.28 |
| Chordiant | 3.37 | | -0.3 |
| Jacada | 2.58 | | -0.24 |
| NCR | 8.9 | | -0.91 |
|
As of 3:59 p.m. on 4/23/09 |
|
 NEW IN CRM
News: Strategic Customer Service
A leading authority on measuring and improving the customer experience, John A. Goodman sees customer service as the central catalyst for growing and sustaining a successful business. In his new book, "STRATEGIC CUSTOMER SERVICE: Managing the Customer Experience to Increase Positive Word of Mouth, Build Loyalty, and Maximize Profits," he sheds light on the role of customer service in every organizational function—from product development to marketing and sales to billing—and its impact on bottom-line performance. Drawing on over thirty years of research for companies such as 3M, American Express, Chik-Fil-A, Coca-Cola, FedEx, GE, Harley-Davidson, Neiman Marcus, Procter & Gamble, and Toyota, he makes a compelling case for the economic imperative of approaching service strategically. (TARP
)
Article: Strategies for Tight Budgets
Don't despair: You can still drive efficiencies and effectiveness in marketing, sales, and service, despite constrained budgets. The key is to select a strategy that adapts to short-term imperatives while also serving longer-term needs and objectives. Four such strategies are available. Two involve leverage of existing CRM platforms; two enable migration to new platforms. All can drive more value than tight budgetary times seem to allow. For those organizations that have already consolidated onto their preferred CRM platform (i.e., their limited and standardized set of applications for marketing, sales, and service), the best strategy may be to enhance organizational adoption of the processes and tools that are already in place.(DestinationCRM
)
Article: Customer Lifecycle Management in 100 Days!
The recession is forcing companies to rethink how they do CRM. Gone are the 'big-iron' CRM projects of yesterday with multi-million budgets, inflexible two-year project plans and ROIs that were little better than inspired guesswork. In their place is a new approach to CRM, based upon running projects as internal corporate ventures that deliver tangible results, at low cost, within 100 days. To make internal venturing work for CRM, it needs to be based upon three parts, each of which supports the others. (CustomerThink
)
News: Sword Ciboodle Strikes Deal with Admiral
Sword Ciboodle has secured a deal with Admiral Group to provide its CRM platform in support of the motor insurance provider’s goals to improve business flexibility and agility. A key goal of the project is to improve the business’s flexibility and agility in order to remain in the competitive insurance market. Sword Ciboodle has been selected to enhance the company’s existing customer service agent systems, with a key goal being to reduce the number of screens and steps needed to fulfil customer requests, and to ensure agents have the right information for customers at the right time.(ciboodle
)
News: Xangati Announces App for Provider-to-Subscriber Engagement
Xangati announced availability of its end-user application suite (EAS). By extending its Application Management 2.0 framework, Xangati now puts real-time streaming visuals directly into the hands of subscribers. The result allows a service provider and their end customer to visually collaborate. The EAS is comprised of two complementary applications that provide a service provider the opportunity to reduce costs and minimize churn - the AppMonitor and the Visual Trouble Ticket portal.(Xangati
)
Didn't read the last edition of CRMAdvocate? Click
here to see what you missed.
| | |
| | |
