OUR TAKE -  Average Ratings     Recent Editions of CRMAdvocate 05.06.09    Doubting is the Point - II 05.05.09    Honor a Teacher 05.04.09    Doubting is the Point 04.30.09    Wear It in Style 04.29.09    Dominated by the Influential Few 04.28.09    Just Add Credibility     Lasting Impressions: The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw I remember my father once warned me about the danger of putting too much emphasis on averages. He would say, you could have one foot on a block of ice and another foot on hot coals and the average temperature would lead you to believe your feet are comfortable at 85 degree Fahrenheit (29 C) All the while both feet are anything but comfortable.   So it goes with customer reviews. A four (out of five) star rating may hide many sub-standard reviews of zero or one star. But that brings up an interesting question. How does the same product get a glowing review from one consumer while getting a horrible review from another? Is the polarized difference in ratings due to consumer agenda, different expectations, variability in product, or something else?   OK, all this brings me back to the point that social CRM involving customer reviews is suspect at best. I don't offer this observation to you the consumer I offer it to you the provider. The question for you is how to make customer reviews credible for your prospective buyers. Are you giving them reason to believe what they read in your social CRM circles?   That's my take. What's your take?   Gary Lemke, Publisher          Action Center         Free Subscription         Submit Content         Industry Events         Webcasts         Archive   Stock Ticker APAC 5.71      1.98 Vignette 12.11      3.09 ClickSoftware 4.18      0.7 CDC 1.54      0.2 SPSS 33.76      3.09 RightNow 8.29      0.43 Epicor 5.42      0.28 Jacada 2.4      0.08 Rainmaker 1.04      0.03 NICE 25.8      0.7 NetSuite 11.69      0.3 Chordiant 3.45      0.07 ICT 7.6      0.08 SupportSoft 2.19      0.02 Amdocs 21.67      0.15 eLoyalty 7.21      0.02 Oracle 19.06      0.05 Tekelc 16.9      0.01 NCR 10.63      0 Unica 4.78      -0.02 SAP 38.23      -0.26 Astea 2.37      -0.02 Convergys 10.1      -0.1 HP 36.33      -0.47 Sykes 18.02      -0.29 Selectica 0.48      -0.01 ATG 3.41      -0.08 Salesforce 43.87      -1.03 LivePerson 2.83      -0.11 Teletech 11.86      -0.5 Pegasystems 23.23      -1.26 Interactive 10.8      -0.67 As of 4:00 p.m. on 5/6/09         NEW IN CRM   News:    Convergys Announces On-Demand Voice Authentication Solution Convergys announced the availability of a platform-independent On-Demand Voice Authentication solution. Companies can implement this solution by enrolling the voice signatures of their customers and employees. Upon enrollment, companies can authenticate agent-assisted and consumer transactions more securely than with a traditional ID + PIN authentication. Included in this solution is voice biometric security from the Voice Signature Service [SM] provided through Convergys’ partnership with TradeHarbor [R], Inc.(Convergys )   News:    New Look chooses ATG to strengthen online growth ATG has been chosen by UK fast fashion retailer New Look to deliver its next generation multi-channel e-commerce platform. New Look operates more than 900 stores across UK, France & Belgium and in December 2007 launched its first transactional website, www.newlook.co.uk. Weekly sales through the site now match those in the company’s top stores, and significant increases in sales mean that enhancing the website with the latest e-commerce technology has become a key priority. Following the success of this initial venture, validating the business model, New Look recognised the need to deliver a true multi-channel user experience and after evaluating the possible options have decided to partner with ATG to deliver their next generation e-commerce platform.(ATG )   News:    bSelling launched on the Force.com AppExchange Austhink Software announced that bSelling has been launched on the Force.com AppExchange. bSelling amplifies the effectiveness of Salesforce CRM's Opportunity function and enables salespeople and sales managers to qualify opportunities, identify pain points, and develop winning sales pitches. Managers can qualify sales prospects quickly for more accurate pipeline placement, while using the sales story to motivate and guide their sales teams to sell more, faster. (Austhink )   Article:    Delta No Longer Sending Reservation Calls to India Customer calls were no longer forwarded to India as of the first quarter of this year, Delta's Chief Executive Richard Anderson said. Foreign call centers remain in Jamaica and South Africa, though Anderson indicated that staffing at those locations likely will be reduced in the future as the global financial crisis cuts call volume.(CRM Daily )   Article:    Speed Up Sales in a Slow Economy Did you know that despite the current U.S. economy, over 90 percent of generated leads are still not being followed up on by salespeople? It's true, sadly, and the reason for this is that so many of these leads are considered to be of poor quality. Unfortunately, this perception of poor lead quality is often accurate, and its cause is rooted in the way most marketing departments are evaluated. Marketing is deemed successful based on the quantity of leads produced or cost per lead, with little regard given to actual lead quality. In fact, this problem exemplifies the misalignment that exists between the majority of marketing and sales organizations today.(DestinationCRM )   Didn't read the last edition of CRMAdvocate? Click here to see what you missed.

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