OUR TAKE -  A Marketing Opportunity or a PR Challenge     Recent Editions of CRMAdvocate 06.02.09    A Call for Transparency 06.01.09    A Good Shirt or a Good Story 05.29.09    Snarky Social Commentary 05.28.09    Viral Marketing Gone Bad 05.26.09    Bang for the Buck 05.22.09    Ouch     Lasting Impressions: Life's not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well. - Jack London As the chefs in the kitchen continue to work on the CRMAdvocate transparency policy, I thought I would share a reader comment with you. To me, it talks about the importance of creating a transparency policy prior to the need. Once you need it, it's already too late. Here it goes:   "I once heard that 'ethics' is what you do when you are certain no one will ever know. I think that this transparency issue is in this same vein. Everything we do should be done with the totally belief that it will become widely known even if we think it is a secret. Wouldn't it be better to mention it up front and make it a marketing opportunity rather than a PR challenge later? So perhaps a communiqué that 'we are putting less in the package in an attempt to keep the price point within your budget' would be better." (See Bang for the Buck)   Do customers pay more attention to a company's motives rather than the action itself? If so, explaining upfront what you are doing and why is usually better than letting the customer's imagination fill in the blanks.   That's my take. Do you agree? What's your take?   Gary Lemke, Publisher          Action Center         Free Subscription         Submit Content         Industry Events         Webcasts         Archive   Stock Ticker NetSuite 12.1      0.3 Selectica 0.41      0 Salesforce 39.78      0 Jacada 2.3      0 eLoyalty 7.53      0 LivePerson 3.34      0 SPSS 34.37      0 HP 36      0 RightNow 9.34      0 SupportSoft 2.25      0 CDC 1.7      0 Vignette 12.97      0 Teletech 12.64      0 APAC 6.25      0 Convergys 9.21      0 NICE 23.98      0 Astea 2.8      0 Oracle 19.92      0 Rainmaker 1.3      0 Tekelc 16.62      0 NCR 11.39      0 Pegasystems 27      0 SAP 43.94      0 Amdocs 22.45      0 Sykes 17.11      0 Epicor 5.2      0 ClickSoftware 4.16      0 ATG 3.81      0 ICT 9.01      0 Interactive 13.55      0 Unica 4.65      0 Chordiant 4.24      0 As of 4:00 p.m. on 6/2/09         NEW IN CRM   News:    Southwest Airlines Callers are Now Free to Hang up on Hold Time Southwest Airlines customers no longer need to waste time on hold or listen to music when waiting for a customer representative. The airline has implemented virtual queuing software from Virtual Hold Technology, giving callers the freedom to hang up the phone, keep their place in line and get a callback when an agent is available. On the first day of implementation, 40 percent of Southwest Airlines callers accepted the Virtual Hold callback option instead of waiting on hold. (Virtual Hold )   News:    Epicor Announces Immediate Availability of Epicor ITSM 2009 Epicor announced the release of Epicor ITSM 2009, the newest version of Epicor’s IT Service Management solution. Polystar Instruments AB, a Swedish-owned telecommunications company developing test and surveillance equipment for operators and manufacturers, has seen improvement from using Epicor ITSM citing support technicians are more efficient and clients are happier. (Epicor )       Article:    Is There a Seat for Your Customer in Your Board Room? At a Customer Board of Directors meeting for the services division of a Fortune 500 industrial manufacturer, the company brought together senior-level people (including COOs, Directors, and VPs) from their key accounts for two main reasons: 1. To get feedback on their strategy and 2. To build high-level relationships within key accounts. As you’d expect, board members had plenty to say about their suppliers’ performance and the future of their own companies. It’s always fascinating to hear these types of conversations and to help our client shift their strategy as a result of executive-level feedback.(CustomerThink )   Article:    Executive Disconnect If you were to ask any CEO in the world today whether they want their business to be a customer service leader, they would undoubtedly answer "yes." As markets become more competitive, customer service is widely acknowledged as a key differentiator. But if customer service is so strategic, then why do many consumers and customer service representatives keep asking about the gap between what executives promise and what their companies deliver? An independent research firm recently conducted a comprehensive worldwide study addressing this question and, in the process, uncovered some alarming disconnects between C-level executives and their customer service managers. A CEO's intentions and expectations for the contact center are often not carried through on the ground.(DestinationCRM )   News:    Numara Track-It! 9, Now with Integrated Change Management Numara announced the latest version of Track-It!, a help desk software and asset management solution, which is used at nearly 50,000 customer sites around the globe. Numara Track-It! 9 offers new change management functionality, support for ITIL best practices and enhancements to improve productivity and work processes as part of the core product.(Numara )   Didn't read the last edition of CRMAdvocate? Click here to see what you missed.

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