 OUR TAKE -
Are Miles Evil?
 |
| |
| |
 | Recent Editions of CRMAdvocate
|
| Lasting Impressions:
Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.
-
Michel de Montaigne
|
Side note: While most readers don't buy the customer service conspiracy, most agree guitar man is simply extending his 15 minutes of fame. Good for him! Now, allow me to extend yesterday's discussion about apathy disguised as loyalty.
Why do disgruntled airline customers continue to repurchase when highly dissatisfied. One reader wrote: "I think it means that in some industries service does not matter." Another offered, "I was a loyal frequent flier for years. As you say, caught in the death grip of the miles program. For me, the airline's complete lack of customer service finally did it. Now I am liquidating my miles, good riddance."
Let me leave you with this sinister thought. Miles are evil. They create switching costs that apathetic in which customers are unwilling to invest. But even more, they create apathy on the end of the service provider. Have decades of frequent flyer programs instilled institutional apathy on the part of customer facing employees? Perhaps, we are talking about apathetic DNA across entire corporations or even within the entire airline industry. If one believes customers won't leave even when treated poorly, where is the incentive to "step it up?"
Airlines are simply a convenient example. I believe this attitude of "entitled apathy" is institutionalized in many businesses in many industries. 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 |
| Astea | 3.4 |  | 0.05 |
| NICE | 29.73 |  | -0.25 |
| Microsoft | 29.78 | | -0.33 |
| Amdocs | 26.47 | | -0.31 |
| ICT | 16.3 | | -0.19 |
| eLoyalty | 7.04 | | -0.09 |
| HP | 49.82 | | -0.66 |
| SAP | 48.2 | | -0.78 |
| Salesforce | 62.58 | | -1.03 |
| NetSuite | 14.47 | | -0.25 |
| Oracle | 22.39 | | -0.41 |
| Tekelc | 14.71 | | -0.33 |
| Sykes | 25.53 | | -0.59 |
| ATG | 4.11 | | -0.1 |
| Convergys | 11.44 | | -0.29 |
| Teletech | 19 | | -0.49 |
| NCR | 9.99 | | -0.31 |
| SupportSoft | 2.25 | | -0.07 |
| RightNow | 15.29 | | -0.49 |
| Epicor | 7.1 | | -0.24 |
| LivePerson | 6.28 | | -0.23 |
| CDC | 2.43 | | -0.09 |
| Pegasystems | 30.8 | | -1.31 |
| Unica | 6.56 | | -0.28 |
| Chordiant | 3.22 | | -0.14 |
| Jacada | 1.38 | | -0.06 |
| ClickSoftware | 5.41 | | -0.27 |
| APAC | 5.51 | | -0.28 |
| Interactive | 17.6 | | -1.07 |
| Selectica | 0.28 | | -0.02 |
| Rainmaker | 1.39 | | -0.11 |
|
As of 4:00 p.m. on 11/19/09 |
|
 NEW IN CRM
News: Consortium Unveil the Marketing Cloud to Catalyze Marketing
A handful of marketing-oriented technology companies announced the formation of the Marketing Cloud, a set of open, interoperable and secure services to make internal marketing operations more efficient and external marketing programs more effective. Founded as an alliance between Alfresco, Demandbase, Hoovers (a D&B company), Marketo, Jigsaw, ON24 and PivotLink, the Marketing Cloud delivers ways for marketers to integrate data silos, automate processes, foster collaboration and develop actionable marketing insights.(Marketing Cloud
)
News: SalesCentive Now Available on the Salesforce.com AppExchange
I Love Rewards today announced the availability of SalesCentive on the salesforce.com AppExchange. SalesCentive is a non-cash incentive solution that motivates sales teams to accurately log and perform the prospecting activities that fill their sales funnel. SalesCentive provides sales managers the ability to incent their team to do prospecting activities like make calls and secure meetings, and enter them into Salesforce CRM.(SalesCentive
)
News: ACSI: Consumers Find Comfort in Sweets
After a surge through the second quarter of 2009, aggregate customer satisfaction as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) stalls. The ACSI loses 0.1% for the third quarter, which brings the Index to a score of 76.0 on a 100-point scale. Still, the Index has improved since the depths of the recession and stands 1.3% higher than it was a year ago. Despite the slight drop in ACSI, many companies are improving their customer relationships: gainers lead decliners 45% to 39%, with 16% unchanged. (ACSI
)
Article: WFM: Three Tips for Managing Schedules During a Downturn
Managing call volume is always a challenge for contact centers, but it is especially so during an economic downturn. The state of the economy can increase or decrease contact centers' call volumes outside of normal, annual cyclical changes. Inaccurate staffing levels can lead to preventable personnel costs or too few agents handling calls, resulting in poor service and displeased customers. Contact centers need to make sure they are staffing correctly for the twists and turns the economy can have on customer service.(Contact Professional
)
News: Hyperquality To Provide Quality Metrics To Wildblue
HyperQuality has signed a new agreement with WildBlue Communications to monitor, evaluate and track customer service calls for quality. The agreement underscores WildBlue’s commitment to providing service at all times to its broadband satellite subscribers. HyperQuality will listen to WildBlue’s customer service calls and evaluate them for a variety of quality measurements, such as whether customer needs are met on the first call, agents are providing all necessary details to customers, and Internet package options are clearly explained. As HyperQuality evaluates calls, it tracks trends over time, allowing WildBlue to identify areas for improvement. (HyperQuality
)
Didn't read the last edition of CRMAdvocate? Click
here to see what you missed.
| | |
| | |
