OUR TAKE -  Inviting Competitors to Your Party     Lasting Impressions: Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. - Henry Ford It's been about a week since Apple took control of their product issues. One measure - little lingering attention since their announcement - demonstrates the power of getting ahead of the issue. See the Apple HIPPO and how he took the high ground.   Yesterday I noted one significant flaw with their handling of customer expectations: making association with the competitors. The competitors didn't have to even crash the Apple party, they were invited. Indeed!   RIM co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, responded to the Apple HIPPO showing videos of BlackBerries with supposed weak spots saying, "One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple."   So here we have a contemporary example of why it is important to keep the focus on the problem rather than attempt deflections which only serves to cloud transparency and authenticity. That's my take. Do you agree? What's your take?   Gary Lemke, Publisher          Action Center         Free Subscription         Submit Content         Industry Events         Webcasts         Archive     Cool CRM                     NEW IN CRM   Article:    Top 10 Tips for Using Social Media to Improve CRM These days, if you really want to know what your customers are thinking (and where they are shopping), you need to connect with them online, on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Indeed, in today’s social media-driven world, having a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn profile, and a blog where you can interact with customers — and, more importantly, they can interact with you — are an essential part of customer relationship management (CRM). To help you get the most out of the leading social media tools, eCRM Guide asked business owners and social media experts to share their most successful tips for using social media to help improve CRM.(eCRM )   News:    Facebook Selects Salesforce.com Facebook has selected Salesforce CRM to manage its fast-growing sales operations. Facebook evaluated the pros and cons of enhancing its own system or selecting a cloud computing CRM system and went for quick implementation time and the ability to scale with Salesforce. Facebook has deployed the system across its sales operation teams along with its developer relations to automate workflow and approval processes. The system integrates with half a dozen existing systems.(Salesforce )   News:    Avaya Launches Customer Service and Collaboration Applications Avaya announced a suite of new and enhanced products and services based on Avaya Aura for multi-media enterprise communications. These new tools and services make it possible to accelerate decision-making while moving enterprises towards a more people-centric approach to collaboration. The announcements include Avaya Aura Contact Center, a new multimedia contact center application that extends to all types of media, including voice, e-mail, web chat, and instant messaging/SMS. Designed to further enhance the customer service experience, the new offering will help businesses more effectively manage customer experiences in an always-on world. Avaya Aura Contact Center complements the large enterprise solutions of Avaya Aura Call Center Elite and will serve as a multimedia extension to Call Center Elite in the future.(Avaya )   Article:    Collaboration Vendors Convene on Info-Tech's Landscape According to an Info-Tech Research Group survey, 75 percent of organizations currently have an enterprise collaboration solution in place and another 15 percent say that they will deploy one in the next 18 months. With social media tools and low price points ramping up activity, the collaboration platform market is more complex than ever before. Info-Tech, in its evaluation of the market, dug deep into seven collaboration platform providers that Info-Tech analyst Tim Hickernell says are the top choices of the bunch. All of the collaboration vendors are embracing Web 2.0-style interfaces and even hints of social networking. "Social channels had a lot of impact on this," Hickernell says. Integration with content, also, remains a big driver.(DestinationCRM )   Didn't read the last edition of CRMAdvocate? Click here to see what you missed.

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