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Bettering the Customer Experience . . .
Holiday Discounts Are a Dangerous Drug
A retail battle is underway. Just walk to the nearest shopping center as early as Thanksgiving night, and you will find people shoving their way across overcrowded aisles for the best deals, and retailers fighting tooth and nail for every dollar in customers' wallets. Cynicism aside, there is no doubt that the six-week stretch between late November and early January is critical to the survival of many retail businesses. According to one study, for example, 30% of a merchant's yearly revenue is generated during this period. Add to this the conviction that people will spend (if properly motivated) and you have the perfect recipe for a pricing disaster: all-out competition for the earliest, deepest, and most enduring discount. But a poorly executed promotional campaign can ruin a brand and a business just as easily as it can boost sales. And the holiday season exaggerates this threat because discounting has always been the retailer's weapon of choice. . . . read more >>
Predictive CRM: The next wave of CRM?
The world was a very different place 25 years ago. There was no internet. There was no email. And mobile phones were the exclusive property of the wealthy (who also required significant upper body strength to use them). It was into this world that CRM was born, in essence little more than a contact management system. Even 15 years ago, things were still very different than today. The internet was still in its infancy. Email was still gathering momentum. And mobile phones were still strictly for phone calls. By this time, CRM had gained customer service and support functionality and sales force automation, but at its heart it was still its contact database. Spool forward to 2012, and the question is whether CRM has evolved sufficiently to keep pace with the changes that have taken place in the wider business landscape. . . . read more >>
Add 1 Tablespoon Experience, Blend and Serve: Loyalty, Value
The buzz in the Customer Sat world is all about Customer Experience. Great customer experiences can help solidify customer relationships — while bad experiences can undermine customer relationships, increase churn and harm brand reputations through negative word of mouth. Despite its importance, however, the customer experience is a means, not an end. Too often, companies view (and measure) customer experiences in a vacuum – good, bad, indifferent – and stop there. Instead, experiences need to be seen in the larger contexts of customer loyalty and business objectives. For marketers to make prudent decisions, customer experiences must be designed and evaluated in terms of their contribution to strengthening loyalty and creating value for the company. . . . read more >>
Open Source CRM Zurmo Releases Version 0.8.0, Email and Theming Added
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) November 29, 2012 The Open Source CRM project Zurmo today announced the immediate availability of Zurmo Version 0.8.0. The most significant addition to the new release is the ability to send emails directly from within the application. This new functionality tightens communication trails associated with records in the system. Aesthetic enhancements include the option to vary the theme and texture of the application. A recent engineering improvement is the integration of Sentry, an application that allows users to automatically submit error reports to the Zurmo engineering department directly from the user interface. User Interface for Sending Emails . . . read more >>
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