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All consumers have had horrible interactions that tarnish their view of a company. That time they spent hours on the phone with multiple representatives who didn't understand their problem. Or [...]

In June 2007, parents, grandparents, teachers, and caregivers could be found digging through toy chests, examining contents of doll houses, and throwing away seemingly perfect play items. The international recall [...]

It's been more than a decade since the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto fired an opening salvo across an emerging battlefield: the fight to determine control between customers and companies. [...]

Organizations rarely go it alone when implementing a CRM strategy and it supporting technology. There's so much to consider: business strategies and theories, technology, budgets, change management issues, and more. […]

WHAT ARE SILOS, ANYWAY? One of the key elements of any CRM plan is integration, the unification of all your company's data sources to create a single, holistic view of […]

Each year, CRM magazine invites leading companies in the field of customer relationship management to participate in this special advertising section. While many of these companies may be more familiar […]

FROM COMMUNICATIONS to credit processing, technology plays a vital role in customer satisfaction and performance processes. Improving CRM is not, however, a problem solely bounded by technology, a contact center […]

Quarterly profit and loss is ultimately just an abstract aggregate of countless customer interactions. But company performance is bolstered or weakened one customer at a time, which is why it […]

AT THE RECENT FROST & SULLIVAN SALES & MARKETING EXECUTIVE SUMMIT, CRM MAGAZINE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF GINGER CONLON JOINED FOUR TOP EXECUTIVES FROM LEADING VENDORS TO DISCUSS HOW CUSTOMER COMPANIES CAN BENEFIT […]

CRM DEPLOYMENTS OFTEN REQUIRE MARRYING an integrator's tactical approach to a consultant's strategy. Companies must sort through such complexities as who should handle each aspect of the initiative, how to […]

Just like adding mag wheels and a bored-out engine to turn a Mustang into a hot rod, you can soup up your CRM and maximize its return on investment. But […]

As this issue of CRM magazine was going to press, national attention was fixed firmly on the confirmation process for U.S. Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Throughout the around-the-clock [...]

When Michael Bloomberg took over as New York City's mayor in 2002 he envisioned providing New Yorkers with better customer service, creating a 'citizen-service' mindset among the city's employees. To […]

YOUR CUSTOMERS most likely have very definite preferences in communication channels, but their choices might not be the most profitable for you. What if you could maximize customer profitability by [...]

When we've had too much to eat, our stomachs tell us that we're full. But when the demand for consumer goods has reached full capacity, the signal isn't always as […]

The performance of channel partners affects your market success as much as your own sales, marketing, and service efforts, so it is vital to bring partners into the overall CRM […]

THIS HAS BEEN an interesting year for the CRM industry, with launches, mergers, partnerships, and personnel shifts galore. It's almost enough to write a half-year update just to get the [...]

WHILE THE MERE MENTION of coupons might be met with disdain by your executives, it's a trend that, since the Great Recession, is on the rise. That's because today's customers [...]

One of the hallmarks of a successful customer experience program is being able to actively engage with customers across a variety of channels. But 'engagement' is a two-way street, with [...]

IN OUR company's annual listing of Customer Experience Trends for 2014, I labeled 2014 as 'The Year of Empathy.' The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines empathy as 'the ability to imagine oneself [...]

WE'VE ALL got that one story. You know the one. You went to a restaurant that a friend recommended to you, only to receive lousy food and rude service. Or [...]

GETTING ONLINE SELF-SERVICE RIGHT The time has come for organizations to get serious about getting online self-service right--after all, it's what consumers want and deploying modern online self-service solutions like [...]

If your company provides customer service and support, you face a highly disruptive force: pervasive technology in the hands of clients and prospects. Today's Web-age customers want questions answered and [...]

Many companies are transitioning from predominantly transaction-based sales models to ones that focus on customer engagement. Beyond just looking at sales pipelines and contract size as the marks of success, [...]

IN TODAY'S business environment, enterprise growth is about more than hitting a sales number. It depends on providing a differentiated and consistent customer experience across sales, marketing, and service, as [...]

SOMETIMES it pays to go against the grain. But organizations shouldn't do it just for the sake of doing something different. Customer strategists must evaluate new technologies and determine if [...]

'Things'll go your way, if you hold on for one more day.'--Wilson Phillips 'Hold On' WHEN I THINK about business challenges in today's economy, I sometimes think back to 'Hold [...]

Whenever someone tries to define something, especially if it has to do with technology, they run the risk that their all-encompassing definition will be so expansive that it will cease [...]

DEMAND GENERATION is one of the few things on which most businesspeople enthusiastically agree. We need it and we crave it. Without it, life is pretty miserable, as the last [...]

WHEN I HEARD THAT this month's issue of CRM had as its theme VRM--vendor relationship management--I felt a distinct sense of loathing. Not that VRM is a bad idea: As [...]

Remember the 'new' marketing? [See February 2010's 'The Shotgun Marriage of Sales and Marketing.'] This shift in approach makes marketing more than just the company's way of pushing messages at [...]

SO, WE'VE PRETTY FIRMLY established by now that there's a recession, right? Good--don't need to cover that here. And, because of this recession, individuals and companies alike are tightening their […]

IN A DIFFICULT economic climate, it's easy to understand why some of your customers might be brimming with angst. For these customers, even the slightest conflict might stir up such […]

IT'S BEEN FIVE YEARS since I started talking about the social customer--someone not only engaged with the institutions he's doing business with but also willing to engage his peers. I […]

AS THE POWERS THAT B E have ordained that this issue of CRM shall be completely dedicated to the concept of service--because of some awards we're giving, I think--they have […]

IN THE FACE of an economic downturn that has been severe, multifaceted, and particularly complex, it's critical to note some companies have opted not to make any cuts to their […]

COMPANIES contemplating CRM typically perform return-on-investment analyses to determine the impact on financials, but when it comes to the customer experience, most companies fail to identify and prioritize the CRM […]

THINK ABOUT THE LAST TIME you dined at your favorite restaurant. What made it a delightful experience? A combination of many elements: the food, service, and ambience, supported by references […]

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE. You didn't hear me. Don't believe the hype. That's my only message this month, but I'm deadly serious about the hype, and keeping you from believing […]

Consistent, outstanding service builds profitable, life-long customer relationships. Sounds great, but how can you actually do it? The key to delivering an exceptional, personalized customer experience is to be proactive--to […]

Onyx North America (ONA) is an expert when it comes to helping customers mop up a mess. When faced with its own dirty data issues, the company turned to DataFlux […]

IT SEEMS LIKE everyone in the industry is all over the customer experience like white on rice, like a junk yard dog, like a cheap suit. Of course, there's nothing […]

A POORLY DESIGNED IVR can frustrate and annoy its callers--and it's increasingly apparent that a bad IVR-customer experience can make an otherwise loyal customer question his loyalty. So what can […]

Myth 1: 'One size fits all' - one web self-service method fits all customers and their needs. Believe this one and you're really in trouble. The truth is customers and […]

MANY COMPANIES articulate detailed segment plans, but few define and manage their segments in ways that allow the organization to easily differentiate the value it offers specific groups of customers. […]

In this special section of CRM magazine we challenged vendors of speech technology applications to present our audience with a provider's vision of what it takes to successfully integrate speech […]

It's no secret that customer satisfaction levels directly affect brand loyalty, but getting a realistic understanding of your customers' sentiment can be tricky, especially when using antiquated survey methods. Consider […]

What does a vendor of customer service products do when it runs into customer service issues of its own? That was the dilemma facing GO Software, a provider of payment-processing […]

BUILDING a barrier to prevent customers from leaving their relationship with you or creating an artificial cost to switch to your competition sounds pejorative. However, exit barriers and switching costs […]

For years the chief use of real-time analytics (RTA) has been to provide recommendations for cross selling, usually in a call center or Web transaction. While useful for tactical decision-making, […]