Customer Experience Featured Articles
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Millennials & The Customer Service Shift
Companies are starting to rethink the way they interact with customers as the next generation of consumers is starting to overtake the market. By the year 2017, Millennials are expected to spend more than $200 billion annually. There is a movement in customer service from outdated systems to new social channels and personal interactions-and Millennials are at its heart...3/23/2015 -
Social Media: Linchpin of the Customer Experience
There are a couple statistics out there that show the value of customer experience: Lee Resource once noted that, for every one customer complaint, there are an average of 26 other customers who just didn't speak up. The White House Office of Consumer Affairs noted that an upset customer will tell, on average, between nine and 15 people about a bad experience. With these two facts in mind, it's worth another look at just what kind of impact social media can have on a business, particularly in regard to the customer experience...3/17/2015 -
Is PlayStation Network's Customer Service a Big Game Over?
Sony, in recent months, has been on top of the world gaming-wise. Having soundly thrashed its biggest competitor Microsoft at the 2013 E3 event, and proceeding to capitalize on that success through almost a year of huge sales, it's easy to think Sony could do no wrong. But new reports suggest that Sony's actively dropping the ball, and it's all thanks to a poor customer experience...3/16/2015 -
Turning the Customer Experience Around
Many companies today are in a state of denial about the quality of the customer experience they provide. In fact, the situation would be comical if it wasn't so dire: a 10-year-old study by Bain and Company found that while 80 percent of companies are confident that they deliver a superior customer experience, only about eight percent of their customers - one tenth - believe that is true. As it turns out, companies are starting to believe their own marketing mottoes, and this is a mistake...3/10/2015 -
Oracle: Many Companies Falling Down on the Customer Service Job
When it comes to customer service, most everyone can agree that it's a very valuable part of the overall operation. But an Oracle study also shows that the exact value is somewhat unclear, and difficult to quantify. That's a prospect that's raising some marked difficulties for businesses, and forcing some to reconsider how customer service's value is measured...3/9/2015 -
How iRobot Deployed Co-Sourcing to Achieve 95%+ CSAT
iRobot thrives on delighting customers with innovative products that make life better. As Director of Global Technical Support, my #1 mission is to ensure every customer is as thrilled with our products as the day they bought them. You can imagine how vital delivering stellar customer service is to me and my management team. Fortunately, we've been able to do that, achieving well above average CSAT on a consistent basis over the last five years, through great products, processes, and a great partnership...3/5/2015 -
The Changing Customer Experience in the Insurance Industry
Reports continue to surface on the customer experience across a myriad of industries. Companies continue to search for the right formula to ensure they can meet customer expectations as well as budget requirements, yet many continue to fall short. A recent post in Insurance Business Online takes an interesting approach to the conundrum - blaming a particular generation...3/3/2015 -
Forrester Metrics Show Improving the Customer Experience Yields Results
Most organizations understand that the customer is always right, the customer comes first and customer experience needs to be a business priority. And yet often this isn't the case for a variety of reasons and excuses. Sometimes an organization needs cold hard data to qualify making changes of any sort, and this seems to be the case when it comes to customer service policies...2/26/2015 -
Customer Experience - More Than Just a Marketing Exercise
Customer experience has become a catchphrase in recent years, as businesses recognize the growing importance of more effectively catering to clients and prospects, who now have more power to do comparison shopping and complain in giant online forums due to the widespread use of the Internet and connected devices...2/26/2015 -
Apple May Need to Improve Customer Service to Compete with Microsoft
In perhaps one of the most peculiar customer service experience phenomena of our time, retail storefronts staffed with hip, engaged and savvy personnel are the becoming the preferred way to purchase end user computing and services. We're not talking about CompUSA style superstores (the giant chain of consumer electronics warehouses that reached their peak back in the 1990s), but boutique spaces intimately tied to their brand...2/20/2015 -
Where Will APAC CMOs Put Investment This Year? In Customer Experience, Says IDC
The topic of where to invest is a difficult point for any business to consider; a business that isn't busy growing is likely busy dying, to misquote "The Shawshank Redemption." But a new study from International Data Corporation (IDC) says that, for much of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region-excluding Japan-the biggest goal of expansion in 2015 is a common one: improving the customer experience...2/18/2015 -
Getting the Best in Customer Experience Requires Open Standards
Customer experiences come in all forms, from spectacular to terrible, and any business worth its salt wants to make sure the best ones are found at that business. There's an ever-increasing movement to improve the customer service, bringing out contextual, data-driven options that work across a variety of different platforms to make sure that customers know exactly what's going on in a particular area and how to take advantage of said opportunities. That level of customer experience takes a lot of firepower to put into play, and one of the best ways to get there is with an open-standard content management system (CMS)...2/11/2015 -
Chief Customer Officers Help Oversee Company's Vision for Customer Experience
In an effort to shore up the quality of customer service being offered, many companies have instituted new programs, overhauled training and brought new customer support software solutions online. These companies have succeeded to varying degrees depending on their approach (and how much they spent on their initiatives). What many companies are missing, however, is a unified vision of customer service excellence...2/4/2015 -
Improving Customer Experience for the Cafe Workforce
We talk a lot about providing a better customer experience, or a better employee experience, but what about the experience of the customer that is also an employee, or in other words, the remote worker. Plenty of remote workers are content to conduct business from a home office or dining room table, but there is a whole legion of others looking for the right coffee shop or diner to settle into for a few hours of productivity...2/3/2015 -
Nothing Can Stop Customer Service Agents Who Actually Like Their Job
As someone who regularly doles out advice on how to boost the customer experience, it is a bit awkward to admit that customer service strategy has its limits. While there definitely is much that a business can do to improve its customer experience, one of the most important aspects is one that can hardly be affected through corporate policies...1/30/2015 -
'Largest Photo Booth Ever' Creates Engaging Customer Experience with Digital Signage
In today's competitive retail landscape, businesses are pushing the envelope and getting creative when it comes to building an engaging customer experience. With communication technology evolving all the time, digital signage and personalization have become key ways for businesses to draw consumers in. And for Microsoft, already a leader in virtual tech, this seems like a logical strategy...1/28/2015 -
Personalization of the Customer Experience - Both Online and Offline
In the world of customer support, personalization is the key to improving the customer experience. Customers don't like to be treated as a number, they like acknowledgement that they've done business with your organization before (if they have). They like it when you recognize their previous transactions. They appreciate it when you skip making offers that aren't valid to them...1/23/2015 -
Unlock the Best in Customer Experience with a Mission Focus
Sometimes it must seem like customer service agents are on the lowest rungs of the ladder, doing a job that should be a no-brainer. But increasingly, we're discovering that customer service agents are actually crucial to the overall health and success of a business. Indeed, a recent report suggests that, in order to get the very best in customer experience, the first place to start is with the people who actually deliver many aspects of the customer experience to customers: the employees...1/20/2015 -
How to Handle that Angry Customer on Social Media
Not every brand interaction on social media is the win of another customer. Let's face it: Often times the role of the customer service agent on social media is damage control...1/16/2015 -
The Big Difference Between Customer Service & Customer Experience
It wasn't so long ago, really, when customer service and customer experience were considered to be one and the same. In fact, back in 1985, the two meshed together to a surprising extent; customers faced with a problem asked store clerks to help, and knowledgeable store clerks responded according to the dictates of the situation...1/13/2015 -
RADCOM Upgrades South American Telecom to MaveriQ Software
RADCOM, a provider of customer experience management software for telecom operators, recently announced that it has extended its relationship with a tier 1 telecom in South America by upgrading that operator's software package in a deal worth more than $4 million...1/9/2015 -
Earning Customer Loyalty Starts with Defining It
What's the optimum outcome of the customer experience? Is it revenue? Is it first-call resolution? Customer advocacy? Different companies might have different answers, but for forward-thinking companies, the end result of a successful customer experience should be customer loyalty...1/7/2015 -
Websites Gear Up to Improve Customer Experience in 2015
Web surfing has settled into predictable patterns for consumers: when it comes to digital customer engagement, a basic Website with a click-to-email functionality, a pricing list and maybe some basic online ordering capabilities is the norm for 90 percent of business sites out there. But new research suggests that the content mix is due for a big change in 2015, especially when it comes to video and real-time interactions...12/29/2014 -
How United's Voice of the Customer Program Lets the Company Soar
With the last few days before Christmas closing in, and Hanukkah already in full swing, there are plenty of people out there making travel plans, assuming said travel plans aren't already in play. Suitcases packed, boarding passes checked, and preparations made to run the gauntlet of airports ahead of long trips on airlines to get back to home, hearth, and happy holidays, hopefully. But at least one airline will be paying a little closer attention to its customers, thanks to a program from United called Voice of the Customer, a program which has already had an impact on the way United does business...12/22/2014 -
IDC Futurescape Report Predicts Fate of Customer Service
International Data Corporation, a research and advisory firm, recently released its IDC Futurescape report that makes predictions about the state of global customer service. The report includes a list of ten predictions that Kathleen Schaub, the vice president of IDC's CMO Advisory Service, said targets the trends that will cause the most market disruption and those that will show CMOs the way to improved leadership...12/19/2014 -
UK Customers Embracing the Mobile Experience, According to Recent Survey
A recent study by Oxygen8, a global provider of integrated mobile products, found that 47 percent of mobile users in the U.K. would like more opportunities to use their mobile phone to pay for physical or quasi-physical goods. Based on a poll of 1,000 U.K. adults with mobile devices, the research concluded that as many as 23 million people are familiar with mobile transactions and overall demand is rising for more widespread adoption of the technology to improve the customer experience...12/18/2014 -
NCR Applies Predictive Services to Enhance Akbank Customer Experience
NCR, a manufacturer of hardware and software for consumer monetary transactions, recently announced the continuation an ongoing partnership. It will provide Akbank, a prominent bank in Turkey, with the NCR Predictive Services technology to enhance Akbank's network of automated teller machines and continue to improve the uptime of its ATM services...12/10/2014 -
A Great Experience Makes Customers for Life
Customers can be tough to get, but with the proper mix of good advertising, powerful marketing, and even the right promotion at the right time, customers can be had. But the problem many businesses face-and it's a problem that many businesses don't focus enough on-is how to keep the current crop of customers from jumping ship. The Internet has provided customers more tools than ever to find the competition, but as Econsultancy recently noted in a new report, the key to preventing that is to make sure the customer doesn't want to leave, and that's accomplished by focusing on the customer experience...12/8/2014 -
OneView Mobilizes Service Reps for 'Customer for Life' Experience
Delivering a personalized customer experience is vital in business today, as it shows customers that-rather than only seeing dollar signs when they look at customers-companies see real people. The global business landscape is changing, and these days customers expect to be treated as valued individuals, or they will take their patronage elsewhere. But how do companies ensure that their customers feel their voices are being heard, and that they are valued?..12/4/2014 -
Want Great E-commerce Results? Focus on Customer Experience
It's not exactly a hidden point these days that customers are price-conscious. People are watching wallets very closely thanks to instability in the job front and increasing prices at the grocery store and the like. But despite this, there's one key point that businesses-particularly e-commerce startups-tend to forget: customer service will in many cases trump discounts, and those businesses that don't have a customer service focus may well lose out even if the prices offered therein are the best around...12/2/2014 -
All You Want for Christmas is Satisfied Customers
Once again, Black Friday comes late in the year, and though stores have been pushing back the holidays for some time now-let's face it, who didn't see someone's Christmas decorations up before Halloween somewhere-the official start to the holiday shopping season has gotten off to a late start. While there have been, however, some who have jumped the gun and started Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa shopping early, the time this year is shorter than normal, and that's got some businesses wondering how to get the most out of the shortened season. The answer would seem to be one of customer satisfaction, the gift to retailers that keeps on giving the whole year through...11/25/2014 -
Putting Good Customer Experience into Practice
There's a lot of talk about how businesses can no longer sit on their laurels when it comes to pleasing the customer; one of the hottest business buzz words these days is the "customer experience," which just means that businesses need to ensure that the process of buying and using a company's products and services be as pleasing as the actual products and services themselves...11/24/2014 -
Philippines Airlines Rated Among the Best in Customer Service
Making sure customers are happy and well engaged is the goal of most businesses, whether talking about the call center, retail or service industry. Philippines Airlines seems to understand this in a way that other airlines haven't quite figured out. The company has gone out of its way to make sure that when someone flies on one of their airplanes, the customer experience is one they will be talking about as one of the best...11/20/2014 -
Startup 'Thanx' You for Shopping: Revolutionizing the Loyalty Card
Loyalty cards are generally a welcome part of the shopping customer experience. From the lowliest punch card for a free latte to the most high-tech app-driven experience geared toward keeping all a user's purchases handy to refer to, most shoppers like to know that business is appreciated, particularly if that appreciation comes with discounts or freebies later. Thanx-a recent startup in the field-is eager to change the way we think of loyalty cards by consolidating the process down into our often-present smartphones...11/19/2014 -
When the Customer Experience is Overwhelming
Regardless of the size of your business, it's good practice to have a follow up process in place after you've dealt with a customer. If you offer some sort of service, it's especially helpful to not only understand how you're doing from the customer's vantage point, but asking the customer about their opinions shows that you care about them on a human level, and not because they're just another person to walk through your doors. Too much of a good thing can be pretty bad, however...11/14/2014 -
The Redefining of GNC Customer Service
A recent news report reveals that the health supplement store GNC has taken a hit this year on Wall Street, having failed to reach the same success as its best year ever, 2011. As such, it the company is reportedly undergoing a brand transformation to create clearer skies ahead-and improve the customer experience in the process...11/11/2014 -
Nigeria Hopes to Clean Up Banking Image with Better Customer Support
It's no secret to anyone who has received a scam message from Nigeria asking for their bank details that financial fraud is rife in that African nation. Today, the nation's banks are tasked with cleaning up an industry - and improving customer experience standards - in an environment that has been damaged by the explosion of financial scams...11/5/2014 -
Majestic Wine Grows SDL Partnership to Improve Customer Experience
Majestic Wine is working to deliver a more personalized customer experience by expanding its partnership with SDL and adding more solutions under SDL's Customer Experience Cloud...11/5/2014 -
How Can Big Data Enhance Customer Experience?
Big data analytics technology collects information from different sources and helps analysts to create meaningful patterns from it. Its usefulness cuts across all functions of an organization, and customer experience is no exception...10/29/2014 -
Travel Shoppers Increasingly Concerned About Overall Device Experience
It's one thing-indeed, a very important one thing-to have a handle on the mobile experience, but that by itself is proving to be not enough for shoppers these days. Though the summer travel season is all but finished in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere's is about to start, and a new study has emerged to suggest that it's not so much the mobile experience, but instead a consistent experience across all devices, that's really important...10/29/2014 -
Study: IDC Energy Insights Releases 2014 CXIT and Social Survey
IDC Energy Insights recently announced the results of its annual report, the 2014 CXIT and Social Survey. It shows that customers of energy suppliers, like customers of many other industries, are demanding more of their suppliers by urging them to adopt digital communications channels...10/22/2014 -
Beacon Technology Improves the Air Travel Customer Experience
To most people, the idea of getting away for a while is appealing. Whether it's a trip to another country to go sightseeing, enjoy nature or simply do nothing for a couple of days, many vacations can be enjoyable experiences for lifetime, or at least something that allows one to recharge their proverbial batteries...10/22/2014 -
Customer Experience Survey Reveals Speed as Top Priority
When you imagine a typical call center interaction, what do you think is the most important component for ensuring a positive customer experience? The methods in which we communicate today are expanding at a rapid rate-with everything from social media and smartphones to VoIP and messaging apps making it easier for users to keep in touch. The instant gratification that technology offers users has empowered them, and in turn they have come to expect a similar level of immediacy in their interactions with businesses. But with this increased ease of communication and higher expectations from consumers, businesses are stuck having to upgrade their customer services to accommodate customer demands for multi-channel efficiency...10/21/2014 -
Westpac Out for the Best in Customer Experience
It's the goal of nearly every organization around to deliver a top-notch customer experience. Really, just ask any set of decision makers around and it will likely come up somewhere near the top of the list. But sometimes the plan to actually deliver this top-notch customer experience isn't quite so fully fleshed out. Westpac-one of the four biggest banks in Australia-doesn't suffer such a malady, and instead has quite a plan ready to bring that customer experience that will help drive its very future...10/16/2014 -
Improving Wi-Fi Networks with AxonPulse
Wireless connectivity is offered by many businesses today as a way to build good relationships with customers. Today, users can access Wi-Fi in retail stores, malls, hotels and offices using their smartphones or other mobile devices. However, the quality of Wi-Fi may vary depending on connectivity and network factors, and this poor quality can have a negative impact on the trust and reliability that users have on the business...10/13/2014 -
Wendy's Franchisee LDF Pairs with Earthlink to Improve Customer Experience
Many readers of this article have likely been to, or have at least heard of, the Wendy's fast food chain. One franchisee operator, LDF Food Group, will soon partner with Earthlink Holdings Corp. to create a new private network that will help Wendy's employees complete customer transactions more quickly and will improve the overall customer experience that some readers may get to enjoy...10/7/2014 -
Second Annual Customer Experience Day Set for October 7
Providing a great customer experience is often the game-changer for businesses that might otherwise be lost in the sea of competition. But the concept, while not new, is taking on new life in markets across the board. In order to increase awareness and more companies learn how they can achieve the best service possible, the second annual Customer Experience (CX) Day will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at local gatherings and online events around the world...10/6/2014 -
InfoTrends Adds Customer Communications Management Guide
InfoTrends has expanded its Ultimate Guide Online Program, adding a Customer Communications Management (CCM) guide that it says better reflects growing trends within the market...10/3/2014 -
J.D. Power Releases Results of Service Provider Satisfaction Studies
A recent report from J.D. Power indicates that the television, Internet, and telephone service provider industries are seeing small customer experience improvements, based on their customer satisfaction ratings...9/30/2014 -
Good Customer Experience Starts with the Employee
The job of a ship's captain is a big one, as this person maintains the logs, details the ship's course and speed, and keeps an eye on the weather for smooth sailing. But the captain is just one job, and without an able crew for support, it's not a ship that is tightly run. Consider this metaphor for most businesses; while the captain (CEO) is at the helm, those on duty (the employees) know what's going on below deck...9/26/2014 -
Study: Consumer Confidence Needs More in Banking Sector
According to the most recent U.K. Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) scores, banking customer service has been on a steady decline...9/26/2014 -
Report Shows the Growing Need for Customer Relationship Management
Many readers of business news have certainly witnessed the growing trend of enterprises focusing more on their relationships with customers. Gone are the days when they could hide behind ignorance and of not being able to know their customers through and through. Now, customer relationship management systems are able to use silos of data containing call histories and personally identifiable information to make support calls more personal, quick, and effective...9/19/2014 -
UK Medical Equipment Company Opens Customer Experience Center
While many enterprises in the U.S. are opening new customer service centers that house all manner of brand representatives, one company across the Atlantic pond recently participated in the ribbon cutting of its new customer experience center...9/19/2014 -
RADCOM Works with Intel to Improve Customer Experience Management
RADCOM, a customer experience management provider, stated that its MaveriQ is now furnished with the capability to make use of Intel's Ethernet XL710 controller to maximize the performance for customer experience management...9/12/2014 -
Abu Dhabi Education Council's Finds Order with New Customer Management System
Does the idea of visiting of a government office make you nervous because of the long waiting time to reach the right person? The picture is more or less same around the world because of the high importance and demand of these places. It seems Abu Dhabi, the capital city of UAE, is all set to grow beyond the stereotype. In an effort to offer a hassle-free customer experience to the visitors at its ADEC office, the authorities have implemented a sophisticated Queue Management System in the office customer service area...9/12/2014 -
Invest in the Customer Experience, Not Advertising
Advertising is an established and proven way to send a targeted message to your customers. It offers a measurable return and campaigns may be carefully scaled and controlled to achieve the desired results. Many companies shell out millions of dollars per year on advertising and yet those same organizations are missing out on another prime opportunity to increase sales and boost their retention rates...9/11/2014 -
Customer Experience is Key to Staying Ahead of the Competition
Globalization has brought the world together in many ways, and from a business perspective, it has created a global village for both consumers and producers. Companies from all parts of the world compete with each other to get the attention of consumers, making competition intense among corporations today...9/5/2014 -
Oman Telecom to Implement 'Voice of the Customer' Surveys
A telecommunications service provider based in Oman was reported this week as the first in the Middle East to use a "voice of the customer" customer experience management technology that will help focus its business more on the people who support it and use its services every day...9/4/2014 -
Improving the Customer Experience Key to Successful Onboarding
But while it appears banks are struggling to get the customer experience right, there are plenty of tools out there to help get them on the right track. Of the means available for measuring onboarding success, customer experience metrics ranked highest at 35 percent among banks, followed by quality/error measures (28 percent) and identifying cross-selling opportunities (25 percent)...8/29/2014 -
Australia Businesses Becoming Omnichannel
A recent report concerning the state of the Australian economy suggests that it was largely shielded from the financial crisis of the late 2000s. As a result, there was not a lot of growth in digital, online sales because the economy was functioning just fine without it. In the past couple years, however, there has been a surge in the amount of online marketing and sales that companies are completing, and although digital sales are not yet making up the majority of overall sales for many retailers, digital is still proving to be a necessary part of their economic growth...8/28/2014 -
Want Customers to Come Back? Make Sure They Trust You
Repeat business is a major part of most any operation, from retail to restaurants to major corporate efforts. The idea that people will buy something, and then come back later to buy something else or something again, is the kind of thing that means cash flow, and stable, reliable operations. But in order to build repeat business-according to a report from Business2Community-there's a critical component required: trust...8/20/2014 -
Customer Centricity is Key in Today's Business World
Few companies will argue against the idea that the customer experience is paramount in this day and age. What companies will argue about is just how they can be customer centric in a way that makes sense on both a customer service level and a business level. There is an argument over just how a company can bridge the gap between desirability and capability in order to do so in a sustainable way...8/19/2014 -
The Importance of Tech Support Services for the Customer Experience
Tech gadgets abound in today's market. In a sense, these smartphones and tablets have changed the way we live and communicate as a society. The downside is that users are stuck when their favorite gadget does not work or malfunctions. Such problems lead to frustrations and stress for individuals, but for businesses with BYOD policies, it amounts to a loss of productivity, high overhead costs and, in some cases, even lost customers and revenue...8/13/2014 -
Study: CEM Market to Grow to $8.39B by 2019, Market Splinters into Subgroups
A recent market forecast predicts that the customer experience management market will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.3 percent through 2019. If that statistic rings true, the market will grow to $8.39 billion by that date...8/12/2014 -
The Customer Experience Must Actually Focus on the Customer
What does it mean to your team when you talk about the customer experience? Do you define it as seen through the eyes of your staff or are you actually capturing customer perception? For instance, you may believe the customer experience is optimal if the customer only has to wait 30 seconds to speak with an agent. In reality, however, your typical customer may view that as too long and will consider the experience to be dissatisfactory...8/7/2014 -
Wheelings & Dealings: eGain Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Exony
eGain, a provider of customer engagement solutions, is soon to acquire Exony Limited. Exony is a major player in helping enterprises use their customer contact and call center resources to better improve customer experience, reduce churn and increase revenue while aggressively managing productivity...8/6/2014 -
Sonic is Optimistic and 'Delighted' with New Retail Plan
Sonic Automotive says its new retail plan and customer experience initiative is running well, less than a month after it was initiated...7/31/2014 -
Tips to Improve Customer Service
Customers are effectively the kings and queens of every business, and the operations of most companies are centered around their needs and expectations. Every department, especially the ones that interface with customers, constantly work on their customer service to ensure they keep their customers happy...7/30/2014 -
Sri Lanka Travel Company Engages Customers with Updated CRM System
The embattled travel industry is showing signs of growth, and travel companies are investing in technology to build and support their relationships with new and existing customers. Such is the philosophy behind findmyfare.com's recent upgrade to its customer relationship management (CRM) system...7/23/2014 -
Ways to Improve Customer Experience
Customers are the key to success of any business-today more so than ever before, thanks to globalization intensifying competition. This means customers are more likely to switch to competitors' services unless your business engages with them on a long-term basis...7/22/2014 -
Insurance Industry Innovating to Better Serve Millennial Customer Base
At first glance, insurance is not the type of product that seems to lend itself well to modernization. To many, its business model consists of little more than collecting premiums and paying the occasional claim above any deductible...7/16/2014 -
Mobile Solutions Complete the Customer Experience
Ever since about 2007 or so, the technology landscape has fundamentally changed to include a new breed of mobile device-as exemplified by the iPhone and its various descendants. The smartphone kicked off a new revolution in mobile device use that came to include the tablet and a variety of wearable devices as well. But a new study from CMS Wire shows that the revolution in question has added up to one critical point: without mobile in the ranks, the customer experience is incomplete, and an incomplete customer experience could be costing businesses more than said businesses realize...7/16/2014 -
Robust CRM Allows Companies to Ride the Wave of Big Data, Mobile and Social Media
In the earliest days of customer relationship management, the goal of any worthwhile CRM solution was to collect data. It acted as an information repository on customers so sales personnel and contact center agents could find some background on the customer before interacting with that person. In the 1990s, when CRM first emerged, it was the "go-to" clearinghouse for data...7/10/2014 -
Touch Point Maps Can Improve Customer Service
As a customer, it is almost a universal experience to go through the process of purchasing a product, only to be disappointed with the end result. The conversation with the sales manager was upbeat and friendly, the product seemed to have all the desired features, yet ultimately the end product does not resolve problems or function as expected...7/9/2014 -
How to Make Sure Your Customers Has a Voice
No company can survive without a solid customer foundation, but so many businesses and companies have forgotten this very simple fact. They assume that their customers will always be there, and they take things for granted. Instead of taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge that can be found by just listening to customers, development teams simply create what interests them and not what will benefit the customers, or the company, the most...7/3/2014 -
Want Better Customer Relations? Put More Data in Your Marketing
Know your customer. This simple, three-word maxim carries a freight of truth along with it, and with good reason. Nearly every potential customer out there is willing to buy nearly any good or service out there as long as the good or service in question can demonstrate, effectively, how it provides more value to said customer than keeping the money required to purchase same. But getting more out of the customer relationship, as discovered in a recent study from Teradata, can be as simple-if not necessarily as easy-as applying more data to the process to yield data-driven marketing...7/1/2014 -
Anite CEM Solutions Draws on End-User Experience
Customer experience management (CEM) tools tend to provide IT administrators with much of the information they need to diagnose problems and monitor mobile devices accurately and efficiently. This reality has not stopped Anite, a global wireless testing technology company, from trying to improve standard CEM software with its own version that digs deeper than its competition...6/26/2014 -
Not All Businesses Know What's up with Their Customer Service
Businesses who think their customer service satisfaction rates are better than they appear to be are suffering from what's known as the service delivery gap. Companies who believe they're delivering topnotch service when the customers are telling an entirely different story need to bridge this gap to ensure that they're on the same page as the people they are servicing...6/19/2014 -
To Best Gauge the Customer Experience, Become the Customer
Do you really want live calls? This is an important question to ask internally, as some companies behave as if they really don't. They treat the customer on the phone as a significant distraction, preferring to encourage them to use the website or initiate a live chat instead of simply answering their question or solving their problem by phone and satisfying the customer experience...6/19/2014 -
How Can Hosted Solutions Improve the Customer Experience?
The demands placed on the contact center today would put the call center of yesterday into a tailspin. Customers not only want quick service, but they also want access through multiple channels, seamless experiences and instant gratification. The customer experience is no longer defined by quick service. Today it means so much more...6/10/2014 -
The New Customer Experience: Predictions for the Future
Everyone knows just how much technology is in flux. Companies are constantly adapting to innovative new software, and the world of business is evolving. But the changes brought on by new technology don't just impact businesses from within; they are also shaping the customer experience...6/5/2014 -
Insurance Industry Invests in Customer Experience Improvement
While technology adoption rates have increased rapidly for insurance companies looking to cut costs and improve efficiencies, today the focus in the industry has shifted from cost reduction to improved customer experiences, according to a recent study...6/4/2014 -
Velvet Rope Customer Service: Making Customers Feel Part of Something Exclusive
How can a business best improve its customer experience? A lot has been made of this topic in the past, and there are possibilities aplenty when it comes to ways to try and improve the customer experience while in a business' purview. The Wall Street Journal's Christina Bechhold, meanwhile, advanced a new idea recently in terms of making customers happier to work with a business in a way many likely hadn't considered. Bechhold advanced the idea that good customer service lies in making customers feel like "part of the club."..5/27/2014 -
A Smoother Shopping Trip At Home Depot May Be Ahead
While most people don't dread a trip to Home Depot-indeed, some find it a relaxing excursion to browse the latest in tools and home improvement paraphernalia-there are those who'd rather not go through the slings and arrows of the whole thing, especially the special order process. But Home Depot is prepared to step up its operations with plans to bring in a new customer order management system (COMS), designed to be a smoother and more transparent ordering process for its users...5/27/2014 -
Regular Evaluation Means Better Customer Service
Analytical technology will have a great effect on how customer service is delivered. That's according to a blog post from Rex Dorricott, CEO of customer software company Exony, who says that evaluating your customer service more stringently is vital, especially in the age of outsourcing...5/21/2014 -
Making the 'Customer Journey' a Good One with Analytics
In the customer relationship management industry, we have a few phrases to describe how and when customers interact with businesses. Companies are always perfecting the customer experience, or customer interaction. What if companies approached this process as a customer journey, and used analytics to make the trip a worthwhile one for them and their customers?..5/21/2014 -
UnionPay Chooses Radware to Speed Up Webpages
Radware, a provider of cloud application delivery and security solutions, has announced that UnionPay, a Shanghai-based bank card association, has chosen Radware's Fastview to reduce page load time in order to improve the customer experience online and on mobile devices...5/16/2014 -
Get Back to Basics for Customer Experience and Loyalty
The social media explosion has changed how businesses are communicating with their customers. While it's easy to reach out to customers with the push of a button, some of the long lost art forms, like handwritten letters, can go a long way in making a customer feel special and add to a positive customer experience...5/15/2014 -
Link Between Customer Service and Profits is Stronger than Ever in the Digital Age
While "the customer is always right" has been the mantra of companies since the beginnings of capitalism, new research indicates that customer service has only become more important in the digital age. A recent survey found eight out of 10 companies with solid customer service programs see significant profit increases...5/14/2014 -
Consider an Advisory Board to Hear the Real Voices of Your Customers
A lot of lip service is paid to the idea of listening to customers. The "voice of the customer," while a great modern tool to help understand what customers want, isn't always enough. The idea of recording customer calls and running them through analytics to spot problems, strengths and trends-as well as to predict which customers are likely to churn-is an important one, but it doesn't necessarily provide a complete picture...5/14/2014 -
Boost Customer Experience with Text Messaging
The customer experience is on everyone's minds these days. Companies find that now, more than ever, they need to be asking themselves what their audience is looking for and how they want it delivered...5/9/2014 -
Accor Improves the Customer Experience for Hotel Guests
The Paris-based hotel group Accor, which operates more than 3,500 hotels across 92 countries, has begun implementing new technology to offer guests a better customer experience...5/9/2014 -
Customers Are Telling Us What They Want
While few companies can achieve the level of brand allegiance Apple enjoys, they still would be mindful to focus strongly on customer experience. Roughly 80 percent of a brand's revenue comes from loyal customers on average, according to newBrandAnalytics...5/8/2014 -
Bespoke Coupons and Mobile Offerings Give Retailers Plenty to Consider
It's hard to ignore a coupon on the back of my sales receipt that is for a product I already use. Likewise, I can't help but act on an email from a merchant that tells me about a sale on a product I planned to buy soon anyway. This is the power of bespoke coupons, which really is the story of how technology is changing business and the customer experience...5/7/2014 -
Why the Customer Experience Extends to the Field
In a variety of markets today, we tend to focus a lot of attention on the customer experience. At least from a buzzword perspective, it's an important thing to include in your list of company initiatives. While it's not always clearly defined, any customer-facing organization knows that if the customer isn't happy with the experience, they will take their business elsewhere...5/7/2014 -
VIM X Makes Cisco UCCE Migration Easier, Leaving Legacy Systems Behind
There are a lot of technologies that currently support the contact center, and while said technologies change on what seems like a daily basis, remaining current is one of the best ways managers can ensure that they are providing exceptional service to those calling in and for the agents serving the customers. Dialers, ACDs, call recording, IVR, WFO - all offer exceptional benefits, but what if contact centers can take all of the helpful bells and whistles and get them from one solution?..5/2/2014 -
How Do You Gauge Your Customers' Experience?
The phrase "customer experience" sounds like something you'd hear in a movie trailer, but when it comes to customer relationship management, it is the hub of every business's association with the people they do business with...5/2/2014 -
Offering Agents Flexibility and Customization Leads to Better Customer Engagement
Many companies spend a lot of time and money figuring out how to please their customers. They put the latest technologies into their contact centers. They offer stellar self-service options and multiple channels. They track social media and responses to posts...5/1/2014 -
Mercedes-Benz CEO Gets Tougher on Customer Service
Good customer service really does matter for companies that want to retain their clients. Many businesses now understand that not only a more efficient service, but also a good customer relationship management (CRM) is important to improve business processes, gain clients, retain existing customers and expand business. In fact, most companies rely on repeat business from satisfied clients and on positive word-of-mouth about their firm...5/1/2014 -
A Look into the Customer Experiences of Banks Around the World
Positive customer experience is the goal of every bank today, because happy customers bring in more revenue. Despite this fact, not every business is focused on giving customers a happy banking experience. A report by Capgemini showed that customer satisfaction levels for the banking industry declined worldwide in 2013, though some regions fared better than others...4/30/2014
