Archive

In an effort to gain a competitive edge in the market, companies are implementing customer self-service solutions to address two distinctly separate business challenges -- improving the customer experience and cost reduction. While the cost-related benefits of self-service are widely understood, and...

Oracle is enhancing the mobile options it offers to Siebel CRM On Demand customers through partnerships with best-of-breed application vendors and device manufacturers. Earlier this year, for example, it announced a partnership with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. More recently, it struck a dea...

On my way out of Fenway Park the other night, I found a credit card on the sidewalk -- an American Express platinum card to be specific. When I got to a well-lit place, I called one of the numbers on the back of the card and began my odyssey. I am not picking on Amex and I have been a member of Amex...

Salestream Software has launched an upgraded version of its e-mail marketing add-in for Microsoft Outlook. PoliteMail 2.0 allows users to craft 1to1 marketing messages instead of generic e-mails. Its major selling point is that users don't have to leave Outlook to use PoliteMail. Additionally, the n...

Oncontact Software has released a new version of its CRM suite that is fully interoperable with Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. This is the first release in a two-part rollout: Oncontact will release an enhancement to its Web offering in August. Designed to be installed with little integ...

Last year, SAP spin-off company Tealeaf introduced software that allows call center agents and other customer service representatives to see what customers see through their Web browsers through an application called "cxReveal." Now, the company has announced an upgrade to that software that integra...

ATG has updated its e-commerce platform to include automated affinity selling for retailers and other e-commerce providers. It is the biggest update the vendor has made since it rolled out its v. 6.4 platform last summer, spokesperson Tucker Walsh told CRM Buyer. This release enhances the company's ...

Earlier this year, we did a study of attrition in the call center. We wanted to know why even good or great call centers have such persistently high rates of attrition, especially when on-boarding new agents. On-boarding is the process that starts with hiring and continues through training and the i...

Call centers for PC companies placed dead last in customer satisfaction in a survey released Tuesday by an international consulting group. The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based CFI Group found PC call centers scored a 64, the lowest customer satisfaction score of all the industries surveyed. "Scores in the six...

Cost increases are squeezing margins for outsourcing companies providing software and call center services to U.S. customers from popular international destinations. No immediate price increases for U.S. customers are possible for suppliers that are locked into fixed-term contracts in U.S. dollars,...

Given the many tools that comprise Web 2.0, many business to customer companies are experimenting with each, aiming to synchronize content through a content management system. Based on projects underway at several large consumer goods product manufacturers, this is working out very well, and is in f...

ACT has introduced its second industry-specific vertical -- this one in the financial industries sector -- following its ACT for Real Estate release. Like the first vertical, this release is built on ACT's core base with the industry-specific features incorporated into the core product line. The new...

How can companies establish effective customer relationship management in the heat of battle? We're not talking about a military action; the conflict in this case exists between entertainment companies and their customers. "For the most part, the entertainment industry and its customers have been at...

It's hard to avoid comparisons between Microsoft and Salesforce.com this week. While many see a zero sum game being played out in which Google plus Salesforce.com somehow equals a diminished Microsoft, I think there's more. In each case, we see major technology companies building elegant products fo...

Call center software developer CosmoCom normally has an appetite for enterprise-scale customers. Now, it is employing a new business model with a product introduced in South Korea aimed at small and mid-sized businesses. CosmoCom teamed with KT Networks -- a company within the Korea Telecom family f...