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Part 1 of this series discusses the growing trend toward adoption of electronic health records among healthcare providers, insurance companies, and government agencies ...

When politicians are campaigning, voters get close attention as prospective buyers and customers. After they take office, however, and are charged with actually running a government, how often do the elected officials maintain a real customer orientation to the voters? ...

The first point of contact between a business and its customers is increasingly a website, not a phone call or an in-person store visit. For government agencies, where store-like "walk-in" access is either difficult or unavailable -- especially at the national level -- improving customer contact through the Internet has become an essential, continuing goal...

Part 1 of this series questions whether the heavy investments telecoms have been making to achieve long-term goals are the best CRM strategies or whether less-costly projects with faster paybacks might make more sense ...

Most of today's telecom customers -- who use their phone apps to check the menu at a local eatery or text a friend -- are clueless about the origins of electronic media. Only those holding a Medicare card, perhaps, appreciate that in the early days of phone service, the telephone company's customer relationship management only involved the employment of a local switchboard operator to place calls. And the operator knew everyone in town. Social networking consisted of tapping into a "party line" conversation when there were no private landlines -- let alone personal, wireless cellphones...

Part 1 of this two-part series takes a look at the state of online bill payment in terms of consumer adoption and market momentum ...

Millions of consumers have switched their bill-paying practices from tedious sessions with a stack of statements and checkbooks to streamlined, paperless payments through a variety of online channels. However, the movement to electronic payments still has a long way to go, based on recent reports, and a huge majority of consumers have not yet been weaned away from their checkbook chores and welcomed to the world of paperless payments...

The need to improve marketing in the airline industry has never been more apparent. Airlines in the U.S. reported a 6 percent drop in traffic in 2009 versus 2008, while passenger revenue declined by 18 percent. Globally, international scheduled air traffic declined by 3.5 percent in 2009 versus 2008 -- the largest ever post-war decline. ...

Major hotel chains have been wooing travelers for years with CRM tools focused mainly on "loyalty" or rewards programs. The CRM programs help hotels and resorts determine which customers patronize the same hospitality brand on a regular basis. Those frequent customers accumulate points that can be exchanged for a reward -- most often discounts on extended stays or future bookings.

Pick a room -- any room. There are lots of choices of places to stay for travelers in the U.S. In fact, there are 4.4 million guestrooms across the country, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association. And that's a problem. Competitors in the hospitality sector need some kind of an edge to gain new customers and, even more importantly, to keep their current customers coming back to the same hospitality brand whether the actual guestroom is in New York, Denver, or anywhere else.

Retailers in the U.S. are convinced that customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most important aspects of their business. However, the sector, in general, has failed to utilize the full potential of these programs, and the industry will be striving to elevate its CRM game in the future. That's good news not only for customers but also for the providers of CRM technologies and services...

Cyber Monday may be the most visible symbol of the increasing use of e-commerce technology in the retail sector. On just one day, Nov. 30, consumers operating from home or office computers in the U.S. spent US$887 million on Internet purchases. The spending level amounted to a gain of 5 percent versus Cyber Monday of 2008, and it matched the heaviest online spending day on record, which occurred on Dec. 9, 2008...

This story was originally published on Sept. 14, 2009, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. ...

Retail pharmacies in the U.S. filled 3.65 billion prescriptions in 2008, and another 238 million prescriptions were filled by direct mail. Each Rx was issued by a physician -- which explains why the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. spends heavily on marketing efforts aimed at doctors, including customer relationship management programs. ...

What U.S. business wouldn't want a customer base of 37.5 million prospects? In 2008, hospitals in the U.S. registered that many admissions -- a number that equals 12 percent of the U.S. population. Yet the hospitals in the U.S. have largely underutilized the customer relationship management tools that could exploit the data in that customer base to create significant increases in business volume and more profitable operations.

Part 1 of this two-part series addresses the reasons CRM has lagged in the health insurance industry and suggests that change is imminent ...

The health insurance industry, especially in the U.S., has a long way to go before it achieves a high level of performance in the use of customer relationship management (CRM) tools. However, pressure is coming from market forces -- including new government healthcare reform policies -- that will compel improvements in health insurance CRM, whether insurance companies want it or not...

Part 1 of this two-part series discusses the failure of the financial services industy to take full advantage of CRM and explains why it could now be at a turning point ...

The chastening effect of the recession has many financial services firms taking a cautious view of future CRM investments. One reason is that these firms are husbanding their resources. Another is a growing awareness that investments in CRM by the financial sector have not been all that successful -- or, at least, the results are a mixed bag. ...

In both the best and worst of economic times, worker productivity is a major management goal. Making sure that employees efficiently carry out their tasks is critical to the success of both government and business enterprises. First, of course, the workers have to show up. ...