How to Get Better Customer Service by Being an A**hole

We've all been subjected to the torture of terrible customer service -- hours on hold just waiting to talk to a breathing human, even if their first field of study obviously wasn't the English language.

What do people usually do about it? Nothing.

That's why we invited Chris Illuminati, Asylum contributor and co-author of "A**holeology: The Science Behind Getting Your Way and Getting Away With It," to explain how applying the a-hole principle can help you effectively deal with bad customer service.

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Gartner Reveals Key Customer Relationship Management Predictions for 2010 and Beyond

Facebook will be the No. 1 social network in all but 25 countries, according to Gartner, Inc. In countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, China and Japan it will not be No. 1. The prediction is one in a series Gartner analysts have made on customer relationship management (CRM) in areas including CRM marketing and social CRM.

“For most organisations, the single most logical way to differentiate the business is through great customer experiences, rather than having the lowest cost or most innovative products and services,” said Ed Thompson, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “However, gaining a clear understanding on which specific customer-centric initiatives will prove decisive and merit investment will require coordination across departments.”
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The Power of the Consumer

The massive platform competition means companies must do everything they can to retain customers. The marketplace will sort itself out, says Chris Anderson, author of Free.

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Need for ”Supplier Relationship Management” in Retail

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is regarded as key to the success of any Retailer. Most of the retailers across the globe are investing in Customer Retention and Loyalty Building Programs. In case of a Specialty Retailer who caters a niche variety of product, these can be achieved by well designed CRM Program. But in case of Large Format Retailers like Wal-Mart, Tesco, IKEA or Big Bazaar for that matter, it will not be solely depend on CRM, though it plays an important role. Customers of such Retailers expect Best deal in comparison to others and 24X7 Availability of products. Thus Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) plays pivotal role in success of Large Format Retailers.

Need for ”Supplier Relationship Management” in Retail: - Retail Dude

Lesson's from Starbucks success

Who would have wanted to be in Starbucks‘ shoes a year ago? McDonald’s had launched low priced alternatives that had huge trial, the economy had stalled and consumers were balking at spending $4 per drink, even at a familiar place. Howard Schultz announced that the company had “lost its way,” becoming too standard and corporate and less entrepreneurial, less like a local coffee shop. The chain then closed stores on a broad scale for the first time. Would Starbucks even be around in 3 years, or would it take its place among the dearly departed, driven by the tough economy?

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Traditional CRM Is Not Delivering Desired Customer Experience Transformation

Customer experience transformation is rapidly becoming a key business differentiator in the battle to retain customers and grow revenues and wallet share. But many businesses have yet to rise to this challenge, due to constraints imposed by their legacy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms. As a result, they continue to focus on routine operational savings rather than dramatically improving their customers' experience and net promoter scores. These are among the main findings of a major global survey of international businesses across the UK, mainland Europe and the U.S. undertaken by Pegasystems (PEGA 35.27, +0.25, +0.71%) , the industry leader in business process-driven customer experience transformation.

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Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola: A Web Marketing Comparison

Two of the largest and most profitable corporations in the United States are the Atlanta, Georgia based Coca-Cola Company and the Purchase, New York based Pepsi Cola Company, which is now referred to as PepsiCo by the company. Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo invest tens-of-millions of dollars per year in worldwide marketing campaigns. By visiting their websites (www.cocacola.com and www.pepsi.com), one can see that the two rival companies are invested in very diverse products. Even though Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are targeting the same markets, they approach their marketing strategies in very different ways.

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Vodafone, Orange, Other Mobile Leaders and Consumer Companies Step Up Influencer Marketing Approach with Pursway's Social Network Analysis

Influencer Marketing company Pursway (formerly Datanetis) is helping a growing number of consumer companies realize an order of magnitude improvement in the effectiveness of their customer relationship strategies, boosting customer acquisition, retention, and cross-selling outcomes.

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The Right Volume: Loyalty Management «

Why do customers change suppliers? Are you losing key accounts? It costs more money to acquire new accounts than to maintain current accounts. Ken Wong uses an insurance company as an example of how increased volume does not always equal increased profits.

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Social CRM customer data management can be the hard part

As organizations embark on social CRM projects to capitalize on the rapid growth of social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, there is one major stumbling block that must be considered -- and ultimately addressed. It’s a stumbling block that plagued many of the initial deployments of traditional CRM: the data.

The rise of new communication channels is bringing with it a rise in customer contact points, and therefore customer data. Should you collect Twitter handles, Facebook page addresses or monikers from online customer communities? Does that fit into your CRM system, and can you associate it to the right customer record?

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