We use the term customer a lot – but what do we mean by that? That seems like a fairly dopey question at first, but CRM can be reigned in by language, and language doesn’t get any more basic for CRM than the word the first letter in the acronym stands for. I know my … Continue reading
Posted in August 2011 …
Gartner’s SCRM Magic Quadrant: can you have SCRM without CRM?
During the first week of this month, Gartner issued its Magic Quadrant for Social CRM products. What that document indicated was just how hard it is to build a full understanding of SCRM just yet – the products and companies included in the quadrant did an assortment of disparate things, and Gartner violated its own … Continue reading
CRM Selection Secret Weapon: Staying in Touch with Your Problems
My friend Hank retired from the Coast Guard after a 20-year career, and now he’s pursuing a second career of service as a director for the Alameda Food Bank, another truly worthy career path. During a Fourth of July party, we got to talking about work – me about CRM, him about the food bank. … Continue reading
Customer Advocates, the Experience Economy and the Hotel Elysee
The holy grail of customer loyalty in the social era is to have your customers doing your on-line marketing for you. That’s more likely to happen in some vertical industries – mostly B2C – than in others. For example, last week I was in New York following CRM Evolution, and I transferred my lodgings from … Continue reading
Social CRM is no Place for a “Show Me” mindset
Talking to the big brains at CRM Evolution in New York this week was at once refreshing and frustrating. It’s refreshing that people are thinking so hard about what customer relationship management could evolve into, how deeply it can spread into an organization, and how many business people will nod their heads when they hear … Continue reading
How voice analytics, coupled with social analytics, can be the canary in your service coal mine
Gauging the attitude of a large number of customers is no easy task. What appears in social media may on occasion not reflect a real issue or even a real sentiment (although it might reflection the perception of customers, which, of course, can be just as positive or negative for your business as reality). But, … Continue reading
Jonathan Stark – Social Experimenter or Marketing Genius?
Jonathan Stark is currently running a very interesting Social sharing experiment. He has published his Starbucks card for anyone to download onto their smartphone, and is allowing people to buy coffee on him. Really. No Joke. The Mobile Applications consultant, from Providence, R.I., has asked that people keep their purchases to $3 or less and … Continue reading
10 Steps to Buying the Right CRM Solution
Any organization looking to invest in a CRM system is faced with a huge selection of CRM vendors to choose from. According to some estimates there may be as many as 800 CRM vendors. There are several web resources who will help you creating your shortlist. For example, CRM Search gives you a shortlist of … Continue reading
SugarCRM Useful Tip – Importing Records
SugarCRM is very intuitive when it comes to the whole Import process. However, from time to time, some issues do crop up which can leave you scratching your head as to why you are receiving an error. If you have checked and double checked your import file and can see no reason as to why … Continue reading
TCO White Paper: CRM Vendor Pricing: Fees, Subscriptions & Hidden Costs
The way companies use and pay for customer relationship management (CRM) applications is changing. Moving from a predominantly perpetual license-based system, where companies paid a large up-front sum and then smaller annual maintenance fees, CRM software providers are now moving towards monthly or annual subscription fees to access CRM software on the Internet. The various … Continue reading
