ALSO SEE:
Providing Business Information That Drives Results


Good Supply Chains Need CRM
Ann Grackin, Chainlink Research


Think Your Customers Are Loyal? Think Again
It is critical to understand the multitude of variations of customer loyalty if a company is to win customers,
increase market share and achieve high performance.

INTERVIEW: Bob Stutz
Bob Stutz, SAP AG

Customer Marketing Gets Organized
Limited Brands, Inc. (LBI) is as much of a shopping-
mall mainstay as food courts and teenagers.
Founded in 1963, with one women’s apparel
store in Columbus, Ohio, Limited Brands has
grown into more than 3,500 stores and nine retail
brands.

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Just a Smarter Way to Do Business
Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FIC) is the leading
provider of decision management solutions powered
by advanced analytics. Fair Isaac solutions
make mission-critical business decisions that are
more precise, consistent and agile. |

Transformational CRM is the catalyst to transform organizations, empower employees and capitalize
on new market opportunities.
Surviving and Thriving in the Customer-Driven Age

Customer Experience
Issues involving the acquisition and retention of customers and the value of each customer.
Customer and eBusiness Intelligence
The collection of processes that govern the creation, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge and data. The ability to view your customers from all "sides."
Innovative Tools and Processes
Up-and-coming technologies that will enable the effectiveness and operations of the CRM industry; items include sensors, RFID, and wireless applications.

Automation at the Expense of Customer Satisfaction
September 6, 2005 -- Innovative Contact Centers (ICC) are in their infancy. They are evolving out of traditional call centers, which initially were created to centralize the handling of inbound customer calls. Early call centers acquired a reputation as sweatshops, with agents locked away in darkened rooms with the single objective of handling the maximum number of calls at the lowest possible cost. Their operation was measured by poring over huge piles of data obtained from the Automated Call Distribution (ACD) system and then producing largely inaccurate spreadsheets that subsequently were used to predict future call patterns and required agent profiles. As customers called more, costs skyrocketed and companies looked to more automated methods of call handling in order to manage the costs. However, the price for this cost cutting has been a dramatic lowering of customer satisfaction.
Ventana Research asserts that in today’s highly competitive markets and with a generation of less loyal customers, this must change. Customer contact processes must mature at a faster rate and companies must pay much closer attention to managing the performance of what are now key components of their business. Real attention must be paid to customer satisfaction. Technology will play a role, but without proper attention being given to the business processes and contact center agents, much of this investment will not yield the expected returns and customer satisfaction will remain at extremely low levels.
The CRM ProjectVolume 6, 3/2/2006
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