Customer Relationship Management

A blog about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
comments on the article “CRM analytics -- an array of options” by Judith Lamont, Ph.D, posted April 1, 2010.

According to the article there are about 80 types of CRM applications that are definable and more than 350 vendors in the elusive CRM Magic quadrant. Multiple categories that exist in this sector of CRM is multichannel campaign management, sales force automation and customer service contract centers as well as including the most recent form of CRM including social software. All of these things are utilized by companies to promote both their sales and support their customer service. By using analytical tools either separate or integrated into such software, it enables the company to determine whether marketing was successful for different ad campaigns, and also how satisfied customers were with the different products and services provided. It also allows them access to information about what parts of the website that are being visited and what questions customers have that either the website or customer service have been unable to answer. These analytic resources allow a company to make optimal solution choices about different decisions needing to be made by the company whether cutting costs are increasing sales.
One customer support software noted in the article is called RightNow CX customer experience suit. RightNow CX focuses on different touch points for companies including Internet, contact center and social network. RightNow CX then integrates the continuous feedback provided by the analytics tools of the program to provide continuous information about each of these divisions. The program also stores answers in a knowledge base within its memory in order to make question answering simplified and notates the questions that customers and employees are having trouble answering. With these processes in place, the information gaps can be readily acknowledged and corrected. As Finnell states, “Our ongoing analysis let us respond with near real-time speed to issues that customers have with our products.”
WriteNow CX was originally created with the concept of customer interaction at its core. It integrates multiple resources such as e-mail, website support, and chat to create a well-rounded resource of information to create the best analytical reports for companies. However taking this information gathering a step further there are programs such as Portrait Software which compiles information to create complete files or “pictures” of customers and the customer base. These systems gather information and store them in order to create accurate and evolving profiles for customers. An example of such information storage systems is the website Amazon.com in which customer accounts will include product recommendations based off of products searched, looked at, and bought.
It is truly fascinating to see what computer systems on today's market are capable of doing. The compiling and storage of multiple areas and information sources is both helpful to customers and invaluable to business. As software and systems increase their productivity and efficiency, the gap between sellers and buyers of both goods and services is quickly closing. These systems are one of the things that are quickly aiding the market for online sales and changing the market from storefronts to websites. It is truly fascinating to see what is available to companies in the customer relationship management departments and see the changes that are taking place.

Paper Cup Competition

March 17, 2010, 12:31 p.m. Newswire
“The betacup Challenge Launches an Open Collaboration Initiative to Reduce Paper Cup Consumption”
Starbucks Sponsors Online Contest to Spur Creative Problem-Solving

A company called betacup, sponsored by Starbucks, launch an online contest on April 1 for the submission of people's ideas for solving the problem of global waste, specifically, disposable cups. They are utilizing open collaboration in gathering ideas on how to cut down on waste and create cups that are user reusable or recyclable. Betacup is not simply looking for a person's thoughts on the matter, but are interested in product design, a means to change consumer behavior through either communicating information or incentives, as well as how this would integrate with the current recycling infrastructure.

The contest will be hosted on betacups partner platform called jovoto.com, and award money has been provided by Starbucks. Members of the forum as well as appointed jurors will be able to provide feedback on all submissions functioning as a filter for the collaborators of the information.

At the end of the article, a few facts are posted that are the motivation for creating reusable or recyclable cups. The first fact is that 58 billion paper cups are thrown away and not recycled Every year. Also, According to the Environmental Defense Fund, 20 million trees are cut down in the process of manufacturing paper cups and in the energy wasted through the manufacturing and disposal of these paper cups could power 53,000 homes.

Original Article