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Microsoft offers $44.6B for Yahoo
Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.'s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets. The Justice Department says it is interested in reviewing antitrust issues associated with it. The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoo's weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come. In a statement Friday, Yahoo said it will "carefully and promptly" study Microsoft's bid.
United Business Media Acquires Think Service
United Business Media has announced that it has acquired Think Service, Inc. on behalf of CMP Technology. UBM has acquired Think Service from its founder-owners for an initial cash consideration of $24.5 million, with a further performance-related consideration of up to $5 million, payable over the next 12 months. Think Service is a membership, certification and training, and events organization focused on IT service and support practitioners.
IBM and SAP Ink Agreement to Develop Their First Joint Software Product
IBM and SAP AG have announced plans to deliver their first joint software product, codenamed “Atlantic,” that will integrate IBM Lotus Notes software with SAP Business Suite. The combined efforts to create “Atlantic” will result in a new style of applications that present information and data in the context of users familiar with the Lotus Notes desktop. This will make it easier for users to do their jobs and greatly enhance the return on investment that companies have made in their SAP applications.
Active Modules Announces New Features for Active CRM
Active Modules has released the latest version of their customer relationship management application, Active CRM. This release includes enhancements to allow small businesses to easily manage internal and external functions. Active CRM provides small businesses with the tools needed to thrive in today's marketplace. It provides a very robust and intuitive user interface for CRM while providing the necessary tools for easy integration with existing web sites.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Launches in International Markets
Microsoft Corp. has begun the global launch of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 by announcing the availability of the first eight languages, including English, Spanish, simplified Chinese and French. As part of its commitment to a rapid global rollout, Microsoft has kicked off a 12-week global launch tour to give organizations worldwide the opportunity to experience Microsoft Dynamics CRM for themselves. As a key component of Microsoft’s software plus services strategy, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 delivers rich CRM capabilities that may be deployed as a traditional on-premise solution, as a Web-based on-demand solution, or as a flexible mix of on-premise software and on-demand services.
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| Technology Marketers Challenged to Reorganize Around Customers
Despite an increased focus on customer engagement, most B2B technology companies continue to fall far short of meeting customer expectations and commitments, according to the results of a major research initiative by the Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) Council. Most technology vendors badly overestimate their effectiveness in addressing customer needs, while a majority of customers feel ignored and trapped in vendor relationships that are marred by broken promises.
These are among the findings of Profitability from Customer Affinity, a new study that advocates major customer-centric changes in the way technology companies measure their marketing effectiveness. The study uncovers profound disconnects between vendors and customers and finds that IT companies risk serious customer alienation and lost business if they don’t realign their organizations around customer needs through improved co-innovation and cooperation. Some 99 percent of customers surveyed said they would either scale back or terminate relationships with vendors who fail to build customer trust. Meanwhile, less than seven percent of customers believe their vendors are extremely well-aligned with their needs.
The study argues for a new measure of marketing performance, called customer affinity, which incorporates critical elements of the customer lifecycle experience. The survey’s findings indicate that customer affinity — not brand awareness — is the most accurate predictor of customers’ purchasing intentions and decisions. In fact, customers say that brand awareness and existing relationships — often thought to be leading factors in purchasing decisions—have little bearing on their decision to do business with a vendor or channel partner. Customer decisions are influenced by competence, quality service and support, and a sense of true commitment from vendors. Yet vendors continue to direct budget toward initiatives that are ineffective at building customer affinity, the study argues.
Among key findings of the new study:
- Fifty-six percent of vendors perceive themselves as being extremely customer-centric, but only 12% of customers agree. An overwhelming majority of vendors—85%—are convinced that they are getting better at responding to customer needs, but 45% of customers disagree.
- More than half of customers surveyed described their relationships with vendors as “dependent and captive,” “struggling for common ground,” or “combative and adversarial.” When asked to describe their relationships with the channel, 45% of customers surveyed evaluated their channel relationships similarly.
- More than 30% of customer respondents said they would terminate relationships with companies that fail to gain their trust; 62% would scale back existing engagements, while 7% would no longer consider the vendor for future business.
- Co-innovation with customers is vital to building customer affinity. Nearly six out of 10 customers say co-innovation is extremely or very important, with another 30% agreeing that it is at least somewhat important. Customer responses indicated that collaborative, two-way conversations—followed by continuous improvement—build customer affinity.
- Vendors seem to understand that channel partners truly are partners in their success, and that going to market effectively with the channel is critical to maximizing their value to customers. Yet only 8% of vendor marketing respondents said they do an extremely good job of teaming with the channel to build stronger customer affinity.
More...
Companies Embracing Web Site Localization Are Better Positioned to Compete Globally
JupiterResearch has found that in order for companies to compete in an ever increasingly global marketplace, they must position themselves for global online growth. Outlined in a new report "Web Site Localization: Best Practices in Global Expansion," the companies that are positioned for success in markets outside the United States are those that have not simply developed and applied a uniform template to their web sites, but have tailored the sites to the needs and tendencies of individual countries.
According to the report, 37 percent of all large US companies have not translated their web site content into any other language, despite the fact the average number of languages for the top 10 global brands is almost 30. Large companies that are not developing content for non-English-speaking markets — domestically or internationally — risk losing market share to competitors with relatively more targeted strategies.
The distribution of the global online population will shift over the next few years, but companies should bear in mind that online population does not necessarily correlate with online spending. While the number of online users in Western Europe outranks that in the US, the US online advertising market remains far larger than does the European online advertising market. In 2007, online ad spending in the US was almost $20 billion, as compared to $11 billion in Europe. In contrast, online retail spending in Europe was roughly on par with that in the US. Meanwhile, in China, where the online population is about two thirds of the size of the US online population, online retail is still estimated to represent a small fraction of that in the US or Europe. As Internet markets mature and consumption habits begin to shift, both consumers and businesses marketing to consumers will boost their online spending. In many cases, however, this shift will take a number of years.
More...
Online Shoppers' Expectations are Rising; Retailers Have One Chance to Make a Great Impression
The 2007 Holiday Shopping: Online Customer Experience Survey by Allurent, Inc., revealed that while consumers might be buying more online, their expectations are also on the rise. In fact, 67% of consumers said their expectations about the quality of their online shopping experience increased since the 2006 holiday shopping season. Major reasons cited include:
- I know that technology is constantly changing and improving and I expect that online shopping should also be getting better (66%)
- I see that most retailers consistently advertise their websites so I expect to see them invest in making those sites better than they were last year (46%)
- I have high-speed bandwidth and expect to see more online stores better presenting products in a way that takes advantage of my faster Internet speed (41%)
- I am familiar with interactive and visual sites like Google Maps or Facebook and I expect to see more online stores being innovative like these sites (29%)
It's no surprise that young consumers' expectations are more influenced by Web 2.0 sites like Google Maps and Facebook. Nearly half (48%) of 18-24 year-olds cited these interactive Web experiences as the reason their expectations are rising. Retailers will need to learn how to better target this young group of consumers as their purchasing power becomes more influential.
Negative Online Experiences Damage Brands
Consistent with the results of Allurent’s two previous holiday surveys, the results confirmed that consumers do not differentiate between channels. In fact, nearly 40% of consumers revealed that a frustrating online experience would make them less likely to shop at that retailer's physical store. And 60% reported that when they have a frustrating shopping experience online, it negatively impacts their overall opinion of the retailer/brand. An overwhelming 80% would not return to the site after having a negative online shopping experience, meaning with most customers retailers have one chance to make a great impression.
Customer Service Features are Valued, Especially Among Female Shoppers
When asked to rate customer service features that are most important to them when buying online, 74% of consumers rated a perpetual shopping cart as an important feature (ranking it a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-5), and 70% rated one-page checkout as an important feature, rather than having to click through multiple checkout pages. These two features were rated above other options such as access to a toll-free telephone number, available live help, and accessible contact information. When results are segmented by gender, more women than men found customer service features to be of high importance.
Interest in Desktop Shopping is Strong
More than half (53%) of consumers surveyed expressed interest in virtual catalogs and circulars that can be downloaded directly to their desktops, so retailers could update information on new merchandise and special offers.
More...
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| What Does Web 2.0 Mean for Your Business?
A growing number of consumers are using the internet to shape and inform their purchasing decisions. So what effect is this is having on CRM? How can companies navigate the ‘Web 2.0-enabled’ world and gain a competitive advantage?
Full Article...
The Hidden Influence of Emotions on Consumers’ Choices
Marketers spend untold amounts of money to define who their customers are, what their needs are, and how to ensure they have a positive experience that will translate into sales. What these marketers and researchers often overlook is the role and importance of emotions as an influence on customer behavior.
Full Article...
The 'Unsung Hero' of the Call Center Software Ecosystem
It often seems that the predictive dialer is the “unsung hero” of all the pieces of equipment that make up the contact center hardware ecosystem. The dialer just sits back there, in the server room, doing its thing, and no one ever seems to really pay much attention to it — that is, until it comes time to load it up with a new set of numbers for another outbound campaign.
Full Article...
Fuzzy Search Helps Clear Up Call Center Confusion
When executives at Corporate Express began looking at ways to improve efficiency, they expected to find at least a few redundant servers or applications. What they discovered were more than two dozen separate customer data systems running throughout the company. Call center efficiency is measured by handle time — the amount of time it takes call center representatives to successfully complete a customer transaction. Corporate Express call center reps were clearly spending more time than they should searching for customer information, thereby increasing handle times and losing money for the company.
Full Article...
Know the Different Types of Customers to Make the Sale
Amidst the ongoing affair of making sales, we often think of the customers in an undifferentiated way. It is our job to entice the customer and make a sale; we have our job and they have their job. Unfortunately, it is more complicated than that. Just as vendors are different from other vendors, buyers differ from one another as well.
Full Article...
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|  101 Lessons For Great Call Center Management
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