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Google to Acquire DoubleClick
Google Inc. announced a definitive agreement to acquire DoubleClick Inc., a global provider of digital marketing technology and services, for $3.1 billion in cash from San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman along with JMI Equity and management. The acquisition will combine DoubleClick's expertise in ad management technology for media buyers and sellers with Google's advertising platform and publisher monetization services. The combination of Google and DoubleClick will offer tools for targeting, serving and analyzing online ads of all types, significantly benefiting customers and consumers. Both companies have approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close by the end of the year.
Virtual Hold Technology Receives Canadian Patent for Call Center Technology
Virtual Hold Technology, LLC, a provider of virtual queuing solutions, has announced that the company has received a new patent from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office in Quebec. Virtual queuing is a solution that improves contact center efficiency and increases customer satisfaction. In periods of extended hold times, the Virtual Hold virtual queuing system automatically offers callers the option to hang up and receive a return call in the same amount of time as if they had remained on the phone. Virtual placeholders mark the callers’ places in the queue, maintaining first-in, first-out integrity.
Compete Introduces Attention-Based Web Metrics for Marketers
Compete, an online consumer market research firm, has announced the launch of attention-based web metrics, which provide a more sophisticated way to plan and assess online media investments. Compete provides daily attention-based metrics that fuse engagement (measured by time) and traffic (measured by unique visitors) into a single, more complete picture of a web site’s marketing value. These new Attention metrics are available on Compete.com.
Kaseya Announces Comprehensive Sales and Marketing Program for MSPs
Kaseya, a global provider of IT Managed Service Automation software, has announced a new program to help managed service providers meet the challenge of effectively marketing and selling their managed service offerings. Kaseya has teamed with Acumen Management Group Ltd. and Technology Marketing Toolkit to deliver a results-driven education and coaching program targeted to meet the sales and marketing needs of an MSP organization. This program is designed to aid managed service providers in defining their service offering and developing their value proposition associated with selling managed services. In addition, the program helps MSPs develop plans to convert current break-fix customers to managed service plans.
Longwood Introduces TagTeam Automated Reporting Capability
Longwood Software, developer of the TagTeam marketing materials management system, announces TagTeam Auto Reports, a new capability that provides insight into key activities by sales teams and customers, and generates dynamic reports that enable decision makers to measure marketing and sales effectiveness. As a result, marketing and sales organizations can refine e-commerce programs, enhance sales support, and optimize promotional spending. With TagTeam Auto Reports, sales and marketing managers receive actionable information about the performance of their demand-generation programs, sales teams, and distribution partners on a regularly-scheduled or on-demand basis. This lets sales and marketing managers continuously tailor and target their initiatives based on actual customer interest and performance in the field.
VerticalResponse Launches New VerticalResponse for AppExchange 3.0
VerticalResponse, a provider of self-service email marketing and direct mail solutions, and salesforce.com , a provider of on-demand business services, has announced VerticalResponse for AppExchange 3.0, a new offering from VerticalResponse that takes advantage of the new Apex API enhancements released by salesforce.com earlier this year. The seamless integration has attracted more than 1,400 customer installations via the AppExchange, including Accept Software, ATC Onlane and First Research, Inc., allowing them to combine self-service direct marketing from VerticalResponse with Salesforce on-demand CRM -- all from within a single interface.
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 Services Industry Summit - Strategies for eService & Knowledge Management
Join us in Charleston, South Carolina May 21-23, 2007, for the Services Industry Summit. Industry luminaries from leading organizations including Dell, HP, Network Appliance, and others will share insights into the hottest topics around - eService and knowledge management! Where it's at, where it’s going, and how it will change the way you do business.
Topics include Web Globalization Strategies, Success Measures for Web Services, Effective Knowledge Management Strategies, Evolving the Online Support Model, and more. Register today!
Register today!
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| Small and Mid-Market Enterprises Leading the Way in Marketing ROI
A new benchmark study from Aberdeen Group has confirmed what savvy marketers have known all along: using technology to create processes around customer interactions is critical to creating a customer-centric organization and deriving better returns from marketing investments. The study, titled “Automating Leads to Sales - Improve Return on Marketing Campaigns,” states that small (SME) and mid-market (MME) enterprises are exceeding average performers in all metrics benchmarked.
According to the study, best-in-class companies consistently demonstrate proficiency in multiple marketing capabilities, which has a positive impact on performance. The top performers use technology to track customer behavior, perform customer profitability modeling, maintain centralized knowledge and data management systems, and create real-time decision support. They are also using business intelligence tools integrated with marketing and customer data with higher frequency than benchmarked groups.
Among the findings from the study are:
- Fifty percent of SME and MME enterprises lead in capturing 70 percent of current customer profiles.
- Fifty-five percent have centralized customer knowledge and data management processes in place.
- Customer data is used to perform customer profitability modeling at rates significantly above average (41 percent v. 33 percent).
In addition, Aberdeen says leaders leverage customer analytics, multi-channel interaction applications, business processes, and technology infrastructure across brands and product lines. It is this 360-degree view that allows them to better than 15 percent annual improvement in Return on Marketing Investment, gross revenues, and customer retention rates.
More...
Balancing Enterprise Needs with Customer Needs Remains Leading Challenges
New findings from The Ken Blanchard Companies annual Corporate Issues Survey cite increased competition and continually escalating challenges in attracting and retaining good people as leading organizational concerns in 2007. And, respondents say that they expect that very little will shift by 2010. Most foresee that competitive challenges will remain their key issue.
Respondents indicate that their most pressing issues this year include:
*Competitors evolving and appearing from new sources.
*The feasibility of growth and expansion while facing a lack of skilled labor.
*The need to shore up internal leadership and management bench strength and retain top talent.
*Balancing these high-level internal concerns and the demands created by servicing and satisfying customers.
The respondents agree that the number one concern -- increased competition -- affects their ability to attract and retain good people. It also creates a climate where customers form a “commodity” mind-set. This drives price sensitivity and the need to differentiate products, services, and offerings in a way that capitalizes on an organization’s value proposition.
Growth was the second-ranked challenge this year as well as last. Organizations cite the need to grow with a strategic focus along with increasing efficiency, streamlining work functions, and providing quality products and services while simplifying and standardizing processes. In addition, respondents indicated the need to grow leadership bench strength through succession planning to take their organizations in the right direction.
Recognizing that people are a key variable in being able to deliver relative to growth and customer service goals, respondents continue to place leadership development, selecting and retaining key talent, creating an engaged workforce, and managerial skills as critical areas of focus. They believe that competitive advantage and success hinge on good leadership, stating that leadership drives improvement in all other areas. Another reason leadership is a key focus is the number of employees approaching retirement. A shrinking labor pool contributes to the high cost of recruiting talented and qualified people--in both line and leadership positions.
Predictions for 2010:
- Respondents expect both industry consolidation and global competition to increase. Not surprisingly, they also expect technology issues to intensify.
- They see increasing needs to focus on selection and retention of key talent, succession planning, and increasing innovation.
- Conversely, respondents seem to feel that issues around leadership capacity and creating an engaged workforce will be lesser areas of focus.
More...
Contact Centers Still Not Meeting Expectations
The Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index, established in 2005 by Aspect Software, provides an indicator, in the form of a letter grade, which quantifies consumer satisfaction by reviewing the quality of their telephone and internet-based interactions with companies and their representatives.
Contact centers in North America are still not meeting customer expectations; however, the 2007 Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index shows a slightly upward trend, with an overall satisfaction grade of 72.4 percent, 2.8 percent higher than the previous 2005 Aspect Index. The rise is likely the result of an increased consumer satisfaction with email and Web chat, which are generally being used for simple transactions and inquiries, and a modest improvement in contact center performance relating to these online contact methods.
The 2007 Aspect Index also examines some new data that focuses very specifically on the consumers’ experience with automated systems -- an area that was identified in 2005 as consistently failing to meet consumers expectations. The 2007 Aspect Index shows that consumer's dissatisfaction with automated systems largely remained unchanged.
In addition, this year's Aspect Index includes feedback from 250 additional consumers who recently had an excellent contact center experience. The survey revealed that exceptional service is fairly uniformly characterized. Companies with solid customer service practices:
- Quickly respond to inquiries or issues.
- Provide accurate and detailed product or service information.
- Transfer knowledge to consumers so they are qualified to make informed decisions.
- Set expectations for what will transpire after the interaction
The 2007 Aspect Index also helps contact centers understand how each interaction impacts the amount of business customers plan on doing with them in the future:
- Nearly 75 percent of consumers who have had a bad experience say they will do less business with a company.
- One in six consumers is likely to switch companies based on their latest interaction.
- 99 percent of consumers who had an exceptional experience say that contact center interactions are the same or better than face-to-face interactions.
More...
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| Designing Self-Service Around Customer Persona
In 1999, Alan Cooper, author of “The Inmates Are Running the Asylum,” introduced the concept of personas. Personas focus designers on their customers’ needs by presenting the user as a person with a name and face, motivations and goals. This structured practice helps successful firms create products and services for real people. This article discusses what the most effective personas are:
Full Article...
Marketing Mix-Up in Business Intelligence
Marketing departments with business intelligence budgets are learning not to attempt too much, too fast with BI software. They are also striking data service level agreements with other business units to guarantee the information supply. But even now, say experts, marketers are trying to create the perfect BI solution first time round.
Full Article...
All Politics Is Local, and So Are Sales Leads
Some technology companies have been founded in a garage. Local Internet search company Natpal was hatched in a Connecticut car dealership. That's where Wharton undergraduate student and future Natpal CEO Nate Stevens realized that Internet search wasn't exactly friendly to small businesses looking for sales leads.
Full Article...
Scrimping on Customer Care Backfires
The late comedian George Burns once said: "The most important thing is sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made." When it comes to caring for customers, too many businesses are trying to fake it, and their customers know it.
Full Article...
Are We Finally Ready For Remote Agents?
Industry first started talking about remote agents almost 15 years ago. Since then, it's been a slow ride waiting for it to take off among call center managers. Things may be changing now, and it's a good time to debunk some persistent myths keeping companies from considering a dispersed workforce.
Full Article...
Managing Relationship Managers
In the tech movie spoof Office Space, one employee trying to save his job explains to efficiency experts that “engineers are not good at dealing with customers.” An increasing number of CIOs recognize that, like the engineers of the movie’s soulless corporation Initech, some of their companies’ IT staffers aren’t very good at dealing with customers either. To address the problem, they’ve created positions with titles such as business relationship manager or customer relationship manager to help them relate to internal customers.
Full Article...
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|  The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference
by Claes Fornell
When faced with the choice between cutting costs or improving customer service, most companies focus on tangible assets. But in our service economy, the most important asset is intangible: a company's relationship with its customers. The Satisfied Customer is a blueprint for understanding this fact of modern business and reveals the unheralded value of customer satisfaction.
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