It’s one our most requested topics: how to increase customer loyalty. We’ve worked with experts to boil down all of the technical jargon, the myriad of strategies, and the complex tactics into a simple guide that will help you know what are most important things to do. We reveal the top concepts, top technologies, and top business outcomes – and we do it in a way that everyone can understand. You don’t need to be a statistician or market research professional to understand and deploy the top ways to increase your customer loyalty.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is about tracking and managing business relationships. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is about managing business materials and processes. Together they can transform a business. This white paper examines how you can get the most from CRM and ERP, find the best system for your business and how IBM can help.

There is a fundamental shift in CRM today from simply being customer focused or customer-centric to proactively being customer-activated. Clients in today’s consumer economy desire to be treated as individuals with very specific and highly personalized needs and they want their voices to be heard and acted upon.

Who are the players in web customer service applications? How are they positioned to help you over the long haul? Read this magic quadrant report to find out.

Gartner Magic Quadrants are a culmination of research in a specific market, giving you a wide-angle view of the relative positions of the market's competitors. By applying a graphical treatment and a uniform set of evaluation criteria, a Gartner Magic Quadrant quickly helps you digest how well technology providers are executing against their stated vision.

A new IBM Institute for Business Value survey of more than 28,000 consumers from around the world confirms that while consumers actively discuss, critique, promote, and even dismiss your brand, they will give their loyalty only to a few select retailers. How well retailers and product brands identify the arbiters that determine what’s hot and what’s not and build trust with both individuals and communities of like-minded consumers will determine whether they benefit from a base of loyal advocates or are left with transient and fickle customers.

This new white paper from IBM, showcases five organizations that are strategically integrating emerging social software and tools with their existing investments and seeing measurable results in return on investment.

Selling has evolved. That’s why we commissioned a research study to better understand the landscape of selling in the modern age. From the death of cold calling to the emergence of technology and social media, our study highlights a variety of the key forces that are driving the evolution of sales.

Our research shows that if one thing hasn’t changed in sales, it’s the importance of relationships. Through our study and various insights throughout this eBook you will be better understand how to navigate your sales efforts in the modern age. Here are some key insights you will gain from this ebook:

• How is Social Media impacting the Sales Process?
• Is Cold Calling still an effective Sales Tactic?
• How important is Prospecting in the modern age?
• What are the most important characteristics for sales hires?

Businesses and consumers are changing the way they purchase, favoring predictable, subscription-based payment plans over large upfront investments. Accommodate more customers by turning your traditional payment process into a more customer-friendly payment plan.

• The impact subscription-based offerings are having on customer relationships.
• How to increase existing revenue or create a new revenue stream.
• How to turn a traditional sales model into a subscription model.
• What metrics should be used to measure the health of a subscription business.
• How to choose whether to build or buy a subscription billing/management solution.
• Best practices for getting started with subscription management.

The blend of CRM with social media engagement is evolving the “contact center” into the “customer engagement center.” This Gartner Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center analyzes and ranks the vendors in this dynamic market based on Gartner’s stringent and thorough market and product criteria. Discover who the leaders, visionaries, challengers and niche players are among this group of 13 solution providers.

Customers are interacting with your brand through multiple channels including the website, retail store, contact center and even social media. You have to understand all of these multichannel interactions collectively to develop a complete Voice of the Customer.

Download this white paper and learn how you can easily gather and leverage data from all customer touchpoints, including social media, to deliver a superior multichannel customer experience.