Heard and Overheard

"When you create the right kind of partnership with customers, they want to stand up and tell others about it." --Deborah Nelson, vice president of marketing and customer insight, Hewlett-Packard "CRM is not customer service software, but the broad business strategies to attract and retain the customers you want to have for life." --William Green, COO, client services, Accenture "We have to say, 'What have we got, what does a customer want, and how can we put that together for a win-win situation that provides value to both organizations.'" --Marie Eckstein, global industry executive director for process industries, Dow Corning "Unless you know what customers bought, how do you upsell, cross-sell, or give better service?" --Zach Nelson, CEO, NetSuite "Everything we do should be to help our marketing customers reach their goals and help our users improve their user experience." --Elizabeth Harz, category development office, Yahoo! "Successfully realizing ROI means working shoulder to shoulder with your vendor to meet goals." --Robb Eklund, vice president, CRM product marketing, Oracle Corp. "Customers are at different comfort levels [with service and sales touch points]. You have to offer them choices they're comfortable with." --Carol Strenger, vice president for e-commerce sales and support, UPS