March 2004

The 2004 Service Leaders--Part I

The Service Leaders were selected based on a combination of weighted criteria, including revenue and revenue growth (last four complete quarters ended September 30, 2003), market share, customer wins, and reputation for customer satisfaction.

The 2004 Service Leaders--Part II

The Service Leaders were selected based on a combination of weighted criteria, including revenue and revenue growth (last four complete quarters ended September 30, 2003), market share, customer wins, and reputation for customer satisfaction.

The 2004 Service Elite

The Elite award honors customer companies that have gained impressive returns on their customer service investments. Winners were selected based on return on investment, project implementation times, and overall impact on the organization.

Front Office

Service Takes the Lead

The 2004 Service Awards are our choices of industry leaders whose expertise you can leverage for your decision-making and benchmarking regarding customer services processes and technologies.

Reality Check

People Make or Break a CRM Initiative

It is increasingly imperative to turn your attention to driving successful people-change now--before your competition does.

Customer Centricity

Training Is for Dogs

Rarely do we see principles-based education that allows employees to use common sense to solve the customers' problems, and deliver a pleasing experience.

Insight

CRM Starts in the Executive Suite

CCOs slowly started appearing on executive rosters around the new millennium.

CRM Strategy Is Taking Center Stage

At the recent Frost & Sullivan Sales & Marketing Executive Summit CRM magazine Editor-in-Chief Ginger Conlon, moderator of the SuperPowers of CRM panel, asked the panelists, "What will be the most significant change to the CRM industry over the next twelve months?"

Heard and Overheard

News in Brief

The Pulse: Call Center Outsourcing

Do you use a call center outsourcer for all or part of your customer service initiatives?

CRM Helps Professional Services Firms Obey the Law

Whether the compliance relates to personal privacy issues, spam, homeland security, federal, state, and local laws, healthcare, or securities, CRM solutions providers need to be aware of the issues.

Hot Seat: The Demand for On-Demand CRM

Hosted CRM is hot. Salesforce.com has topped 8,400 customers and 120,000 subscribers, NetSuite is doubling its sales team and expanding abroad, and RightNow Technologies has achieved 20 quarters of consecutive growth.

Vertical Focus: Integrators: Necessary Evil or Indispensible Resource?

Gartner estimates that spending on CRM services in North American will increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 8.4 percent from 2001, reaching roughly $22 billion in 2006.

Required Reading

Recent books that analyze the customers' role; assist users with the new features provided by Microsoft CRM; detail relationship-building techniques; and more.

Just 1 Question

Self-Serve CRM

Do you provide Web self-service for customers?

REAL ROI

IN BETA: GuideMark Guides National City Bank to Success

The BRS solution features summarized and detailed broker information and delivering key management information.

IN BETA: Maximized Prospects

The software helps users gain prospects, attract new customers, and boost repeat business figures.

New & Noteworthy

Transforming Service Agents Into Sales Stars

Tilia Inc., which manufactures and distributes FoodSaver kitchen appliances, chose to take a chance one year ago and integrate sales into its service-oriented call center.

How to...successfully link new CRM technology with legacy systems

Integration is the linchpin to success; it can seamlessly bridge systems, or become a costly and time-consuming albatross. Following are five strategies for connecting the new with the old.

Secret of My Success

Cingular Wireless Ensures CRM User Buy-In

Michael Fields, director of business sales operations for Cingular Wireless, discusses the challenge of implementing CRM.

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