How to Build a Culture of Digital Transformation

The real-life practicalities of digital transformation are significantly less about tools and data and more about the humans who employ them.

The Holiday Shopping Season Is Critical. Retailers Should Make It Less Critical

A smart, omnichannel, subscription-based approach that emphasizes customer relationships over transactional tactics, and converts customers' goodwill into recurring revenue, can keep the holiday cheer going year-round. Plus: five retailers show how.

3 Keys to Using Chatbots for Customer Engagement, not Aggravation

Chatbots can provide great value to both your customers and your business—but not if they lead too often to frustrating experiences.

5 Surefire Ways to Ensure Your Company Fails to Innovate

Innovation is difficult and risky, but adopting an innovative mind-set can pay dividends, even when your efforts don't immediately bear fruit.

4 Ways Retailers Can Maximize Their Holiday Sales

With online shopping only getting more popular, the in-store experience has to be up to the high expectations of today's customers.

Cyber Monday Is No Longer Just for B2C Companies

While Cyber Monday has become the biggest online sales day of the year for consumers, how can B2B companies fit into the conversation?

4 Tactics Every B2B Marketer Needs to Embrace

As B2B marketers embrace digital transformation, they should look to the following ways to engage with customers and prospects.

Redefining the ‘Sales Conversation’: How to Get Sales Leads From Offhand Remarks

Sometimes the casual chit-chat that comes up in a business setting can be the cue for a deeper—and more fruitful—sales conversation.

4 Ways Video Can Strengthen Your Bond with Customers

Here's how to harness the benefits of video content to advocate for your customers and aid them in their success.

Is Adobe, Microsoft, and SAP’s Open Data Initiative a New Generation of Customer Experience, or a Nice Fantasy?

The ODI announcement has generated a fair amount of commentary from the analyst and press community, much of it favorable and focusing on the promise of ODI: elimination of customer data silos, optimal customer experiences, a "360 view" of the customer. But there's some cause for skepticism.

Marketing Is Obsessed with Technology. Here Are 3 Reasons This Needs to Change

Marketing is increasingly making technology the star of its show, instead of keeping it in its rightful place: a strategic, supporting role. Here's why this is dangerous.

Great CX Relies on Clean, Robust Data—and Master Data Management Can Deliver It

Creating meaningful experiences, which is fast becoming a company's best way to stand out, starts with harnessing trustworthy, contextually relevant data.

Why CRM Implementations Fail, and 8 Steps to Ensure Yours Doesn’t

A lack of planning can be fatal, but here are eight steps that can put you on the road to CRM success.

Is Your Team Not Using Your CRM? Gamification Can Help

The absence of data integrity in a company's CRM can lead to incorrect planning and inventory—and, ultimately, lost revenue. Getting each team member on board is critical.

5 Best Practices to Keep Your Best Customers

Retailers need to look at analytics and life-cycle-based treatment recommendations to predict, plan for, and grow these crucial relationships.

Stop Trusting Third Parties with Your Customer Experience

Customer loyalty and brand identity can be put at risk by trusting outsiders to provide what has now become the key element of the customer relationship—the experience.

4 Things to Do if Your CRM Stalls Short of True ROI

You've spent a small fortune but your CRM is still mostly a glorified contact list. Here are some steps to take.

Why Small Businesses Need a Complete CRM

An integrated platform can save SMBs money and lead to stronger ROI and a better customer experience.

The 6 Habits of the Modern Chief Marketing Officer

Changing times call for changing behaviors, and the shifting expectations of marketing's purview has transformed what it takes to be a successful CMO.

The Single Most Effective Sales Strategy: Word of Mouth

Getting referrals is the best way to close more deals, generate more value, and retain customers for longer. But don't take our word for it. Here's the data and science to back it up.