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Articles for Denis Pombriant

Automating Customer Service Means Striking a Balance

Too much automation can leave customers feeling put off

Bots Are Here to (Self-) Serve You

Thanks to machine learning and AI, bots today can usually give customers what they want.

The Next Big Thing in CRM—E-Commerce

Analytics and machine learning are changing the way we think about e-commerce and CRM systems

Meet the New Ideal Customer Service Rep

Empathy in an agent is great, but so is a take-charge attitude.

Mobile and Government CRM Will Loom Large Long Term

This New Year, let's look past 2017

Is Government CRM’s Next Big Market?

Lawmakers need help understanding and communicating with their customers (i.e., constituents)

The CRM Technology Sandwich

Don't forget to fill it with people and process!

Journey Maps: The Secret to Our Customer Success

In the era of digital disruption, new tools can help you strive for authenticity

CRM Challenges the Switching Economy

Ginormous switching costs mean that you should adopt a process orientation—immediately

Today's Business Is All About the Process

It's what happens before and between transactions that will make your company stand out

Know Your Customer’s Moments of Truth

With the help of journey mapping and analytics, you can engineer the customer experience from the customer's point of view.

Every Journey Starts with a Map

Modeling the end-to-end process can help avoid dead ends

The Power of the Platform Is in the Integration

Software puts a wide-angle lens on the business process.

What CRM Automation Doesn't Offer, Process Does

Manage by exception to zero in on buyers' needs.

Look to Spreadsheets to Foretell CRM's Future

An outdated method breeds frustration—and innovation

Omnichannel Strategy Begins with Platform

The technology that changed business is now being changed by business.

Data Versus Knowledge

Gaining insight from your data means rethinking its definition.

Data Drives Metrics

Gain a clear understanding of the state of your sales pipeline

CRM and Knowledge

All we know now is just a dress rehearsal.

Making the Play with CRM

As with baseball, customer service is a waiting game.

The Age of Collaboration

Why Mark Zuckerberg is not the father of social networking.

The Pros and Cons of Gamification

What works within companies might call for caution with customers.

The New IP: A Big Data Hierarchy

All data may not be equal, but it may be equally important.

Video Production Made Easy

Incorporating video into your customer outreach is as simple as 1, 2, 3.

When Disruption Is Good

Subscription services lead the business revival

CRM Idol, Reviewing the Review

Lessons from the winners: go big, aim high.

Trust Trumps Technology

What does the customer want? versus What does it cost?

Gas Prices Fuel UCS, Web Conferences

The need to reduce travel spurs front-office solutions

An Unlikely Pairing: Analytics and Video

The technologies will play a bigger role in everyday business processes and mobile devices

Supplying the Law of Demand

Make sure you're delivering messages that customers want to hear

The Greening of CRM

Sustainability, in all its forms, may be the industry's next big thing.

Is Your Community of Customers Sustainable?

Eventually, you have to start buying your competitors' clients.

Supporting the Service Channel

Customers can get support from a variety of sources. They only get service from you.

The Man Who Moved a Paradigm

An evaluation of the changes wrought by Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff.

Survival of the Relatively More Fit

CRM is changing, evolving to suit the demands of the moment.

The New Currency of Social Media

Active engagement gives us a chance to better understand the customer.

No Credit Where Credit Is Due

The rebirth of layaway in an age of automation.

The Next Disruption

The notion of Peak Oil has more to do with CRM than you think.

Evolution from Without

The innovation you seek may come from your customers.

The Customer Module

After years of trying, CRM still hasn't got a single place to capture and analyze relevant customer data.

The Longitude of Experience

Reconsidering the life cycle of customer interaction.

The Democratization of Technology

New systems will unleash a new round of creativity in business applications.

Back to the Drawing Board

The real problem with contact centers runs deeper than you might think.

Truly Mobile Strategies

Wireless SFA solutions require access to data on a broader array of applications on larger platforms.

Community Activism

Experience be damned--creating a customer community is the best way to win wallet share.

The End of Call Centers?

A conflict is brewing between groups focused on managing costs and those focused on generating profit.

The On-Demand Mathematics of Enterprise Computing

Change in computing will not be limited to technology--it will influence business models for every company competing in the traditional software arena.

Selling Is All About the Setup

New technologies help improve sales processes, but companies are not focusing enough on fundamentals.

After Transactional Systems

The next step in CRM is to incorporate customer feedback.

Goodbye ROI

It's time to alter how we think about financial rewards from technology investments--not all rewards are tangible.

Three Trends to Watch

Business process management, flexible hosted solutions, and return on customer will drive business decisions.