aheadCRM

  You don’t buy size 12 shoes for size 9 feet. You don’t get a Bugatti Chiron for grocery store runs. You don’t swat flies with field artillery. And you don’t buy more contact center technology than your business can reasonably grow into. The customer service neighborhood of CRM was the wrong side of the tracks for many years. The contact center could only cost the company money (so it was thought), so the responsible strategy was to cut costs to the bone and never spend anything there unless forced to. Asking for more staff or better equipment was like getting the state to renovate the prison library—impossible without somebody of the calibre of Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption . That attitude was changing by the dawn of the 21st Century. Research proved that better customer service led to better retention, loyalty, and advocacy among customers. These led to a strengthened brand and increased revenue in the long term. New integration technology meant the contact center co...

This CRMKonvo was supposed to be with Thomas Verly, a highly experienced Sales- and IT leader. We wanted to learn from his experience how to enable sales operations. What is important, what to measure? Do you really need a CPQ system? Unluckily he could not participate due to the heavy snow storm in Texas that caused major disruption. The good news is that Thomas and his family are safe Now, the CRMKonvos team has more than 70 years of CRM experience. We are coming from very different angles. So, we decided to tackle the topic, making some good points. Enjoy this episode and look forward to another one with Thomas Verly. Coming soon!

The CRMKonvos gang hat an intensive conversation in the intersection of CRM, CX, customer experience and privacy, which by default makes for a highly interesting one, because of all the conflicting goals that are involved. Our guest was Michael Hoos. Michael is a highly experienced specialist in the area of security. With his experience in various industries, using numerous CRM solutions, building compliant customer experiences that respect customer privacy, he has navigated many pitfalls for and with his customers. Now he shapes new solutions with Microfocus.

Ecosystems are a big topic. What makes an ecosystem successful? What hurts? Are there any key elements to ecosystems to make them succeed? Does it differ from communities? Can a vendor survive without one? Or even better: Can customers succeed without? There are lots of questions to be answered in the times of platform play. The CRMKonvos team had a vivid conversation with Alan Berkson , Global Director of Community Outreach and Analyst Relations at Freshworks , who, as part of is job works with, and builds ecosystems - pretty well, in fact. He has a lot of interesting things to say, also about the current rage, which is Clubhouse - will it succeed? Is there any good to it? Enjoy the conversation!

Everyone (and their dog) tells you that you need a 360-degree view on your customer, right? According to Techtarget , the “ 360-degree customer view is the idea, sometimes considered unattainable, that companies can get a complete view of customers by aggregating data from the various touch points that a customer may use to contact a company to purchase products and receive service and support .” And you are fully sold to this famed concept and term. In this case, I am sorry for spoiling your day. You in all likelihood do not have it, you do not need it, and here’s the kicker: You do not want it. The 360-degree view on the customer is just another case of too many people using too many too big words. You are asking why? Let me explain. I fully get it. The customer is your North Star, the guiding light, the one reason for your company to exist. Your company is customer centric, you are looking outside-in. Your company’s purpose includes to help your customers fulfilling their needs and ...

For a few months now I have the pleasure of frequently interacting with Richard Rosen of Fastcall , a company that exclusively focuses on extending Salesforce with CTI software. Rich is a firm advocate of focusing on one ecosystem and to not serving multiple ones. As such he is a friend of Salesforce. Still, he makes some astute critical and important observations about the market place and the customer experience that it offers. He also has some suggestions. Here is what he has to say.  It’s been a few months since I walked into Nordstrom but I do remember the experience. The store is nicely curated with classic brands I recognize and a few emerging brands. Nordstrom keeps their stores fresh and well designed. While our experience has moved more and more online the idea of merchandising has not changed. Amazon on the other hand does a very bad job merchandising fashion. E.g. tThe search “shirts for men” results in “more than 30,000” results. When shopping I may be looking for one...