Evaluate

Evaluate

Weigh the pros and cons of technologies, products and projects you are considering.

• Customer loyalty vs. brand loyalty: What's the difference?

  Low prices can generate customer loyalty, whereas reliability and reputation foster brand loyalty. To maximize customer retention, organizations should strive for both. Continue Reading

• Why are loyalty programs important?

  Loyalty programs can help organizations retain their most valuable customers with special offers. Additionally, they can gather useful marketing data, increase referrals and more. Continue Reading

• How strong workplace values affect ethical marketing

  Modern customers actively seek out companies with strong values that match their own, so brands should embrace ethical marketing strategies to ensure customers see their values. Continue Reading

• The link between employee experience and customer experience

  A customer's experience with an organization is only as good as an employee's experience. Business leaders should know that empathy is key to employee and customer success. Continue Reading

• Compare pros and cons of live chat vs. phone support

  Phone support offers personalized experiences, but live chat agents can answer simple inquiries more quickly. See how these service channels stack up against each other. Continue Reading

• 7 reasons why businesses need mobile apps

  Mobile apps can build loyal customer bases, provide insightful customer data and more. Businesses should understand the many ways these apps can enhance CX.Continue Reading

• 5 upcoming CCaaS trends to watch

  As organizations plan to increase CX spending over the next few years, they should pay attention to CCaaS trends, like agents changing workspaces and integrations with UCaaS.Continue Reading

• How the convergence of UCaaS and CCaaS affects businesses

  The UCaaS and CCaaS markets began to converge so organizations could handle internal and external communications on one platform. But integration requires planning and consideration.Continue Reading

• What is Adobe Experience Cloud? CRM platform overview

  Adobe Experience Cloud -- the vendor's CRM platform -- includes tools to help medium and large enterprises manage all facets of their customer engagement strategies.Continue Reading

• Why you need a total experience strategy to drive CX and EX

  More companies are using a 'total experience' approach to win customers and support employees in the post-pandemic economy. But they won't find a single platform that does it all.Continue Reading

• Contact center of the future is now

  AI, machine learning, NLP, advanced analytics, cloud-based tools and workforce management software are transforming the simple call center into multidimensional contact centers.Continue Reading

• Zoom CCaaS a big bet on the future of customer service

  Zoom already integrates with the most popular contact-center-as-a-service platforms. So why has Zoom come out with a CCaaS of its own?Continue Reading

• Call center vs. contact center: What's the difference?

  Call centers and contact centers provide customer service in different ways. Decision-makers should understand which option best fits their organization's needs to optimize CX.Continue Reading

• Ultimate guide to customer service for businesses

  Good customer service can make or break a business -- which is why it's more important than ever to understand customer service and develop a strategy to implement it.Continue Reading

• 13 customer retention strategies that work

  As the cost of acquiring new customers exceeds the cost of retaining existing customers, implementing an effective customer retention strategy should be a top priority.Continue Reading

• Benefits of moving to a cloud contact center

  Cloud contact centers have various benefits for organizations, including cost savings, more interaction channels and staying with -- if not ahead of -- the competition.Continue Reading

• CRM vs. CDP vs. DMP: What's the difference?

  Sales and marketing terms are like alphabet soup, and the different acronyms can get confusing. Find out the difference between three major platforms: CRM, CDP and DMP.Continue Reading

• 10 voice of the customer tools to consider

  A voice of the customer tool is invaluable for creating an action plan to improve the customer experience.Continue Reading

• Inside 5 big-name relationship marketing strategy examples

  How does Nike form an emotional bond with sneakerheads? How does Starbucks know what latte flavors customers want? The answer lies in their relationship marketing strategies.Continue Reading

• Top 10 contact center platforms of 2021

  Contact centers enable organizations to support customers through various channels, but finding the best-suited platform can be difficult. Explore 10 options in this expert tip.Continue Reading

• 15 essential contact center software features

  Looking for the best contact center software features? We review some of the most useful capabilities including data reporting, speech analytics, routing methods and AI.Continue Reading

• How do omnichannel vs. multichannel marketing differ?

  While multichannel marketing connects customers and companies through various forms of communication, omnichannel marketing takes it further and removes any silos.Continue Reading

• On-premises vs. cloud contact center: What's the difference?

  On-premises and cloud contact centers differ in terms of costs, staff requirements and management. Organizations must weigh both options to find the right fit.Continue Reading

• 7 benefits of a personalized marketing content strategy

  Customers want companies to treat them as individuals, and personalized marketing can help accomplish that. Personalization can also improve customer retention and brand affinity.Continue Reading

• Sentiment analysis: Why it's necessary and how it improves CX

  Sentiment analysis tools are essential to detect and understand customer feelings. Companies that use these tools to understand how customers feel can use it to improve CX.Continue Reading

• 10 sentiment analysis tools to consider

  Sentiment analysis is a vital component in customer relations and customer experience. Several versatile sentiment analysis software tools are available to fill this growing need.Continue Reading

• Top 5 personalized marketing examples and their takeaways

  Personalization is a marketing tactic that is easy to get wrong. Learn from the best with five examples of successful campaigns that used personalization.Continue Reading

• The psychology of UX design: How design affects CX

  In her book, '100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, 2nd Edition,' Susan Weinschenk explains how UX design relies on psychology to improve customer experiences.Continue Reading

• How the Salesforce-Zoom integration benefits sales

  Video conferencing is now the primary form of communication for sales and marketing teams that rely heavily on meetings. The Salesforce Zoom integration increases efficiency.Continue Reading

• Advanced upselling tactics, technologies expand bottom line

  Upselling technologies that segment customers, predict buying habits, analyze emotions and target campaigns arm companies with the weapons to tap new revenue streams.Continue Reading

• 10 Dreamforce to You 2020 sessions for sales managers

  DreamTX -- part of the Dreamforce to You 2020 lineup -- will offer a variety of relevant sessions for attending sales managers. Here's a peek at 10 of those sessions.Continue Reading

• Why customer-centric design is crucial for CX

  In her book, '100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People,' Susan Weinschenk talks about why it is important for companies to know their audience to better design for them.Continue Reading

• 10 technologies to transform customer experience in 2021

  AI-powered technologies such as sentiment analysis, chatbots and real-time transcription can help customer service organizations improve the customer experience.Continue Reading

• Transactional vs. relationship marketing: Key differences

  Some companies thrive on building strong relationships with customers, while others want to make a sale without long-term commitment. Either way, the business needs a strategy.Continue Reading

• 6 demand-generation strategies to drive business

  Among the demand-generation activities to increase awareness of a business's products and services are creating buyer personas and investing in content creation.Continue Reading

• 5 ideas for a post-cookies marketing strategy in 2022

  Tracking customers without third-party cookies may worry businesses; however, all organizations are in the same position. Companies should consider these alternatives.Continue Reading

• Evolving customer data platform features set sights on CX

  In pursuit of the perfect customer experience, CX pros increasingly look to CDPs to unify data and provide a deeper understanding of behavior patterns and buying habits.Continue Reading

• Customer data platform tools push personalization, privacy

  Evolving CDPs help companies unify the flood of consumer data collected from disparate sources, resulting in better customer insights and compliance with privacy regulations.Continue Reading

• Consider adopting extended reality for improved CX

  Research shows that consumers are ready for extended reality when it comes to interacting with brands. Jason Cottrell explains why now is the time to consider adopting XR and AR.Continue Reading

• Mobile wallet mania: Contactless payments are here to stay

  The COVID-19 pandemic has affected a lot of B2C industries and one aspect of customer experience that is likely permanently shifting is the increase in mobile wallet adoption.Continue Reading

• The evolution of customer service

  Today's customer service meets the consumer where and when it is convenient for them, with multiple contact channels, self-service and always-on coverage.Continue Reading

• CDP vs. marketing automation: What's the difference?

  CDPs and marketing automation software collect customer data, automate processes and increase efficiency, but they also have features that set them apart from each other.Continue Reading

• 6 customer retention best practices for businesses to heed

  Customer retention is essential to an organization's success, so it's important to keep customers educated, engaged and feeling as though they're part of the business family.Continue Reading

• 21 lead generation tools to fill the sales funnel

  While live events are on hiatus, there are other tools that businesses can use to generate sales leads, such as email tracking, marketing automation and social media.Continue Reading

• Sales funnel vs. flywheel: How sales and marketing has evolved

  The sales funnel is evolving into a more customer-centric approach named the flywheel. These processes approach sales and marketing differently, but both are useful.Continue Reading

• What's the difference between CRM and database marketing?

  Database marketing is a component of customer relationship management. CRM includes all processes, strategies and tools to support sales, marketing and customer service initiatives.Continue Reading

• Customer success vs. customer support: What's the difference?

  Customer success and customer support are important terms for businesses to be familiar with if they want to provide great CX. They sound similar but are different.Continue Reading

• Evaluate call center outsourcing costs and benefits

  Outsourcing call center operations can take some financial burden off businesses -- depending on what partner they choose. But there can also be some drawbacks.Continue Reading

• Are you a customer experience leader or laggard?

  Organizations need to invest now in customer experience to ensure they're leaders in their industry. They cannot risk falling behind their competitors with their CX initiatives.Continue Reading

• What to consider for a contact center remote working strategy

  Colin Taylor suggests 11 areas that a good contact center work-from-home policy should address, including who provides equipment, workforce management, coaching and more.Continue Reading

• How to build a world-class customer experience system

  Megan Burns highlights the first four building blocks necessary for building a customer experience -- core journeys, criteria, blueprints and safety nets -- in this first article of a two-part series.Continue Reading

• Combat event fatigue with a virtual event marketing strategy

  Virtual events can be a great way to generate leads and improve customer retention -- but only when done right. Here are some ways that marketers can host a successful online event.Continue Reading

• A look at contact center technology and support costs

  With so many technology options available to contact centers, per-agent spending can vary greatly. It's up to businesses to figure out what technology matters most to them.Continue Reading

• Customer experience involves people, process and tools equally

  Robert Azman breaks down why people, process and tools are all crucial for a successful customer experience strategy.Continue Reading

• Discover the leading CX management software vendors

  Take a look at these in-depth roundups that detail the leading products that help companies manage their customer experience, as well as their notable features and buying options.Continue Reading

• What is customer experience management (CEM or CXM)?

  Building brand loyalty among customers involves a customer-centric strategy and measuring feedback through voice of the customer data to improve customer experiences.Continue Reading

• As stores reopen, e-commerce is king in luxury retail

  Brick-and-mortar stores are reopening, but that doesn't mean retailers should lessen focus on online experiences. Olivela, a luxury retail company, strategizes for beyond COVID-19.Continue Reading

• Why hyper-personalization is an essential marketing strategy

  Using AI to personalize marketing strategies can be a business's golden ticket to improved customer experience. As a result, hyper-personalized marketing is essential.Continue Reading

• What IT leaders need to know about customer data platforms

  Customer data platforms offer a lot, but many IT decision-makers remain skeptical -- there's still plenty of confusion over what they are. Find out what companies get with them.Continue Reading

• How data from APM tools helps businesses improve CX

  Businesses have many options when it comes to analyzing customer experiences. APM tools can help contact center leaders improve agent experience, as well as CX.Continue Reading

• 6 key benefits of headless commerce

  Traditional e-commerce changed how businesses could sell products, but with headless commerce, organizations can better personalize the customer experience.Continue Reading

• How speech analytics can benefit call centers

  Speech analytics software in call centers helps organizations pinpoint areas of weakness to address in an effort to improve customer experience and efficiency.Continue Reading

• 5 email marketing trends to follow in 2020

  When done right, email marketing can reach the right customers and be engaging. Organizations should keep email design simple and easy to read and enclose a unique call to action.Continue Reading

• What to expect from the Salesforce and Tableau integration

  The Tableau integration with Salesforce has many users wondering how this will affect its approach to growth and development, and its place in the digital transformation marketplace.Continue Reading

• Top 3 ways to increase engagement in e-commerce

  Engagement is a key component of relationships between customers and businesses, and it is essential for fostering an exceptional customer experience.Continue Reading

• What are 4 ways to improve content experience?

  Thoughtful presentation of content enables businesses to engage customers. Methods of improving content experience include social media and tailored content.Continue Reading

• Personalized digital experiences for customers begin at home

  Learn how implementing a rewarding digital experience for savvy customers starts with digitally transforming corporate culture and nurturing a customer-facing staff.Continue Reading

• Collaboration tools in the workplace boost customer experiences

  Collaboration tools improve personal digital experiences internally for contact center agents, marketers and sales pros and externally for customers in an e-commerce environment.Continue Reading

• Salesforce salary survey shows increase in Trailhead use

  The annual Mason Frank International survey shows the top two Salesforce certifications are administrator and platform app builder. Trailhead use has also increased.Continue Reading

• 4 digital marketing best practices for businesses

  Some digital marketing strategies for reaching customers include creating empathy and trust in marketing campaigns, personalizing content and having an omnichannel presence.Continue Reading

• How does AI in sales improve staff performance?

  AI can assist in many aspects of the sales process, including analyzing calls, making employees more productive and retaining talented representatives.Continue Reading

• IoT and the customer experience: What to expect in 2020

  Consumers are finding themselves increasingly surrounded by technology that talks to each other. See how retail is incorporating IoT and affecting customer experience.Continue Reading

• 6 ideas to consider before making a C/4HANA SAP cloud migration

  Moving to SAP's C/4HANA platform may lead to improved CX. However, companies should make some considerations before starting an on-premises to SAP cloud migration.Continue Reading

• Software CDP features don't equate to CDP branding

  While many tech companies have software with customer data platform attributes, some vendors, such as Salesforce and Oracle, don't put the CDP label on them.Continue Reading

• Video conferencing adoption a growing trend among businesses

  B2B and B2C video conferencing is on the rise as businesses strive to provide exceptional CX to customers. Nemertes shares some of its research results.Continue Reading

• What are some useful Salesforce CPQ features?

  CPQ tools help speed up the quote process while providing accurate pricing, along with other features. Here's how this technology can help your organization.Continue Reading

• Customer engagement strategies focus on mobility, loyalty programs

  The Miami Heat and JetBlue both use mobile apps and loyalty rewards programs to engage their customers -- inside their places of business and at home.Continue Reading

• AI-powered CRM platforms compared

  CRM vendors are working to bring AI utility to their products in diverse ways. Learn about the similarities and differences between AI functionality in the major CRM platforms.Continue Reading

• Compare the top 10 customer data platform software products

  CDPs can provide a distinct competitive advantage, but selecting a product can be tricky. Learn about the top platforms on the market, including major features and pros and cons.Continue Reading

• What chatbot evaluation metrics do you use to measure performance?

  Chatbots are an important contact center component -- as is measuring their performance. Learn how to measure chatbot performance in your organization.Continue Reading

• How can you best use contact center AI?

  While AI is still an evolving technology, agent assist benefits contact center employees by improving agent efficiency improve the overall customer experience.Continue Reading

• Aviso introduces version 2.0 of AI-guided sales platform

  Version 2.0 provides artificial intelligence tools that predict deal close probabilities, guide next best actions and limit typos and unsaved changes during entry of data.Continue Reading

• Oracle expands Customer Experience platform with Oracle Digital Sales

  Features of the new CRM tool include Oracle Digital Assistant and a user interface that brings tasks frequently done by sales reps into one place to reduce data entries and clicks.Continue Reading

• BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store)

  BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) is a business model that allows consumers to shop and place orders online and then pick up their purchases in the brick-and-mortar store, often within the same day.Continue Reading

• Microsoft CDP helps businesses unify customer data

  Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights takes data from disparate sales, service and marketing systems to bring it all into one golden record of the customer.Continue Reading

• Upland Software extends its portfolio with CRO tool Altify

  Features offered by Altify include analytics with Salesforce Einstein and Tableau, relationship map visualizations and integrations with applications in the CRO tool ecosystem.Continue Reading

• Have success with SAP C/4HANA on-premises-to-cloud migration

  There is no one way to complete a CRM platform migration, but a little planning and asking questions along the way can ensure you are on the road to success.Continue Reading

• Gen Z marketing strategies can benefit from new technology

  Gen Z expects companies to be on the cutting edge of CX tech. New technology can help companies keep up with these demands, without having to spend a fortune on strategy or software.Continue Reading

• How experience-based differentiation can be a CX fast track

  CX is a top priority within organizations, but successful adoption can take time. A framework called experience-based differentiation can help businesses speed up the process.Continue Reading

• Field service providers drive CX, engagement, retention

  Manuel Grenacher, general manager of SAP Service Cloud, offers tips for using CX best practices to improve the lives of both field service providers and the people they service.Continue Reading

• Customer engagement fuels retail success

  Down, but not out? It's a fitting description for the current state of traditional retail stores. But there are many ways retailers can still win against online competition.Continue Reading

• Martech strategy, Agile marketing are trends to follow

  As the marketing model changes, businesses can adopt thousands of different marketing technologies to better reach customers and improve customer experience.Continue Reading

• Businesses can achieve 360-degree customer view using AI

  AI can be a powerful tool to analyze large amounts of customer data and improve CX. Here are some areas in which AI can be of assistance in your organization.Continue Reading

• How can customer relationship metrics benefit CX?

  Companies often look at customer relationship metrics to determine how customers feel about a brand. Here are examples of how to obtain and use information to qualify customer relationships.Continue Reading

• Nectar launches Customer Experience Assurance platform

  The new product includes features like auto-discovery and real-time alerting intended to enable contact center teams to test and discover network issues in a timely manner.Continue Reading

• 4 customer data collection best practices to follow

  Building a good customer data collection strategy can be difficult. These tips explain how to collect data and how to use it to improve customer experience.Continue Reading

• Evolving contact center services reshape engagement strategies

  As consumer expectations increase the need for more satisfying omnichannel engagements, the role of the contact center takes on greater importance and complexity.Continue Reading

• Upselling customers adds ROI gold to contact center channels

  AI, analytics and customer service technologies can predict behavior and secure brand loyalty, but generating impulse buys adds a new ROI wrinkle to the evolving contact center.Continue Reading

• Security, management updates made to LogMeIn Bold360

  LogMeIn has updated the search optimizer, monitor view and workload organization features in its live agent and chat bot customer engagement and AI software platform Bold360.Continue Reading

• How business messaging benefits customer experience

  Who wants to call a company and wait on hold? Or, worse, send an email and wait for a response? Business messaging can avoid these hang-ups and help brands improve all stages of CX.Continue Reading