Evaluate

Evaluate

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 4 ways customer feedback benefits marketing strategies

  Leela Srinivasan of SurveyMonkey offered tips on using customer feedback data to inform enterprise marketing strategy during a session at Inbound 2019.Continue Reading

• Humor in marketing can engage, retain customers

  Humor can be a powerful marketing weapon -- when used correctly. Here are some tips and examples that businesses can use to better connect with customers.Continue Reading

• Organizations reap benefits of mobile CRM apps

  Salesforce now offers organizations such as Cornell University the ability to render CRM systems as apps, making it easy to manage students and faculty at a number of colleges.Continue Reading

• Learn how to build a Salesforce app in 4 steps

  Salesforce users can follow these steps to create sophisticated codeless apps that integrate the Next Best Action feature using the Lightning App Builder.Continue Reading

• SAP CX tools evolve in the face of data privacy, AI

  'Experience data' from Qualtrics will help SAP boost its customer experience offerings. The company is also considering how AI can help and where privacy concerns fit into the CX landscape.Continue Reading

• Princess Cruises puts real-time customer experience into action

  The Ocean Medallion provides real-time CX to passengers on Princess Cruises. The technology enables vacationers to automatically open stateroom doors, locate companions and more.Continue Reading

• Customer data management tools shape personalization, boost CX

  In this guide, learn about the many tools, including customer data platforms, that collect and analyze data from disparate sources and provide a single, 360-degree customer view.Continue Reading

• How do customer service and customer success differ?

  Tripped up on the difference between customer service and customer success? In short, service is reactive and success is proactive, but both aim to solve problems for the customer.Continue Reading

• Businesses use AI to improve customer experience

  Chatbots, virtual agents, computer vision and other AI-related technologies on display at a recent tech conference are being used to improve customer experience.Continue Reading

• Customer service technologies revolutionize CX engagements

  This Essential Guide examines the strategic and multidimensional role customer service and its technologies now play in personalized customer experiences over multiple channels.Continue Reading

• Customers stay connected with Talkdesk 100% uptime SLA

  Talkdesk customer Cognosante sees 50% cost savings after switching to the vendor's contact center software and, so far, has seen no interruptions in service.Continue Reading

• 3 call routing methods to consider in your contact center

  Contact center call routing methods include next-available agent, skill-based and predictive; however, each strategy has pros and cons. Learn what is best for your business.Continue Reading

• Businesses use AR/VR in CRM to boost customer experience

  Businesses are using augmented reality -- and its cousin virtual reality -- in applications across many industries. Where CRM is concerned, AR/VR may represent a big leap forward.Continue Reading

• Contact center AI: Agents may be training their replacements

  The goal for software developers training sophisticated agent-assist AI tools for contact center software platforms could be 'superbots' far smarter than today's chatbots.Continue Reading

• Autonomous, self-service technology can't replace human touch

  Self-service and autonomous technology can be found in any number of businesses, including hospitals, restaurants and retail -- but they are not a substitute for human interaction.Continue Reading

• Uber mall kiosks act as brick-and-mortar storefronts

  Uber uses digital mall kiosks as storefronts to recruit drivers, and an integrated video conferencing app enables users to interact with remote agents.Continue Reading

• Enosix CMO, who branded SAP Leonardo, talks martech strategy

  Shawn Reynolds, the former architect of SAP's Leonardo AI brand, moves to SAP-Salesforce integrator Enosix. He discusses marketing strategy in this age of overwhelming martech choices.Continue Reading

• Why use third-party marketing automation instead of native CRM tools?

  Though many CRM platforms offer native marketing automation tools, many organizations find it beneficial to use a third-party application, such as Eloqua or Marketo.Continue Reading

• Businesses see increasing importance of video conferencing

  Video chat is another channel for businesses to interact with employees and customers. Learn why businesses are placing increasing importance on video conferencing and about its effects on CX.Continue Reading

• How do Salesforce Next Best Action and Prediction Builder differ?

  The Salesforce Einstein Prediction Builder and Next Best Action components look similar to the untrained eye, but each product works in a different manner.Continue Reading

• Cattlemen group uses Google AI to build a chatbot

  Wondering 'where's the beef?' Ask Chuck, a chatbot created by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association -- one of hundreds of bots being deployed thanks to AI tools.Continue Reading

• What you need to know about Flow Designer vs. Flow Builder

  Salesforce Flow Designer is on the way out, Flow Builder is in -- sort of. The new update includes features that may not make a big difference for developers.Continue Reading

• Pega Cloud is Pegasystems' preferred platform

  In a Q&A, Alan Trefler, Pegasystems CEO and chess master, ruminates about the cloud, the symbiotic relationship between chess and AI, AI inflation, and the pivot to CX.Continue Reading

• Customer experience management enhances branding and success

  Customer retention depends on a good customer experience. CX management provides a 360-degree view of customers so buyers must find the right platform to match their needs.Continue Reading

• How to choose marketing automation software

  Learn how to improve your organization's marketing efficiency and assess which offerings from top marketing automation vendors will best meet your business needs.Continue Reading

• Advanced self-service platforms open new customer frontiers

  Self-service platforms and chatbots can improve the customer experience, but they can also frustrate users. Learn what works, what doesn't and what needs improvement.Continue Reading

• AI customer self-service platforms show analytical maturity

  AI-enabled self-service platforms graduate from traditional customer support activities to more sophisticated methods of analyzing data on customer wants, needs and behavior.Continue Reading

• 7 features of CX management tools to consider

  Using CEM tools can help companies monitor, improve and manage the customer experience. Read on to learn what to look for when choosing CEM tools.Continue Reading

• Gaming company boosts call center employee engagement

  Gaming company Electronic Arts boosts customer experience by using a design thinking strategy to improve the employee experience in call centers.Continue Reading

• Marketing automation tools deliver personalization, customer focus

  When buying a marketing automation product, it's important to consider key features, how the tool addresses the organization's size, deployment options, support and pricing.Continue Reading

• Ensure a good customer experience with CEM software

  CEM software helps companies track, measure and manage the customer experience. Read on to learn just how it differs from CRM software and what a good CEM system should include.Continue Reading

• Maximize and manage customer experience with CEM tools

  CEM software provides the technological support necessary to successfully manage the customer experience. Discover the extensive benefits the right platform can provide.Continue Reading