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• What is contact center infrastructure?

  A contact center infrastructure (CCI) is a framework composed of the physical and virtual resources that a contact or call center facility needs to operate effectively. Continue Reading

• What is speech recognition?

  Speech recognition, or speech-to-text, is the ability of a machine or program to identify words spoken aloud and convert them into readable text. Continue Reading

• What is a cloud contact center?

  A cloud contact center is an internet-hosted service, typically managed by a third party, that handles all inbound and outbound customer communications for an organization. Continue Reading

• What is customer profiling?

  Customer profiling is the detailed, systematic process of constructing a clear portrait of a company's ideal customer by gathering and analyzing information about their demographic, psychographic and behavioral attributes. Continue Reading

• What is mindshare (share of mind)?

  Mindshare, also known as share of mind, is an approach to marketing that involves attempting to make a company, brand or product the first one that comes to mind when a customer thinks of a particular market. Continue Reading

• Definitions to Get Started

  • What is contact center infrastructure?
  • What is speech recognition?
  • What is a cloud contact center?
  • What is customer profiling?

  • What is mindshare (share of mind)?
  • What is martech (marketing technology)?
  • What is customer insight (consumer insight)?
  • What is market segmentation?

  View All Definitions

• What is martech (marketing technology)?

  Martech (marketing technology) refers to the integration of software tools, platforms and applications designed to streamline and enhance digital marketing.Continue Reading

• What is customer insight (consumer insight)?

  Customer insight, or consumer insight, is the understanding and interpretation of customer data, behaviors and feedback into conclusions that can be used to drive actions that improve product development and customer support.Continue Reading

• What is market segmentation?

  Market segmentation is a marketing strategy that uses well-defined criteria to divide a brand's total addressable market share into smaller groups.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Wave Analytics (Salesforce CRM Analytics)?

  Salesforce Wave Analytics, now known as CRM Analytics, is a business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform from Salesforce that provides native analytics, visual insights and predictions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) for Salesforce CRM ...Continue Reading

• 7 benefits of video marketing

  Video marketing can help organizations engage audiences on an emotional level. Key benefits include building trust, enhancing SEO and improving the sales process.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

  Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) and digital marketing platform that enables marketers to generate better marketing outcomes and ROI.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Service Cloud?

  Salesforce Service Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform for Salesforce clients to provide service and support to their business customers.Continue Reading

• What is IoT Cloud (Salesforce IoT Cloud)?

  IoT Cloud is a Salesforce platform designed to store and process internet of things (IoT) data.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Customer Success Platform?

  The Salesforce Customer Success Platform (CSP) is the official name of the Salesforce portfolio of products.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Work.com?

  Salesforce Work.com is a set of solutions from Salesforce that enable organizations to simplify return-to-work processes, maintain safe workplace operations, assess and promote employee health, safety and well-being, and communicate with customers ...Continue Reading

• What is the Salesforce Service Console?

  The Salesforce Service Console is the centralized interface in Salesforce Service Cloud, an application devoted to customer service, support and customer experience.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Journey Builder?

  Salesforce Journey Builder is a campaign planning tool in Salesforce Marketing Cloud to build personalized customer journeys and deliver unique campaigns and content that enhance customer experiences and secure their loyalty.Continue Reading

• 15 best practices for contact center agent training programs

  Agents thrive when contact center training programs are built on KSAC profiles, performance analysis and recognition, personal coaching and shadowing, AI integration, and ROI.Continue Reading

• What is contact center as a service (CCaaS)?

  Contact center as a service (CCaaS) is a framework that combines contact center hosting principles and cloud-based contact center infrastructure.Continue Reading

• What is customer intelligence (CI) and how does it help business?

  Customer intelligence (CI) is the process of collecting and analyzing detailed customer data from internal and external sources to gain insights about customer needs, motivations and behaviors.Continue Reading

• What is a call center? Everything you need to know

  A call center is a centralized department of customer service professionals who handle inbound and outbound calls from current and potential customers.Continue Reading

• What is lead scoring?

  Lead scoring is a methodology sales and marketing departments use to determine the worthiness of leads, or potential customers, by attaching values to them based on their behavior relating to their interest in products or services.Continue Reading

• What is CPQ software (configure price quote software)?

  CPQ (configure, price, quote) is programming that helps sales representatives and self-service customers quickly generate accurate quotes for configurable products and services.Continue Reading

• What is a customer effort score (CES)?

  Customer effort score (CES) is a system for evaluating how much effort is required on the part of a customer to achieve satisfaction in their experience with a company.Continue Reading

• What is a sales funnel? Everything you need to know

  A sales funnel, also called a 'purchase funnel,' is the visual representation of the customer journey, depicting the sales process from awareness to action.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Einstein 1?

  Salesforce Einstein 1 refers to an integrated set of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies developed for the Salesforce platform.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Sales Cloud?

  Salesforce Sales Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed to support sales, marketing and customer support in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts.Continue Reading

• What is a sales pipeline?

  A sales pipeline is a visual representation of sales prospects and where they are in the purchasing process.Continue Reading

• What is transactional marketing?

  Transactional marketing is a business strategy that focuses on single, point-of-sale transactions.Continue Reading

• Elevate customer experience with AI and analytics

  Top CX experts share insights on how to drive customer-centric innovation, overcome resistance to change and harness AI for impactful customer experiences.Continue Reading

• What is actionable intelligence?

  Actionable intelligence is information that can be immediately used or acted upon, either tactically in direct response to an evolving situation, or strategically as the result of data analytics or some other assessment.Continue Reading

• How important is authentication in email marketing?

  Marketers who have email strategies must understand the importance of authentication protocols to ensure campaigns are successful and bad actors don't reach customers.Continue Reading

• Customer retention vs. acquisition: What's the difference?

  Finding new customers can be a challenge, but so is keeping them happy and loyal to the business. This makes customer acquisition and retention critical to successful marketing.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Developer Experience (Salesforce DX)?

  Salesforce Developer Experience (Salesforce DX) is a set of software development tools that lets developers build, test and ship many kinds of applications on Salesforce Platform (formerly called Force.com).Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Platform (formerly Force.com)?

  Salesforce Platform (formerly known as Force.com) is a platform as a service (PaaS) product that simplifies the development and deployment of cloud-based applications and websites.Continue Reading

• The role of machine learning in multitouch attribution

  As customer journeys have become more complex, marketers often struggle to determine which touchpoints lead to sales. Explore how machine learning can help.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Commerce Cloud?

  Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based suite of products that enable e-commerce businesses to set up e-commerce sites, drive more automation and provide customers with seamless shopping experiences.Continue Reading

• 7 essential steps to create a contact center RFP

  Successful contact center RFPs are built on collaboration, vendor research, countless questions and answers, scorecards, shortlists, trial runs, bakeoffs and the final decision.Continue Reading

• Benefits and challenges of contact center benchmarking

  Contact center benchmarking can help organizations allocate spending and improve CX. Yet, common pitfalls, such as a lack of qualitative data, can negatively affect efforts.Continue Reading

• What is multichannel marketing?

  Multichannel marketing refers to the practice of companies interacting with customers via multiple direct and indirect channels to sell them goods and services.Continue Reading

• What is a contact center?

  A contact center is a central point from which organizations manage all customer interactions across various channels.Continue Reading

• What is voice recognition and how does it work?

  Voice or speaker recognition is the ability of a machine or program to receive and interpret dictation or to understand and perform spoken commands.Continue Reading

• What is customer segmentation?

  Customer segmentation is the practice of dividing a customer base into groups of individuals that have similar characteristics relevant to marketing, such as age, gender, interests and spending habits.Continue Reading

• What is customer experience (CX) and why is it important?

  Customer experience (CX) is the sum total of customers' perceptions and feelings resulting from interactions with a brand's products and services.Continue Reading

• What are buyer personas?

  A buyer persona is a composite representation of a specific type of customer in a market segment.Continue Reading

• History and evolution of contact centers

  Alexander Graham Bell, Steve Jobs and the Baby Bells played notable roles in the contact center's transformation into the front line of communication for businesses and customers.Continue Reading

• The top 7 video marketing trends

  Video marketing trends, such as user-generated content, influencer marketing and virtual and hybrid events, can help brands expand their reach and engage more customers.Continue Reading

• 10 best practices for contact center quality assurance

  To ensure quality and results in the contact center, businesses must define clear metrics, use real-time analytics, seek customer feedback, upskill agents and automate everywhere.Continue Reading

• 10 tips to improve customer retention

  Organizations that properly gather consumer feedback, get to know their customers and offer rewards to loyal shoppers can improve their customer retention rates.Continue Reading

• What is a 360-degree customer view?

  The 360-degree customer view is a comprehensive approach to understanding customers by compiling their individual data from various touchpoints into a single view.Continue Reading

• Customer experience vs. user experience: What's the difference?

  Customer and user experiences sound similar, but they serve different purposes. Together, they can improve organizations' relationships with customers.Continue Reading

• First-party vs. third-party cookies: What's the difference?

  First-party cookies track user engagement, while third-party cookies are central to many marketing and sales strategies. Yet the two types are more similar than one might think.Continue Reading

• What are virtual agents and how are they being used?

  A virtual agent -- sometimes called an intelligent virtual agent (IVA) -- is a software program or cloud service that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to provide ...Continue Reading

• What is first call resolution (FCR)?

  First call resolution (FCR) is when contact center agents properly address a customer's needs the first time they call so there is no need for the customer to follow up with a second call.Continue Reading

• What is the law of diminishing returns?

  The law of diminishing returns is an economic principle stating that as investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, can't continue to increase if other variables remain at a constant.Continue Reading

• What is an abandoned call?

  An abandoned call is a call or other type of contact initiated to a call center or contact center that is ended before any conversation occurs.Continue Reading

• What is an outbound call?

  An outbound call is one initiated by a contact center agent to prospective customers and focuses on sales, lead generation, telemarketing and fundraising.Continue Reading

• What is lead-to-revenue management (L2RM)?

  Lead-to-revenue management (L2RM) is a set of sales and marketing methods focusing on generating revenue throughout the customer life cycle.Continue Reading

• What is relationship marketing?

  Relationship marketing is a facet of customer relationship management (CRM) that focuses on customer loyalty and long-term customer engagement rather than shorter-term goals like customer acquisition and individual sales.Continue Reading

• contact center burnout

  Contact center burnout refers to physical, emotional and mental exhaustion experienced by contact center employees.Continue Reading

• Why does data privacy matter in marketing?

  Marketers frequently use customer data for their strategies. They must properly secure that information, so they comply with privacy laws and customers trust the business.Continue Reading

• contact center agent (call center agent)

  A contact center agent is a person who handles incoming or outgoing customer communications for an organization.Continue Reading

• contact center management

  Contact center management is the process of overseeing contact center operations with the goal of providing an outstanding customer experience in an effective and efficient manner.Continue Reading

• 8 benefits of a modern contact center

  Contact centers and their multifunctional capabilities can provide businesses with a competitive edge through improved agent performance, customer engagement and brand loyalty.Continue Reading

• 15 customer service email templates and tips

  Email remains an important channel for companies to communicate with customers. Here are some email templates for customer service teams to use in common scenarios.Continue Reading

• digital marketing

  Digital marketing is the promotion and marketing of goods and services to consumers through digital channels and electronic technologies.Continue Reading

• contact center schedule adherence

  Contact center schedule adherence is a standard metric used in business contact centers to determine whether contact center agents are working the amount of time they are scheduled to work.Continue Reading

• 12 benefits of customer retention

  Customer retention can help organizations better understand their current customers' needs, issues and desires, so they can better support them and target more prospects.Continue Reading

• 5 real-world examples of omnichannel marketing

  The most successful marketing strategies reach customers where they are, on every available channel. Here, explore examples of omnichannel marketing strategies from real companies.Continue Reading

• chatbot

  A chatbot is a software or computer program that simulates human conversation or "chatter" through text or voice interactions.Continue Reading

• An overview of Microsoft Dynamics 365

  Dynamics 365 unites various CRM and ERP tools into one platform. CRM apps include Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service, and ERP tools include Finance and Commerce.Continue Reading

• How do companies protect customer data?

  Companies can protect customer data through various technical tools and strategies, like authentication and encryption. But some types of data need more protection than others.Continue Reading

• How to create a diversity and inclusion marketing strategy

  Diversity marketing helps organizations attract new customers, but to implement a strategy, marketers need an internal D&I initiative and to learn about their audience.Continue Reading

• 10 marketing trends to watch for in 2024

  Marketers in 2024 must embrace AI, voice search, chatbots, personalized marketing, video, social commerce, influencers, VR, sustainability and big data for a competitive edge.Continue Reading

• How to get started with marketing automation for SMBs

  Marketing automation can help SMBs, which may lack marketing budgets and resources. With certain processes automated, an SMB's marketing team can spend more time creating.Continue Reading

• Compare the top 10 marketing automation software

  With the right marketing automation software, marketers can streamline their workflows and focus more on creative tasks. This list compares the top vendors in this space.Continue Reading

• Why is marketing automation important?

  Marketing automation can eliminate repetitive tasks and create a more personalized customer experience. Learn more about the future role of AI in marketing automation.Continue Reading

• 8 types of marketing automation, with examples

  Just as there are different types of marketing, automation types differ, too. Explore real-world examples of each type and learn how businesses can benefit from them.Continue Reading

• 10 marketing automation best practices

  Learn how marketing automation best practices, like using behavior-based triggers and A/B testing, can help marketers reach and engage more audiences.Continue Reading

• 2 Salesforce acquisitions in 2023 close year of austerity

  In a year that began with layoffs, Salesforce changed its tune about acquisitions. Instead, it invested more, aiming to aid companies with products that its customers need.Continue Reading

• The benefits of diversity in sales teams

  A diverse sales team can improve customer connections and boost employee engagement. However, sales managers must create an inclusive work culture if they want to retain talent.Continue Reading

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 best practices for implementation

  Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers business apps to help organizations boost efficiency. Best practices for implementation include creating the right team and designing a simple UX.Continue Reading

• Top 5 benefits of marketing automation

  If an organization wants to help its marketers, it must invest in marketing automation. This software offers benefits such as better lead conversion and data collection.Continue Reading

• high-touch customer service

  High-touch customer service is a category of contact center interaction that requires human interaction.Continue Reading

• Why is sales enablement important?

  With a sales enablement strategy, sales leaders can make their teams more efficient, well-trained and ensure all reps are consistent when they interact with customers.Continue Reading

• Why is a customer experience framework essential?

  A customer experience framework can help CX teams streamline their workflows, showcase the value of a customer-first culture and improve customer engagement and satisfaction.Continue Reading

• 8 ways to measure sales enablement metrics

  Measuring sales enablement metrics can increase efficiency for sales teams and drive revenue growth. Learn which metrics to track and real-world uses for each.Continue Reading

• CRM (customer relationship management)

  Customer relationship management (CRM) is the combination of practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle.Continue Reading

• 5 real-world examples of customer obsession

  Customer obsession requires organizations to place clients' needs at the center of all operations. Real-world examples include Equinox, Tabrick and GreenPal.Continue Reading

• Salesforce

  Salesforce, Inc. is a cloud computing and social enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider based in San Francisco.Continue Reading

• How product-led growth can help scale your business

  With a product-led growth strategy, you can take the pressure off your sales and marketing teams and center what really matters: the product and the customer.Continue Reading

• virtual assistant (AI assistant)

  A virtual assistant, also called an AI assistant or digital assistant, is an application program that understands natural language voice commands and completes tasks for the user.Continue Reading

• Microsoft Dynamics 365

  Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based portfolio of business applications from Microsoft that are designed to help organizations improve operational efficiency and reduce business complexity while controlling costs.Continue Reading

• How to reduce customer service costs

  As organizations adjust to today's economy, CX managers should implement new technologies and strategies to reduce customer service costs without sacrificing quality.Continue Reading

• omnichannel

  Omnichannel -- also spelled omni-channel -- is an approach to sales, marketing and customer support that seeks to provide customers with a seamless and unified brand experience, regardless of which channel they use.Continue Reading

• What does a sales enablement manager do?

  A sales enablement manager helps sales reps boost productivity and improves their workflows to generate more revenue. Some organizations may have a full sales enablement team.Continue Reading

• account mapping

  Account mapping is a strategic process that involves researching and visually organizing the key stakeholders, decision-makers and influencers within a target customer's organization.Continue Reading

• chief experience officer (CXO)

  A chief experience officer (CXO) is an executive in the C-suite who ensures positive interactions with an organization's customers.Continue Reading

• What is brand recognition?

  Brand recognition is the extent to which a consumer can correctly identify a particular product or service just by viewing the product or service's logo, tagline, packaging or advertising campaign.Continue Reading

• account-based selling

  Account-based selling (ABS) is a strategic sales approach in business-to-business sales and marketing that centers around building highly personalized and targeted relationships with specific high-value accounts.Continue Reading