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• Salesforce Trailhead

  Salesforce Trailhead is a series of online tutorials that coach beginner and intermediate developers who need to learn how to code for the Salesforce platform. Continue Reading

• 6 customer self-service best practices

  Customer self-service best practices, such as the use of virtual assistants and omnichannel access, can reduce contact center wait times and enhance overall CX. Continue Reading

• 4 types of loyalty programs and their benefits

  Loyalty programs can improve brand recognition, increase sales and emphasize an organization's values. Get an in-depth look at four loyalty programs and what they offer. Continue Reading

• Key steps for an e-commerce planning process

  E-commerce can help organizations grow their business online, but the venture brings the most success if planned properly. These steps can start organizations on the right path. Continue Reading

• Zero-party data vs. first-party data: What's the difference?

  Zero-party data comes from customer surveys and polls, but first-party data comes from customer web activity. Marketers can use both data types to personalize their ad campaigns. Continue Reading

• Definitions to Get Started

  • What is speech recognition?
  • 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?
  • What is Salesforce Wave Analytics (Salesforce CRM Analytics)?
  • What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

  View All Definitions

• data clean room

  A data clean room is a technology service that helps content platforms keep first person user data private when interacting with advertising providers.Continue Reading

• recommerce

  Recommerce is the selling of previously owned items through online marketplaces to buyers who reuse, recycle or resell them.Continue Reading

• 4 real-world examples of zero-party data

  With zero-party data directly from consumers, marketing teams get better data to help retain customers and improve CX. These real-world examples highlight how this data works.Continue Reading

• How to create a customer loyalty program in 9 steps

  A customer loyalty program can help organizations better retain and understand their current customers and target audiences. These nine steps can lead to a successful program.Continue Reading

• The role of customer service in the supply chain

  Amid a supply chain crisis, delays can cause customer satisfaction to plummet. Organizations must use transparency, personalization and empathy to enhance customer service efforts.Continue Reading

• 5 best practices for customer journey mapping

  As CX teams create customer journey maps, they must set clear goals, collect feedback and embrace creativity. Failure to follow best practices can leave teams with inaccurate data.Continue Reading

• 4 real-world customer journey map examples

  Real-world examples of customer journey maps in action can help brands understand how customers feel amid the buying process and benefit customer relationships moving forward.Continue Reading

• What's the difference between SCM and CRM?

  CRM platforms track customer interactions, whereas SCM platforms track materials and product shipments. Tech buyers should know how these platforms differ before making a purchase.Continue Reading

• implementation

  Implementation is the execution or practice of a plan, a method or any design, idea, model, specification, standard or policy for doing something.Continue Reading

• Understanding the 3 types of CRM systems

  To get the most out of a CRM system, organizations must decide whether an operational, analytical or collaborative CRM system is right for them.Continue Reading

• What are the benefits and challenges of CRM?

  CRM platforms can boost CX with business insights if sales agents use them properly. Sales leaders should know the benefits and challenges of these platforms before purchasing.Continue Reading

• clickstream data (clickstream analytics)

  Clickstream data and clickstream analytics are the processes involved in collecting, analyzing and reporting aggregate data about which pages a website visitor visits -- and in what order.Continue Reading

• Best practices for initiating chatbot-to-human handoff

  Contact centers perform a balancing act between AI and human agents. Support teams must train bots on chatbot-to-human handoffs and design AI aware of customer frustration.Continue Reading

• neuromarketing

  Neuromarketing is the study of how people's brains respond to advertising and other brand-related messages by scientifically monitoring brainwave activity, eye tracking and skin response.Continue Reading

• contextual marketing

  Contextual marketing is an online marketing strategy model in which people are served with targeted advertising based on their search terms or their recent browsing behavior.Continue Reading

• help desk

  A help desk is the individual, group, organizational function or external service that an IT user calls to get help with a problem.Continue Reading

• Apex (Salesforce)

  Salesforce Apex is a Microsoft-certified framework for building software as a service (SaaS) apps on top of Salesforce's customer relationship management (CRM) functionality.Continue Reading

• business metric

  A business metric is a quantifiable measure businesses use to track, monitor and assess the success or failure of various business processes.Continue Reading

• UCaaS vs. CCaaS: What's the difference?

  UCaaS and CCaaS feature overlapping communication channels, such as cloud calling and messaging, but CCaaS comes with additional tools that can support a contact center.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

• How do experience maps vs. customer journey maps differ?

  Customer experience maps and customer journey maps serve as the blueprints for buyer interactions. Despite these maps' similarities, they play different roles in organizations.Continue Reading

• customer-managed relationship (CMR)

  A customer-managed relationship (CMR) is a relationship in which a business uses a methodology, software, apps and perhaps internet capability to encourage the customer to control access to information and ordering.Continue Reading

• service assurance (SA)

  Service assurance (SA) is a procedure or set of procedures intended to optimize performance and provide management guidance in communications networks, media services and end-user applications.Continue Reading

• social listening (social media listening)

  Social listening, also referred to as social media listening, is the process of identifying and assessing what is being said about a company, individual, product or brand on the internet.Continue Reading

• buzz marketing

  Buzz marketing is a viral marketing technique focused on maximizing the word-of-mouth potential of a campaign or product.Continue Reading

• Top customer service certifications and courses

  Here are some customer services courses to help frontline employees provide customers with a better experience.Continue Reading

• 5 examples of bad customer service and how to avoid them

  Having a plan in place to handle, or hopefully avoid, bad customer service encounters is crucial to driving customer loyalty and retention.Continue Reading

• 8 tips to build and manage a customer service team

  While customer service has its challenges, managers can build, run and maintain great customer service teams with good communication, up-to-date training and shared goals.Continue Reading

• 10 customer service best practices to follow

  As customer service evolves into a multidimensional force, agent training and experience, performance analysis, virtual assistance, customer sentiment and net promoter scores rule.Continue Reading

• 10 examples of AI in customer service

  AI and AI-enhanced tools drive efficiency and cost reduction throughout the customer service team.Continue Reading

• 15 customer service skills and how to develop them

  Some customer service skills include problem-solving, empathy, product knowledge and patience.Continue Reading

• customer service and support

  Customer service is the support that organizations offer to customers before and after purchasing a product or service.Continue Reading

• 6 ways to build customer loyalty for your business

  Creating and implementing an effective customer loyalty strategy involves communicating and understanding customers' needs.Continue Reading

• 9 steps to create a customer service plan

  Crafting a customer service plan is a key step to improving customer satisfaction and building loyalty for an organization.Continue Reading

• What is sales enablement?

  Sales enablement is composed of strategies, tools and processes that provide sales representatives with the ability to boost their productivity and revenue generation.Continue Reading

• How do you create a chatbot and connect it to Salesforce?

  Salesforce users have two ways to create a chatbot: using an outside platform and connecting finished creations through Salesforce Lightning, or writing it in Salesforce Einstein Bot.Continue Reading

• field service management (FSM)

  Field service management software enables companies to manage dispersed workers and resources. These workers can gain access to schedules, work orders and customer information via mobile devices.Continue Reading

• contact center infrastructure

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

• What is direct marketing?

  Direct marketing is a type of advertising campaign that seeks to elicit an action (such as an order, a visit to a store or website or a request for further information) from a selected group of consumers in response to communication from a marketer.Continue Reading

• What is a customer account record?

  A customer account record is the basic unit of information about a customer that resides in a CRM, or customer relationship management system.Continue Reading

• What is mobile CRM (mobile customer relationship management)?

  Mobile CRM, or mobile customer relationship management, enables those working in the field or remote employees to use mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to access customer data and customer accounts wherever they are.Continue Reading

• What is a customer health score?

  A customer health score is a value that indicates the long-term prospect for a customer to drop off or, conversely, to become a high-value, repeat customer through renewal or Cross-selling or up-selling strategies.Continue Reading

• What is closed loop reporting?

  Closed loop reporting (CLR) is a system in which data and information collected by marketing and sales professionals is made available to both teams.Continue Reading

• How to train contact center agents remotely

  As businesses began to work remotely due to COVID-19, contact center managers had to learn how to train contact center agents remotely. Here are seven tips to get started.Continue Reading

• Revenue operations vs. sales operations: What's the difference?

  While revenue operations focus on revenue growth and integration of sales, marketing and service departments, sales operations focus on sales department efficiency.Continue Reading

• How to choose the right CRM software for your organization

  Choosing the right CRM software can be daunting for organizations. Follow these five steps and best practices to ensure the search, adoption and deployment processes go smoothly.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

• How relationship marketing works, its pros, cons and levels

  An effective relationship marketing strategy can be a key component in acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones.Continue Reading

• 5 popular revenue operations platforms to know

  The right revenue operations platform can unite the sales and marketing teams and drive revenue growth.Continue Reading

• What to ask in a voice of the customer questionnaire

  An effective voice of the customer questionnaire guides an organization to understand its customers better and improve its products or services.Continue Reading

• Getting started with a revenue operations strategy

  A revenue operations strategy requires coordination and communication among sales, marketing and customer service teams to fuel RevOps.Continue Reading

• 7 best practices for a voice of the customer program

  A voice of the customer program can be tremendously fruitful for an organization -- if it is done well.Continue Reading

• 5 real-world multichannel marketing examples

  Companies with effective multichannel marketing focus on brand reach, message, consistency, engagement and experience. It's important to meet customers on platforms they prefer.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

• How to define contact center technology requirements

  Whether launching a new contact center or updating an existing one, CX leaders must evaluate their contact center technology requirements before selecting a provider.Continue Reading

• 6 personalization software options to know in 2021

  Personalization software enables marketing teams to customize experiences for customers. There are many options to choose from with varying capabilities.Continue Reading

• 6 ways to use analytics to improve customer engagement

  Organizations can delve into customer data to improve interactions, identify gaps and work toward better engagement. Here's how to start out, and how to build on what you have.Continue Reading

• How AIOps investment improves customer service, boosts ROI

  Before reaping the benefits of AIOPs -- such as improved customer service and easier collection of customer data -- companies need to determine if it is a good fit.Continue Reading

• Would your customer experience strategy survive 'Shark Tank'?

  Bob Azman identifies what customer experience professionals need to do to get C-suite buy-in and investment support for their customer experience initiatives.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

• The history and evolution of CRM

  Customer relationship management had simple beginnings, which evolved into a sophisticated system that helps businesses improve the overall customer experience.Continue Reading

• Customer upselling gets upgrade from AI, analytics

  The time-honored tradition of convincing buyers to make an unexpected impulse purchase combines proven sales tactics with sophisticated customer upselling technologies.Continue Reading

• How to write a marketing email: 10 tips

  There are a number of components that make up a compelling marketing email, including content readers want, photos and videos, calls to action and mobile optimization.Continue Reading

• Create a customer experience strategy before tech investment

  Align customer expectations with your customer experience strategy before making any investments in CX technology. Bob Azman has 10 questions to ask yourself before making any moves.Continue Reading

• A breakdown of inbound marketing vs. demand generation

  Inbound marketing and demand generation are easy to confuse, but they are different. While inbound marketing is marketing-centric, demand generation tends to be more sales-centric.Continue Reading

• How to build a world-class customer experience system, part 2

  Building off the previously discussed foundation, Megan Burns explains what's needed to complete an XM system: diagnostic guidelines, micro-design process and rollout infrastructure.Continue Reading

• The importance of personalized experience in CX

  Musa Hanhan breaks down the three stages of customer experience and explains why personalized experiences offer companies the best chance at customer retention.Continue Reading

• How to collect customer data to improve overall retail CX

  Businesses need data to predict and adjust to customer wants and needs, but first, they need to figure out how to collect it. One option is to use a digital CX software.Continue Reading

• Key strategies to build and monitor customer loyalty and trust

  Businesses can't immediately expect trust from customers. It requires a lot of effort to build and eventually gain customer loyalty, especially during a pandemic.Continue Reading

• 10 types of biases that affect customer data analysis

  Analytics can help businesses make data-driven decisions, but common cognitive biases can skew how organizations interpret the information and CX.Continue Reading

• How to create a great customer experience strategy in 6 steps

  In today's business landscape, a powerful CX strategy is key to gaining customer loyalty and a competitive advantage. Here's how to deliver a great customer experience, plus a template.Continue Reading

• What roles are essential on a content marketing team?

  There are a number of people involved in business content marketing teams. Some of those roles include content managers, content strategists and content creators.Continue Reading

• 10 ways to improve the customer experience today

  Many organizations struggle with where and how to improve CX, as the focus shifts from CRM to customer experience. Here are 10 strategies to use for a successful journey.Continue Reading

• 10 steps to create a voice of the customer program

  One of the best initiatives a customer experience team can undertake is a voice of the customer program. Here are some guidelines for building one from scratch.Continue Reading

• Building a successful CX governance operating model

  When developing a CX governance operating model, leaders should consider four key components: people, measurement framework, processes and tools and technologies.Continue Reading

• Tips for call center crisis management amid coronavirus pandemic

  Call centers can receive an influx of calls from customers during times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some steps businesses can take handle the call volume.Continue Reading

• Mystery shopping software key to customer experience management

  Businesses use mystery shopping platforms, comment cards, brand reputation management and more to identify customer pain points and improve customer experience.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

• Contact center workforce management keeps pace with consumers

  Workforce management software improves customer interactions with contact center agents and helps transform customer service from a cost center into a profit center.Continue Reading

• Contact center AI opens new frontiers for customer engagements

  Learn how AI and automation technologies like machine learning, chatbots and NLP are transforming one-dimensional call centers into multidimensional contact centers.Continue Reading

• 5 terms to know before creating a sales enablement strategy

  Sales enablement is important for companies to drive efficiency, maintain customer satisfaction and stay organized. Sales enablement uses different tools and strategies to do this.Continue Reading

• 5 tips for an effective marketing automation implementation

  Successful marketing automation implementations require steps beyond those that go into the usual technology rollouts. Here are some tips to help businesses along the way.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

• 5 common call center terms to know

  Businesses interact with customers in a variety of ways, including via phone calls and chatbots. Here are some call center terms that define these interactions.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

• These are the ABCs of marketing in the digital age

  Audience understanding, behavior analysis, marketing convergence and accessible design are the ABCs of marketing in the digital age, according to Microsoft's Purna Virji.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

• The difference between autodialers and predictive dialers

  Some people don't know that a predictive dialer is a type of autodialer. There are, in fact, five broad categories of autodialers contact centers need to know about.Continue Reading

• 8 live chat best practices for organizations to consider

  Organizations find that live chat can be a means to improve customer experience -- when implemented correctly. Here are some best practices to put into action.Continue Reading

• 10 things to know about Google Cloud Contact Center AI

  Google has partnered with more than 90 different companies to roll out its contact center AI. This article lists 10 important things you need to know about the program.Continue Reading

• The art and science of digital experience management strategies

  Businesses need a well-rounded view of customers to provide innovative, personalized digital experiences. In this handbook, learn the techniques and tools of the trade.Continue Reading

• Digital CX vs. customer experience: What's the difference?

  While similar, digital CX and customer experience are different. The former focuses on digital communication tool experiences, while the latter is the overall brand perception.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

• 5 Gen Z marketing trends for businesses to consider

  Those born after 1995 are driving trends online for themselves and older generations. These shared experiences are important for marketers to understand. Here are some tips.Continue Reading

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

  Customer service is an age-old concept, but where does it fit into the customer experience? Here's how the two are different and where they intersect.Continue Reading