October 2004

Magazine Features

CRM is GO!

Essentials for a 21st-century start-up: Business plan? Check. Line of credit? Check. CRM strategy? Check.

What Users Want

The limitations are not in the tool. They're in our application of the tool.

12 Ways to Boost Productivity

Managers are always searching for ways to spur productivity that will balance the needs of the customers, the agents, and the company.

Get Your Facts Straight

The economy has forced marketing and salespeople to be less artists and more scientists as far as being very metrics-driven.

Front Office

Anytime Is the Right Time for CRM

I thought CRM was right for a company that considers it "customers" to be the facilities it maintains, because they are the recipients of this firm's services.

Reality Check

What We're Not Putting Into CRM Systems

Most companies received passing marks...but we discovered six sales-knowledge gaps.

Customer Centricity

You're Fired!

It is usually not the customer who is unprofitable, it is faulty business management that results in lack of profit.

Insight

The Pulse: How did you integrate your sales process with your CRM software?

The Age of Fluff-Free ROI

Part of the freedom to improve ROI calculations arrived as CRM became more pervasive within whole organizations, and was not simply relied on to provide domino effects from individual groups like the sales and support organizations.

Hot Seat: Can a Single Vendor Satisfy an Organization's Complete CRM Needs?

VoIP in the Contact Center: Another Fad or Here to Stay?

The ability to have a centralized call center may lead to an increase in the use of VoIP.

Heard and Overheard

Averting Customer Data Loss

Violations, more often than not, are the acts of a company's own employees; Mother Nature is a very different kind of external threat.

Required Reading: Is There a Right Way to Outsource?

Topics this month include outsourcing, sales mentoring, and customer advisory boards.

Market Watch: Database Marketers Mine for Perfect Customer Segmentation

Database marketing has quickly become integral to many organizations' CRM operations.

Vertical Focus: Healthcare Organizations Turn to CRM to Cure Their Ailing Customer Strategies

The industry feels the same pressure as other markets do to do more with less.

REAL ROI

Abbott Laboratories' Shocking Ethics Gambit

The pharmaceutical research firm augments its traditional program of paper manuals, management discussions, and group lecture training with a touch-screen video game dubbed Rocked or Shocked.

How to...manage customer expectations

Follow these four steps to ensure that your customers know what you will do for them--and what is not a reasonable expectation.

Cinergy Moves Customers From Dialing to Dial-Up

Now the company uses NetTracker to help move customers from the call center to the Web.

CRM in Action: Racing to Win Customers

MIS has collected nearly 45,000 names, a majority of which has opted-in to receive additional information from the company.

Quick Wins

CRM in Action: Armed and Ready for ROI

The company must respond to the constant evolution of hunting seasons throughout the year--and present the appropriate information to its various customers in respect to the season.

Secret of My Success

Eversheds' Partners Buy In

The U.K. law firm needed vital information to be visual and accessible to all.