April 2005

Magazine Features

The 2005 CRM Service Awards: Introduction

The 2005 Service Elite Awards

Our Service Elite awards, chosen by the editors, are presented to the customer care operations that have delivered impressive results by achieving satisfaction and customer return on investment that set the standard for the rest of the industry. We recognize Elite customer care implementations in the fields of knowledge-base tools, agent-facing desktop applications, quality monitoring, workforce management, speech solutions, and contact-center outsourcing services.

The 2005 Service Excellence Award

An aggressive integrator, Concerto orchestrates streamlined call center operations in 2005.

The 2005 CRM Service Leaders--Part I

CRM magazine presents the Service Leaders awards to the most impressive providers of customer care architecture, technology, and services who have worked tirelessly over the past year to improve their capabilities so that contact centers can go about their crucial business more efficiently and effectively than ever before.

The 2005 CRM Service Leaders--Part II

CRM magazine presents the Service Leaders awards to the most impressive providers of customer care architecture, technology, and services who have worked tirelessly over the past year to improve their capabilities so that contact centers can go about their crucial business more efficiently and effectively than ever before.

Front Office

What Consumers So Desperately Need

May the efforts of the 2005 Service Leaders, Service Excellence, and Service Elite award winners continue to build and maintain consumer trust and satisfaction.

Reality Check

New Advances in the Hard Side of CRM

Consider replacing your desktop PC with a Tablet PC.

Customer Centricity

Is Inbound Calling the Next Legislative Target?

Lawmakers are taking aim at companies that use offshore call centers.

Insight

Outsourcing Options South of the Border

Consumers aren't necessarily supportive of all that vendors are trying to do to provide customers with cost-effective support.

Are Megamergers Turning a Blind Eye to CRM?

New corporate pairings may have little to do with customer strategy.

Good Ethics Equals Good Business

Violating corporate integrity and consumer trust can cripple sales.

Self-Service Satisfaction

More customers are adopting Web self-service, but not all customers are satisfied.

Statistically Speaking

Small-business owners are 54 percent more likely to be receptive to email than the general population. --Experian

Required Reading: Be the BALLS

"You want to be [brave] enough to want to be creative, try new things, while still growing revenue."

Waiting for Wireless

Can on-demand CRM developers cleanly cross over into offline operation?

The Pulse: Which department within your organization is in charge of owning the customer experience?

Revitalizing Your CRM Solution

An industry analyst speaks out on breathing life back into sluggish customer relationship efforts.

Secret of My Success

My Flat In London

The fashion forward boutique gains a unified view of its luxury-item customers by improving order management and sales.