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• Why Chaos Is Important for Innovation

  How an Organization, Group, or Individual Can Foster Innovation

  by Patricia Seybold

  This book, The Chaos Imperative by Ori Brafman and Judah Pollack, is a must read for anyone who wants to maximize his/her brain power. It will help you, and your team, create the conditions for innovation to occur.
  Jan. 17, 2014

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• Recovering from the Crisis of Missed Holiday Deliveries

  How Well Are Etailers and Shippers Dealing with Customers’ Anger?

  by Ronni Marshak

  With so many packages not delivered in time for the holidays, etailers and delivery companies had a lot of explaining to do and apologies to make. What can be done to avoid this type of customer experience disaster next holiday season?
  Jan. 10, 2014

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• My 2013 Holiday Customer Experience Heroes

  Lessons to be Learned from Customer Support at Small Companies: Standing Stone Farms and Geoff & Drew’s

  by Ronni Marshak

  Small businesses often provide the best customer experience because they offer a personal experience. What can your organization learn from these small companies?
  Dec. 19, 2013

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• Cloud Computing in 2015

  End-Customers’ Priorities Will Drive Companies’ Customer Cloud Implementations

  by Patricia Seybold

  Customers want access to their information from anywhere and from any device. The best way to provide that access is via the cloud. By 2015, we predict that customer clouds will abound. Will you be ready?
  Dec. 13, 2013

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• Next IT Alme

  Virtual Agents that Can Answer Complex Questions in Any Language

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Alme (All me) is the virtual agent product from Next IT. Use Alme to deploy virtual agents on web and mobile channels. Its virtual agents can deliver answers in any language, can speak answers, and can integrate application data into their answers.
  Dec. 13, 2013

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• Why I Am No Longer a Sears Customer

  Sears.com Fails to Deliver on Promises

  by Ronni Marshak

  Sears has failed this shopper for the last time! Read the sad, sad story of hours wasted, responses not received, and powerless customer service agents following self-serving customer service practices.
  Dec. 5, 2013

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• Customer Service Supplier and Product Update 3Q2013

  Review of Ten Social Monitoring, Case Management, Self-Service, and Virtual Agent Suppliers

  by Mitchell Kramer

  3Q2013 was a good quarter for customer service. Customer growth and financial performance were up. Product activity was light. Four companies expanded into new markets. Moxie and Salesforce.com earned Customer Service Stars for 3Q2013.
  Dec. 5, 2013

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• How Valuable and Sustainable Is Twitter’s Customer Ecosystem?

  What Is a Twitter End-Customer Worth to Investors?

  by Patricia Seybold

  Twitter is more than a company. It’s a customer ecosystem with seven layers of different types of players—each benefitting from their use of Twitter’s social media platform.
  Nov. 22, 2013

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• Robocalls: Annoying and Illegal

  Avoid This Customer-Unfriendly Practice Except for Appointment Reminders

  by Ronni Marshak

  So, how annoying are those automated marketing calls that interrupt you at dinner time? And they aren’t only annoying, they’re illegal. Still robocalling, as it is called, is proliferating. What can you do about it?
  Nov. 14, 2013

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• Why the Healthcare.gov Insurance Exchange Bombed

  Policy Makers Insisted on a Customer-Unfriendly Workflow

  by Patricia Seybold

  The long-awaited U.S. government Federal health insurance exchange, healthcare.gov, went live on October 1, 2013 and quickly proved impossible to use. Would-be customers were subjected to long delays. Here’s why.
  Nov. 7, 2013

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• Gimme That Old Time Customer Service

  A Little Special Attention Can Entice New Customers

  by Ronni Marshak

  Even if your product or service is better than the next guy’s, poor customer experience can lose customers. Remember the importance of the personal touch!
  Nov. 1, 2013

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• Why “Pay with Amazon” Is a Big Deal

  How Amazon’s Payment Services Will Impact Mobile E-Wallets

  by Patricia Seybold

  We think that “Pay with Amazon” could become an attractive way for consumers to safely pay for things from their mobile phones using credit cards and bank account information they already have stored with Amazon.
  Oct. 25, 2013

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• Empower Your Tech Support to Capture Knowledge

  Helping Your Agents to Avoid Dell’s Mistakes

  by Ronni Marshak

  If it is too hard for tech support to share the fixes they discover, they won’t do it well and customers will get inconsistent help. Provide the training and tools to make capturing knowledge the path of least resistance for your tech support personnel.
  Oct. 17, 2013

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• Requiem for a Community’s Hospital

  How Customers Are Losing Local Healthcare Providers in Rural Communities

  by Judy Stone

  The story of how a rural coastal community lost its beloved local St. Andrews Hospital, all the efforts made to save it, and why they weren’t enough. MaineHealth didn’t involve its customers in the decision. It ignored their efforts to gain control.
  Oct. 10, 2013

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• Mobile Crowdsourcing Apps

  From Waze to Weather to Citizen Reporting and Beyond

  by Ronni Marshak

  Mobile crowdsourced information is very valuable, but there are different uses for real-time information versus user-generated content that becomes more valuable as it is aggregated, analyzed, and categorized.
  Oct. 3, 2013

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• Oracle Service Cloud Social Experience

  Built-In Social Monitoring, Analysis, and Interaction

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Oracle Service Cloud Social Experience provides social customer service by monitoring and analyzing social posts and interacting with social posters. Social Experience is an integral component of Oracle Service Cloud in packaging, pricing, and functionality. See the details in the full report.
  Sep. 27, 2013

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• Four Reasons Why Customers Prefer Twitter for Customer Service

  Quick Response, Fast Action, Public Shame, & Instant Updates

  by Patricia Seybold

  Twitter is becoming the preferred customer service channel for many people. But many companies aren’t paying attention. Providing good customer service on Twitter could differentiate your firm and reduce support costs.
  Sep. 19, 2013

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• Customer Co-Design and Customer Scenario Mapping

  A Philosophy for Customer-Centric Organizations and a Method for Instilling It

  by Ronni Marshak

  Customer-centric organizations should deliver on their mission by co-designing with customers. And the best method for realizing this goal is to work together to map out your customers’ important scenarios.
  Sep. 12, 2013

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• Lumosity Harnesses 45 Million Brains

  A Customer Ecosystem Focused on Improving Our Brains’ Performance

  by Patricia Seybold

  Lumos Labs’ Lumosity is more than a set of brain-training games. It’s an ecosystem aligned around one customer-centric goal: helping people improve their brains’ performance.
  Sep. 6, 2013

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• Customer Service Supplier and Product Update 2Q2013

  2Q2013 Was a Mixed Quarter for Customer Service

  by Mitchell Kramer

  2Q2013 was a mixed quarter in customer service—mixed in customer growth financial performance, products, and company activity. Impressively, Clarabridge, IntelliResponse, and Salesforce.com all earned our Customer Service Stars for the quarter.
  Sep. 6, 2013

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