CRM Magazine articles from March 2009

CRM Magazine archives from March 2009

Yes Pecan!
March 1, 2009... DOWNWARD economic forces will likely encourage more government agencies to invest in automation and productivity-enhancing technologies. With open minds, government officials can turn customer relationship management (CRM) into citizen...

2009-Era Sales Needs 2009-Era CRM: Barely Half of All Reps Made Quota Last Year. Something Has Got to Change
March 1, 2009... LAST YEAR was perhaps the most challenging one many companies have ever experienced. In light of that, how is 2009 shaping up? The preliminary results of CSO Insights' 15th annual Sales Optimization Study clearly show the performance bar being...

Top 10 Contact Center Goals: The Contact Center Is Part of a Larger Organization-And Its Goals Must Reflect That
March 1, 2009... THIS IS GOING TO BE a tough year. The United States economy is in a recession, and countries around the world are facing similar woes. The stock market has tanked, reducing corporate valuations and challenging many companies' ability to execute....

Risk-Proofing Your CRM Initiative: The Problems Occur Where the Benefits Are
March 1, 2009... DESPITE the recession, the need to create differentiation through unique customer experiences, strive for deeper insight into customer needs and behaviors, and serve customers cost-effectively remains. To support achievement of these goals,...

Stay Tuned: The Switch to Digital TV Broadcasts Is upon Us-Or Is It?
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] By now you've heard and seen plenty about the switch to digital television (DTV), and in fact it may have already happened--for years, the cutoff date of February 17, 2009--changed from an original 2006...

Stimulating Citizen Experience: Could an Infusion of Web 2.0 in the Public Sector Change the Way We View Constituent Service?
March 1, 2009... President Barack Obama has many issues to deal with as he acclimates to his new role, arguably the most important being the economic recession. The specifics of Obama's economic stimulus package were still being hammered out at press time--a...

CRM on twitter.(Insight: CRM TRENDS AND NEWS ANALYSIS)
March 1, 2009... Welcome to Government 2.0-in which elected officials and government agencies are "always on." It's old news that Barack Obama revealed his vice presidential selection with a tweet. Others have arrived in the public-policy Twitterverse. (And...

Retailers Face Reality: In Today's Economy, Mere Survival Can Become the Primary Goal
March 1, 2009... If you listened hard at the National Retail Federation's Annual 2009 Convention and Expo, you could hear some hope. "We're in an era right now of retail Darwinism," said Christopher Donnelly, executive partner of retail in North America for...

Making Relationships Matter: As LinkedIn Grows, What Does the Future Hold for Enterprise Social Networking?
March 1, 2009... Social networking site LinkedIn is one of the few firms benefiting from the recession. The most obvious metric? Membership, which, at 34 million, is up from 8 million just two years ago. And as unemployment looms, LinkedIn users are apparently...

Barack Wants You
March 1, 2009... In January, Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th president of the United States, but in getting there, he also notched several "firsts": the first African-American Democratic presidential candidate; the first president to have a background in...

We the People: After Years of Lagging Behind, Government Agencies Are Now Expected to Provide the Same Level of Service as Their Private-Sector Counterparts. Can They Catch Up?
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE NOTION OF CRM may not have been specifically top-of-mind among the Founding Fathers as they congregated during the unbearably hot summer of 1776 to hammer out the Declaration of Independence. Even so, relationships...

Innovation Nation: 5 Marketing Campaigns for a New Generation: The Country's in a Turbulent Period-A New Administration, a Recessionary Economy-But These Campaigns Prove That Creativity Thrives in the Face of Change
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Advertisements can be broadly categorized into three buckets: the ones we see offhandedly and never think about again; those we see, scoff at, criticize, and eventually tire of and let blow over; and then the ones we...

CRM and the iPhone: Mobile CRM Has Been around for Years, but Apple's Handheld Device Has Upended Everything. Now Vendors Are Rewriting Applications, Companies Are Rethinking the BlackBerry's Seeming Stranglehold, and Users Are Wondering What's Next. the Answer May Be Nothing Less Than a CRM Revolution, and a Chance for Apple to Enter the Enterprise
March 1, 2009... Your stomach growls. Anticipating the first bite of an expertly wrapped, fantastically stuffed, deliciously warm burrito is enough to make you salivate. But wait: As you open the glass door, and that chili pepper emblem meets your line of...

Looking to Score: Marketing Gathers the Leads; Sales Pursues Them. It Sounds Simple. It Isn't
March 1, 2009... There's a timeworn argument between the marketing department and the sales department. Marketing complains that the sales team isn't following up the bushels of leads it gathers. Sales complains that most of marketing's leads are of such poor...

A tough transition made easier.(REAL ROI: BEST PRACTICES and PROVEN RESULTS)
March 1, 2009... Assisted living is a growth industry, but people looking to place loved ones are often faced with information overload. "It's a daunting process--emotionally and financially," says Howard Brown, founder and chief executive officer of Senior...

The Virtual Welcome Mat: Eloqua Extends the Reach of Its Marketing Message with Some outside Web-Event Expertise
March 1, 2009... In an age of infinite information, education can't wait, not even in a lousy economy. That's why, in April 2008, Eloqua launched the Marketing Mastery Series in an effort to promote marketing education to marketers--free of charge. By providing...

A Training Regimen Gets Rigorous: Brainshark Helps FitLinxx Pump Up Customers' Use of Fitness Technology
March 1, 2009... Many companies have programs for training employees. But on-demand business communications provider Brainshark helped one business train its customers, and keep those customers coming back for more. There is no shortage of exercise clubs in...

A Battle Fought from Afar: With Axeda's Help, Varian Medical Systems Remotely Tends to Its Cancer-Fighting Radiology Equipment
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Scheduling may seem mundane, but not for people trying to tackle a cancer diagnosis. In fact, as they rely on strict regimens of treatments to improve their health and hopefully eradicate the disease from their bodies,...

Automating the Personal Touch: A Small Direct-Marketing Business Extends Its Operations with Infusionsoft CRM
March 1, 2009... * Tell us about your organization. We do handwritten direct marketing for businesses--we send handwritten letters, highlight parts of letters, and circle things. We make sure the material gets opened and gets read. The people you're mailing to...

Business-Card Shakedown: New Applications Allowing the Electronic Exchange of Contact Information-Web 2.0's Answer to Traditional Cards, or Not?
March 1, 2009... DAVE LEE, vice president of marketing for Gilbert, Ariz.-based marketing automation software company Infusionsoft, is a recent convert to the Apple iPhone. (See "CRM and the iPhone," page 32.) Harkening back to the old days of transmitting...

The Tweet Is Mightier Than the Sword: So Speak Softly and Carry Just 140 Characters
March 1, 2009... CAN YOU imagine Edward Bulwer-Lytton's reaction to Twitter? Credited with the phrase "the pen is mightier than the sword" in 1839, he might have chosen a different metaphor if he'd lived long enough to see what you could do in Twitter's...

You Know What They Say ... Floggers of These Bons Mots Need a Punch in the Bouche
March 1, 2009... THE MERRY, MISERABLE MONTH of March has materialized. (How's that for a lot of alliteration?) My thoughts on this month always bring me back to elementary school--kindergarten to be exact. Forget All I Really Need to Know I Learned in...