Customer Service News & Articles

Live chat is becoming an increasingly important part of the customer support experience. But in many cases, the service customers receive via live chat is siloed from service they get via other channels and not targeted to their specific needs.

This month, we're talking about the customer life cycle experience and how companies can best optimize the way they engage with customer throughout their journey from discovery through purchase to brand ambassador. While there are many ways companies can engage and entice prospective customers, what happens after a purchase is made or a transaction is completed?

Despite an industry emphasis on delivering a broad “customer experience,” personalization and the use of emerging sales channels like social, providing good customer service is still the most important driver of retail success. This is the main finding of Oracle's new survey -- The Evolution of Experience Retailing.

How will you be using technology to tap into customers more efficiently, effectively and more holistically this year? If you haven’t already mapped out your strategy for the year ahead, you’re in luck. QuestBack has released its predictions for how organizations will capture and process feedback from customers and employees to improve the customer experience.

Web Experience Focus in 2013
In 2012 the focus was on mobile. This year, digital marketers need to think beyond mobile to multichannel.

But that's only the start of how Web Experience Management will evolve this year -- social and contextual analytics will also be key technologies in today's customer experience technologies. 

Tech is fun, but we mustn't forget the 3 C's of Customer Experience Management.

Tweet Jam Time Again!
We're kicking off the new year with a look at the Customer Life Cycle. Join us January 23rd at 1pm ET, 9am PT as we discuss how organizations define their customer life cycles and the tools/strategies they use. Stay tuned for more details.

To get you started, check out this example of a company that saw the importance of customer service in the customer life cycle.

Most Popular

• Nielsen Announces Choices For 10 Best Designed Intranets 2013, 70% Built on SharePoint
• Four Web Content Management Trends in 2013 Every Marketer Needs to Know
• Looking at Digital Business in 2013
• Will 2013 Be the Year that HTML5 Takes Over?
• Google Offers Office Access for iPad, CloudOn Offers Office Support for iPhone

Editor's Picks

• Navigating the 3 C's of Customer Experience - Step One: The Customer
• Where is the Search Box?
• Salesforce Spring '13 Preview, Chatter, Sales, Analytics & Mobile All Updated
• CRM 2012-2013: Separating the Substance from the Hype
• Considering an ERP Solution? A Note of Caution

Around the Web

• The drama that swirls around data in marketing
• Does More Content Marketing Mean Better Content Marketing?
• How the Role of CMO Will Change in the Year Ahead
• 2013: Content Gets a Ride as King
• Year 8 is too late

Featured Events (all events | post your event

• Jan 16 --Social Media Conference
• Jan 27 -- IBM Connect in Orlando
• Mar 04 -- Adobe Digital Marketing Summit
• Apr 18 -- Forrester's Forum for Marketing Leadership Professionals Los Angeles
• Apr 29 -- Gartner Portals, Content & Collaboration Summit San Diego

Featured Jobs (all jobs | post your job)

• Content Manager in New York at G100 Network
• Client Director in New York at Blast Radius
• Online Marketing Manager in San Francisco at AppDynamics
• Network Engineer in San Francisco at Splunk
• Social Media -- Community Manager in New York at Big Fuel

Financial and enterprise resource planning firm Netsuite has bought Retail Anywhere in hopes to unify online and in store customer experiences.

Back in the 1970s, my dad was already complaining about the decline in customer service he’d witnessed in his life time. But then he’d inevitably mention USAA as the shining exception. “How in the world do they do it?” he’d ponder. “No one else seems to be able to anymore. ”

Cloud services broker, Cloud Sherpas has announced they've acquired and integrated with CloudTrigger, a cloud CRM solution consulting firm.

Looking for best practices for how to deliver the best possible brand experience to customers and prospects in the social channel? Today is your lucky day. MediaFunnel, a social media management platform has released a set of innovative, customizable customer service quality assurance protocols designed to do just that.

Last week when we spoke with Michael Idinopulos about Socialtext’s partnership with Badgeville, I was curious about his title, Chief Customer Officer. As you may recall, earlier this year, we examined the evolving roles of the C-suite and the impact of social business within the enterprise. It’s not everyday that I meet a bona fide Chief Customer Officer, so naturally, I had some questions for him.

Customers are in charge now, so should more companies invest in their contact centers to help improve the front lines that keep those customers happy?

Customer relationship management provider, Salesforce has integrated with Zendesk, a help desk software provider, to create Zendesk for Salesforce, a tool designed to improve the customer help experience.

Oracle is attempting to enable more proactive customer service by integrating the Oracle RightNow Chat Cloud Service with the Oracle Engagement Engine Cloud Service as part of its new Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service release.

Customer service software developer UserVoice revealed today a new integration with Crittercism, a platform that helps developers monitor mobile app performance. 

Over the past few years, social media has quickly grown from a social pastime to an essential part of building a successful business.