Customer Service – its Future and the role of Emotions
Customer Service is changing fast, but is it all for the better? Which changes did the pandemic drive? Does messaging have a value, and if so which? How about the role of agents? What changed for them? Will they see an improvement in their jobs? The CRMKonvos team had the pleasure of a good discussion with Ian Jacobs, principle analyst at Forrester Research who covers customer service and is one of the most knowledgeable persons around this huge topic. Shortly before our broadcast Ian and some more of us were involved into an interesting and fiercely led discussion on LinkedIn around the role of emotions in customer service. Opinions clashed, strong arguments were exchanged. Naturally, this discussion made it into our CRMKonvo – and Ian made a couple of good points about the role (or not – no need for a spoiler here) of emotions and data, and how data can be used. In addition, we of course looked into drivers of the customer service functions, how different industries are able to engage for good experiences and whether happy agents do actually create happy customers – interesting data on that one, I need to say, but then, thinking about it, it is also quite obvious in retrospective. At the end of the day, we also asked him about his major predictions. Big thanks to Ian for this highly engaging conversation and his...
How to choose the right solution – a Salesforce example
In my recent article on how to improve collaboration with Fastcall CTI I summarized a number of requirements that need to be fulfilled by a solution. A good vendor needs to fulfil at least this set of requirements. · First and foremost: The software needs to do the job of making life for the employees easier · It needs to be embedded into the host software, and not run side by side · Ideally, the vendor is specialized on the software stack that your employees use and the software uses the same UI as the host software · The software needs to share information and data with the host software and write into the same database · The vendor needs to offer good support and regular, frequent updates to the software The article was deliberately abstract and not dealing with any platform, as I wanted to make a general point. The way to do this is to keep it independent of any major (or minor) platform. But what does it mean, specifically, to work with these criteria? Let’s get our hands dirty Imagine that you are a Salesforce customer and are looking for a matching CTI app to extend the footprint of your implementation with the goal of better and more efficient availability. Then Salesforce AppExchange is your first point to start the search, as this is just the kind of use case that it has been built for. Still, there are some pitfalls to observe. Not whatever is on top of the list, is best for you. Salesforce AppExchange ranks and lists by popularity. Popularity is calculated by...
How to get CRM for small businesses right
There is one scary fact in the CRM world. Out of roughly 25 million businesses, only 1 percent has a CRM system. Imagine this! It is a huge waste on one side and a tremendous opportunity on the other side. If vendors find the way into the future of CRM. Nimble seems to have found a way. The CRMKonvos team discussed these and other challenges of CRM systems with Jon Ferrara, founder and CEO of Nimble. We are following his path for quite some time now, how he built Nimble from very small beginnings and always with the thought of enriching an ecosystem with his solution that is formed around simplicity and making life easier not only for the salesreps but for other employees, too. Learn how a philosophy of giving and sharing enables own growth by helping others to grow – from someone who achieved this repeatedly. And yes, Jon also knows why social selling and social CRM are not things anymore – if they have ever been. Jon is a true role model. Learn from him how to scale while being yourself, thinking...
How to create great virtual events
This time, the CRMKonvos gang had a long and good chat with Jon Reed, co-founder of diginomica, one of the premier media outlets that serve the information needs of enterprise leaders in a digital era. Together, we have attended a good number of virtual events, which led to different experiences. Jon has written about virtual and hybrid events, we have our opinions. So what is better than having a frank discussion on what to do, what not, how to measure, what to measure. Of course, this easily touches the hot topic of personalization, and then AI driven personalization and AI in general. A long and very good conversation with one of the most influential thought leaders. Enjoy, as it is highly...