For Customer Intelligence Professionals

The Marketing And Customer Analytics Software Landscape

Unraveling A Potpourri Of Technology Options For Customer Analysis

by Suresh Vittal, October 16, 2009

Marketers recognize that Customer Intelligence is rapidly becoming a mission-critical discipline. This should come as no surprise — valuing, targeting, and retaining the best customers are skills in high demand. But few marketing organizations can muster . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

To Invest Wisely, Know The Business Value Of Diverse CRM Solutions

by William Band, September 30, 2009

To help customer relationship management (CRM) professionals make smart decisions and navigate the complex CRM technology landscape, Forrester surveyed 286 companies. The goal was to determine the business value-add adjusted for uncertainty of 19 types . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Firms Struggle To Measure Customer Experience Across Channels

Technical And Organizational Silos Hinder Cross-Channel Tracking

by Megan Burns, September 22, 2009

Forrester recently surveyed decision-makers at 41 companies and found that their primary challenges when it comes to customer experience measurement relate to tracking experiences across channels. Several factors contribute to this problem, including . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

The ROI Of Email Relevance, 2009

New Rules To Improve The Bottom Line

by David Daniels, September 16, 2009

Email marketer expectations and sophistication are increasing. Forrester's Q1 survey of 104 email marketers found that the number of email marketers using click-through data as a segmentation attribute grew to 51%, its highest level ever. Yet, the survey . . .

For Customer Intelligence Professionals

Creating A Customer Contact Governance Council

Successful Contact Strategies Require Cross-Functional Support

by Suresh Vittal, Dave Frankland, September 10, 2009

An enterprisewide contact strategy is an important key to success for the marketing organization. Optimal contact strategies help marketers reduce contact fatigue, lower opt-out rates, reduce costs, and embrace customer centricity. But most marketers . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

TechRadar™ For BP&A Professionals: The Extended CRM Application Ecosystem, Q3 2009

Social Applications Stimulate Innovation But Sales, Order Management, And Service Hold The Keys To Your Revenue Engine

by William Band, July 9, 2009

Locking in customer loyalty through deeper engagement and differentiated experiences will continue to be critical priorities for organizations in all sectors in the decade ahead, but navigating the complex customer relationship management (CRM) technology . . .

For Technology Sales Enablement Professionals

Hot Insurance Tech Companies To Watch In 2009: Q2 Update

by Ellen Carney, June 29, 2009

The past year has tested the mettle of the insurance industry. Insurers like The Hartford Financial Services Group and Lincoln National Group converted to bank holding companies to take advantage of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds. The downturn . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Executive Q&A: Net Promoter Score

by Bruce D. Temkin, May 19, 2009

Net Promoter has become a popular term. But many firms don't understand exactly what it is and how to use it most effectively. This Q&A document examines some frequently asked questions and should help companies that are wondering how and when to . . .

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Beyond Sales: Driving eBusiness With Engagement

eBusiness And Channel Leaders: Prepare A Shift To New Customer Metrics To Succeed In 2009

by Carrie Johnson, Elizabeth Davis, May 15, 2009

Will there ever be a shift away from the prevailing maniacal goal of increased sales online as a measure of success for eBusiness? Yes — and it's happening now. In Q1 2009, we surveyed members and prospects of our eBusiness And Channel Strategy Professional . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

The State Of Customer Experience, 2009

Customer Experience Management Enters Into Adolescence

by Bruce D. Temkin, April 24, 2009

Executives have been saying for awhile that customer experience is important. Only recently, however, have many of them begun to understand its direct link with loyalty. As a result, companies are starting to develop more disciplined approaches to customer . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Make The Most Of Web Site Satisfaction Surveys

Go Beyond Measurement To Modeling And Diagnosis

by Megan Burns, March 17, 2009

Customer satisfaction surveys are popular, but overall satisfaction scores don't produce actionable insights. Firms need detailed data on specific factors that influence visitors' overall perception of a site like content, navigation, and search. They . . .

For Marketing Leadership Professionals

Executive Q&A: Customer Lifetime Value

by Suresh Vittal, March 11, 2009

Customer lifetime value is a powerful metric that rewards marketers for understanding their relationships with their customers. But while it is one of the more valuable measurements for marketers, many companies either do not collect the data or do not . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

Case Study: Intuit TurboTax Uses Crowd Wisdom To Make Online Support Less Taxing

by Laura Ramos, March 4, 2009

Intuit TurboTax used the wisdom of crowds — gleaned by analyzing how tax filers and tax preparation businesses interact with thousands of pages of support and tax code information — to supercharge its online support and hold down costs. Business-to-business . . .

For Marketing Leadership Professionals

Case Study: First Tennessee Bank Elevates Customer Insight To The C-Suite

by Dave Frankland, March 3, 2009

First Tennessee Bank leverages insight from its marketing and customer analytics team throughout its business. However, five years ago, the team had limited intelligence on its customers and leveraged a marketing customer information file (MCIF) data . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Voice Of The Customer: The Next Generation

Six Trends Will Change How Organizations Use Customer Feedback

by Bruce D. Temkin, February 26, 2009

Voice of the customer (VoC) programs are a critical component to improving customer experience. But today's efforts are broken in many ways. They lack action, get caught in silos, and aren't cost- or time-effective. But a number of trends are changing . . .

For Marketing Leadership Professionals

What's Your Web Data Integration Strategy?

Marketing Data Reveals Better Insight With Integration

by John Lovett, February 19, 2009

Customer data is perpetually amassing for marketers with each new campaign, Web site visit, and email delivered, thus creating unprecedented stores of Web data. This information is often siloed within disparate applications providing shallow customer . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Where To Find Help With Automated Calling For Healthcare

Eliza, Silverlink, Varolii, Vocantas, And Warm Health Report Healthcare Program Expertise

by Elizabeth Boehm, February 11, 2009

As healthcare companies get more focused on preventive care and proactive communication, they need messaging platforms that can provide flexible, compelling experiences to a diverse range of consumers. Increasingly, firms are incorporating automated calling . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Topic Overview: Business Intelligence

by Boris Evelson, November 21, 2008

Business intelligence (BI) is a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information. It allows business users to make informed business decisions with real-time data that can . . .

For Marketing Leadership Professionals

The Customer Contact Strategy Self-Test

by Dave Frankland, November 4, 2008

Successful customer contact strategies involve five major components: culture, technology, analytics, business process, and measurement. To gauge how well firms are positioned to establish an enterprisewide customer contact strategy, we created a self-test . . .

For Marketing Leadership Professionals

Optimizing Customer Retention Programs

by Suresh Vittal, October 20, 2008

Managing customer churn continues to flummox direct marketers. They struggle to define, target, or properly value customers. But increasingly marketers are turning to predictive analytics to power retention programs. Uplift modeling is an emerging technique . . .

For Marketing Leadership Professionals

Q&A: Five Web Analytics Answers Direct Marketers Must Know

by Megan Burns, Suresh Vittal, October 14, 2008

Web analytics data is one of the few pieces of customer data that direct marketers have not yet integrated into their customer databases. This is a missed opportunity for most direct marketers: Web analytics data helps marketers deepen their understanding . . .

For Consumer Market Research Professionals

Best Practices: Why Customer Satisfaction Studies Fail

How To Drive Bottom-Line Success With Effective Satisfaction Research

by Brad Bortner, August 13, 2008

Spending on customer satisfaction studies continues to outpace overall market research spend in the US, and yet there is a generalized dissatisfaction with the value that companies get from such studies. They continue because there is an intrinsic belief . . .

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Four Essential Metrics For Cross-Channel Measurement

by Sucharita Mulpuru, August 12, 2008

With consumers regularly migrating across channels when researching and purchasing products, eBusiness professionals are tasked with the challenge of quantifying that cross-channel behavior. Companies with multichannel programs in consumer-facing industries . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Customer Hubs, Q3 2008

Siperian, Initiate Systems, IBM, D&B Purisma, And Oracle UCM Widen The Functionality Gap

by R "Ray" Wang, August 4, 2008

In Forrester's 149-criteria evaluation of customer hubs vendors, we found that Siperian, Initiate Systems, IBM, Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Purisma, and Oracle UCM led the pack because of their broad support for multiple industries, number of successful . . .

For Marketing Leadership Professionals

Six Success Factors For Outsourcing Customer Analytics

by Dave Frankland, July 11, 2008

Customer analytics is a critical function in leading marketing organizations. Leaders leverage customer analytics to optimize campaigns, dictate contact strategy, and boost profitability. But analytic resources are in short supply, and many organizations . . .