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OUR TAKE -  What Are You Thinking?     2009 Service and Support Metrics Survey Results Do you want to know the state of enterprise service and support -- technology adoption rates and deployment plans, financial challenges, workforce issues, and performance metrics?   The findings of SupportIndustry's annual survey examines these issues, as well as efforts to improve processes and the strategic role of service delivery on corporate growth.   Get a free copy of the survey results. Offered by SupportIndustry.com   Lasting Impressions: If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. - Anne Bradstreet Let's start the week with another CRMAdvocate reader response regarding the topic of listening to customer input and realizing it is time to burn the bridges by doing something new (also read Burned Bridges Don't Include the Loyalists, It Doesn't Work for Everyone and Building New Bridges),   Consider this: "Any strategy which posits a holistic view of the customer and attempts to co-develop value with these same customers must have in place a methodology for unfettered two-way communication. This we call the 'customer listening system' and contains methods for compiling both quantitative and qualitative data regarding both product and service quality. Any organization can save much of their advertising dollars by adopting such a listening method. Unfortunately, too many companies take a transactional, cash-register approach to quantifying the quality of their product or service."   What is the consequence of a transactional approach? The readers suggests that organizations tend to solidify their culture around processes they perceive as working and fail to revisit them. What happens next is, "Processes take an inward view approach and fail to notice emerging strategies that might require course corrections to remain relevant in today's service economy. It's only a matter of time before someone knocks on their door and says, 'What are you thinking?"   By the way, we never heard back from anyone at Dominos Pizza on how the "burn the bridges" strategy was working. That's my take. Do you agree? What's your take?   Gary Lemke, Publisher      CoolCRM - Overview Straight talk: A "fluff-free" snapshot of cool CRM solutions. (more).        VContactCenter - Vertical Solution's (VSI) Newest Solution     VContactCenter is a CRM Contact Center Management solution built on a cloud-based technology platform that enables companies to automate interactions between any entity, database, or group and deliver seamless, consistent support based on proven business processes.   How Vertical Solutions Does It: VContactCenter enables companies to automate their strongest business processes and integrate every group or entity that interacts with the contact center, with little dependence on internal IT development.   Want to learn more? You can view a VContactCenter demo right now. More Info::   company | customers | news | products | demo | contact            Action Center         Free Subscription         Submit Content         Industry Events         Webcasts         Archive   Stock Ticker Selectica 0.25      0.02 eLoyalty 6.09      0.38 ATG 3.92      0.19 RightNow 15.01      0.72 Interactive 17.27      0.43 Jacada 1.46      0.03 SupportSoft 2.56      0.05 Oracle 23.55      0.44 ClickSoftware 6.75      0.12 NCR 12.98      0.16 Microsoft 28.02      0.18 HP 47.32      0.29 Tekelc 14.55      0.06 Epicor 7.36      0.03 Unica 8.06      0.03 Astea 3.3      0 Convergys 10.78      0 APAC 5.21      0 Chordiant 3.45      0 Salesforce 62.08      -0.35 SAP 45.96      -0.29 Rainmaker 1.5      -0.01 Amdocs 28.25      -0.27 NICE 28.82      -0.33 Sykes 23.01      -0.35 Pegasystems 34.75      -0.83 LivePerson 5.85      -0.16 CDC 2.12      -0.06 Teletech 17.97      -0.58 NetSuite 12.16      -2.35 As of 4:00 p.m. on 2/5/10         NEW IN CRM   News:    CSO Insights Study Shows Major Drops in 2009 Sales Performance CSO Insights released the results of their 16th annual Sales Performance Optimization (SPO) study, during which they surveyed over 2,800 companies worldwide to assess their current level of sales performance, the challenges facing sales teams today, and how companies are effectively dealing with those issues. The percentage of reps making quota in 2009 dropped to 51.8% from 58.8% a year earlier. As a result, overall revenue plan attainment dropped to 77.9% from 85.9% during the same time period.(CSO Insights )   News:    Verint Expands with Acquisition of Iontas Verint Systems announced the acquisition of Iontas, a privately-held provider of desktop analytics solutions. Iontas solutions measure application usage and analyze workflows to help improve staff performance in contact center, branch and back-office operations environments. Iontas' desktop analytics solutions will be integrated into Verint's Impact 360(r) Workforce Optimization suite.(Verint )   News:    Dendrite To Deploy Amdocs for Worldwide Customer Service Cegedim Dendrite, a provider of Life Sciences-specific Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions, announced that it will deploy an Amdocs help desk solution to deliver enhanced support services to its worldwide customer base. Amdocs is a leading provider of Customer Experience Systems (CES). Cegedim Dendrite will deploy Amdocs' Smart Agent Desktop. This product will support a global harmonization in service delivery, improving efficiency and reducing call transfers. Smart Agent Desktop will enable Cegedim Dendrite to consolidate and access customer data, streamline and create global standards for business processes and automate reporting, resulting in operational efficiency and a better customer experience. (Cegedim )   News:    Zoho CRM Streamlines Workflow at Affordable Housing Alliance Zoho CRM is being used to automate workflow processes at Affordable Housing Alliance (AHA), a non-profit organization that provides affordable housing and other services to low-to-moderate income individuals and families living in the Central New Jersey area. Working with Twin Lights Group, a Zoho Alliance Partner, AHA has a redesigned website that streamlines the online forms creation and other tasks needed to efficiently provide affordable housing resources.(Zoho )   News:    Consumers Unforgiving When It Comes to Bad Customer Care Teleperformance released the results of customer care survey that shows the quality of experience with a company's customer contact center determines consumer sentiment and brand loyalty. According to the survey, a single negative experience with a customer call center would likely cause 68% of the respondents to take their business elsewhere. Most people felt they had a right to a better contact center experience if they regularly spend money with a company or stay loyal to a brand.(Teleperformance )   Didn't read the last edition of CRMAdvocate? Click here to see what you missed.