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Customer Information & CRM

• Nina Web

  Flexible and Accurate Answers to Customers’ Questions

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Nina Web is Nuance’s virtual agent offering for the web, complementing Nina Mobile and Nina IVR and leveraging Nuance’s Natural Language Understanding technology to analyze and match customers’ question to knowledgebase answers.
  Jan. 29, 2014

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• Cloud Computing in 2015

  End-Customers’ Priorities Will Drive Companies’ Customer Cloud Implementations

  by Patricia Seybold

  Customers want access to their information from anywhere and from any device. The best way to provide that access is via the cloud. By 2015, we predict that customer clouds will abound. Will you be ready?
  Dec. 13, 2013

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• Why I Am No Longer a Sears Customer

  Sears.com Fails to Deliver on Promises

  by Ronni Marshak

  Sears has failed this shopper for the last time! Read the sad, sad story of hours wasted, responses not received, and powerless customer service agents following self-serving customer service practices.
  Dec. 5, 2013

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• Customer Service Supplier and Product Update 3Q2013

  Review of Ten Social Monitoring, Case Management, Self-Service, and Virtual Agent Suppliers

  by Mitchell Kramer

  3Q2013 was a good quarter for customer service. Customer growth and financial performance were up. Product activity was light. Four companies expanded into new markets. Moxie and Salesforce.com earned Customer Service Stars for 3Q2013.
  Dec. 5, 2013

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• Empower Your Tech Support to Capture Knowledge

  Helping Your Agents to Avoid Dell’s Mistakes

  by Ronni Marshak

  If it is too hard for tech support to share the fixes they discover, they won’t do it well and customers will get inconsistent help. Provide the training and tools to make capturing knowledge the path of least resistance for your tech support personnel.
  Oct. 17, 2013

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• Oracle Service Cloud Social Experience

  Built-In Social Monitoring, Analysis, and Interaction

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Oracle Service Cloud Social Experience provides social customer service by monitoring and analyzing social posts and interacting with social posters. Social Experience is an integral component of Oracle Service Cloud in packaging, pricing, and functionality. See the details in the full report.
  Sep. 27, 2013

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• Customer Service Supplier and Product Update 2Q2013

  2Q2013 Was a Mixed Quarter for Customer Service

  by Mitchell Kramer

  2Q2013 was a mixed quarter in customer service—mixed in customer growth financial performance, products, and company activity. Impressively, Clarabridge, IntelliResponse, and Salesforce.com all earned our Customer Service Stars for the quarter.
  Sep. 6, 2013

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• Improving Wretched Customer Service

  Beyond Giving CSRs Authority—Giving Them the Ammunition to Provide Great Service

  by Ronni Marshak

  What makes well-intentioned customer service so bad? Martha Brooke of Interaction Metrics offers four common mistakes, and we look at how to empower CSRs to avoid these mistakes.
  Jul. 3, 2013

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• Customer Service Supplier and Product Update 1Q2013

  1Q2013 Was a Good Quarter for Customer Service

  by Mitchell Kramer

  1Q2013 was a good quarter for customer service. Customer growth was the highlight, and it drove good financial performance resulted. Product and company activity were high. M&A was big news as Nuance acquired VirtuOz.
  May. 30, 2013

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• IntelliResponse Virtual Agent

  Virtual Agents that Are Fast and Easy to Deploy and that Deliver One Right Answer to Customers’ Questions

  by Mitchell Kramer

  IntelliResponse VA’s virtual agents deliver accurate answers on web, contact center, mobile, and social channels. They’re multilingual, and they support speech on mobile devices. Most significantly, they’re fast and easy to deploy. Read our evaluation.
  May. 10, 2013

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• Clarabridge Analyze, Collaborate, and Engage

  Voice of the Customer Monitoring, Analysis, and Interaction

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Clarabridge's Analyze, Collaborate, and Engage monitor and analyze customer conversations on internal and social channels. NLP-based monitoring and analysis are the key strengths. Read our evaluation.
  Mar. 28, 2013

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• Customer Service Supplier and Product Update 4Q2012

  4Q2012 Was a Very Good Quarter for Customer Service

  by Mitchell Kramer

  4Q2012 was a very good quarter for customer service. Customer growth was the driver. Very good financial performance resulted. Product activity was up. M&A was big news as Nuance acquired VirtuOz.
  Mar. 6, 2013

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• Utility Customer Experiences: Stark Contrasts in Dealing with NStar and National Grid

  What Each Did Right and What Needs Improvement When Helping Customers in Need

  by Ronni Marshak

  Read the best (and worst) practices demonstrated by NStar and National Grid as they help customers deal with a repair.
  Jan. 31, 2013

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• Salesforce.com Service Cloud Winter ’13

  Cross-Channel Case, Knowledge, Account, and Social Network Management

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Salesforce CRM Winter ’13 offers a broad and deep array of customer service capabilities anchored by the Ser-vice Cloud. Read our in-depth evaluation.
  Jan. 24, 2013

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• Amazon’s Next Moves

  It’s a Customer Ecosystem Poised to Become an Increasingly Important Part of Our Lives

  by Patricia Seybold

  Amazon isn’t “just” an online retailer; it’s a vibrant and layered customer ecosystem designed to help you get things done faster and cheaper. Amazon phones will bring added convenience. Amazon’s ads will be more relevant than Google’s or Facebook’s.
  Jan. 3, 2013

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• Customer Service Supplier and Product Update 3Q2012

  3Q2012 Was a Quiet Quarter for Customer Service

  by Mitchell Kramer

  3Q2012 was a mixed quarter for customer service--mixed across customers, products, company activity and fi-nancial performance: two suppliers had very good customer growth; four had good financial performance; two new products; two M&A announcements.
  Dec. 13, 2012

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• Next IT ActiveAgent

  Virtual Agents that Deliver Sophisticated Answers to Complex Questions

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Next IT ActiveAgent’s virtual agents can deliver sophisticated answers to complex questions on web, mobile, and social channels. Read our evaluation.
  Nov. 29, 2012

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• Creative Virtual V-Person

  An Offering from a Virtual Assisted-Service Pioneer

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Creative Virtual V-Person can help deliver very good virtual assisted-service on web, mobile, and social channels through strong knowledge management and reporting. Read our evaluation.
  Sep. 20, 2012

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• Customer Service Supplier and Product Update 2Q2012

  2Q2012 Was Another Mixed Quarter for Customer Service

  by Mitchell Kramer

  2Q2012 was another mixed quarter for customer service--customer growth and financial performance were mostly flat or down.
  Sep. 6, 2012

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• VirtuOz Intelligent Virtual Agent

  Powerful and Flexible Cross-Channel, Cross-Lifecycle Virtual Assisted-Service

  by Mitchell Kramer

  VirtuOz Intelligent Virtual Agent can help deliver excellent virtual assisted-service, delivering direct or guided answers to customers’ questions or performing tasks in case management and CRM systems on behalf of customers. Read our evaluation.
  Jul. 26, 2012

  Technologies

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