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Self-Service & Assisted Service

• 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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• Why Alaska Airlines Considers Mobile Development a Core Competency

  Speed Up Improvements in Customer Experience through Mobile

  by Patricia Seybold

  With Curtis Kopf, Managing Director, AlaskaAir.com, and Customer Innovation at Alaska Airlines, we look at how he and his team are mastering agile development and making mobile technology a core competency.
  Feb. 21, 2013

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• Apple and/or Verizon: How Should Partners Provide Customer Support?

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

  by Ronni Marshak

  Providers who together satisfy customer scenarios are part of a customer ecosystem. And the customer's experience should be seamless, as shown in this story.
  Feb. 14, 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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• 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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• The Emotional Rollercoaster within Customer Scenarios

  Most Customer Scenarios Bring Out Mixed Customer Emotions; Are You Prepared to Respond to Them?

  by Ronni Marshak

  What emotions are customers feeling as they get things done? How can you anticipate and respond to customers’ negative emotions?
  Nov. 1, 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

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• Don’t Blindside Your Customers

  Bankofamerica.com Neglects to Warn Customers of a Glitch that Requires Customer Attention

  by Ronni Marshak

  When there is an emergency service interruption to your customer experience, it’s important to have processes in place to remedy the situation. Bank of America missed that opportunity and was deluged with calls from frustrated and annoyed customers.
  Jul. 26, 2012

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• When Do You Need an App for That?

  Do Mobile Apps Make It Easier for Customers to Do Business with You?

  by Patricia Seybold

  When do you need a mobile app for customer service and when is it better to provide mobile-friendly customer self-service portals or web sites?
  Jul. 6, 2012

  Strategies

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• What Do I Do Now?

  When Customers Are in Crisis, How Well Do You Support Them?

  by Ronni Marshak

  Crises are great opportunities to gain customer loyalty for life. How your brand and your organization rally to help customers in crisis is often the make or break point in any customer relationship!
  Jun. 28, 2012

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• Customer Service Supplier and Product Update 1Q2012

  1Q2012 Was Another Mixed Quarter

  by Mitchell Kramer

  1Q2012 was not a good quarter for customer service; customer growth and financial performance were down; product activity was mixed; companies were quiet. Salesforce.com, however, had a big quarter.
  Jun. 7, 2012

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• KANA Experience Analytics

  Powerful Analytics, Tight Integration with KANA Service Experience Management

  by Mitchell Kramer

  KANA Experience Analytics monitors, analyzes, and acts on customer conversations on the social web and customer conversations on internal channels. Analytics that categorize customer conversations and classify their sentiment are its key strength.
  May. 24, 2012

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• Social-Service Evaluation Framework

  Products that Monitor Social Posts, Identify Customers’ Questions and Problems, and Help Deliver Answers and Solutions

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Our framework for evaluating social-service products that help organizations deliver customer service to the social web has four top-level criteria: customer service best fit, analytic functionality, customer service integration, and viability.
  Apr. 5, 2012

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• Customer Service Supplier and Product Update 4Q2011

  Quarterly Update of Vendors and Products: Mixed Results for 2011

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Each quarter, we provide a round-up of product and company activity for the top suppliers of customer service solutions: Astute Solutions, Attensity Group, Consona CRM, eGain, IntelliResponse, KANA, Moxie Software, Oracle, and Salesforce.com. Here’s the update as of Q4 2011.
  Mar. 15, 2012

  Technologies

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• Attensity Analyze and Attensity Respond

  Multi-Channel Monitoring, Analysis, and Interaction

  by Mitchell Kramer

  Attensity Analyze and Attensity Respond provide multi-channel (social web and internal channel) monitoring, analysis, and interaction. Powerful, patented text analytics are the offerings’ key characteristic, strength, and differentiator.
  Mar. 1, 2012

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• Offshore Customer Service

  Don’t Damage Your Brand by Allowing Inferior Service—No Matter Where It Is Provided

  by Ronni Marshak

  Does offshoring your call center impact your brand? It does if the quality of service goes down. Avoid the pitfalls of the most common offshore customer service offences.
  Feb. 2, 2012

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