With this week’s report, the 4Q2013 Customer Service Update, Mitchell Kramer completes his tenth year of quarterly updates on the leading suppliers and products in customer service. That’s a pretty impressive accomplishment! What other analyst firm do you know that has provided the consistent, in-depth, objective analysis that Mitch Kramer has been doing for over a decade?

Of course, Mitch has covered many other technologies for us over his 25-year tenure with us, including relational and object-oriented databases, application development tools, business intelligence tools, campaign management, e-commerce platforms, and content and knowledge management solutions, but customer service is his first and most lasting passion.

Mitch has mastered the art of creating detailed frameworks for analyzing complex software products. He uses and evolves these frameworks to produce in-depth, objective analyses of competing products. His analysis saves decision-makers time and reduces their risk.

In addition to providing in depth product reviews, Mitch decided over a decade ago that it would be useful to track the trajectory of each of the suppliers whose products he covers. How well are they doing? What new products have they announced? Are they gaining new customers? Are they hiring?

He does this every single quarter. And he’s been doing these quarterly updates in the customer service market for a decade. That’s a lot of monitoring and analysis!

These quarterly updates have focused on the factors that are important in the evaluation, comparison, and selection of customer service products:

• Customer Growth
• Financial Performance
• Product Activity
• Company Activity

Mitch Kramer’s list of leading customer service suppliers has changed over the years, mostly due to acquisitions and mergers, as well as new players rising up through the ranks. The 10 customer service software suppliers he currently covers are: Clarabridge, Creative Virtual, eGain, IntelliResponse, KANA, Moxie, Next IT, Nuance, Oracle, and Salesforce.com.

Here’s his latest analysis:

Customer Service Supplier and Product Update
4Q2013 Was a Good Quarter for Customer Service
By Mitch Kramer, Senior Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group, March 7, 2014