BY SAM DEL ROWE Services at Wind Creek Hospitality

ContentsVol. 21, No. 1

22 26 30 15 40

COVER STORY FEATURES 22 10 CRM Trends to 26 How to Succeed at 30 Anatomy of a Contact Watch in 2017 Mobile Marketing Center Expansion All eyes will be on automation Marketers need to meet How do you transform a contact as the lines between humans consumers on the platforms center operation, ramping up and machines (and sales, they’re already using from 25 agents to 120, in a short service, and marketing) and connect the dots amount of time? A Q&A with continue to blur. What between them. Jonathan Nall, director of guest else lies ahead? BY SAM DEL ROWE services at Wind Creek Hospitality. BY OREN SMILANSKY BY LEONARD KLIE

COLUMNS/DEPARTMENTS INSIGHT REAL ROI

2 Front Office 38 Scouting Report 14 Are CMOs’ Jobs in 17 Local Ad Revenue Is 34 With Interactions, Did data let us down There’s an AI Jeopardy? Expected to Increase Salt River Project in November? revolution brewing in Research suggests that BIA/Kelsey predicts Helps Customers BY LEONARD KLIE customer service. more than 30 percent growth, especially for Keep Their Cool BY DONNA FLUSS 4 Reality Check of chief marketing online and digital The water and 39 Customer officers could soon be advertising revenue. electricity supplier The two trends that out of work. uses the vendor’s On the Scene: will loom large in Experience 18 virtual assistants to HubSpot’s Inbound 2016 2017 (and beyond). An integrated 15 Companies Need to keep its contact centers BY DENIS POMBRIANT customer-centric Get Serious About B2B Marketing from overheating. 6 Tipping Point strategy must clear Social Communities Needs a Human- these four barriers. With customer Focused Approach 35 BrightCurrent As disruptive growth BY BARTON GOLDENBERG community pages, Marketing needs to Energizes Inside becomes a bigger companies must be more personalized Sales Reps with priority, companies 40 Pint of View demonstrate an in the new digital have to determine NewVoiceMedia The ROI of teamwork. ongoing commitment. environment, who will be in BY MARSHALL LAGER The clean-power HubSpot speakers charge of it. 16 Consumers Prefer agency takes on BY ROBERT WOLLAN contend. more leads with Personalization; ContactWorld for Sales. 8 Small Biz Buzz Businesses Can’t 19 Required Reading Are chatbots and Deliver Harnessing The 36 iflix Produces Boffo recurring revenue the Personalized product 12 Powers of a Brand Awareness future of business? offerings and services Marketing Leader with RadiumOne BY BRENT LEARY translate to higher Like it or not, Although competing sales, but companies marketing leaders in a crowded market, are still in the early must prove their the streaming stages, according to value. and video services Accenture. provider was able to significantly increase its subscriber base.

www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 1 Front Office

Did Data Let Us Down?

he United States later this month will story, “10 CRM Trends to Watch in 2017” (page install Donald J. Trump as its 45th pres- 22). One of the leading trends he uncovered was the ident. Regardless of how you feel about growing use of predictive analytics, powered by all the outcome of November’s election, the sorts of advanced technologies—such as artificial Tone thing on which everyone can agree is that this intelligence, machine learning, deep neural net- time around, the political polls fell miserably short. working, and cognitive computing—to help busi- Depending on which polls you read, Hillary Clin- nesses determine not just what people are doing ton had anywhere from a 70 percent to a 99 per- but why. cent chance of winning the White House. The fact With the advancements in sight, companies will that the polls were so far off the mark (at least on be better able to make detailed predictions about the state level) led to a lot of anger, and an arti- human behavior—from how we’ll vote to what cle in The New York Times even went we’ll buy or which type of marketing email we’ll so far as to declare that “data failed us” open. Ultimately, companies will be able to use data WHILE DATA SCIENCE in November. science and analytics to prove or disprove assump- HAS TREMENDOUS A lot of the anger stems from the tions about the future and then to craft prescriptive POTENTIAL TO UNCOVER fact that people in almost every walk actions likely to result in optimum business results. BUSINESS INSIGHTS, IT of life put a lot of faith in data today. This goes far beyond the basic insight available IS STILL A NEW FIELD They have become obsessed with data. today, providing foresight and a path to act on it. OF ENDEAVOR WITH They expect that with the amount of Still, while data can and will be extremely help- VERY FEW SKILLED data available, they should be able to ful, we can never lose sight of the fact that data sci- PRACTITIONERS. accurately predict the outcome of just ence is only a tool. As the election proved, we can’t about anything—from a presidential be too quick to make decisions based on data alone. election to a football game, from a sales Forecasting, in politics or in business, is still very meeting to a TV ad campaign. difficult, and the results can never come with a 100 But it’s important to keep things in perspective. percent guarantee. In our haste, we just might have lost sight of data **** science’s inherent limitations. While data science has tremendous potential to uncover business And while your eyes invariably turn to the events insights never realized before, it is still a very new in Washington later this month, why not make field of endeavor with very few skilled practitioners. plans to visit the nation’s capital yourself this spring In addition, the technology that makes data science for the upcoming CRM/evolution conference? Now possible still comes with very significant trade-offs, in its 12th year, CRM Evolution 2017 will be held least of which is an inability to pick up on the con- at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park, April text and subtle nuances contained in the informa- 24–26. The conference program is shaping up nice- tion available. Data science, as we know it today, is ly, with some of the brightest and most influential still very much based on what’s there in black and people in the industry scheduled to speak. We’d white, often impervious to the hints of gray that lie love for you to be there as well. under the surface. Leonard Klie But that is starting to change, as Associate Editor Editor Oren Smilansky points out in this month’s cover [email protected]

2 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com 2012 National 2012 Regional EDITORIAL DESIGN Gold Silver VIEWPOINTS EDITOR Leonard Klie [email protected] Read the following exclusive essays MANAGING EDITOR Chris Cronis [email protected] SENIOR DESIGNER Laura Hegyi [email protected] at www.destinationCRM.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Oren Smilansky [email protected] ASSISTANT EDITOR Sam Del Rowe [email protected] The New CRM: More Vertical, PROOFREADER Greg Edmondson CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Donna Fluss, Barton Goldenberg, Brent Leary, More Data-Driven Marshall Lager, Denis Pombriant, Robert Wollan The next generation of CRM will be for the real estate broker finding EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD a home for a newlywed couple, the Lior Arussy, PRESIDENT, STRATIVITY GROUP; Barton Goldenberg, PRESIDENT, ISM, INC.; architect managing projects and client Paul Greenberg, PRESIDENT, THE 56 GROUP, LLC; referrals, or the pharmaceutical rep Denis Pombriant, FOUNDER AND MANAGING PRINCIPAL, BEAGLE RESEARCH GROUP; connecting a healthcare provider Ray Wang, PRINCIPAL ANALYST AND CEO, CONSTELLATION RESEARCH with a groundbreaking drug. ADVERTISING SALES/PRINT & ONLINE ALLEN BONDE, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING, PLACESTER VICE PRESIDENT AND GROUP PUBLISHER Bob Fernekees 1-212-251-0608 x106 [email protected] WEST COAST AD DIRECTOR Dennis Sullivan 1-203-445-9178 [email protected] EAST/MIDWEST AD DIRECTOR Adrienne Snyder 1-201-327-2773 [email protected] What Brexit and the Election MARKETING Can Teach Today’s Marketers VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING Tom Hogan, Jr. [email protected] Pollsters missed the mark this year. DIRECTOR OF WEB EVENTS DawnEl Harris [email protected] Here’s how marketers can avoid misreading their audience. EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT MATT REILLY, CEO, MOGEAN PRESIDENT AND CEO Thomas H. Hogan [email protected] CHAIRMAN Roger R. Bilboul; VICE PRESIDENT, ADMINISTRATION John Yersak [email protected] VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT Dick Kaser [email protected] Can Marketers Achieve the Cross- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Channel ‘Swiss Army Knife’? VICE PRESIDENT, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Bill Spence [email protected] There might not be a one-size-fits-all PRODUCTION solution out there, but that doesn’t PRODUCTION MANAGER Tiffany J. Chamenko [email protected] mean the goal isn’t attainable. MATT SILK, HEAD OF STRATEGY, WATERFALL AD TRAFFICKING COORDINATOR Jacqueline Crawford [email protected]

CRM (ISSN: 1529-8728; USPS: 17233) is published monthly by CRM Media, including Dow Jones Factiva, LexisNexis, OCLC, STN International, 4 Ways Sales Contact Centers a division of Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, and Westlaw. Should Be Using Data NJ 08055 USA; Phone: (609) 654-6266; Fax: (609) 654-4309; Internet: Subscription Information www.infotoday.com. Registered in U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Free to qualified recipients within the U.S. Effectively using first- and third-party Periodicals postage paid at Vincentown, NJ, and additional mailing offices. Subscription rates for nonqualified subscribers: U.S. subscription customer data can enhance a user’s brand rate—$69.95; Canada and Mexico—$89.00; overseas delivery—$122.00 experience and develop a purchasing ©Copyright 2017, CRM Media, a division of Information Today, Inc. All rates to be prepaid in U.S. funds. Subscribe online at process that meets or exceeds expectations. 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Embracing Digital CX www. iti-infocentral.com Editorial Office 237 West 35th Street, Suite 806, New York, NY To become a ‘Digital Utility’, Contents also available online under direct licensing arrangements 10001; (212) 251-0608; www.destinationCRM.com companies must deliver on a rising with EBSCO, NewsBank, ProQuest, and Gale and through CRM MAGAZINE’S MONTHLY PR EDITORIAL EMAIL UPDATE: set of customer choices, expectations, redistribution arrangements with information service providers Contact David Myron at [email protected] and engagement preferences. ERIK MAZMANIAN, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MARKETING AND STRATEGY, FIRSTFUEL SOFTWARE Reality Check By Denis Pombriant Mobile and Government CRM Will Loom Large Long Term This New Year, let’s look past 2017

OU KNOW how we all make resolutions some businesses will never convert to CRM because it just we can’t keep and predictions that fall far from isn’t right for them, just as your aunt Millie still goes into the mark? Let’s not do that this year, at least the bank lobby once a week. not with CRM. There’s plenty to think about But for a larger section of the population, I suspect Yfor the future that’s factual, that we can be clear about. there are training and adoption issues in play. Perhaps the So let’s avoid the equivalent of flying car predictions and apps are still not easy enough to configure, or the number look at some possibilities with minor ground rules. of deals or cases is just too low. One or both of these The big rule to keep in mind is the rule of 10 years—as issues might apply to a lot of self-employed people, and in it takes 10 years for an overnight success to sprout. there’s just no money to be made from them. So maybe It’s derived from Bill Gates’s statement we need to take another look at the that we overestimate what we can do addressable market. in two years and underestimate what One area where CRM could be of we can do in 10. significant value, which I wrote about So looking back 10 years, we were last year, is government. There’s pre- all atwitter—no pun, actually; Twit- cious little CRM in local, state, or ter was 10 years old last year—about federal government. There are auto- handheld devices, and this year marks mated systems that enable people to the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, report potholes, but CRM is certainly released on June 29, 2007, to be pre- not pervasive. That’s a problem, too, cise. So what have those innovations brought us? Well, because constituents are also customers, and we’ve all we just went through a Twitter election, and there are so been trained by the market to expect certain levels of many handheld devices out there that it’s getting hard to responsiveness. When consumers don’t get what they make money if you make those things. Apps are plentiful want from a vendor, they pick up stakes and go elsewhere. and cheap, but a lot of businesses still don’t have a foot- You can’t do that with your government. Without that print on devices, or at least not a good one. safety valve, frustration and resentment build up, and you So I’d say the social-handheld trend is get Brexit or worse. getting long in the tooth for personal use, So my bet is that CRM’s next big frontier is not the THE SOCIAL- but it’s still got legs in business. The driv- Internet of Things (IoT) but government. Don’t get me HANDHELD TREND ing force for business is and will continue wrong: Over the next 10 years the IoT will happen—it’s IS GETTING LONG to be development platforms because cor- happening now, it’s on a rail. But CRM in government IN THE TOOTH FOR porations have mountains of development might be more of a challenge because a lot of govern- PERSONAL USE, still in front of them. Over the fall show ment people might not want it. If knowledge is power and BUT IT’S STILL GOT season, just about every vendor with a dog information is what drives knowledge, people whose wel- LEGS IN BUSINESS. in the hunt gave us glimpses of tools that fare depends on controlling knowledge will be reluctant deliver for the small screen, so it’s highly to take on the transparency that CRM affords. likely, to my mind, that the competition in Nevertheless, government CRM is going to happen platforms will continue as businesses can’t get enough because government is not monolithic. There will be social-mobile apps. snags here and there, and then the barriers to it will fall But what’s up longer term? Aside from mobile devices, almost without warning. But it will take 10 years. CRM has penetrated the corporate mind-set to a high degree. Sure, there are holdouts—perhaps as much as Denis Pombriant is founder and managing principal of Beagle Research 30 to 50 percent of the addressable market. Given cloud Group and the Bullpen Group. He is a widely published CRM analyst in the United States and Europe, and his latest research spans all areas of social computing’s prevalence, it’s hard to believe that CRM’s CRM, cloud, and mobile computing. His latest book, Solve for the Customer, affordability is a big issue, which leads me to believe that is available at Amazon.com.

4 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com

Tipping Point By Robert Wollan Are Chief Marketing Officers the New Chief Growth Officers? As disruptive growth becomes a bigger priority, companies have to determine who will be in charge of it

N A digitally disrupted market, where traditional accountable for the disruptive growth agenda that is frag- revenue sources are becoming more elusive, busi- mented today. ness leaders are dividing their growth strategies into two areas—incremental growth from their current CMOS ARE BEST PLACED TO LEAD Iportfolio through traditional approaches, and “disrup- DISRUPTIVE GROWTH tive growth” opportunities that push well beyond today’s CEOs see CMOs as the primary drivers of disruptive boundaries. With 44 percent of CEOs globally citing growth (50 percent), closely followed by chief strategy “disruptive growth” as being very important to their officers (49 percent) and chief sales officers (38 percent). overall growth strategy, and half (50 The majority of CMOs (96 percent) percent) looking to chief marketing also recognize the importance of dis- officers to drive the disruptive growth ruptive growth to revenue potential, agenda, CMOs could presume they and another 75 percent believe they are best suited to drive the disruptive have a great deal of control over the growth agenda. However, according disruptive growth levers in their com- to recent research, it’s not necessarily pany. But many CMOs are not cur- theirs for the taking. The C-level race rently in a position to drive disruptive to becoming the chief growth officer growth due to mind-set and time. has begun. Only 30 percent of CMOs believe As front office functions continue to converge and that they are cutting-edge marketing innovators, and a little more C-suite leaders enter the mix—from chief sales over a third (37 percent) of their time is currently spent officers to chief digital officers, chief experience officers on innovation. Sixty percent spend the majority of their to chief strategy officers—CEOs have given the entire time on traditional marketing initiatives, such as maintain- C-suite some level of responsibility for disruptive growth, ing brand image and improving customer experience and yet no one is fully accountable. Today, 90 percent of com- loyalty. While evidently important, over half (54 percent) panies are in this position, with three or more C-suite feel that a large portion of their marketing budget is being leaders “responsible” for disruptive growth. wasted and not delivering the results the business expects. Yet, though it may not be explicitly said in everyday inter- CMOs can take a greater role by actively driving the actions, more than a third (37 percent) of CEOs say that disruptive growth agenda and generating new value for CMOs are first on the firing line if growth targets are not the business. Such initiatives include developing ecosys- met. Despite diluted accountability throughout tems with nontraditional players, launching platforms the C-suite, our research highlights that CMOs that elevate current products into expanded service MORE THAN A THIRD are clearly in the hot seat, but the majority may models for customers, and increasing revenue through OF CEOS SAY THAT not know it. next-generation connected data monetization—all of CMOS ARE FIRST ON Given that CMOs fill a key role in the end- which CMOs are well positioned to do. THE FIRING LINE IF to-end customer experience and typically have GROWTH TARGETS control of many of the digital levers that drive BECOMING A DISRUPTIVE GROWTH CHANGE AGENT ARE NOT MET. disruptive growth, CMOs have a huge oppor- Never has there been a better time for CMOs to reposi- tunity to actively drive the disruptive growth tion themselves by taking control of the disruptive growth and be rewarded for it. But many traditional agenda. Such initiatives are often the most creative, have leaders, like the chief sales officer and the “newer” C-level the biggest revenue potential, and command strong lead- roles, such as chief data officer, chief experience officer, ership. CMOs are well positioned to do so due to their and chief digital officer, could be held equally account- experience as brand guardians, which will help enable able. It’s imperative that CMOs with a growth mind-set them to intuitively navigate new opportunities internally step up to lead as the chief growth officer—and become and externally and identify new areas of growth.

6 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com Tipping Point

Here’s how CMOs can reach their potential and move defending their organization against new competitors into a disruptive growth role: that have not traditionally been part of their industry is Open the door. The executive who can best articulate a priority. Organizations can avoid being disrupted, but a disruptive growth strategy will be the de facto “chief first they have to be able to see where the disruption will growth officer.” As many companies look to create this come from. position, the CMO should be the one to step forward to Enter a new market. Only 30 percent of CMOs say create the platforms that will catapult his company for- their organization is moving into a different industry ward into new business opportunities. outside their traditional one. Organizations that want to Make priorities disruptive. While traditional market- get ahead need to diversify their offerings and appeal to ing activities continue to be important, more focus can be new audiences. CMOs have the opportunity to guide that afforded to driving disruptive growth initiatives that pres- process and identify the best fit. ent higher revenue growth potential. Initiatives include CMOs are now at an inflection point. They have the launching new business models, developing new partner- clear opportunity to step up to the role of chief growth ships, and increasing revenues from data monetization. officer. So far, most have missed the opportunity, result- Accept clear responsibility for disruptive growth. ing in other C-level executives moving to the front of Establish an “Office of Disruptive Growth.” Marketing the line for the role. Yes, the position is still ripe for the then becomes the epicenter of disruptive growth that taking, but opportunities such as this one do have a shelf moves the organization to own a greater share of each life. With swift, sure action, CMOs can capitalize on their customer, as well as fostering new customers. window of opportunity. Pay more attention to the evolving competitor landscape. Who your competitors were yesterday are not who Robert Wollan is senior managing director of advanced customer strategy they are today. Only 43 percent of CMOs believe that at Accenture Strategy.

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Marketers and brands are eager to cash in on the content marketing craze, but as EContent’s Theresa Cramer points out, relatively few firms are doing it well. In fact, while a recent study shows that 90% of B2C marketers now have content marketing programs, just 34% rank their efforts to date as effective. In this book, Cramer’s savvy guidance—drawn largely from incisive profiles and interviews with successful content marketers—demystifies the discipline and presents tactics and strategies that are working today. Cramer offers definitions and background, highlights minefields and misfires, and describes exciting new roles and opportunities for marketers, publishers, and journalists.

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www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 7 Small Biz Buzz By Brent Leary Are Chatbots and Recurring Revenue the Future of Business? One conference, two big statements

ANY of the 2016 conferences caused me should move toward recurring revenue models did the to think, reevaluate positions, and seek fur- same on the business side. While the subscription econ- ther knowledge on subjects such as machine omy is not new, I was struck by Halligan’s reasoning that learning and artificial intelligence, to name subscription models force you to think in terms of con- Mtwo. But HubSpot’s Inbound conference, my last one of the stantly adding value to customers by creating better experi- year, might have caused me to react to what I heard more ences and services, as opposed to the more traditional idea than any other. In fact, I can boil it down to two of focusing on ways to extract value from them. statements, one each from HubSpot’s cofound- This switch in philosophy helps companies ers, Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan. stay aligned with customer needs and expec- 1. Chatbots are the most important tations as they evolve over time. You replace technological development in the past two the short-term gains from value-extraction decades. Considering we’ve seen the rise of activities with steadier, longer-term gains the iPhone, the iPad, Amazon Web Services, derived from deeper relationships, including and cloud computing in general just in the past decade, lower customer acquisition costs due to higher referrals no other statement surprised me as much as Dharmesh and more upsell/cross-sell opportunities coming from Shah’s prediction about chatbots and their potential sig- longer customer lifetimes. nificance. So when I asked him later if I had heard him correctly, he said, “Absolutely. Chatbots are the manifes- SAYING THE SAME THING, BUT IN DIFFERENT WAYS tation, but the underlying trend that’s the biggest thing In a sense, both Shah and Halligan are saying the same thing. we’ve seen in two decades is conversational interfaces. With chatbots and other conversational UIs, Shah believes That’s what a chatbot essentially is. It’s allowing you to companies can remove friction, provide better interaction get around the software using either text or voice.” experiences, and have a deeper understanding of what cus- Speech-to-text technology’s rapidly accelerating speed tomers and prospects are looking for. Not only do these and accuracy are enabling users to communicate with their technologies provide improved and more efficient interac- devices in more direct, natural terms. They don’t have to tions, they allow us to scale up and handle more interactions. translate the thoughts in their head into keyboard strokes; Is this enough to make chatbots the most significant they just say the words. And because of the rise of conver- technology in decades? I have no idea. I think there’s steep sational user interfaces (UIs), companies have a chance to competition for that title. But these UIs could set the stage understand what customers need in a way they haven’t been for potentially knowing more about customer behaviors, able to before, Shah says. However, while speech might needs, and expectations than ever before. And if they ful- end up being the most efficient interface for bots, fill that potential, bots should at least be on the short list. phones, and devices like the Amazon Echo, the most Recurring revenue business models are also about “THE BIGGEST effective output might be visual, to allow humans to staying connected with customers in a way that provides THING WE’VE SEEN comprehend results more expediently. ongoing value to them, and more long-term revenue IN TWO DECADES IS It’s this environment that has Shah and Hub- opportunities for you. And by optimizing your business CONVERSATIONAL Spot betting that companies will be building around consistent, recurring revenue streams, you’re INTERFACES.” chatbots in the future the way they are building also creating more ongoing interaction opportunities to websites today—bots won’t replace websites, but improve engagement. they will be used to complement them, with bots Whether or not chatbots live up to Shah’s lofty expec- also being created to live in messaging apps and voice-acti- tations, combining new engagement technologies with vated devices, all toward the goal of improving interaction modern business models should help drive better, deeper experiences with customers and prospects and building customer relationships going forward. There should be longer, deeper relationships. little disagreement on that. 2. Recurring revenue business models are becoming Brent Leary is cofounder of CRM Essentials, an Atlanta-based advisory firm mandatory. While Shah’s bot talk grabbed my attention on focused on small and midsize businesses. He is also the author of Barack the technology front, Halligan’s statement that companies 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Businesses.

8 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com Convergys Best Practices Series PAGE 10 FROM BIG DATA TO SMART DATA IN 2017 2017 Verint® PAGE 12 CUSTOMER SERVICE IN 2017 Yes, it’s going digital—but MEGATRENDS with a few interesting twists CRM Predictions from Conga Top Industry Experts PAGE 13 FOUR CRM LIFE HACKS TO CREATE A PAINLESS CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Each year we ask industry experts to peer into the future and make their best predictions about what will be the overarching trends in CRM over the ensuing 12 months. If our contributors are on target, 2017 will be heavily focused on increasing efficiencies in customer service. Smart data, the continued expansion of digital customer experiences, and the streamlining of customer journeys are all mentioned in the following special preview. If our predictors are correct, it seems that 2017 will be a year of evolution versus revolution in the world of CRM. Deeper data-based insights, better digital experiences with human options for more complex interactions, and friction-free customer journeys—in other words, better blocking and tackling. Of course, predicted outcomes may not materialize as planned, if 2016’s political surprises are any indication. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning seem to be topics that are entering into the CRM conversation, but they probably won’t be ready to become operational game changers in 2017. Look to 2018 for that trend to pop.

Bob Fernekees VP/Group Publisher, CRM Media Information Today, Inc. Bob Fernekees, Group Publisher 212-251-0608 x13 [email protected] SILVER SPONSOR SPONSORS Adrienne Snyder, Eastern/Midwest Account Director 201-327-2773 [email protected]

201 East Fourth St. Denver, Seattle, Orlando, 175 Broadhollow Rd. Cincinnati, OH 45202-4206 London, Sydney Suite 100 Dennis Sullivan, 800-344-3000 (303) 465-1616 Melville, NY 11747 Western Account Director www.convergys.com/analytics www.getconga.com 1-800-4VERINT 203-445-9178 www.verint.com [email protected]

Produced by: CRM Media WP10 January 2017 | CRM Magazine Sponsored Content

From Big Data to Smart Data in 2017

Big data has been a buzzword for years. direct feedback such as an open-ended In 2017, we will see more correlation The volume of intelligence continues to survey, or indirectly via a social media of intelligence within and across channels expand, as organizations seek new ways to post or a chat session with an agent. The of communication. This is critical for service their customers and outduel their sources for indirect data are diverse. Ease customer experience optimization, competition. However, it’s no longer just of use and access are encouraging all given the negative impact customer about the volume of data or scalability sorts of feedback. channel-hopping has on compounding of the infrastructure. Rather, it’s how performance metrics. For example, a efficiently and effectively you can separate The reason unstructured data becomes recent study in our syndicated research the “wheat from the chaff” to uncover the even more of a Smart Data driver in series found that well over half of most useful nuggets of detail. It’s really 2017 are due to the availability of tools customers go straight to the call center about “Smart Data”. and maturation of processes that make after a failed digital service attempt. unstructured data more easily usable. Text Perhaps more sobering is that 53% of We predict that 2017 will be the year analytics combined with practices that those callers said a negative experience when Smart Data becomes a reality for fine-tune sentiment analysis provide a within the digital channel carried through many organizations particularly as it’s solid foundation for mining intelligence. as ‘baggage’ once they reached a call applied to customer experience (CX) It’s no long a matter of simply counting center agent – meaning failed upstream issues. But what does this mean? There specific words or phrases. Data science activities negatively impacted contact are 3 important drivers in 2017 that will combined with text mining automation center perceptions. This puts an agent shape the meaning of Smart Data. now deliver a powerful 1-2 punch for at a disadvantage before the interaction efficiently uncovering insights from even begins. 1. UNSTRUCTURED DATA sources previously considered too Information derived from sources such difficult to touch. The ability to proactively identify as emails, chat sessions, open-ended and track these types of cross-channel survey feedback, social media and other It’s important to note that it’s not interactions will gain ground in 2017 sources of freeform interactions define just about the tools. You also need to due to enhanced resources within CRM unstructured data. It’s been speculated be able to customize analysis along with systems that successfully aggregate data that anywhere between 80% to 90% the automation to derive insight from across multiple interaction touchpoints. of enterprise data can be considered unstructured data. Capable analytics Additionally, as more organizations unstructured. vendors can provide this support, realize the value of implementing a enabling you to acquire intelligence that comprehensive journey- and channel- Historically, unstructured data has is specifically for your requirements. based Voice of the Customer (VOC) been difficult to deal with. It’s does not This can be an easier path than adding program, these systems will identify easily conform to a predetermined CRM qualified and expert resources to your upstream issues currently invisible to format- the realm of names, addresses internal teams as these resources can be process owners and management. For and other data that adheres to at least high-end investments on any bottom line. example, some innovative programs in some semblance of structure. According our practice include centralized views to Forrester, enterprises leverage about 2. OMNICHANNEL CORRELATION of in-person field service technicians, 35% of their structured data for insights Every year for the past decade has store associates, .COM and mobile app and decision-making, but only 25% of seemed to be declared the “year of interactions to finally gain a 360-degree their unstructured enterprise data. So multichannel communication.” There’s view of end-to-end lifecycle journeys. why face the unstructured data challenge certainly good reason for that type of when there’s plenty of structured data to prognostication, given the prevalence Another omnichannel data correlation work with? of Smart Phones, increased use of resource is Customer Journey Mapping. text/chat and all of the other forms of A Customer Journey Map holistically The answer is that unstructured data communication. However, in many cases tracks the steps required by your customer is most likely the best source for context the data that resides within each of these to accomplish a single task or group and sentiment. It can be acquired from channels still remains mostly siloed. of tasks. Customer Journey maps can Sponsored Content CRM Magazine | January 2017 WP11

be particularly insightful in identifying a supported top-down and bottom-up great detail to determine where the root cause of a persistent customer culture shift that places CX at the center support gaps exist that contribute experience problem that may originate of business strategy. to high effort journeys. from issues such as incorrect information on a website, internal miscommunication These broader perspectives will enable As a result, Smart Data shared between departments or lack of agent more effective linkage analysis to uncover throughout an organization helps to awareness of a new marketing promotion. the root causes for failures as well as for create a collective set of action items those contributing to success. Often that everyone owns, and everyone is 3. DATA DISTRIBUTION times, upstream or process opportunities accountable for. Recommendations may The data’s not ‘smart’ if it’s not in may be the culprit behind a negative issue. include minor process changes or major the hands of someone who can make For example, maybe there was a problem investments. All will be supported by a difference. In 2017, you will see the with the website, a challenge logging data-driven evidence. insights derived from unstructured into an online account or a chronic issue data and correlated between channels with IVR authentication. Qualitative Smart Data for organizations of all distributed more consistently and widely and quantitative data presented to a sizes for 2017 means intelligence for within organizations. What makes this broader audience across process areas better decision making. It ranges from type of data, especially when focused on will encourage collaboration and ensure agents who know that the incoming caller customer experience, more actionable? hotspots are identified early. has just failed to log onto their website. As a result, they are immediately prepared It’s more about the combination of Although this information is valuable ... to assist with fewer questions and perhaps smart visualization tools and expert it simply points you in the right direction. an offer. It includes the executive suite people applying smart techniques for The next step is actioning against insights. where priority for investment is always an distilling and presenting insight that will Visibility into what the data presents will issue. Any data evidence that provides empower employees to act with increased contribute to an action plan targeted to proof for their decision making is intelligence. It also will assist senior address issues that can include: welcome. It also enables the rest of the management in supporting investment organization to become more of an active decisions based on empirical evidence • Process: Customer experience customer experience ecosystem, with data rather than anecdotal instincts. handling processes should be from all channels shared for more reviewed across touch points and effective insight to action. This will be increasingly accomplished journeys to identify gaps creating via the presentation of data tuned for unnecessary customer effort, channel specific audiences within a business. For jumping, repeat contacts, etc. example, real-time customer feedback data will be aggregated and perhaps • Policy: Business policies and ABOUT CONVERGYS ANALYTICS charted for an executive overview. operating standards should be Convergys Analytics optimizes Detailed drill-down from the same studied to determine where and engagement, enthusiasm and loyalty data will alternatively be delivered to how internal guidelines are creating for your brand with CX insight to action the contact center for agent coaching. barriers for customers. customer experience management Digital dashboards customized for software and services. Over 40 years specific departments and roles for • Metrics: Employee performance of CX experience contribute to Voice presenting CX data will become more metrics should be evaluated to of the Customer programs, Customer prevalent. The difference from previous understand their impact and Journey Mapping and contact center years is that the data is shared more influence on sub-par customer performance enhancements to efficiently widely throughout the organization, with outcomes. improve your customer’s satisfaction for views that are tuned for easy digestibility bottom-line results. and quick action. And no data • Channel: Channel strengths and presentation is worth creating without weakness should be examined in www.convergys.com/analytics WP12 January 2017 | CRM Magazine Sponsored Content

Customer Service in 2017 Yes, it’s going digital—but with a few interesting twists

If you’re in the customer service service situation business, you’re probably now offering and the demand for your customers a variety of service options human interaction. For that were unthinkable even a decade example, to investigate ago. Smartphones and the mobile web products or services, have profoundly impacted the service web self-service was ecosystem, helping you reach customers the most popular and audience segments never thought channel. To give possible. Customers can even resolve feedback, most opted service problems for themselves, leading to send an email. To many organizations to implement more change account details, cost-effective solutions and even automate participants indicated elements of service. they are happy to manage their accounts But what do customers really want? A themselves. But when recent study commissioned by Verint in asking questions conjunction with Opinium Research, and about bills, seeking research and advisory firm IDC, set out to technical assistance, answer this question by polling more than registering a complaint 24,000 consumers and businesses across 12 or seeking a refund, countries. More specifically, it examined consumers in the study how organizations’ investments match preferred to phone customer expectations—and the results their service providers. were surprising. And when it comes to closing accounts, EXAMINING CUSTOMER PREFERENCES study participants When given the choice of how to interact prefer face-to-face with organizations, study participants interactions in a store selected picking up the phone or going or branch. in store as the most popular options— however, they like to be given the ability to EVALUATING manage their accounts online. When asked OBSTACLES TO which communication channels they prefer DIGITAL ADOPTION organizations to offer, the most common So what’s holding responses were in store, online (for account digital back? The study indicated that overall in striking the right balance in improving management) and the phone. customer experiences need to improve before the digital experience, while incorporating more consumers fully embrace the digital human elements. These surprisingly old-school responses journey with organizations. When asked, contrast sharply with the channels about two-thirds of participants believe To learn more about this “Digital businesses indicated as their planned that customer service online and via mobile Tipping Point” research and to access investment areas. In fact, the associated devices should be faster, more intuitive and a copy of the full report, visit study of 1,000 businesses ranked live chat better able to serve their needs. verint.com/digital-tipping-point. and mobile apps as the highest priorities. Businesses also reported they are investing PLANNING CUSTOMER SERVICE least in traditional channels (branch and IN THE YEAR AHEAD phone contact), demonstrating a desire to Consumers want and expect the human lead customers to a digital experience. element of customer service to remain in Contact Us the future, as evidenced by the research. 1-800-4VERINT TAKING A CLOSER LOOK But there’s an increasing appetite for digital Blog.verint.com When the study delved into specific services, particularly as the spending power verint.com/digital-tipping-point scenarios, it revealed a clear relationship of Millennials and younger generations between the complexity of the customer continues to grow. The challenge will lie © 2016 Verint Systems Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Sponsored Content CRM Magazine | January 2017 WP13

Four CRM Life Hacks to Create a Painless Customer Journey

In nearly every market, today’s customers weeks to include their decisions in the and contract management, organizations expect a seamless relationship with their files, leading to a backlog of thousands need solutions that will align neatly and sales representative. They expect to dictate of applicants. Juggling student essays, seamlessly with their own brand’s identity. how you can communicate with each letters of recommendation, test scores Presentation goes a long way, but it is other, through what channels and when. and transcripts had created a tangled frequently overlooked in the push to However, when you take into consideration mess for the school’s recruiters, and long automate processes. how many relationships each sales rep turnaround times on admission-based typically manages, this requires more time decisions was hurting enrollment numbers. In a sense, presenting the exact brand and resources than any one person can experience you want is as important as have. Which is why many organizations are By streamlining records during the getting a signature on a new contract. starting to automate many tasks involved admissions process – condensing multiple Providing an easy way to create a seamless in their ongoing customer management. disparate documents and processes into and elegant experience that is consistent However, since this is a relatively new a single PDF generated from within with a brand’s identity will make your phenomenon, there isn’t always clarity on Salesforce – the university was able to customers lives easier. which aspects should be prioritized for the speed up its decision-making timeframes ultimate customer satisfaction. and strengthen relationships with students 4. INSTITUTE ANNUAL AUTO RENEWALS as they moved through the university. Organizations need to give sales reps Conga works with the world’s top the tools to make their contract renewal brands and recommends focusing on the 2. FORTIFY DATA SECURITY process as seamless and painless as following four key areas to provide your AND COMPLIANCE possible. Sales teams can spend hours customers with a flexible, streamlined Data security has become a critical creating each annual subscription renewal and highly-personalized process for C-suite issue that executives dread within Salesforce, which is time that could doing business. discussing with the board. This is a critical be better spent elsewhere. step to ensuring the vitality of not just 1. IMPROVE SPEED OF ENGAGEMENT your own business but also your customers’ By automating that process, those sales Organizations should think of processes business, particularly in industries like reps can easily identify all their accounts like they would think of an assembly finance and healthcare where regulatory coming up for renewal, then quickly line. Research from the Aberdeen Group safeguards around sensitive data can be generate and send out custom renewal found that companies who have moved timely to meet and costly to cross. In invoices. This will have massive effects on to automate proposal, quote and contract today’s complex and fast-paced business the entire lifecycle of your customers. processes save more than 2 hours on landscape, a major security or compliance average on each document, and deliver failure can lead to huge financial losses or As a service or sales rep, your customers more than double the number of proposals even bankruptcy. expect doing business with you to be easy. and/or quotes to customers and prospects But making things easier for them has per sales rep, per month. But rather than scrambling to meet new historically made managing the regulations and reactively protect data relationship harder for you. By following For Temple University’s Fox School from threats, organizations must embrace these four hacks, you are better equipped of Business – one of the best part-time a platform that builds those regulations to build strong, lasting relationships and MBA programs in the nation, as ranked into the process. By embracing a fully- ultimately grow revenue. by U.S. News and World Report – the baked CRM to help them meet shifting push to create an automated, paperless requirements in real-time, organizations application process helped the school’s can ensure the data security and regulatory recruiting team double enrollment within integrity of their customer base. This Kate Kirby is a content strategist and just two years. Before automating, the peace of mind will make all the difference marketer for Conga, the leading provider team had been copying and printing to your customers – and your board. of solutions for Salesforce CRM to application documents out of Salesforce, streamline sales, increase sales productivity then physically transferring them to 3. CREATE SEAMLESS PERSONALIZATION and manage the contract lifecycle. various stakeholders overseeing admission When it comes to critical CRM For more information on Conga, visit decisions. Each of them could take functionality like document generation http://www.getconga.com Forrester points out, too, that marketers have to work closely with chief information Are CMOs’ Jobs in Jeopardy? officers. “In 2017, further disappointment Research suggests that more than 30 percent of chief with agencies and a growing need for sys- marketing officers could soon be out of work tems of insight that link customer data with business data will spur the CMO to he stakes are up for chief market- says, working to identify each customer’s better cooperate with the tech management ing officers in 2017, as 30 percent needs at an exact moment in time. group,” the report reads. These leaders need Tof CEOs surveyed by Forrester Firms won’t have to throw away estab- to get marketers, technologists, and design Research indicated they would fire these lished practices or buy a host of new tools. and customer experience professionals to C-level professionals in the new year. Rather, they should leverage existing tackle emerging customer challenges to- Data from Accenture Strategy uncovered practices and tools in original ways and gether. Central to such efforts will be invest- a similar trend, with 37 percent of CEOs incorporate the three Hs—humanism, ments in contextual marketing software. saying their CMOs are “first on the firing helpfulness, and handiness. One company that has successfully line if growth targets are not met,” writes For companies to be more human, brought it all together, says VanBoskirk, Robert Wollan, senior managing director helpful, and handy, marketers will have is sports apparel manufacturer Under Ar- at Accenture Strategy, in this month’s The to blend the art and science of their roles. mour. It has invested millions in building a Tipping Point (page 6). “Neither the high-energy creative CMO connected ecosystem of smart devices, on- A major reason, according to Shar Van- nor the data wonk will be enough to carry line communities, customized e-commerce Boskirk, a Forrester Research vice presi- marketing functions and busi- stores, and mobile apps, all fo- dent and principal analyst serving CMOs, ness strategy into the age of the Companies need cused on the brand promise of is that businesses are in a “post-digital customer,” Forrester’s report to attract people making athletes better. “Instead era” in which customers don’t think of states. They’ll have to follow who combine of just spending to promote digital experiences as separate from phys- the lead of companies like the products or to communicate a ical ones. Amid political and institutional Gap and Macy’s, which have marketing, brand promise, Under Armour uncertainty, customers value trustworthi- combined digital fluency with technology, and is actually creating utilities that ness and positivity from the entities with business acumen. sales smarts. really do make athletes better,” which they interact. In such a climate, the CMOs who want to outlast she says. “Its connected ecosys- onus of demonstrating company prom- the average tenure of 44 months will tem helps athletes train, plan meals, connect ises often falls on marketing leaders. also have to step up training initiatives with other runners, replace faulty equip- Unfortunately, many struggle to keep and invest in people, not just processes. ment, and find equipment that suits their up, still thinking of their function as According to the research, staffing is a body types, fitness goals, even fitness levels.” maximizing the reach, frequency, and major problem; many firms fail to build On the B2B side, office products retailer exposures of promotions, VanBoskirk effective teams. In fact, 33 percent of Staples has developed its “Easy System” to says. In turn, they overwhelm their cus- marketing leaders cited a lack of talent help office managers restock supply closets. tomers with too much contact, she adds. as a major challenge. “The system allows anyone with permis- Further, marketers have long treated Yuping Liu-Thompkins, a professor sion to order products through an app, an digital as a “bolt-on” function and focused and marketing department chair at Old easy button, email, text message, and voice more on click-through rates or pitching Dominion University, agrees, noting commands,” VanBoskirk says. “It aggre- new products than connecting with cus- many companies struggle to find people gates orders so the office manager doesn’t tomers holistically, VanBoskirk contends. with marketing, technology, and sales over-order, and it is self-learning so that But “we expect that in 2017, the pres- backgrounds who can serve as liaisons it auto-replenishes with preferred brands. sures of post-digital customers will force and “bring the different pieces together.” This is also all in the name of demonstrat- CMOs to begin to develop a post-digital Indeed, employees who are “uniquely ing the Staples brand promise: We make it mind-set themselves,” she says. versed in all three areas—maybe not an easy to make more happen.” Marketers will try to create more “one- expert on all three, but versed in them”— Marketers would be well advised to to-moment experiences,” VanBoskirk are highly sought after, she says. follow suit. —Oren Smilansky

14 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com the names from the original Big List have Companies Need to Get Serious spun off to include separate forums for different product lines, support needs, or customer personas, for instance. About Social Communities The decision to create a federated com- With customer community pages, companies must munity model or to have multiple stand- demonstrate an ongoing commitment alone communities under the same brand is a strategic one, with no right or wrong 2B organizations can gain com- approach, DiMauro says. “However, firms petitive advantage from dedicated that do choose to create a federated com- Binvestments in customer-facing munity that overlays all communities fre- community web pages, finds Leader Net- quently achieve greater reach, efficiencies, works, a digital strategy and research firm. [and] scalability,” and lower costs. They According to Vanessa DiMauro, CEO also tend to strengthen their best practices of Leader Networks, company-managed universally, provided they create a com- online forums have become the “lifeblood munity center of excellence to orchestrate of...many firms’ strategic agendas” and, internal operations for the various groups. more often than not, are “the customer’s A recent trend is for companies to serve first point of entry in the buyers’ journey.” as corporate sponsors for independently In 2011, before such information was run communities. The benefit is that cost widely available, the research firm put Members “share information with each and risk are lower. Since they don’t con- together its Big List of B2B Online Cus- other and offer ongoing peer-to-peer sup- trol the community, though, the returns tomer Communities and in the five years port,” DiMauro says. also tend to be lower, DiMauro says. since has examined the trends that have “Communities that invest in regularly Whatever the approach, companies emerged since the list first went viral. co-creating, enabling, or culling mem- considering investments in communities In 2016, 40 percent of the 71 com- ber-created content tend to have a more should get serious about them, because munities on the original Big List are still engaged membership base, are clearly neglecting them can result in serious “active and thriving,” says DiMauro. An more connected to their customers, and, damage to brand reputation. Leader “active and thriving community,” she quite frankly, are better listeners, which Networks has found that 35 percent of holds, “is one that is visible, well used acts as table stakes for competitive advan- communities are supported and have the and valued by members, clearly sup- tage,” DiMauro says. “The firm that lis- appropriate elements in place (i.e. con- ported by the sponsoring organization, tens best and responds well often wins tent, information, and discussions), but and valued strategically.” the race with better products and services are not being properly nurtured. To judge if a digital destination is up that come faster to market with stronger Additionally, 10 percent of the online to par, Leader Networks con- market uptake than those who communities listed are no longer being siders the degree to which “The firm that innovate in isolation.” managed carefully or updated on a reg- user profiles have been com- Indeed, groups that have ular basis. This means that they feature pleted; the ease with which listens best and been less successful have unanswered questions, spam, old con- prospective members can responds well begun to place added focus tent, and even visible complaints from find these pages; the fre- often wins the on gathering more user-gen- frustrated users. quency with which manag- race with better erated content, partly because To prevent abandonment, DiMauro ers interact and reach out to pages can serve as live focus recommends acting, and acting fast. members; the rates of active products and groups and yield insights for “Either invest in reinvigorating your participation; and the growth services.” improvement. And consider- community or develop a strategic take- in community size. ing the heavy price tag of most down plan,” she says. To prevent failure, Since 2011, the strongest performers B2B social media measurement solutions, companies should invest in one to three have grown engagement and membership communities can assist with customer dedicated community facilitators, keep rates. They have also included discussions retention and satisfaction, which “are par- an active editorial calendar, and publish facilitated by professional community amount to success,” DiMauro also notes. unique content on a regular basis. Most managers and regularly featured new con- In many cases, high-performing com- importantly, they should have an active, tent. These outfits tend to feature content munities have also led to the creation of programmatic on-boarding and customer submitted by members themselves rather affiliated communities under the same life cycle program that “keeps the fires lit,” than by their marketing departments. company umbrella. Eleven percent of DiMauro says. —Oren Smilansky www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 15 with minimal personalization offer digital experiences and campaigns based solely on expert judgment and sim- plistic business rules, while selective personalization encompasses digital experiences and campaigns based on data-driven testing, recommendations, and audience targeting. The three more advanced stages are managed personalization, omnichannel personalization, and enterprise digital agility. Managed personalization involves adopting an operating model for managing processes, governance, and platform instrumentation that supports digital experiences and campaigns. Omnichannel personalization involves centralized decision management to Consumers Prefer Personalization; craft contextualized, personalized, and seamless customer experiences across all channels. Finally, enterprise digital Businesses Can’t Deliver agility occurs when companies use all Personalized product offerings and services translate to higher sales, channels to manage key performance but companies are still in the early stages, according to Accenture indicators, such as margins, revenue, and excess inventory. ffering personalized experiences of their purchase history. Moreover, 75 “As we move to more digital experi- to customers will translate to percent said that they would be more ences...companies can learn much faster Ohigher sales, but businesses likely to purchase from retailers that than they’ve ever learned before,” says continue to have a hard time with per- provide any of these three services. Jeriad Zoghby, global personalization sonalization, according to research from Yet despite consumer enthusiasm for lead at Accenture Interactive. Zoghby Accenture. Consumers, the research personalization, many companies are adds that the digital world makes it eas- found, still encounter irrelevant rec- struggling to deliver the experiences ier for businesses to test different lay- ommendations and an overwhelming consumers want. A full 39 percent of outs, creative, and other materials and number of product options when visit- consumers said they have left a busi- to run data-driven experimentation. ing retailers’ websites. ness’s website and made a purchase else- Video streaming services such as Net- Consumers have a positive attitude where because they were overwhelmed flix and Hulu are leading the way in per- toward personalized product offerings by the number of options presented. sonalization, according to Accenture’s and services, according to an Accenture The research also found that busi- study, which found that 66 percent of survey of more than 1,500 consumers nesses are struggling to make their rec- consumers think these services use their across the United States ommendations relevant, data effectively to recommend products and United Kingdom. In With digital experiences, with just 50 percent of and videos they might like. Moreover, fact, 56 percent of con- “companies can learn consumers reporting that the success of these platforms exemplifies sumers said they would they have ever purchased the importance of using customer data be more likely to shop much faster than they’ve an item recommended to develop tailored experiences. With 70 in-store and online at ever learned before.” to them. percent of consumers reporting that they retailers that recognize Many companies are are generally comfortable with retailers, them by name; 58 percent said they still in the experimental stages of per- news sites, streaming services, and ser- would be more likely to make purchases sonalization, which would explain their vice providers collecting their personal when retailers recommend products to struggles. Accenture posits a five-stage data—as long as they maintain transpar- them based on their past purchases or personalization maturity model, with ency about how they use it—companies preferences; and 65 percent said they most companies falling into the first two will have a wealth of information upon would be more likely to shop in-store stages—minimal personalization and which to draw for their personalization and online at retailers that keep records selective personalization. Companies strategies. —Sam Del Rowe

16 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com 10.3 percent compound annual growth rate. As broadband access continues to improve, streaming and sharing high-quality content will become easier. The second area is local search on desktop devices, which is expected to increase at a 5.7 percent compound annual growth rate. Mobile devices will continue to take search dollars from desktop devices, the report notes, but large players such as Google will continue to succeed in that area. The third area, email, is expected to register a 4.7 percent compound annual growth rate, continuing to be an essential tool for marketers as consumers opt in to more lists delivered by their favor- ite companies. “The ability to really target the message to potential buyers that may be located within a geographic distance or have expressed interest through their online searches or websites they go to—that’s a Local Ad Revenue Is real benefit for advertisers who want to really have a more successful advertising mix,” Fratrik says. “The targeting aspects Expected to Increase of the digital advertising platforms provide the impetus for the growth.” BIA/Kelsey predicts growth, especially for online Nevertheless, analog advertising is still and digital advertising revenue expected to play a role in 2017. Direct mail is projected to account for nearly a otal local advertising revenue in advertising mix, but certainly not to quarter of local advertising revenue, at the United States is expected to the extent that it once was,” says Mark 24.9 percent, indicating that marketers Tgrow moderately, from $145.2 Fratrik, senior vice president and chief do not intend to completely abandon billion in 2016 to $148.2 billion this year, economist at BIA/Kelsey. traditional advertising avenues in 2017. with the strongest increase in online and Mobile advertising in particular is While print is declining quickly, other digital advertising, according to research gaining strength. According to Fratrik, media are not declining as fast, Fratrik from BIA/Kelsey. it is showing double-digit increases each points out. “Direct mail still is being While the total ad revenue increase year, and the report projects utilized by a large percent- represents a growth rate of 2.4 percent that mobile advertising will Analog advertising age of advertisers, and that and jumps to 3.9 percent when political account for 10.8 percent of will still play a role includes catalogs as well,” he advertising is excluded, online and dig- all local advertising revenue says. “You have companies ital advertising will surge 13.5 percent, in 2017. This figure compares in 2017, especially that will use a catalog to show growing from $44.2 billion in 2016 to favorably with the projec- direct mail. the different colors that are $50.2 billion in 2017. tions for a number of other available for a certain dress, In contrast, traditional advertising outlets, with print newspapers expected or different types of cars, whereas online revenue, such as print and broadcast, to account for 8.3 percent of the local may be more about what’s available at a will see a decrease of 2.4 percent, going advertising revenue pie, and magazines particular store at a specific price.” from $101.1 billion in 2016 to $98.6 bil- accounting for just 1.1 percent. Successful advertising, Fratrik says, is lion in 2017. The report identifies three key areas of about finding the right balance. “It’s an “People are still using direct mail, growth in the online and digital adver- advertising mix; successful companies local magazines, and newspapers, even tising space. The first of these is desk- are utilizing different media for different the print edition [as] part of their top display, which is expected to have a purposes.” —Sam Del Rowe www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 17 element in his keynote. When discussing search engine optimization, he told the audience that “to win at SEO, you need to be really good at HEO— human enjoyment optimization. Don’t solve for the search engines; solve for the humans.” Shah also identified a rise in audio content and a shift away from textual content, advising the audience that “to get the most people to enjoy the content that you’re investing in, every blog post you publish should automatically be converted to audio.” According to Shah, technology that can “narrate textual content in a way that’s indistinguishable from a human narrator” will be available “very soon.” ON THE SCENE: HUBSPOT’S INBOUND 2016 Businesses, he added, would do well to take advantage of it. The new products HubSpot introduced B2B Marketing Needs a at the conference also aim to provide a more human-centric approach, according to Christopher O’Donnell, HubSpot’s vice Human-Focused Approach president of product. The HubSpot Visual Marketing needs to be more personalized in the new Workflow Editor serves as a virtual white- digital environment, HubSpot speakers contend board for users to lay out marketing campaigns, something O’Donnell described as shering in what HubSpot calls marketers.” Humans, he said, “live in “power delivered in a very simple vehicle.” a new era of “B2H” marketing, Snapchat, [and] they live in Instagram.” HubSpot also introduced a number Uwith the H standing for humans, Additionally, Halligan offered four of reporting enhancements. “We have company cofounders Brian Halligan and pieces of advice for marketers. Citing a rebuilt the entire engine of reporting Dharmesh Shah urged attendees at Hub- rise in the consumption of video content, across marketing, CRM, and sales,” Spot’s Inbound conference in Boston in he told the audience to “stop looking for O’Donnell said. “It’s simpler visually, but early November to connect with con- that blogger, [and] start looking for that a lot more powerful…a deep rethinking sumers in a personalized way while still videographer,” adding that and polish of reporting across maintaining a human touch. “fifty percent of your con- “If you’re not the entire product line.” This is particularly true when market- tent next year shouldn’t be marketing on social HubSpot’s new mobile ing on social media channels—particu- text. It should be video.” media, you might as app is similarly stream- larly Facebook and its related platforms, He also suggested that lined: “We’ve taken the said Halligan, HubSpot’s CEO, noting marketing teams look for well be marketing best of what you have used that “if you’re not marketing on social creative ways to repurpose inside a trash can.” in the marketing iOS app, media, you might as well be marketing content, using the example the sales one, and the CRM inside a trash can.” of a blog post that can be linked to via one, [and] we’ve combined them, sim- “Your prospects live inside of [Face- Twitter or illustrated with a picture on plified those use cases that are really book CEO Mark] Zuckerberg’s world Instagram. Lastly, he stressed automat- valuable to you, made it much more ele- for a couple of hours a day—between ing the buying process, saying that “users gant, and put the growth stack in your Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and are expecting you to automate their pro- pocket,” O’Donnell explained. “Most WhatsApp,” Halligan said. cesses. Users have automation all over folks want to build an enterprise-grade Feeding off the B2H theme, Halligan their lives, [and] they want a self-service product, an enterprise-grade experi- emphasized the personalized nature of experience with your company.” ence. For us, that’s not good enough. social media sites, telling the audience, Shah, HubSpot’s chief technology We want to deliver a consumer-grade “You’re not B2B marketers; you’re B2H officer, similarly emphasized the human experience.” —Sam Del Rowe

18 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com REQUIRED READING Harnessing The 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader Like it or not, marketing leaders must prove their value

he chief marketing officer is no The third challenge is knowledge. A lot stranger to many of the world’s of marketers came in being the expert. All largest organizations, but the of a sudden they see themselves leading leadership aspect of this posi- teams, and those teams know way more Ttion has not yet been mastered by many than some of the senior marketers know, professionals currently holding the title, and they have to find a completely new role argue authors Thomas Barta and Patrick in figuring out how—[while] also trusting Barwise in The 12 Powers of a Marketing the [team members]—to deal with issues Leader. Associate Editor Oren Smilansky they don’t fully understand. So a lot of recently chatted with Barta, who outlined marketers are being pushed harder to prove a few steps marketers can take to gain why their work is relevant and important. backing from their CEOs. Did anything surprise you about the CRM: Why did you decide to write a findings? book about marketing leadership? One of the incredible things we found is Thomas Barta: I worked in marketing that, to achieve success as a marketer, func- for a couple of years, at Kimberly-Clark tional skills like CRM and others are quite and Kleenex, and I got increasingly frus- relevant, but the skill of navigating within the trated with the fact that marketers, at least in my companies, organization—to tell the story, to show why the future matters, to were not always heard. That was why I joined McKinsey, where mobilize people that don’t report to you, and to build leaders, not I was a partner for many years. I worked with CEOs on mar- functional eggheads—is even more important. And that’s incred- keting strategy and helped them figure out what to do with ible because most marketers don’t think their brands and companies as a whole. The discovery I made about that part of their job; they think, “I’ll “Functional skills like is that other people, outside of marketing, can be better at do my campaigns, my CRM, and people CRM are quite relevant, connecting with the top and getting their perspectives on the will understand it.” But actually getting that but the skill of table. That was an interesting insight; it wasn’t the C-suite not understanding is a bigger part of success navigating within the understanding the marketers but marketers needed to change than the functional skill. the game in companies. Are CMOS doing a good job of keep- organization is even What sort of research did you do for the book? ing up with the demands of their role? more important.” We profiled 1,200 chief marketing officers and also looked Many find it difficult. Fifty-six percent at the profiles of more than 68,000 leaders, and compared of marketers said that their careers are not going well. That marketers with the people and operations to see how they fit. shows the enormity of the issue. But there are marketers who The aim is to find ways to step up the game in companies. have now managed to be marketers on the board, basically, Ultimately, if marketers are successful, the companies will be and have made the switch. successful, because marketers typically have great insights. What are these marketers doing to get leadership right? What are some of the greatest challenges CMOs face? The ones making it happen are the ones moving to the rev- It’s sometimes hard to believe what we say, because you enue camp. Most CEOs think about strategy and how to move can look at numbers from last year, and if you talk to finance, from A to B. They think about revenue, and they think about they’re so much more credible. We almost have that credibility cost. If you, as a marketer, don’t prove that you’re part of the gap in companies. Even if we’re really good, we can’t prove that group that drives revenue in the company, you will naturally the future will happen, though we believe it will. fall into cost, even if it’s not talked about, and people will try Secondly, if you want a great customer experience (which to do little as needed in your space. They’ll cut your budget; is what many marketers look for), so many people have to they’ll try to see how they’ll do with less marketing. But the make it happen, and most of those people just don’t report marketers who can prove they’re part of the revenue camp and to marketing. can explain it are the ones who are thriving. www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 19 WP20 January 2017 | CRM Magazine Sponsored Content

5 Tips for Creating a CX Analytics Framework Making Sense of an Evolving Industry

Analytics is a hot topic in every sector, environment, you’ll need comprehensive on staff experienced in converting data with most organizations gathering huge insights across sources: intelligence into action plans? If not, you’re amounts of data in the hopes of improving not alone. There are many capable CX the customer experience (CX). Yet a • Direct Feedback – Intended input vendors available that provide assistance troubling gap remains between the CX including surveys, interviews, complaints ranging from statistical modeling and information acquired and any real action linkage analysis to working directly with taken to achieve a positive outcome. Many • Indirect Feedback – Social media, IVR/ frontline employees. companies gather customer feedback – but chat/email/agent interactions a large percentage of those firms do not 5. Prepare the organization – do the exploratory work needed to deeply • Inferred Feedback – Data from your Interestingly, this topic has been reported understand and improve CX. operations or your customer’s transactions by several industry analysts as one of the most queried. Culture is a huge component Contributing to the confusion are the And don’t ignore unstructured data. It’s of any analytics effort, especially when myriad of speech, text, and social media one of the richest sources of CX insights you’re implementing resources that software solutions available. They certainly into the “why” behind performance. When permeate the organization. It’s always provide value, but frequently amount to used for qualitative guidance, you won’t good to gain executive buy-in, but don’t one-off applications that lack a complete need more than a handful of interviews or forget the rest of the team. Anticipate some perspective. interactive chats to start gaining invaluable resistance if customer experience feedback insight. After that, you’ll need a speech- or is perceived as ammunition for criticism. Rather than plugging in a single software text-analytics solution to quantify more There are many industry reports available to and hoping for the best, leading CX robust insights. help support better customer experience as a innovators apply a comprehensive analytics primary driver for bottom-line results. approach across lifecycle stages and journey 3. Share insights broadly – Who will touchpoints. Below we offer a simple receive the CX insights you’re capturing? CX ANALYTICS – SOLUTION PROFILES checklist to help get started in developing In the recent past, CX detail typically Terms such as Customer Experience your own CX analytics framework, was siloed within individual areas like the Management (CEM), Enterprise Feedback followed by several “solution profile” contact center or marketing. Now, frontline Management (EFM), Voice of the definitions to aid in making informed portals and other technologies allow data to Customer (VOC), and Customer Journey investment decisions. be presented in real-time with web-based Mapping characterize a growing class of flexibility anywhere in your organization. software and services delivering CX value. CX ANALYTICS – A CHECKLIST Many incorporate text mining, speech To ensure you uncover the most useful So how frequently should different teams analytics, and social media monitoring CX insights with the greatest actionability, get results? Some departments will need along with other capabilities. Some also here’s a quick list of five simple steps: real-time updates, especially those needing add the ability to capture data in channels to make quick process improvements. beyond email. 1. Keep scope within reason – Don’t Senior executives will need detail aggregated be overwhelmed into thinking you need across process areas, customer types and At one end of the spectrum are solutions to turn the organization on its head with a business lines which can be produced limited to CX data reporting. At the other massively expensive program. First, limit less frequently. Don’t forget to build in a end are options that deliver linkage analytics your initial examination to areas you suspect “preparation ramp” so those viewing a new with root cause insights, along with services are “CX hotspots.” You might want to CX data resource, especially when it’s in to convert insight to action. initially concentrate on the contact center. real-time, understand the information in A customer journey mapping exercise will context of your business goals. Following are several solution help build evidence for investment. An in- profiles that you might consider when depth voice of the customer survey program 4. Establish a foundation for action – evaluating how to best drive action in can be helpful in kick-starting change. Many organizations get hypnotized by cool your organization. data views flowing into dashboards that 2. Gather multiple feedback types – On continually change, without thinking about VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER their own, sending out a bunch of email how to link insight to drive change. A first A Voice of the Customer (VOC) surveys or text-mining some chat dialogues step is to make an honest assessment of program is usually a comprehensive effort won’t cut it. In today’s omnichannel internal resources. Do you have personnel that seeks to deliver a 360-degree view Sponsored Content CRM Magazine | January 2017 WP21

of lifecycle interactions. Done right, insights to action isn’t easy so look for as well as from what the customer data within a VOC program will be a vendor that delivers a playbook of actually does? Look for detail across comprehensive, with intelligence collected prioritized action. multiple channels, especially in light of from multiple locations. It usually includes increasingly prevalent channel hopping. gathering feedback from surveys as well Example as from a wide range of indirect and A leading satellite provider identified • Action Plan – Crossing the insight to inferred sources. customers that were three times more likely action gap effectively means that you to disconnect after contacting the company need a detailed plan. Look for a vendor Many VOC vendors offer a software to discuss billing inaccuracies. A VOC that offers a comprehensive playbook component that presents feedback in analysis that examined upstream behavior with targeted actions by priority level. real time. Dashboards allow managers to on the website (among other things) make immediate changes, with viewable revealed the real issue wasn’t billing; it was Example configurations to share consolidated detail communication on how to get a rebate. The A recent engagement for a communication with senior management. VOC study identified a very simple policy company revealed that newer customers change that ultimately saved millions of were churning at unacceptable rates due in Services within some VOC programs dollars in lost customers. large part to how they viewed an offer on are fortified with Ph.D.-level data the website, and then how agents responded scientists that deliver data-driven evidence CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING by granting a rebate. Journey mapping to pinpoint the root cause for an issue. Identifying hidden obstacles that make efforts provided the evidence to change Additional services may also be available it difficult for customers to work with you, website terminology as well as for agent to work directly with frontline employees as well as highlighting what’s working, compensation. As a result, total annualized and agents to modify behavior and is what Customer Journey mapping is all savings of $2.1 million were achieved. review results. about. In this type of engagement, your team can visualize the effort required to CONCLUSION What to Look For complete a goal via a map incorporating When you consider analytics, think about • Sampling Ingenuity – A torrent of every step across channels, via website the value of programs designed to drive email and web-administered surveys are interactions, and even from interviews with more comprehensive results – such as Voice quick and cheap, but unlikely to reach frontline employees. of the Customer and Customer Journey the right customers. Look for a VOC Mapping – and then integrate everything vendor with demonstrated strengths is Customer Journey Mapping is a hot topic into a single framework. These types of CX survey sampling. in analytics today. In fact, some analysts programs go well beyond point solutions by are advocating that you should complete combining software and services to deliver • Omnichannel Reach – Don’t rely on a Customer Journey mapping exercise highly visible value to your customers email surveys alone to acquire the volume before you make any kind of customer- and organization. of data you need. Add in a combination impacting investment. of in-person interviews, phone, text, IVR, and chat. Especially challenging is What to Look For ABOUT CONVERGYS ANALYTICS reaching cell phone users with TCPA • Scope of Review – You need an inside- Convergys Analytics optimizes engagement, confidence. Look for a VOC vendor with out and outside-in view of what impacts enthusiasm and loyalty for your brand with compliant outbound calling resources. every step of a customer journey. Look CX insight to action customer experience for solutions that offer the customer’s management software and services. Over • Linkage Analysis – Sure, it’s great to see perspective captured via qualitative and 40 years of CX experience contribute to feedback rolling in, but how do you know quantitative data at each step in a map. Voice of the Customer programs, Customer with statistical confidence what cause is Even better is a solution that offers Journey Mapping and contact center creating the effect? Find a VOC vendor “secret shopper” types of services for more performance enhancements to efficiently with in-house data scientists to deliver customer perspective detail. improve your customer’s satisfaction for quantifiable evidence rather than anecdotes. bottom-line results. • Granularity of Analysis – Does a • Prescriptive Action – Reporting on solution amount to a graphical report or To learn more about our customer feedback is fine, but if that’s all does it delve into the pain points and root CX analytics solutions, visit you’ve got you won’t get far. Converting causes from an organization’s operations www.convergys.com/analytics CRM Trends to Watch 10 in 2017

new calendar year doesn’t necessar- This year mobile will continue to that helps them better understand the ily mean seismic shifts in the atti- dominate and grow as a preferred chan- journeys customers take with them. tudes, practices, and technologies nel. A host of predictive technologies And tools that alter our reality will start Athat define an industry, but it does powered by artificial intelligence will to gain legitimate affiliation with CRM. provide an opportunity to reflect on where assist professionals in completing tasks But if there is one overarching theme, we’ve been and where we’re heading. And more quickly and efficiently. The transi- it’s that customer expectations for so we tapped some of the CRM industry’s tion from on-premises solutions to cloud excellent experiences are not going to finest minds to identify 10 trends (listed computing will continue, albeit gradu- let up anytime soon, and because of here in no particular order) that compa- ally, in spite of security concerns. Com- this, companies can’t afford to get too nies should expect moving into 2017. panies will increase their use of software comfortable.

22 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com their specific tasks with as little friction 2. TECHNOLOGIES WILL CONVERGE. as possible. When they can’t pull the data from “Customers want to be able to easily disparate systems together, expect reach in and interact with a company, if businesses to grow weary of so-called it’s to research a purchase, to buy a prod- best-of-breed solutions that present inte- uct, to get support, or to get on-boarded,” gration, implementation, and deploy- says Kate Leggett, vice president and ment challenges, warns Leslie Ament, All eyes will be on principal analyst at Forrester Research. senior vice president and chief research automation as the lines “They want effective interactions; they officer at Hypatia Research Group. want to be able to fully complete their “Vendors with integration-ready part- between humans and tasks in one go.” nerships, partnership ecosystems, and/ machines (and sales, That has forced professionals from or one-stop solutions are gaining ground sales, service, and marketing to take on in this marketplace,” she states. service, and marketing) functions that might historically have This is especially important consider- fallen outside of their purview. Service ing that most companies still buy their continue to blur. agents might be asked to cross-sell or CRM technologies in separate pieces What else lies ahead? upsell, pitching to the caller a product for each individual department. For that might complement or improve upon instance, while a firm might elect to pur- what he already bought. A marketer might chase Oracle’s Marketing Cloud for the BY OREN SMILANSKY be called upon to respond to customer marketing department, it might choose service inquiries through social media. Salesforce.com’s Sales Cloud for the sales Similarly, it behooves salespeople to know organization. Those two must connect about the customer’s service history and seamlessly to allow for cross-pollination. to follow up after the sale has been made. “The megatrend of customer success 3. KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND is breaking down the barriers between COLLABORATION WILL INCREASE. sales, marketing, and service,” explains It’s not only sales and marketing soft- John Ragsdale, vice president and ware that needs to be integrated. The research director at the Technology Ser- need for a single product or suite of vices Industry Association (TSIA). integrated products transcends depart- Ragsdale says that a push toward out- ments and software types, and this can come-based selling is forcing customer only happen when data is readily avail- success experts to become much more able across departmental lines. involved in the sales motions, participate As those lines dissolve, many of the in ongoing efforts to on-board new cus- large CRM vendors have come a long tomers, and even monitor their adoption way in incorporating knowledge man- and consumption of a product or ser- agement (KM) into their core offerings. vice to make sure that they’re interacting “There has been a huge consolidation in in the way the organization hopes they the space, with CRM vendors buying up will. “Sales can’t make promises that the specialists to provide best-of-breed customer success can’t deliver, so these functionality in their core products, teams must be much more in sync than which has now become a significant ever before,” Ragsdale says. competitive differentiator,” Ragsdale 1. DEPARTMENT SILOS WILL Unfortunately, breaking down the says. He cites Microsoft’s Parature and CONTINUE TO FALL. walls between job titles has created some Aptean’s Knova offerings as examples. Traditionally, CRM has been divided confusion among professionals as they “But I think the best example is Oracle, into three customer-facing branches: try to access all of the information nec- which made significant investments in sales, service, and marketing. That was essary to complete the tasks assigned to KM, acquiring RightNow, Q-go, and fine in the past, but today’s custom- them. Technology vendors have been InQuira, among others,” he says. ers want more, and they really don’t expected to keep up and integrate the These considerations are top of mind care about the title of the person (or data that exists in separate systems so for organizations; TSIA’s 2016 Knowl- machine) with whom they’re interact- those systems can communicate with edge Management Survey found that 34 ing; they simply want to accomplish one another, experts point out. percent of companies expect to achieve

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a 20 percent to 30 percent improvement It’s important, Leggett says, “to deliver 6. CRM WILL BECOME (EVEN) in productivity once employees start [business insights] to the CRM user in MORE AUTOMATED. sharing knowledge more often. Further, the flow of the work that they’re doing.” With the emergence of artificial intel- 40 percent said an improvement of 30 Most of the major CRM players have ligence, cognitive computing, machine percent or more was possible. started to investigate such technolo- learning, deep learning, virtual reality, Of particular note here is the trend gies in a big way. Salesforce.com, for intelligent assistants, and a host of other toward employees working from any- instance, has been making noise around buzz terms, the talk of robots taking where but the office, whether it’s from its Einstein AI solutions. Pegasystems has over bubbles up in our culture more home, in the field, or at the airport wait- invested in robotic automation to help than ever. And, according to analysts, ing to board a plane for a client meeting. with routine tasks. Oracle has introduced the chatter is at least partly legitimate. “With more service, sales, and mar- adaptive intelligent cloud applications Leggett suggests that customers are keting employees working from home or that tackle common ground. Similarly, definitely not interested in interact- in remote geographic offices, providing IBM’s Watson’s cognitive computing ing with humans if they don’t have to. [embedded] tools to easily ask a question or According to her company’s research, 75 share lessons learned with a larger team is percent of business professionals indi- becoming more common,” Ragsdale says. It’s important “to deliver cate that buying work products from a Like many other earlier CRM technol- website is more convenient than doing ogies, the market for collaboration tools [business insights] to so from a sales rep. was previously limited to niche vendors the CRM user in the In customer service, the idea is sim- like Jive, Lithium, and Get Satisfaction. ilar. Leggett holds that customers use Today, however, more mainstream flow of the work that self-service channels as their first point CRM vendors, including Salesforce. they’re doing.” of contact and only make a phone call com, Oracle, and SAP, are showing up as an “escalation point.” on Ragsdale’s list of top collaboration Consequently, the trend, Leggett says, tool providers. The businesses that use tools learn over time to cut corners. is to automate as many customer inter- their products demand nothing less. It wouldn’t be surprising to see others actions as possible to enable customer “The transition we’re seeing is that [busi- entering this market in the near future. self-service. “What this means for com- nesses are] realizing that the way to really panies is that they need to make self- move with the customer at scale, and with 5. BEHAVIORAL INSIGHTS service journeys easier.” the speed of the customer journey, is to look WILL GO DEEPER. In the coming year, companies will to systems of insight rather than informa- Another growing trend in 2017 will be be wise to use new tools for submitting tion,” says Jeff Nicholson, vice president of the continued extension of customer tickets, tracking orders, scheduling ser- CRM product marketing at Pegasystems, a journey analytics to provide insights vice visits, and recommending content, provider of business process management beyond simply what people are doing to among other tasks. and customer engagement software. “At the why behind it. “Without understand- It’s important to remember, however, Pegasystems...we believe that in this new ing the why, customization can only go that customers don’t necessarily want to world, the insight should find you in the so far,” says Yuping Liu-Thompkins, feel as though they are interacting with moment when it’s needed. And whether chair of the marketing department at a machine, even if that’s what they’re that’s guided to customer-facing employees the Strome College of Business at Old doing. For this reason, Nicholson sug- or the customers themselves, really they’re Dominion University in Virginia. gests blending machine-based interac- looking for the actions that guide them as to Of course, the question of why is not tions with human interactions through what they should be doing, not just the data easy to answer, she says, because it goes conversational interfaces. “The oppor- they should be using to find answers. That’s beyond tracking typical behavior. “You tunity and challenge that exists for those a big transformation, and it’s a different way might need to bring additional insights who implement these approaches is to of thinking than we’ve seen in the past.” from social media, from traditional mar- do it in a way that respects individuals, keting research. There’s more of that has empathy for their situations, and… 4. USERS WILL BE BETTER qualitative insight that needs to come is proper and transparent.” ABLE TO BLEND CHANNELS. into the CRM system,” she says. Ament anticipates another move within And there’s a growing need to inte- 7. ROUTINE TASKS WILL GET organizations: enabling agents to blend grate customer service phone records MORE STREAMLINED. channels, with a single interface that with transactional data and market- The appeal of automation is not strictly lessens their need to toggle between ing campaign analysis information, limited to customers. All business profes- screens and applications to accomplish Liu-Thompkins emphasizes. sionals are also consumers, after all, and their increasing list of tasks. there are many things they’d rather do

24 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com COVER STORY

than go through hoops to achieve their displays have helped marketing and sales verticalization to offer data models, user goals. It’s no surprise, then, that chatbots, professionals make better use of Big Data experiences, UI labels, and extensions for virtual assistants, intelligent assistants, to gain actionable insights that lead to a particular industry.” and other such tools have begun to gain desired outcomes. “It took the technol- Leggett points out that Microsoft has 32 traction. Experts expect them to play an ogy role out a little bit, because the regu- industry templates, and Oracle 16 or 17. even more dramatic role in customer-fac- lar marketing and sales individuals might Similarly, Salesforce.com offers Financial ing professionals’ day-to-day activities. be able to use these tools and not have to Services and Health Clouds. “And again, To gain an edge on their competition, struggle a whole lot in terms of what the it’s not end-to-end, deep verticalization, salespeople, for instance, will rely on data really means,” she says. but giving companies a jumping-off point tools to streamline product and price At the same time, the ability to leverage to allow them to leverage [the] industry configurations, personalized customer complex technologies is reaching every- expertise of CRM vendors for these light- recommendations, price negotiations, day users, according to Leggett. One need weight vertical processes,” she says. and general support interactions. If a not be a data scientist in a lab coat, capa- salesperson can save 10 minutes or a half ble of building out sophisticated algo- 10. CRM WILL START TO EXPLORE hour speaking into a mobile device to log rithms and models, to make an impact, ENHANCED REALITIES. notes about a sales meeting, that’s time Cutting-edge technologies that involve better spent elsewhere. enhanced realities, notably virtual real- It’s fortunate that with technological “More firms are ity (VR), augmented reality (AR), and developments, “more firms are starting starting to mine the mixed reality (MR), are still in their early to mine the gold they have in their CRM days, but the future of CRM has room systems,” observes Jim Dickie, a research gold they have in for them all. In fact, Forrester Research fellow at CSO Insights. For decades, he their CRM systems.” predicts that limitations around AR/VR/ says, managers have told salespeople MR tools will start to erode as companies to enter data into CRM, and now with experiment with them and set the stage more options, users can analyze that she says; CRM vendors have been making for larger implementations. wealth of Big Data to glean insights into concerted efforts to infuse their products The foundation was laid in 2016 with prospect profiling, pricing optimiza- with predictive and prescriptive analytics the Pokémon Go game, which inspired tion, fact-based forecasting, proactive that put intelligent recommendations in consumers and businesses alike to take churn identification, and other areas that the hands of ordinary business users. notice. While the use cases for aug- demand attention. mented reality are still a bit narrow, 9. CRM WILL BECOME A more widespread adoption isn’t far off. 8. ADOPTION WILL RISE (FINALLY). LITTLE MORE VERTICAL. “Augmented reality is there for field Look for technology to also continue to While it is by no means becoming the service,” Leggett says. For instance, help the CRM industry overcome the norm for companies to invest in CRM making use of video can allow a ser- adoption challenges that have long been systems that are designed specifically for vice technician to call a more senior its greatest obstacle. Because it was a use in one industry or another, analysts employee to get a second opinion. By chore, many professionals simply didn’t point out that larger CRM vendors are layering on augmented reality, he can like to use CRM. Gamification is one offering additional software and services guide the junior technician without way software vendors are making it more that apply to a number of verticals. having to be there himself. enjoyable to use CRM systems. Compa- Ament says that “embedding indus- When it comes to these types of appli- nies like Badgeville (recently acquired by try-specific and repeatable workflow cations—or any other business applica- CallidusCloud) offer tools that are meant business processes into customer engage- tion, for that matter—company leaders to stimulate competition and participa- ment interactions” will pick up even more this year will be inundated with all sorts tion among sales teams and individuals. steam in the coming months. “This is of new technologies promising to revolu- But if they have any hope of driving especially evident in process-driven tionize customer experiences. They will employee engagement across the board, industries such as pharmaceuticals, finan- have a world of choices, from both tried- gamification tools will need to be easy to cial services, and manufacturing sectors.” and-true industry staples to some inno- use, experts maintain. Indeed, vendors Leggett argues that the trend is veering vative and unfamiliar start-ups. That’s have placed a heavy focus on making toward a more “lightweight verticaliza- why, when entering into any of these tools that resemble what professionals tion.” The new software packages, she spaces, business leaders will need to do have grown accustomed to in their per- says, are “not the heavyweight vertical their homework now more than ever. sonal lives. offerings that people had a decade ago Liu-Thompkins observes, for exam- that scripted the end-to-end indus- Associate Editor Oren Smilansky can be ple, that compelling visualizations and try process. It’s more the lightweight reached at [email protected]. www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 25 26 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com HOW TO SUCCEED AT MOBILE MARKETING Marketers need to meet consumers on the platforms they’re already using and connect the dots between them BY SAM DEL ROWE

n one Monday last Febru- micro-moments—in which consumers “Any time you get into this linear ary, Chipotle Mexican Grill can identify information to be consumed thinking of ‘I need a mobile team’ or ‘I closed all of its locations or acted on immediately with just a need an email team,’ you’re ignoring the across the country during the quick glance at their smartphones. way that human behavior actually is,” says lunchtime rush to run a food Despite Chipotle’s success with the Meghan Anderson, vice president of con- safety training program for mobile marketing campaign—the com- tent at HubSpot, a provider of inbound Oall 50,000 of its employees nationwide. pany saw a 67 percent redemption rate— marketing and sales platforms. “[When] The move, which came in response to an most businesses aren’t capitalizing on we use our mobile devices…our experi- E. coli outbreak that originated at several some of the most popular methods of con- ence is a tapestry of all of these different of Chipotle’s restaurants, greatly inconve- necting with consumers via mobile device, mechanisms for getting answers.” nienced a lot of customers. To make it up according to the Forrester report. Just 45 According to Anderson, three basic to them, the company turned to a mobile percent of business professionals incor- types of notifications can reach mobile marketing solution from Vibes to offer porate SMS into their marketing efforts, device users. The first is SMS, the text mes- consumers free burritos via an SMS cam- with even fewer—25 percent—using push sages that have been standard on devices paign that reached 5.3 million Americans. notifications, the research found. of all kinds for years. Second is the push Affected customers could text the word The idea that the mobile device rep- notification, which is triggered by appli- “raincheck” to 888-222 before 6 p.m. that resents a single channel is a common cations from which users have chosen to same day to get in on the promotion. misconception among marketers. Rather, receive updates. Third is the email notifi- For many consumers, this might have mobile devices contain a variety of cation, which has long been the backbone been just one of the 150 to 200 mobile channels—with apps for email, messag- of marketers’ mobile campaigns. Jessica moments they experience each day, ing, and social media, among others— Ekholm, a research director at Gartner, according to a report from Forrester and consumers seamlessly transition predicts that email marketing is still likely Research. The majority of these are between them. to be king over the next five years.

www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 27 MOBILE MARKETING

While email continues to be essential, with customers, which means that com- companies would do well to explore the marketers should also be taking advan- panies need to take extra care that their opportunities they present. tage of the other channels consumers communications provide something of “When you look at what the most use on their mobile devices. Moreover, value to consumers. Furthermore, they commonly used mobile apps are… marketers need to shift their approach need to provide a consistent experience the ones that are really emerging are to engage with customers on the chan- on all platforms and channels. these new messaging apps. Messaging nels they are already using, presenting But Meghann York, director of product has surpassed social media in terms them with relevant information at the marketing at Salesforce Marketing Cloud, of total adoption worldwide and in right moment. says delivering the right message at the terms of the hours spent in those apps,” “Marketers are very accustomed to a right time is “more difficult to manage Anderson says. one-to-many way of thinking that comes when those channels are disconnected.” Ekholm agrees: “Messaging apps such as from TV and from broadcast. They “It’s really the customer who chooses Facebook Messenger, Slack, and WeChat think about what their business needs the channel,” she says, “so marketers are all moving towards becoming the are. They want to send out campaigns and do things like email and messaging based on what their schedule is. This is a “It’s really the customer who chooses the fundamental way that mobile is very different, because mobile is about one-to- channel, so marketers must be prepared one engagement…and that means that to integrate them all seamlessly.” on my time, when I have a need, [you can] send me a message,” says Julie Ask, a Forrester vice president and principal must be prepared to integrate them go-to platform for users, not just for chat analyst serving e-business and channel all seamlessly.” but also for commerce.” She cites Face- strategy professionals. And it’s difficult for marketers to “paint book’s 2015 move to link Messenger with But all too often, companies want to a complete picture of a customer’s attri- Uber as a successful example. The integra- own their interactions with custom- butes” when the data for each channel is tion enabled users to request Uber rides ers, Ask goes on to say. “They have this stored and managed separately, she adds. directly from within the Messenger app. assumption that if a customer wants to To ensure that their communications Bots are following the same trajec- do business with them, then they come are personalized, marketers should pay tory. Most recently, Facebook has been to their store, their website, their app,” attention to the information that con- expanding its bot library, suggesting she states. sumers input into these channels. In that it intends to continue pursuing While this model might have been particular, social media platforms such what’s become known as “conversational effective 10 or 20 years ago, Ask says as Facebook and Twitter offer a wealth of commerce.” that it “doesn’t work as well today, and it information about users that companies The Canadian messaging app com- especially doesn’t work well on mobile, can draw upon to enhance their commu- pany Kik has also invested heavily in bots, where consumers spend a lot of their nications, especially if they are interacting Ekholm says, and the Facebook-owned time in just a handful of apps.” with consumers on a one-to-one basis. WhatsApp recently removed its $1 For this reason, businesses should not annual fee, citing the potential of con- build and launch apps simply for the MESSAGING, THE NEW SOCIAL MEDIA versational commerce as the reason. Chi- sake of having them. Instead, apps need While social media channels like Face- na’s WeChat and Japan’s Line, she notes, to serve a clear purpose and deliver value book and Twitter were once novel, that have been offering these types of services to customers. is hardly the case today. Now messag- for years. Consumers aren’t the only ones to ben- ing apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, and “A bot is a way for you to open up a efit from effective mobile apps. Ekholm Facebook’s own Messenger have quickly channel of communication within some- notes that these kinds of apps can offer become consumer favorites. In fact, in body else’s app,” Anderson explains. “If “specialized branded user experiences in 2015, messaging apps surpassed social we wanted to use Facebook Messenger a more controlled environment.” media apps in popularity around the or WhatsApp or Line, for example, we Nevertheless, “marketers will need to world. The combined user base of the top could create a bot that could communi- reach out through new marketing ave- four chat apps is larger than the combined cate through those channels and those nues…to be part of the conversation user base of the top four social networks. apps that we know our customers are where the customer is,” she argues. Chat apps also have higher retention and already using.” Social media and messaging platforms usage rates than most mobile apps. The emergence of conversational are two such avenues. Both provide the These apps promote quick, one-to-one commerce has a number of potential opportunity for one-to-one interactions communications between parties, and impacts, according to Ekholm. First, it

28 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com MOBILE MARKETING

will de-emphasize company websites. If customers with questions or problems personality as a brand and use it to fully consumers can get the answers they need they might have.” capture someone’s attention.” through the messaging apps that they’re Anderson agrees, saying that we’re Companies have three advertising already using, there’s less incentive for entering an era where “consumers will options on Snapchat, according to them to visit company websites. pick the right channel for the right conver- Ekholm. The first of these are Snap Ads, In addition, it will make search engine sations.” When that happens, “it will be up which are full-screen vertical videos of optimization efforts less important as to the company to be in that channel and up to 10 seconds in length. Users can user preference shifts to contextual disconnect the dots [from different channels] swipe upward for more content, such covery within conversational platforms. on who the customer is,” she explains. as longer videos, app installs, or arti- It will reduce the number of steps in the Ekholm says that while marketers cles. The second is Sponsored Lenses, an purchase flow, improving the customer might be excited about the opportunities augmented reality feature that enables experience and potentially yielding more messaging platforms present, consumers users to alter their images with branded sales. Finally, as messaging platforms are could be skeptical about interacting with content. Last May, Taco Bell, for exam- enriched with new capabilities, their companies there. Marketers, she contin- ple, ran a campaign that enabled users importance will be solidified, and the ues, should view messaging apps as “a to turn their heads into living tacos. A number of apps that users rely on will new, innovative channel” that warrants a Gatorade campaign that coincided with continue to fall. watchful eye and a few small-scale trials. last year’s Super Bowl allowed users to Ekholm also identifies several new pour a virtual cooler of Gatorade over opportunities that conversational com- A NOTE ON SNAPCHAT their heads. The third option is Spon- merce could produce. By continually One of the more unique messaging apps sored Geofilters, which are artistic over- enhancing their integrations with mes- is Snapchat, which has seen a meteoric lays—often location-specific—that users saging platforms, companies will discover rise in popularity. The multimedia plat- can add to their snaps. new ways to engage with consumers, form enables users to send each other dis- However, given the personal nature of improving not only their commerce appearing photo and video content called communications on the platform, mar- opportunities but also their brand reach. snaps—a model that contrasts with those keters need to be especially careful when Additionally, bot technology will of social media channels such as Face- engaging with its users. continue to improve and could be a book and Twitter, where posts are more “Marketers should be studying the tremendous source of customer infor- permanent and can be difficult to delete. channel and figuring out what feels nat- mation when combined with the data As of September, Snapchat counted more ural on that channel. Don’t take your existing marketing campaigns and just transfer them over to Snapchat. Make “Shifting messaging behavior from something sure that you understand how people use Snapchat and what they like about we do with friends to brands will stall if it, what draws them into it, and make brands are not helpful and personable.” sure that the content that you create for the channel reflects all of that,” Anderson says. from social media channels. Bots also than 60 million daily active users in the But in the end, whether it’s Snapchat can draw upon customer information United States and Canada. or any of the dozens of other mobile to craft individualized interactions with Needless to say, businesses have taken platforms available today, complacency consumers, making for a more personal- notice of the app’s popularity. Compa- cannot be tolerated. ized customer experience. nies like Coca-Cola, Gatorade, and Vans Just as marketers tried to duplicate Nevertheless, marketers will need to be have all partnered with Snapchat on their approaches when each new chan- careful in how they approach consum- advertising campaigns, and many more nel—starting with Facebook, then ers on messaging platforms, especially are starting to line up. YouTube, then LinkedIn, and then Twit- because of the personal nature of these “Brands of all sorts are on Snap- ter—emerged, many marketers today apps’ one-to-one interactions. “Shifting chat, from retail brands like Target to “are trying to rinse and repeat their exist- messaging behavior from something we news outlets like The Huffington Post,” ing strategy, and I would advise that you do with friends and acquaintances to York says. “They all have something in learn the platform, learn what works well brands will stall if brands are not help- common: They tell great stories. Snap- on it, and craft your strategies around ful and personable,” Ekholm says. “While chat is foremost a visual channel with that,” Anderson says. the trend is termed ‘conversational com- text capabilities. Through personal- merce,’ the weight of emphasis should ized photos and video clips, you have Assistant Editor Sam Del Rowe can be be on ‘conversation’ and supporting the opportunity to create your own reached at [email protected]. www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 29 Anatomy of a Contact Center Expansion How do you transform a contact center operation, ramping up from 25 agents to 120, in a short amount of time? • A Q&A with Jonathan Nall, director of guest services at Wind Creek Hospitality

Nall

ind Creek Hospitality increase in its operating budget, and a to transform what could be an ordinary is a Native American staffing surge from 25 agents to 120—in experience for guests into a real escape gaming operation run a little more than a year. from all the hustle and bustle. We want by the Poarch band of To say that ramping up operations each guest experience to be fun, exciting, the Creek Indian tribe. so quickly is a challenge would be an and as effortless as possible. We want The company, which is understatement. It took a lot of plan- our guests to feel a sense of belonging Wheadquartered in Atmore, Ala., manages ning, budgeting, hiring, training, and and appreciation while at one of our the tribe’s gaming facilities in Atmore, negotiating. To help put the process in properties or while engaging with one Wetumpka, and Montgomery, all in perspective, CRM’s editor, Leonard Klie, of our team members. Alabama, as well as several racetracks spoke with Jonathan Nall, director of To enable great service, we’ve tried to in Alabama and the Florida panhandle. guest services at Wind Creek Hospital- simplify the worker experience. Less is Wind Creek Hospitality for years ity who oversees the company’s contact more. As with many organizations, at operated a single contact center in center operations and the service quality one point we had many procedures and Atmore, but when it converted its simple control teams for its casino operations. standards related to delivering service, gaming rooms into more sophisticated but we’ve taken a conscious effort to resorts with hotels, dining, and other CRM: Can you talk about Wind Creek reduce unnecessary processes or pro- amenities, it needed to expand to a Hospitality and its guest service needs cedures that would make it difficult for second facility in Montgomery to meet and goals? team members to deliver genuine ser- increasing customer demand. It com- Jonathan Nall: Wind Creek Hospitality vice. To keep it simple, there are three pleted the project—which included a is an organization focused on human items we focus on: We want our team $2 million capital outlay, a $1.5 million caring and individuality. We are driven members to greet, engage, and thank

30 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com When Wind Creek Hospitality converted its simple gaming rooms into more sophisticated resorts with hotels, dining, and other amenities, it suddenly required a beefed-up contact center operation.

every guest during every interaction. What do you consider to be the hall- guests to go away feeling that they made It’s that simple. marks of an outstanding guest service the right choice. We want them to have experience? positive stories to tell their friends and When it comes to guest service, what An outstanding service experience is family about Wind Creek Hospitality. do you believe in most strongly? about two things: making a personal Giving people self-confidence and a connection and exceeding expectations. Can you give me some of the operation- positive work environment is by far the It’s about small things that make it al details of the contact center (i.e., most important thing I can do. My job is memorable and special, anything from number of facilities, number of agents, to create a work environment where my remembering a name to asking about call volume, hours of operation, etc.)? team can be successful. I want to open the family. It really isn’t hard to provide We have two contact centers with 120 doors for them to seek their true po- great service if team members are truly agents, 10 supervisors, and two manag- tential. Whether it’s within our contact focused and present in the moment. ers. We are open from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. centers, other departments, or in life, Whenever a person makes a reserva- seven days a week. Between the two cen- my job is to prepare others to capital- tion for a resort, the reservation agents ters, we handle 60,000 to 70,000 contacts ize on opportunities when they present set the expectation for the resort expe- by phone, 1,000 to 2,000 by chat, and themselves. rience. They become a true extension of 4,000 to 5,000 by email each month. We Creating value is also key. A memo- the brand. We want conversations with average 20,000 to 30,000 hotel reserva- rable experience can be priceless. In the our guests to be positive, genuine, and tions each month. casino and hospitality industry, no matter engaging. We want their reservation ex- how much a guest spends, he should feel periences to be enjoyable and an escape What types of calls do the agents typ- appreciated and a sense of fulfillment. from life’s hectic situations. We want our ically handle? What are the types of www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 31 CUSTOMER SERVICE Q&A

issues that prompt guests to call into the contact centers? Most of the calls or contacts that we receive are from guests who want to make reservations or need additional information about properties or promotions. On average, agents handle 30,000 hotel room inquiries, 20,000 promotion or account inquiries, 10,000 general gaming or property inquiries, 2,000 spa and kitchen inquiries, and 1,000 hotel room requests per month. The company’s two contact centers and The contact center underwent a mas- 120 agents handle up sive expansion in just a little more than to 70,000 phone calls, 2,000 chats, and 5,000 a year. What prompted this expansion? emails each month. The expansion was prompted by the growth of Wind Creek Hospitality. During the past 10 years, Wind Creek cubicles, computers, screens, headsets, needs and developing a long-term strat- has been one of the fastest-growing Native digital information displays, office fur- egy. We started with the end in mind, American gaming operations in the niture, training, equipment, etc. looking ahead five or 10 years to deter- United States. Since 2009, Wind Creek has We decided to open a second contact mine what the needs of our properties opened three beautiful properties, each center rather than expanding the existing and guests will be. We built our plan having its own unique offerings, includ- one. We chose to open the second facility based on those long-term aspirations. ing gaming, hotel, dining, and amenities. in Montgomery for its proximity to our Every plan we developed had multi- other casinos, established infrastructure, and ple phases based on our need to scale Why was it necessary to ramp up so distance from the Gulf Coast. Being further quickly and be fluid. If there was a need quickly? from the coast helps improve our opera- for change, we wanted our software and Social media, along with the growth of tional uptime capacity during hurricanes or our infrastructure to be nimble enough our resorts, was the main reason for the other inclement weather. Having the second to allow us to change quickly with min- quick growth. Prior to the opening of center located in a larger metropolitan area imal costs. One quote that inspired us our resorts, we had a low-touch service also increased our ability to hire from a during this transition was from President approach. We were OK with 80 per- more diverse and skilled applicant pool. Eisenhower: “Plans are worthless, but cent of our calls being handled within planning is everything.” 20 seconds. However, based on social What kind of funding was needed for a media, survey, and focus group feed- project of this scope, and how did you What kind of approval did you need to back, we noticed that guest expectations secure it? go ahead with a project of this size and had grown once we opened our first Two million dollars in capital was allo- scale, and how did you get executives to resort. To deliver the same high-touch cated to fund the opening of the second support the decision? experience offered at the resort, we had contact center and the modernization The approval process started within the to revamp our internal service expecta- of the first center. We also increased our organization and extended to our board. tions. Currently, 96 percent of our calls operating budget by $1.5 million. The Our executive team was very active in are answered within 20 seconds. capital and operating budget increase the planning and scaling strategy for our was secured by our executive team contact centers. To obtain final approval What investments did you have to make with board approval after a detailed as- required several internal assessments, a in facilities, technology, infrastructure, sessment, business case, and road map business case for the change, and a pri- etc., to support the expansion? were developed. oritized road map to get it accomplished. Capital was invested to obtain a second To confirm and ensure our findings were contact center and modernize the first How did you maintain operations and correct, we reached out to the Interna- one. We needed to remodel the second provide the same level of service during tional Customer Management Institute contact center location, bring in data the expansion? [ICMI], a contact center industry leader, lines to the second contact center, and Internally, we have a strong focus on for consulting. ICMI was an important increase the data trunk line into the first planning. For this project, we spent partner to verify our needs and refine our contact center. Then we needed new countless hours assessing our operational implementation strategy.

32 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER SERVICE Q&A

How involved is senior management if service is important is a waste of time. from Shaker. Our guest surveys are from in contact center operations, and how Asking them to describe a time when InMoment, and our online guest services important was this to the overall suc- they made a guest feel special taps into training is provided by ICMI. cess of the project? feelings and values. Asking what they The changes we had to make included Our executive team is very active and would do to make a 65-year-old guest the purchase of additional licensing for knowledgeable in the day-to-day oper- feel special when visiting the casino will the products we use and upgrades to the ations of our contact centers. Our CEO give better insights into the candidate. servers to house the additional applica- and chief operations officer were key to We are big advocates of role-playing tions. There was also the need to bring in having this project approved and de- and behavior-based interviews. I would contact center professionals to assist us in ployed so quickly. rather hire for desire and passion than identifying and applying best practices. I have weekly meetings with our COO for skills. to discuss our operations. He’s very What advice would you offer to other versed in how we’re performing and has What kind of training do you provide to contact center managers who might been instrumental in our success. new hires before putting them on the also need to increase their operations Often you will see him, me, and other phones? quickly? senior leadership working within a de- Training is so important. Most casinos Develop a plan and goals built on being partment. We have a program called are looking to get new team members on flexible and scalable. Create a road map “Walk in My Shoes” where key executives the floor as quickly as possible. This is a to achieve outlined goals. Obtain feed- perform front-line jobs. It’s all about huge mistake. Team members need time back from all key stakeholders. Involve all staying in contact with what’s going on to build the service delivery habits that key stakeholders in the decision making. at the front line. We want to build trust the company desires. That means taking Have your plan, goals, and road map re- with our team members. We want them the time to shadow and demonstrate ser- viewed by an independent third party. to know who we are; we want to know vice until they do it as expected. Focus on developing your people. Man- who they are. We want to know what The challenge is that too often people agers need to be developed into leaders. they go through on a daily basis. It helps focus on the task and not the service. When they are leaders, the team is more us make decisions and demonstrates to The training needs to be brief, fast- likely to learn by watching them. Low- those on the front lines that senior man- paced, fun, and highly interactive. This performing departments can usually be agement cares about them and genuinely increases retention. attributed to the team that manages them. wants them to enjoy their jobs. Finally, less is more. By stripping it Make it easy for others to succeed— As we’ve had more positive engage- down to the most important points and less is more. If you want people to ments between leadership and team not overwhelming the learner, you’ll improve, it means changing a behavior. members, morale, accountability, and have more success. When a child is The best way to do that is with small steps performance have improved. learning to walk, you don’t teach him that lead to success; recognize success. to run. The same is true for great guest Part of the expansion was growing the service. Small concepts that can easily be What future developments are you eye- contact center workforce from 25 agents processed and demonstrated by the new ing, and where do you see your next to 120 agents. You obviously needed to team member are recommended. biggest investment? hire a lot of new people. What qualities My team and I believe in the crawl, We plan to spend a substantial amount do you look for when bringing them on? walk, and then run method. Ensuring the of resources to improve our ability to This is a very important question that I team is ready to be the voice and face of our offer a more engaged, personalized, and think most organizations miss. Identify- brand is our top priority, and it takes time. effortless reservation experience for our ing the right characteristics is critical. Do guests. We want to enable our guests to they align with your service expectations What call center technologies do you engage with us through multiple channels. and company culture? Your focus needs have in place, and which vendors pro- Having a platform that offers guests mul- to be on the ability to serve rather than vided the technologies? What changes tiple channels—voice, chat, email, SMS, the ability to perform a task. Yes, we did you have to make to accommodate or video—is in our future. In addition, we have to ensure each applicant can per- the contact center expansion? are internally developing ways to harness form the duties of the job through skills Our workforce management is powered all the data about our guests and provide testing, but just because they can do the by Teleopti through Zoom. Quality moni- that information to agents, who will then job doesn’t mean they’re a good fit for toring, including quality management and be able to provide a more personalized, our organization. call recording, is through Zoom. Our call, seamless, and effortless experience. When looking at potential new team chat, and email routing is through Cisco’s members, it’s imperative to identify their Finesse. Our call-back software is from Editor Leonard Klie can be reached views and beliefs about service. Asking Fonolo. Our virtual job tryout software is at [email protected]. www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 33 For the past 15 years, J.D. Power has With Interactions, Salt River Project ranked Salt River Project highest in customer satisfaction among large utilities Helps Customers Keep Their Cool in the West. Its customer satisfaction The water and electricity supplier uses the vendor’s virtual assistants ratings are consistently in the 90s. to keep its contact centers from overheating “That we continue to stay atop [J.D. Power’s] charts tells us that [Rosie and alt River Project supplies electricity Ramon] have continued to bolster high and water to nearly 1 million cus- ratings with consumers,” France says. tomers in central Arizona, where “We’ve seen a great customer response it can get pretty hot. As the tem- to them.” Sperature rises, so too does the activity level “Working with Interactions enabled in Salt River Project’s contact centers, but us to develop a best-in-class, flexible thanks to intelligent virtual assistant tech- conversational automated care solution nology from Interactions, the increased that has had a transformative effect on volume is a lot more manageable today. the way we interact with our customers,” Theodore Roosevelt Dam, just outside of Prior to implementing the virtual Phoenix, holds Roosevelt Lake, one of the said Renée Castillo, the company’s senior agents in May, 97 percent of the more Salt River Project’s primary reservoirs. director of customer strategy integration, than 2 million calls the utility receives in a statement. “Our customers are look- every year were being routed to costly only taking on one class of 36,” says ing for speed, efficiency, and accuracy. live agents. When call activity peaked Yolanda France, director of customer con- The Interactions solution delivers.” during the hottest summer months, the tact operations at Salt River Project. That With the continued success of Rosie utility had to double the hours assigned has enabled the company to cut back on and Ramon, Salt River Project is cur- to its flex workers and had to bring on its staffing budget and led to other sav- rently considering expansion of the vir- extra personnel, both at great cost. ings as well. Salt River Project is currently tual assistants into other customer care Now, the voice-based virtual agents, consolidating its geographic footprint, channels, including web chat and SMS. English-speaking Rosie and Spanish- closing one of the three contact centers it The utility currently supports social speaking Ramon, handle a much larger operates in the Phoenix area. Its contact media and email interactions on a lim- percentage of the calls. center agents currently number about 200. ited basis and could also look to expand Since implementing the virtual agents, “We need fewer reps now, and we’re those channels as well. containment for all calls increased from 3 managing them by attrition,” France says. “Through it all, we were looking for percent to 35 percent. For calls related to Part of the reason for the increased ways to increase customer service and power outages—one of Salt River Project’s containment is that Rosie and Ramon containment,” says France. “With Inter- most common call types—containment is are much more feature-rich than Salt actions, we have been very pleased and currently at 46 percent. Rosie and Ramon River Project’s previous interactive voice pleasantly surprised.” —Leonard Klie are capable of proactive power outage response (IVR) system. “Our old IVR confirmation via self-service. could only offer four [menu] options. Across all channels, including web Now we have 14,” France boasts. And thepayoff SINCE IMPLEMENTING VIRTUAL ASSISTANT self-service, email, and social media, Salt the utility is looking to add even more. TECHNOLOGY FROM INTERACTIONS, SALT RIVER River Project has reduced the number of Rosie and Ramon use a blend of arti- PROJECT HAS DONE THE FOLLOWING: customer service interactions that require ficial and human intelligence to guide  increased self-service containment from 3 percent to 35 percent; live agent assistance by 24 percent. customer interactions. With natural  reduced the number of customer service Because of the higher containment language understanding built in, the interactions that require live agent rates, Salt River Project last summer cut technology allows customers to speak in assistance by 24 percent; the seasonal agent surge in half. their own words.  cut the number of additional agents needed to handle seasonal spikes in half; and “Every spring, we were hiring two That has led to increased customer  cut the number of contact centers from classes with 36 people each. Now we’re satisfaction, long a company priority. three to two.

34 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com Once the technology was in place, BrightCurrent Energizes Inside the change was apparent. “Just being able to track things, initially, was a huge improvement,” Searcy says. “We could Sales Reps with NewVoiceMedia see if there were certain reps who were The clean-power agency takes on more leads with ContactWorld for Sales outliers, in terms of the number of calls they were making and the amount of ounded in 2011, BrightCurrent time they spent on certain calls. We is an Oakland-based agency were able to go back and, from a man- specializing in clean energy. A agerial standpoint, listen to some call good portion of the company’s recordings and retrain people who were Fsales opportunities are generated in working remotely.” person, in retail spaces. “You may have The total amount of time spent dial- gone into a store like Costco or Home ing a lead and entering information into Depot and seen a booth set up with the CRM system was reduced by 30 to somebody talking about solar energy,” 60 seconds, thanks to the click-to-dial explains Troy Searcy, BrightCurrent’s feature. Reps now can make 75 percent customer quality manager. “That would more calls an hour, which translates to be BrightCurrent in a lot of cases.” a total of 40,000 additional outbound Despite its strong physical presence, calls a year. the outfit sees much of its follow-up “Having the local presence and area work performed over the phone by sales codes definitely helps to get people to reps and service agents who work offsite. actually pick up their phone,” Searcy And until deploying the ContactWorld adds, noting that call answer rates have for Sales solution from NewVoiceMedia, risen 60 to 90 percent. “That turns into this operation “was really spread out, more home appointments and more and not very well organized,” Searcy needed stronger accountability among potential for sales for us and our part- says. A chunk of the company’s 100 team members. This called for a central ners.” BrightCurrent’s rate for calls con- employees were either making calls phone system that would go beyond verted into appointments has increased from their personal cell phones or using the capabilities of its legacy technol- from 5 percent to 8 percent. Google Voice or Voice over IP (VoIP) ogy, which was not equipped to handle Searcy notes that the company has numbers, making it harder to control such density and prone to occasional also begun receiving more inbound quality. “We couldn’t run any reports malfunctions. “Many times, the system calls, “so having people be able to call or metrics on the call data,” Searcy says. was down and calls could not be made,” in and reach our call center reliably has “We couldn’t get call recordings; we Searcy said in a separate statement. been huge for us.” With ContactWorld, couldn’t keep track of how many calls BrightCurrent was using Salesforce. customers can call one number and get were being made.” com’s CRM system, and so rerouted to an agent trained for a partic- This was a concern, “Having the any add-ons had to be com- ular campaign. because the company was patible with that platform. Looking ahead, Searcy says that expanding into new mar- local presence While BrightCurrent had NewVoiceMedia will be crucial to kets and needed to handle an and area codes researched and evaluated BrightCurrent’s continued growth, as its increasing number of leads. definitely helps several software vendors that flexibility allows new hires to get easily Searcy says that many clean to get people to met this criterion, many of started on the system. —Oren Smilansky energy providers are “great actually pick up them did not accommodate at the home sales and instal- remote agents and required thepayoff lation side of solar, but not their phone.” that employees be tethered SINCE IMPLEMENTING NEWVOICEMEDIA’S so great at generating, and to workstations with very CONTACTWORLD FOR SALES, BRIGHTCURRENT following up on, new leads” from their strong and reliable internet connec- HAS SEEN:  a 50 percent rise in call pickup rates (from websites and online ads. BrightCurrent tions. This was one of the qualities that 60 percent to 90 percent); now tasked itself with tackling a pipe- set NewVoiceMedia’s solution apart.  a 3 percent increase in calls converted line that had grown by 350 percent According to Searcy, implementation into appointments (from 5 percent to in volume. was done over a few weeks—it began 8 percent); and  30 to 60 seconds saved per call, and a Naturally, as BrightCurrent was near the end of May 2016, and the 75 percent increase in the number of calls poised to take on more campaigns, it system went live in June. agents can handle in an hour.

www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 35 iflix Produces Boffo Brand in this issue Awareness with RadiumOne Although competing in a crowded market, the streaming and video n CRM USER COMPANIES services provider was able to significantly increase its subscriber base

BrightCurrent ��35 s Asia’s leading streaming strategies accordingly. Using a three- and video service provider, pronged approach, RadiumOne aims to Chipotle ��27 iflix touts the global nature identify consumer signals, predict cus- of its content—the company tomers’ next moves, and then activate Gatorade ��29 Afocuses on delivering not only the TV campaigns based on that information. shows and movies that Hollywood pro- The vendor also offers mobile analyt- iflix ��36 duces, but also those coming out of big ics and sharing analytics solutions; the regional entertainment hubs such as former focuses on consumers’ in-app Salt River Project ��34 Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo. But it’s behavior and the latter on customers’ in a noisy market, and upon launching social media activity. Taco Bell ��29 in May 2015, iflix faced steep competi- Working with RadiumOne paid off for tion from large global players iflix—after six months, the n ADVERTISERS such as Netflix; it struggled to “Our primary needs company was able to acquire improve band awareness and were scale, agility, 1 million new subscribers. gain subscribers. Additionally, the company CRM Evolution ��back cover and the ability www.crmevolution.com To help it do both, iflix increased its brand aware- turned to advertising plat- to both build ness from zero to 25 percent, Customer Service Experience ��37 form RadiumOne, which our awareness/ reduced its cost of new cus- www.custservexperience.com began as a loyalty and rewards brand equity tomer acquisition from $25 program under the name to $3, and saw an increase Inside Content Marketing ��7 gWallet but today offers while acquiring in conversions after quickly www.infotoday.com online, video, social, and customers at re-engaging with users whose mobile advertising services. light speed.” subscriptions had expired. iflix enlisted RadiumOne “The biggest surprises were n BEST PRACTICES SPONSORS to help it analyze the large volumes of how a programmatic-led strategy could data coming from the web and mobile be so effective at brand building and how Conga ��13 devices, with the goal of developing a an ad-tech operator like RadiumOne www.getconga.com better understanding of consumer intent. could play a critical role in aspects such Ultimately, iflix was looking to focus its as churn, prediction modeling, and pro- Convergys �� 10, 11, 20, 21 efforts on targeting consumers who were viding lifetime-value insights to inform www.convergys.com/analytics most likely to become paid subscribers. marketing strategy,” Britt says. “Before launching we conducted a Britt also praises RadiumOne’s abil- Verint ��12 www.verint.com global tender to select our tech and data ity to help iflix build its subscriptions partners. Our primary needs were scale, despite a lack of brand awareness. By agility, and the ability to both build our using RadiumOne to analyze consumer n WEB EVENTS awareness/brand equity while acquiring data both on the web and on mobile customers at light speed,” says Mark devices, iflix was able to effectively target PowerObjects ��inside front cover Britt, cofounder and CEO of iflix. its campaigns. —Sam Del Rowe http://webinars.destinationcrm.com/powerobjects/973 RadiumOne’s promise is to provide “consumer-powered marketing” by RT Web Events ��inside back cover identifying high-value consumers from thepayoff www.destinationcrm.com/webinars companies’ paid, earned, shared, and AFTER ADOPTING RADIUMONE’S ADVERTISING owned channels, as well as throughout PLATFORM, IFLIX SAW THE FOLLOWING RESULTS: ServiceNow ��5 the digital world. The company looks  1 million new subscribers were acquired; http://webinars.destinationcrm.com/servicenow/949 at customer data as signals that can  its brand awareness increased from zero to 25 percent; and help businesses understand consumer  its new customer acquisition cost dropped behavior and develop their engagement from $25 to $3.

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ORGANIZED AND PRODUCED BY CONNECT: #CustSe WWW.CUSTSERVEXPERIENCE.COM Scouting Report By Donna Fluss The AI Revolution in Customer Service The contact center market is finally ready for virtual bots, and not a moment too soon for self-service

RTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) is the innovation and kept the cost too high for many companies. hot topic of the year for many enterprise func- For more than 10 years, there’s been a reluctant acceptance tions, and customer service is no exception. of the lock on speech recognition software for contact cen- Combine AI with machine learning, and the ters, but bots now offer companies an alternative approach Aresults sound highly innovative and exciting. While the to building advanced speech-enabled self-service solutions pairing is proving to be beneficial, especially when sup- that are more cost-effective and very likely more intelligent. ported by fast servers, the truth is that neither of these Self-service IVR applications in many companies range technologies is new to enterprises or to their customer from 10 to 20 years old. While some companies have put service or contact center departments; ven- money and effort into keeping their self-ser- dors have been trying to sell AI-based contact vice voice applications up to date, a surpris- center solutions for more than 25 years. ingly large number have not, as their existing IVR systems seemed to work adequately SELF-SERVICE IVRS NEED AN OVERHAUL enough. In many companies, the IVR appli- There’s no doubt that contact center self- cations and underlying technology are so old service applications, particularly interactive that it would be more cost-effective to replace voice response (IVR) systems, need a major them than to try to update them. If bots can overhaul or even a replacement. The market appears to deliver on their promise and automate a few percentage be ready for virtual bots (also known as intelligent bots), points of additional calls (or emails) that previously had to which was not the case back in 1998, when these types of be handled by live agents—while also delivering an excel- solutions were introduced. Back then, bots failed to catch lent service experience—adoption will be higher and more on because they were considered unrealistic, impractical, rapid than it is for most new IT segments, and certainly hard to use, and not very effective. Moreover, many of the higher than speech-enabled IVRs. bot applications were offered as a concierge-type service Even though virtual intelligent bot technology is con- on websites, and consumers didn’t like them. ceptually similar to advanced IVR, the underlying science The current generation of intelligent bots is newer and has the potential to leapfrog traditional speech comes in all types of channels and styles. recognition. Intelligent bots run on faster virtual servers, VENDORS HAVE BEEN They’re being heralded as the next generation most of which are in the cloud, which gives them the pro- TRYING TO SELL of self-service applications, more accurate cessing power to better meet customer needs. And since this AI‑BASED CONTACT and smarter than natural language process- is a “new” solution, a growing number of competitors are CENTER SOLUTIONS ing (NLP)–based IVR systems. Intelligent bot investing in innovation and prospects have many options. FOR MORE THAN solutions are supposed to be so much more 25 YEARS. effective because, for starters, they use AI and FINAL THOUGHTS are self-learning. This is compelling, but when There is a lot of hype surrounding the new AI-based intel- you look beneath the surface, it’s a bit hard to ligent bots, much of which can be attributed to market- see the difference between bots and IVRs—particularly ing. But even if these bots are only slightly better than the since some of these solutions come from the same vendors. current generation of speech-enabled IVRs, they are going to catch on. Enterprises are in great need of enhanced BOTS AND IVRS ARE NOT THE SAME self-service capabilities that are more flexible and cost- Clearly, there must be more to the story, and there is. The effective, and it’s past time for many companies to update market needs better self-service technology and applica- their self-service systems. Great value can be gleaned from tions. Touch-tone-based IVRs are ineffective in this era of AI-enabled bots, and they are well worth a look. hands-free, mobile-enabled conversations. Many enterprises want to use speech-enabled self-service applications Donna Fluss is president of DMG Consulting LLC. For more than two decades but are not willing to pay high prices for the software or she has helped emerging and established companies develop and deliver implementation. Speech-enabled IVR remains very expen- outstanding customer experiences. A recognized visionary, author, and speaker, Donna drives strategic transformation and innovation throughout sive, and much of the speech recognition software intellec- the services industry. She provides strategic and practical counsel for enter- tual property is owned by one company, which has limited prises, solution providers, and the investment community.

38 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com Customer Experience By Barton Goldenberg 4 Big Barriers to an Integrated Customer-Centric Strategy The key, as always, is data—and how you use it

RECENTLY ATTENDED an alumni course executive-level commitment to ensure that customer satis- at my alma mater, the Wharton School, titled “Cus- faction, loyalty, and advocacy is a companywide imperative. tomer Centricity.” We played a simulation game Challenge No. 3: Knowing How to Meaningfully where each group implemented a variety of sales, Apply Big Data Analytics Imarketing, and service activities with the goal of maxi- A successful integrated customer-centric strategy requires mizing customer value over time. online and offline data to flow across five distinct When the game ended, I asked the professor channels of customer engagement—traditional whether an organization can optimize customer media, social media, e-commerce, emerging tech- value if it fails to integrate both offline and online nologies, and customer experience—and into the data. The professor’s answer was revealing. As in holistic customer profile. An integrated strategy real life, the game’s algorithms require accurate also employs Big Data analytics to mine these data to produce accurate results. Offline data is easy to profiles, leading to refined segmentation, better customer secure and tends to be accurate. Reliable online data, on journey maps, enhanced websites, sales-channel optimiza- the other hand, is harder to obtain, and knowing how to tion, and more powerful mobile apps. leverage it to engage customers remains a huge challenge. Big Data tools must be applied skillfully and effectively Which brings me to our objective: to identify the top so that actionable insights result from the analysis. Tight four challenges (the issue of data integration prominent collaboration between “creative” marketers, responsible among them) on the path to an integrated customer- for securing real-time data from brand-loyal customers centric strategy. I define such a strategy as a structured sensitive to privacy issues, and “technical” marketers, approach that leverages all customer data to increase cus- responsible for applying new tools to harness data from tomer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue. offline and online sources, will be necessary. Challenge No. 1: Integrating Offline and Challenge No. 4: Creating a Meaningful Road Map Online Customer Data How do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time. This is CUSTOMER Most organizations effectively gather and why a multiyear road map is critical to your strategy. The SATISFACTION, use offline customer sales and service data but road map prioritizes activities in all five customer engage- LOYALTY, AND fail at securing online data. It’s easy to see why: ment channels, based on the ability to achieve sustainable ADVOCACY IS NOT A Customers often surf the web anonymously. results. Implementation occurs in manageable, bite-size DIVISIONAL ISSUE Still, failure to secure online data can lead to pieces. BUT A COMPANY wasted engagement efforts based on an incom- A successful road map has three distinct but integrated IMPERATIVE. plete picture of the customer. Today’s sophisti- strands: a technology strand that accounts for 20 percent of cated data on-boarding tools can help, but the the overall success of the strategy; a process strand (30 per- best solution lies in making offline and online cent); and a people strand (50 percent). Any other empha- data a key part of the organization’s DNA. This is how sis is doomed to fail. No CRM application, new website, Disney, Uber, and Amazon run. social media community, or omnichannel software imple- Challenge No. 2: Getting Organizational Buy-in mentation can overcome bad company processes or by Imagine the impact when the marketing department itself motivate personnel to change the way they work. instantaneously shares customer insights captured in There are brilliant minds in the CRM and related social media communities with sales reps to drive new industries working to resolve the four challenges noted business, or the e-commerce department shares a cus- above. They will get resolved sooner than we think. tomer’s online behavior with product management to produce a better “next best offer.” Barton Goldenberg ([email protected]) is president of ISM Inc., a strategic consulting firm that he founded in 1985. ISM (www.ismguide.com) An executive from a consumer packaged goods client applies digital strategy, CRM/social CRM, branded communities, customer told me, “I know that sharing customer data across com- experience management, channel optimization, and Big Data analytics and pany divisions is what we should be doing. But our divi- insight to build successful customer-centric business initiatives. He is a fre- quent speaker and is author of four books; his latest, The Definitive Guide to sions act like siloes; each division looks after itself, often at Social CRM, can be purchased at www.ismguide.com/book, at www.amazon. the expense of the organization.” Sound familiar? It takes com, and at www.ftp.com for autographed, direct, and group book orders.

www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 39 Marshall Lager January’s Chief Talent Coordinator Pint of View The ROI of Teamwork Specialists are important, even when roles overlap

THE FIRST THING I have to do is tell you that you’ve management can make a big difference, and a more robust been living a lie—my lie. For the past couple of months, I stack of technology makes a little shop look like a big deal. have been working for global analyst firm Ovum, but since The downside of being a hyper-efficient soloist is getting my articles are written months in advance, my sign-offs didn’t stuck in that operating mode. You’re doing it all yourself, and reflect it. You do read those, right? I make up a new one every as time goes on, that all becomes bigger and bigger until you month, just to see if you’re paying attention. look like Atlas holding up the heavens. Everything rests on One of the reasons I joined Ovum was that I was getting your shoulders, and you’re afraid or unable to get out from tired of doing everything myself. Being your own boss can be under it. (Side note: All the images of Atlas you’ve ever seen are freeing, but it’s also tough. Setting your wrong. His punishment was not to hold own hours and answering to nobody up the world, but the heavens. Picture but yourself and your clients kicks ass; a guy standing in the middle of a field having to be my own marketing and with his hands up in the air, straining sales team in addition to doing research against nothing, and you have a more and producing content kicks my ass. accurate picture. This thought never Becoming part of something bigger fails to amuse me.) and greater is definitely the right move Sure, it can be tricky to bring new for me. talent into a small business or sole pro- It might seem like I’m trying to jus- prietorship. You have to concede that tify my choice. Not at all; I’m using my you need help, or that there’s some- choice to set up the point I’m trying to thing in your domain of which you are make, which is that nobody should be not the master. You need to learn to let wearing all the hats unless they want to. go, to trust others to take your stuff as Large companies tend not to have this seriously as you do. On the bright side, problem. I believe smaller ones should try to avoid it as well. you get to give up the parts of your business that you hate, This might seem to run contrary to the idea that good enter- while still getting them done. prise software lets you do more with fewer resources, and to Specialization of skills is not an excuse, though. Situations some extent that’s true. There’s only so much you can do arise where individuals have to stretch themselves to accom- about specializing when you’re a sole proprietor or a small plish things that are outside their comfort zone, often for the shop. If you’re down for doing all the work yourself, that’s good of their coworkers or customers. A worker who sees a task great. More power to ya. If you desire growth and flexibil- and says “That’s not in my job description” is somebody you ity, however, you’re quickly going to reach a point where you need to lose. This is especially true of customer-facing roles. It’s simply don’t have enough hours in the day, or enough diver- bad enough for an agent to say he is unable to help a customer; sity of skills to keep going. it’s deadly for him to say he can’t because it’s not his job. If an And this might seem contrary to the idea behind CRM employee says that, make it true by firing him on the spot. and enterprise software in general; it lets you handle a larger volume of business than you otherwise could. This sort of Marshall Lager is a senior analyst for customer engagement and contact center efficiency allows sole proprietors to operate at a higher level technology for analyst firm Ovum, but he won’t let it go to his head. Contact him at than they otherwise could. Something as simple as contact [email protected], or www.twitter.com/Lager.

40 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2017 www.destinationCRM.com

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