 Steve Robins Director of Product and Services Marketing Broadbase Software srobins@servicesoft.com |
Q. What do you recommend as a few key technologies to obtain a 360-degree view of the customer? A few key technologies that will empower you to have a 360-degree view of a customer are the single-threaded conversation, outbound e-mail campaigns, and eService portals. These technologies enable companies to use their marketing dollars more efficiently; to significantly increase customer satisfaction and loyalty; and to achieve better bottom-line results. The "single-threaded conversation" is the foundation for building a customer conversation history and achieving a 360-degree view. It tracks all customer interactions across multiple channels, enabling multiple customer service representatives (CSRs) to conduct a continuous personalized dialog over time and across multiple touch points. When systems communicate and when all CSRs have access to customers' history with the company, interactions improve and customers can actually feel the difference. Customers sense that they are important and are more likely to remain loyal to a company that values them. What's more, the single-threaded conversation becomes a platform for more effective e-mail marketing campaigns. E-mail marketing campaign management is a powerful e-marketing tool that delivers targeted marketing messages and other information to customers and prospects in a fast and immediate format. The information gathered about your customer through the single-threaded conversation can even be used to create more effective campaigns that are readily measurable in real time. With real-time capabilities, a company will have the ability to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns in order to respond to market conditions and change them accordingly, as well as determine which marketing campaigns are more successful and why. Finally, an eService portal presents a 'single face' to customers, which is customized to provide all information, history, and knowledge that customers need for purchase decisions, account management, or customer service and support. The eService portal harnesses the single threaded conversation, customer databases as well as customer profile information to deliver content that is tailored to the needs of the customer. The single-threaded conversation, outbound e-mail campaigns, and eService portals all enable companies to gain and harness a 360-degree view of the customer. |