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10/18/05 - Don't Pick on the Benchmark Firms
One reader wrote, "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have long felt this way [about benchmarking] and as a consultant I feel a great deal of conflict when a customer insists benchmarking is what they want to have done to measure their performance!"
While some of the responsibility may fall at the feet of firms that help call centers make operational comparisons, it seems much of the blame should rest with call center managers and the people they report to. The demand for these benchmark comparisons are borne out of demand. Regardless, how misguided the demand might be, benchmarking firms are merely satisfying a perceived need.
We get what we ask for. Just because our kids ask for happy meals when they are hungry doesn't mean that we should take them to McDonalds for nourishment. We need to make sure that we are not just scratching an itch but rather treating the rash. In summary, be careful with those numbers!
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
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TODAY'S NEWS (more)
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Soffront announced that it now offers a Seminar and Event Management module. This new module improves a company's ability to plan, execute, and measure the effectiveness of seminars and events.
SAP announced that it is extending its Safe Passage program of SAP applications, technology and support in a special offer for companies running Siebel software. The new offering from SAP provides "safe passage" to companies grappling with the uncertainties arising from Siebel's pending acquisition by Oracle Corporation and the resulting challenges these customers may face.
Pegasystems announced the release of several new solution frameworks for Human Resources, Support and Procurement. These frameworks provide best-practice processes and rules for internal operations across varied business units in any industry.
Epicor announced the availability of Epicor Portal, a server framework for self-guided, role-based access to Epicor applications that enables cross-enterprise collaboration, intuitive interfaces and an enhanced end-user experience.
Salesforce.com announced that FFF Enterprises is using the Appforce on-demand platform to create, deploy and manage five new business
critical applications. Appforce has enabled FFF Enterprises to extend the value of its salesforce.com deployment by allowing it to build and
launch on-demand applications that take care of tasks specific to its territory managers, sales development representatives and marketing team.
MCI announced that it has enhanced its European customer loyalty program through an expanded engagement with Satmetrix Systems. MCI's customer-facing teams in Europe can now receive immediate customer feedback on all non-technical inquiries, technical faults and provisioning activities, which provide MCI with representation of operational performance.
The NSPCC has selected a range of productivity solutions from smartFOCUS that will improve their ability to access value from their donor database. Based on the smartSERVER platform NSPCC have purchased analysis, profiling, modelling, campaigning and reporting applications that will enable the marketing and donor relationship teams to create better donor insight and target their communications more effectively and with greater relevance.
Witness announced that the company has been named to Software Magazine's 2005 Software 500 list and awarded the Deloitte Technology Fast 50.
SupportSoft and the Mozilla Corp. have teamed to enhance end-user experience. Mozilla has embedded SupportSoft service automation technology into Mozilla products.
StayinFront announced that company executives will demonstrate StayinFront SIMSTM (Sample Inventory Management System) version 9.2 and StayinFront CRM at the 8th Original Forum on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for the Bio/Pharmaceutical Industry.
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 FEATURE WEBCAST (more) |
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"CRM's Secret Sauce - Everything You Need to Know About CRM"
Gary Lemke, Founder and Publisher, CRMAdvocate
Ah CRM . . . So much investment, so little return. Even today, a great divide exists between the promise and the benefit of CRM. Why? The answer is a paradox of simplicity and complexity - that is, the straightforward desire for customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention against an unyielding realization that not all customers act the same. Nor are all customers valued equally. This webcast is the first in a series on a single strategic focus and metric that can catapult your organization to the next level of revenue growth and profitability. Listen now to learn more.
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 40.69 |  | -0.27% |
| Dow Jones | 10,348.10 |  | 0.59% |
| Nasdaq | 2,070.30 | | 0.26% |
| S&P 500 | 1,190.10 | | 0.30% |
| Top Gainers |
| salesforce.com | 22.86 | | 0.64 |
| Vignette | 16.11 | | 0.37 |
| SAP | 43.56 | | 0.31 |
| Top Losers |
| NCR | 31.92 | | -0.66 |
| SPSS | 23 | | -0.65 |
| Tekelec | 16.9 | | -0.59 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 10/17/05 | |
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The Science of Customer Happiness - Understand the nuances of what keeps a customer happy and you have a customer for life.(Call Center Magazine)
|  | | Optimizing the Inbound Phone Channel - The ability to improve the efficiency of a call based on a customer profile, or some other demographic, is a powerful business tool. CRM software vendors have been providing this capability to call center agents and Web sites for years, but such tools have only recently begun to find their way into automated call center solutions. (Contact Center Today)
| | | SAP Vies for Customers as Siebel Seeks to Reassure - Siebel used its sales confab to reassure customers and partners. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison addressed the crowd gathered in Boston for the event via video conference, saying that Siebel "will be the foundation for Oracle CRM going forward."(CRMBuyer)
| | | The Danger of Defection - Over the last fifteen years, the cult of customer retention has gone from strength to strength. For many industries, winning new customers consumes far less intellectual effort than keeping the ones you already have, and developing their value to your organisation. Much modelling effort goes into predicting which customers are likely to defect, as well as building strategies to stop them doing so. Research from Pitney Bowes tells us that by the end of 2005 more effort will be going into marketing to existing customers than is devoted to winning new ones - a watershed moment in marketing.(CRMToday)
| | | Dashboards -- Not just for executives - Frost Bank IT executive Louis Barton is the driving force behind a new effort to bring executive dashboards out of corner offices and into cubicles. Barton, executive vice president in charge of data warehousing and business intelligence at Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc., a $575 million bank holding company based in San Antonio, is one of more than 300 employees at his company using dashboards from Cognos Inc.(SearchCIO.com)
| | | On-Demand Benefits for the Call Center - According to Karen Moser, an analyst with research firm International Data Corp. (IDC), the market for Web-based applications will reach $1.5 billion within one year. You can be sure that the same trend will soon catch hold in the contact center.(Contact Center Today)
| | | U.S. Small and Mid-sized Businesses Find Value in Converged Communications Solutions - Small and mid-sized businesses in the United States plan to increase their usage of converged voice and data communications solutions over the next 18 months, new research commissioned by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) reveals.(CRMToday)
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"OUR TAKE"
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