Search Results

Search found 15125 results on 605 pages for 'customer experience manag'.

Page 6/605 | < Previous Page | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13  | Next Page >

• “Big Data” Is A Small Concept Unless You Can Apply It To The Customer Experience

  - by Michael Hylton

  There’s been a lot of recent talk in the industry about “big data”.  Much can be said about the importance of big data and the results from it, but you need to always consider the customer experience when analyzing and applying customer data. Personalization and merchandising drive the user experience.  Big data should enable you to gain valuable insight into each of your customers and apply that insight at the moment they are on your Web site, talking to one of your call center agents, or any other touchpoint.  While past customer experience is important, you need to combine that with what your customer is doing on your Web site now as well what they are doing and saying on social networking sites.  It’s key to have a 360 degree view of your customer across all of your touchpoints in order to provide that relevant and consistent experience that they come to expect when interacting with your brand. Big data can enable you to effectively market, merchandize, and recommend the right products to the right customers and the right time.  By taking customer data and applying it to product recommendations, you have an opportunity to gain a greater share of wallet through the cross-selling and up-selling of additional products and services.  You can also build sustaining loyalty programs to continue to engage with your customers throughout their long-term relationship with your brand.

  Read the article

• “Big Data” Is A Small Concept Unless You Can Apply It To The Customer Experience

  - by Michael Hylton

  There’s been a lot of recent talk in the industry about “big data”.  Much can be said about the importance of big data and the results from it, but you need to always consider the customer experience when analyzing and applying customer data. Personalization and merchandising drive the user experience.  Big data should enable you to gain valuable insight into each of your customers and apply that insight at the moment they are on your Web site, talking to one of your call center agents, or any other touchpoint.  While past customer experience is important, you need to combine that with what your customer is doing on your Web site now as well what they are doing and saying on social networking sites.  It’s key to have a 360 degree view of your customer across all of your touchpoints in order to provide that relevant and consistent experience that they come to expect when interacting with your brand. Big data can enable you to effectively market, merchandize, and recommend the right products to the right customers and the right time.  By taking customer data and applying it to product recommendations, you have an opportunity to gain a greater share of wallet through the cross-selling and up-selling of additional products and services.  You can also build sustaining loyalty programs to continue to engage with your customers throughout their long-term relationship with your brand.

  Read the article

• Improve Customer Experience with Real-Time Scheduling

  - by ruth.donohue

  Recently, my husband rearranged his busy work schedule so that he could stay home an entire afternoon to wait for the alarm company to reset the password to our alarm system, only to discover at the end of the afternoon that the field service rep wasn’t going to be able to make the appointment after all. And, the company asked him to reschedule and block off time for another afternoon. Needless to say, my husband wasn’t happy with that experience. Unfortunately, customer experiences like this happen every day. As a business, you can’t afford these types of encounters. It’s too easy for your customers to turn to one of your competitors once they’ve reached the point of frustration. Customer experience and customer loyalty are more important than ever. So how can you prevent something like this from occurring? With the newly available Siebel Field Service Integration with Oracle Real-Time Scheduler, your service organization can: Create cost-optimized plans and schedules to improve operating efficiencies Deliver more accurate ETA’s and shorten appointment windows Minimize the impact of in-day events such as delays on site, sickness, poor weather conditions, and vehicle breakdowns Rather than requiring them to wait for an entire afternoon, imagine asking customers to be available for only an hour. And being able to commit to that time by working around unforeseen events and understanding the impact of delays or re-routings before they become customer issues. What would your customer experience and customer satisfaction be like then? Learn more about the Siebel Field Service Integration with Oracle Real-Time Scheduler: Register for and attend the upcoming webcast on Thursday, March 10th at 8:30 AM Pacific Time Read the press release, data sheet, and solution brief Visit the Siebel Field Service webpage

  Read the article

• Constituent Experience Counts In Public Sector

  - by Michael Seback

    Businesses and government organizations are operating in an era of the empowered customer where service  and communication channels are challenged every day.  Consumers in the private sector have high expectations from purchasing gifts online, reading reviews on social sites, and expecting the companies they do business with to know and reward them.   In the Public Sector, constituents also expect government organizations to provide consistent and timely service across agencies and touch points.  Examples include requesting critical city services, applying for social assistance or reviewing insurance plans for a health insurance exchange. If an individual does not receive the services they need at the right time and place, it can create a dire situation – involving housing, food or healthcare assistance. Government organizations need to deliver a fast, reliable and personalized experience to constituents. Look at a few recent statistics from a Government focused survey: How do you define good customer service? 70 % improved services, 48% shortest time to provide information, 44% shortest time to resolve complaints What are ways/opportunities to improve customer service? 69% increased collaboration across agencies and 41% increased customer service channels Are you using data collected to make informed decisionsto improve customer service efforts? 39% data collection is limited, not used to improve decision making Source: Re-Imagining Customer Service in Government, 2012 Click here to see the highlights.  Would you like to get started – read Eight Steps to great constituent experiences for government.

  Read the article

• Mapping Your Customer Experience Journey

  - by Michael Hylton

  For those who attended today’s Oracle Customer Experience Summit keynote you heard from Brian Curran talk about the strategies and best practices to implement customer experience (CX) in your organization.  He spoke about how this evolving journey begins by understanding six steps to transform your business and put your customers front and center.  Here are those key six steps: What are the strategic business objectives in your company? What are your operational objectives and KPIs necessary to measure a CX project? Build an income statement and create “what if” scenarios and see how changes impact your business’ bottom line.  Explore what keeps you from getting to your own goals for your business. Define the business objectives and opportunities you want to meet? Understand the trends and accelerators in the market?  What factors are going on in the market affect that impact your business?  Social?  Mobile?  Cloud?  Just to name a few.  Many of these trends may signal a change in the way people think about your business. What approach will you take to solve these issues?  Understand who your customer is.  How do you need to adapt your business to build relevant, personalized customer experiences. What technologies can you implement to address CX?  Does technology help you solve your problem? A great way to begin your customer experience journey is a concept called journey mapping, one of the most powerful and deceptively simple tools for unlocking CX innovation at your organization. Here is where you can learn more about how you can bring this concept into your business to drive great customer experiences.

  Read the article

• The Talent Behind Customer Experience

  - by Christina McKeon

  Earlier, I wrote about Powerful Data Lessons from the Presidential Election. A key component of the Obama team’s data analysis deserves its own discussion—the people. Recruiters are probably scrambling to find out who those Obama data crunchers are and lure them into corporations. For the Obama team, these data scientists became a secret ingredient that the competition didn’t have. This team of analysts knew how to hear the signal and ignore the noise, how to segment and target its base, and how to model scenarios and revise plans based on what the data told them. The talent was the difference. As you work to transform your organization to be more customer-centric, don’t forget that talent is a critical element. Journey mapping is a good start to understanding how your talent impacts your customer experiences. Part of journey mapping includes documenting the “on-stage” and “back-stage” systems and touchpoints. When mapping this part of your customers’ journey, include the roles and talent behind the employee actions—both customer facing and further upstream from that customer touchpoint. Know what each of these roles does, how well you are retaining people in these areas, and your plans to fill these open positions in the future. To use data scientists as an example, this job will be in high demand over the next 10 years. The workforce is shrinking, and higher education institutions may not be able to turn out trained data scientists as fast as you need them. You don’t want to be caught with a skills deficit, so consider how you can best plan for the future talent you will need. Have your existing employees make their career aspirations known to you now. You may find you already have employees willing to take on roles that drive better customer experiences. Then develop customer experience talent from within your organization through targeted learning programs. If you know that you will need to go outside the organization, build those candidate relationships now. Nurture the candidates you want to hire and partner with universities, colleges, and trade associations so you can increase the number of qualified candidates in your talent pool.

  Read the article

• Preferred way for dealing with customer-defined data in enterprise application

  - by Axarydax

  Let's say that we have a small enterprise web (intranet) application for managing data for car dealers. It has screens for managing customers, inventory, orders, warranties and workshops. This application is installed at 10 customer sites for different car dealers. First version of this application was created without any way to provide for customer-specific data. For example, if dealer A wanted to be able to attach a photo to a customer, dealer B wanted to add e-mail contact to each workshop, and dealer C wanted to attach multiple PDF reports to a warranty, each and every feature like this was added to the application, so all of the customers received everything on new update. However, this will inevitably lead to conflicts as the number of customers grow as their usage patterns are unique, and if, for instance, a specific dealer requested to have an ability to attach (for some reason) a color of inventory item (and be able to search by this color) as a required item, others really wouldn't need this feature, and definitely will not want it to be a required item. Or, one dealer would like to manage e-mail contacts for their employees on a separate screen of the application. I imagine that a solution for this is to use a kind of plugin system, where we would have a core of the application that provides for standard features like customers, inventory, etc, and all of the customer's installed plugins. There would be different kinds of plugins - standalone screens like e-mail contacts for employees, with their own logic, and customer plugin which would extend or decorate inventory items (like photo or color). Inventory (customer,order,...) plugins would require to have installation procedure, hooks for plugging into the item editor, item displayer, item filtering for searching, backup hook and such. Is this the right way to solve this problem?

  Read the article

• What kind of intern experience should I get?

  - by Narcolapser

  So right now I have a good job as a software development intern for a company called Country Maid. I know that having 4 years of experience when I graduate from college (I'm currently a freshman) will look good on a resume. But I started to wonder, would 4 with one company be best, or 4 years split up between multiple companies be best? So my question is, when hiring a software developer straight out of college, what kind and how much experience to companies look for? ~N

  Read the article

• What are the different experience level for a technology

  - by Gunner

  Someone just starting to learn a technology is referred to as a beginner. But what are the various levels in terms of experience. I have seen Beginner, Intermediate, Expert being used. But is there just these three levels, or there are more, that is further break up. Is there any agreed standard to quantify experience levels.

  Read the article

• User Experience Highlights in Siebel: Direct from George Jacob

  - by mvaughan

  By Misha Vaughan and Kathy Miedema, Oracle Applications User Experience This is the first in a series of blog posts on the user experience (UX) highlights coming in various Oracle product families. You’ll see themes around productivity and efficiency, as well as a thoughtful approach to pushing UX capabilities into the underlying tooling. Of course, you can also expect to get an early look at the latest mobile offerings coming through these product lines.Today’s post is on Siebel. To learn more about what’s ahead, attend Siebel OpenWorld presentations. Our first interview is with George Jacob, the Group Vice President for CRM Applications. George Jacob Q: How would you describe the vision you have for the user experience of Siebel? A: Contemporary: Siebel runs in all browsers and all browser-capable devices using the latest web technology standards, such as Javascript, CSS, and HTML 5.Productive: Siebel is designed for a user experience that reduces clutter and user keystrokes.User-sensitive: The user experience enables Siebel to adapt easily to site and user preferences.Q: How are the UX features you have delivered so far resonating with customers? A:  Customers are very excited about our refresh of the Siebel user interface framework; the Siebel roadmap and user interface sessions at Oracle OpenWorld last year overflowed. We have had to turn back customer requests to participate in the early adopter program because we had more than we could handle. Customers are calling this a game-changer for Siebel.Q: So the UX highlights are popular? A: Yes, the UX highlights are very popular, although to a certain extent we expected this!  Q: What’s coming in Siebel on a mobile platform? A: Our current mobile offering is based on Windows Mobile (native application), and is fairly mature (over 5 years). The new Siebel Open User Interface Framework, by virtue of working on all browsers, will run – when it is released this year – on tablets and smartphones. This is one of the reasons a number of customers are most excited about our UX changes. Views of Siebel data on mobile devices Q: What are you working on now that you think is going to be exciting to customers at OOW? A: We are working on the Siebel Open User Interface Framework, to be released this year in the Siebel 2012 8.1.1.9 & 8.2.2.2 innovation packs. We are also working on Connected Mobile applications for Sales, Service, Consumer Goods and Pharmaceuticals, and Disconnected Mobile applications for Pharmaceuticals in the same release. We are building specialized applications that exploit the new UI framework for Telco Order Capture and for Life Sciences healthcare professional visits. Our 2012 delivery will be the foundation for further user experience enhancements, next year and beyond.Q: What do you want Siebel customers to know? A:  We are excited to be focused on improving the user experience of Siebel applications, and it is encouraging to see the positive feedback from Siebel customers and partners.If you would like to see more in the Siebel user experience, be sure to check out these sessions at OpenWorld: CON9700 - Siebel CRM Overview, Strategy, and Roadmap CON9703 - User Interface Innovations with the New Siebel “Open UI” CON9705 - Unleash the Power of “Open UI” CON9697 - Mobile Solutions for Siebel CRM

  Read the article

• Culture Shmulture?

  - by steve.diamond

  I've been thinking about "Customer Experience Management" lately. Here at Oracle, we arguably have the most complete suite of applications for managing the customer experience across and in the context of multiple channels -- from marketing to loyalty to contact center to self-service to analytics offerings, and more. And stay tuned, because in coming months let's just say we'll have even more to talk about on this front. But that said............ Last weekend my wife and I stayed at one of the premiere hotel chains on the planet. I won't name them, but we all know the short list. It could have been the St. Regis or the Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons or Hyatt Park or....This stay, at this particular hotel, was simply outstanding. Within a chain known for providing "above and beyond" levels of service, this particular hotel, under this particular manager, exceeded expectations on so many fronts. For example, at the Spa we mentioned to the two attendants that my wife is seven months pregnant and that we had previously had a lot of trouble conceiving. We then went to our room. Ten minutes later we heard a knock at the door and received a plate of chocolate covered strawberries with a heartfelt note and an inspiring quote, signed by the two spa attendees. The following day we arranged to have a bellhop drive us to the beach. Although they had a pre-arranged beach shuttle service with time limits, etc., he greeted us by saying, "I'm yours for the day until 4 p.m. Whatever you want to do is fine by me, as long as it's legal!" The morning that we left we arranged to have a taxi drive us to the airport--a nearly 40 mile drive. What showed up was a private coach complete with navy blue suited driver dude. And we were charged the taxi fare price. And there were many other awesome exchanges I won't mention here, although I did email the GM of this hotel two nights ago and expressed our effusive praise and gratitude. I'd submit that this hotel chain would have a definitive advantage using even more Oracle software to manage and optimize its customer interactions (yes, they are a customer). But WITHOUT the culture--that management team--and that instillation of aligned values across all employees of exemplifying 'the golden rule,' I wonder how much technology really matters in providing a distinctively positive and memorable customer experience. Lest you think I'm alone in these pontifications, have you read Paul Greenberg's blog lately? Have you seen one of his most recent posts? Now this SPECIFIC post is NOT about customer service per se. But it is about people. So yes, please think long and hard about the technology you seek to deploy. But never forget who will be interacting with your systems, and your customers.

  Read the article

• WebCenter Customer Spotlight: Textron Inc.

  - by me

  Author: Peter Reiser - Social Business Evangelist, Oracle WebCenter  Solution SummaryTextron Inc. is one of the world's best known multi-industry companies and is a pioneer of the diversified business model. Founded in 1923, it has grown into a network of businesses—including Bell Helicopter, E-Z-GO, Cessna, and Jacobsen—with facilities and a presence in 25 countries, serving a diverse and global customer base. Textron is ranked 236th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest US companies. Textron needed a Web experience management solution to centralize control, minimize costs, and enable more efficient operations. Specifically, the company wanted to take IT out of the picture as much as possible, enabling sales and marketing leads for subsidiaries to make Website updates as they deem appropriate for their business.   Textron worked with Oracle partner Element Solutions to consolidate its Website management systems onto Oracle WebCenter Sites. The implementation enables Textron’s subsidiaries to adjust more quickly to customer demands,  reduced Website management cost & time to update content on a Website while allowing to integrate its Website updates more closely with social media and mobile platforms. Company OverviewTextron Inc. is one of the world's best known multi-industry companies and is a pioneer of the diversified business model. Founded in 1923, it has grown into a network of businesses—including Bell Helicopter, E-Z-GO, Cessna, and Jacobsen—with facilities and a presence in 25 countries, serving a diverse and global customer base. Textron is ranked 236th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest US companies. Business ChallengesWith numerous subsidiaries and more than 50 public Websites, Textron needed a Web experience management solution to centralize control, minimize costs, and enable more efficient operations. Specifically, the company wanted to take IT out of the picture as much as possible, enabling sales and marketing leads for subsidiaries to make Website updates as they deem appropriate for their business.   Solution DeployedTextron worked with Oracle partner Element Solutions to consolidate its Website management systems onto Oracle WebCenter Sites. Specifically, Textron: Used Oracle WebCenter Sites to integrate Web experience management capabilities for all Textron brands, including Bell Helicopter, E-Z-GO, Cessna, and Jacobsen Developed Website templates to enable marketing and communications professionals to easily make updates to their Websites, without having to work with IT Reduced Website management costs, as it costs more for IT to coordinate Website updates as opposed to marketing and communications Enabled IT to concentrate on other activities to enhance overall operations for Textron, such as project workflows Acquired a platform that enables marketing teams to integrate their Websites with social media and mobile platforms, allowing subsidiaries to make updates and contact customers anytime and everywhere—including through tablets and smartphones Reduced the time it takes to update content on a Website, including press releases, by enabling communications professionals to make updates directly Developed more appealing visual designs for Websites to help enhance customer purchase Business ResultsThe implementation enabled Textron’s subsidiaries to adjust more quickly to customer demands and Textron’s IT staff to concentrate on other processes, such as writing code and developing new workflows, enabling them to enhance company processes. In addition, Textron can use Oracle WebCenter Sites to integrate its Website updates more closely with social media and mobile platforms, enabling marketing and communications teams to make updates anytime and everywhere. The initiative has enabled Textron to save money by freeing IT up to work on more important tasks, instituting new e-commerce and mobile initiatives to better engage customers, and by ensuring efficient Website management processes to quickly adjust to customer demands.  “We considered a number of products, but chose Oracle WebCenter Sites because it provides the best user interface. We reviewed customer references and analyst reports, and Oracle WebCenter Sites was consistently at the top of the list,” Brad Hof, Manager, Advanced Business Solutions and Web Communications, Textron Inc. Additional Information Tectron Inc. Customer Snapshot Oracle WebCenter Sites

  Read the article

• Understanding the Customer Form in Release 12 from an AR Perspective!!

  - by user793553

  Confused by the Customer Form in Release 12??  Read on, to get some insight into the evolution of this screen, and how it links in with Trading Community Architecture. Historically, the customer data model was owned by Oracle Receivables (AR).  However, as the data model changed and more complex relationships and attributes had to be tracked and monitored, the Trading Community Architecture (TCA) product was created.  All applications within the E-Business suite that require interaction with a customer integrate with TCA. Customer information is no longer stored in the individual applications but rather in a central repository/registry maintained within TCA.  It is important to understand the following entities/concepts stored in TCA: Party: A party is an entity with whom you can have a potential business relationship.  A party can be either a Person or an Organization.  The Party entity is completely independent of any business relationship; this means that a Party can exist even if you have no transactions with it.   The Party is the "umbrella" entity under which you capture all other attributes listed below. Customer: A customer is a party with whom you have an existing business relationship.  From an AR perspective, you can simplify the concepts by thinking of a Customer as a Party. This definition however does not apply to all other applications. In the Oracle Receivables Customer form, the information displayed at the Customer level is from TCA's Party information record. Customer Account (also called Account): An account contains information about how you transact business with a particular customer.  You can create multiple accounts for a customer.  When you create invoices and receipts you associate it to a particular Account of a Customer. Location: A Location is an address.  It is a point in space, typically identified by a street number, a street name, a city, a state or province, a country.  A location is independent of what it is used for - you do not associate a purpose to a location. Party Site: A Party Site is associated to a Party.  It is the location where a party is physically located.  When defining sites for a Party, only one can be an identifying address.  However, you can define other party sites associated to a party. You can define purposes/usage for Party Sites. Account Site: An Account Site is associated to a Customer Account. It is the location associated to the account you are transacting business with. You can define business purposes (also called site uses) for an Account site. Read more about the Customer Workbench in these notes: Doc ID 1436547.1 Oracle Receivables: Understanding the Customer Form in Release 12 Doc ID  1437866.1 Customer Form - Address: Troubleshooting, Known Issues and Patches Doc ID  1448442.1 Oracle Receivables (AR): Customer Workbench Information Center Do you find this type of blog entry useful?  Please add comments to let us know how we can help you more effectively.  Thank you!

  Read the article

• Webmarketing : Adobe complète sa solution d'optimisation de l'expérience client avec des modules pour les campagnes mobiles

  Adobe met à jour sa solution d'optimisation de l'expérience client Avec des modules pour les campagnes mobiles et l'intégration avec Adobe Online Marketing Suite Adobe annonce la disponibilité de sa nouvelle solution de gestion de l'expérience web (WEM : Web Experience Management), une avancée qualifié de « majeure » par l'éditeur pour sa plate-forme CEM (gestion de l'expérience client). WEM vise à optimiser la manière dont les entreprises créent des expériences multicanal au profit des ventes, des services et des interactions avec le client. La solution permet aux entreprises de tirer parti des derniers terminaux mobiles et des communautés « pour développer leur potenti...

  Read the article

• Certifications needed to get an interview with no experience and no degree. [closed]

  - by Joel Cornett

  Possible Duplicate: Are certifications worth it? Given that I have no commercial experience to speak of -- and no undergraduate degree -- how can I best demonstrate my programming ability in order to interview for a job? How valuable are the various software certifications? Should I get the OCA? Should I submit samples of my code? Are there some other skills that I should develop? (I picked up Python and Java fairly quickly--a matter of weeks, actually.) I am a undergrad working on a triple major in math, stat and econ. I consider myself proficient with Python and have a working knowledge of Java.

  Read the article

• No Customer Left Behind

  - by Kathryn Perry

  A guest post by David Vap, Group Vice President, Oracle Applications Product Development What does customer experience mean to you? Is it a strategy for your executives? A new buzz word and marketing term? A bunch of CRM technology with social software added on? For me, customer experience is a customer-centric worldview that produces a deeper understanding of your business and what it takes to achieve sustainable, differentiated success. It requires you to prioritize and examine the journey your customers are on with your brand, so you can answer the question, "How can we drive greater value for our business by delivering a better customer experience?" Businesses that embrace a customer-centric worldview understand their business at a much deeper level than most. They know who their customers are, what their value is, what they do, what they say, what they want, and ultimately what that means to their business. "Why Isn't Everyone Doing It?" We're all consumers who have our own experiences with many brands. Good or bad, some of those experiences stay with us. So viscerally we understand the concept of customer experience from the stories we share. One that stands out in my mind happened as I was preparing to leave for a 12-month job assignment in Europe. I wanted to put my cable television subscription on hold. I wasn't leaving for another vendor. I wasn't upset. I just had a situation where it made sense to put my $180 per month account on pause until I returned. Unfortunately, there was no way for this cable company to acknowledge that I was a loyal customer with a logical request - and to respond accordingly. So, ultimately, they lost my business. Research shows us that it costs six to seven times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Heavily funding the efforts of getting new customers and underfunding the efforts of serving the needs of your existing (who are your greatest advocates) is a vicious and costly cycle. "Hey, These Guys Suck!" I love my Apple iPad because it's so easy to use. The explosion of these types of technologies, combined with new media channels, has raised our expectations and made us hyperaware of what's going on and what's available. In addition, social media has given us a megaphone to share experiences both positive and negative with greater impact. We are now an always-on culture that thrives on our ability to access, connect, and share anywhere anytime. If we don't get the service, product, or value we expect, it is easy to tell many people about it. We also can quickly learn where else to get what we want. Consumers have the power of influence and choice at a global scale. The businesses that understand this principle are able to leverage that power to their advantage. The ones that don't, suffer from it. Which camp are you in?Note: This is Part 1 in a three-part series. Stop back for Part 2 on November 19.

  Read the article

• Poor Customer Service Example

  - by MightyZot

  Lately I have been frustrated by examples of poor customer service. At least one is worth writing about because I don’t think companies realize the effects of their service policies on loyal customers. Bad Customer Service Example #1 Recently, I received an offer in the mail from my cable company, suddenLink. The offer was for an updated TiVo for $12/mo. Normally I ignore offers like this one because I already have the service they’re offering and many times advertisers are offering alternatives to what is already an excellent product offering. I tend to exhibit a high level of loyalty to the products and brands that I use. In this case, we were looking to upgrade our TiVo and this deal is attractive for several reasons: I don’t want to pay a huge amount up-front for the device, so paying a monthly amount for the device is attractive to me. My entertainment is almost all on a single invoice. I’m no longer going to be billed by suddenLink and TiVo. TiVo is still involved, so I am still loyal to the brand I love. I have resisted moving to other DVRs and services for over a decade. I called suddenLink to order the new TiVo and was rewarded with great customer service. In fact, I can’t remember ever getting poor customer service from suddenLink. They are always there to answer my technical support questions and they are very responsive to outages. Then I called TiVo. First of all, I chose the option on the phone system to change or cancel my service, which was consequently met by an inordinate hold time. (I’m calling this time inordinate because I get through very quickly if I want to purchase something.) This is a trend that I’ve noticed with companies – if you want me to be loyal to you, it should be just as easy to cancel your service as it is to purchase it. Because, I should never be cancelling because I am unhappy. And, if you ever want my business again, or more importantly a reference, then you’d better make the exit door open just as easy as the enter door. After quite some time on hold, I talked to “Victor” who was very courteous. Victor canceled my service and then told me that I could keep my current TiVo and transfer recorded programs to it from the new TiVo.  Cool I said, but what about the cost?  He said there was no extra cost.  This was also attractive to me because I paid for my TiVo and it would be good to use it for something at least.  That was four months ago. This month I noticed that TiVo was still charging me for my original service. I was a little upset, but I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. After all, I am a loyal TiVo customer and I have resisted moving to other solutions for over a decade. I’m sure they will do whatever it takes to keep my business, through TiVo or through suddenLink. After quite some time on hold, I was able to talk to a customer service representative, “Les”. I explained that I am a loyal TiVo customer, but I purchased this deal through my cable provider. I’m still with TiVo, I just wanted a single bill and to take advantage of the pay-over-time option. “Les” told me that he was very sorry to hear that I’m leaving TiVo, to which I responded again that I wasn’t leaving TiVo, I just want one invoice, and to take advantage of the pay-over-time. So, after explaining that I requested a termination of the non-suddenLink account (TiVo can see both of course), I was put on hold again for quite some time while my refund was “approved”.  “Les” said that he could see my cancellation request back in July. Note that it is now November, so they have billed me inappropriately four times. After quite some time, he came back on the line and told me that he was able to “get me most of my money back.” He got approval to refund 90 days. Even though I requested cancellation of one of my accounts, TiVo has that cancellation request on file and they admit overbilling me, I am going to get “most” of my money back. To top this experience off, when we were ready to hang up, “Les” told me that he was sorry to see me go and that he hoped I would come back to TiVo again. Again, I explained to “Les” that I have not left TiVo. I am just paying them through suddenLink. At that point, he went into a small dissertation about how this is a special arrangement they have with suddenLink and very few others. He made me feel like I was doing something wrong. Why should I feel that way? TiVo made the deal with suddenLink, not me, and the deal seemed like a good compromise for me to be able to get what I need. Here is what TiVo Customer Service accomplished on those two calls – I no longer feel like I need to be loyal to the TiVo brand or service. If I had been treated better on these two calls, I would still be recommending TiVo to my friends. They would still be getting revenue from a loyal customer, who paid the same rate for over a decade, and this article wouldn’t be here for you to read. Interesting… In my opinion, if you want brand loyalty, be loyal to your customers!

  Read the article

• Why It Is So Important to Know Your Customer

  - by Christie Flanagan

  Over the years, I endured enough delayed flights, air turbulence and misadventures in airport security clearance to watch my expectations for the air travel experience fall to abysmally low levels. The extent of my loyalty to any one carrier had more to do with the proximity of the airport parking garage to their particular gate than to any effort on the airline’s part to actually earn and retain my business. That all changed one day when I found myself at the airport hoping to catch a return flight home a few hours earlier than expected, using an airline I had flown with for the first time just that week.  When you travel regularly for business, being able to catch a return flight home that’s even an hour or two earlier than originally scheduled is a big deal. It can mean the difference between having a normal evening with your family and having to sneak in like a cat burglar after everyone is fast asleep. And so I found myself on this particular day hoping to catch an earlier flight home. I approached the gate agent and was told that I could go on standby for their next flight out. Then I asked how much it was going to cost to change the flight, knowing full well that I wouldn’t get reimbursed by my company for any change fees. “Oh, there’s no charge to fly on standby,” the gate agent told me. I made a funny look. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This airline was going to let my fly on standby, at no additional charge, even though I was a new customer with no status or points. It had been years since I’d seen an airline pass up a short term revenue generating opportunity in favor of a long term loyalty generating one.  At that moment, this particular airline gained my loyal business. Since then, this airline has had the opportunity to learn a lot about me. They know where I live, where I fly from, where I usually fly to, and where I like to sit on the plane. In general, I’ve found their customer service to be quite good whether at the airport, via call center and even through social channels. They email me occasionally, and when they do, they demonstrate that they know me by promoting deals for flights from where I live to places that I’d be interested in visiting. And that’s part of why I’m always so puzzled when I visit their website.Does this company with the great service, customer friendly policies, and clean planes demonstrate that they know me at all when I visit their website? The answer is no. Even when I log in using my loyalty program credentials, it’s pretty obvious that they’re presenting the same old home page and same old offers to every single one of their site visitors. I mean, those promotional offers that they’re featuring so prominently  -- they’re for flights that originate thousands of miles from where I live! There’s no way I’d ever book one of those flights and I’m sure I’m not the only one of their customers to feel that way.My reason for recounting this story is not to pick on the one customer experience flaw I've noticed with this particular airline, in fact, they do so many things right that I’ll continue to fly with them. But I did want to illustrate just how glaringly obvious it is to customers today when a touch point they have with a brand is impersonal, unconnected and out of sync. As someone who’s spent a number of years in the web experience management and online marketing space, it particularly peeves me when that out of sync touch point is a brand’s website, perhaps because I know how important it is to make a customer’s online experience relevant and how many powerful tools are available for making a relevant experience a reality. The fact is, delivering a one-size-fits-all online customer experience is no longer acceptable or particularly effective in today’s world. Today’s savvy customers expect you to know who they are and to understand their preferences, behavior and relationship with your brand. Not only do they expect you to know about them, but they also expect you to demonstrate this knowledge across all of their touch points with your brand in a consistent and compelling fashion, whether it be on your traditional website, your mobile web presence or through various social channels.Delivering the kind of personalized online experiences that customers want can have tremendous business benefits. This is not just about generating feelings of goodwill and higher customer satisfaction ratings either. More relevant and personalized online experiences boost the effectiveness of online marketing initiatives and the statistics prove this out. Personalized web experiences can help increase online conversion rates by 70% -- that’s a huge number.1  And more than three quarters of consumers indicate that they’ve made additional online purchases based on personalized product recommendations.2Now if only this airline would get on board with delivering a more personalized online customer experience. I’d certainly be happier and more likely to spring for one of their promotional offers. And by targeting relevant offers on their home page to appropriate segments of their site visitors, I bet they’d be happier and generating additional revenue too. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}  ***** If you're interested in hearing more perspectives on the benefits of demonstrating that you know your customers by delivering a more personalized experience, check out this white paper on creating a successful and meaningful customer experience on the web.  Also catch the video below on the business value of CX in attracting new customers featuring Oracle's VP of Customer Experience Strategy, Brian Curran. 1 Search Engine Watch 2 Marketing Charts

  Read the article

• What packages can i use to unroll a complete store with customer service?

  - by acidzombie24

  I havent bought the server yet (possible VPS) but i am thinking about using linux with apache and mono for asp.net support. I don't know much about this. What packages can i use together to have a store with customer support? What i like is 1) A store to purchase one item (its digital). More may be possible but they are likely to be addons which need the first item. 2) Have the the store send messages to my app which will generate registration key and deliver the digital item. 3) Create an account for that customer on a support site used for tickets 4) A Forum. I'd like a private forum for customers and may want their account to be disabled when their product license has expired. 5) A mailing list. I like non customers be able to subscribe to a list and i'd like to know if any customers are on it so i can send different emails to each if desired. Are there packages that make any of these easy? I dont mind writing glue code if i need to but i havent tried any stores, mailing list, ticket system but have installed a forum once long ago. My mail server will likely be through google apps.

  Read the article

• Magento: I want to search customer by phone number regardless of spaces

  - by Tofeeq

  Hi there, I want to search customer in admin panel by customer billing phone but i need to search it regardless of spaces like it should search with spaces like 123 456 789 and if admin enters 123456789 then it also have to search so spaces don't matter Regards

  Read the article

• What is the correlation between programming language and experience/skills of their users?

  - by Petr Pudlák

  I'm sure there is such a correlation, because experience and skill leads good programmers to picking languages that are better for them, in which they're more productive, and working in a language forms how programmers think and influences their methods and skills. Is there any research or some statistical data of this phenomenon? Perhaps this is not a purely academic question. For example, if someone is starting a new project, it could be worth considering a language (among other criteria of course) for which there is a higher chance of finding or attracting experienced programmers. Update: Please don't fixate on the last paragraph. It's not my intention to choose a language based on this criterion, and I know there are other far more important ones. My interested is mostly academic. It comes from the (subjective) observation and I wonder if someone has researched it a bit. Also, I'm talking about a correlation, not about a rule. Sure there are both great and terrible programmers in every language. Just that in general it seems to me there is a correlation.

  Read the article

• Obtaining Embedded Linux Experience

  - by Thomas Matthews

  As an embedded firmware developer, I have used operating systems such as WinCE, Nucleus, ThreadX, VRTX and some background loops. There are more opportunities for me if I had Linux OS experience, or perhaps some certification. In my research, the only way to get Linux experience is to have your company move to a Linux OS. All the recruiters and HR folks won't let you in the door unless you have Linux experience. I haven't found any Universities that teach Linux. Recruiters and HR want some tangible proof (starting up your own Ubuntu box or playing with it doesn't count). So, how does one get into the area of Embedded Linux without Linux experience (I have Unix and Cygwin experience, but not Linux)?

  Read the article

• How Are Businesses Advancing with the Experience Revolution?

  - by Charles Knapp

  Businesses worldwide are operating in a new era. Customers are taking charge of their relationships with brands, and the customer experience has become the most important differentiator and driver of business value. Where is the experience heading? And how can businesses take advantage of the customer experience revolution? Find out from the experts at a one-of-a-kind event: the Oracle Customer Experience Summit at Oracle OpenWorld, San Francisco, October 3-5. Our featured speakers are global visionaries including Seth Godin, George Kembel from the Stanford d:School, Bruce Temkin, Kerry Bodine and Paul Hagen from Forrester, and Gene Alvarez from Gartner. Featured industry leaders will include speakers from Athene Group, Bazaarvoice, Comcast, Consortium of Service Innovation, Haworth, Intuit, KPN, Marriott, Nikon, Quicksilver, Royal Caribbean, SapientNitro, Southwest, Stryker, Stuart Concannon, and Twilio. Featured speakers from Oracle will include Oracle President Mark Hurd, Anthony Lye, David Vap, Brian Curran, John Kembel, and Matthew Banks. So, please join us at the Customer Experience Summit at the Oracle OpenWorld Conference.

  Read the article

• Is it smart to take a year off from school to get experience?

  - by user134147

  firstly I apologize if this question is not appropriate for the site, but I've seen other similar (though slightly deviant) questions on this sight before and I know the people here are the most qualified to answer my question. Anyways, I'm currently between my sophomore and junior years at a 4 year university, and after a bit of deliberation I've decided on computer science as a major (BA, by the way, as a BS would require me to stay at least an extra year the way our program is set up). I've been interested now in programming for a few months and I've developed a passion for it in a very short time. I began learning C++, migrating to Java recently when I learned my school focuses on this language. Now, I should mention that the concept of higher education has never sat well with me, so part of my motivation for wanting to take time off is to truly challenge myself and see what I can accomplish when I actually try at something. The autodidact in me finds it difficult to focus on my passions while trying to keep a high GPA in unrelated classes. However, I understand the times we live in and therefore would plan to complete my degree after this year. So my question is whether or not the skills I learn in a year off from college could justify the time off from school. Unfortunately, I don't believe I know enough yet to gain any professional experience (internship, etc.) so I would mostly focus my time on learning Java and another language, possibly Wordpress (to gain an understanding of web programming concepts as I have not yet decided what field I want to get into, and to make some money to fund my off-year), and to delve into security concepts, which also interest me. I'm hoping I could work on projects, such as simple applications or contributions to open source software during this time to enhance my resume once I do finish school, so I can find a job out of college easier. I do not want to be the new hire who knows nothing beyond the concepts of his Java textbooks. Does anyone have any input about these thoughts of mine, or any ideas for where I should focus my studies or how high I might set the bar for my work? Thanks a lot everyone!

  Read the article

• What to answer to a customer who asks which one of two equivalent technologies must be used?

  - by MainMa

  As a freelancer, I am often asked by my customers what they must choose between similar elements, neither of which being better than another. Examples: “Do I need my e-commerce website be in PHP or ASP.NET?” “Do I need to host this ordinary web service in Cloud or use an ordinary hosting service?” “Which one is better for my new website: MySQL or Oracle?” etc. There is maybe at most 1% of cases where the choice is relevant, and there is a real, objective reason to use one over another, based on the precise metrics and studies. In all other cases, it doesn't matter at all. It is totally, completely irrelevant, either because there are no implications¹, or because those implications are too small to be taken in account², or, finally, because it's impossible to predict those implications³. If you know one thing and not another one, the answer to those questions is easy: “You can either write the application in C# or Java, both being probably equivalent in your case. Note that I'm a C# developer, so if you choose Java, I would not be able to work on your project and you would need to find another freelancer.” When you know both technologies, you can't answer that. In this case, how to explain to the customer that the question he asks is subject to flamewar and has no real consequences on his project? In other words, how to explain that you've chosen to use one technology rather than an equivalent one for the reasons related to human resources, without giving the impression to be unprofessional or to not care about the project? ¹ Example: Is MySQL better (worse?), performance-wise, compared to Oracle, for a personal website which will be accessed by, oh, let's be optimistic, two people per day? ² Example: for a given project, I was asked to asset if Windows Azure hosting would be cheaper than the hosting of the same application on a well-known ASP.NET hosting provider. The cost revealed to be exactly the same. ³ Example: your customer have an idea of a future application (the idea itself being extremely vague). There is no business plan, no requirements, nothing at all. Just an idea. You are asked if Java is better than C# for this app. What do you answer?

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13  | Next Page >