Good CRM Wasn’t Enough

It seems a shame to start off the week with a downer — especially after last week’s election excitement — but there’s bad news from the B2C consumer electronics sector. In case you haven’t heard, Circuit City has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (Steve Gelsi of MarketWatch has it here). Normally this wouldn’t be worth mentioning here, since on the surface the reasons are economic in nature and the bulk of our coverage goes to B2B concerns, but I felt there was something worth saying.

Not long ago I mentioned a retailer in my Pint of View column that had completely turned its sales and customer-service practices around. I left the name of that retailer out on purpose, but it was Circuit City. I used to loathe that store, as evidenced by the unprintable name I used for it in conversation (hint: the second word still sounds a lot like City). The change they pulled off in the last few years amazed me. CC wasn’t perfect — the perfect electronics retailer doesn’t exist — but the chain made the effort to treat customers like something more than cattle, and I appreciated that effort. The 24-minute pickup program they instituted also deserved kudos.

Now Circuit City is headed for receivership, and some are saying one reason is that they weren’t selling. (From the MarketWatch article: “Circuit City had been hurt by having stores in less-favorable locations than those of Best Buy Co. … by increased competition from the likes of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. … and by an earlier move to lay off higher-paid staff who were able to push more profitable sales, according to industry observers.”) My personal experience with Circuit City tells me this isn’t the case. The higher-paid staff couldn’t have sold me a pack of batteries back in the day — they’re the ones who turned me off of the chain in the first place. The people they have today really seem to have a handle on low-pressure, consultative sales, and the stores (including the checkout lines) are always busy when I see them.

View Original Article

Amdocs Acquires ChangingWorlds

Let’s face it — the economy is a mess. Cost of living is up, stock shares go on hourly roller coaster rides you normally have to wait in line for hours to ride at Six Flags, and now people are trying to figure out how to buy gifts this holiday season while still being able to keep the lights on. In sum, consumers are impatient, perturbed, and trying to find exactly what they need when they need it.

For companies, this means personalization — and St. Louis-based customer experience systems provider Amdocs is looking to meet this growing need, particularly in the mobile phone world with its acquisition of Dublin, Ireland-based ChangingWorlds for $60 million, which is expected to close during Amdocs’ fiscal quarter ending December 31.

ChangingWorlds’ mission, according to its Web site, is to “pave the way for all types of personalized information services over mobile, from personalized portal navigation to smarter search and highly targeted mobile advertising to ensure that mobile subscribers enjoy content and services that are relevant to their true needs.”

Judging by the fact that the term “mobile” is mentioned three times in a single-sentence statement, ChangingWorlds is focused on that customer touchpoint. However, James Patmore, vice president of EMEA and Asia Pacific for Amdocs stresses that this move is not solely for the sake of mobile content. “This is about adding relevancy and personalization for all of the touchpoints a user might have with a service provider,” he says. “One is mobile, but others can be with a customer management team in the call center or the experience they might have purchasing [or updating] a service plan by using the online portal. ChangingWorlds’ business is really an expansion on what we bring to personalization technology.”

View Original Article

Managing a Successful Customer Service Team

Keeping employees engaged and signed on to the team concept is one of the main themes here at the sixth annual North American Conference on Customer Management here at the Disneyland Hotel in balmy Anaheim, Calif.
Who better to talk about teamwork than Joe Torre, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers? Yesterday he wowed the crowd [...]

View Original Article