Dovetail Software Blogs

Dovetail Seeker Update

kmiller — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:51:49 GMT

We will soon be releasing a new version of Dovetail Seeker our information retrieval tool for Dovetail/Clarify CRM. The big news in this release is that Seeker now includes a windows service for keeping your indexes in-sync with your database in near real-time. This release also adds the ability to wipe and re-index your search indexes after database purges.

Previous Seeker Posts

Seeker Introduced
Previous Release Post
Creating your own Seeker Client

Real-Time Indexing

Driver

Gary and I have been thinking about different scenarios where Seeker could be used. One of them was to use search to replace how users find different types of data. I’ll leave diving into that scenario in more detail to Gary. Think Find Caller using a single search box.

One of the requirements that came up was that the search index would need to in-sync with the database. Current versions of Seeker update the index via a console application. This works fine but there is a bit of overhead spinning up the Dovetail SDK for each indexing run.

How well does it work?

Running the indexer as a windows service makes the indexing process go extremely fast. Indexing passes do not take long because the application is running and ready to go.

I am seeing index updates for our default settings running as fast as 10ms. Of course your mileage may vary.

Another side effect of having the the index always being updated is that you will likely see this message in your Dovetail Agent search results.

We might need to revisit the utility of that notice when the index is this current.

Re-Indexing

We also added the ability to re-index your search index using a command line indexing utility called Seeker Console formerly called Seek. Re-indexing essentially wipes out your search index and starts over. This is important to do after you have purged data that is being indexed. For example, if you use Archive Manager to purge one million cases out of your database you don’t want those cases returned in search results.

The Four Season's Isadore Sharp and The Golden Rule of Customer Service

Dovetail Software — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:54:00 GMT

When Isadore "Issy" Sharp, the CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, set out nearly fifty years ago to create the world's best luxury hotel chain he asked himself, "How do you become the best? I figured it wouldn't mean through the architecture and décor, but through the quality of our service. I thought if we could make service so special and meet customer needs, that would differentiate us." He was running a motor lodge in Toronto back then, but now with over 80 hotels across the globe, he is sticking to his original commitment to customer service -- even if it hurts.

In a 2006 reflection upon his company and it's success, Mr. Sharp wrote,

"Even with the currents of change, throughout the history of our company, there has been a consistent thread—the commitment to service and to the employees who deliver the service product every day. [...] Those few moments of service delivery are a company’s make or break point, when reputation is either confirmed or denied. And the outcome in our industry normally depends on frontline employees: doormen, bellmen, waiters, maids—the lowest paid people, and often, in too many companies, the least motivated.

"The cornerstone of our corporate culture, to treat all others—customers, employees, partners, suppliers—as we ourselves would want to be treated, is the Golden Rule of Four Seasons, but also, the Golden Rule of life. [...] By nurturing the full potential of every willing worker from top to bottom, I believe that the hospitality industry can tap a unique source of leadership and success for the 21st century. And by committing to these simple principles of service and care for the employee, companies across the spectrum have the ability to become true success stories."

Back in 2006 the recession was barely a glint in the eye of Alan Greenspan, but Mr. Sharp sticks to his guns in good times and in bad. And despite a 25 percent drop off in business this year, he stubbornly maintains his high standards for customer service because after a half century in the hotel biz, his company knows a thing or two about surviving recessions. He refuses to cut staff. He won't budge on the number of flowers in the lobby. He won't even let his hotels resort to a lower thread count in the sheets.

But he doesn't own the hotels. The Four Seasons actually manages the hotels while real estate developers own the buildings and the land. And despite one lawsuit and the grumblings of these owners to the New York Times, Mr. Sharp will not compromise when it comes to customer service.

So by the time the global economy turns around, a few of the 80+ Four Season hotels and resorts may go away. But the customers never will.

Dovetail Links 2009-07-06

Dovetail Software — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:03:00 GMT

Adding a New Face to Customer Service

"Once companies begin to build some brand presence on online social networks, customers begin to interact with them. Some of the interactions focused on customer service and support issues. And when companies respond to the requests through the same channel, hence a new concept of customer service through social networking."

Set Your Sites Higher

"IT leaders at the cutting edge of e-commerce talk about the strategies and technologies they are using to beat the recession by forging stronger bonds with customers and opening up new business opportunities."

Use the 'Customer Loyalty Formula' to Keep Customers Coming Back

"According to a recent study, many big consumer brands are losing their loyal customers. It revealed that 52% of highly loyal consumers either reduced their loyalty or defected completely from the brands in the study. Further, only 4 out 10 brands in the study retained 50% or more of their highly loyal customers from year to year."

The Customer Rules, Again

"In addition to discounts, promotions and no-interest financing, there's something else some stores battling the recession have begun offering customers: a look in the eyes, a warm smile and a distinct lack of attitude. Customer service is making a comeback, which means consumers who have spent years being ignored by snobby sales staff or waiting in endless lineups are finally getting the respect they deserve – at least in some places."

Tough Times Call for Superior Customer Care

"Proper customer care is positioned to be a game-changer for wireless providers as it builds trust and drives satisfaction. Service providers are aware that maintaining a high quality of customer service is a key factor in customer retention, but reaching this metric is always a challenge. The inhibitors to superior customer care include weak communication between call centers and network operations and poor network intelligence. By being more proactive about identifying service issues, service providers can empower their customer care representatives with the tools to improve customer experience and help grow business."

Clarify interview questions

gsherman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:11:05 GMT

There was a recent discussion in the Clarify CRM Professionals group in LinkedIn regarding the GeekInterview Clarify CRM Interview questions. (and no, I didn't have anything to do with these questions)

Take a look - what do you think?

Are these good questions? Are the answers accurate?

Are they the kind of questions you would ask if you were at Amdocs and hiring an employee?

Are they the kind of questions you would ask if you were hiring an Amdocs/Clarify consultant to work on your project?

What questions would you ask?

I posted my comments in the Clarify CRM Professionals group in LinkedIn - but my short answer is I think these questions are terrible.

What say you, dear readers?

Dovetail Links 2009-06-29

Dovetail Software — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:21:00 GMT

Contact Center Performance Thriving in the Recession

"Conventional thought would dictate that key performance metrics (KPI) measuring contact center performance would drop during the economic recession due to more stressed-out, grumpier individuals. According to a new study from CFI Group, the opposite rang true -- as it found the Contact Center Satisfaction Index (CCSI) climbed three percent to 74 (based on a 100-point scale)."

Usability: The Cornerstone of E-Commerce/CRM Convergence

"E-commerce is one bright spot in the current economy, and many companies are looking for ways to boost online sales as offline revenues languish. One trend that's gaining steam is the convergence of e-commerce and CRM applications to maximize upsell and e-marketing opportunities."

Employees: The Direct Route to Customers' Hearts

"Research involving more than 30,000 customer service employees conducted earlier this year by the Corporate Executive Board indicates that there is a close connection between employees' work experience and customer opinions. Departments where employees reported they had the authority to take actions to meet customer needs, make decisions on their own to improve quality, and respond to problems without waiting for approval had the highest levels of customer satisfaction."

Business Intelligence: Getting a Grip on Business Intelligence TCO

"The fear of hidden costs has made many companies reluctant to invest in business intelligence implementations. Companies that have successfully established systems for completing BI projects -- from start to finish, both on budget and within expected time frames -- usually place experience, ROI and automation at the top of their list of priorities."

Seven Tips for Phasing CRM Projects

"'Phase your CRM project’ is one of those frequently offered pieces of advice to would-be implementers of CRM technology, but what does this really mean in practice? So, seven quick tips for phasing CRM projects effectively..."

The Risks Associated with SaaS

slynn — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:28:00 GMT

People tend to follow trends, and certainly the trend towards SaaS is growing. There is a lot of positives associated with on-demand applications, no doubt, but just like other similarly “can’t miss” opportunities (such as Bernard Madoff or Allen Stanford for investments), companies need to be aware of the risks associated with SaaS. Some of these have been highlighted previously, such as losing control of your data, or the long-term costs associated with SaaS are often higher than perpetual licenses, but one that hasn’t got as much attention should give many companies pause – What happens if your SaaS provider goes out of business?

There is always some risk associated with going with a small company, whether it is SaaS or on-premise, but at least with an on-premise solution, a company isn’t put into a short-term bind if their solution provider goes out of business. But in these tough economic times, that is a real risk with SaaS providers. Just ask customers of either Entellium or LucidEra. Both customer bases were put into the precarious position of quickly finding new solutions and figuring out how to get their critical data, which they don’t own or have access to, under their control. Furthermore, these solutions are generally mission-critical to an organization’s operation; so if a company loses access to these critical systems for even a couple of hours, their operation is compromised. And you don’t get to do this on your own timeframe. We all know how IT projects are done on IT’s timeline, and often they take a lot of planning.

So, a word of advice. Do your homework and make sure you consider both the pros and cons in choosing your solution provider.

Until Next Time,

Stephen

Dovetail Developer Training, August 10-14

gsherman — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:01:19 GMT

Our next Dovetail Developer Workshop is scheduled for August 10 through August 14 here in Austin, TX for developers interested in learning how to configure, manage and customize a Dovetail CRM environment. Space is limited, so please register ASAP by simply sending Nathan Shilling an email, or calling (512) 610-5455.

The workshop will kick off with a review of the Dovetail CRM components and the base-line architecture. Later sessions will walk participants through the installation of each of the Dovetail CRM modules, with hands-on programming labs where students will acquire skills and develop expertise to build new functionality, which they then can utilize to extend and customize their own CRM environment.

For instance, you will:

Learn how to extend your schema using SchemaEditor;
Import data using ArchiveManager;
Perform data access operations using the Dovetail SDK;
Learn how to use Dovetail Seeker for robust searching;
Write code that uses the API toolkits; and
Extend and customize Dovetail Agent – customize existing web pages, and create entirely new ones.

Bring your laptop. You'll need it for the many programming labs where you'll learn to add significant new functionality to your existing Clarify system.
For a complete syllabus, click here.

Using SqlHelper in a .Net application

styson — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:16:58 GMT

In the Dovetail SDK, there is a very useful SqlHelper class. SqlHelper provides a convenience and data provider-agnostic wrapper around ADO.NET. This allows an application to execute SQL commands in a database.

SqlHelper has various ways of being initialized, which all depend on a DbProvider instance to make a connection to the database. In most applications the DbProvider is separately instantiated based on configuration, so the examples here will not detail that process.

SqlHelper can execute a variety of SQL commands. SQL SELECT statements are usually performed by the ExecuteDataSet method. The ExecuteNonQuery method can be used to perform other SQL commands such as UPDATE or DELETE statements. ExecuteScalar is used frequently to get a value returned from a SQL statement for use later in the application.

In the first example, a simple database select statement is being executed to retrieve an ADO dataset. The dataset is then processed, writing the value from each of the two columns for each row in the first table in the dataset to the console. If no rows were retrieved, then nothing would be written to the console.

		public void SqlHelper_example()
		{
			var sqlCommand = "select title, id_number from table_subcase";
			var sqlHelper = new SqlHelper(_dbProvider, sqlCommand);

			var dataset = sqlHelper.ExecuteDataSet();
			var table = dataset.Tables[0];

			foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
			{
				var subcaseInfo = String.Format("Subcase {0}: {1}", row["id_number"], row["title"]);
				
				Console.WriteLine(subcaseInfo);
			}
		}

In this example, a database DELETE statement is being executed using a static SqlHelper instance to delete rows from the notes_log table.

		public void SqlHelper_example()
		{
			SqlHelper.ExecuteNonQuery(“DELETE from table_notes_log WHERE internal = ‘-666’”);
		}

Finally, here is an example using ExecuteScalar. The SQL SELECT statement will return the requested identifier, which is converted to an integer.

		public void SqlHelper_example()
		{
			int caseObjid = Convert.ToInt32(SqlHelper.ExecuteScalar(“SELECT objid from table_case WHERE id_number = ‘1’”));
		}

In reality, these examples just scratched the surface of possibilities for the uses of SqlHelper. The online documentation for SqlHelper provides a list if all the available methods, and putting them to use in applications gets easier with experience, and good examples.

Please add other examples that you have implemented in your comments, and we can all discuss!

Dovetail Links 2009-06-23

Dovetail Software — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:41:00 GMT

Social Networking Boom Drives Call Center Evolution

"Evolution appears to have come to the contact center business, driven by the popularity of social networking sites which have been tapped by enterprises for various marketing purposes. As a result, many companies are now thinking of ways to connect their key customer service resource--the contact center--to social networks, according to online research firm Datamonitor."

Bad Economy Calls for Better Customer Service

"QCS is something that is really great or it doesn’t seem to exist at all. It is more than the greeter at the main entrance, or the halfhearted, 'Thank you for shopping at ...' QCS stands for Quality Customer Service. It is the one thing that has a good chance of pulling us out of our economic slump, recession or whatever the current buzz-phrase is."

Who Knew? Consumers Hate Offshore Call Centers

"The recession, it turns out, is good for customer service. Consumers believe that they are getting better service than they used to from customer-support centers. But it turns out that outsourced call centers may be costing companies more than they think, and the third annual study of customer satisfaction with contact centers reports that customers 'are nearly twice as likely to recommend the company to others if they think the contact center is in the U.S., while they are three times more likely to defect if they believe it is based offshore,' reports the Contact Center Satisfaction Index. (The index is created by CFI Group, which uses the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index.)"

Top 10 Call Centre Websites for 2009

"In our annual round-up of call centre websites we have scouted round to find the best websites to find help and advice to improve your contact centre."

Can You Hear Your Customers Now?

"'The ROI on Customer Feedback: Why it Pays to Listen to the Voice of the Customer,' categorized organizations based on their use of customer feedback in relation customer problem resolution, customer satisfaction, customer retention and customer advocacy. [...] Best-in-class companies, who are twice as likely as the other companies to have an established process to track customer feedback across all departments, were 18 times more likely to increase customer satisfaction and 44.5 times more likely to increase customer retention, according to a study of 150 companies by Empathica, a provider of customer experience management programs, and Aberdeen Group."

The Customer Satisfaction Survey Snag

"A survey conducted by a client of mine, a large phone company, revealed that 94% of customers were 'completely satisfied' with their experience. However, in a separate, concurrent survey conducted by the same company, 30% of customers claimed that given the option, they would switch to a new provider. The former survey indicated only 6% of their entire customer base is less than completely satisfied. Assuming those 6% were among those who would switch, at least 24% of their customers who claimed complete satisfaction felt no loyalty to the company."

Customer Survey – Don’t Ask Unless You Really Want to Know

slynn — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:46:00 GMT

I recently spent a week-end at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas. It was a lovely week-end, the staff was fabulous, we had a great room, and the restaurant was superb. About a week after our stay I received an email from the hotel asking me to complete a survey about our stay. I completed the survey and told them about one problem we had at the hotel. I thought it was important for them to know, and I even filled out the section where it asked if I wanted someone to contact me so I could elaborate on the issue. This is where their customer service broke down. I never heard from anyone.

If constructed well, a customer survey can be very valuable to an establishment, especially one that prides themselves on their top quality service like the Ritz-Carlton. They especially need to know when their customers have had a problem so they can rectify the problem to maintain their top-notch rating. So now I am wondering if they even bother to tabulate the survey and read the comments that their guests took the time to complete. Furthermore, they left a bad taste in my mouth. We had a fabulous time and I easily would have forgotten about the one problem we had, but now the bad taste will linger much longer because of the lack of follow-thru, and I will question in my mind whether the Ritz-Carlton truly cares about their guests, or is it just an act.

So remember, customer service doesn’t end when the customer leaves. Don’t bother with customer surveys if you don’t want to hear what your customers have to say, or if you don’t have the desire or resources to follow through.

Until Next Time,

Stephen

Jeremy Miller Travels the World to Speak at Norwegian Developers Conference 2009

slynn — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:33:00 GMT

It wasn’t enough that Jeremy Miller, Dovetail Software’s chief software architect, has spent a lot of his time participating in the technical community in the United States; now, he has taken his knowledge overseas to Norway. Jeremy will be speaking at the Norwegian Developers Conference this week in Oslo. For those of you who live in that part of the world and can participate in the conference, you are lucky as the conference has a really interesting agenda and a great list of speakers.

Thanks Jeremy for taking your time to spread your knowledge to others. Enjoy the beautiful country.

Until Next Time,

Stephen

Dovetail Links 2009-06-13

Dovetail Software — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:46:00 GMT

The Customer Service Hall of Shame

"How a company handles adversity can tell you a lot about its character. Does it stick to its guns, keeping the customer first? Or does it stick it to customers, raising prices and cutting service? The recent economic turmoil has given companies a chance to prove their mettle. But many, particularly in the hard-hit financial-services industry, have failed to do so."

10 Companies Americans Love to Hate

"Some 'winners' are making a third appearance in MSN Money's Customer Service Hall of Shame. Here's the countdown to No. 1, based on the percentage of respondents who rated a company's customer service 'poor' in a recent MSN Money-Zogby poll."

Service and Support: Get the Fundamentals Right

"The surest way to disappoint a customer is by not delivering on what you promise. Support pros may not be able to fix each and every problem that comes along, but by remembering your customer service fundamentals, you can keep your clients from considering you negligent."

Contact Centers Can Optimize Opportunities Through Social Networking

"Independent market analysis firm, Datamonitor, has noted that companies of all sizes are engaging customers and prospects on social networking services. While much of this activity has been pure marketing, some leading edge companies have started to offer customer service and support through social networking sites."

Social Customer Service Remains "A Breed Apart"

"For the most part, very few companies are using formal contact center agents to handle customer service interactions via these emerging and new channels. Generally, they are social media specialist groups within companies. Some of them may have contact center experience or even physically sit in the same room with agents, but they are a breed apart." -- Ian Jacobs, Datamonitor

Creating Bug-Free software

gsherman — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:00:39 GMT

I've heard some rumblings of late about software companies claiming that they have bug-free software, while behind the scenes they are simply closing bugs that have been opened without actually fixing them.

Well, this is certainly a much easier way to create bug-free software that actually having disciplined engineering practices.

We can do this pretty easy by simply creating a business rule that calls a script.

The business rule

Object Type: Change Request

Rule Name: Bug Free

Rule Set: Best Practices

Start Event: Create

Conditions: None

Action Title: Go bug free

Message Type: Command Line

Start Action: 0 minutes

From: Event Creation

Using: Elapsed Time

Command Line: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINDOW~1\v1.0\powershell.exe C:\work\PowerShellScripts\GoBugFree.ps1 "[Object ID]"

The Script

GoBugFree.ps1:

$IdNumber = [string] $args[0];

$ClarifyApplication = [Fchoice.Foundation.Clarify.ClarifyApplication]

$ClarifySession = $ClarifyApplication::Instance.CreateSession()
$qualityToolkit= new-object FChoice.Toolkits.Clarify.Quality.QualityToolkit( $ClarifySession )

$bugSetup = new-object FChoice.Toolkits.Clarify.Quality.CloseCRSetup($IdNumber)
$bugSetup.Status = "Will Not Fix"
$bugSetup = $qualityToolkit.CloseCR($bugSetup);
$ClarifySession.CloseSession();

There you go - bug-free software! Wow - that was easy!

And yes, before anyone gets their panties in a bunch- this is a joke.

Good Technology Does Not Guarantee Good Customer Service

slynn — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:27:00 GMT

I recently took my car in to the dealership for a warranty issue. The service rep greeted me when I arrived, made sure I had a loaner car, and my car repair was completed when promised. So a successful visit, right? Wrong. As I was driving home, the same problem developed. I called the service rep, he apologized, and arranged for me to return at a later date. But then it got interesting. Two days later I got an email from the dealership. Take a look:

Dear Stephen,

First of all, thank you for bringing your vehicle in for service at xxx.

As a preferred xxx customer, our goal is to provide you with outstanding customer treatment that extends beyond the purchase of your vehicle. If for some reason you were not completely satisfied with your service experience, please contact us immediately by calling 972-xxx-xxxx.

Again, we appreciate your business and look forward to seeing you on your next service visit. Please be sure to logon to our website to obtain special sales, service, parts and accessory offers and information.

Feel free to contact our Service Department at 972-xxx-xxxx with any questions or concerns regarding your service experience.

Sincerely,

xxxx
Service Director

Not a bad email. Pretty typical of many service providers. But what got my attention was the “Click here for an immediate return call.” Now, that’s Customer Service Done Right I thought to myself. I was planning to ignore the whole feedback thing until I saw that button. With one click of the button I was going to get connected directly to the Service Director. So now I decided to participate.

I clicked on the button, and a menu came up with 2 phone numbers to contact me with. Neat, it was all integrated and they had my contact numbers. I chose my cell phone number and about 10 seconds later my cell phone rang. Wow, this was impressive! I expected to pick up the phone and someone would be on the line to handle my situation. Oops. Customer Service gone bad. I was connected to a switchboard operator who had no clue how I got to her; it was as if I had initiated the call. I asked for the Service Director and ended up in his voicemail. I hung up without leaving a message and had a further bad taste in my mouth. It was bad enough that the service was not performed properly, but it was worse to tease me as if they truly cared about customer satisfaction, only to learn otherwise. Why the dealership didn’t have the “Click Here” button connect you to a person who knew why you were calling is a mystery to me. If you are going to make like you care, finish the process.

The net - Good technology does not guarantee a good customer experience.

Until Next Time,

Stephen

Is A Smile And A Greeting All That It Takes?

Dovetail Software — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:01:00 GMT

While some stores are cutting staff due to this ever-shrinking economy, there are others that seem to have the right idea to weather the recession. Rather than slamming the brakes, they are hitting the accelerator and making customer service a top priority. Although many stores may be cutting prices and offering incentives to get consumers in the stores, the one aspect that sets a store apart these days is how they treat their customers. How a customer is treated ranks high on the list of how they rate their experience and likelihood to repurchase at a retailer.

In a Forrester report entitled Customer Service and Loyalty: A Closer Look, Bruce Tempkin noted that

"'...meeting customer needs links the most with repurchasing and enjoyability links the most with the likelihood to recommend. It also turns out that industries have different loyalty profiles. For instance, retailers and health insurers can influence loyalty the most by meeting customer needs while banks and hotels can affect customer repurchase plans from all elements of customer experience. This conclusion was reached after examining the correlation across twelve industries between customer service and loyalty."

So, who is getting this message? It appears that retailers like Home Depot are heeding the call. Plagued by many years with complaints about customer service, the retailer appears to be making a commitment to get back to their original roots, which focused on customer service. Although they have made a move to cut overall employees by closing their non-core locations, such as Expo, they committed to the existing employees in their core locations and are encouraging them to bring back customer service in the hopes that they will bring back customers.

Walking into a Home Depot store, it is likely that you will now see a greeter at the entrance directing customers to the proper section of the store, based on what they are looking for. Associates, who for many years seemed to have disappeared, are now often located along the main aisles in order to make it easier for customers to seek them out when they require assistance. "We don't want customers walking around looking for us, we want to be walking around looking for them," said store manager Jeff Eder of the Home Depot in Stockton, CT in a FOX news story.

In a report noted on CNN Money, Home Depot's executive vice president of U.S. stores, Marvin Ellison admits that 2009 will still be a difficult year, but notes that, "Home Depot is focused on improving customer service, having appropriate inventory and improving store appearance during the downturn." Although halting spending and cutting back may seem to be the short-term reaction to dwindling sales, smart executives will keep the long term picture in mind and use this economic climate to re-prioritize and focus on what can make them successful – a happy customer.

Dovetail Links 2009-05-31

Dovetail Software — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:14:00 GMT

Strategies: Make Customer Retention Priority No. 1

"Whether you call it customer retention, account management, relationship management, or just staying in touch, developing a strategy so that you don't lose the customers or clients you have is vital to the success of any business — especially now."

The Data Quality Conundrum

"In a sign of just how messy and inaccurate the data floating throughout businesses really is, one out of four organizations isn't able to identify its best customers and best-selling products. The statistic, which comes from new research conducted on behalf of address-verification company Experian QAS, underscores a fundamental flaw: Many organizations still neglect to view caring for data as a mission-critical business process. The research also shows that 55 percent of organizations either said they didn't have a data strategy or weren't aware of one."

Americans Get Little Satisfaction From Customer Service

"Frustrated with automated voice systems that lead to lengthy hold periods, Americans use the time with a customer call center to make a meal, read a newspaper or go to the toilet, according to a new poll. In a survey of 1,000 consumers Jacada, an Atlanta-based company that proposes solutions to improve customer satisfaction, found that even as expectations for customer service rise during a down economy, companies fail to meet them."

Airline Customer Service Improves as Passenger Ranks Thin

"Fliers are grumbling less about the service they receive -- or fail to receive -- from airlines. That may have less to do with any initiatives on the companies' parts than with the simple fact that they have fewer flights, fewer passengers and less baggage to deal with, thanks to the recession. Even though fliers are a bit more forgiving, the airlines' overall customer service grade is still low."

A Declaration of Customer Independence

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all customers are born free, that they are endowed by the market with innate abilities to relate, to converse and and to transact — on their own terms, and in their own ways. When sellers have labored long and hard to restrict those freedoms, and to ignore and insult the capacities enjoyed naturally by customers — by speaking, for example, of 'capturing,' 'acquiring,' 'retaining,' 'locking in' and otherwise 'owning' customers as if they were slaves — and when sellers work to inconvenience customers to the exclusive benefit of sellers themselves, for example through 'loyalty programs' that require customers to carry around cards that thicken customers’ wallets without fatting them, it is the right of customers to obsolete the coercive systems to which both sellers and customers have become accustomed."

A plethora of uses for Dovetail Mobile

gsherman — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:25:59 GMT

Dovetail Mobile has quickly become one of my favorite products. Although it was originally designed for use on Mobile devices, it seems that I'm constantly coming up with new ways to use it.

On a Mobile Device

In its original intended state: on a mobile device.

On the Desktop

As I've shown before, a little bit of styling makes it pleasant to use on the desktop.

Within a Google Gadget

From a previous post: Clarify / Amdocs / Dovetail access from a Google Gadget

Within Outlook

You can easily add a folder in outlook that points to a URL. That makes it easy to incorporate Dovetail Mobile within Outlook.

This is easy to setup. Create a folder in Outlook, right-click on the folder, choose Properties. Check the box that says "Show home page by default", and set the Address to the URL for the Dovetail application. Like so:

That's it. Now when you click on the folder, you'll be taken to the Dovetail application - all within Outlook.

As an archived case viewer

It's common that old data (such as cases) are archived out of the production database and imported into an archive database. You can use Dovetail Mobile as a simple, web-based, read-only archived case viewer.

As an archived case viewer within the Clarify Classic Client

Like above, only this time we've incorporated it into a form (using a Browser control) within the Clarify Classic Client.

Normal Clarify operations work against the production database, and Archived Case Viewer (Dovetail Mobile) accesses your archive database.

More ideas?

What do you think? Have more ideas where Dovetail Mobile would be useful? I'd love to hear your ideas, so leave a comment!

Mark Every Week On Your Calendar As Customer Service Week

Dovetail Software — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:28:00 GMT

Back in October, we posted an article called Every Week IS National Customer Service Week, in which we brainstormed five reasons to celebrate customer service in addition to the five reasons that the Customer Service Group already suggests for Customer Service Week.

Our five reasons included:

Those suggestions were in addition to the five suggestions by the CS Group:

Boost morale, motivation and teamwork.
Reward frontline reps for the important work they do all year long.
Raise company-wide awareness of the importance of customer service.
Thank other departments for their support.
Let customers know about your commitment to customer satisfaction.

Some great suggestions for sure, but why is it so important to keep them in mind all year long? Because customer service is so important to the bottom line that it shouldn’t just be celebrated for one week a year. If a company identified any strategy that was so critical to their success or survival, would it make sense to only promote that strategy once a year? Of course not!

In Big Reasons To Improve Your Customer Service In A Recession, Niccolina Soto explains the correlation between customer service and sustainable growth:

"Customer loyalty is a major contributor to sustainable profit growth. To achieve success, you must make superior service second nature of your organization. A seamless integration of all components in the service-profit chain – employee satisfaction, value creation, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profit and growth – links all the critical dynamics of top customer service."

Customer Service Week falls this year on October 5-9, 2009. If companies think they’re going to wait until then to promote some of these valuable suggestions, they may just find that they’re a bit too late to save the sinking ship. Now would be a great time to highlight customer service week on business calendars around the nation, and keep it there all year long!

Dovetail Links 2009-05-25

Dovetail Software — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:19:00 GMT

It's Not the Size of Your Customer Data, It's How You Use It

"Many businesses dutifully collect customer data, just as they've been told to do, but they fail to use that data properly. In this economy, no one can afford to suffer the consequences. Data must be managed properly in order to be put to good use."

Now, Customer Service Must be No. 1 Concern

"Customer service, or lack of it, plays a critical role in making or breaking a business, experts agree. Now, when businesses are struggling to keep their heads above water, the loss of even one customer hurts. If the reasons for losing a customer are systemic, then look out because more losses are likely."

American Customer Satisfaction Index Up

"The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) showed a second straight quarterly improvement. For the first quarter of 2009, the Index jumped 0.4 percent to 76 on ACSI’s 100-point scale, according to the report released Friday by the University of Michigan."

UK Customer Satisfaction Index Down

"The third annual Comparisat study reveals that we are not happy customers. 1500 people were asked what they thought of the customer service they experience from 36 top companies ranging from e-retailers, High Street retailers and supermarkets through to businesses, public sector and utility companies. And the answer was not a lot. For the second year running overall customer satisfaction is down. We are dissatisfied because our complaints are poorly handled and we don't think we're getting value for money."

Cutting Customer Service with Care

"I had hoped to avoid a rant about customer service. Companies are bleeding people, and while theoretically that shouldn’t make a big difference in service (fewer employees but also fewer customers, right?), deterioration is to be expected. Some companies are cutting staff faster than they’re losing customers. Others are simply cutting in the wrong places. Employees’ knees are knocking so hard they can’t hear the words, 'I need that by Thursday.'"

Contribution to the .NET Developers’ Community

slynn — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:27:00 GMT

At Dovetail Software we have created a culture where our employees are encouraged to get involved in the community and where we are continually seeking to advance our skills through on the job learning and self-education. As a result, our developers are often invited to speak at conferences or write articles for publications. Chad Myers, our head of Development, recently wrote an article for CoDe Magazine on Relational Database Persistence with NHibernate.

I hope you enjoy it. Thanks Chad!

Until Next Time,

Stephen

Prepping for a demo

gsherman — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:56:40 GMT

I typically have a checklist of things that I go through before I give a demo or presentation.

I know Scott Hanselman does as well: Have a Pre-Talk Checklist and Demo Reset

The following is a set of checklist items and tips that I use before doing a demo.

Demo Prep

Close all apps that won't be used. I know this sounds like a duh!, but I've seen no shortage of Outlook toast popups, and Instant Message popups during someone's presentations and demos.

Setup a one-click restore of my database. I have a simple BAT file for SQL Server that looks like:

sqlcmd -Usa -Psa -Q "restore database dovetail from disk = 'C:\db_backups\dovetail.bak' with replace"

Start the apps that you'll be using - especially the slow ones. I know Visual Studio takes 4 minutes to startup on my laptop. 4 minutes seems like an eternity when I'm doing a presentation. So I'll typically have this running if I'll be using it.

If I need to use a command prompt - have the command prompt open already. Make sure you've changed to the directory that you want to be in.

Adjust your font sizes! That includes in your editors (Visual Studio, Ultraedit,etc.) and in your DOS and PowerShell prompts.

If I'm showing a web application:

Reset IIS: iisreset.exe. Now I know my web apps are in a clean state. And the apps I'm not using will be unloaded.

Hit the web app with your browser. This starts the app itself, loads the .NET Framework, etc. No reason for my participants to have to sit waiting for the web app to load for the first time.

Start the browser before the presentation (no need to waste the audience's time waiting for Firefox to check for updates to your plugins)

If you need to have multiple tabs available, open the multiple tabs

I often create a simple start page, that only has links to what I'll be showing:

I'll set my default home page to be this new page. Participants don't care to see your Yahoo homepage.

Turn off the browser toolbars (Links, Bookmarks, Google, Delicious, etc.)

I may even turn off the navigation bar, depending on the situation.

Turn off the status bar.

You can also run your browser in Full Screen mode, which accomplishes a similar look.

Compare the differences:

Why would you not want to maximize the screen real estate given to your application?

Speaking of screen real estate, I'll also use the whole screen for the browser. You can also auto-hide the taskbar.

Why show all the files, shortcuts and other crap that are on your desktop? Why not put your product front & center so that it gets full attention?

Compare the differences:

Tools

Occasionally, I want to be able to zoom in on a particular piece of code or a part of the UI. To do this, I use ZoomIt.

ZoomIt allows me to zoom in on a portion of the screen, and I can also draw and type on the fly, such as:

As I tend to forget keyboard shortcuts that I don't use often, I also keep a note card by my side of the ZoomIt commands and keyboard shortcuts.

I also use SlickRun. I have most of my common tools and apps defined as SlickRun magic words. I find it super useful in day to day work, but also for quick launching of things within a demo. Much cooler looking and less distracting that seeing someone do Start - All Programs - and seeing a whole screen full of menu items. Yuck.

I know Sam uses Launchy instead of SlickRun. Equally effective.

Browser PlugIns

As I'm showing our application, I often log notes to a case, send emails, etc. As I'm not the world's fastest typist (and no one cares to waste time seeing me type), I use a Firefox plugin called Clippings. With it, I can save clippings (or snippets) of text, and then easily paste them later. For example, I have clippings for paragraphs of lorem ipsum text, email addresses, as well as a couple of technical articles.

I also use Stylish and GreaseMonkey plugins. I've blogged about use of these in the past. These allow me to do some minor customizations and styling to a web app without necessarily having to modify the app itself. For example, I may use a customer's logo or colors within a web app so that they can better envision it in their environment.

Script

I have to have a script to follow. I often create a custom script for each demo, but I always have one. It allows me to make sure I'm covering the important items without missing anything. Because I create a script, it allows me to rehearse many times before the demo. This is where having a restore database script comes in handy. I'll go through the script, make some tweaks, restore my database, and do it again. Rinse. Repeat. Until I'm comfortable.

My scripts not only have the steps I follow, but I list important things to point out, notice, and talk to.

For example, here's a portion of the script I use when demonstrating SchemaEditor:

<snip>

we'll use SchemaEditor to add 2 new fields to our schema
    - Show Intellisense
    - type <add
    - notice how it shows me available commands
    - choose addTable
    - notice how it shows me the id and name fields
    - give it an id of "my_table_id"
    - notice the blue squiggly line; mouse over it; notice the validation message
    - The point: schema validation BEFORE even hitting the schemaeditor app.
- se -p (schemaeditor.exe -preview)
      view output (who; what; when)
- se -a (schemaeditor.exe -apply)
      view output (who; what; when)

show contact table in BOLT
    - There are now 2 new fields: x_contact_method, x_ssn
- Notice that they were automatically marked as USER DEFINED
    (this is the default, I didn't have to specify this)
- There are also 2 new view columns on rol_contct

</snip>

In summary

And there you go - a little peek under the covers of my demo prep. I know there's nothing earth shattering here, but perhaps it'll help you remember some of the small items that add a lot of polish to your demos and presentations. I know it helps me.

Rock on.

Customer Loyalty Programs: A Tool for Customer Retention

Dovetail Software — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:54:00 GMT

In these difficult times, a focus on customer loyalty is critical to survival. Retaining customers is a more cost efficient process than trying to gain new ones, and efforts to rethink methods to maintain customer loyalty are at the forefront of many companies, or at least should be. Customer loyalty programs are one method companies are utilizing to retain customers.

"According to Adam Sarner, a research analyst at Gartner Inc. as reported in Barney Beals’ Leveraging Customer Loyalty in a Down Economy, 'There’s an idea around what I call operational loyalty and long-term loyalty. They can work in a down environment and a growth environment. Operational loyalty offers a payoff -- buy nine, get the 10th free, for example. Long-term loyalty initiatives depend on building trust and affinity. You want to engage customers so when everyone’s ready to take advantage of an up market, they think of you.'"

Customer loyalty programs do not have to require a huge investment, but in order to successfully maintain loyalty in the long term, they should not only offer free products, but also be geared towards ease of use and offering customers something that is a real benefit to them. As Sarner explains,

"The more relevant you are to the customer, the more likely they will be loyal to you. There's no sense doing a loyalty program that benefits the business and doesn't benefit the customer at the same time."

Data collected by Aberdeen and reported in Retailers Strive to Develop Lifetime Customer Value (LCV) shows that “93 percent of retailers execute loyalty programs as a standard offering for their web, store or catalog channel customers. Such campaigns include but are not limited to point perks, rewards, frequent buyer offers or private label credit cards. But here's the rub: Of those that have programs, 74 percent report "partial to no tangible improvement" in their customer loyalty programs compared to their competitors.”

In order for a loyalty program to successfully improve customer retention, thought must be given to how programs will most benefit the customer in the long run. This should include personalized elements that focus on specific customer segments.

According to Aberdeen,

"With the increase in the pressure of LCV and the need to closely align loyalty elements with customer affinity, the single biggest common challenge facing all retailers today is the need to re-configure their organizational, strategic and tactical objectives around the integration of loyalty operations with customer retention, acquisition and reduced attrition goals."

Companies like eBay are jumping on the customer loyalty program bandwagon. As reported in eBay to Test eBay Bucks Shopping Rewards Program, "The arrival of eBay Bucks marks the company's latest customer-retention move -- something the company is focusing on as it works to improve its online marketplace, at a time when consumers have cut back on spending because of the dismal economy. Other efforts eBay has undertaken include distributing coupons to users and offering discounts."

This is just one example of a company that is focusing on what it thinks customers want in an effort to keep customers coming back for more.

Dovetail Links 2009-05-18

Dovetail Software — Mon, 18 May 2009 04:24:00 GMT

Customer Service Is Crucial in a Downturn

"To fix this dysfunctional situation and to achieve high performance, companies have to sharpen their focus on improving the customer experience. Consider the situation in the global electronics and communications businesses, both equipment and services. Last year around the world an astonishing 30% of companies switched vendors due to poor customer service, costing the companies they ditched, on average, $15 million each in lost business."

We the People: CRM in Government

"So if government agencies are starting to grow more comfortable with deploying CRM to gain a more comprehensive view of the customer, then why haven't they all caught on? There are several reasons: legal, operational, and cultural. There is a reluctance to refer to the citizen as a customer, and that mindset has to go away."

Checked Your Customers' Pulse Lately?

"If the answer is "no," expect customer retention issues. For those of you with children, you can probably see similarities between children and customers."

Report: Customer Satisfaction with Online Retail Dips

"When it comes to online retail, many customers seem to be echoing the Rolling Stones’ tune, '(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.' A new survey found that customer satisfaction with the Top 100 online retailers declined 2.7 percent from last year. This year’s rating fell to 73 based on a 100-point scale. In 2007, customer satisfaction scored 74 on the same scale. What caused the decline?"

Selling Out

"Have retailers, desperate for survival, abandoned their commitment to the customer experience?"

Is Customer Service and Support Still the “Forgotten Space”?

slynn — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:52:00 GMT

A couple of years ago, Dovetail Software coined Customer Service and Support (CS&S) CRM as the Forgotten Space. It was our belief that CS&S was being ignored by the vendors and senior level executives. From the vendors, more R&D dollars were being put into the more glamorous areas, like Sales Force Automation and Analytics. And senior executives, despite shouting about the importance of providing great Customer Service, saw this function as a cost center, where the goal is to reduce costs as much as possible without alienating customers. Let’s revisit this subject and see how we’re doing.

We just came back from the Service & Support Professional (SSPA) Conference in Santa Clara last week. Just as I noticed the first time I went to the SSPA expo two years ago, most of the major CS&S CRM vendors didn’t participate. Of the 15 vendors listed in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers, only 3 of them showed. The SSPA is supposed to be the top gathering of Customer Service & Support Professionals, with over 600 professionals in attendance; yet, it was ignored by the majority of the vendors. Wow! Talk about your Forgotten Space.

As for the level of customer support, an informal poll of SSPA members indicated that 80% have been asked to reduce their 2009 budgets. As I sat and listened to the keynote addresses at the conference, there was almost an air of desperation in terms of getting senior management to listen to the value of improving customer service. They showed customer survey studies that showed a link between the level of customer service and financial performance - Those companies that showed the highest level of customer service had better financial performance than those with lower levels of customer service. But here’s the problem. Corporate Senior Management is focused on next quarter’s performance, not longer term. They are trying to save their own job. That results in greater pressure to reduce short-term costs to bolster the bottom line. So they aren’t listening!

Finally, in a recent CRM blog, Field service - a forgotten CRM impact point, Chris Bucholtz speaks toward Service as a forgotten CRM impact point:

“For a long time, CRM was defined in part as a technology and a det of processed that included two critical areas: sales and marketing. That’s been the classic definition, and it reveals a lot about why CRM has had a hard time living up to its promise.”

The trend continues; yet, now is the time to gear up for the recovery (which shall come). Support is the third leg of the CRM story, and the sooner companies realize that, the better their prospects will be when the economy does turn.

Until Next Time,

Stephen

Applying Game Mechanics to Customer Service & Support systems

gsherman — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:41:22 GMT

I've been having an ongoing conversations over the last few months with Kevin Leahy around applying gaming mechanics on top of enterprise systems. I'm still trying to get my head around a lot of this, so I'm using this post to jot down some of my ideas, some of the background, and to use it to hopefully continue the conversation with others. It's far different than most of my how-to posts. Mostly, its a brain dump.

Can we use gaming mechanics to influence the behavior of users of our system?

Would this improve our service? Can we make work more fun? Would this lead to happier employees, thus leading to happier customers?

What is a Game?

what is a game? “a rule-based activity involving challenge to reach a goal" (from http://www.changemakers.net/node/1308)

a more informal definition: a structured experience with rules and goals that's fun

What are Game Mechanics?

Most of the following info on Game Mechanics comes from a presentation called Putting the Fun in Functional by Amy Jo Kim. She's the CEO of ShuffleBrain, and is [according to her bio] an internationally recognized expert in online social architecture. Go watch that presentation - it's good stuff, and it lays the groundwork.

Game Mechanics are the systems & features that make games fun, compelling and addictive.

Collecting
- Impressive collection == bragging rights
Points
- game points are given by the system
- social points are given by other players
- redeemable points drive loyalty
- leader boards drive player behavior, and express community values
Levels
- punctuate the game experience
- unlock new powers and access
Feedback
- accelerates mastery and adds fun
- social feedback drives engagement
Exchanges
- are structured social interactions
- basic, primal form of social engagement
- can be explicit or implicit
- add friend is explicit
- comments are implicit
Customization
- character customization
- interface/environment
quick games and games within games
spectators

How do we use game mechanics to illicit the desired behaviors from users of a Customer Service & Support system?

How do we use game mechanics to illicit the desired behaviors from users (agents, customers) of a Customer Service & Support system?

Example:

Lets take a concrete example. Many Customer Service systems use some sort of knowledgebase, or knowledge management system. My experience has shown that often, these knowledge systems aren't as effective as they can be, because folks are not contributing to these systems, keeping them up to date, or even searching and re-using the existing knowledge within them. Less re-use and sharing means we're working and solving the same issues over and over again. And it means we're not setting up our knowledge systems for maximum value in self-service scenarios.

How can we get encourage the desired behavior? Specifically, how can we encourage folks to create, use, and re-use knowledge within the system?

A few bullet point ideas under the different game mechanics categories:

Collecting:

KnowledgeBase (KB) articles Created
Cases Solved
Cases solved and linked to a KB article
# of likes (thumbs up) on your KB articles

Points:

creating a KB article
having a KB article approved
using a KB article to solve a case (linking)
when someone uses one of your articles to solve a case
improving a KB article
when a customer uses an article to solve a problem (eliminating the creation of a case)

Feedback:

comments on solutions from agents
comments on solutions from customers
thumbs up / thumbs down
mark as favorite
notifications about when activities occur, including those that generate points
trending topics, searches, solutions used
points leaderboard
dashboards

Levels:

(this could use improvement. other ideas?)

KB novice - can create, comment, use KB articles. can submit for review
KB reviewer - can review articles, submit for public (external) consumption
KB expert - can mark for public consumption

Other aspects of game mechanics that could be used within the system:

Exchanges

(social interactions)

chat, collaborate within a case
comments
thumbs up/down
tagging

Customization

avatars for customers, and for agents
show avatar alongside names
themes
for agents, for customers
custom themes (colors)
layouts (i.e. what shows on home page)

quick games and games within games

tagging

spectators

managers, executives, others in the company, customers
RSS feeds
notifications

As I said, much of this post is a brain dump, and a way to start getting ideas down to ~~paper~~ bits.

I would love to hear from you on this topic. What do you think? Is this interesting? Or am I full of crap? To be honest, I'm not sure myself.