Survey: Shift Required for Smartphone Customer Support

Amdocs announced the results of an independent survey that examined customer care issues associated with smartphone devices and the impact these have on user adoption and customer satisfaction. The survey found that while smartphones are becoming increasingly complex, the majority of customer support calls pertain to basic issues that can be resolved remotely, requiring little or no technical support.

The survey polled more than 4,000 wireless device users from the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom. Those respondents who had contacted a call center classified the reason for doing so as a "technical support" issue, even though the majority of these issues were basic "how to" inquiries such as device configuration (how to set up email), or menu navigation (how to enable WiFi access). These inquiries could have been resolved quickly via web self-service, by Level 1 customer care agents, or by training the customer on basic usage at time of sale, saving service providers time and investment in support resources. In addition, a majority of the respondents who had difficulties in using their smartphone stated that they strongly considered returning their device because they could not resolve these basic issues.

Survey highlights include:

The call center remains the first port of call: More than 50 percent of those surveyed made a call to the contact center to resolve basic support issues, taking an average of two calls to close their issue. On average, support calls lasted 17 minutes, indicating that call center agents lack the technology and training necessary to resolve these basic customer inquiries at the first instance. As a result, consumers were frequently transferred to more costly technical support agents requiring more time, resources and cost. Notably, just five percent of those polled consulted the service provider's website for support, indicating that smartphone web self-service resources are underutilized.

Unresolved issues result in a return trip to the retail outlet, or product abandonment: Thirty percent of consumers surveyed returned for customer support to the retail outlet where they purchased their smartphone, and one in three consumers considered returning or exchanging their device due to the inability to resolve issues. Sixty-five percent stated that they prefer self-help alternatives and identified "knowledgeable sales representatives," "faster procedures" and "web-based solutions" as ways to improve their customer service experience.

Opportunity to increase application and service revenue: One out of six consumers were unaware of their smartphone's advanced features or did not know how to use them. More than 70 percent stated that it would have been beneficial for a sales representative to explain all features at the time of purchase. The data suggest that with in-store tutorials or after-sale activities, service providers can drive additional application and data usage.

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Gartner Reveals Five Social Software Predictions for 2010 and Beyond

Gartner offers five key predictions for social software:

By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users.

Greater availability of social networking services both inside and outside the firewall, coupled with changing demographics and work styles will lead 20 percent of users to make a social network the hub of their business communications. During the next several years, most companies will be building out internal social networks and/or allowing business use of personal social network accounts. Social networking will prove to be more effective than e-mail for certain business activities such as status updates and expertise location.

Gartner recommends that organizations develop a long-term strategy for provisioning and consuming a rich set of collaboration and social software services, and develop policies governing the use of consumer services for business purposes. Companies should also solicit input from the business community on what collaboration tools would be most helpful.

By 2012, over 50 percent of enterprises will use activity streams that include microblogging, but stand-alone enterprise microblogging will have less than 5 percent penetration.

The huge popularity of the consumer-microblogging service Twitter, has led many organizations to look for an "enterprise Twitter," that provides microblogging functionality with more control and security features to support internal use between employees. Enterprise users want to use microblogging for many of the same reasons that consumers do to share quick insights, to keep up with what colleagues are doing, to get quick answers to questions and so on.

Through 2012, over 70 percent of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail.

When it comes to collaboration, IT organizations are accustomed to providing a technology platform (such as, e-mail, IM, Web conferencing) rather than delivering a social solution that targets specific business value. Through 2013, IT organizations will struggle with shifting from providing a platform to delivering a solution. This will result in over a 70 percent failure rate in IT-driven social media initiatives. Fifty percent of business-led social media initiatives will succeed, versus 20 percent of IT-driven initiatives.

Enterprises will need to develop entirely new skill sets around designing and delivering social media solutions. Until this happens, failure rates will remain high. A dearth of methods, technologies and tools will impede the design and delivery of social media solutions in the near term. But long term, enterprises will realize that social media is not a "hit or miss" activity naturally prone to high failure rates, and that a calculated approach to social media solution delivery must be an IT competency. At that point, post 2012, the social software market growth will accelerate as will the overall impact of social media on business and society.

Within five years, 70 percent of collaboration and communications applications designed on PCs will be modeled after user experience lessons from smartphone collaboration applications.

As we move toward three billion phones in the world serving the main purpose of providing communications and collaboration anytime anywhere, Gartner expects more end users to spend significant time experiencing the collaborative tools on these devices. For some of the world, these will be the first or the only applications they use. The experience with these tools for all who use them will enable the user to handle far more conversations within a given amount of time than their PCs simply because they are easier to use. Just as the iPhone impacted user interface design on the desktop, the lessons in the mobile phone collaboration space will dramatically affect PC applications, many of which are derivatives of decades-old platforms based on the PBX or other older collaboration paradigm.

Through 2015, only 25 percent of enterprises will routinely utilize social network analysis to improve performance and productivity.

Social network analysis is a useful methodology for examining the interaction patterns and information flows that occur among the people and groups in an organization, as well as among business partners and customers. However, when surveys are used for data collection, users may be reluctant to provide accurate responses. When automated tools perform the analysis, users may resent knowing that software is analyzing their behavior. For these reasons, social network analysis will remain an untapped source of insight in most organizations.

Before undertaking a social network analysis, Gartner recommends that the organization ensure that it has the trust and buy-in of the people it hopes to include in the analysis in advance. Issues of privacy and confidentiality must be addressed and a determination needs to be made regarding how the information will be used and communicated. Establishing the ground rules upfront will encourage more open and honest participation and reduce the resistance to ongoing relationship monitoring.

More information on CRM can be found at www.CRMindustry.com

Social Business Goes Mainstream in the Enterprise, Forcing Cultural and Process Shifts from the Inside Out

Recent IDC research on the intersection of Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and collaboration shows that we are entering a time of significant cultural and process change for businesses, driven by the emergence of the social Web. According to a new IDC survey, 57% of U.S. workers use social media for business purposes at least once per week. Additional findings from IDC’s social business research include:

15% of 4,710 U.S. workers surveyed reported using a consumer social tool instead of corporate-sponsored social tools for business purposes due to the following top three reasons, (1) ease of use, (2) familiarity due to personal use, and (3) low cost.

The number one reason cited by U.S. workers for using social tools for business purposes was to acquire knowledge and ask questions from a community.

While marketers are the earliest and largest adopters of social media, these tools are now gaining deeper penetration into the enterprise with use by executive managers and IT.

Software companies will increase their social software offerings significantly as customer demand steadily increases and “socialytic” applications will emerge, fusing social/collaboration software and analytics to business logic/workflow and data.

More information on CRM can be found at www.CRMindustry.com

CRM Survey in Europe Shows New Customer Acquisition Rises to Second Priority in 2010

Customer relationship management (CRM) is weathering the economic downturn better than many other enterprise software applications, according to a recent European survey conducted by Gartner, Inc. Gartner predicts that CRM software revenues in Europe will remain flat in 2010, exhibiting a 0.7 percent growth from last year.

With a slight improvement in CRM software revenues expected this year, respondents still remain cautious about their CRM investments with 45 percent not planning to select new CRM technologies in 2010, up 5 percent from 2008.

The survey respondents reported on their primary objectives for their CRM initiatives in 2010. The survey uncovered significant changes in the top three rankings from 2009 and saw the appearance of acquiring new customers as the No. 2 objective for 2010. In previous year’s survey it was ranked sixth in order of priority, indicating that organizations now believe they should be finding new customers instead of focusing their efforts purely on existing customers.

More information on CRM can be found at www.CRMindustry.com

New Survey Reveals That CRM, Search and Web Analytics Are Key Elements in Web Content Management Strategies

Developers, marketers, interactive agencies and IT professionals cite Search and Web analytics as key applications of an overall Web Content Management System (CMS) strategy, a recent survey conducted by Sitecore, has revealed.

In the survey of more than 100 decision makers, Sitecore found the number of organizations implementing Web analytics rose to nearly 90 percent. Organizations are looking for a more integrated understanding of site traffic and Web campaigns, therefore unifying Web Content Management, analytics and marketing automation has become a top priority to yield faster conversions. In addition, respondents noted that integrating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and Web CMS software is a top priority.

Key Findings:

-- Top drivers for implementing a Web CMS solution include: improving productivity (19 percent), improving customer service (11 percent) increasing sales leads (10 percent) and building global brand awareness (10 percent)

-- 73 percent of survey responses indicated online Search as the top third-party application with Portal (33 percent) and CRM (20 percent) following behind

-- More than 33 percent of respondents plan to integrate online video management as part of their 2010 WCM initiatives

-- More than two-thirds of respondents use LinkedIn the most for professional use with Facebook and Twitter closely behind

-- A majority of the respondents (52 percent) stated that Web Forms are key components of building an interactive website

More information on CRM can be found at http://www.crmindustry.com/

Tech-Savvy Shoppers Setting The Pace For The Future; Retailers Must Follow Their Lead

A new IBM global survey of over 32,000 consumers reveals that technology is giving shoppers a new source of power -- pushing retailers to engage them more directly via increased use of personalized promotions and offerings.

The changing economy has given rise to the smarter consumer– one who uses technology to make more informed buying decisions, exchange information with peers, make purchases on-the-go and shop across multiple channels. At the same time, the increased use of technology has empowered consumers to become more vocal and demanding about their wants and needs. Not only are consumers becoming more demanding, but they are also more willing to help. 79 percent of respondents said they want to work with retailers to co-design new products and services that better meet their personal needs.

The study also revealed that while shoppers are showing increased demand for multiple technology channels, they want to use different technologies for different activities.

* 79 percent want to use websites to access and print coupons
* 75 percent want to use mobile phones to find out where the nearest store is located
* 66 percent want to see what goods are in stock before going into the store.

From the consumers’ eyes, the top areas of improvement for retailers were around delivering customized promotions and ensuring product availability. The good news is that 61 percent of respondents said they would spend more with a retailer if they got these two areas right.

While IBM’s analysis shows that consumers are increasingly ready to use technologies to interact both with retailers and with other consumers, this trend is even more pronounced in growth markets. Consumers in India, China and Brazil, are almost twice as willing to use multiple technologies for shopping and making purchases. This is primarily because the uptake of new technologies is often faster in emerging countries.

Steady Growth for Business Intelligence Seen in 2010, but Twitter Data Won't be in the Growth Plans

A new survey of business intelligence (BI) practitioners worldwide reveals that a majority expects the use of BI at their organizations to continue growing at a steady pace in the new year. Survey respondents said, however, that they remain unsure about the value of analyzing data obtained from social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook.

The survey was conducted globally by Kognitio, a provider of BI and data warehousing solutions, and Baseline Consulting. Almost two-thirds (63%) of the people who responded said they are "undecided" about the value of data collected from social media sites to help them understand more about their organization or customers. Another 23% called social media "overrated," saying "there are not as many customer conversations going on as the media would have us believe." Only 14% said they want to incorporate data from Twitter and other sites as part of their ongoing data analysis efforts.

But 29% said they are under pressure to justify the money they have spent on BI projects, and are looking for "quick wins or new opportunities." In a separate question, 36% said the speed to delivery of BI projects will be an imperative in 2010, saying they will need to test, evaluate, and deploy new systems within a matter of weeks. That is a marked change from previous years, where BI projects were routinely expected to take months to implement correctly, and where obtaining usable information could take a year or more.
The survey also found that:

* Almost half of respondents (49%) said BI is becoming more appreciated as a strategic tool at their organizations, with the business side increasingly embracing its value; 43%, however, believe that BI will not grow as an enterprise-wide initiative, with "pockets" still existing across their organizations;

* BI practitioners expect to see the deeper use of the technology at their firms in 2010, and plan to add capabilities to additional lines of business, with almost one-third (31%) saying they plan to add new BI tools;

* 55% believe that business intelligence is used by their firms for both strategic and operational purposes, a clear move toward "pervasive BI;" and

* The adoption of in-memory databases, which enable faster analysis of immense amounts of data, is predicted to grow slowly by 61% of respondents, who said their price/value point will continue to fall.

More information on Business Intelligence can be found at www.CRMindustry.com