The Customer Relationship Management Blog

We will host a live debate later this month called “Is Customer Service the New Marketing?” A star lineup of thought leaders and authors will discuss whether investing in a Zappos-level of customer service makes more sense in a world of social media, customer reviews and diminishing return on traditional marketing spend.

Luxury hotel brand Ritz-Carlton is know worldwide as a model for customer service success, with companies such as Apple following their best practices. Software Advice recently sat down with Ritz VP Diana Oreck to try and discover the secret to their legendary customer service sauce.

Zappos founder Tony Hsieh literally wrote the book on modern customer service. His title, Delivering Happiness, staked claim on The New York Times Best Sellers list for 27 consecutive weeks. Want to know his secret? Here’s a peak into how Zappos measures success and productivity with unique performance metrics.

Most companies are doing some level of email marketing, but few are doing it really well. Myths, misguided expectations, and a lack of strategy are the main culprits behind ineffective email marketing. Here are some tips to reset your expectations, increase open rates and realize stronger results.

The days where marketers simply fill the sales funnel with names must end. This quantity-over-quality approach to lead generation has fueled the longstanding tension between Sales and Marketing. One way to resolve this tension is to have Marketing–not Sales–take point on telephone lead qualification.

We shoot a lot of video. We’ve picked up several tips while doing so that we think you’ll find useful. Recording interviews over the Web can be challenging, but with the right setup, you will be capturing great looking footage in no time. Here’s our step-by-step guide developed by our very own media producer Paul Whitener.

Software Advice recently moderated a live online debate called, “Will Technology Kill the Call Center?” Experts discussed consumer contact channel utilization, technology and the impact of these trends on the future call center. Watch the recording and read about key takeaways from the discussion here.

Want to know what demand generation channels your peers find most successful? Where are they spending, and how will that change next year? The 2012 B2B Demand Generation Benchmark Report will answer these questions and more. Take the survey today and sign up to receive the results when they are released.

Software Advice will host a live Google+ Hangout debate later this month called “Will Technology Kill the Call Center?” Experts will discuss changing consumer support preferences, as well as new technologies for customer service via live chat, email, self service and social media. Will consumers one day skip the phone call altogether?

Dreamforce attendees will discover a unique customer service demo when they descend on San Francisco this month. Live call center agents will field queries onsite and provide tips for support through social media channels. I interviewed presenters this week to get a sneak preview into what onlookers should expect to learn.