SigmaWay Blog

With every passing day, data and not instincts, are used for the expanding of business. Data is the new gold, as it helps in determining trend, offering better customer experience, responding better to market demands. However, given the data size is so big, Data Visualization is opted for, making the interpretations easier. The major reasons that data visualization is crucial are: • Data visualizations amplify a story with pictures and visuals. • Data visualizations makes difficult data comprehensible. • Data visualizations help in decision analysis. Read more at: https://www.experfy.com/blog/the-value-of-visual-data-in-decision-making

Building good relationship with customers satisfies them with their purchases and makes them recommend it to others. With increasing competition in the online market, personalizing customer experience is one good way to attract customers. Success rates are as high as 77%. The ways to personalize experience are: • People tend to search for goods online and purchase in store. Hence, by using geological tools, customers can be notified about nearest shops and the ongoing deals which provokes them to make an early purchase. • Saving information like card details, shipping information, preferences saves time and gives customers a good experience. • Studying the customer preference and making personalized recommendations attracts more customers. • Determining the geographical location of the customers and using their native language and quoting prices in their local currencies gives the customers a clearer overview and therefore convincing them to make the purchase. • Customers are more driven by personalized videos of the products as compared to written description as watching a video involves almost no effort. Read more at https://www.vocalcom.com/en/blog/customer-experience/5-innovative-ways-to-personalize-the-customer-experience/

Customer Value Maximization is a good method used to attract customers to increase transactions and keep active customers of a business for a long duration. The primary factors which contribute to the total revenues that a customer will generate are time, purchase frequency and monetary value of purchases. Maximizing the value of the customer to the business implies maximizing time × purchase frequency × monetary value equation. The pillars of every value maximization strategy are:

1. Customer segmentation 

2. Tracking customers over time.

3. Accurate prediction of future customer behaviour.

4. It should be based on the use of advanced calculations to determine the Customer lifetime value (LTV).

5. Marketing action optimization.

Read more at http://www.optimove.com/blog/maximize-customer-value-smart-way

Artificial Intelligence startups are reaching a new record high with gaining good deals and investments from tech giants. There are four ways you can apply AI to your business. 1.Analysing various raw data you are able to find a cluster of similar minded people and get to know your next customer. 2.You will able to see how people genuinely using your product. 3.You will be able to get inside the user’s head using the user’s data pattern. 4.Making a digital assistant you will be able to provide affordable and always-on support.Read more at:https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/292286

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most important part of our daily life from simple features like automatic image tagging to prediction and recommendation in business. AI will begin to learn emotion, better understand human sentiment and solve more complex problems. Soon, companies will be able to automate a large chunk of data analysis, decision making and customer service, allowing employees to tackle the most complex challenges rather than get bogged down in the details. Read more at:https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/290444

Millennial refers to the population aged between 18 and 34. This makes up the largest chunk of mobile users, i.e. 85%. Thus technology consumption is the highest in this generation and CRM software can help brands to generate profit from this generation.

Social media is a powerful tool. Social media details are becoming more lucrative than communication methods and CRM stores these social media details in one place. It is a well known fact that almost all social media users search for product information and news from brands and also communicate with brands on social network. Most popular social media platforms are Facebook and Instagram.

Real time behavioral tools generate deeper insights into consumers’ purchasing pattern. These tools nowadays are available with CRM software. Real time data help to target precisely and also improves customer satisfaction.

Improving customer service is the key to success.  CRM software helps to track communications between customer and customer representatives and thus helps in resolving complaints promptly. 

To read more follow:- http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-ways-to-use-crm-to-target-millennials-74198

The atmosphere in an organization has a huge impact on the creativity and productivity of its employees. The kind of work culture you choose as an entrepreneur or businessman will determine whether your employees are loving the job or diminishing their efficiency under the immense pressure presumably being put on them. The importance of creativity and innovation is crucial for a company to grow out of the box and possibly become the next billion dollar company. In order to know more about the approaches to work, and their relevance and impact, click on the following link: 

http://www.callcentertimes.com/Articles/tabid/59/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/407/CategoryID/1/NewsID/1010/Default.aspx

Social media has changed the retail environment by becoming the new consumer watchdog and has bring forth new challenges. It has changed the way people see news and learn about new products. If used wisely, mobile, digital and social media can be a powerful business weapon. Another great weapon is Customer service!
For instance a good customer service where you resolve a problem quickly can have a great influence on repeat purchases.
By being ferociously committed to customer service you can contribute to the success of your company. We need to remember a few basics-

1- Understanding customer needs- its very important to listen and show interest in customer needs.

2-Stepping into your customer’s shoes- Human beings like to be treated nicely so it’s important to show the customers you care about them and they matter.


3-Providing extra benefits- Going beyond customer’s expectation insures speedy success.


Read more here- 


http://www.callcentertimes.com/Articles/tabid/59/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/407/CategoryID/1/NewsID/988/Default.aspx

A recent survey has revealed that brands active on social media gather bad reputation for their qualitatively poor customer service. Brands should improvise techniques to improve customer service keeping in mind the statistics revealed by the survey. Brands should allow people to post on their pages in social media only if they intend to review and respond to those. Responding to queries could simply involve thanking the customer for their valuable feedback and also complaints should be never left unattended. Customer service team should be made a part of the social media so as to provide a better social media customer service. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/state-social-media-customer-service-experience-01251083

According to some renowned pharmacy technicians, the application of LSS techniques in the inpatient pharmacy department at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Hospitals brought in a great deal of improvement. Kaizen ("improvement") events were conducted by the UNC inpatient pharmacy to progress work flow and customer service to patients and nurses. Overall, these improvements have refined work flow and improved employee and customer satisfaction. With LSS as a tool, UNC is constantly striving to promote the culture of continuous quality improvement. To know more read the article by Jami Mann, PharmD, MBA ( PGY1 health system pharmacy administration resident at UNC Healthcare), Allison Dipper, PharmD candidate (pharmacy technician at the Central Inpatient Pharmacy at UNC Healthcare), Erinn Rowe, PharmD, MS (clinical manager at UNC Healthcare)and Chad Hatfield, PharmD, MHA, BCPS (assistant director of operations at UNC Healthcare) at: http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/health-system-edition/2014/September2014/Lean-Six-Sigma-in-the-Pharmacy-Department

A European Telecommunications company wanted to lower its customer service operation costs but worried from the loss of revenue by doing so. In investigating its options, the company learned that 70 percent of existing customer-service contacts could be delivered through digital solutions that had proved effective in other industries. E-care involves the delivery of customer service via web-based user accounts, social networks, mobile phone, and the Internet rather than call centers or facilities open to the public. Such digital services are increasingly demanded by customers, who are already using digital platforms to research and review products, as well as broadcast their service frustrations. And it makes sense from a financial perspective, too. It has the potential to significantly lower the cost of customer service operations while increasing customer satisfaction. Not only this, but e-care also brings a company closer to its customers. Adopting e-care is worth the effort and that virtually every consumer-facing industry that has high customer-relationship needs can benefit from it. Read more at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/why_companies_should_care_about_ecare

Consumers these days are using social media for communications. Mention of brand names is done in huge numbers among which 76 percent mentions were neutral, 17.6 percent were positive and 5.8 percent were negative. . Majority of the neutral mentions comprises of queries about the company’s process and products.

Apart from increasing engagement, building brand awareness and marketing this study has been found to play a major role in customer service.  The names of companies are mentioned on social media more on weekdays than on weekends. Moreover most posts are mentioned in English followed by French and Spanish. Thus social media is a tool for global communication and social mentions increases exposure. Read more at:http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/social-media-equals-modern-day-customer-service-43281/

It’s the customer service and experience the customer that help businesses to retain customers and grow.  The companies which deliver a good customer service and experience are customer-centric putting the customer in the centre of decisions, ideas, marketing, system design and more. Companies like apple manufacture products that people don't even realise they need, and the packaging of their products adds to the customer’s experience, which makes them the leader in customer service. A company that delivers only a great customer experience won’t survive if the product or service the company sells doesn’t work or do what it’s supposed to do, so they have to manufacture high quality products as well as provide a great customer service. It’s the combination of the two, a great product and an amazing customer service experience, that can meet the expectations of the customers and make a company grow to the top of their industry. To know more go to: http://www.hyken.com/customer-experience-2/product-experience/#more-5264

 According to a survey of 900 business and IT executives from 70 countries by IBM Institute for Business Value study, Eighty percent of respondents are evaluating the impact of their analytics investments, 60 percent already have predictive analytics capabilities, and "leaders" who were perceived to be proactive in engaging analytics in their organizations were more than two times likely than average to have formal career paths for analytics professionals.The next generation of IT workers will work in highly automated environments that combine both in-sourced and out-sourced technologies that businesses will expect to get immediate value from. “We hire many of our people right out of college," said the CEO of a healthcare cloud analytics vendor. The intuition behind is that the company already possessed the internal analytics expertise to train these recruits, and the added advantage of hiring freshers is that it also gives the company an opportunity a to train these recruits in to customer service that is valuable to the company. To know more about this, go to: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/big-data-analytics/better-training-in-search-of-next-generation-it-workers/

Today call centers are becoming increasingly famous all over the world. Call centers play a vital part in most modern organizations, as they fulfill the need of creating a strong bond between a company and its customers. It is basically a place where inbound calls to the company are taken for customer service and support, while outbound calls to customers and clients are made for telemarketing. Taking the help of a company specializing in call center support will provide many benefits including: 1) saving money 2) saving time 3) providing expertise 4) better reputation. An expert call center gives protection to company and help build reputation. These benefits are required for many online companies and the best way to find a great call center is to compare the cost, reputation, such that any language barrier does not sustain between the countries. Read more at: 

http://serversitters.com/what-is-a-call-center-and-how-can-it-help-your-business.html

A recent survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit found that those who were polled believe that customer service and marketing is expected to gain most from analytics, but customer service is unprepared to deal with big data. Proper analytics of the brand will enable business houses to understand how their business is performing, whether they need any improvement or not.  An October 2013 Gartner report, Market Trends: Leveraging Analytics in Vertical Industries, identified four major categories of analytics: Descriptive, Diagnostic, Prescriptive, Predictive. Three ways in which analytics is transforming customer service: Analytics is encouraging organizations to break down barriers

Analytics is changing perceptions of important measurements

Analytics is allowing brands to get ahead

To know more about the three ways in which analytics is transforming customer service, go to:https://blog.zopim.com/2013/11/20/3-ways-analytics-transforming-customer-service/

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Three ways analytics can change customer service: (1)Barriers to the organizations are to be broken down as encouraged by Analytics: The multi-channel analytics is causing many brands to call their customer service technologies and processes frequently to break down data vaults and multi-channel support and reaction is centralized to avoid repetition of customer information. say of the customer, a 360-degree vision of the customer, makes analytics more convenient and insightful. (2) Changing awareness of chief Measurements by Analytics: Organizations are deviating from old methods such as rapidity to answer and quantity of calls handled per hour, and moving towards more important methods such as overall client pleasure, first call decision. (3) Allowance of analytics to   move ahead: Once the right analytical reports are collected organizations use them to improve their services and support. Using analytics an organizations can estimates what customers are wanting and expecting from their services. Read more at:

http://www.parature.com/customerservice-analytics/

Online chat is a better option compared to other customer service strategies like an email exchange or a personalized phone call. For live chat, some essential criteria have to be considered. First, it is important to ensure that the client or the user is registered on the company's website as all chat sessions would originate from the website of the company. Second, it is also important to know that whether inquiries being received are quick to answer or are detailed inquiries in order to continue with at least three chat sessions at a time. Third, the basic requirement is to have an operator during live chat sessions. Due to live chat sessions, a knowledge base of prepared responses gets build up which benefits in responding to customers faster and re-type the same answer, and thus there is a consistent communication between the company and customer. Read more at: http://managementhelp.org/blogs/customer-service/2010/06/04/customer-service-strategies-live-chat/ 

Unless one puts in the effort of being beside their customers they can never receive helpful word of mouth. In times of crisis if employees want to protect the company's reputation, they should instil a customer service culture, then empower staffs for making decisions, and perform properly in case of a problem. In times of crisis a briefing should be done to the frontline staffs about the crisis, which is a part of the crisis communication plan. This approach helps protecting one's reputation. Words of support from the directly affected people provides opportunity to enhance one's reputation further. There is no formula for gaining goodwill and loads of satisfied tweets and Facebook posts from customers. Frontline staffs as brand ambassadors and crisis communicators and hard work only pleases customers and satisfies them. Read more at:http://managementhelp.org/blogs/crisis-management/2010/12/13/crisis-management-customer-service/ 

Why we people do not get proper consumer service is the biggest question now. Apart from fast food joints the worst consumer treatment is acquired from the people who work for doctors, when ironically we should have got the best treatment there. In cases of emergencies where e require immediate attention we are told to fill forms moreover calls irritate you on confirming whether you would be able to clear the bills even if the insurance doesn’t. Apart from banks, medical customer service frustrates people with long calls and often hang them up. The only difference is that you speak with a live person instead. Then there are these unfriendly tools on the websites which assures you about the non occurrence of the problem again but if we had spend time searching every inch of the website this wouldn’t have happened in the first place. read more at:http://managementhelp.org/blogs/training-and-development/2012/03/07/poorest-customer-service-in-the-land-where-it-really-counts/