J’ai récemment eu l’occasion de lire un post consacré à Zappos et aux clefs de son succès (ici). Intrigué, j’ai téléchargé la dernière présentation de son fondateur, Tony Hsieh, à PubCon (11/11/09) (voir le SlideShare en pied de ce post).

Introduction chiffrée et rapide

Zappos c’est :

• 1 000 marques référencées
• 5 millions d’articles en entrepôts
• Plus de 1 milliard de chiffre d’affaires en $
• 100% des articles présentés en stock
• Une vente évaluée à 1.2 milliard de $ à Amazon

Zappos vend des chaussures, un segment traditionnellement exclu de la VAD

Zappos a débuté en 1999 dans la vente de chaussures en ligne. Pour convaincre les consommateurs, le site leur permet de renvoyer gratuitement les modèles essayés. Et ce dans un délai de un an à posteriori de l’achat.

C’est à mon avis, le principal saut de valeur. Cette offre va lever un frein essentiel à l’achat à distance : l’absence de « cabine d’essayage ». Grâce à elle, je peux choisir parmi des milliers de modèles, je profite d’une ergonomie impeccable pour passer ma commande, d’un accompagnement à la conversion au-dessus du lot (cf. infra) et surtout, après mon passage d’ordre, je peux essayer, évaluer, revenir sur ma décision.

Zappos a fait sa notoriété et sa performance sur un service clients hors normes

Cette société vend des produits à 40% et plus de marge. Elle finance un service clients au-dessus de tous les standards. Tony Hsieh définit sa société comme une « service company ».

Citons pour exemples de son niveau de service :

• La livraison express (24H) et gratuite.
• Le retour gratuit.
• Le droit de retour étendu à 365 jours.
• Un service clients disponible 7 jours sur 7, 24 H sur 24 par téléphone (évidement gratuit !), chat, web. Essayez le chat et validez la réactivité et le soin apporté à la réponse. Édifiant !
• Une ergonomie web (User Experience) destinée à faciliter la navigation et la transformation.
• …/…

Le résultat est une forte fidélité. Plus de 2.5 achats par client et par an. 75% des ventes réalisées avec des clients à 2 commandes et plus. Une moyenne commande à 156$ pour les commandes de fidélisation. Soit environ 375$ de chiffre d’affaires sur un exercice pour un client fidèle.

Par effet boule de neige, son acquisition de nouveaux clients est nourrie par le bouche-à-oreille.

Zappos amortit son coût d’acquisition initial avec une fidélité forte. Son budget de fidélisation est essentiellement investi dans son service clients.

Les me-too sur le segment de Zappos sont un bon début mais…

En France, Zappos a fait des émules, avec l’apparition de Sarenza en 2005 et de Spartoo en 2006. Chouette !

…à quels autres segments, pouvons-nous appliquer les clefs du succès Zappos

Je retiens en synthèse 2 clefs de succès :

ŒClef de succès 1 : La possibilité d’essayer et de retourner

Que pouvons-nous faire essayer en permettant à nos consommateurs de le retourner en cas de changement d’avis :

• Le vin
• Les produits gastronomiques
• Les vêtements
• Les sous-vêtements
• Les éléments de décoration de nos intérieurs
• …/…

Pour mieux « translater » l’offre Zappos, quels sont les segments qui aujourd’hui échappent à la VAD et dans lesquels la mise en avant d’une possibilité d’essayage-retour serait un saut de valeur radical ?

 Clef de succès 2 : Un service client hors normes qui alimente la fidélisation et le recrutement de nouveaux clients par le bouche-à-oreille

Dans ce cas, il s’agit de sortir notre calculette et d’inclure le service clients dans les coûts marketing et non en coûts de traitement, sous-traitance ou tout autre catégorie qui pousse au cost killing. Offrir un service clients hors norme est un moyen marketing, le coût de bichonnage d’un client doit venir en remplacement de coûts media ou de fidélisation. Sur le long terme, cet investissement sera plus vertueux.

Présentation PubCon consacrée à Zappos

I will be facilitating my next 4 Part Webinar Series on Planning for CRM Success starting on December 17th. This event is free of charge thanks to our sponsors at Microsoft, to register go to http://events.linkedin.com/Planning-CRM-Success-4-Part-Series/pub/173955

Per puro caso mi sono imbattuto in un caso veramente eccezionale di sfruttamento di internet in enogastronomia. Userò questo sito come caso esempio di ottimo lavoro, spiegando i servizi in esso contenuti nel miglior modo possibile. Non siamo stati noi (ovviamente) ma i nostro gugini d’oltralpe a realizzarlo, ma nel nostro piccolo potrmmo anche in Italia azzardare un attività simile. Basta giri di parole.  http://www.lavinia.fr.
In homepage troviamo una tipica interfaccia  e-commerce focalizzata sulla vendita on-line di vino e accessori dedicati alla degustazione e alla sommelierie. Intorno alle offerte speciali della settimana troviamo alcuni box frequenti anche in Italia come l’iscrizione alla newsletter, il box per il carrello degli acquisti e, in bella vista, i contatti per l’assistenza clienti (solo telefono e e-mail, qui si poteva fare di meglio magari con un contatto skype). Ma passiamo alle cose più importanti, CLUB, ovvero, “fare network”

l’iscrizione da accesso a sconti di varia natura ma  soprattutto a varie attività organizzate allo scopo di promuovere la passione per il vino, la degustazione, l’abbinamento eno-gastronomico e “indirettamente” la location del negozio come punto di aggregazione e di condivisione di emozioni fra i clienti. Per darvi un’idea uso un loro strumento, un video-promo creato appositamente per essere condiviso sui socialnetwork, tracciato e controllato dall’azienda.Non tutti i filamti promozionali sono così facili da divulgare.

Che si parli del negozio, dell ristorante  o delle iniziative, o che ci si trovi nella pagina del blog  dove vengono pubblicate notizie sul mondo del vino slegate dalla loro attività diretta, in ogni pagina si può lasciare un parere su come le informazioni fornite sono passate al dilà dello schermo. Sembra una cosa da poco, ma sottolinea la volontà dell’azienda di voler rimanere sempre in contatto con il cliente, e di voler fare di tutto per “smussare gli spigoli” dando la parvenza di ascoltare i pareri degli esterni.

Tutta l’attività di Lavinia, come potrete vedere, ha lo scopo di creare la passione nel luogo stesso in cui avviene la vendita, partendo da casa, dal computer (magari con un piccolo acquisto di prova), per giungere nel negozio vero a Parigi, in una location fantastica in pieno centro, ed essere accolti in un ambiente veramente mozzafiato, fra più di 4 mila etichette di varie provenienze, tutte da poter degustare, o da assaporare in un bellissimo ristorante all’interno accompagnate dal meglio della cucina francese per quel particolare vino.

Senza dubbio sono riusciti a creare un Azienda che genera emozioni, quantificabili con tanti tanti soldi… Ma moltissimi sono stati spesi per allestire una così colossale attività dentro e fuori dalla rete, ma avvolta intorno alle emozioni della clientela. Con me per esempio, ha funzionato, e non mancherò una visita al mio prossimo viaggio a Parigi.

One of the big features in Accpac 6 is SData support. What is SData? SData is a web services protocol based on REST. What is REST? REST is a web services protocol that is very popular among Internet companies. There are basically two main competing standards for web services. One is SOAP which is promoted by Microsoft, Oracle and IBM; this is a fairly heavy duty protocol which requires a fair bit of infrastructure (which is provided by the companies promoting this protocol). The other is REST which was invented as a University Research project and basically uses existing Web Technologies such as HTTP and RSS to implement a web services protocol. The nice thing about REST is that it doesn’t require any extra middleware. You are basically doing everything via standard web URLs. The infrastructure that supports this is basically just the standard Internet. SData is just an extension to REST, similar to Google’s GData which is also based on REST. REST protocols are used by Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo and all the main Internet companies. Gartner estimates that 75% of web services in use on the Internet are REST based. REST/SData also provides a standard mechanism for performing CRUD (create, read, update, delete) on all records.

From Accpac, every Accpac View (or Business Logic Object) will be exposed via SData. This provides third party ISVs a complete, efficient Web Services interface to communicate to Accpac with. Also all Sage applications are being made SData aware, meaning that all Sage applications can manipulate SData Web Services (or feeds). For instance here is some Accpac A/R Customer and G/L Account data displayed within a Sage CRM Dashboard using SData.

From a simple wizard you can select any Accpac SData feed and once you’ve chosen a feed, you can select which columns you wish to display. Additionally Sage CRM and Accpac will be converting to use SData for our integration needs, this transition will occur over several versions of both products. In the same way you will be able to access CRM data from Accpac using SData.

All the new Sage ERP Accpac 6 screens are written entirely using SData. This means the screen can access any Accpac Views via SData, but additionally they can access any SData feeds from any product. In Accpac 5.x, the screen controls were mapped via datasource controls to views and view fields. This was great, but it limited you to only connecting our standard controls to fields in Views developed in our SDK. Now that the controls are mapped to a standards based SData fields, it means they will be able to be connected easily to much more data than just Accapc data. Look for other Sage products to start providing SData interfaces in their coming versions.

Sage is publishing SData as a publicly available standard. You can read all about it at: http://sdata.sage.com/.

I am working with a company where the Head of Sales continually stressed the need to complete 10 face to face sales presentations per week, because this is what worked for her.

On investigation, the highest performing sales person in the team did, on average, 5 face to face meetings per month.

Another of his sales colleagues did the obligatory 10 meetings per week and still struggled to hit target.

Why?

There is a whole sales mix that needs to be looked at here, but time and time again in this situation I am forced to look at two key elements – the people and the process.

Processes can either complement or hinder the sales process, and a sales process that works brilliantly for one sales person could present a real hurdle for performance to another.

I love getting to know the sales people as individuals, establishing their motivations and their stresses, helping them become better people, better sales people, working with them to achieve their ambitions and ultimately smash targets. Everyone is in ‘achieving mode’ and that’s addictive and contagious.

Psychometric testing is never my first investigative tool but it rates highly in my sales tool box, simply for the speed and quality of information it can yield.

This information can helps to identify where the sales team are benefiting from the current methodology, and more specifically who is benefiting from it and who is finding it impacting negatively on their ability to sell.

If you have ever wondered why, despite following the same methodology, some of your sales team are performing better than others; then psychometric profiling may give you some very useful information.

According to Wikipedia, Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of educational and psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits.

Your company sales processes and methodologies have probably been adopted and used because they work adequately most of the time for the bulk of the sales team i.e. the business gets what it needs at the end of the month.

That’s not to be sneezed at. However, when you are looking for improvements you have a choice.

Not every person in your sales team will adopt and adapt to the sales process in the same way. Some will see it as the only way to do business and others will see a hundred things they would do differently if they had the choice.

When looking at the whole sales mix, the question is what is likely to bring you improved sales performance?

1. 1 thing that gives you 100% increase in sales performance? or,
2. 100 things that give you a 1% increase in performance each?

Ok, so there is a whole sales continuum in between the two extremes, but I’m sure you get my point.

Process and People are the starting points, pricing, pipeline, profit are others and the list could go on – reward structure, integrated sell, lead generation….. These are all areas to be investigated and reviewed.

When you are thinking about what increase you are looking for in Sales Performance in 2010, remember it’s ok just to rev the sales machine harder, you may just get a bit more of the same, alternatively if you are looking for a fresh insight into getting the results you want, just let us know what your challenges are and we will happily share our expertise with you in a free initial consultation.

To learn more about or Sales Audit and Toolkit, please call me, Carol Griffiths, Director and Principal Consultant at Morton Kyle Limited on 0779 002 1885, or email carol@mortonkyle.com.

Bildiğiniz gibi her kullanıcı yeni sisteme gerçerken bir çok konuda direnç gösterecektir. Bunlardan biride tarih alanlarının kayıt açıldığındığında bulunan günün tarihi şeklinde dolu gelmesidir. Örnek vermek gerekirse Kayıt açıldığında Başlangıç tarihi bugün, bitiş tarihi de bugünden 15 gün sonra gelsin gibi talepler basit görünse de kullanıcıları rahatlatan şeylerdir.

Genelde teklif, aktivite gibi kayıtların tarih alanlarını form açıldığında default olarak dolu gelmesi istendiğinde aşağıdaki kodu formun onload eventine yazmak gerekir.

 Bugünün değerini set etmek istersek; var date = new Date(); crmForm.all.new_date.DataValue = date; Aşağıdaki kodda yukarıda set edilen date alanının değerini alıp 15 gün ekleyen ve bunu başka bir alana set eder. date.setDate(date.getDate() + 15); crmForm.all.new_enddate.DataValue = date;

Ancak burada unutulmaması gereken bu kodun crmForm.FormType 1 veya 5  ise olmalıdır. Bu koşulu unutmamak gerekir. Aksi durumda kullanıcının değiştirip kaydettiği değer kayıt tekrar açıldığında değişir ki bu da olmaması gereken bir durumdur.

Teklif ekranındaki menu barda bulunan Adres Ara ve Müşteri için teklif çıktısını yazdır butonlarını gizlemek için aşağıdaki kod kullanılabilir.

Aşağıdaki kod formun onload’una yazılmalıdır.

 var adresAraButon = document.getElementById(‘_MBLookupAddress’);

var teklifYazdirButon = document.getElementById(‘_MBprintQuote’);    

if(adresAraButon !=null)

adresAraButon .style.display = ‘none’;

if(teklifYazdirButon !=null)

teklifYazdirButon .style.display = ‘none’;

Bu kod formun onload’una yazılır. Id değerlerini bulmak için kaydı açtığınızda ctrl+n ile yeni bir sayfada gösterdiğinizde browserın menu barından View→Source özelliğinden açılan txt dökümanından görünen başlık adına göre ararsanız id değerini bulabilirsiniz.

Tekrardan merhabalar,

CRM’de Navbar’da gösterilen ilişkili varlıkların iframe içierisinde nasıl gösterileceğini Navbar görünümleri IFrame’de Nasıl Gösterilir? makalesinde yazmıştım. Şimdi bu görünümlerden yeni ve var olan .. ekle butonlarının nasıl kaldırılacağını anlatacağım. Öncelikle buna neden gereksinim duyulduğuna değineyim. Navbar ilişkilerinin görünürlükleri CRM’in varlık özelleştirme bölümünden yapılabilir. Bu kısıtlama roller ile de yapılabilir. Ancak kullanıcının bazı kayıtlar içerisinden ilgili kaydın tüm listesini görüp yine aynı kullanıcının başka bir kayıt içerisinden bu varlıkğı yaratması istenebilir. Bu gibi durumda roller ile kısıtlama yapılamaz.

Şimdi yazılamsı gereken kodu inceleyelim. Bunun için forma eklenen Iframe’in adı gerekmektedir. Kod aşağıdaki şekildedir.

Bu kodu çağırmak için de Formun OnLoad’una  şu kod yazılır.

var buttons=['Bu kayda yeni bir Deneme ekle', 'Bu kayda varolan Deneme nesnesini ekler'];

var iframeName=’IFRAME_Deneme’;

HideIframeViewButton(iframeName,buttons);

New_deneme ilişkili olduğu entitynin adıdır. Ve buttons dizisinin değerleri de görünümde butonun üzerine mouse ile gelindiğinde çıkan tooltipin yazısıdır.

Burada bir diğer alternatif sadece yeni ya da sadece varolan butonlarını kaldırmak isteyebiliriz. Bu durumda buttons dizisine sadece birinin tooltip değeri yazılır.

Fonksiyonun koduda şu şekildedir:

function HideIframeViewButton(loadAreaId, buttonTitles) {

  var navElement = document.getElementById(‘nav_’ + loadAreaId);

  if (navElement != null) {

    navElement.onclick = function LoadAreaOverride() {

      loadArea(loadAreaId);

      var associatedViewIFrame = document.getElementById(loadAreaId + ‘Frame’);

      if (associatedViewIFrame != null) {

        associatedViewIFrame.onreadystatechange = function HideButton() {

          if (associatedViewIFrame.readyState == ‘complete’) {

            var iFrame = frames[window.event.srcElement.id];

            var liElements = iFrame.document.getElementsByTagName(‘li’);

            for (var i = 0; i < buttonTitles.length; i++) {

              {

                for (var j = 0; j < liElements.length; j++) {

                  if (liElements[j].getAttribute(‘title’) == buttonTitles[i]) {

                    liElements[j].style.display = ‘none’;

                    break;

                  }

                }

              }

            }

          }

        }

      }

    }

  }

Merhabalar,

CRM’de veriler girildikten sonra toplu birden fazla kaydın seçilip bu kayıtlardaki bazı alanların toplu olarak değiştirilmesi gerekebilir. Ancak CRM arayüzünde tüm varlıklar için gözükmemektedir.

CRM’de bazı varlıklar için default olarak bulunan Bulk Edit→Toplu Düzenle butonu aktivite, fatura gibi varlıklarda yoktur. Bu özellik ISV.config’te değişiklik yaparak değiştirilebilir.Ayarlar→Özellikleri Ver→ISV.Config dosyasını kaydettikten sonra notepad yada Visual Studio ile düzeltmeler yapıldıktan sonra Özellikleri Al ile kaydedilen konum gösterilerek özellikler alınır.Ve refresh edildikten sonra buton gözükür. Ancak bir ayar daha yapılması gerekir. Tüm diğer custom eklenen ISV butonlarının gözükmesi için bu ayar yapılmalıdır.

Ayarlar→Yönetim→Sistem Ayarları→Özelleştirme tabında Özel menüler ve Araç çubuklarından istemcileri kullanıma bağlı olarak istediğiniz kombinasyonu ancak Web’ten genel olarak kullanıldığı için Web seçeneğini sağ kutuya alıp tamam’ı tıklayarak kaydetmeniz gerekmektedir. ISV.config’de yaratılan bazı butonlar Client attribute’ünde belirtilip Web,Outlook,Outlook Offline şeklinde belirtilmektedir.
İstediğiniz varlık’ın altına <Grid> tagleri arasında CRM’in çağırdığı şekilde yani doAction(‘crmGrid’, ‘1088′, ‘bulkedit’); şeklinde yazılır. 1088 objecttypecode’dur,isteğiniz entity’nin altına kodu yazarak bu kodu değiştirmeniz yeterlidir.

 NOT:ISV.Config tagleri hakkında bilgi için ISV.Config’i inceleyelim… makalelere bakabilirsiniz.

 <Entity>

<Grid>

<MenuBar>

<Buttons>

<Button Icon=”/_imgs/ico_18_debug.gif” JavaScript=”doAction(‘crmGrid’, ‘4201′, ‘bulkedit’);” Client=”Web”>

<Titles>

<Title LCID=”1033″ Text=”Bulk Edit” />

</Titles>

<ToolTips>

<ToolTip LCID=”1033″ Text=”Bulk Edit.” />

</ToolTips>

</Button>

</Buttons>

</MenuBar>

</Grid>

</Entity>

Service helps businesses grow online and offline relationships

London, UK – 24 November 2009: WeCanDo.BIZ Limited, the online sales leads and business referrals network, has launched a Social CRM addition to its established website to assist small business owners to turn their social networking contacts into customers.  Called WeCanDoCRM, the service is free to all businesses at www.wecando.biz.

Social CRM is the merging of social networks with Customer Relationship Management to help businesses manage and build customer relationships using the information that customers freely share through their online profiles.  Social CRM also includes using social networking resources to help improve customer dialogue.

Focused towards small business owner/managers looking to use social media to help grow their businesses, the new features announced with WeCanDoCRM enable:

-          Consolidation of contacts from website enquiry forms, Microsoft Outlook, Google Mail, Yahoo Mail, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ecademy and existing customer databases to one location, making contacts and customers easier to manage and communicate with

-          Improved data currency and accuracy through linking CRM records with public social networking profiles

-          Access to further rich data collected from public social networking profiles to supplement customer information already held

-          Advanced Customer Relationship Management features such as lead & sales management workflow, HTML email & mobile SMS (Short Message Service) campaign marketing, customer surveys and rich reporting as an upgrade option

-          Integration to online accounts systems, such as Kashflow, providing full sales workflow from leads through to invoicing.

These new Social CRM features are in addition to the many business networking features of WeCanDo.BIZ, including Biz Need business sales leads; and an endorsement system to share customer endorsements on your social networking profile, blog or website.  The WeCanDo.BIZ website has over 12,500 registered users.

“As I build contacts online WeCanDoCRM captures customer data straight into the system  – that’s fantastic, as I can be straight onto potential opportunities with fundamentally no delay or need for administration,” says Will Hawkins of Healthy Business Ltd., a WeCanDo.BIZ user and early adopter of WeCanDoCRM.  “I have access to information about my customers that many large businesses can only dream about!”

“A lot of business owners are scratching their heads, trying to work out what social networks can do for them, how they build their contacts and then how they convert them into customers,” says Ian Hendry, founder and Chief Executive of WeCanDo.BIZ.  “The fact is, there are opportunities being presented all the time through social network connections, but unless you record them they’re quickly lost amongst the noise.  WeCanDoCRM assists in building rich customer profiles of your online and offline contacts; then provides tools to help advance the relationship to the point where business gets done — quickly and easily.”

WeCanDoCRM Social CRM is powered by the InTouch CRM platform and is available immediately, free to all businesses from www.wecando.biz.  WeCanDo.BIZ Pro Networker membership is an optional upgrade enabling small businesses to use social media to grow even faster from £19.95 + VAT per month with no contract.

About WeCanDo.BIZ

WeCanDo.BIZ is an online new business network for sales leads and referrals. Using social networking methods to broker valuable new business relationships, it provides simple tools to members which help generate sales leads, leverage customer referrals and win new business.  The web-based service is available to all businesses at www.wecando.biz.

Media contact:
Ian Hendry
WeCanDo.BIZ
@wecandobiz
+44 (0)7767 657977

Images:

WeCanDoCRM email campaign reporting (click to enlarge)

WeCanDoCRM sales leads (click to enlarge)

Tweets showing in WeCanDoCRM (click to enlarge)

Import your Twitter contacts to WeCanDoCRM (click to enlarge)

Raising a KashFlow invoice from with WeCanDoCRM (click to enlarge)

Will Hawkins

Ian Hendry

Just saw a news story on Ad Age. It is titled “Will Retailers or Consumers Come Out on Top on Black Friday?” The story references how Sears, Kmart and other retailers have begun holiday sales ahead of time as shoppers start early, searching for deals. According to Ad Age, Black Friday 2009 has become a massive game of chicken among retailers and consumers, as the closely watched post-Thanksgiving sales data will largely decide which succeeds at outsmarting the other.

Is this the right attitude?

As marketers, are we really trying to outsmart our customers?

If we are customer-centric, we would not be trying to one-up each other, but would focus our efforts on helping our customers solve their needs with relevant and differentiated offers.

As I defined in one of my earlier posts, providing value to customers by fulfilling their specific needs (relevance), recognizing their unique contribution to the business (recognition) and rewarding them with specific offers (reward) will create a win-win proposition. I defined the equation as 2RL + 2RC + RW = CL.

By doing this, the customer gets what they need from the brand and the brand gets the transactions that add strength to the business while building value in the relationship.

It is not about being smarter than them. It is about serving them well.

A simple idea. One that works

They don’t call me Yoda for nothing. This little rant is for those acolytes drinking the Kool Aid of disbelief, the recipe that says that one day, if we stay the course, this will all get better, those who believe that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a train.
For the next few minutes try and disassociate yourself from your responsibilities at work and become a patient.  Recall a time when you’ve been a dissatisfied patient. If you’re totally honest, that simple exercise should quicken your pulse. Cold beads of sweat appear on your forehead; your palms feel a little clammy.

The transition is faster than Clark Kent in a phone booth. A mild mannered and pedestrian acolyte transformed into a right-winged, Myers-Briggs INTJ A-Type with a passion for metaphorically devouring the unfortunate person awaiting your visit.

As you think about managing the equity of your patients think about it from the perspective of the patient, goodness knows they do. That relationship is black and white—there are no shades of gray. It’s good versus evil, Yoda versus Darth Vader.

I think with most patient interactions the patients believe that the person on the other end of the line is incented to make them go away as quickly as possible and at the lowest possible expense to the provider.

For most patients, patient loyalty is a thing of the past. Who do you do business with? Why? For any product that is even close to being a commodity, I deal with the firm who I find to be the least offensive, the one that will irritate me the least. That’s why I buy cars on EBay so I never again have to hear the phrase, ‘What’s it going to take to get you into that car?” If you find yourself doing that, why is it such a stretch to believe that so many patients feel the same way? That said, could it rather naïve to believe that your firm’s current approach to patient relationship management will make any difference?

1,6 million de dinars est le coût d’investissement d’un nouveau centre de télétravail qui vient de démarrer dans la délégation de Metlaoui (gouvernorat de Gafsa).

Ce projet a été mis en œuvre par deux entreprises opérant dans les domaines innovants et fournit des services à distance à des entreprises économiques et des administrations, en Tunisie et à l’étranger.

Créé par deux jeunes promoteurs originaires de la localité, le premier projet consiste en un centre d’appels permettant de générer plus 45 postes d’emploi. Le deuxième, est un centre de communication à distance, pourvoyeur de 250 postes de travail. Il est réalisé par un promoteur tunisien avec un partenaire italien
Grâce à un partenariat tuniso-italien, un autre centre de télétravail est en cours d’achèvement à Redayef avec un coût de 1,6 million de dinars.

Ce projet abritera une entreprise d’archivage numérique pour les archives de la Société des phosphates de Gafsa et un centre d’appel à distance.
D’autre part, le démarrage de la construction de deux autres centres de télétravail sera prévu l’un à Moularès et le second à Mdhilla, avec une enveloppe de l’ordre de 2,2 millions de dinars.

La région de Gafsa est devenue un site important pour les promoteurs dans les activités immatérielles et innovantes à travers la création des nombreux projets qui s’intègrent dans le pôle de développement dont les activités devront couvrir toutes les délégations et englober les domaines à forte employabilité.
Ces projets visent à impulser davantage l’investissement et à promouvoir l’initiative privée à la faveur de l’amélioration de l’environnement des affaires. http://www.africanmanager.com

Some recent research indicated that the customer experience is now a more important competitive differentiator than customer service.  I twittered this and got an interesting response from Nigel Dean that raised the question: “Surely Service is a massive part of the customer’s experience? Can the experience be good if the service isn’t?” 

Admittedly I have found it hard to think of an example of when a customer experience would be considered good when the service wasn’t but, on the other hand, quite often the customer experience can be poor even when the service is good.  Essentially service is one contributing factor to the customer experience but it is wrapped up in many other factors many of which are not directly in the control of the provider.

Consider the interaction with the customer. On one side the provider presents things to the customer: quality, a brand, trained staff, service and so on.   They provide these things in the hope – even the strong belief – that they will delight the customer. On the other side of the deal the customer takes away an experience. 

But this means the focus of the service provider is on what they provide and not on what the customer actually sees, feels, touches and emotes about.  These reactions constitute the customer experience and they are the factors that will affect the result or outcome of the experience.

Understanding the customer experience is an exercise in empathy.  What is their emotional point when they first deal with you? Are they angry, desperate, indifferent etc?  These are emotions generated before contact and quite often be less than rational.  What does the customer expect from your brand? I expect different things  from a Ramsay restaurant than my local greasy spoon where frankly the service is often better but my experience at Chez Ramsay is better.     

How did they react to your way of doing business – remember, it may not be theirs. Was their issue resolved, be it service or purchase?   Did they get value for money? 

And finally how was the transaction loop closed – what was their emotional reaction to what happened?  What was the outcome of those reactions? Will they promote you or be a detractor? In the age of social networking the voice of the customer travels at the speed of light through a network of millions so this is crucial.  Do their peers think the experience/outcome was cool? (Peer pressure is a surprisingly powerful motivating force from kids with the latest gadget to business people and their BMWs?)

For a time there was a philosophy around called Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that attempted to round up this ‘experience issue’ but it suffered from two flaws.  It suggests you can control the relationship with the customer – the customer is now in control.  And the second problem is that CRM is about making managers look inwards at how they do things:  structure,  technology, processes etc and not at the customers’ experiences.  Having said that, CRM software tools are great at collecting massive amounts of raw data and we are now seeing some clever analytical tools work that data to give tremendous insight into customer activity and behaviour.  There is a caveat there, of course, that previous behaviour is no guarantee of future behaviour.

One other route to understanding the customer experience is to carry out a customer satisfaction survey but that will give you a figure for “how much” – it does not give any real insight into “why?” or “what was the outcome?” which are much more important if you are to keep doing the right things and put right the bad.

There are some real experts in this area – not just an old hack blithering on – and the one I would recommend is Colin Shaw at Beyond Philosophy.

Why do CRMs so often fail to meet expectations? I’ve known many companies to launch CRMs with such excitement and hope, only to be bitterly disappointed within months of the launch. Recognizing the difficulty companies have with change management and with CRM implementation and ongoing use, salesforce.com tries to help its clients with this process by providing tools and a designated “Customer Success Manager.” Ultimately, though, a company can greatly increase the success and effectiveness of its CRM by following some basic guidelines and rules.

1) Clearly state the reasons why you want a CRM. Articulate what it is you hope to achieve with a CRM, and make this visible to the company, including the leadership team. One company I know clearly chose to implement one primarily as part of its window dressing in order to facilitate the company’s sale. Needless to say, this was not a recipe for success.

2) Have a firm understanding of the monetary investment. Per user cost may seem fairly inexpensive, but what are the implementation costs? Does the software require investment in training for an administrator? Is there additional development required down the road? Make sure you can pinpoint the upfront and long term dollars.

3) Create a road map for your launch. Decide how you want to roll it out – user training, who will own the solution moving forward (i.e., who manages it), how will you establish user adoption, how much time you’ll need to roll it out, etc.

4) Executive buy-in does not end with approval to purchase or implement the CRM. A company’s senior leadership must have visibility into the CRM AND they must support the sales manager’s ongoing attempts to embed this within the culture of the company. Dashboards offer an effective and efficient way for company leaders to view CRM activity. However, it must be more than this – employees must know and see the importance of the CRM to the leadership team.

5) Find the right person to be the CRM administrator. Ideally, the administrator has been trained on the technical aspects of the CRM, is detailed oriented, and also has a background in sales and marketing. Remember, CRMs should be living, breathing, and dynamic. The launch and initial data dump are only the beginning.

6) Don’t think the CRM takes the place of sales or managing your customers. Your CRM is another tool for your company and sales team to leverage; be careful not to over-rely on it.

7) Finally, ultimately someone within your company must “own” the CRM. Whether or not it’s you, somebody must think of it as his or her “baby.” They must care deeply about it – nurture it, help it evolve, put it in a position to be successful, and pay close attention to it – in an ongoing manner.

Statistically speaking, CRMs have about only a 15% success rate (according to the 2004 Global CRM Study from IBM Business Consulting Services). However, if you follow the above guidelines, your chances for success will increase dramatically.

The new build introduces the revolutionary QuoteWerks Communicator SPAM filter neutralizer and includes an enhanced Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration, improved Maximizer integration, and support for QuickBooks 2010 (USA and Canada).

ORLANDO, FL November 23, 2009 — Aspire Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of sales quoting software solutions for the global small and mid-markets, announced today the release of a new build which includes over twenty-two new features.  Included in the build are numerous features designed to help companies of all sizes reduce their cost-of-sales and improve sales worker efficiencies.

Build 51 improves some existing integrations and also adds some new features for users.  The most notable features include:

• Support for QuickBooks 2010 (USA and Canadian versions)
• New enhanced Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 integration (including support for Multi-tenancy, quote entity support, and more)
• Improved Maximizer integration for Maximizer 10.0 and 10.5

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In this release, the new QuoteWerks Communicator was introduced.  The QuoteWerks Communicator enables Aspire Technologies, Inc. to periodically send messages to QuoteWerks users informing them of build updates, new features available, and other pertinent information.  These messages are received and viewed from within the QuoteWerks application. These messages are designed to be sent infrequently so as to not inundate the customers with messages.  It also enables the users to reply directly to the messages that they receive.  They can send questions and suggestions about the product allowing for bi-directional communication for purposes of feedback and to gauge customer responses to new features.

“Our customers often upgrade their systems and applications to take advantage of new features and technologies.  It is crucial that we inform our customers when we release new integrations and functionality, ensuring that their combined CRM and accounting solutions continue to work seamlessly with QuoteWerks.  Often however, customers are unaware of new additions to QuoteWerks because email SPAM filters trap or discard our build announcement emails, disrupting legitimate email communication between us and our customer base.  The new QuoteWerks Communicator will allow us to keep our customers informed and alert them when new features are available,” comments John C. Lewe IV, President of Aspire Technologies, Inc.

A full list of all the features added in Build 51 can be viewed here.

The new QuickBooks 2010 integrations, enhanced MS CRM integration, and improved Maximizer integration (plus more) are available in Build 51 or higher of QuoteWerks version 4.0.  Visit http://www.quotewerks.com/updates/UpdateAgent.asp to download build 51.

About Aspire Technologies and QuoteWerks^®

Aspire Technologies, the creators of the award winning QuoteWerks^® sales quoting software, is the leading provider of sales quoting software with its award winning QuoteWerks^® application deployed to thousands of businesses and

enterprises worldwide. QuoteWerks^® integrates with leading CRM and accounting packages, along with IT
distributors D&H^®, Ingram Micro^®, SYNNEX^®, and Tech Data^®, enabling businesses in all industries to integrate QuoteWerks^® seamlessly into their existing environments.  Aspire Technologies is headquartered in Orlando, Florida and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.  For more information please visit www.quotewerks.com.

QuoteWerks is a registered trademark of Aspire Technologies, Inc.  Other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.

Em conferência anual, companhia aponta para foco na integração entre redes sociais, ferramentas colaborativas e aplicativos corporativos 

É praticamente inevitável para uma companhia ignorar processos de colaboração, troca de ideias, redes sociais e outras funcionalidades que vieram com o apogeu da web 2.0, ainda que a empresa não tenha aplicado essa realidade ao seu dia a dia. A indústria assiste de perto a esta movimentação ávida para encontrar uma forma de ganhar sua fatia nessa chamada evolução social. E algumas têm conseguido algum sucesso. O Google tem capitalizado com sua plataforma Google Apps que, aos poucos, amplia presença no mercado empresarial e a Salesfoce.com, uma das pioneiras na oferta de programas no modelo software como serviço (SaaS, da sigla em inglês), mostra que está com os dois pés nesta era.

Prova dessa determinação é o lançamento do Salesforce Chatter, apresentado durante o Dreamforce 2009, conferência que a companhia realiza anualmente em São Francisco, Estados Unidos, cidade onde a empresa foi fundada, e que neste ano ocorre entre os dias 17 e 20 de novembro. Trata-se de uma espécie de Google Wave, mas totalmente voltado para o mundo das corporações. Como explica a própria empresa, o Chatter é, ao mesmo tempo, uma aplicação de colaboração corporativa e uma plataforma de desenvolvimento social. Por meio de uma interface aparentemente fácil, o funcionário pode acessar um aplicativo financeiro, observar dicas, criar fóruns, acessar redes sociais compartilhadas.

CEO da Salesforce diz que produtos das rivais são lentos ou complexos e caros 

De acordo com a companhia, os 135 mil aplicativos Salesforce se converterão para a plataforma social. Para Marc Benioff, CEO e chairman da empresa, o produto é uma forma de aproximar os funcionários da empresa, já que essas pessoas passam a acessar ferramentas que encontram fora da companhia e que podem contribuir com o processo de colaboração e inovação. É uma complexa combinação, em tempo real, de ferramentas de redes familiares e aplicativos empresariais dentro de um formato de compartilhamento seguro.

“Não conheço ninguém que discorde que Twitter e Facebook sejam fenômenos e trouxeram novas possibilidades para a indústria com meio bilhão de usuários. Eu uso Facebook e Twitter”, comentou Benioff, sobre a realidade das redes, diante de uma plateia formada por milhares de pessoas (foram 19 mil inscritos) entre analistas, clientes, jornalistas e desenvolvedores. “A mágica é levar a inteligência por meio da rede social. Une conteúdo, aplicativo e pessoas no mesmo espaço. Nas empresas, isso está separado. Por que não levar inteligência para as empresas? Você tem conteúdo por meio de compartilhamento de arquivo, intranet, Lotus Notes; tem aplicativo da Salesforce, Oracle, SAP e tem pessoas que utilizam e-mail, outlook e mensagem instantânea e porque não usar tudo isso junto?”, questionou o CEO da Salesforce.

De acordo com Benioff, a colaboração por meio do Chatter será tão fácil como ocorre no Facebook e os aplicativos “conversarão com o usuário”. Em relação à segurança e privacidade, ele esclareceu que a ferramenta traz funcionalidades que permitem determinar quem tem acesso à determinada apresentação que será compartilhada na rede, quais pessoas podem ingressar em um grupo recém criado. Os filtros funcionam inclusive para os aplicativos.

Logo após a apresentação que também marcou a abertura do evento, Benioff participou de um bate-papo com jornalistas. Ele explicou que a estratégia da companhia está, sobretudo, em criar produtos que possam ser integrados. Mas adiantou que, no caso do Chatter, “o primeiro passo é colocar o produto como a próxima geração de colaboração. Não é um software de rede social, é uma plataforma de colaboração e o segundo passo é diferenciar os produtos como CRM da plataforma de integração.”

Versões atualizadas
Além do lançamento do Chatter, a Salesforce.com apresentou versões atualizadas do Sales Cloud2 e Service Cloud2. Ambos produtos receberam ferramentas colaborativas e integração com redes sociais. Tudo para facilitar o trabalho, melhorar o desempenho das companhias e deixar tudo dentro do conceito integração e colaboração.

No caso do Service Cloud, Benioff avisou que se trata de uma nova geração de serviço ao cliente e apresentou um slide com dado creditado à Frost & Sullivan que, em 2009, a Salesforce terá 55% de market share em CRM no modelo SaaS. “Os contacts center estão desconectados e os clientes estão nas redes sociais. As empresas investem em SAP, Oracle e Microsoft, mas os clientes estão em outros lugares”, provocou o executivo.

O vice-presidente de marketing da companhia, Kraig Swensrud, mostrou que a Dell, por exemplo, adotou o CRM da Salesforce, já nesta nova era e lembrou que os usuários têm, na mesma tela, acesso a todos os canais como telefone, redes sociais, e-mail e site. “O sistema é totalmente integrado. Pode saber de onde e o que as pessoas estão falando. É possível fazer filtros por perfil de clientes ou produtos, por exemplo.”

Here is a quick review of the three open positions for December:

TLT (95.12):

Net position: +2 95 C / -2 98 C (Bull Call Verticals)
Net debit = $80 = Maximum loss if TLT is below 95 at expiration
Maximum reward = $520 if TLT is above 98 at expiration

The net position currently has a small unrealized $90 profit. While the risk/reward ratio looks pretty good (risking $80 to make $520) at this point, the profit can easily evaporate if TLT does not shoot higher in the next few days.

From a chart perspective (not attached here), the weekly chart shows a small uptrend that may be developing. The daily chart shows TLT sliced between 94 and 95 price levels with no clear up or down trend at the moment.

Nearest swing high: 95.82, swing low = 94.52

ATM Volatility is fairly low at 12.66% so if price as well as volatility go up next week, the long call vertical should see some boost in value.

With regards to next steps, I would like to make an adjustment early next week to take off the entire cost of this trade while leaving some room for making money. The easiest way to recover the entire cost would be to sell some ATM puts (94 or 95) or  put spreads (90/94 or 90/95).

FAZ (19.99):

Net position: -1 17 P (Short Put)
Net credit = $120 = Max profit if FAZ is above 17 at expiration
Max risk = Theoretically unlimited on the downside, Zero on the upside

The short put is currently showing $67.5 unrealized profit which is pretty close to 50% of maximum profit on this position. Due to this, it is essential that an adjustment is made early next week to lock-in a part of these gains, or improve the risk/reward ratio.

From a chart perspective (not attached here), the weekly and daily charts appear to show a range-bound environment between 18 and 20 levels. Any weakness in equities early next week will make FAZ shoot higher thereby breaking out of the range.

With regards to next steps, the easiest way to improve the risk/reward ratio is to buy some OTM puts (18 or 19). I may also sell some ATM puts (19 or 20) depending on how equities behave early next week.

CRM (62.56):

Net position: -1 65 C/ +1 70 C (Bear Call Vertical)
Net credit: $150 = Max profit if CRM is below 65 at expiration
Max risk: $350 = Max loss if CRM is above 70 at expiration

The net position is currently showing an unrealized $35 profit. This can, of course, go away if CRM decides to shoot higher from this point.

From a chart perspective, the daily chart (not attached here) continues to show a downtrend which is good for the bearish position. The volume, however, appears to have reduced over the last couple of sessions which is not very positive. I will continue to monitor the price/volume action to gauge any early signs of the return of the bulls.

At a portfolio level, I do think that I am a little under allocated at this point. Due to this, I may either initiate a new position or add to existing positions between Monday and Wednesday.

Cheers Vik

Professional musician Dave Carroll just wanted fair treatment for the unfair treatment his $3500 Taylor guitar received on a United Airlines flight. But United wasn’t interested in fair or any other kind of treatment. They basically blew him off, and in return they received a classic lesson on the power of social media. Dave vowed to write three songs about the experience and post them on YouTube. Song #1 went viral almost overnight. Then CBS News featured it. A host of participating YouTube viewers produced response videos. Taylor Guitars produced a supporting video, as did the guy who invented Casextreme guitar cases.

Brand Lesson: This is customer dissatisfaction brought to you in living, viral color! If you think social media isn’t important, think again. And if you think integrating your brand culture throughout all aspects of your company is not critical to success, then you should consider joining the United Airlines Wings in the Sky but Head in the Sand Club.

Over 37% claimed that they took away three or more ‘Business Nuggets’ to provide insight into helping them build the business.

Destination Growth ‘09 was very well received with 74% of those surveyed saying that the event either met or exceeded their expectations. 

When it came to personal importance, nearly 48% of the participants put the Seminars/Workshops top.  This was followed with Keynote Speakers 32% and Networking 24%, with Exhibiting and Meeting the Exhibitors being least important at 8% and 4%.

56% were looking to the event to provide possible solutions to changing customer buying patterns, 44% to find ways to overcome pricing sensitivity and nearly 24% to find ways around shorter sales lead times and 20% to ‘Add Value’. 

The last points are particularly interesting as for some time now we have been helping clients look creatively at ways to build customer loyalty, market these initiatives to their customers and train their staff to embrace the changes required to use them to best effect. 

Where clients meet the entry criteria we are also able to help them access grants to support the training aspect of this package.

If you want a full copy of the survey (available from 30^th November), or to discuss how our skills can protect and develop your customer base, call Jonathan Wainwright on 07971 006 446 or email jonathan@fcgconsultancy.co.uk