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• Customer loyalty vs. retention: What's the difference?

  Customer retention focuses on keeping customers long term, while customer loyalty aims to make customers want to stay. Here, learn how these practices differ and work together. Continue Reading

• Customer success vs. sales: What's the difference?

  Customer success and sales teams both interact with clients, but customer success prevents churn, whereas sales teams focus on acquisition. Continue Reading

• What is field service management (FSM)?

  Field service management (FSM) is a system of managing off-site workers and the resources they require to do their jobs efficiently. Continue Reading

• 15 customer service email templates and tips

  Email remains an important channel for companies to communicate with customers. Here are some email templates for customer service teams to use in common scenarios. Continue Reading

• What are customer service and support?

  Customer service is the support organizations offer to customers before, during and after purchasing a product or service. Continue Reading

• Definitions to Get Started

  • What is field service management (FSM)?
  • What are customer service and support?
  • What is quality of experience (QoE or QoX)?
  • What is voice of the customer? A guide to VOC Strategy

  • What is high-touch customer service?
  • What is CRM (customer relationship management)?
  • What is a customer journey map?
  • What is account mapping, and why do you need it (with template)?

  View All Definitions

• How do green marketing and sustainable marketing differ?

  Many organizations use green and sustainable marketing to build trust with consumers. Green marketing focuses on the environment, whereas sustainable marketing is broader.Continue Reading

• What is a customer service manager? Roles and responsibilities

  Customer service managers are an integral part of contact centers. They are the team leaders, trainers and policymakers.Continue Reading

• What are the pros and cons of a CRM platform?

  CRM platforms can improve CX, but they often require significant investment. CX leaders should understand the pros and cons of these platforms before purchasing.Continue Reading

• How to choose the right CRM software for your organization

  Choosing the right CRM software can be daunting for organizations. These seven steps and best practices ensure the search, adoption and deployment processes go smoothly.Continue Reading

• What is quality of experience (QoE or QoX)?

  Quality of experience (QoE or QoX) is a measure of the overall level of a customer's satisfaction and experience with a product or service and the vendor that's providing that product or service.Continue Reading

• What is voice of the customer? A guide to VOC Strategy

  Voice of the customer (VOC) is the component of customer experience (CX) that focuses on customer needs, wants, expectations and preferences.Continue Reading

• How to use ChatGPT for customer service

  Customer service teams can use ChatGPT to automate tasks, generate responses to customer inquiries, summarize email threads and power human-like chatbots.Continue Reading

• CRM vs. CDP vs. DMP: What's the difference?

  Sales and marketing terms are like alphabet soup, and the different acronyms can get confusing. Learn about the differences among three major platforms: CRM, CDP and DMP.Continue Reading

• Understanding the 3 types of CRM systems

  To get the most out of a CRM system, organizations must decide whether an operational, analytical or collaborative CRM system is right for them.Continue Reading

• What is high-touch customer service?

  High-touch customer service is a category of contact center interaction that requires human interaction.Continue Reading

• What is CRM (customer relationship management)?

  CRM (customer relationship management) is the combination of practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle.Continue Reading

• How to build a customer service plan, with a template

  Crafting a customer service plan is a key step to improving customer satisfaction and building loyalty for an organization.Continue Reading

• What is a customer journey map?

  A customer journey map is a visual depiction of the stages customers go through when interacting with a company -- from buying products online to accessing customer service on the phone to airing grievances on social media.Continue Reading

• Video marketing SEO: How to rank on search engines

  Videos can improve SEO, but only if they add value to the page. Explore five tips, such as optimizing thumbnails, to help marketers create videos that improve search ranking.Continue Reading

• What is account mapping, and why do you need it (with template)?

  Account mapping is a strategic process that involves researching and visually organizing the key stakeholders, decision-makers and influencers within a target customer's organization.Continue Reading

• What is account-based selling? Everything you need to know

  Account-based selling (ABS) is a strategic sales approach in business-to-business sales and marketing that centers around building highly personalized and targeted relationships with specific high-value accounts.Continue Reading

• What is interactive voice response (IVR)?

  Interactive voice response (IVR) is an automated telephony system that interacts with callers, gathers information and routes calls to the appropriate recipients.Continue Reading

• How to create a customer loyalty program in 9 steps

  A customer loyalty program can help organizations better retain and understand their current customers and target audiences. These nine steps can lead to a successful program.Continue Reading

• How to avoid and remove malvertising

  Malvertising is an up-and-coming cybersecurity threat, but marketing and IT teams alike can take several important steps to avoid and remove this threat.Continue Reading

• Salesforce's 2024 acquisitions reveal a mature M&A strategy

  After two years of minimal big or small purchases, 2024 was the year of Salesforce's most cohesive and mature mergers and acquisitions strategy so far.Continue Reading

• 7 types of loyalty programs and their benefits

  Loyalty programs can improve brand recognition, increase sales and emphasize an organization's values. Get an in-depth look at seven loyalty programs and what they offer.Continue Reading

• 5 common malvertising examples

  Malvertising is relatively new in the world of cyberthreats and can be the hardest to spot. Here are five examples of these malicious ads.Continue Reading

• What is an AI assistant?

  An AI assistant, or digital assistant, is software that uses artificial intelligence to understand natural language voice commands and complete tasks for the user.Continue Reading

• What is a chief experience officer (CXO)?

  A chief experience officer (CXO) is an executive in the C-suite who ensures positive interactions with an organization's customers.Continue Reading

• What is contact center infrastructure?

  A contact center infrastructure (CCI) is a framework composed of the physical and virtual resources that a contact or call center facility needs to operate effectively.Continue Reading

• What is speech recognition?

  Speech recognition, or speech-to-text, is the ability of a machine or program to identify words spoken aloud and convert them into readable text.Continue Reading

• What is a cloud contact center?

  A cloud contact center is an internet-hosted service, typically managed by a third party, that handles all inbound and outbound customer communications for an organization.Continue Reading

• What is customer profiling?

  Customer profiling is the detailed, systematic process of constructing a clear portrait of a company's ideal customer by gathering and analyzing information about their demographic, psychographic and behavioral attributes.Continue Reading

• What is mindshare (share of mind)?

  Mindshare, also known as share of mind, is an approach to marketing that involves attempting to make a company, brand or product the first one that comes to mind when a customer thinks of a particular market.Continue Reading

• What is martech (marketing technology)?

  Martech (marketing technology) refers to the integration of software tools, platforms and applications designed to streamline and enhance digital marketing.Continue Reading

• What is customer insight (consumer insight)?

  Customer insight, or consumer insight, is the understanding and interpretation of customer data, behaviors and feedback into conclusions that can be used to drive actions that improve product development and customer support.Continue Reading

• What is market segmentation?

  Market segmentation is a marketing strategy that uses well-defined criteria to divide a brand's total addressable market share into smaller groups.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Wave Analytics (Salesforce CRM Analytics)?

  Salesforce Wave Analytics, now known as CRM Analytics, is a business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform from Salesforce that provides native analytics, visual insights and predictions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) for Salesforce CRM ...Continue Reading

• 7 benefits of video marketing

  Video marketing can help organizations engage audiences on an emotional level. Key benefits include building trust, enhancing SEO and improving the sales process.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

  Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) and digital marketing platform that enables marketers to generate better marketing outcomes and ROI.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Service Cloud?

  Salesforce Service Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform for Salesforce clients to provide service and support to their business customers.Continue Reading

• What is IoT Cloud (Salesforce IoT Cloud)?

  IoT Cloud is a Salesforce platform designed to store and process internet of things (IoT) data.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Customer Success Platform?

  The Salesforce Customer Success Platform (CSP) is the official name of the Salesforce portfolio of products.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Work.com?

  Salesforce Work.com is a set of solutions from Salesforce that enable organizations to simplify return-to-work processes, maintain safe workplace operations, assess and promote employee health, safety and well-being, and communicate with customers ...Continue Reading

• What is the Salesforce Service Console?

  The Salesforce Service Console is the centralized interface in Salesforce Service Cloud, an application devoted to customer service, support and customer experience.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Journey Builder?

  Salesforce Journey Builder is a campaign planning tool in Salesforce Marketing Cloud to build personalized customer journeys and deliver unique campaigns and content that enhance customer experiences and secure their loyalty.Continue Reading

• 15 best practices for contact center agent training programs

  Agents thrive when contact center training programs are built on KSAC profiles, performance analysis and recognition, personal coaching and shadowing, AI integration, and ROI.Continue Reading

• What is contact center as a service (CCaaS)?

  Contact center as a service (CCaaS) is a framework that combines contact center hosting principles and cloud-based contact center infrastructure.Continue Reading

• What is customer intelligence (CI) and how does it help business?

  Customer intelligence (CI) is the process of collecting and analyzing detailed customer data from internal and external sources to gain insights about customer needs, motivations and behaviors.Continue Reading

• What is a call center? Everything you need to know

  A call center is a centralized department of customer service professionals who handle inbound and outbound calls from current and potential customers.Continue Reading

• What is lead scoring?

  Lead scoring is a methodology sales and marketing departments use to determine the worthiness of leads, or potential customers, by attaching values to them based on their behavior relating to their interest in products or services.Continue Reading

• What is CPQ software (configure price quote software)?

  CPQ (configure, price, quote) is programming that helps sales representatives and self-service customers quickly generate accurate quotes for configurable products and services.Continue Reading

• What is a customer effort score (CES)?

  Customer effort score (CES) is a system for evaluating how much effort is required on the part of a customer to achieve satisfaction in their experience with a company.Continue Reading

• What is a sales funnel? Everything you need to know

  A sales funnel, also called a 'purchase funnel,' is the visual representation of the customer journey, depicting the sales process from awareness to action.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Einstein 1?

  Salesforce Einstein 1 refers to an integrated set of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies developed for the Salesforce platform.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Sales Cloud?

  Salesforce Sales Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed to support sales, marketing and customer support in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts.Continue Reading

• What is a sales pipeline?

  A sales pipeline is a visual representation of sales prospects and where they are in the purchasing process.Continue Reading

• What is transactional marketing?

  Transactional marketing is a business strategy that focuses on single, point-of-sale transactions.Continue Reading

• Elevate customer experience with AI and analytics

  Top CX experts share insights on how to drive customer-centric innovation, overcome resistance to change and harness AI for impactful customer experiences.Continue Reading

• What is actionable intelligence?

  Actionable intelligence is information that can be immediately used or acted upon, either tactically in direct response to an evolving situation, or strategically as the result of data analytics or some other assessment.Continue Reading

• How important is authentication in email marketing?

  Marketers who have email strategies must understand the importance of authentication protocols to ensure campaigns are successful and bad actors don't reach customers.Continue Reading

• Customer retention vs. acquisition: What's the difference?

  Finding new customers can be a challenge, but so is keeping them happy and loyal to the business. This makes customer acquisition and retention critical to successful marketing.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Platform (formerly Force.com)?

  Salesforce Platform (formerly known as Force.com) is a platform as a service (PaaS) product that simplifies the development and deployment of cloud-based applications and websites.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Developer Experience (Salesforce DX)?

  Salesforce Developer Experience (Salesforce DX) is a set of software development tools that lets developers build, test and ship many kinds of applications on Salesforce Platform (formerly called Force.com).Continue Reading

• The role of machine learning in multitouch attribution

  As customer journeys have become more complex, marketers often struggle to determine which touchpoints lead to sales. Explore how machine learning can help.Continue Reading

• What is Salesforce Commerce Cloud?

  Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based suite of products that enable e-commerce businesses to set up e-commerce sites, drive more automation and provide customers with seamless shopping experiences.Continue Reading

• 7 essential steps to create a contact center RFP

  Successful contact center RFPs are built on collaboration, vendor research, countless questions and answers, scorecards, shortlists, trial runs, bakeoffs and the final decision.Continue Reading

• Benefits and challenges of contact center benchmarking

  Contact center benchmarking can help organizations allocate spending and improve CX. Yet, common pitfalls, such as a lack of qualitative data, can negatively affect efforts.Continue Reading

• What is multichannel marketing?

  Multichannel marketing refers to the practice of companies interacting with customers via multiple direct and indirect channels to sell them goods and services.Continue Reading

• What is a contact center?

  A contact center is a central point from which organizations manage all customer interactions across various channels.Continue Reading

• What is voice recognition and how does it work?

  Voice or speaker recognition is the ability of a machine or program to receive and interpret dictation or to understand and perform spoken commands.Continue Reading

• What is customer segmentation?

  Customer segmentation is the practice of dividing a customer base into groups of individuals that have similar characteristics relevant to marketing, such as age, gender, interests and spending habits.Continue Reading

• What is customer experience (CX) and why is it important?

  Customer experience (CX) is the sum total of customers' perceptions and feelings resulting from interactions with a brand's products and services.Continue Reading

• What are buyer personas?

  A buyer persona is a composite representation of a specific type of customer in a market segment.Continue Reading

• History and evolution of contact centers

  Alexander Graham Bell, Steve Jobs and the Baby Bells played notable roles in the contact center's transformation into the front line of communication for businesses and customers.Continue Reading

• The top 7 video marketing trends

  Video marketing trends, such as user-generated content, influencer marketing and virtual and hybrid events, can help brands expand their reach and engage more customers.Continue Reading

• 10 best practices for contact center quality assurance

  To ensure quality and results in the contact center, businesses must define clear metrics, use real-time analytics, seek customer feedback, upskill agents and automate everywhere.Continue Reading

• 10 tips to improve customer retention

  Organizations that properly gather consumer feedback, get to know their customers and offer rewards to loyal shoppers can improve their customer retention rates.Continue Reading

• What is a 360-degree customer view?

  The 360-degree customer view is a comprehensive approach to understanding customers by compiling their individual data from various touchpoints into a single view.Continue Reading

• Customer experience vs. user experience: What's the difference?

  Customer and user experiences sound similar, but they serve different purposes. Together, they can improve organizations' relationships with customers.Continue Reading

• First-party vs. third-party cookies: What's the difference?

  First-party cookies track user engagement, while third-party cookies are central to many marketing and sales strategies. Yet the two types are more similar than one might think.Continue Reading

• What are virtual agents and how are they being used?

  A virtual agent -- sometimes called an intelligent virtual agent (IVA) -- is a software program or cloud service that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to provide ...Continue Reading

• What is first call resolution (FCR)?

  First call resolution (FCR) is when contact center agents properly address a customer's needs the first time they call so there is no need for the customer to follow up with a second call.Continue Reading

• What is the law of diminishing returns?

  The law of diminishing returns is an economic principle stating that as investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, can't continue to increase if other variables remain at a constant.Continue Reading

• What is an abandoned call?

  An abandoned call is a call or other type of contact initiated to a call center or contact center that is ended before any conversation occurs.Continue Reading

• What is an outbound call?

  An outbound call is one initiated by a contact center agent to prospective customers and focuses on sales, lead generation, telemarketing and fundraising.Continue Reading

• What is lead-to-revenue management (L2RM)?

  Lead-to-revenue management (L2RM) is a set of sales and marketing methods focusing on generating revenue throughout the customer life cycle.Continue Reading

• What is relationship marketing?

  Relationship marketing is a facet of customer relationship management (CRM) that focuses on customer loyalty and long-term customer engagement rather than shorter-term goals like customer acquisition and individual sales.Continue Reading

• contact center burnout

  Contact center burnout refers to physical, emotional and mental exhaustion experienced by contact center employees.Continue Reading

• Why does data privacy matter in marketing?

  Marketers frequently use customer data for their strategies. They must properly secure that information, so they comply with privacy laws and customers trust the business.Continue Reading

• contact center agent (call center agent)

  A contact center agent is a person who handles incoming or outgoing customer communications for an organization.Continue Reading

• contact center management

  Contact center management is the process of overseeing contact center operations with the goal of providing an outstanding customer experience in an effective and efficient manner.Continue Reading

• 8 benefits of a modern contact center

  Contact centers and their multifunctional capabilities can provide businesses with a competitive edge through improved agent performance, customer engagement and brand loyalty.Continue Reading

• digital marketing

  Digital marketing is the promotion and marketing of goods and services to consumers through digital channels and electronic technologies.Continue Reading

• contact center schedule adherence

  Contact center schedule adherence is a standard metric used in business contact centers to determine whether contact center agents are working the amount of time they are scheduled to work.Continue Reading

• 12 benefits of customer retention

  Customer retention can help organizations better understand their current customers' needs, issues and desires, so they can better support them and target more prospects.Continue Reading

• 5 real-world examples of omnichannel marketing

  The most successful marketing strategies reach customers where they are, on every available channel. Here, explore examples of omnichannel marketing strategies from real companies.Continue Reading

• chatbot

  A chatbot is a software or computer program that simulates human conversation or "chatter" through text or voice interactions.Continue Reading

• An overview of Microsoft Dynamics 365

  Dynamics 365 unites various CRM and ERP tools into one platform. CRM apps include Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service, and ERP tools include Finance and Commerce.Continue Reading

• How do companies protect customer data?

  Companies can protect customer data through various technical tools and strategies, like authentication and encryption. But some types of data need more protection than others.Continue Reading