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Vendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Management Platforms

Select the right software to resolve customer service inquiries from start to finish.

Last Revised: February 2, 2012

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Your Challenge

  • Organizations with simple customer service requirements and limited product lines will likely be satisfied with the built-in capabilities of their existing CRM or ITSM platforms. Organizations with more complex product lines and high volumes of service inquiries may need to extend those capabilities by using a best-of-breed CSM suite.
  • Slow customer service response times, inefficient escalation processes, and limited channel usage leads to customer anxiety and irritation, as well as the potential for customer churn and increased cost-to-serve.
  • Many firms are unsure of how to successfully leverage social channels for providing customer service.
  • Effective customer service requires a customer service suite that provides escalation and resolution workflow tools, social sharing and social listening capabilities, mobile applications for both agent and user, Web self-service portals and integration with other enterprise applications, especially sales and marketing.

Our Advice

Critical Insight
  • Limited channel strategies are no longer sufficient. Adopt a hybrid channel strategy that involves traditional, as well as newer channels (social and mobile), in order to meet customers where they prefer to be.
  • Integrate the CSM suite with all relevant service channels, as well as marketing and sales (CRM) apps, in order to fully optimize its value for the business.
  • The growing popularity of social and mobile channels is leading to an increased volume of interactions. Vendors are quickly becoming wise to the trend and adding robust social and mobile features to their offerings.
Impact and Result
  • Understand the benefits of using a standalone CSM platform, as well as identify customer service best practices in order to implement a successful CSM deployment.
  • Plan for and select a CSM platform that supports your product portfolio, customer segments, and service interaction channel mix.
  • Save time and money by using Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape to compare and contrast the major CSM vendors, and then create a shortlist of the most appropriate vendors.
  • Use Info-Tech’s CSM Platform RFP Template, RFP Scoring Tool and Demo Script to gather vendor and product information, objectively score the responses, and conduct vendor demonstrations, in order to select the right product.

Get to Action

  1. Assess the need for a CSM Platform and narrow down a list of CSM vendors

    Create a strong list of vendor candidates.

  2. Compare leading vendors and develop a shortlist

    Narrow the leading vendors down to the most appropriate few.

  3. Contrast and evaluate a shortlist of vendors

    Select the right CSM Platform vendor.

Related Solution Sets

Design a Customer Service Strategy that Serves the Social Customer

Drive customer satisfaction & retention with social channels.

Vendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Knowledge Management Platforms

Provide agents and customers with solutions, not search engines.

Leverage Social Media for Enhanced Customer Interaction

From Marketing to Customer Service, get social or die!

Tags

customer service, NetSuite, SageCRM, Rightnow Technologies, pivotal, vendor review, CSM, customer service management, Infor ePiphany, Consona Onyx, Salesforce.com Service Cloud, MS Dynamics

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2 Comments

  • Missing_comment
    Tim Bradshaw | 08-21-2012

    I did not see some of the big players i expected to see like BMC or ServiceNow. Why where these not included?

    • 9eb6a2810126f534ebf65557616f34d1_comment
      Info-Tech Research Group | 08-22-2012

      Thanks for your comment. Based on the vendors you’ve cited, our ITSM research may be what you’re looking for. The Enterprise Service Desk Software VL includes Service-now and BMC’s flagship product, Remedy.

      The Mid-Market Service Desk Software
      VL includes BMC’s RemedyForce and Footprints (recently acquired with Numara Software).

      Info-Tech’s Develop an IT Service Desk Strategy
      solution set helps to relate the tools with the underlying practices in developing a strategy.

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Select the right software to resolve customer service inquiries from start to finish.

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Solution Road Map

Other Solution Sets in Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service Applications

  1. Vendor Landscape Plus: Lead Management Automation Platforms
    From lead, to qualified prospect, to customer.
  2. Design a Customer Service Strategy that Serves the Social Customer
    Drive customer satisfaction & retention with social channels.
  3. Vendor Landscape: Customer Service Management Suites
    Mobile support is improving, but social continues to underwhelm.
  4. Vendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Knowledge Management Platforms
    Provide agents and customers with solutions, not search engines.
  5. Vendor Landscape: Retail Point of Sale (POS) Solutions
    Don’t sell yourself short. Invest in the right POS solution for your organization.
  6. Vendor Landscape Plus: E-mail Marketing Services
    Give Marketing the help it needs without getting dragged into the IT weeds.
  7. Vendor Landscape Plus: Marketing Automation Suites
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  8. Leverage Social Media for Enhanced Customer Interaction
    From Marketing to Customer Service, get social or die!
  9. Vendor Landscape Plus: Social Media Management Platforms
    Reign in social media by choosing a management platform that's right for you.
  10. Implement a Social Media Program
    Develop, execute, and govern a cohesive social media program across your entire organization to unlock the full potential of your social media strategy.
  11. Optimize Social Media Strategy by Service
    Don’t waste your time playing in the wrong neighborhood: choose the social media services that are right for your business and turbocharge them with service-specific best practices!
  12. Gain Real Insights with a Social Analytics Program
    Go beyond counting your likes: harness “the world’s largest focus group” for deep insights about your customers, competitors, and employees.
  13. Design a Field Service Automation Strategy
    Achieve field service success in the age of extreme mobility.
  14. Vendor Landscape: Field Service Automation
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View the full Solution Road Map