This is a guest post by Corey Mull of the Marketing Leadership Council, our sister program for heads of Marketing and their teams.

It’s officially 2012, and, again this year, we’re hearing “2012 is the year of mobile commerce“. We heard it in 2011 too. Did we hear it in 2010? Yep. In fact, as far back as 2007, pundits and observers have been prophesizing that the days of whipping out our phones to pay for all sorts of retail sundries are just around the corner.

First, I think it’s probably important to get some definitions right. As the Forbes link above says, I think it’s fair to say that mobile-enabled e-commerce does not equal mobile commerce, at least strictly speaking. When you buy a book from Amazon on your iPad, you’re not engaging in mobile commerce per se – you’re using an e-commerce portal adapted for your mobile device. “Mobile commerce” is probably best described as shopping that takes advantage of unique properties of mobile devices.

So, why doesn’t it ever seem to happen – and when it does, why does the development in the space seem to happen so slowly? Read More »

Customer Service News

• High school offers customer support curriculum as elective to students [1to1Media – requires free registration to read]
• New Facebook loyalty program changing the face of customer rewards [AllFacebook]
• Meanwhile, loyalty app Viggle aims to do the same with TV viewers [CRM Daily]
• Will outsourced call center jobs be moving back to the US in greater numbers?  [The Washington Post]
• Forrester reveals the Top 15 Trends for Customer Service in 2012 [Forrester]
• Speaking of which, what are your peers’ customer service priorities for 2012? [MyCustomer]

Will 2012 be the year when Marketing and Customer Service come together to deliver consistent customer experience on social media [Social Customer]

How channel switching is part of Thomas Cook’s multi-channel strategy [Travolution]

Food delivery company Seamless finds Twitter success through a dedicated team and quick responses to customer queries [Business Insider]

Successful customer interactions hinge on both the message and the medium, indicates Convergys 2011 U.S. Customer Scorecard Research [CSM]

Optus launches dedicated online customer support forum to address customer issues and foster discussion amongst customers [Delimiter]

How online retailer Live Out There used Facebook to communicate with customers during Web site downtime [Yahoo News]

Supermarkets use IBM Smarter Commerce to equip customers with high-tech offerings [MarketWatch]

Financial institutions increasingly use social media to resolve customer issues [MarketWatch]

But many Americans still have reservations about mixing personal finances and social media outlets [ZDNet]

Customer personal information hacked on Zappos.com; company toll free line temporarily shut down  [TheStar.com]

Proactive contacts with “shopping cart abandoners” can increase purchases [1to1Media]

Customer Effort Score and Net Promoter Score: the value of customer service metrics [ITWebBusiness]

• The power of positive language: six words you should use to improve customer service [CBS News]
• Feedback fatigue? Why some consumers are tired of being surveyed [USA Today]
• New ‘social currency’ allows customers to pool their credit card rewards [ABC News]
• How customer-centricity is changing the pharmaceutical industry [Business2Community]
• And finally, check out these predictions on how social customer service will evolve in 2012 [eConsultancy]

Amazon takes the lead in online customer service; Netflix flounders [Forbes]

But can customers really tell the difference between online service and overall brand performance? [MSNBC]

New Facebook app lets Citi customers pool points in social media [Washington Post]

Six months after its launch, Google+ is still viewed by some as business-friendly space [1to1Media]

Nightmare customer service interaction makes for viral video [NPR]

Customer Service News

• Check out these predictions for the customer experience in 2012 (and read ours too!) [Customer Think]
• New study tests customer expectations for social media service [All Facebook]
• Speaking of social media, here are the Top Ten Lessons we learned in 2011 [Forbes]
• And finally, new daily deal company Womply takes customer loyalty ‘to the cloud’ [Fast Company]

Customers are increasingly likely to share positive service experiences, according to survey [MarketWatch]

But social media is taking customer conversations behind closed doors [PCWorld]

Credit unions beat big banks in customer service ratings [Fierce Finance]

Stores offer customer free shipping, but is it always good for customer service? [The Street]

Customer Service News

• Customers use supermarket chain Tesco’s free customer Wi-Fi across its 200 Tesco Extra stores to compare product prices and read reviews as they shop (ZDNet UK)
• Customers spend four minutes on average on online security checks before abandoning an online retail transaction or turning to a competitor (MyCustomer.com)
• Seven ways IT can help improve customer service (Global CIO)
• The 6 rules of online customer engagement—it’s about putting your customer first. (Business2Community)
• Salesforce.com’s customer service suite joins Dell’s growing cloud platform for CRM and related functions specifically for small and medium businesses (SMB)
• Verint earns recognition from Frost & Sullivan for driving call monitoring and WFO technology in Asia-Pacific and demonstrating best practices in strategy, processes, planning and execution across various regional and global markets in Latin America (MarketWatch)

• New study finds social media an ineffective tool for boosting customer loyalty [All Business]

• And speaking of loyalty, just how effective is your customer loyalty program? [Forbes]
• No surprises: mobile service, social media top early list of Customer Service Trends for 2012 [TMC Net]
• Companies slow to respond to record customer volume over Black Friday weekend [Destination CRM]
• Mobile payment app Square adds customer loyalty benefits, other new features [Tech Crunch]