How CRM Improves Your Customer Service & Overall Customer Experience | CustomerThink

Customer experiences are everything. Here's the thing: it doesn't matter what you think they are, it matters what the customer perceives them to be. This means that accurately obtaining feedback from them is vital to keeping your business alive and consistently delivering the service that your clients expect from you. In theory, this is what customer services is for. But your customer services teams are only as effective as the data you give them to work with. You could have the best resources in the world, but if they can't quickly and accurately access your clients' data the moment they need it, they're dead in the water. And so, too, is your business in the long run. In this article, you'll learn 5 ways in which CRM software can empower your customer-facing teams with tools to better address client issues and draw insights to create a more empathic service. You'll also learn how it lowers the cost of each customer interaction by lowering the need to address recurring issues, and how it can become crucial to other departments such as sales, marketing, and development.

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The Future of Productivity: Teamwork and Collaboration

Long gone are the days when the bulk of office communication was made via lengthy, often incomprehensible email threads. Also going extinct—thankfully— are the colossal company-wide emails that were often responded to by recipients using the "reply all" button. Today's corporate communication is evolving—not to the Orwellian, drone-like future portrayed in the movies, but toward a more multimedia-focused and casual approach. Nowadays, boring project management software is losing traction to intuitive digital tools such as Slack or Microsoft Teams which enable communication and collaboration to happen from a single platform. In this article, you'll learn about the major trends that are transforming office communications around the world. You'll also gain insight into how several industry leaders envision the future of collaboration, and what tools they're using within their organizations to push forward projects worldwide.

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The Top 10 Reasons Why SMBs Should Invest in the Cloud

Cloud adoption is well underway but when it comes to making the move, Microsoft research shows that SMBs lag behind enterprise counterparts. In fact, 96% of enterprises are using the cloud, whereas only 78% of SMBs are following suit. As you know the cloud can be a game changer for businesses--big and small! This week's infographic demonstrates the ten most crucial benefits that SMBs report after investing in cloud solutions.

View: The Top 10 Reasons Why SMBs Should Invest in the Cloud

The 4 defining characteristics of effective digital workspaces

Not so long ago, it was believed that for teams to be productive, they required long hours confined in a physical office space with constant face-to-face interaction. To be fair, given the primitive state of digital collaboration tools at the time—which was pretty much limited to emails—there wasn't really a solid alternative to this scheme, so companies worked with what they had. Today, digitalization has made it possible for several people to seamlessly work together while being halfway across the world from each other. Exponential advancements in virtual workspaces have not only enabled teams to work as well as they did when they spent all day in the office, but have also proven that people are actually more productive the less they have to deal with alienating cubicles and two-way trips along traffic-congested highways. Not all digital workspaces have been equally effective, however. Yet decades of iterating and optimizing have finally given us a solid idea of the most important characteristics these spaces must have to reach their full potential. So what are they? Read this infographic to find out.

View: The 4 defining characteristics of effective digital workspaces

Why Remote Work Trumps Being in the Office

It's no secret that when implemented with the right vision and control mechanisms, remote collaboration provides outstanding benefits for both employees and organizations. Workers enjoy greater flexibility plus the satisfaction of better work-life balance, while organizations obtain unparalleled scalability and increased efficiency across projects. In this article, we'll put you in the shoes of a passionate work-from-home advocate to discover the main reasons why this benefit is sought after by professionals in every industry. You'll also learn why, in these digital times, remote collaboration is not only an option, but THE best option for companies that wish to empower and motivate today's diverse and inclusive workforce.

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Staying productive while working remotely with Microsoft Teams

With the COVID-19 outbreak turning a massive amount of the global workforce to remote work, everyone is adjusting to meetings, chatting, and collaborating exclusively online. This blog post shares the top tips from the team behind Teams on how to make working from home productive and healthy.

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A single digital workspace that connects ideas, projects, and people. Subscribe to learn more about Microsoft Teams.

As the world becomes increasingly connected, continuous product innovation in the Modern Workplace provides growing opportunities for today's organizations to deliver customized business solutions to their customers. In this digital landscape, the demand for unified solutions is stronger than ever, with 88 percent of Microsoft customers agreeing that having all their solutions together in one place saves them time. These same companies also estimate that they've saved nearly $5 million over three years from not having to switch back and forth between apps. So how exactly are organizations adapting to these trends? Subscribe now to get the answer to this question and many others regarding Modern Workplace, digital collaboration, and Microsoft solutions.

View: A single digital workspace that connects ideas, projects, and people. Subscribe to learn more about Microsoft Teams.

Leading the IoT: Gartner insights on how to lead in a connected world

The IoT is changing today's organizations into digital businesses. It's also creating innovative business models, boosting efficiency, and fostering engagement in both employees and customers. Change is not always smooth, however. Sometimes the only way to adapt and stay relevant is by radically reinventing the way things have been done in the past, which can be a painful process for some companies. There are other barriers to entry for IoT as well: most enterprises don't know where to start implementing the technology; moreover, if strategies do exist, there's almost always a conflict regarding who owns them. During these discussions, it's the job of the CIO to fill the resulting IoT leadership void. This book provides CIOs and IT leaders with a solid foundation for starting business conversations, developing initiatives, and creating successful IoT strategies with a quick time-to-market. Subscribe now to download your copy.

View: Leading the IoT: Gartner insights on how to lead in a connected world

Leading the IoT: Gartner insights on how to lead in a connected world

The IoT is changing today's organizations into digital businesses. It's also creating innovative business models, boosting efficiency, and fostering engagement in both employees and customers. Change is not always smooth, however. Sometimes the only way to adapt and stay relevant is by radically reinventing the way things have been done in the past, which can be a painful process for some companies. There are other barriers to entry for IoT as well: most enterprises don't know where to start implementing the technology; moreover, if strategies do exist, there's almost always a conflict regarding who owns them. During these discussions, it's the job of the CIO to fill the resulting IoT leadership void. This book provides CIOs and IT leaders with a solid foundation for starting business conversations, developing initiatives, and creating successful IoT strategies with a quick time-to-market. Subscribe now to download your copy.

View: Leading the IoT: Gartner insights on how to lead in a connected world

Unblocking Teamwork: four tools and strategies to improve collaboration

This Microsoft eBook goes into detail about key tools and strategies to help customers overcome blockers and improve collaboration using Microsoft Teams. These tips can easily be adapted and applied to remote work. Suggestions include streamlining tools and apps, making virtual meetings more efficient, and improving version control.

View: Unblocking Teamwork: four tools and strategies to improve collaboration

Reinvent Business Productivity with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Office 365

To get ahead of the competition, SMBs realize they need to break down silos, work from connected systems and make every customer engagement count. In this thought-provoking, easy-to-read eBook, discover how Business Central integrates with Office 365 to provide an all-in-one solution to drive success. Using three, day-in-the-life scenarios, visualize how Business Central brings insight and efficiency to daily routines. Specifically, this eBook illustrates the life of a business owner, a sales rep and an accountant, and shows how Dynamics 365 transformed their jobs.

View: Reinvent Business Productivity with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Office 365

9 ways to make working from home more joyful - The Aesthetics of Joy

This article offers nine ways to create a workspace and routine to make working from home a more joyful, sustainable experience. Suggestions range from self-care to workspace set up to breaks. Read the article for all the ideas.

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Wild & Wolf (video 3)

Fast growth is great for business but can also prove to be difficult to navigate. Doubling in size in just five years, Wild & Wolf had to quickly move out of their comfort zone and adapt to rapid change. In this third video of the series, watch how this innovative business overcame their growing pains and rose to the challenge to achieve great success. In order to remain successful, Wild &Wolf knew that keeping their systems up-to-date and efficiently moving data around their business would help them provide a more customer-centric experience. Dynamics 365 Business Central enabled them to stop reacting to fires, and to proactively anticipate the needs of their customers.

SMB Group's 2020 Top 10 SMB Technology Trends

SMBs today are eager to find success and are discovering how digital technology impacts business. But, did you know that SMBs investing in digital transformation are 1.9 times more likely to forecast revenue increases than their counterparts? When it comes to technology, 2020 will be transformative year. This article from the SMB Group highlights ongoing conversations with SMB decision-makers, vendors, and channel partners on the latest digital transformation trends. It unveils insights on what SMBs need to know to successfully navigate today's digital transformation journey. Share this informative article from the SMB group on your social media accounts to attract new followers and encourage engagement.

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Incredible Real-World Applications Prove the IoT Is Here to Stay

As author Peter Daisyme accurately puts it, "While many people debate whether little computers in wrist devices, clothing, refrigerators and vehicles will truly change our lives, actionable change is already occurring on the business application side of the IoT." Regardless of which side of the argument you're on, the impact the IoT is having in our societies at a macro level is undeniable. While you're reading this, devices that measure and predict air pollution, vehicle traffic levels, machine failure rates, fire warnings, and crime rates are being employed to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. And as cities and businesses become more interconnected by the hour, we'll find more and more useful ways in which the IoT can help us better utilize our resources and lift the burden we put on our environment. In this article, you'll gain deeper insights into how IoT devices are being used by companies and governments alike to obtain accurate data across many potentially life-saving use cases. You'll also learn about what the future holds in store for us as cities powered by artificial intelligence become near-sentient beings capable of reacting in real time to the habits and living conditions of their inhabitants.

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J. Walter Thompson breaks new ground with Microsoft collaboration tools

This video shows how a global leader in marketing communications uses Microsoft Teams to increase collaboration across their entire organization. Teams helps them create a global, modern workplace so the company can innovate at the speed of culture. With this tool, they can stay connected and easily collaborate across different geographies.

The 3 phases of an effective IoT strategy

IoT is quickly becoming the most important business revolution of the digital age, with its implications being felt across all industries worldwide. However, unlocking the true potential of IoT requires not only a clear roadmap with specific objectives, but also a solid front-end and back-end infrastructure that's capable of making sense of the data obtained. It's for this reason that both public and private organizations sometimes struggle when implementing a successful IoT strategy and fail to reach the desired return-on-investment (ROI). To address the risks you may encounter with IoT, we've created this short, insightful infographic. After reading it, you'll have a better idea of the tools and actions you should be executing during each of the three stages of IoT implementation to overcome challenges and maximize effectiveness. You'll also obtain a straightforward checklist that your teams can refer to when establishing or optimizing their strategies.

View: The 3 phases of an effective IoT strategy

How to maintain your mental health while working from home

During this uncertain time, it's increasingly important for people to take care of their mental health. This article from Fast Company offers suggestions to maintain mental health while working remotely. Tips range from acknowledging the impact to streamlining work, and more.

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It's 2020. Do You Know Where Your Digital Future Is?

In most of our homes, we utilize and depend on the cloud in multiple ways every single day—think online banking and shopping, social media, email and doorbell video cameras. "It might be the first time in history that our habits at home have outpaced how we function at work," writes Tyler Bowman in his Forbes article, "It's 2020. Do You Know Where Your Digital Future Is?" Bowman addresses three main lingering concerns in the corporate world, including generational divide. "Millennials are driving a market disruption that many CEOs are grappling to embrace," Bowman adds, however, that this difference does not need to result in irreconcilable work practices and values. His suggestions for embracing the disruption support his main point, which is it's just a matter of time before our cloud utilization at work catches up to our already existing cloud dependency at home. Read this article for interesting perspective on the corporate cloud in 2020 and beyond.

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Why aren't your customers listening to you?

"Why are my customers not listening to me?" is a question frequently asked by frustrated marketers and decision-makers. To address this question, author Carly Driscoll asks two crucial follow-ups: do you truly know who your customers are, and are you really delivering them an impactful message? At first glance it may seem intuitive or even simple, but successfully answering these questions requires a marketer to truly empathize with their audience—a task much easier said than done. Fortunately, there's a time-proven way to not only interest your customers, but also convert leads into revenue-generating relationships that will drive growth and brand prestige: great content. In this eye-opening article, you'll learn about the successful R.I.D.E. methodology for content creation, and how to effectively inform your customers with solid content marketing at each stage of the buying process.

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A digital workspace that transforms ideas into revenue. Subscribe now to learn more

Innovative ideas are an organization's greatest asset. Yet these assets need the appropriate space to grow, evolve, and transform into revenue-generating initiatives. Whether digital or physical, today's workplaces need to harness the synergy of everybody involved and empower them to share and collaborate in an environment that fosters productivity. These workplaces also need to adapt to everybody's needs and remain intuitive for the entire team, regardless of age, background, or gender. Subscribe now to stay current on the latest digital workplace trends, and discover how you can foster inclusion and innovation across your business with the help of Microsoft.

View: A digital workspace that transforms ideas into revenue. Subscribe now to learn more

3 characteristics that define the modern workplace

Today's diverse and intergenerational workforce is most productive when it has adequate channels to collaborate in a seamless and effective way. There's a catch, however: teams are far more diverse and remote than ever before, and each organization requires its own distinct approach to digital collaboration. In other words, your workplace tools and applications must be customized based on your teams' diversity, location, and work methods. With this infographic, you'll learn about the three main characteristics that define our modern workplace and gain insight into what drives productivity and efficiency in today's organizations. After reading it, you'll have a better understanding of current trends and can keep these in mind when creating or modifying your organization's work environment.

View: 3 characteristics that define the modern workplace