Stories by Jennifer Lonoff Schiff

Experts explain the difference between customer relationship management (CRM) and customer experience management (CXM) and describe how--and why--you need to create a positive customer experience.

These 10 super powers would make even the most beleaguered CIO an IT hero. Let’s just hope they use their new-found power for tech good.

In a recent survey conducted by Huthwaite, a sales performance improvement organization, the majority of respondents indicated that smartphones gave sales reps a competitive edge - because of response speeds.
By combining the features of a mobile phone and a laptop, smartphones can help your sales team quickly respond to customer queries, provide instant access to customer data, as well as allow your mobile workforce to share presentations, check inventory, close deals and more.

You've all seen --and envied--that viral video that gets millions of views seemingly overnight, the one everyone talks about for days. But does getting millions of views on YouTube translate into getting millions of dollars, or even thousands of dollars, in sales? And does adding video to your website or product pages really improve your search engine rankings and make people want to do business with you?

Costing anywhere from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars, and requiring hundreds of man hours to implement, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are huge investments of money, resources and time. And while a successful ERP implementation can help your organization streamline workflow and cut costs, a poorly planned and implemented ERP rollout can severely cost organizations, in terms of lost productivity and delays.

By now you have no doubt heard about Pinterest, the virtual "pin" board (aka online scrapbook) that is the current social media darling. Pinterest is the fastest growing social network and has been driving more traffic to online publishers (i.e., stores or brands) than Twitter or LinkedIn or Google+ the past few —and Piterest has become the go-to site for women aged 25-34.

This month, Google+ passed 100 million users. And analyst Paul Allen (Google+ unofficial statistician) predicts that by the end of 2012 the number of Google+ users will exceed 400 million. Who are these people? Many of them are your customers, partners and media professionals. And now with Google+ Your Business, Google is attempting to make it easier for you to connect with them, for free.

As of November 2011, 91.4 million people in the United States-owned smartphones, according to comScore. That was an 8 per cent increase over just a few months before. And if the trend continues, as most analysts and smartphone vendors believe it will, the number of individuals in the United States with a smartphone will be close to, if not exceed, 100 million by March 2012 - that's nearly one out of three Americans. And that's not including the number of people using iPads and tablet PCs, which was well over 15 million as of June 2011, per CTIA, the Wireless Association.

Last year, the two hot customer relationship management trends to watch— and adopt — were social CRM and mobile CRM. To find out whether they will continue to dominate the CRM landscape and what other trends organizations should pay attention to, CIO.com talked to leading CRM solution vendors and analysts. In the process, we came up with eight CRM trends to watch—and implement— in 2012.