Continue reading Amazon.com (AMZN) better at customer relationships than Google (GOOG)?

Amazon.com (AMZN) better at customer relationships than Google (GOOG)? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last evening, Jim Cramer had a brief conversation with Marc Benioff, the Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com (NASDAQ: CRM). Cramer has been a skeptic of Salesforce.com's success and sustainability in the marketplace. He's dead wrong.

Cramer doesn't get the company's business model or understand its success.

Benioff was with Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) early in his career and learned the ropes there. He found that customers were frustrated because it took millions of dollars and 12 to 18 months to install new software and to train employees how to use it. Organizations were impatient with huge purchases taking too long to yield returns and improved functionality.

Salesforce.com is different. Its lead product is a CRM program, which stands for customer relationship manager. CRM, also Salesforce.com's ticker, allows for companies to track customer progress, customer happiness and customer status. The Salesforce.com programs are sold on a user-by-user basis, install very easily and are hosted at Salesforce.com's data center. There is no tying up of customers' databases. All is secured and backed up.

Benioff, in other words, understood the customer's needs and wishes. There are now several other business applications that Salesforce.com sells to its customers.

Continue reading Cramer dead wrong on Salesforce.com

Cramer dead wrong on Salesforce.com originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For years, I have bought tons of things online - from big places like Amazon.com to small outfits. For the most part, service has been fine, especially from Amazon.com.

About a month ago, though, things went haywire. In one week, I had three bad experiences with online merchants.

The good news is that two of them were resolved very quickly. In fact, in one case, I knew the CEO. His company, VistaPrint Ltd. (NASDAQ:VPRT), is a fast-growing online printer.

Hey, even those companies that are built-to-last get things wrong. The important thing is how they respond. And VistaPrint was flawless. Impressively, I talked to the CEO a couple hours before his earnings conference call (and, by the way, his company had a blow-out quarter).

But my experience was much different with another company, Network Solutions. The company sells web hosting and domain names. I'm sure I've spent thousands of dollars - over the years - with this company.

Continue reading Network Solutions: My online customer service nightmare

Network Solutions: My online customer service nightmare originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I love breakfast.

But I'm not a morning person. And when I happen to be out and about, garage saling or running errands or recovering from what I like to call a "mommy hangover," I find myself at a McDonald's. And all I want is breakfast. Somehow the Sausage McMuffin satisfies that need I have for protein, salt, and iron, without making me feel as if I've given my soul to the demons of empty calories.

If it's after 10:30 a.m., though, I'm sunk. And given that I (a health-conscious adult who tends to steer clear of partying 'til the wee hours) want breakfast past 10:30, I can only imagine how much the considerable teenager and, umm, hungover demographics would appreciate being able to eat Sausage McMuffins and hashbrowns and all kinds of other deliciousness at 11 a.m., or 12:30, or even four in the afternoon. I know. Shocking, right?

I've thought since my own teenage years that McDonald's and fast food restaurants of every kind were ignoring a huge consumer need by cutting off breakfast in mid-morning. Now, it seems that McDonald's finally agrees; the news from Jim Skinner's presentation at the Bank of America 36th Annual Investment Conference: breakfast, all day, will soon be here. All that's needed is a change to a new "flexible operating system."

If I were the CEO of McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD), I'd be slapping myself on the forehead. Doh! Why didn't they figure this out sooner? Hello? Customers don't like to be told, "no, you can't have that which you most desire. We made a rule. Breakfast 'til 10:30, not a moment later!" Customers don't come to fast food restaurants because they're looking for discipline, limits, lessons in punctuality. They come to fast food restaurants to satisfy a desire, to indulge their longings for fat, crispy, sweet, bacony sausagey eggy...

That's why I, a health nut, a disbeliever in fast food, might now buy MCD stock. Because offering breakfast all day is an indication that management gets it. McDonald's stock was up 37 cents to $38.15, a 1% increase and a few cents from its 52-week high, on the news today.

Breakfast all day: why a health nut might buy McDonald's originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 21 Sep 2006 14:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Satmetrix, a research firm focused on measuring customer experience, released its latest report on customer loyalty in the high-tech industry. The high-tech industry is further sub-divided into online services, computers, and consumer software.

Apple grabbed the top spot for computers, with Google nabbing number one in online services, and Symantec for consumer software.

The Satmetrix report is based on surveys conducted during the first half of 2005 and focuses in on a number of factors including: overall product/service, company reputation/, customer service/support, and overall value.

Apple and Google score high in Satmetrix Customer Satsifaction Survey originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.