According to the Forrester analysis, "Converseon offers a combination of technology and services to provide a customized approach to managing and analyzing social data. In 2011... [Converseon] continues to add to its already strong consulting and custom reporting offerings."

"We're pleased to be recognized as a strong performer in social listening," said Rob Key, Founder and CEO of Converseon. "We were especially pleased with what we feel to be a clear recognition of our overall product. We remain focused on helping organizations evolve away from basic social media monitoring to deeply insightful social intelligence that can provide real competitive advantage. The unique combination of our technologies and services truly helps brands evolve from listening to effective action. We specifically designed our service offering to help brands navigate through the vast noise of social conversations to unearth the actionable insights that can be leveraged to meet business objectives."

VoiceNation believes that every encounter with a customer is an opportunity to create a meaningful experience for that individual. It's a company like no other, always putting customers and employees first by keeping open lines of communication. Customers can connect and receive support through live chat, the online customer dashboard, online contact forms, and 24-hour phone availability. Social media platforms have also proven to be a successful way to positively engage with customers as well as overcome concerns. But, what customers will begin to find is a new energy circulating the air; an amped-up personality. "We want our customers to know how wonderful they are. They should feel the excitement of what it means to work with a company on the leading edge of technology; who will provide telecommunication solutions that grow, improve and simplify their business on an every day basis," says Mr. Reeder.

In addition to ongoing staff training, company pep rallies, and strategic business/IT development, VoiceNation is updating its customer retention program. Mashable.com recently reported, there are so many different factors that must work together perfectly within a company to ensure that fans of your brand stay happy.

VoiceNation believes success comes from a combination of employee and customer satisfaction. It's a place where employees enjoy coming to work; a fun environment that challenges and supports career growth. In addition, complete business achievement lies in the ability to meet consumer demands through innovative technology and building customer loyalty through overall brand status.
"Everything we do should be done with excellence. Our customers and staff deserve it," tells Mr. Reeder.

With the advent of new technologies like mobile devices and sms communications, banks are finding themselves back ‘out there’ having to figure out new platforms of interaction with their customers.  While it’s a bit destabilizing for these conservative organizations, it has help to create a realignment within their customer facing operations — one which was not being generated from within their organizations.

The concept of consumerization, which can be loosely defined as consumer technologies causing changes within businesses, has forced banks to align themselves around some key principles of customer experience in the mobile internet era.  Katherine Burger discusses these in her piece in a banking industry focused publication.

But we wonder whether these ‘standards’ can now apply to a wider range of industries beyond just banking.   With that in mind we thought it would be useful to ask companies which we are involved with to self assess on these standards within their own businesses.  We adapted the points into 4 quick questions which are worth asking:

1. Does your business have an ‘always on’ component (likely online)?
2. Would customers describe their experience with your products as easy?
3. Is there an adequate degree of integration of your solutions within the customer’s larger related experience
4. Do your customers experience a degree of personalization of their experience to their specific demographic, situation or needs?

Incorporated in October 2010, Freshdesk is founded by Girish Mathrubootham, former vice-president (product management) at Zoho Corp. The company offers customer support software for small and medium enterprises looking for a Cloud-based interface.

“With millions of customers voicing their opinions and complaints on Facebook and Twitter, social customer support is the new marketing. Today, the easiest way to build a powerful brand is to listen and engage with the customer," according to Freshdesk CEO, Girish Mathrubootham.

Freshdesk has trebled its customer base in the last quarter (to 700 customers), a period in which it also launched what it calls ‘version 2.0’ of its helpdesk platform to make customer support more engaging, powerful and as simple as sending an email.

The new version of its offering came two months after a virtual slugfest with the CEO of Zendesk, the market leader in the same business, who attacked the firm (with offices in California and Chennai) as being a rip-off and then allegedly resorted to using a paid blogger-cum-analyst to bad mouth Freshdesk.

Cultural survey adaptation

“Of the customer feedback we process for many clients worldwide, 60 percent is positive, but that percentage varies greatly by region and culture,” explains Mayne. “In Japan, companies find it very difficult to earn a perfect five-out-of-five customer rating, and companies find it easier to do so in Latin America, just as customer feedback in Tennessee tends to be more positive than feedback in New York.”

To gain more detailed information from Japanese customers who rarely award perfect scores, Mindshare might use a broader rating scale of 1 to 10 instead of 1 to 5. In Germany, Mindshare knows clients do not want to receive a 5 out of 5; although the highest ranking on a scale of 1 to 5 might be “excellent” in the United States, the lowest number, 1, is typically associated with the best ranking in German surveys.

The method of collecting responses also differs by culture. Web surveys are very successful in Canada and really dominate in Europe, but the phone is a more effective medium in the Middle East. Surveys taken over SMS are more popular in Europe than in the United States.

Revenue at cafes open at least a year rose 8 percent in the Americas but slipped 1 percent in the region encompassing Europe, Middle East, Russia and Africa.

Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead said the dip was largely the result of select regions of Europe that were hard hit by economic turmoil. He said the company is "not immune" from high unemployment and fragile consumer confidence in the region.

"It's not unlike what we experienced in the U.S. a few years ago," he noted.

Alstead said Starbucks is taking similar measures in those markets as it did when it was struggling in U.S., such as introducing loyalty programs and improving service to boost sales. The company is also focusing on adapting its offerings to local tastes. In France, for example, a second espresso option was added in response to consumer demand.