Virtusa Corporation, a global IT services company that offers a broad range of information technology services, including IT consulting, technology implementation and application outsourcing, today announced a customer management solution designed for the hospitality industry. This offering will combine services from Virtusa with solutions from Pegasystems. The ''Leisure & Hospitality" solution enables hospitality businesses to greatly improve customer experience by automatically managing and addressing customer feedback. Leveraging Pegasystems' PEGA -1.20% Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology, the customized solution captures a real time, 360-degree view of a guest's case history in order to provide a personalized customer experience and immediate resolution of complaints. The solution is currently being used by leading travel and hospitality organizations.

Empathica Inc., a leading global provider of Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions to the world’s most respected multi-unit enterprises in retail, food services, banking, petro and hospitality sectors, announced today that its GoRecommendTM social media advocacy solution now features a real-time feed of recommendations that can be embedded on a brand’s website, Facebook page and other online assets to leverage advocates’ social recommendations.

By incorporating a real-time advocate feed into the GoRecommend solution, Empathica improves a brand’s ability to convert satisfied customers into brand advocates. The new feature amplifies positive, authentic recommendations through Facebook, Twitter and email, effectively allowing a brand to connect its customers’ great experiences to the social graph. Combined with GoRecommend’s existing capabilities, the new functionality allows brands to further extend their customer relationships and build out a measurable base of active brand advocates.

Jersey Mike's Subs, which has more than 600 branches across the US, has launched a loyalty programme that provides customers with both an NFC tag and a barcode-based membership card to identify themselves to receive rewards at the point-of-sale.

More than 200,000 customers signed up for the new Sub Club Rewards Program in the first month and the ID option chosen by members reveal strong regional variations in technology acceptance amongst the company's clients, platform provider Skypop reports.

Adoption of the mobile ID sticker versus the membership card varies widely by geographic location and familiarity with use, Skypop's Catherine Nunes has told NFC World. Many of the Southern California franchise locations show 40 to 50% of their members choosing the RFID mobile member ID sticker to identify their membership at the register.

The statistics have been well publicized. More than 90% of dissatisfied customers never let the business know it. They simply leave and never come back. They do, however, let other people know about it…often for many years. Those friends tell other friends, widening the circle of influence to possibly hundreds. Thanks to social media and blogging, that circle may be widened even further.

Most business owners would agree that they’d like to know what customers are thinking. Good or bad. If every customer would simply verbalize his or her dissatisfaction, the business owner could get an idea for ongoing issues that might be driving customers away. Many businesses have tried encouraging feedback by promising coupons or prize money in return for filling out an online survey, but customers have learned these online surveys are time-consuming. Besides, in the time that passes between a customer leaving your business and getting back to a computer, he or she is likely focused on other matters.

KANA(R) Software, Inc., a global leader in customer service solutions used by more than 850 enterprises including half of the Global 100 and more than 250 government agencies, today introduced new breakthrough capabilities in its next-generation enterprise customer service solution, designed to support the new strategic imperative in Web Customer Service: customer acquisition.

To succeed in today's ultra-competitive business environment, where long-term customer loyalty simply can't be taken for granted, organizations must be more proactive with their Web Customer Service (WCS) initiatives, broadening their horizon beyond customer retention to customer acquisition. WCS is the term frequently used to characterize the interactions between a customer and a company via online channels -- to obtain information or resolve an issue before, during, or after a purchase.

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. AEO +1.07% and shopkick, the largest location-based shopping app that rewards shoppers simply for walking into stores, today announced the national rollout of shopkick to all American Eagle Outfitters and Aerie stores across the country. Beginning today, customers will earn kicks (points) just for walking in, as well as receive a number of other exciting, exclusive offers throughout the stores.

shopkick is an ideal partner for AEO as we strive to be an early adopter of technologies that matter to our customers, said Fred Grover, executive vice president, American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. We are excited to expand our long-time partnership with shopkick to delight customers in all of our stores nationwide.