What services would you like to see at the DMV of the Future?

The Department of Motor Vehicles poses this question with the launch of a new customer-service survey on its website.

The new survey – available online through July 15, 2012 —  is part of the department’s “DMV Vision 2015” initiative that ties into the 100th anniversary of the Department of Motor Vehicles.  Customer ideas will be incorporated into the department’s strategic plan as a living document that brings a fresh, innovative approach to how the agency conducts business.

In recent months, the DMV has unveiled several new products and services with the customer in mind, including: Appointment Notify, where a reminder call is made to customers three days in advance of a scheduled appointment; Virtual Hold, which gives customers the option of receiving a call-back from a DMV representative that same day; and, Self Service Terminals in selected DMV field offices that make vehicle registration that much easier.

Emirates, one of the world's largest international airlines, and JetBlue Airways JBLU +1.29% , New York's Hometown Airline(TM), have announced the launch of a joint frequent flyer partnership.

Starting July 1, 2012, members of JetBlue's customer loyalty program TrueBlue will be able to earn TrueBlue points across Emirates' network of more than 120 destinations worldwide, while Emirates' Skywards members will be able to earn Skywards Miles on JetBlue's network throughout the Americas (a). The partner airlines plan to introduce a redemption agreement in February 2013.

NICE (NASDAQ: NICE) has once again been recognized as the global market leader in the contact center workforce management (WFM) market by DMG Consulting LLC, with a market share of 23.7 percent, based on the number of seats. The DMG report, which was issued in May, shows that NICE’s WFM market share is up from last year’s 22.5 percent, placing NICE in first place for the fifth consecutive year.

“2011 was an outstanding year for the contact center workforce management market,” said Donna Fluss, President of DMG Consulting. “End-user interest in WFM solutions is at an all-time high, coming from both first-time adopters who are finally looking to automate their labor-intensive manual processes, as well as long-time WFM users who are adding seats or replacing an existing solution that has been outgrown.”

Leader in phone-based and mobile customer service solutions, SpeechStorm, has made available the Eastwood release of its self-service software, delivering improved SpeechStorm Control Centre performance, new telecoms applications and exciting new mobile self-service capabilities.

Eastwood was made available to SpeechStorm’s hosted IVR and speech self-service customers in June and early feedback from those using it is that the performance improvement in the Control Centre – SpeechStorm’s easy-to-use web-based management console – has been dramatic.
Phil Wood, Telephony Analyst at Dixons, who uses the SpeechStorm platform to manage store location and call steering for Currys and PC World stores in Ireland, said, “We’ve really noticed the difference. Dashboard updates for call handling, transfers and task completion statistics are instant and reports are much faster to generate, making it much easier for us to monitor performance and identify potential for improvement.”

The U.S. market for health and wellness products is growing at a rapid pace and is expected to reach $170 billion by the end of 2012. Companies competing in this space will strive to boost consumer spend at each visit by providing a one-stop store for all their needs – pharmacy services, OTC medicines, homeopathic, beauty, and personal care products. To maximize customer spend while also promoting repeat shopping, companies in this space desperately need to have loyalty programs that cover all their touch points with the customer.

When Pharmaca, a pharmacy that looks to revolutionize the way we shop for health and wellness products, embarked on a loyalty initiative, one of the company’s goals was to reinforce its branding as a go-to wellness destination to drive higher engagement between pharmacy and retail.  They sought to encourage customers to fill both their conventional prescriptions needs and their need for alternative products in one location.

Confirmit, the leading global software provider for Customer Experience, Employee Engagement and Market Research, is pleased to announce that Scotland's leading commercial broadcaster STV is using Confirmit Horizons as the core platform for its expanding online research panel ScotPulse.

Launched in early 2011 to gather insight about a wide range of topics affecting the people of Scotland, from TV shows to politics, the ScotPulse panel is unique to Scotland. There are now over 10,000 panellists who are invited to take part in a range of online research studies. ScotPulse is the only dedicated online panel for Scotland.

Confirmit Horizons enables ScotPulse's dedicated in-house research team in Glasgow to manage the entire process, from survey design and deployment through to panel management and reporting and analysis, from one integrated platform