Allegiance, Inc., a provider of VOCi (Voice of Customer Intelligence) technology and services, announced today that it has partnered with uSamp, a provider of technology and survey respondents used to obtain consumer and business insights. uSamp's growing Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer online survey sample database offers easy access to qualified survey respondents that will aid in the success of Allegiance client programs.

Allegiance is the provider of Voice of the Customer (VOC) software, which gathers both solicited and unsolicited customer feedback from multiple channels to provide insights that can be acted upon immediately to improve the customer experience. The partnership with uSamp allows for Allegiance to provide panel capabilities within the Allegiance Engage platform. This integration will make it easier for Allegiance customers to target a general population or a targeted group of qualified survey respondents.

Alliance Data Systems Corporation, a loyalty and marketing solutions provider, signed a multi-year agreement with Blue Nile to create and manage a private label credit card program. Benefits for customers of Blue Nile will include flexible financing options and no annual card fee, as well as online account management. Blue Nile shoppers can select from financing options that include six and 12 months same as cash. Alternately, they may choose to make payments over 24 or 48 months. Alliance Data also expects to develop additional cardholder incentives and marketing efforts through advanced website analytic capabilities, direct mail and email.

David Binder, the chief financial officer of Blue Nile, explained that they chose Alliance Data Systems for its tools and digital marketing capabilities that will turn engagement ring shoppers into ''Blue Nile customers for life.''

Alliance Data Systems' president of retail services, Melisa Miller, said, Alliance Data is uniquely positioned to support Blue Nile's legacy of creating an engaging, rewarding customer experience that contributes to repeat purchases and increased shopper loyalty. We are confident our retail heritage, deep understanding of consumer shopping behavior and robust suite of credit marketing tools will help fuel Blue Nile's customer loyalty strategy.'

The Temkin Group, a consultancy, polled 255 representatives of firms with revenues topping $500m, and found that just 7% of the panel believed the customer experience they provided was superior to all of their rivals.

A further 28% placed performance levels "considerably above" the industry average, while 30% "slightly" improved on the norm, and 23% fell into line with typical standards for their sector.

Some 11% of operators rated their performance across shopper touchpoints as "slightly" lower than their category, and 2% were "considerably below" this benchmark.

Looking ahead three years, 10% of businesses wanted to become cross-industry leaders in this area, and 49% hoped to assume a similar status within their specific market.

Of the rest, 28% set the goal of being "considerably above average" measured against their direct competitors, 8% wished to "slightly" better the opposition and 4% were seeking to match the norm.

Angel, a leading provider of cloud-based Customer Engagement Management (CEM) solutions, today announced LexisNexis® Risk Solutions has integrated Angel's interactive voice technology (IVR) to create LexisNexis IVR on Demand for Identity Proofing and Voice Biometrics. This new solution will enable LexisNexis customers to quickly create and deploy identity proofing and voice biometrics via the cloud and provide stronger, risk-based user verification and authentication. LexisNexis provides identity proofing and Multi-Factor Authentication solutions for users who repeatedly access high risk, high value transactions remotely within the financial services, healthcare, government, and retail markets. With the LexisNexis IVR on Demand for Identity Proofing and Voice Biometrics, organizations can leverage Angel's IVR capabilities to implement identity proofing or voice biometrics quickly and easily within their own IVR environment, without the expense of having to build those capabilities internally.

Speed to market is absolutely essential to our customers, said Dennis Becker, vice president, emerging markets, LexisNexis. Angel has proven its voice and IVR solutions can be immediately deployed and scaled to meet the demands of global businesses, which is a huge competitive advantage within any market. With these new capabilities, customers can quickly and easily implement identity proofing and voice biometrics within their IVR environments to meet their strong authentication needs.

In a study of 7,000 consumers and marketing executives representing 125 consumer brands across 12 industries, CEB identified a significant disconnect between current marketing strategies, including customer engagement, and preferred consumer buying behavior. While most marketers are behaving as if the majority of consumers are open to having a relationship with their brand, CEB found only 20 percent of consumers report being open to such relationships. As a result, today's marketing tactics are making customers less loyal and resulting in lost revenue for companies.

Our research indicates that the impact of simplifying purchase decisions for consumers is four times stronger than the favored marketing strategy of engagement and is the number one driver of likelihood to buy, said Patrick Spenner, managing director at CEB. Too much choice and information causes customers to over-think purchase decisions, making them more likely to change their minds about a product, be less confident in their choice and less likely to repurchase.