Verint® Systems Inc. today announced that Cabela’s® Incorporated—the leading specialty retailer and world's largest direct marketer of hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor merchandise—has recently completed the implementation of its Impact 360® solution across five contact center sites in Nebraska.

The specialty retailer selected Verint Impact 360 based on its unified software solution approach and proven, complementary functionality across quality monitoring, speech analytics, desktop and process analytics, performance management, eLearning and coaching, along with encryption management. With these capabilities, Cabela’s has the automated functionality, analytics and intelligence tools it will need to further its focus on the customer experience in conjunction with offering a wide, distinctive selection of high-quality outdoor products at competitive prices.

The second annual Reducing Customer Struggle Report, published by Econsultancy in association with Tealeaf, the leader in customer experience management solutions, has found that more than three-quarters (77%) of companies are boosting investment in the mobile channel this year.

The report, which follows a similar study in 2011, is based on a global survey of almost 500 business professionals working for companies involved in e-commerce and e-business.

The research highlights a growing requirement for mobile engagement as part of the multichannel customer experience. More than half (58%) of companies surveyed said their customers typically research their products on mobile devices for later purchase online. Some 43% of respondents said their customers purchase products directly using a mobile device and a similar proportion (41%) reported that they research products or services for later purchase offline.

Encouragingly, since last year’s report, the proportion of organisations considering that the quality of customer experience via the mobile channel is ‘poor’ has significantly declined, from around half (46%) in 2011 to just under a third (31%) this year.

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.

Loyalty is evolving fast and nothing shows that more than the integration of two leading edge solutions.   Shopkick already changes the game in retail marketing by allows brands to target specific customer segments with rewards simply for visiting stores and interacting with products.   The earned ‘kicks’ (Shopkick’s points) can be redeemed for a range of rewards including in-store gift cards - but like other companies redemption was a challenge for Shopkick, given its rapidly rising popularity.

Giftango completes the mobile circle for both Shopkick and its retail clients by bringing the redemption of rewards into gift cards into the mobile platform.  The partnership highlights both companies’ recognition that loyalty is evolving rapidly and, with it, the expectations of consumers of a seamless experience.   Loyalty experience has evolved beyond a single company feature to a competitive opportunity or threat.

Having cleared the first hurdle of becoming more customer centric at the strategy level, companies are still finding major obstacles internally to achieving true success in their CX programs.

A recent joint nFusion/Pegasystems study put the spotlight on two key shortcomings that are hindering companies’ CX programs:

1. A lack of internal domain expertise on the development and execution of CX enhancement programs.   Despite commitment of significant budget to the effort, by failing to bring in CX expertise, companies still fall short on successfully executing CX improvements.

2. Disjointed customer touch-points.  Highlighting the challenge of aligning multiple direct and channel touch points, the study pointed to a lack of transparency, consistency and integration within the CX side across different touchpoints.

In the end the challenge falls directly at door of the C-Suite, which needs to understand and recognize the tremendous competitive and ROI potential of CX enhancements.  If that is achieved, then leadership from the top level has the power to effect greater integration between different channels and bring in required talent to drive CX program execution.