The New York Times published an article the other day, commending Japanese auto-manufacturer Honda for sticking to its guns while everyone else was was living by the mantra bigger is better. With outrageous gas prices and rising customer concerns about the environment, companies are expected to make a serious investment in more eco-friendly solutions. More importantly, Honda committed to a noble brand message and stuck to it — now it’s reaping the rewards.

While industry sales drop 3 percent, Honda is seeing a 7 percent increase in sales for the first seven months. Online automotive resource Edmunds.com released its forecast for auto sales this month. Compared to August 2007, Honda will see a 0.9 percent increase in sales, while Chrysler, Ford, and GM sales are expected to decline 34, 16.3, and 27.5 percent respectively.

Honda, the author writes, “never veered from its mission of building fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly cars.” Since the 1960s, the company has been manufacturing cars under the philosophy, “blue skies for our children.” The article failed to mention, however, that it wasn’t always clear skies for Honda. When sports utility vehicles (SUV) became popular in the 1990s and early 2000s, sales of smaller cars took a hit. An article in the LA Times from 2001 reported on a study by J.D. Powers and Associates, which revealed:

Upper-mid-size sedan (Camry, Accord and Taurus) consumers are about seven times more likely to switch to an SUV [in 2001] than they were in 1999;

2 percent of customers shopping for upper-mid-size cars in 1999 switched and bought SUVs. In 2001, that number reached 15 percent;

the market had one “crossover” vehicle in 1997; by 2001, there were 18.

In response to consumer demand, Honda came out with its own crossover vehicle — the Honda CR-V — in 1996. But even so, the company stuck to its green-roots, and delivered a vehicle that looked like an SUV, but was built with the economic efficiency of the Honda Civic in mind. Motortorque.com cites CR-V sales increases of 28 percent from 2006 to 2007 (but notes that 2006 numbers were for the previous generation CR-V), compared to the overall SUV sector, which dropped 4 percent.

It’s interesting how companies are always after that customer loyalty, and yet, one of the problems industry experts often bring up is the fact that companies aren’t always loyal to their brand. McDonald’s, for instance, went through a difficult time when the company “took [its] eyes off the fries” . The fast food restaurant boasts fast, friendly service, but for a period, focused on building more locations rather than the interest of its customers (e.g., health and nutrition).

Even a mere tagline can reveal a lot about what you are — or aren’t. I interviewed Steve Cone, author of Powerlines, who spoke to the fact that if companies are consistently changing their brand message, how can they possibly expect customers to identify? Facelift after facelift may be more new and exciting, but in the end, the customer won’t know what you really look like.

Branding, however, is an elusive concept — marketers want something fresh, but it needs to be consistent. Even more challenging is seeing whether the premise of your brand is actually resonating with the consumer. Honda probably went through a period of doubt, but building a business requires passion and commitment. Look at how well that’s paying off now.

Open-source CRM continues to grow in popularity, and visibility, in large part to the reported success of Cupertino, Calif.-based SugarCRM, now disclosing that it supports 400,000 users on 50,000 installations in worldwide. Noting the growing trend, CRM magazine introduced the market as one of our Market Leader categories in this year’s Market Awards.

SugarCRM took the winner’s position, but not without intense competition from companies including Adempiere, Compiere, Concursive, vTiger, and xTuple.

The open-source pioneer just announced yesterday the general availability of Sugar 5.1, touting new capabilities in analytics, reporting, and wireless. At the company’s CRM Acceleration event last Thursday at The Westin New York, in the heart of Times Square, SugarCRM Senior Manager of Product Management Jennifer Yim gave a glimpse into the release update, as well as a look at the future roadmap through (tentatively) June 2009.

Speaking first about Sugar 5.1, Yim said “the focus is on deep CRM, and the analytics of the information in our system.” This is evident in the revamped reporting aspects, affectionately referred to as “Reports 2.0″–very Web 2.0-eriffic. Anyway, the new reporting capabilities include:

• user interface improvements;
• a report wizard that enables users to create various reports depending on business need;
• an ability to create more complex queries and filters by using the “and/or” rule;
• runtime filters; and
• grouping by matrix.

Sugar Wireless 2.0 is also compelling. In this updated functionality, SugarCRM Professional and Enterprise edition users can have browser-based, real-time access to their CRM on BlackBerry and iPhone devices. For these users, no separate installation is needed, according to Yim. She also insisted that mobile users will have the same functionality on their phones that they would using SugarCRM on desktops, including view, search, edit, and accessing any necessary records.

While this capability is browser-based, and not native to the actual phone like Research In Motion’s plans with SAP, its clear the next move in CRM is in the world of smartphones and being able to access CRM software anywhere, anytime, as fellow CRMer Lauren McKay pointed out a few days ago.

To conclude, Yim gave a quick look at plans for Versions 5.5 and 6.0, with tentative dates set for December 2008 and June 2009, respectively. That could especially change, given that last year when Sugar 5.0 hit the mainstream, the plan was to come out with 5.1 in December 2007 and 5.5 “in mid-year 2008″.

Yim stressed the roadmap could change, but still explained that release 5.5 will focus on enterprises, while 6.0 will delve even deeper into CRM.

Possible new features for 5.5 include:

• complex teams groups;
• sales territory management;
• social networking mashups; and
• platform enhancements that include full text search, calculated fields, and dependent drop downs.

Possible features for 6.0:

• calendar 2.0;
• Sugar wireless advanced mobility;
• advanced workflow;
• advanced studio and module builder;
• partner relationship management;
• extensibility platform; and
• Sugar Web services.

Keep a close eye on SugarCRM and its roadmap as other competitors continue to evolve and innovate in their own right and fight for supremacy on the open-source seas.

You might think after looking at the title that I’m on some type of crazy pills, or just didn’t have my second cup of coffee. (If you’re thinking it’s the coffee, you’re right.)

At first glance, you may have two questions come to mind:

• Isn’t customer service supposed to be by and for those brave souls willing to go back to a company and ask a question or has an issue that has to be addressed?; and
• Isn’t this controlled by customers?

Yes and no.

The goal is the same–solve the customer issue at hand. However, there is a difference in who is controlling the interaction: the company or the consumer. Traditionally, customers have been driven to only call a customer service line, send an email, or just peruse Frequently Asked Questions on a company Web site. There was not really a choice–customers reached out for help the way they were told.

Michael Maoz, Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst told me back in March that “we’re forcing the customer into the process of our choice, as opposed to letting them have the process launch from the channel at the time of their choice.”

Those days appear to be coming to a close. The advent–and consumer adoption–of Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs (like this one), chat, discussion boards, forums, and videos are in a sense forcing companies’ hands. In speaking with Rob Bois, research director for AMR Research, about today’s story on RightNow Technologies’ August ‘08 release, Web 2.0 is here to stay. “The consumer generation is demanding more and more technology to be incorporated in how they’re serviced,” he said. “You have to provide multiple channels for your customers that may vary by demographic, generation, geography, or culture.”

But how quickly will customers be able to fully take the reins and truly dictate the interaction? Maoz predicted it will take two or three years before we see more companies able to really deliver on tightly integrated, multimodal communication–including chat, email, kiosk, phone, etc.

Bois didn’t give a timeframe, but also maintained this is still a process for many organizations that vendors need to help guide along. “A lot of companies recognize that they need to look at some of these Web 2.0 technologies, but don’t know where they’re going to apply,” he said. “[Businesses] don’t really understand where it’s going to come from, or who is going to own it. By packaging [Web 2.0 capabilities] within the solution, RightNow solves a lot of those problems.”

It seems to be a logical progression–and surefire way to at least start the customer interaction off on a positive note–to give consumers the choice of preferred contact. With increasing economic competition and price commoditization, customer service just might be one of the last uninhabitated planets of differentiation.

Yesterday I wrote a story for destinationCRM.com about Maximizer Software’s announcement of its Mobile CRM branding. Along with the press release, the folks at Maximizer passed along a YouTube video that demonstrates the need for accessing CRM, even on-the-go.

The video is pretty funny, and as Laurie McCabe (SMB analyst with AMI-Partners) points out, it’s a good attempt at viral marketing.

The topic of smartphones brings me back to Tim Bajarin’s keynote at the dCRM conference last week. Bajarin, who rubs elbows with Steve Jobs, says:

“These devices will represent 70 percent of all phones sold in the us by 2012. That is a huge change in thinking.”

Bajarin goes on, saying that generation Y will not even consider using a regular cell phone anymore. A phone without a text keyboard? Forget about it.

Mobile CRM makes sense. CRM is not an industry that ties its employees to desks. Sales and marketing people are often traveling and doing business whenever and wherever. Recently, I had the privilege to have dinner with a several CRM vendors, one of whom sells mobile CRM solutions for BlackBerry. At one point during the evening, the man next to him turned and said, “I need you.” He shared that all through the day at the destinationCRM exhibit hall, he was meeting people, making contacts, and taking business cards. He was frantically writing down information on the back of the business cards so that when he goes back and enters the contacts into his CRM system, he will hopefully be able to put a face to the name. However, as he told the mobile CRM guy, if he would have been able to pull up the CRM database on his BlackBerry, it could have been done in seconds.

I recently purchased a smartphone, mostly because I wanted to be able to check email on the road. I won’t share which kind of phone it is, but I will tell you that it’s not an iPhone or a BlackBerry. I have found myself, even after having the phone for about six months now, discovering new features and using it in new ways. Perhaps my favorite application is the quick access to Google Maps. [It means I don't have to bring my old fold-out map with me when trekking through new areas of the city. Basically, it allows me to still look "cool" in New York, even when I am incredibly lost and confused.]

Talks of mobile CRM has seemed to have taken conferences — and headlines — by storm. In the words of my dear colleague, Jessica Tsai, “Dude, I’m so relevant.”

I was hoping to be among the first editors to post to this blog, but Jess, Lauren, and Chris are younger and quicker than I am. (*sigh* Ahh, the kids today, with their music and their Interwebs.) So a belated welcome to our new thing.

In keeping with my lateness, the first topic I want to discuss is one that popped up during our recent conference. Patrick Bultema, CEO of CodeBaby, led a lively discussion about adding Web 2.0 technologies to existing enterprises, and I think attendees got a lot out of it. especially in terms of opening minds to the changing concept of what a customer is. There were two items, though, that didn’t work as well for me as they seem to have done for other people, and I wanted to get your thoughts on them. One is the nature of emotion on the Web; the other is what CodeBaby does.

First item: Bultema described the Web as an “emotion-free zone,” and when he said that my eyebrow went up Spock-style. Most two-way communication on the Web is text-based, he noted, but real communication requires much more than words on a page (or screen). Pushing text or video at customers is not an effective loyalty hook. “Loyalty is driven by emotion,” he said, and suggested that the current model is to co-opt the emotion from an existing community and make it part of your business.

Communication is certainly better when there’s more than mere text involved, but I don’t agree that emotion is absent from the written word. Instant communication between distant individuals is not that old a concept. You (or your parents) may remember a time when not everybody had a telephone in their home, long-distance calls were a special event, and party lines weren’t something advertised on late-night TV. For thousands of years, people communicated effectively at a distance through writing. Love affairs were conducted with the pen when more intimate contact wasn’t possible; wars started and ended on paper; and the older generations still expect a written thank-you note sent via snail mail. Hell, I stake my livelihood on the power of writing.

The Web allows us to combine the power of the written word with the immediacy of a phone call. Yes, there’s a layer of separation there, but one only has to read a community forum or a blog’s comment thread to see emotion at work in text. Many of these online communities began there, not in the real world, so emotional communication must be possible in text. If anything, there’s too much emotion online. Flame wars can start over nothing — using the wrong emoticon is practically a declaration of war to some people. Immediate access to information is a powerful thing, but the ability to respond immediately — before getting one’s facts in order — has led to a breakdown of communication even worse than the advent of sound-bite news reporting. But that’s just my opinion; I could be wrong. (Apologies to Dennis Miller.) What do you think?

Second item: CodeBaby makes real-time virtual assistants for Web sites. Maybe that’s too simplistic a description, since I didn’t get an extended demo, but it should give you a sense of what the company does. when I saw it, all I could think of was Clippy, the Microsoft Office Assistant. I loathe Clippy, and Office Assistant is among the first things to be permanently disabled on any computer I use. Granted, CodeBabies appear to have a lot more power and versatility than the Clip, but I admit that my first reaction was negative. Since then, I’ve reasoned that CodeBabies could be pretty neat if used in the right way. What do you think, CRM readers? How — if at all — should a company craft a walking, talking Web persona and how should it be used?

BONUS FEATURE! Thanks to the wonder of YouTube, I can provide the source of this post’s title for your listening pleasure. ’80s Brit pop FTW! Spandau Ballet — Communication

In digesting all of the customer service tracks at our recently completed destinationCRM 2008 conference in Manhattan, there is one anecdote that continues to stick in my mind. In his keynote, Lior Arussy, president of customer experience consulting firm Strativity Group, told a story about Commerce Bank–fairly popular in New York City.

The branches of this bank will open 10 minutes before, and stay open 10 minutes after, its normal business hours. This caters to the busy people who desperately try to squeeze in much-needed banking amidst a hectic schedule.

It’s an excellent idea–and it doesn’t require gobs of money spent on advertisements and marketing. It conveys the message of, “We know you’re busy, and we’re here for you no matter what may get in your way of coming to our bank and doing business with us.”

In my own life, I wish I had a Commerce Bank near where I live in the Mid-Hudson Valley. While my paychecks are directly deposited, I’m one of those anomalies that like to manually take money out of my one bank account, drive the 15 minutes over to the Hudson Valley Credit Union (HVFCU), and literally hand a portion of my money to a real, breathing, human teller to deposit into my savings account.

I usually do this on Saturdays, and HVFCU is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Now, I’m an early riser and usually have other errands to run that have me out of the house well before that time. No matter what I try to do, I always find myself at HVFCU at approximately 8:45 a.m. It never fails that each Saturday I do this, there is a long line of customers waiting outside of the automatic doors at the entrance waiting to conduct transactions.

The Type A personality in me not wanting to lose even more ground and fall further behind in line, I bite my lip, step out of my car, and wait with everyone else. All the while, everyone waiting can see the bank tellers already sitting at their posts speaking to themselves, and management walking by the door staring through the glass door at us like we’re the latest attraction at the zoo.

It could be raining, snowing, or unbearably humid — it doesn’t matter. The branch supervisor will not unlock the doors until it is exactly 9 a.m., despite the fact that all of the employees have been sitting at their battle stations for quite some time already.

To me, it gives me the message of “We know you’re waiting, but we don’t care. You’ll have to wait until we open.”

Fair enough, but if you don’t want to open just a few minutes early, why not cater to your loyal customers willing to actually wait to do business with you. A small gesture, like offering coffee, tea, or water would at least show that you appreciate our business and patience. Maybe even some chairs so the handicapped or elderly can at least sit comfortably while waiting.

Instead, I feel like I am making their lives harder and that I should apologize. For what, I’m not sure. Wanting to do business with them?

Illustration aside, the point is HVFCU could be losing customers instead of creating an opportunity for increased business. Opening a few minutes early would be optimal, and reduce the barrage of unhappy customers lumbering to quickly make a transaction and leave. But if that’s not possible, any little things like offering respite or beverages would show me that they truly care and appreciate us. It doesn’t cost much, and the memory I would have instead would be a pleasant one.

It’s ironic. The Internet is this infinite space — shelves continue to be built with no ceiling in sight, and yet, the world has never been smaller.

A friend of a friend (yes, it’s one of those stories) — we’ll call him Artist A — owns t-shirt design company and in honor of a certain Olympic phenom, decided to put out a commemorative shirt. Many were sold and all was well until Artist B came along. B was unhappy seeing as it was his design…lifted from his Web site. Now, B is suing A.

So that’s how artists make money…

One friend claimed, “Well, if it’s on the Internet, you can’t really do anything about it.” Another said, “I’d rather die than see someone make money off my work.”

All I could think was, how in the world did Arist A think he could get away with it? Companies are told again and again — there’s no use hiding, your customers will find out eventually, and the more you try to cover it up, the bigger the mess. There’s an amazing system of checks and balances that exists on the Internet and, call me naive, but I believe in the good of people and I’m sure there are millions who’d agree — it’s what gives “structure” to this unstructured world. On community sites like craigslist and Wikipedia, disputed content is flagged, edited, corrected, repeat. These sites rely on the voice of the people and the people know when they see something fishy, even if they don’t know the facts just yet. It’s comforting and daunting at the same time. Aside from my belief in karma, I admit it’s partly the fear of a million pair of eyes watching — and Google Search — that keeps me on the straight and narrow.

In any case, not sure what’s going on with the legal bit yet, but Artist A now claims that the “original” shirt is “sold out” and has replaced it with one that is significantly less attractive. Oh, the price we pay to cover our asses.

*Fun Fact: The aforementioned Artist B not only found his design using the Net, but also the girl of his dreams.

Keith Dawson, principal analyst for contact centers at Frost & Sullivan, made a very interesting point during his session on empowering employees with the right tools and authority in order to deliver “exceptional customer experiences” at the destinationCRM 2008 Conference in the heart of Times Square.

As a resident of New York City and with my family just a hop, skip, and a jump away in New Jersey, I find myself on the train…a lot. Still, I had never ridden on Amtrak until two weeks ago when I was sent to Washington, D.C. to cover the 2008 eTail East Conference…and then a week later to Boston for the 2008 Affiliate Summit East. (Personally, I’ve always found Amtrak to be a bit too pricey for my own wallet.)

But perhaps you do get what you pay for…and sometimes even more. It was 7:30 PM when I boarded the train in Newark for the 4 hour trip to Boston. When we were nearing New York Penn Station, the woman sitting in front of me — whose ticket was for only as far as Penn Station — asked the ticket collector if she could stay on the Amtrak and pay the difference to get to her final destination in Connecticut, instead of making the trek over to Grand Central for the Metro North. “Having a hard day?” he asked her with a smile on his face. She must have nodded because he said, “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you. We’ll get you home.” He smiled again and continued down the aisle.

A couple stops later, he returned to collect another round of tickets and the woman stopped him. “I’m a poet,” she said – which I thought sounded mildly pretentious, but I digress. Apparently, she was returning from a writers’ conference. After that brief exchange, he walked away with an anthology she had given him. Not many customers ever get to return the favor, this one did, and I’m pretty sure that her gratitude won’t end there.

While I’m sure giving free rides, or even free legs of rides, isn’t in the Amtrak customer care code of conduct, sometimes it’s warranted — and based on what Sebastian Pawlowski, principal marketing officer of e-commerce at Amtrak, said in his presentation at the destinationCRM Conference today, what the ticket collector did was something even executives would approve of. “Improving the customer experience,” Pawlowski said, “has to be everything. It has to be why you do what you do.”

With just under 20 people — e-commerce and IT combined — in what will be 9 months, including September, and a budget of under $1 million, Pawlowski explained how companies can build a CRM system for its e-commerce business, as long as you’re willing to “roll up your sleeves and innovate.”

Here are some key takeaways, which can also be found in the dCRM Marketing Track Roundup:

• CRM is different for every company – mold it to your company and your customers;
• It’s not about marketing, but about customer service.
• Make use of your Web content to serve personalized content in real time.
• “You don’t need a missile to kill an ant.” Know what you need and build what you need — There’s nothing out of the box that will fulfill all of your needs, he said. (On average, companies only use 40 percent of the features in an out-of-the-box solution, said Lee Scott, principal at Unleashing Leaders and fellow speaker.)
• Engage in cross-channel, cross-departmental participation.
• If you’re going to implement a CRM project – expect failure upfront, and get back up!

An overarching theme of this year’s destinationCRM conference is Web 2.0’s Impact on the Next Generation of CRM Tools & Techniques. I’d be surprised if you could sit in on a single session without hearing mention of Web 2.0’s impact – whether on sales, marketing, customer service, or the customer experience. In his presentation “Beat the Half-Life of Web 2.0 Technologies” Lee Allen Scott proposed that at next year’s conference the phrase Web 2.0 will be obsolete. It will at least be Web 2.1 – or even Web 3.0. Predictions of the name change have been around for awhile. One thing’s for sure, Web 2.0 talk is becoming nothing but more familiar.

In this morning’s CRM industry address, destinationCRM chairman Barton Goldenberg listed common Web 2.0 tools that business should be adopting: blogs, wikis, video, RSS, widgets, podcats, and social networks. He then asked audience members to raise hands if they are using the aforementioned tools in their everyday business processes. Many hands raised for blogs, less for wikis and a fair amount for RSS feeds. Very few arms were raised for using widgets. “We’ve got to get those numbers up,” Goldenberg says.

Customers – especially Generation Y– are demanding that the Web fit their needs and evolve. So much so that they don’t even necessarily think about the Web functionality they use on a daily basis.

Example: Just over the weekend, I was talking to a friend from college who admitted to me that she didn’t think she had ever seen a blog. Shocked and a little appalled by this statement, I immediately started listing common blogs that I was sure she has visited. “Oh, I guess I do look at blogs, but I didn’t attach a name to the item,” she told me. The moral of this story is that customers don’t care about the label of the tool. They don’t need or even want to hear vendors saying “We have a wiki!” or “Now we are doing social networking!” They just want it there. No explanation necessary.

What’s a business to do? Goldenberg maintains that when managing Web 2.0 and people and processes, only 20 percent has to do with technology. It’s mostly about the people. And those for those non-techies – which is the majority of consumers – technology can be confusing, overwhelming, and unnecessary. It seems contradictory: Your customers want Web 2.0, but they don’t want to know about it.

I think Goldenberg has it about right. He says:

“The difference is knowing how to create that mix [among people, processes and technology] over time. Those that get the mix right have a much better chance of succeeding. The most significant mistake that companies make is the inability to appreciate the need to carefully integrate people, processes and technology at each stage of an implementation.”