Whitepapers

Are you eager to start using the mobile channel in your marketing initiatives but want to see hard data before making the leap?  SoundBite commissioned Luth Research to survey a group of key marketing executives on their adoption of mobile marketing, and the results are in!

As marketers look toward 2012, high global penetration rates, ever increasing speed and demand have become the winning customer engagement trifecta for the retail sector.
-- Mark Friedman

SoundBite's whitepaper, produced in partnership with Convergys, about the state of multi-channel customer care, the growth of proactive communications and how how to address customer care expectations in today's consumer communications landscape.
-- SoundBite in partnership with Convergys

As our mobile world expands, the mobile channel has created new opportunities for retailers, marketers, and advertisers to drive traffic, sales, and customer loyalty. At the same time, it has become a complex landscape with moving parts and channels. Combining new devices with advanced marketing techniques, some retailers may be left wondering where to start their mobile efforts, and if they should begin during the holiday season.

 Free to End User (FTEU) text messaging is one of the most effective, but underutilized, technologies in mobile communications.  It allows businesses to set up text programs which are entirely free of operator charges to the consumer.  This powerful tool is the only way for a business to establish a truly free message service that unlocks new ways of communicating with its customer base.

Co-authored by COLLOQUY, this paper focuses on why loyalty marketers must focus on the convergence of stated communication preferences and observed behaviors to break through the ever-increasing flurry of messages bombarding consumers.

The current state of service installation and repair provided by home appliance, cable, satellite and broadband service providers has inconvenienced the majority of consumers and may prompt them to look for future service elsewhere.  SoundBite’s exclusive survey findings reveal the impact of poor service experiences on customer satisfaction and gauge consumers’ interest in receiving status updates of the technician’s arrival time via interactive text messaging.

PaymentsSource provides information on card fraud and how interactive multi-channel communications can help card-issuing banks address the problem of resolving card fraud effectively, while reducing expenses and building customer loyalty.

With fraud costs on the rise, financial institutions can leverage a consumer’s desire to receive alerts and use multi‐channel communications to minimize losses. Banks that take a multi‐channel approach in fighting fraud will reduce fraud losses, in addition to increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction.

In March 2009 the US government intervened to stabilize housing and mortgage markets by offering servicers financial incentives on mortgage loan modifications and refinances through its voluntary Making Home Affordable program (MHA). As mortgage servicers work through delinquent loans resulting from the credit crisis, they are seeking to capture new customers while better managing credit risk. Find out how a multi channel proactive customer communications solution can benefit the delinquent loan modification processes, including the MHA program.
-- TowerGroup

How do you cut through the fog of marketing messages and get customers profitably engaged in your program? Learn how relevant dialogue in the form of targeted, direct-to-consumer messages solidifies relationships and builds consumer loyalty. Proactive loyalty communications generate higher retention rates and provide better overall marketing ROI.
-- COLLOQUY

Delinquency and charge-off rates are growing in virtually every segment of the energy and utilities industry. As a result, utilities are facing their toughest challenge yet in managing bad debt in their credit and collections departments. Learn how companies are capitalizing on mobile communications and in turn recovering the largest share of receivables possible.
-- UtiliPoint International Inc.

Today’s consumers take a multitude of steps to avoid messages that companies send to them-especially marketing messages. Forrester Consulting sought to understand how the most innovative companies tailor their customer communications and match consumers’ preference for medium, frequency, and purpose of the communication.
-- Forrester Consulting

Five million Americans are unemployed since the start of the recession, two million since the start of 2009 making the collections process more challenging than ever. Mercator Advisory Group examines the value of text messaging within the collections function along with the fundamental shift of US consumer communications patterns taking place and the increased reliance upon mobile communications. See how text messaging works and the high payoff applications both beyond and including collections.
-- Mercator Advisory Group

Customer service managers have found that interactive proactive communications improve customer satisfaction and add value with personalized messages to individual recipients. Discover how anticipating customers’ need before they have to make a call not only saves money but also creates interest in special marketing offers and services that your customers find valuable.
-- Forrester Research, Inc.

Faced with the prospect of difficult credit markets and sea-changes that individually and collectively have the potential to impact profitability, financial services companies in the US may soon face their toughest challenge yet in managing product profitability. Understand how companies are staying focused on executable practices with a strong track record of results and turning collections into a competitive advantage.
-- Edgar Dunn & Company, Inc.

Because of the rapidly changing communications landscape, retailers are now being forced to find new ways to connect with customers to drive repeat visits and calls to action at all stages of the customer lifecycle. Overcome these hurdles by learning how many high-growth retailers are turning to proactive customer communications strategies, which are built around targeted offers using automated voice, text, and email-messaging.
-- Retail TouchPoint

There are many challenges the student loan industry is facing today including reduced margins and pressure to lower operating expenses. See how lenders are introducing more efficiency into their operations and looking towards innovative and automated ways to communicate with itinerant student borrowers. 
-- SoundBite Communications, Inc.

The telecom and media industries are facing competitive pressures, customer churn, and a slow in revenue due to the economy. While the cost for providing customer service and support continues to rise the customer satisfaction within these corporations continues to remain low. Find out how proactive customer communications across multiple channels throughout the customer lifecycle is gaining recognition in these industries.
-- Yankee Group

Risk has become a substantial concern for collections agencies. Collections managers face daunting questions every day regarding compliance and best practices. Find out how proactive customer communications based on automated voice and text messaging can mitigate these and other risks, while also driving better collections performance and higher agent productivity.  
-- SoundBite Communications, Inc.

Faced with the high costs for supporting inbound calls, seventy-five percent of organizations indicated plans to increase investments in outbound communications during the next two to three years. Understand how proactive blended customer communications provide a superior service by delivering new levels of support through multiple communication channels using voice and text messaging.
-- Forrester Consulting

In today’s difficult credit environment for banks and consumers, issuers must develop strategies to effectively compete for collections dollars. Learn how to leverage the emerging capabilities of multi-channel communication technologies to increase return on assets and build long term relationships with customers.
-- Mercator Advisory Group

Forrester Consulting developed a research initiative to understand the obstacles faced by firms implementing customer preference management and determine common success factors for those firms that have completed successful projects. Learn how customer preference management is evolving from its regulatory compliance roots into a competitive differentiator for leading firms.
-- Forrester Consulting

The rise of consumer choice, along with the proliferation of mobile devices and social media, are forcing companies to re-evaluate their traditional contact center infrastructure.  To achieve remarkable results and to transform the “contact center” to the “interaction center,” businesses must leverage the ubiquity of the mobile device, intelligence gleaned from understanding consumer stated preferences and past behaviors, and the quick time to value of hosted contact center solutions. --Frost & Sullivan 
-- Frost & Sullivan

Financial Institutions have tremendous opportunities to engage existing customers and acquire new ones. The mobile channel is augmenting banks’ ability to communicate with consumers, and this report reveals the untapped potential of the mobile device as a powerful and effective channel for customer interaction.

The Ovum Decision Matrix rates providers of hosted proactive customer communications based on three criteria:  technical capabilities, market impact, and end-user sentiment. Ovum also provides guidance for enterprises looking to deploy customer outreach solutions and places vendors in the ‘Shortlist’ and ‘Consider’ categories.