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Parature and ThePort™ Network Announce Strategic Partnership

Parature announced today a referral partnership agreement with ThePort™ Network, social media solutions provider for associations and nonprofit organizations. Parature and ThePort Network, both software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers, have a significant focus on the association and nonprofit markets.

“As a leader in on-demand customer service software, we are delighted to enter into a partnership with a proven social media solutions provider,” said Parature Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Duke Chung. “Parature is one of the fastest growing customer service and support software companies in the United States and this partnership is a logical next step to expand our footprint in the association and nonprofit communities.” Read more »

How to Tell Anyone Anything - The Power of Acknowledgement

When you coach someone, you are probably hoping it will go something like this: first, you ask someone to change something. Then the other person politely nods their head and says that forthwith they will start logging their cases better, being nicer to customers, coming in on time, showering more often, or whatever.

But it doesn’t ever seem to work that way, does it? Instead, you often hear excuses, defenses, and their side of the story. And I am here to tell you that these things are all *wonderful* to hear. Why? Because they give you the chance to use the most powerful coaching tool of all: acknowledgement.

You see, the only reason that people ever argue with you, push back against you, or “yes” you without buying in is that they feel you don’t see their view of the world. Think carefully about the last time your boss called you out about something – how did you feel inside? Ring-a-ding-ding. We all contain an almost magical ability to justify and defend ourselves, no matter how “right” the other person is. Which means that our usual approach of showing people how wrong they are is generally doomed to failure. Read more »

Rosetta Stone Focuses on Customer Success with Parature Customer Service™ Software

Parature announced today that Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE) , a leading provider of technology-based language learning solutions, selected Parature Customer Service™ software to efficiently manage their customer service and strategically support their customer-centric focus.

“Rosetta Stone is committed to changing the way the world learns languages. With the introduction of our innovative, online language-learning solution, Rosetta Stone® TOTALe™, we are completely focused on our customers’ success and making the learning experience truly enjoyable,” said Jay Topper, vice president of customer success, Rosetta Stone.

Rosetta Stone TOTALe builds on and enhances the effectiveness of the award-winning Rosetta Course™ by seamlessly integrating it with coach-led practice sessions, fun and engaging language games, access to native speakers and encouragement from customer success agents – all live and online. Rosetta Stone TOTALe learners will have their own Customer Success Team providing live guidance and encouragement every step of the way. Read more »

Parature Ranked Number 235 Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte’s 2009 Technology Fast 500

Parature announced today that it ranked number 235 on Technology Fast 500™, Deloitte LLP’s ranking of 500 of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. Rankings are based on percentage of fiscal year revenue growth during the five year period from 2004-2008. Parature grew 565 percent during this period.

Parature Founder, Duke Chung credits the vast market Parature serves, the advanced technology it delivers and their visionary customers with the company’s 565 percent revenue growth over the past five years. “Parature is honored to be included in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ for North America,” stated Chung. “To be ranked 235 out of 500 fast growth companies in the country is an outstanding accomplishment. Parature will continue to set the standard for support teams worldwide by providing the smartest, most efficient way for organizations to serve their customers.” Read more »

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In this recession-driven environment, companies are clamoring to increase revenue and save costs; customer retention has never been more important.  Oddly enough, most organizations spend more on marketing to gain customers rather than to retain them.  A published study by the American Society of Quality Control asked the question “Why do customers leave companies?”  Sixty-eight percent of the respondents answered the question with the following “because of the company’s indifferent attitude to the customer.”  So how can organizations change this apathetic attitude and improve customer retention? The white paper “How to Improve Customer Retention by Building Emotionally Engaging Customer Experiences“explores building an emotional connection with your customers to not only retain them, but have them become customer advocates, recommending and staying loyal to the organization. Read more »

When You Can't Say "Yes"...There is Opportunity for Success

Customers are the backbone of every business. Yet, there are times when you simply cannot give them what they want, because a customer may not always be fully aware of a company’s financial status, product development ability, or the majority of a company’s feedback. So, what do you do when you have a demanding customer whose needs you cannot meet? Start by getting into the mindset of what the customer is really looking to accomplish:

• Does the customer, maybe love your service and could possibly want to be more involved, but his/her way of showing it is to offer suggestions?
• Is the customer possibly an influential person in your industry, and is maybe looking to do more business with you?
• Is the customer truly a big fan of your service, and just wants to show you that he/she cares?
• Are there alternatives you can explore with the customer? Read more »

Parature announced today that Tim Davenport has been appointed as CEO to lead Parature in its next stage of growth. A successful executive with an impressive track record in the software industry, Mr. Davenport has held several CEO and Board positions and will lead Parature’s growth strategy. Mr. Davenport brings a wealth of relevant operating experience in many corners of the technology industry, including software, e-commerce, business process outsourcing and transaction hosting. Mr. Davenport succeeds founder and CEO Duke Chung, who will serve in a new role to help the company focus on strategy, corporate development, and serve as the chief evangelist for Parature.

Mr. Davenport most recently served as president of Revolution Health Network. Preceding his position at Revolution Health Network, he was the CEO of Vastera which sold to JP Morgan Chase in 2005. Prior to that, he served as CEO of Best Software, where he oversaw the company’s IPO in 1997, as well as its purchase by the Sage Group plc in 2000. Mr. Davenport has also served as an executive with a number of public and private technology companies, including Lotus Development and McGraw Hill. He has also held board positions in a number of successful technology companies including Axent Technologies, Softrax, Serena Software and CorasWorks Corporation. Read more »

How to Tell Anyone Anything - Be Curious, Not Furious

Once in a great while I have the ability to read people’s minds. Since you are reading this blog, I’ll bet that you are a good supervisor of customer contact professionals. I will also bet that you wake up every morning believing that you are a nice person.

And I will bet one other thing: when someone on your team does something you wish they wouldn’t, whether it is coming in late too often or snapping at a difficult customer, you get frustrated and it shows. And then when nothing changes, you wonder what to say to them.

That is where this blog comes in. I would like to change your perspective from what to *say* to what to *ask*. Because when you start asking good questions and taking a learning posture, even in really difficult employee situations, you suddenly gain the power to create real performance change. Compare these two situations and see what I mean: Read more »

In a thriving free enterprise system such as ours, which provides consumers with a wide range of goods and services from which to choose, the most successful businesses are those that display a strong commitment to customer satisfaction. Today foreign competition as well as consumer demands are requiring greater corporate efficiency and productivity. If the United States is to remain a leader in the changing global economy, highest quality customer service must be a personal goal of every employee in business and industry.

A business built on customer service understands and anticipates the customer’s needs. It designs goods and services to meet those needs and builds products that perform to customer expectations. It then packages them carefully, labels them correctly, sells them at a fair price, delivers them as scheduled, and follows up, as necessary, to satisfy the customer. This kind of commitment to service leads to customer loyalty and to genuine improvements at the bottom line. Read more »

How to Tell Anyone Anything - Start in a Safe Place

Do you manage customer contact professionals for a living? You probably dream about a workplace where everyone looks forward to coming to work in the morning, gives their very best effort, and creates consistently great customer experiences.

Well, guess what – I believe you can create such a workplace. Even in a world where it seems like your agents constantly say the wrong things to customers, act disengaged, fight with each other, or sometimes even forget to shower as often as they could. And best of all, you don’t need to surgically implant different personalities in everyone. You just need to change the way you coach them.

In this four-part blog series, we are going to look at a style of coaching that has little to do with what most managers do – namely, catching people doing things wrong and correcting them. This new strength-based approach to coaching has more to do with techniques from hostage negotiation, crisis counseling, and psychotherapy than it does with traditional management. And I have personally used this approach to create near-perfect customer satisfaction ratings, near-zero turnover, and high morale on my own support teams, as well as those of hundreds of training attendees. Read more »