Honda Topping J.d. Power and Associates Customer Satisfaction Survey

Honda’s four models has obtained top rankings for their individual segments in the recent annual J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction survey of US drivers which was released Thursday.

According to the survey results Honda the maker of top-of-the-line Honda tie rod end was able to obtain more top rankings in more segments than any other automaker included in the survey.

Honda’s newly redesigned CR-V small crossover sport utility vehicle, the Ridgeline truck and Odyssey minivan all topped their segments, and the subcompact Fit has tied with that of Toyota Motor Corp.’s Yaris in a top spot.

Mercedes-Benz and BMW AG each had three models topping the premium segments. Mercedes-Benz topped the midsize E-Class car and large S-Class car while it’s GL-class has tied with General Motors Corp.’s Cadillac Escalade EXT in a top spot in a segment that includes large luxury SUVs and crossovers. On the other hand BMW’s 3 Series and 6 Series cars together with its X5 midsize crossover SUV were able to obtain top rankings.

Meanwhile General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Volkswagen AG had each two vehicles occupying top rankings which were divided into 19 segments.

Porsche AG got the highest-ranking nameplate for the third consecutive year while Toyota’s Scion got the most improved nameplate. BMW obtain the No.2 nameplate followed by DaimlerChrysler AG’s Mercedes-Benz, Ford’s Jaguar, and finally Toyota’s Lexus.

This year’s J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction survey which is on twelfth year by the way measures owner’s delight with the design, content, layout, and performance of their new vehicles. J.D. Power said that the survey also focused on the first 90 days of vehicle ownership.

The California-based survey firm also said that the 2007 Automotive Performance, Execution, and Layout Study is based on the responses gathered via mail between February and May gathered from more than 91,000 people who bought or leased brand new 2007 model-year vehicles.

About J.D. Power and Associates

J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services firm established by James David Power III in the year 1968. The firm conducts independent and impartial surveys on customer satisfaction, product quality, and buyer behavior for various industries ranging from cars to restaurants.

The firm is also renowned for its customer satisfaction research on new car quality and long-term dependability. Its services include industry-wide syndicated studies, proprietary research, consulting, training, and automotive forecasting. J.D. Power and Associates was ISO 9001 certified in the year 2002. The company is a business unit of the Information and Media Group of McGraw-Hill who purchased it from James David Power III in 2005.

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Case Study: Successful Implementation of CRM

Recently, a company spent $25 million in CRM system’s execution.


The company has been one of the leading forest-products companies in the world but for the past several years, office products – pens, computers, desks etc., have comprised the largest segment of its annual sales.


One-third of the company’s revenue is generated from its online business and because office product customers rely on flawless e-commerce site performance to help reduce their administrative overhead, competition within this sector is strong.


What Prompted The Company To Go For CRM?

Of late, the company’s application server was failing to meet volume and performance expectations.


The web site was not integrated with customer account information, so clients with questions about order position or account balances flooded the call centers. The customers were demanding and each customer had different needs.


As the company was in B2B business, managers of the contracted company were primarily treated as customers. After a lot of discussion, the management decided to go for CRM to:


Implement electronic report delivery – to eliminate report production costs


Scalability – to manage the growth of users and reports


Ease of use – to respond in a timely and precise manner to all users, both inside and outside of the organisation.


The initiative was started to invest in CRM to strengthen the company’s internal processes and also to provide customers with a greater economic value.


Roadmap To Implement CR

The implementation was planned in a phased manner. During the design phase of the implementation, a cross-functional team was chalked out of business and IT managers.


This was done to ensure that the IT department had a comprehensive understanding of the business strategies and customer’s needs. Different sets of requirements were made for different customer profiles.


How each individual client interacted with the organisation was given chief importance. It was concluded that there were primarily three areas where client interaction was most – customer service center, dispatch department and online portal.


This process helped the company to focus on specific technologies that would improve customer service and discard those that weren’t right for the company’s goals.


Consequently, the company bought individual software applications (instead of a complete end-to-end CRM system) for customer interaction and operation management and integrated them with the existing order-processing technologies.


Putting CRM Into Operation

Once all the building blocks were placed in order, it wasn’t a difficult task for the IT department to implement the CRM system.


It was decided to apply the new technology to the two largest customer channels, phone and web and so it was paramount that both remain fully functional.


As the company had a huge client base, most of the production deployment was done over the weekend when there was less number of client calls and when there was less number of people accessing the company’s web site.


The data migration was another step which was carved out with utmost importance because it required cleansing of the 2.2 million customer records from multiple disparate databases into a single customer profile database.


Mantra For Successful Implementation of CRM

The company was able to successfully implement CRM because much of its focus was on customer convenience.


It always maintained the sync between the business and IT departments, so as to ensure everyone was on the same page.


Vigilant and correct choice of CRM software was another major step that helped the company to move ahead with a smooth and successful implementation.


In the end, the company was rewarded with increased revenue, customer retention and positive feedback from all sectors – both in-house and out-house.


For more information visit CRM Software – All the general information and resources for everything CRM – Customer Relationship Management. Visit www.crmsoftwarecenter.com. for more articles and info on CRM.

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Dynamics SL increases productivity in Customer Relationship Management

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a fully integrated customer relationship management (CRM) solution comprised of a robust suite of sales, marketing, and customer service capabilities. The product offers businesses of all sizes a fast, flexible, and affordable solution for finding, winning, and growing profitable customer relationships. Native Office Outlook integration encourages rapid user adoption, improves productivity, and helps streamline business processes for greater overall impact. Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides enterprise scalability, performance, and flexibility with a choice of on-premise and on-demand deployments. This highly flexible customer relationship management (CRM) system gives users the ability to create a holistic view of each customer, from initial contact through post sales and service. Microsoft Dynamics CRM business software also provides the Power of Choice to make it easy for you to evolve your business unencumbered by technology limitations. Custom CRM is familiar and easy to use because it works like other Microsoft products. It is designed to fit your business through extensive customization and partner offerings.

Microsoft Dynamics has various advantages and these are discussed here. It enhances usability by encouraging user adoption and enable people to work more productively by providing a CRM solution with a familiar, intuitive user interface. It streamlines Business Processes. Promotes consistency, rapid execution of marketing, sales, and service processes with an extensive platform and workflow tools. It reports with ease. Turn CRM data into actionable insight with wizard-based tools that enable end users to create sophisticated reports without the assistance of the IT department. It manages Data Intelligently by helping people import data rapidly and consistently so they can start working right away while preserving the integrity of your valuable customer information and reducing the risk of errors. It aligns Business and Technology. It allows you to choose on-demand, on-premise, and hybrid deployments with flexible licensing options that preserve your ability to adapt as business requirements change. It Supports Global Business Requirements. Custom Dynamics CRM Development competes on a global basis with enhanced support for multiple languages,currencies, and time zones.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables your organization to work seamlessly in multiple languages and currencies, whether at a single location or across the globe. It effectively manages CRM. Provides administrators with real-time visibility into how the CRM system is functioning and enable them to identify and resolve issues quickly. It Improves Management Efficiency. Enable your IT team to deliver powerful CRM capabilities while keeping costs under control. Delivers availability, performance and scalability. And ensures that your CRM data is available when it’s needed without interruption. Quickly develop, innovate, and deploy. Customizes and extends your CRM solution with sophisticated and flexible development tools based on standard technologies.

Mindfire Solutions is one of the pioneers in Offshore Dynamics CRM Development . It has also gained adequate expertise in this field. Our software development team has years of experience in developing the above mentioned applications and projects in various industry domains.

Be it the dedication to serve, be it the exceptional transparent dealings or be it the personalized client centric focus, Mindfire has always shown the passion to create a long lasting business partnership with customers. Mindfire Solutions is a Microsoft Gold certified partner, an Apple developer connection premier member and has business partnerships with big names like IBM, Adobe and others.

To discuss about our services, expertise and how we can help you, please contact us at info (at) mindfiresolutions (dot) com or call 1-248-686-1424.

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Hall of Shame in Customer Service

Copyright (c) 2008 Drew Stevens PhD

Another year is about to end and it is safe to assume many are thankful for it to take leave. 2008 was a year that had more twists and turns than a roller coaster ride at a national theme park. During 2008, Americans experienced a multitude of events, from continued terrorism and war in the Middle East, to celebrity guffaws such as Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus, to one of the lengthiest political campaigns in United States history.

However, while many might want to forget natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes in China, there were some unforgettable moments such as the Olympics and the worldwide economic pandemic. Media certainly kept Americans knowledgeable, and as technology continues to proliferate, media surges with it. Today, Americans simply cannot get enough information.

As events continue to stimulate our thoughts and dinner conversations, it is time to recognize some additional 2008 memories. In recent years customer service has become a continued issue amongst individuals. The area is under-researched, yet widely discussed, scrutinized, and evaluated. In addition, while the concern for customer service continues to grow, many organizations ignore the issue completely. This year is no exception. 2008 presented a challenge but the panel of judges has decided.

The Hall of Shame Top Five 5) Oil Companies – Without exception these organizations could be the number one pick, let alone coming in fifth. It is incredible that these organizations found it plausible that the public would believe that five dollars for a gallon of gasoline was justified. I never thought I would live to see a tank of gasoline as expensive as a fine bottle of wine. Perhaps I will bring a gas card to my next dinner invitation. It will become laughable when prices tumble and executives cry over lost bonuses.

4) Credit Card Companies – The economic volatility of 2008 froze credit markets and regretfully deterred companies from doing business with each other. Yet while the federal government eased credit for business borrowers, little was done for the consumer. At press time, the federal funds rate lists at .25 percent. Consumers owe $971 billion, which is $3,184 of credit card debt per person, or $8,299 per household. (Source: Federal Reserve, G.19 Release, November 7, 2008) However, interest rates on credit cards continue to rise. It is always a treat to have Big Brother take care of Big Brother.

3) American Organizations – Third place is a posthumous award given to most organizations that use audible recording equipment to interface with clients. Any company that has a recording asking you to choose One for English, Two for Spanish, then plays lousy music, thus offering you more choices only to tell you that your hold time is significant must be on this list. In addition, these same companies request that you input your account number, the last four digits of your social security number, your pin code, and tell you to wait deserve this accolade. Those companies that request that you continue to hold yet when an operator picks up the call five days later requesting you to repeat your name, your account number, the last four digits of your social security number, your pin code, and your first dog’s haircut date must win this award!

2) Airlines – Without question the airline industry wins annual accolades in the customer service area. Truthfully, the economic crisis is at the pinnacle of disaster in an industry riddled with mismanagement, highly paid labor, and mistreatment of clients. Just when you thought customer service was poor, the recession brought an onslaught of new issues such as pricing for everything connected to the flight, including the printing costs for the air safety cards and the inaudible speaker that announces cancelled flight information. The airline industry, with mounting debt, lessening services, smaller aircraft, and lousy on-time performance, is a platinum member of the hall of shame.

And the winner of the 2008 Customer Service Hall of Shame is …

Stock Market Traders, Analysts, Portfolio Managers, Hedge Fund Advisors et. al. – This wonderful egregious class of characters consistently, mischievously, and deplorably depicted a decent market without worries. The malicious and unethical acts of corporate CEOs and numerous others begged, borrowed, and misappropriated monies for their own gain. In addition, while the bottom continued to fall like a meteor from the sky, many continued to take compensation. This wonderful cast of characters devalued the American Dollar, destroyed individual portfolios, and created a worldwide economic recession not experienced since 1929. Boesky, Capone, and Bundy will be in good company when many of these individuals check into Club Fed.

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Customized Marketing Solutions) Florida Seo Services

Web Accessibility & SEO Merge Together!

Since search engine algorithms are changing daily and when Google speaks everyone listens it is only fitting that the two merge together. Matt Fusinato “SEO Consultant/Coach” and Cornelius Butler “Web Accessibility Consultant/Site Redesign Expert.”

One day while doing research Matt saw multiple articles explaining how online Google was ranking websites higher that are accessible other than ones that are not. Google even started their own experiment called Google Accessible Search through Google Labs. At the time Matt was already Director of Web Development for Accessiblenet.com which is a website he did the SEO for and helped create for Cornelius over at Butlernewmedia.com.

Something clicked in Matt’s head one night. Why not combine Search Engine Optimization and Web Accessibility into one happy merge? This will combine a nice One | Two Punch! It all makes perfect sense. Eventually if the major search engines are going to rank a website higher if they are accessible or not, and they are already ranking websites higher that have nice white hat SEO done on them, then why not add the two together for their new and existing clients? This is exactly what these two pioneers are doing now a days. They are creating an environment where search engines and humans of all kinds can find any website they are able to repair. This is an idea in it’s early stages between these two firms, yet don’t let that detour you from checking these guys out.

Currently Matt is offering Free SEO XRays to any new client who visits his website RenegadeTravelMarketer.Com. This SEO XRay will give him an inside look at the powers/relevancy of the words you are currently using and give you ideas of how you can easily tap into the huge 54 million strong $1+ trillion dollar market (Disabled web users) and every able bodied person who uses the web daily. Getting your website found on the top pages of the major search engines now a days is priceless. Not many people are using the phone books anymore and for everything from local deliveries to world wide shipments more and more people are searching the web.

If they find you on the search engines or if you let Matt do a complete Video/Article Blasting campaign for you and those get found with a link to your website on them, then you will generate Organic Pre Sold traffic to your website constantly while you sleep! Every website owner should consider every aspect of their website as to how they can tap into every market, because you never know who will end up being your next best repeat customer. Please Visit: Customized Marketing Solutions

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