Archive for May, 2010

More Businesses Are Tapping Benefits of Social Media

Monday, May 24th, 2010 | located in SME Trends | No Comments »

There is no denying that social media is an extremely powerful tool for today’s businesses. Companies of all sizes have begun to explore ways to communicate with their consumers via social media. They’ve discovered that this medium can be an effective and inexpensive way to send updates, promotional campaigns, sales announcements and other outbound communications.

Social media is also used by companies to obtain feedback and leverage the influence of people who are well-connected. Starbucks is a perfect example of a company that is engaging consumers and asking for their input - take a look at their idea wall.

Another great example is the Facebook campaign launched by Papa John’s Pizza, where fans of the Papa John Pizza page were recruited to create a new pizza recipe.

But large companies aren’t the only ones benefiting from social media – small and medium businesses can take advantage of it as well. In an article in Destination CRM AMI’s Marketing Strategy Group VP Chad Thompson suggests that there are many reasons for businesses to consider social media:

1. Social media makes it easy to identify fans and advocates. Sites like Facebook and Twitter enable fans to easily share their enthusiasm for your business. They’re also easier to grow than traditional marketing tools like an email blast. Rather than going to the work of gathering phone numbers and email addresses, SMBs can communicate directly to customers without cluttering up their inboxes.
2. Social media provides the ability to gather insight from a broader range of people. “A lot of SMBs are finding ways to integrate social media sites and services into their actual business,” Thompson says. One-way communication like direct marketing and email can only be sent to customers who opt in, but social networks help get messages out  to a large group that could include vendors, associated businesses, and prospects.
3. Social media allows businesses to build credibility. SMBs are also using social media to take a position of thought leadership in an area of business. Companies are publishing in-depth blog posts that demonstrate an understanding of key industry issues, and spreading the posts via sites like Twitter and Facebook. As a result, they’re making their brands more distinctive and standing out from competitors.

“They know that it’s not enough to be on there,” Thompson says, “They have to show greater analysis and understanding and expertise.”

To that end, take a look at this article published by Mashable about five surprising Social Media business success stories.

I expect to see more and more businesses using creative ways to utilize the power of social media to create greater customer loyalty and capture the attention of more potential customers and fans. Do you have any examples of businesses using social media to share?

The future of language online

Thursday, May 20th, 2010 | located in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Our planet is made up of a vibrant mix of cultures and languages – and several decades into its existence, the web is finally catching up. For a long time, English was the dominant language of the web – if you wanted your work to be read, you had to write in English or risk obscurity. But times, they are a-changin’.

I was inspired recently by one of my favorite NPR shows, On the Media, when I heard a fascinating episode called: “Bridging the Online Language Barrier.”

The show, hosted by Mark Phillips, suggest that the way language is evolving on the web is similar to what happened during the Renaissance, when Latin was the primary language for writing and reading. That began to change when people began to write for their local audiences.

That same phenomenon is now happening online; according to the show, over 400 million Chinese are using the internet, Arabic internet users have increased by over 2,000 percent in the last decade, and – perhaps most tellingly – only 27% of today’s internet users speak English.

Which language is ultimately dominant – or if one will even be a dominant – is less interesting to me than the notion that many different languages can thrive online. I’m excited by the idea that people who don’t speak the same language can still understand each other, share ideas, and communicate meaningfully.

Here at Ribbit, we think of voice as an object much like any other data object. It powers workflow, initiates and modifies business processes, and affects outcomes. Though embedding voice into workflow is very much in its infancy, it has the potential to dramatically change the way business gets done. What if technology could help your business move fluidly across language barriers, opening whole new markets and opportunities that were never possible before? What if voice and language were simply flavors, like colors, that enhance what you do but don’t prohibit knowledge from flowing freely?

It’s a whole new way of seeing the world – and who knows what could happen as a result? I personally believe that we have so much to learn from each other… and I’m pretty excited about being able to tap into knowledge from other cultures and create business models that aren’t possible today.

What interests you about the ways language is evolving online?

Webinar: Innovative Solutions to Help the Busy, and Increasingly Mobile, Sales Professional

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 | located in Events, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

We are pleased to co-present a free webinar with Customer Think and EchoSign on June 17th where we will share best practices to boost productivity for on-the-go sales professionals, and improve the customer experience too!

Ribbit for Salesforce.com will show:

• How to get your reps out of “voicemail hell” with voice-to-text call transcriptions
• How reps can call in meeting notes and email instead of typing
• How to use Salesforce.com to send broadcast text messages or alerts
• How management can save sales people time and get more out of Salesforce.com

EchoSign will show:

• How easy it is to get your customers to sign contracts with electronic signatures via web, fax, Blackberry or iPhone
• How to make any document a signable contract by adding fields for initials, signatures or free form content on the fly
• How to send contracts for signature directly from Salesforce.com
• How to create automatic alerts so you know when your contract was delivered, viewed and signed

If you would like to join us, please register here.

Article: Destination CRM highlights enterprise use of Ribbit

Monday, May 17th, 2010 | located in Articles and Media Mentions, Productivity | No Comments »

Adam Boretz, from Speech Technology magazine, digs into Ribbit’s speech technology and highlights two enterprise clients benefiting from their use of Ribbit for Salesforce - Delta Dental and Selling Power.

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(1) Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee: Adam interviewed Kevin Edelman, CRM product solutions administrator who said, ”I saw [Ribbit] at the [Dreamforce 2007] tradeshow and saw a value in [Ribbit for Salesforce], where sales reps could leave themselves messages and record their activities that way.”

Since then, Edelman has seen the company evolve. He successfully implemented Ribbit for Salesforce at Delta Dental, where about 40 sales reps use it mostly to receive transcripts of their voicemail messages on their mobile phones and to record memos and email drafts via voice. He estimates that Delta uses the technology to process 500 to 700 messages per month.

“I think [Ribbit] is very aggressive in coming together with some really great things,” he says. “They’ve been adding a lot of different functionalities over the last year and a half…. It was good before, but now it’s even better.”

Edelman says reaction to Ribbit has been positive at Delta, but admits that adoption has been slower than anticipated — with some older, less-tech-savvy salespeople resisting the new technology. Nonetheless, he remains very positive and suggests that enterprises start small when deploying Ribbit.

“Roll it out division by division,” he says. “Have a plan for continuous education…. Find a power user in each division so they can then take over the championship of that application.”

Recently, Edelman and Delta expanded their use of Ribbit, tying office voicemail to Ribbit for Salesforce — something he calls a big success. “The sales staff has a single point of entry for all their voicemail,” he says. “Everything gets recorded. Everything gets reported. It has improved our response time on critical issues and I have some managers that will swear by it.”

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(2) Selling Power, a publication currently read by more than 420,000 sales leaders and producer of the biannual Sales Leadership Conference series. Adam spoke with Marcel Sendejo, a regional manager who works remotely from Austin, Texas, and uses the solution when he is on the road to dictate notes into Salesforce and to keep up with voicemail messages. Like Edelman, Sendejo learned about Ribbit at Dreamforce and has had a relationship with the company ever since.

“It’s just an organization tool that I pretty much can’t live without now,” he says, adding that he will walk out of a meeting and begin dictating notes immediately. “It helps me to be efficient. It helps me to be very organized.”

Sendejo says Ribbit prevents him from having to log on to Salesforce and play catch-up after a long day on the road and allows his supervisors to keep tabs on his accounts without phone calls or additional meetings.

“The main thing [is] the convenience,” he says. “The transcription is ideal. It’s just a huge time saver…. I love the dictation aspect. The big story for me [is] time savings. And not having to do administrative work to keep everybody else in the loop.”

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Nice words from Salesforce.com:

Scott Holden, director of product marketing, and Al Falcione, senior director of product marketing, are also impressed with what they’ve seen from Ribbit. ”It’s a pretty amazing solution,” Falcione says. Holden agrees, noting that Ribbit is one of the most highly rated applications by customers using Salesforce’s app exchange.

“If you look at just the ratings that the Ribbit application gets, it averages a 4.7 out of 5,” he says. “And everything people say is really sort of game-changing about how they interact with the telephone and their voicemail and how they attach those voicemail and texts inside Salesforce.”

Choosing the Right Devices for Your Mobile Life

Thursday, May 13th, 2010 | located in Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

It seems like every time I turn around, there’s a shiny new gadget that promises a better, easier way to stay connected and get more done. But one person can only have so many devices… and choosing the right one(s) can make the difference between staying productive and being frustrated.

Do you ever wonder whether you should carry a smartphone, tablet, laptop – or all three? Here are a few questions I ask myself before I pull out my credit card; I hope they’ll help you, too.

• What are you going to use it for? This is the first question to ask yourself when you’re choosing a device. Does your job require special software that requires a certain type of computing environment? You need a laptop. Do you primarily use web-based services, without the need for graphics software, fast processing speeds, or a lot of available memory? All you need is a tablet. Is your business mainly conducted on the phone and in person? Get the best smartphone you can buy.
• Where are you going to use it? The environment you work in every day plays a big role in what device to buy. For instance, if you’re on a construction site, a tablet is a risky choice – a laptop in a rugged case or a smartphone that can be safely buttoned inside a jacket might be a better fit. If you’re in an office most of the day, lugging a power-hungry laptop to meetings might be overkill; a tablet will let you take notes, and has the battery life to last for most of the day. If you’re outside a lot, or in a hectic, fast-moving environment, a smartphone will keep you connected via voice, email, and text – without the worries of plugging in, finding an Internet connection, or damaging an expensive device.
• How much do you have to spend? The cost of smartphones, tablets and laptops varies widely. You’ll pay a premium for brand name and computing power – and even more if the device you have your eye on was released within the last three months. If you’re willing to be patient, and wait until the device you want has been on the market a while, you’re likely to get a better deal.

The details matter. Within each category – smartphone, tablet, and laptop – there is also a range of choices. On any device you consider, here are a few things to check for:

• Security standards. Very important if you’re sending confidential information.
• Ease of use. If you do a lot of email or texting, be sure to test out different keypads and keyboards before making your choice – it can have a lot of impact on how quickly you’re able to get work done.
• WiFi capability. Do you need to be connected on the fly? Make sure your device can connect to WiFi.
• Apps or other compatible software. Make a note of all the apps or other software you need – and make sure the device you choose works with them.

Take your time. Ask around. Read reviews from people you trust. Don’t make a rush decision – and you’re far more likely to make a smart choice.

Good luck out there!

Are today’s laptops soon going to be relics of the past?

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 | located in SME Trends | No Comments »

Apple recently announced that it crossed the 1 million mark on the number of iPads sold… and it only took 28 days! By comparison, the company sold only half that many iPhones during the same period after they were first released. That’s a figure with some staggering implications.

We all know that desktop PC’s are going the way of the dinosaur - as more consumers demand mobility and convergence, they simply don’t keep up. But what about laptops?

Laptops are far more mobile, and they have served us well, but the iPad can do most of the same functions in a small, lightweight unit – and provide lots of additional tools and apps.

Motorola just announced how they will be creating their own tablet. Will other device makers follow suit?

So I ask you: will the Apple iPad change the personal computing industry as we know it today, just like it did with the iPod and iPhone?

What would it take for you to leave your laptop at home? Are there features or specific applications that are must-haves for you? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Use Ribbit to integrate communications into any web application

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 | located in Features, Salesforce | No Comments »

The DreamSimplicity team caught up with Greg Goldfarb, VP and GM of Enterprise Applications of Ribbit at the Sales 2.0 conference to discuss how businesses are using Ribbit for Salesforce to increase their sales team’s productivity.

One of the biggest hassles field sales teams have is the ‘red tape’ following their client visits. Many times they will spend hours in the office logging meeting notes and action items into Salesforce. Businesses who use Ribbit see instant time savings as the field teams call into Ribbit, record the notes from their meetings and Ribbit converts voice into text and places directly into your Salesforce account. Your client’s inbound message(s) convert to text as well, so it means more time spent on revenue generating items.

Greg Goldfarb of Ribbit with DreamSimplicity at Sales 2.0 SF from DreamSimplicity on Vimeo.