CRM magazine this week announced the recipients of this year's CRM Service Awards in its April 2017 issue. The 14th annual CRM Service Awards honor the leading vendors across eight customer service technology segments, the client companies that have used those solutions to reap very impressive rewards, and the vendors—both emerging and established—that have left an indelible mark on the industry in the past year.
In total, 31 vendors are honored in this year's CRM Service Leader Awards across the eight categories evaluated: customer case management, contact center infrastructure, interactive voice response systems, web support, workforce optimization, contact center search, enterprise feedback management, and contact center outsourcing. In each category, the magazine names one winner, denoting the company receiving the highest overall score; four CRM Service Leaders; and a “One to Watch.” Recipients of the CRM Service Leader Awards are determined through an extensive process and proprietary rating formula. The editors survey the leading industry analysts and consultants for their impressions of the vendors’ products, company direction, customer satisfaction, and overall cost. Company financial data is also factored into overall scores.
Additionally, CRM magazine honors six Rising Stars for their innovative technologies and three customer companies with CRM Service Elite Awards for their customer service technology deployments.
"The CRM Service Awards provide our readers with a snapshot of the companies that have performed at the highest levels, reshaped the industry, and used technology to dramatically benefit their operations, and ultimately, their customers," says CRM Editor Leonard Klie. "We were surprised to see vendor costs become such a consideration this year, but it is clearly something that technology providers will need to address going forward.
"This year has seen some really impressive work with machine learning, artificial intelligence, predictive and prescriptive analytics, natural language processing, and real-time capabilities. All of the vendors listed in this issue have taken the lead in these and other areas. We congratulate them on their awards and thank them for their contributions to the industry," Klie said.
Recipients of the 2017 CRM Service Awards are listed below in their respective categories. Leaders in each category are listed in alphabetical order:
Customer Case Management
- Winner: Salesforce.com.
- Leaders: Microsoft, Oracle, Verint Systems, and Zendesk.
- One to Watch: Pegasystems.
Contact Center Infrastructure
- Winner: Cisco Systems.
- Leaders: Five9, Genesys, NICE (inContact), and West.
- One to Watch: Serenova.
Interactive Voice Response
- Winner: Verint Systems (Contact Solutions).
- Leaders: [24]7, Aspect Software, Cisco Systems, and Genesys.
- One to Watch: Avaya.
Web Support
- Winner: Microsoft.
- Leaders: Nuance Communications (TouchCommerce) Oracle, Salesforce.com, and Zendesk.
- One to Watch: Freshdesk.
Workforce Optimization
- Winner: Verint Systems.
- Leaders: Aspect Software, Calabrio, Genesys, and NICE.
- One to Watch: ZOOM International.
Contact Center Search
- Winner: Salesforce.com.
- Leaders: Coveo, eGain, Oracle, and Verint Systems (Kana).
- One to Watch: IBM.
Enterprise Feedback Management
- Winner: Qualtrics.
- Leaders: Confirmit, IBM, NICE, and Oracle.
- One to Watch: SurveyMonkey.
Contact Center Outsourcing
- Winner: Convergys.
- Leaders: Sitel, Teleperformance, TeleTech, and Working Solutions.
- One to Watch: LiveOps.
The six companies named as Rising Stars for the year were the following:
- Cogito;
- Freshdesk;
- Jive Software;
- NICE;
- Verint Systems; and
- Zappix.
This year, the three customer companies that won CRM's Service Elite award for their customer service technology deployments are the following:
- NCR Silver, a provider of point-of-sales systems, which deployed Salesforce.com's LiveMessge technology to provide customers with a chat option;
- OwnerListens, a provider of customer contact center outsourcing, which implemented Zang to allow customers to use text messaging as a support channel; and
- Salt River Project, an Arizona water and electricity provider, which installed virtual agent technology from Interactions to handle customer call overflows.
The 2017 CRM Service Awards have been published in the April 2017 issue of CRM magazine—available in print and online at destinationCRM.com.