Companies need to look at their processes to really improve the customer experience.

By Daniel Kuperman

Editor's note: This article is an excerpt from the free white paper "Paperless Customer Service: Streamlining the Customer Service Process," which is available at the MC White Paper Center.

If you have never experienced the frustration of spending seemingly endless minutes waiting for a human voice to answer your call about your credit card bill, cable TV service, newspaper or magazine subscription, or recent online purchase, odds are you have been living in a cave these past few years.

By Joel Klebanoff

In the final analysis, it all comes down to sales. Companies can devote considerable time and effort to realizing cost reductions, quality improvements, and other objectives, but without sales, those undertakings can't generate profits. Simply put, all other things being equal, the more products and services a company sells and the more it charges for them, the greater the profit will be. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can help to achieve profit goals by improving customer satisfaction, optimizing interactions with customers, and ensuring that no sales opportunity is left behind.