For customer-centric brands and organizations, there’s no better place to be than Microsoft Convergence, March 16 – 19, to hear compelling content and case studies around customer service and engagement.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Parature, from Microsoft, along with representative customers will shine the spotlight on how customer service best practices and a greater focus on customer-centricity across a brand or organization can reap both business benefits and brand advocacy. Here are highlights of 10 top sessions for all those interested in customer care:
March 16
1. Care Everywhere: An Overview of Customer Service by Microsoft Dynamics CRM
March 16, 2015 ● 5:00 – 6:00pm
Presenters: Matt Kresch, Duke Chung, Luis Camino, Mary Mercury
Get an overview of the customer service capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Parature. Understand how it helps your organization build customer loyalty, empower your customer service agents and drive service resolution including knowledge management, case management, multichannel care and more. Get a sneak peek at the roadmap and what’s coming with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015, and hear from Chobani’s Mary Mercury on how Chobani is using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Parature to drive customer service and greater customer loyalty.
2. Knowledge is Power in Customer Engagement
March 16, 2015 ● 5:00 – 6:00pm
Presenters: Christine Zmuda, Eric McKirdy, Mike Cuthriell, Sam Thepvongs
In the 2014 American Express Customer Service Barometer, 98% of consumers said getting a satisfactory answer or being connected to someone knowledgeable was an important prerequisite to a great customer experience. Join the conversation which includes a panel discussion featuring Parature customers Ask.com and Parchment to share best practices around knowledge for customer service and learn how customer-centric organizations are using Parature to empower their employees and customers with the right knowledge at the right time to increase first contact resolution and customer satisfaction.
March 17
3. Best Practices for Customer Service in an Engagement-Driven World
March 17, 2015 ● 9:00 – 10:00am
Presenter: Esteban Kolsky
Organizations are striving to deliver compelling customer experiences, which is difficult because customers have more control in the relationship than ever before. In this strategy-focused session, industry analyst Esteban Kolsky will discuss how to ensure each customer interaction maximizes engagement by being personalized and pro-active. Learn about the key strategies customer service executives are undertaking to deliver the best possible customer experience.
4. Unified Service Desk: Enabling the Super Agent!
March 17, 2015 ● 2:00 – 3:00pm
Presenters: Jayme Pechan, Matt Kresch, Virag Shah
It has never been more important for agents in the contact center to have a single, unified application to handle each and every customer interaction. Learn about the new agent capabilities that work seamlessly with legacy systems (even if there is no API), connect to telephony systems, and combine all channels of interaction into a purpose-built agent user experience. Empower your contact center employees to transform into super agents!
5. Interactive Discussion with a Twist: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Service Discussion
March 17, 2015 ● 3:30 – 4:30pm
Panelists: Matt Kresch, Carsten Groth, Shan McArthur, Tony Stein
This CRMUG-hosted discussion is led by a panel who will provide best practices around customer service, including self-service, assisted service and knowledge management. After individual panelist presentations, the final 30 minutes will be a discussion and Q & A led by subject matter experts across Microsoft, the CRM MVP community and current Microsoft Dynamics customers who have had success with Microsoft Dynamics CRM from a customer service, USD, or Parature perspective.
6. Unified Service Desk for Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Architecture and Development
March 17, 2015 ● 3:30 – 5:00pm
Presenters: Matthew Barbour, Virag Shah
Microsoft Dynamics CRM introduced the Unified Service Desk as the solution for contact center applications. Come to this session to discuss best practices on how to develop and deploy your contact center applications using Unified Service Desk in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013. Bring your specific questions and exchange ideas with other customers on how to design and deploy your contact center applications.
March 18
7. Service by Microsoft Dynamics: CIO Strategy, Design and Implementation Best Practices
March 18, 2015 ● 9:00 – 10:00am
Presenters: Darla Sebastian, Talat Meraj, David Peterson, Ben Edgren
Join this interactive discussion for an opportunity to hear, learn and ask questions about customer service strategy and deployment of service by Microsoft Dynamics Customer Service. Learn and discuss what it takes to deliver a service engagement solution that offers customer self-service, connects complex environments such as back-end systems, third party vendor data and communication channels to achieve a unified agent facing experience to drive service consistency and productivity and hear from Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers Monoprice and Trek Bicycles.
8. Parature Capabilities: Out of the Box and Beyond
March 18, 2015 ● 9:00 – 10:30am
Presenter: Brian Tubb
Attend this informative session led by Parature, from Microsoft Solutions Architect Brian Tubb to learn more about Parature’s powerful customer service and service desk capabilities and configurations. From deployment best practices, to widgets and APIs, to Parature’s powerful knowledge and portal integrations with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, attendees will come away with information and ideas to develop and deploy tailored solutions that empower and deliver amazing customer experiences.
9. The Best of Self and Assisted Service: Parature and Dynamics Unite
March 18, 2015 ● 11:00 – noon / Repeat March 19, 2015 ● 2:00 – 3:00pm
Presenters: Steve Klein, Peter Friedenberg
Are you interested in empowering customer service agents with key and consistent knowledge, while delivering more amazing customer service experiences across channels? We'll share details around the advances from Parature from Microsoft, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to deliver unified knowledge to provide agents with the right-time, right-place answers they need to increase first contact resolution, as well as showcase how Parature and Microsoft Dynamics CRM come together to create a knowledge driven experience. Peter Friedenberg from nTelos Wireless will share the brand’s impressive success in using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Parature together.
10. Deliver Amazing Customer Experiences with Parature
March 18, 2015 ● 3:30 – 4:30pm
Presenters: Duke Chung, Brian Tubb, Rebecca Wettemann
Interested in empowering customer service agents to deliver amazing customer experiences across channels? We'll show how Parature, from Microsoft provides the right-time, right-place knowledge to increase first contact resolution, as well as showcase how Parature and Microsoft Dynamics CRM come together to create a compelling self-service portal experience. Nucleus Research VP Rebecca Wettemann will also share how organizations can go from delivering functional to dynamic customer service using Parature.
For the full agenda for Microsoft Convergence 2015, click here.