There’s no doubt about it. American Express (AMEX) is an outstanding leader in customer service and customer relationship management (CRM).

Just last month, the company, which is an ATG Live Help customer, was named a winner of the coveted 2010 Forrester Research Voice Of The Customer Awards. Harley Manning, vice president and research director of Forrester Research, said, “The quality of this year’s nominees is evidence that voice of the customer programs are advancing rapidly … The best VoC programs demonstrate that executive involvement, measurement, and insights that are tied directly to action are critical to customer experience success.”

In addition, AMEX today unveiled the results of its American Express Global Customer Service Barometer. The study surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers in April and its findings were just shared in 1to1 Media’s “Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog.”

Here are some of the highlights:

• 28 percent of respondents said that companies are now paying less attention to good service, even though 61 percent of those consumers said quality customer service is more important to them than ever
• 91 percent of Americans consider the level of customer service important when deciding to do business with a company
• The three most influential factors that help consumers decide which companies they do business with include personal service (98 percent), a company’s reputation or brand (92 percent), and recommendations from family and friends (88 percent)
• 81 percent have decided never to do business again with a company because of poor service

Jim Bush, executive vice president of world service at American Express, said, “Many consumers say companies haven’t done enough to improve their approach to service in this economy, and yet it’s clear they’re willing to spend more with those that deliver excellent service, suggesting substantial growth opportunities for businesses that get customer service right.”

We couldn’t agree more, Mr. Bush. Congrats to you and your team on receiving one of this year’s Voice Of The Customer Awards and thank you for sharing the results of this insightful study!

I just got back to the ATG offices after a busy trip in Chicago for the Internet Retailer Conference and Expo. If you weren’t able to make the annual event, then you certainly missed out! The show, which garnered more than 6,400 attendees, was jam-packed with informative sessions, and a flurry of announcements on everything from new partnerships to product upgrades (including our own announcement of enhancements to ATG Recommendations).

During the show I led a session with Robert Gilbreath, Director of e-Commerce Marketing & Analytics for Calendars.com, about the top five reasons companies decide to update or change their sites. We went over the process for evaluating commerce platform solutions and for kicking of a replatform project.  We also discussed the expectations companies and each member of the internal team managing a platform need to have once the project begins. In case you missed the session, “Managing a re-platforming: Strategy, people, technology,” you still have an opportunity to learn what issues retailers should cover with vendors before signing a contract for site work.

On this Wednesday, June 16, at 2 p.m. ET, Gilbreath and Robert Farrior from Razor 360 will join me during a webinar called, “e-Commerce Re-platform: Build a Winning Game Plan.” Gilbreath will discuss the recent Calendars.com re-platform project, and the planning that went into it to make it successful. Their new site went live in less than four months, with a significant uplift in online sales. This webinar will help you build a plan to address the common pitfalls and challenges, and ensure that your re-platform is smooth and successful. Join us and learn:

• The top five reasons companies decide to update or change their sites
• How Calendars.com increased online revenue with a successful re-platform
• Best practices for kicking off and running a re-platform project

To register for this free webinar, please go here.

Last week, we heard from the Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) and Customer Interactions Solutions magazine that ATG Click to Call was honored with the Eleventh Annual CRM Excellence Award.

The select CRM Excellence Awards winners were chosen on the basis of their product or service’s ability to help extend and expand customer relationships to become all encompassing, covering the entire enterprise and the entire lifetime of the customer.

To illustrate the strength of ATG’s live help offerings, and specifically Click to Call, in accomplishing this, we presented background on The Hartford’s dynamic and very effective use of ATG Click to Call.

The Hartford needed a product that curbed online application abandonment and increased sales of its personal insurance products. ATG Click to Call did the trick, and now approximately 4% of all online quote starts transition to a click to call communication – twice the volume of industry benchmarks. Once the call has been initiated with a live agent, there has been an approximate 25% conversion rate. This is a staggering statistic in the insurance industry considering the lifelong value of a conversion is well over $1,000.

It is evident from this case study ATG Click to Call is a true CRM solution, and we are glad that the award sponsors agreed.

Many e-commerce and marketing executives we talk with understand how proactive chat can improve their online conversion rates and order values. But because chat may require a headcount increase in their contact centers – a cost center that they don’t control – they sometimes have trouble making the business case.

David’s Bridal is a great case study on using an outsourced contact center to staff proactive chat on a retail Web site. Implementing a best-of-breed proactive chat solution, but outsourcing the agents to handle the chats, allows retailers like David’s Bridal to obtain the benefits of chat but avoid adding headcount. If you’re an e-commerce or contact center executive trying to make the business case for proactive chat, I’d encourage you to listen to today’s Webinar, “David’s Bridal: Boosting Conversions & Average Order Value on ‘High Touch’ Online Transactions.” You’ll learn how David’s Bridal worked with Clicks & Mortar Consulting, InstantService Chat from ATG, and Global Response, an expert outsourced contact center, to drive an incremental lift in conversation rates and average order values – without adding new headcount to the contact center.

Join this 45-minute webinar and better understand how live help – with an outsourced contact center strategy – can become an integral part of your online sales growth.

We’re pleased to congratulate a number of our customers who have been nominated for The 2010 Racie Awards, which will be announced during a gala reception at The Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference on March 3.

These honors are broken into several categories of pioneering marketing initiatives from traditional print and online advertising to the creative use of motion design and social commerce. According to the Racie Award site, “this year’s competition was stiff, with a 42 percent increase in entries over last year,” so we’re impressed that six of our customers made the list of nominees.

Customers in the running for these notable awards are: AT&T (with our partner, Sapient, as the agency of note), Best Buy, CVS/pharmacy, JCPenney Company, Inc.,  Tommy Hilfiger and OfficeMax. We’ve often expressed our pride that the brands selecting ATG are among the smartest and most creative when it comes to finding innovative and engaging ways to connect with their customers, so it’s great to see our friends getting some well-deserved kudos for the impactful marketing campaigns they’ve executed in recent months.

In fact, we’re particularly thrilled to be recognized for our work to deliver the Tommy Hilfiger iPhone app, which was nominated under the Racie Awards’ new “Mobile Apps,” category. You can read more about this project in our earlier blog post or by reading the app launch press release.

We wish you all the best of luck and we look forward to seeing you and toasting to your success in the year ahead at the Racie Awards Reception & Dinner Gala!