Articles by John K. Higgins

Part 1 of this two-part series takes a look at the state of online bill payment in terms of consumer adoption and market momentum Paying bills with a few computer clicks sounds like a great idea for consumers -- and it is. Online bill paying is increasingly popular with millions of consumers, and the potential for paperless payments is many times g...

Millions of consumers have switched their bill-paying practices from tedious sessions with a stack of statements and checkbooks to streamlined, paperless payments through a variety of online channels. However, the movement to electronic payments still has a long way to go, based on recent reports, and a huge majority of consumers have not yet been weaned away from their checkbook chores and welcomed to the world of paperless payments...

The need to improve marketing in the airline industry has never been more apparent. Airlines in the U.S. reported a 6 percent drop in traffic in 2009 versus 2008, while passenger revenue declined by 18 percent. Globally, international scheduled air traffic declined by 3.5 percent in 2009 versus 2008 -- the largest ever post-war decline. Airlines a...

Major hotel chains have been wooing travelers for years with CRM tools focused mainly on "loyalty" or rewards programs. The CRM programs help hotels and resorts determine which customers patronize the same hospitality brand on a regular basis. Those frequent customers accumulate points that can be exchanged for a reward -- most often discounts on extended stays or future bookings.

Pick a room -- any room. There are lots of choices of places to stay for travelers in the U.S. In fact, there are 4.4 million guestrooms across the country, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association. And that's a problem. Competitors in the hospitality sector need some kind of an edge to gain new customers and, even more importantly, to keep their current customers coming back to the same hospitality brand whether the actual guestroom is in New York, Denver, or anywhere else.

Retailers in the U.S. are convinced that customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most important aspects of their business. However, the sector, in general, has failed to utilize the full potential of these programs, and the industry will be striving to elevate its CRM game in the future. That's good news not only for customers but also for the providers of CRM technologies and services...

Cyber Monday may be the most visible symbol of the increasing use of e-commerce technology in the retail sector. On just one day, Nov. 30, consumers operating from home or office computers in the U.S. spent US$887 million on Internet purchases. The spending level amounted to a gain of 5 percent versus Cyber Monday of 2008, and it matched the heaviest online spending day on record, which occurred on Dec. 9, 2008...

This story was originally published on Sept. 14, 2009, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. Making sure that every customer gets the personal touch may be fairly easy for the owner of a neighborhood bakery, but in a mass market of millions, making each customer feel like an individual is a formidable challenge. In th...

Retail pharmacies in the U.S. filled 3.65 billion prescriptions in 2008, and another 238 million prescriptions were filled by direct mail. Each Rx was issued by a physician -- which explains why the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. spends heavily on marketing efforts aimed at doctors, including customer relationship management programs. All lar...

What U.S. business wouldn't want a customer base of 37.5 million prospects? In 2008, hospitals in the U.S. registered that many admissions -- a number that equals 12 percent of the U.S. population. Yet the hospitals in the U.S. have largely underutilized the customer relationship management tools that could exploit the data in that customer base to create significant increases in business volume and more profitable operations.

Part 1 of this two-part series addresses the reasons CRM has lagged in the health insurance industry and suggests that change is imminent "The health insurance industry, in general, is one of those sectors where there's been a reluctance to make comprehensive investments in technology compared with other sectors. Generally, the firms in the sector ...

The health insurance industry, especially in the U.S., has a long way to go before it achieves a high level of performance in the use of customer relationship management (CRM) tools. However, pressure is coming from market forces -- including new government healthcare reform policies -- that will compel improvements in health insurance CRM, whether insurance companies want it or not...

Part 1 of this two-part series discusses the failure of the financial services industy to take full advantage of CRM and explains why it could now be at a turning point The market for CRM programs will expand in financial services, although the pace of spending will likely slow down in the near term. Still, the rate of CRM spending by financial fir...

The chastening effect of the recession has many financial services firms taking a cautious view of future CRM investments. One reason is that these firms are husbanding their resources. Another is a growing awareness that investments in CRM by the financial sector have not been all that successful -- or, at least, the results are a mixed bag. Fina...

In both the best and worst of economic times, worker productivity is a major management goal. Making sure that employees efficiently carry out their tasks is critical to the success of both government and business enterprises. First, of course, the workers have to show up. "Buddy punching" -- the practice of having one worker punch the time card o...

Most business executives only spend money when they foresee a reasonable return on the investment, unless there is some other compelling reason for the expense -- like keeping them out of jail. To a large extent, the development of governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) technologies was spurred not by the promise of financial return, but...

The economic stimulus assistance injected into major industrial countries to counter the effects of a global recession shone a spotlight on the need to rebuild their infrastructures. The need to manage such public works investments efficiently has generated a huge potential market for project management software and related services Even without th...

Making sure that every customer gets the personal touch may be fairly easy for the owner of a neighborhood bakery, but in a mass market of millions, making each customer feel like an individual is a formidable challenge. In the information age, tools like customer relationship management software make it possible for companies to apply a personal touch to the mass market -- and that's golden...

The greatest obstacle small business operators face in adopting business process management (BPM) is themselves. That factor could account for the underutilization of BPM by small businesses -- and the reason BPM vendors have targeted the small business sector as a huge potential market. Of course, the abundant offerings of vendors can be confusing, and the trade jargon (SOA, Saas, ROI) can be daunting. Still, the reluctance of small firms to fully utilize BPM often comes down to one thing: attitude...