Ever since January when Microsoft announced it had acquired Parature, a cloud based customer service solution provider, there’s been a fair amount of speculation about what this means for Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM customer relationship management platform. And while Dynamics CRM will certainly benefit from Microsoft’s purchase, the exact timing remains unclear. According to a by Chuck Schaeffer on crmsearch.com, “Parature will continue to operate outside of the Dynamics CRM platform, manage a separate release cadence, and be available as a stand alone product.”
With that in mind, you’d probably like to know a little bit more about what Parature is and how it helps organizations improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. There’s a great session on Microsoft’s Virtual convergence site that will get you started.
Note: Clicking the link above will take you to the virtual convergence site. On the right hand side of the screen, you’ll see an option to log in or register. Choose the option that’s appropriate for you. Once registered and logged in go to “Sessions”--> “Microsoft Dynamics CRM” and then look for a tile labeled, “Parature an Introduction.” Once you’ve found it, click the play button to view the session recording.
Don’t have an hour to watch the recording? Here are my main takeaways:
- One of the main benefits Parature offers is a single portal that makes it easy to communicate with customers no matter what channel they prefer: self-service, email, chat, or social media.
- The Parature customer portal offers companies a wide variety of customization options. You can infuse it with your brand’s own look and feel to give visitors a consistent experience. (See screenshot below for an example).
- Customers expect self-service options—These are front and center on the Parature customer portal. The knowledge base feature allows customers to perform keyword searches for articles that answer their question. Ask.com found that utilizing the knowledgebase feature in the Parature customer portal reduced the number of support tickets they receive by 62%.
- Analytics inside Parature take the mystery out of building your knowledge base, you can easily see how many visitors’ questions were resolved with your self-service articles versus how many went on to create support tickets. That way, you can see how best to update your articles and keyword linking to improve response rate
- Parature’s social monitor (see screenshot below) allows organizations to track brand mentions across social media channels and respond to issues from within Parature while appearing to the customer to be replying directly via social media.
Are you like me and excited to see how Parature will grow in light of the Microsoft acquisition? What features would you most like to see incorporated in Dynamics CRM?
By: Laura Heinbockel, Intelligent Technologies, Inc., A NC Dynamics CRM Partner
