March 1, 2013
By the Editors , CRM magazine

CRM Service Awards: Service Leaders

Once again, social media has taken center stage in the customer service market over the past 12 months. But it has to make room under the spotlight for other emerging technologies. In this year's CRM Service Leader Awards, our panel of judges (listed below) look more favorably upon those vendors that have not only integrated social media but mobile, cloud, analytics, and multichannel capabilities into their products or services as well.

In addition to depth of functionality or services, judges rated vendors in our eight customer service categories on various criteria, including customer satisfaction, company direction, and deployment costs. A revenue score is also added for good measure.

All of the numbers are then entered into a proprietary weighted formula to come up with an overall score for each vendor. The results of these scores determine our esteemed list of Service Leaders.

Because technological innovation can vary greatly from year to year, we dedicate a lot of real estate to the topic. Not surprisingly, when it comes to technological innovation, our 2013 CRM magazine Service Leaders did not disappoint. Read on to see how these leaders are shaping the customer service industry.

The editors of CRM magazine would once again like to extend their deepest appreciation to those who took part, to varying degrees, in evaluating the candidates for this year's CRM Service Awards. This issue, and the awards themselves, would not be possible without the generous contributions of the following judges, commenters, assessors, and raters: Leslie Ament, vice president, Hypatia Research; Aphrodite Brinsmead, senior analyst, Ovum; Dick Bucci, founder and president, Pelorus Associates; Keith Dawson, principal analyst, Ovum; Donna Fluss, founder and president, DMG Consulting; Paul Greenberg, president, The 56 Group; Esteban Kolsky, principal and founder, ThinkJar; Mitch Kramer, senior vice president, Patricia Seybold Group; Ken Landoline, principal analyst, Current Analysis; Kate Leggett, principal analyst, Forrester Research; Michael Maoz, vice president and distinguished analyst, Gartner Research; Sheila McGee-Smith, president and principal analyst, McGee-Smith Analytics; Melissa O'Brien, research analyst, IDC; John Ragsdale, vice president of technology research, Technology Services Industry Association; Peter Ryan, lead analyst, Ovum; Paul Stockford, chief analyst, Saddletree Research; Bruce Temkin, managing partner, Temkin Group; Ray Wang, principal analyst and CEO, Constellation Research; Rebecca Wettemann, vice president, Nucleus Research.

CRM magazine's tenth annual Service Awards names one winner and three leaders in each of eight categories, using a proprietary selection formula. The overall award rating is based on a composite score of company revenues and analyst ratings for deployment costs, customer satisfaction, depth of functionality, and company direction. (These ratings are based on a five-point scale, with 5 being the highest.) In addition, each category cites one or two "ones to watch"—companies deemed worth tracking for their potential to appear on that leaderboard in the future.