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Solution Overview

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 1 of 2

Five to Thrive Strategies: Drive True Customer Intimacy

Building a close relationship with customers means becoming more available to communicate regularly

about their challenges, needs, and goals and helps ensure that you deliver what they want the way they

want it. Including customers in decision-making processes also improves the customer experience and

helps increase revenues. See three ways that collaboration and video solutions help extend your reach

and improve your customers' experiences with your business, regardless of location.

1. Get closer to your customers: Fast and high-quality communications give customers a positive experience and

build trust. Cisco TelePresence solutions, for example, deliver an in-person meeting experience without the

travel and its costs, while making it easier to meet with your customers personally and more frequently.

University Improves Service to Callers

A large U.S. university needed to improve its service to thousands of prospective students, current students, and

faculty members who call for information. By implementing Cisco Unified Contact Center Express and Cisco

Unified Mobility solutions, the university increased its contact center answer rate to 93 percent while handling 25

percent more calls. Callers who needed undergraduate admission information were helped faster, reducing

average waiting times by 40 percent. The school also implemented mobility solutions that allowed employees to

work from home during a pandemic and reduced the need for office space. And Cisco Unified Video Advantage

solutions enabled face-to-face collaboration capabilities for a better, more personal experience.

Mining and Construction Firm Extends Reach

A large mining and construction firm extended its reach to local employees, partners, and customers by using

Cisco Unified Mobility, Unified MeetingPlace, and presence capabilities. The company now can establish

communications quickly with temporary field offices, and employees can locate and collaborate immediately with

coworkers and partners on large deals. Remote employees also meet face to face using Unified MeetingPlace to

reduce travel costs and environmental impact. Response times for service requests were reduced from two days

to 30 minutes, and the company saved 10 percent on its mobile costs.

Solution Overview

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 2 of 2

2. Embrace customers in decision making: Engineers, product designers, and sales people value customer

input. But including customers in decisions about product direction, marketing strategies, and other initiatives

means extending your reach beyond the company's firewall. Thus when you collaborate with these customers,

it’s important to focus on security.

Toy and Game Manufacturer Solicits Customer Product Ideas

A leading toy and game manufacturer wanted to improve its responsiveness to changing customer tastes and

establish a community where it could gather feedback and test future product designs. Using a suite of secure

Cisco collaboration solutions, the company created an online design studio that included blogs, message boards,

online polling, and an "ask a designer" feature. As a result, the company accelerated its product development

and produced more successful toys.

3. Personalize or customize products and services to match customer needs: Meeting customer needs often

requires adapting services and products or finding new ways to deliver them. But the technical information,

detailed knowledge, and special expertise to make decisions are often centralized in a few resources or

locations. Distributing that knowledge used to require travel with its associated time and cost, but today

businesses can use collaboration and video solutions, such as Cisco TelePresence, to deliver expertise to

meetings without travel yet with everything customers need.

Asian Bank Tailors Service to Specific Customer Loan Requirements

A large Asian bank enables customers across hundreds of branches to meet virtually face to face with

headquarters-based experts using a Cisco Virtual Expert management solution. Since its deployment, the

solution has improved customer satisfaction, enabled the bank to reduce missed leads, and increased projected

revenue growth by US$3.5 million in the first year alone. Bank employees also gained 30 to 60 extra minutes per

day for prospecting, and the experts improved productivity by 20 percent with less travel.

Driving True Customer Intimacy

The Five to Thrive Drive True Customer Intimacy strategy represents a proven, sound approach for building success.

Your customers are experiencing the same apprehension over the economy that you are, and this is an excellent

time to draw closer to those customers by listening to them, collaborating with them, and incorporating their ideas into

your products, services, and business processes. Position yourself to succeed in this economy and thrive in the

upturn to come.

Printed in USA C22-540290-00 05/09