Wednesday - December 31, 2008
For many e-tailers, online chat is a closer. Packaged and offered up to site visitors as a service, it provides an opportunity to close a sale when an uncertain customer wavers. Retailers were early adopters of this technology precisely because of the distinct return on investment, Conversive CEO Robert Williams told CRM Buyer. There are signs that the use of chat technology may be expanding to service operations that aren't directly related to closing a sale.
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Tuesday - December 30, 2008
Even when his cell phone offered no bars on Sunday and he had no other way to get a dial tone, Carlton Smith did not second-guess his 21st Century decision to cancel traditional landline phone service in his house. Smith was one of the many victims of a service outage that affected AT&T Wireless customers across the Midwest all day Sunday.
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Tuesday - December 30, 2008
CashNetUSA.com isn't your typical financial-services business. For one, at a time when 140,000 industry jobs have been lost nationally year to date, the Chicago-based online payday lender is hiring. For another, the headquarters' vibe conjures up the freewheeling tech-boom era.
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Tuesday - December 30, 2008
Memo to telecom service providers: "We never thanked you, but you did a great job offering us consolidated billing. It is hard to remember now, as for the last few years you have been so aggressive in promoting bundled services, but five years ago, this was a major pain point. Three bills for ISP, cable and telephone, and usually three different due dates as well."
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Sunday - December 28, 2008
If there's anything we've learned this year, it's that nothing can be taken for granted. Any number of retail wild cards make it hard to give consumers a complete shopping strategy scoop. How can I tell you where to jab when retailers themselves don't even know how they'll bob and weave? Return policies are no different.
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Saturday - December 27, 2008
You knew it was a bad time of year to go to that store, but you went in anyhow and you wished you hadn't. The lines were long and filled with grumps and kids, both way past nap time. You couldn't find anything because the place was a mess. The sound system was broken, and the same Christmas song was playing over and over and over till you thought you'd scream. You couldn't wait to get out of there.
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Friday - December 19, 2008
The Justice Department has sued Microsemi to force the chipmaker to unravel its $25 million acquisition of Semicoa, a deal the government believes is driving prices up and quality down for semiconductors used by the Defense Department and NASA. The antitrust lawsuit claims that Microsemi created a monopoly on parts called "small signal transistors."
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Thursday - December 18, 2008
The Federal Reserve Bank has issued new rules that will take effect in 2010, radically changing the way credit card companies treat their customers. Essentially, they are strong protections that regulate interest rates and billing methodologies. For instance, card companies will be prohibited from charging interest on balances that were paid off in the previous cycle.
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Thursday - December 18, 2008
The push for paperless prescriptions is about to get a boost: Starting in January, doctors who e-prescribe can get bonus pay from Medicare. For patients, the benefits are obvious -- from shorter drugstore waits to increased safety, as pharmacists no longer squint to decipher doctors' messy handwriting.
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Thursday - December 18, 2008
If you've used an in-flight entertainment system, known in the airline industry as an "IFE," to watch movies, listen to music, or order food lately, chances are it used Linux as an operating system. You might not know that Linux is the operating system behind what you see on your screen, but it probably is.
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