Customers & Markets Weblinks

Offered by the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan this regularly updated report presents customer satisfaction scores for more than 200 companies in 43 industry.

An extensive site with many resources including articles, case studies, job information and much more. Unfortunately, while newer material is available to users at the limited access registration level (free), accessing material on the majority of the site requires a fee that can get expensive.

While a little on the promotional side, this site continually offers good articles on numerous customer relationship topics from both a technical and managerial perspective.

Downloadable Excel spreadsheet that can be used as a basic guide for determining customer lifetime value applicable to many industries. In addition to use by marketing practitioners, instructors in marketing strategy or customer relationship management may also find value in using this with students.

This site operated by the publishers of CRM Magazine offers a number of CRM resources including white papers, archived articles from past issues and a library featuring reports from other sources.

This trade organization site is devoted to helping companies use customer-facing technologies, such as digital signage, point-of-purchase and kiosks, in marketing to consumers.  Includes industry news, case studies, supplier directory and more.  Some material is freely available (though may require providing user information) while other material is only available to members.

Site has several features focusing on customer service issues including articles and call center buying guide.

Portal broken into a number of categories related to CRM and containing articles, links to vendor white papers and discussion groups.

The US Federal Trade Commission offers several how-to articles for businesses and consumers including rules for selling via telemarketing.

US consumers can request a free copy of their credit report from the main credit reporting services. This site makes it easy to request reports though as the site name suggests, consumers can only receive reports from each service once per year.

Well-known non-profit consumer interest group has good information for both consumers and businesses. Has search function for locating BBB member companies.

A public service site that has gathered over 2000 of the most useful consumer resources on the Internet and categorized them for easy access. Includes many shopping resources.

Interesting premise in which site gathers reviews of consumer products from many outside sources and then offers up product ratings based on these accumulated ratings. Nice one-stop location for finding product reviews.

This website supplements a PBS series that examines social class in America and for marketers provides useful information for learning what influences behavior. While full-length programming is not available there is a lot here including video clips, games for identifying social class, teachers guides and a much more.

Site for locating thousands of US Government produced publications on numerous consumer topics.

Information covers product recalls, child product safety and other safety information. Also offers some of their reports as podcasts, video clips and audio clips.

US Federal government site that is an excellent one-stop source for links to government programs and services. Includes answers to common questions, how-to sections and a good search and browse section.

The Federal Marketplace site provides resources and information for companies interested in selling to the US government including help on finding the most recent government bid opportunities.

Industry magazine site offers access to fairly large collection of articles on knowledge-base issues though mostly at a technical level.

Another useful comprehensive data analysis site with links, references, tools, and industry information.

Segmentation information and tools from market research firm Claritas .  Includes a zip code look-up feature that provides segmentation summary.

Offers several good articles on the basics of market identification and segmentation.

TD Bank offers a very effective Flash presentation (requires plug in) that examines issues related choosing and targeting markets.