Although the need to collect sales and customer data was a top priority, the company knew they would eventually need a flexible application to help with other business activities such as marketing and customer support.

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Abellio said its first priority was to improve customer service.

BBC: England

In an institution dominated by investment bankers, the need of brokers to earn commissions by selling the bank's own investment products may be given a higher priority than offering the customer good advice.

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Presumably, it will focus not only on opening new locations, but will follow in the footsteps of other brands that have bought back control from JV partners and place priority on brand experience and customer service.

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Of course, there is no excuse for the huge phone delays, since everyone saw the hurricane coming and should have staffed up, but then customer service has never been a real high priority with airlines.

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Another 51 percent said their top investment priority for the next 12 months was growing their customer base.

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Many healthcare providers have adopted a new strategy when dealing with these patients, placing customer service as the primary objective and debt collection as a secondary priority.

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Companies surveyed said building an infrastructure to support e-business is their top priority for next year, followed by ERP implementation, sales force automation, customer relationship management and applications management.

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While some may scoff at the notion that increasing revenue should always be the top priority, many will see the forest through the trees and realize that better customer engagement via social media will lead to increased revenue when done correctly of course.

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