There's an adage in business that says, simply, take care of your customers and the bottom line will take care of itself. Winners of the 2012 Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards are proof that this is true. Organizations that employ strategies designed to build customer value build organizational value as a result.

Through our joint awards program, 1to1 Media and Gartner spotlight excellence among organizations that take a customer-centric approach to improving their business performance and have seen exceptional results from doing so. The 2012 Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards honor successes in six categories: Customer Analytics, Customer Experience Excellence, Customer Service, Integrated Marketing Performance, Sales Effectiveness, and Social Engagement. This year we recognize three winners in each category—one winner hails from EMEA; the others (one gold, one silver) from the Americas—and will celebrate their achievements at the corresponding Gartner event. We honored the Americas winners at the 2012 Gartner Customer 360 Summit (Orlando on March 14). We'll announce and celebrate the EMEA winners at the Gartner Customer Strategies & Technologies Summit (London on June 11).

"The interesting thing in reviewing the submissions for the CRM Excellence Awards is the creativity firms bring to the notion of becoming customer centric," says Scott Nelson, managing vice president at Gartner and co-chair of the awards. "Firms increasingly realize that it is about understanding what the customer really wants, not just what they think they want. And the winning submissions come up with innovative and exciting ways to make that happen."

In the stories that follow, the winners of the 2012 Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards reveal how putting customers are the core of their business strategies drives profitable growth and superior business performance.

To read 1to1 Media's blogs about the Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards, click here.

Customer Experience Exellence
Gold Oklahoma City Thunder built an enterprisewide customer-focused organization from the ground up, and is now rated the top NBA team in overall fan experience.	Silver Match.com's three-pronged customer engagement strategy not only ensures customers are happy, it also saves money and creates efficiencies.
EMEA Gold Standard Chartered Bank developed a fully integrated, enterprise-wide customer experience strategy that has helped to streamline customer-facing processes across the organization, boosting business performance and increasing its NPS as a result.
Customer Service Optimization
Gold Symantec Corporation overhauled its integrated service channels, leading to substantial gains in customer satisfaction.	Silver By creating a single hub of customer information, Corel increased NPS scores by 50 percent and boosted revenue.
EMEA Gold Autodesk optimized its customer service agents' workflow and its online support community performance by linking the underlying systems. The company can now provide a superior level of customer service and support at a lower cost.
Customer Analytics
Gold Las Vegas Valley Water's use of analytics helps it identify and reduce both customer delinquencies and field service calls, cutting costs in the process.	Silver FedEx is shifting its service focus to first call resolution, and is taking an analytical approach to agent coaching to support the accompanying culture change.
EMEA Gold Yapi Kredi Bank uses customer analytics to support its "Winning Customer" methodology that segments customers based on needs and value. The approach, which has helped to increase retail customer revenue considerably, is just one aspect of the bank's extensive use of analytics to guide its strategy and performance targets.
Integrated Marketing Performance
Gold GameStop's PowerUp Rewards program is more than a loyalty program; the integrated initiative has become one of the company's primary business drivers.	Silver Highmark's Health Partner program sends condition-specific, proactive communications to patients to help keep them healthy.
EMEA Gold Turkcell's analytical approach to marketing helps the company better understand individual customer's needs, behaviors, and preferences. This allows the telecom to engage with its customers in a more targeted, relevant way—and significantly boost revenue in the process.
Sales Effectiveness
Gold Harry Rosen's store armed its sales associates with the information and tools they need to provide more efficient and personalized service.	Silver McAfee cleansed its raw customer data, leading to better qualified leads and an improved customer experience
EMEA Gold ISS Belgium created a holistic view of its customers, which has helped identify potential high-value customers, improve sales and marketing collaboration, and increase cross-sell and retention rates.
Social Engagement
Gold Husqvarna Professional Products' social customer service initiative aims to reduce service costs, while providing customers with reliable, real-time support.	Silver To create awareness for new author releases, Random House Children's Books created an online community that promotes discussion and word of mouth.
EMEA Gold Compassion UK is using social to engage current supporters and find new ones. This includes encouraging supporters to become "Compassion Agents" who share their experiences and answer community members' questions. As a result the organization has retained more supporters and gained a substantial number of new ones.