The healthcare industry is in the midst of a major transformation. There are few topics as hotly debated in both politics and the press-whether you're talking about insurance costs and coverage, accountable care organizations, or outcomes based medicine.

With Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media outlets reaching a record number of users, industry analysts and researchers are looking into the ways these media platforms are influencing the customer experience. The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth conducted a study that evaluated Fortune 500 companies and found that 62% use Twitter, 58% have a corporate Facebook page, and 23% have a corporate public-facing blog. This raises an important question: are companies leveraging social media as a valuable source for Voice of the Customer (VoC) input?

Microsoft has recently launched its Internet Explorer 10 with a full-on media blitz. Implementing a multi-channel approach that includes not only digital advertising, but print and television as well (somewhat uncommon for a new browser), Microsoft has invested the upfront capital in an attempt to grow market share for its IE browser, which has seen its usage numbers drop to competitors like Google Chrome and Firefox over the past year. The release of IE10 marks an interesting landmark in the history of web browsing; for the first time ever, a major browser has been released with the "Do Not Track" …

We are in the thick of election season, just days from electing the president for the next four years (which guarantees at least half the population will be elated/deflated from the other half.)

In order for an organization to be customer-centric, it needs to have a strong corporate discipline behind everything that it does. It's too easy, otherwise, for priorities to shift, for immediate problems to take center stage, and for the company's mission to drift away from its guiding CRM principles.

If you're like most companies, you are always strategizing to grow your business and reach new audiences, some of which may be overseas. The Internet, mobile devices and social media have all helped in these efforts, but how do you effectively relate to customers around the globe?