Business and Marketing

Oculus VR headset in action

The tech behemoth has done a lot more than stir over the last few months. Facebook announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Oculus VR, the virtual reality company behind Oculus Rift, for about $2 billion.

“Mobile is the platform of today, and now we're also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement, ostensibly referring to Facebook's recent $19 billion acquisition of instant messaging company WhatsApp. “Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play, and communicate.”

Oculus Rift took the video game world by storm in 2012, but speculations on its merits have mostly stayed within the gaming community. This acquisition opens the door for non-gaming applications of the technology, and could accelerate Oculus Rift's adaptation upon release. Marketers could very well have another powerful touchpoint in Oculus Rift.

Additionally, Facebook rolled out specifics for its Lookalike Audiences advertising initiative.

Lookalike Audiences allows advertisers to create digital audience models from existing audience data or specified conversion data. In the latter case, Lookalike Audiences will populate based on conversion criteria set by the marketer. This process can take between two and 48 hours, according to Facebook's Lookalike Audiences page.

Business Breaking News: Avoiding Call Center Disasters (Before They Happen)

Whether we have questions or need tech support, contacting customer service over the phone can be one of the most infuriating experiences as a consumer. As a small business owner, however, it's your job to make sure phone customers have the exact opposite experience.

When it comes to customer service, 70 percent of U.S. adults will use the phone as their first method to contact a company, according to a study by call center software provider Five9. But when they receive terrible support, 85 percent of these consumers said they will take action. Specifically, 49 percent of these consumers said they will stop doing business with a company completely. Additionally, 65 percent of women said they will ask to immediately speak with a supervisor. Moreover, consumers ages 18 to 34 are likely to publicly shame companies on social media. These are all problems no small business owner wants to face.

So, what makes customers tick? Most are infuriated by speaking with a rude (60 percent) or incompetent (52 percent) customer service representative, the study revealed. Other sources of customer dissatisfaction include not reaching a live person, getting disconnected, having to explain their issues more than once and being put on hold for a lengthy amount of time. [How to Choose the Best Customer Service Call Center]

Commodity Online News: Fresh buying seen in RM Seeds support at 3491