The journey toward the contact center of the future doesn't have to be long or even stressful. In fact, each step that brings you closer to a fully optimized contact center can both save the organization money AND improve consumer engagement as well as brand equity.

It's easy to spot an optimized contact center. Check out this chapter to learn about the traits of an optimized contact center and the things you'll want to pay attention to in the future to ensure yours is optimized as well.

In the highly digital world we live in, it's easy to forget about how much effort and time goes into physical fulfillment. Fulfillment is a big part of most contact center operations. And far too many organizations are trying to handle their fulfillment just like they always have. Stop, pick, mail, then get back to the phones. There's a better way.

Read Chapter Five of Guide from the Road to view our suggestions for automating your fulfillment processes.

Your organization knows a lot of things. Someone, somewhere, probably knows the right answer to any specific question. Or the answer sits in some difficult-to-access database or system. The answers are out there.

So the real questions at hand are: can you find the right solution to a problem quickly and easily? Do all of your agents know the answers off the top of their heads?

It may sound all touchy-feely at first, but you really do need happy agents. The financial and emotional costs of operating a contact center can run high. Sometimes it seems like the only answer to your problems will be to &"throw more bodies at” your increasing interaction load. But if your turnover and burnout rates are unsustainably high, if you are continuing to see poor CSAT ratings from unhappy customers, a little agent happiness might be in order.

There are several good ways to improve productivity in your call
center organization. For example, you can focus on management or
on giving employees more and better capabilities. You can make
changes on how analysts and supervisors work and use resources.
You can also improve how key functions operate—and you will gain
productivity improvements, albeit small ones with typically very little
bottom line impact.

Customer expectations are changing. Fast. Not only is the pace of change accelerating, but the demands of the business are as well. You may want to do more, but are asked to do so with less money and other resources. Learn how to build a business case for change with this chapter and you'll be on the road to new and improved processes and technology, resulting in more-satisfied consumers. Learn more—read the eBook today.

The demands on contact centers are changing rapidly, but while you're in the trenches fighting the day-to-day battles, it's very difficult to see how you could do things differently.

Guide from the Road, an Astute Solutions eBook, is a progressively-built, monthly publication detailing some of the lessons we've learned through the years from spending time with our customers. Think of it as your guide to best practices and real world solutions for improving and evolving your contact center operations.

Take a step back. When contemplating social media initiatives, it’s easy to get tunnel vision. The evaluation process narrows to an ROI debate. Before you know it, you are looking at social media as a siloed function instead of looking at the big picture.

Let’s zoom out to examine the enterprise-wide impact of incorporating social CRM processes and technology.