Have you ever tried to talk to a robot? I have and let me tell you it's quite frustrating. I don't think I am the only one who wishes every IVR a long slow death.

In the early nineties we got a little "automation-happy" in the contact center. The more "happy" we got in the contact center, the more unhappy our customers were. We saw the quick cash we could save with IVRs, and laughed all the way to the bank never looking back. But guess what? Now as an industry we are paying the price. When was the last time you were at a party and the topic of call centers came up-and everyone started cheering? Yah that's what I thought.

Contact Center: the Undiscovered Land of Opportunity

All eyes are now on the contact center.

It's only a matter of time before before call center directors figure out the right way to convince leadership to invest in unorthodox customer channels-non-traditional touch-points. Non-traditional customer touch-points will soon become traditional.

Get excited!

Customers want answers where they feel coziest. That means Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn-you need to be there. And sooner than you know all call centers will have successfully bloomed into fully capable "contact centers" doing just what they should be doing-offering a place where the customer can "contact" help. I'm not talking automation.

That means human beings on the phone, human beings (geniuses or geeks) behind some kind of bar or on a squad or human beings on the other end of a computer. Phew that was a mouthful!

Today the contact center has an opportunity to prove its value. The contact center can push its head out of its turtle shell and support marketing to co-lead the social business charge. Soon you will forget the contact center acronyms AHT, ACD, FCR, IVR and all the rest.