This month, Jim starts off our list with the importance and benefits of implementing unstructured data integration strategies. Ryan then teaches us about a key technology, Decision Intelligence, that can be used in your center to improve decision-making.
Next up, Brendan chats with our CCP Advisory Board to glean their insights on navigating the current challenges facing our centers. They discuss everything from budget pressures, evolving customer expectations, staffing shortages and turnover, to return-to-office (RTO) mandates, and more.
We are so fortunate that Kathleen has returned to bring us up to speed on the new Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025.
To round things out, Jason shares with us how best to deliver effective leadership in our centers. Enjoy our January Top 5!
The Contact Center’s Most Valuable Asset
Unstructured interaction data apparently is now the norm, from what I am gathering from industry sources, of what flows through a contact center. These include, but are not limited to, call recordings, chat logs, emails, screen captures, voice recordings, images, and surveys. Yet much of it sits in silos separated and without the structure to make it useful.
Using Decision Intelligence to Make Better, More Informed Decisions
It’s fascinating to learn just how long it takes for technology to approach the mainstream. Take artificial intelligence (AI), for example. Just this year two scientists (John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton) were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on AI. Professor Hinton co-created the Boltzmann machine – in 1985! — which helped pave the way for modern uses like AI image generation or recommendation algorithms. More recently, yet still some 12 years ago, he built a neural network that could analyze photos and identify common objects, which was acclaimed as a significant milestone in AI development.
Answering the Challenges
Contact centers are facing a wide array of environmental, financial, operational, and regulatory challenges. How are these changes and others impacting contact centers? We reached out to our Advisory Board to discuss and offer their recommendations to help our industry’s professionals answer and manage through them.
The “Little Bill”
Whoa! Has anyone noticed an itty-bitty bill floating around the 119th U.S. Congress? It is named the Keep Call Centers in America Act of 2025. Yes, that is really the title. It has appeared with the rarest commodity in Washington—bipartisan support. Whether the bill goes anywhere is anybody’s guess. But its very existence says plenty. It says that Congress is noticing. Small as it is, the bill signals that consumers want service that works. They want transparency. They want human access. And they are tired of being ignored.
Delivering Effective Contact Center Management
In the dynamic world of contact centers, effective leadership stands as the linchpin of operational excellence and customer satisfaction. My career as a contact center and operations leader has afforded me a comprehensive view of how nuanced and impactful leadership can drive significant transformations in contact center operations.
