There has been a lot written about the future of the contact center, and we all know the highlights by now. The contact center of the future is a multimedia, distributed or virtual contact center that uses big data analytics to monitor and scrutinize every operation, self-adjusting for maximum efficiency and customer care quality. It treats the customer relationship as an organic and breathing thing that must be nurtured by both inbound and outbound efforts. It anticipates customer needs before the customer does. It uses cutting-edge self-service technologies and speech interaction, and it offers biometric authentication to ensure that no security breaches happen.

While we may still be a long way away from this contact center vision of the future – few organizations can afford all the technologies necessary to achieve it all at once – there is some evidence that this perfect vision is incomplete.

We fought hard against information “silos” in the call center. Don’t keep your channel databases separate, say industry experts. Integrate all your media and your customer information so you can see a complete view of the customer. Ensure activity in one channel is reflected so someone working in another channel can see it. While this is a noble action, it may not be enough. We still operate the contact center as a whole in a siloed manner.

In a recent white paper, European customer interaction solutions company Nixxis (News - Alert) posits that the true contact center of the future will eliminate barriers between contact centers themselves, fostering collaboration that can benefit customers across partner companies. In a time when quality matters more than quantity when it comes to customer service, it’s critical that the customer experience as a whole is taken into the picture and optimized, says Nixxis. 

“Look at the amount of various contact centers you would need to speak in case you want to change a combination of services that you receive today, like moving from one apartment to another, buying a home, etc.,” notes the white paper. “If contact centers would be able to exchange information between them, think again on how the life of the customers could be easier. No silos anymore, just people taking care that your customer experience is optimized at all and every touch points.”

In this vision, your mortgage company’s contact center would be able to integrate with your insurance company’s contact center, and both, in turn, would be integrated with your city’s tax agency. For many people who pay their mortgage payment in a lump sum that includes their homeowner’s insurance and their property taxes, this would mean a far smaller headache rather than having to bounce back and forth between three contact centers supplying confusing (or even conflicting) information. A product manufacturers and a retailer might build their contact centers to collaborate, so they can ensure that a problem a customer has with a product is handled in the proper manner.

While it may sound like a nightmare of integration, the truth of the matter is that as more contact centers turn to cloud-based solutions in the contact center, the prospects become far easier. The scenario will present serious security challenges, of course, not to mention boost the need for better agent training. In the end, however, it may be a business model that revolutionizes what it means to be a customer.