The contact center can be expected to drive key innovations and advancements in the development of customer intelligence. But it won't be the offshored, cost-sensitive centers that drive these developments. It will be the growth- and retention-focused centers that recognize that profitable customers deserve smart care and attention.

While cost-cutting has been the focus of contact center efforts in recent years, companies increasingly are leveraging predictive analytics for "up-sell, cross-sell, anticipatory service offerings, and emerging revenue opportunities," states Ventana Research analyst Jack Hafeli. "Predictive analytic insights delivered 'in the moment' of the customer interaction are now more doable than ever, and the incremental value-to-cost improves every day. Whether funneled through scripts for the service agent or embedded in self-service web or kiosk applications, insights can be derived from advanced predictive analytics at a fraction of the cost and effort of stereotypical PhD-driven data mining exercises of old."

In the coming years, the contact center increasingly will serve as a key source of information to be leveraged across the organization, according to Ventana Research. "Business intelligence applications aimed at performance management inside the contact center are increasingly common, as are tendencies to integrate contact center metrics into the broader business intelligence data repositories," contends Hafeli. "At the same time, service initiatives are shifting from an internal operations spotlight to one where the customer is the center of attention...organizations are increasingly determined to understand and anticipate customer requirements and motivations. These forward-thinking organizations will initiate the contact, but with the customer's needs and preferences as the trigger."