Performance and Cost – how does the contact center of today balance these two critical measurement areas? The key is for the contact center to differentiate itself from competitors and meet the increasing service demands of customers, while also identifying new ways to be more efficient in its operations.

A Genesys (News - Alert) white paper, Real-Time Contact Centers: What the Competition Knows That You Don't, explores this topic, highlighting the important of workforce optimization in quality management. Technology has always been a priority for top performing contact centers, enabling them to increase their self-service, better manage their resources and improve overall agent performance.

The challenge for most contact centers, however, is that they have yet to identify the proper approach to WFO as they lack the ability to identify issues and assess problems fast enough to take the necessary action before they feel the negative impact on operations. The entire organization can feel the impact of changes in the performance level of any component of the contact center operation.

Enterprise contact centers, for the most part, rely on a complex system that includes multiple reports, applications, and field staff that all work together to try and manage issues while also minimizing problems. Many of the systems in place are so dated that inefficiencies in quality managementhelp to create lost revenue opportunities, reduced customer satisfaction and higher operational costs.

Operational excellence in the contact center is possible, but it does require real-time information to precisely identify and enable the resolution of mission-critical business issues as they emerge. There is a need for consolidated views of the interdependent systems, resources and processes across all departments, from executives to frontline managers to ensure WFO and quality management across all platforms.

Best-in-class contact centers have already figured out that quality management demands a detailed examination of the current environment. They recognized the ineffectiveness and inefficiencies of their existing systems and sought to make the necessary changes to enable the delivery of real-time information in a way that is both intuitive and meaningful.

These contact centers also know that statistics and historical reports that are an hour old can limit the insight needed to solve current problems and drive WFO. They also understand that they need to disseminate critical information immediately and directly to those who are most capable of acting upon it.

With the right approach to WFO and quality management, with a powerful blend of talented people, streamlined processes and state-of-the-art software, high-performing contact centers can transform their operations into Real-Time Contact Centers.