Mila D’Antonio of the Think Customers: 1to1 Blog asks “When will contact centers be taken seriously?” D'Antonio met with call center leaders who expressed frustration that executives fail to invest attention or set realistic goals for their call centers. Generally regarded as a required but costly drain on a company, call centers are an under-tapped resource for revenue and information about customers. Contact centers are ripe for new CRM tools that can improve their processes and produce useful reports.

Chris Bucholtz comments on D'Antonio's post in the Inside CRM Blog, stating that the call center is “the most obvious place for the benefits of CRM to be applied.” As a vital contact point in the relationship between company and customer, the call center should be a part of any CRM initiative. If you haven’t done so lately, why not schedule time to listen in on your call center and hear what your customers are saying.