PAUL STOCKFORD , INDUSTRY ANALYST AT LARGE

ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY VECTORMINE ADOBE STOCK

THE NORMALIZATION OF WORK-FROM-HOME ( WFH )

AND GENERATIONAL EXPECTATIONS OF

TODAY ’ S EMPLOYEE AND CONSUMER ARE THE DRIVING FORCES BEHIND MANY OF THE EMERGING

INNOVATIONS IN THE MARKET TODAY .

16 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE

know , I know . Last time you heard from me , in my January 2022 column in this magazine , I told you I was retiring . And I did . For the most part . I ’ ve found retirement to be quite liberating . There are no more Saddletree Research clients and I have no more contracted projects left to do . I ’ m not worried about meeting deadlines or getting contact center professionals to participate in the surveys sponsored by Saddletree Research and the National Association of Call Centers ( NACC ). In fact , the NACC is currently being reorganized into more of an industry community with the sole objective of serving the contact center profession and those who work in it . I think it will be a unique and useful approach to professional networking . Watch for it .

In the meantime , I ’ ve been free to pursue whatever interests me . Just because I ’ ve retired from the contact center industry doesn ’ t necessarily mean I ’ ve lost interest in it . In fact , I think my 33-year history with the industry provides me with a different perspective than someone who isn ’ t quite as long in the tooth , so to speak , may have .

Today ’ s contact center industry reminds me very much of the contact center industry of 20 years or so ago . The late 1990s and early 2000s was when the industry saw a spike in creativity and innovation , mostly from small companies and start-ups that weren ’ t