#contactcenterworld, @BlueOceanTweets
Before you head out of the office for the holidays to grab your mug of eggnog, we want to take a minute to reflect on some of the hottest talking points of the year in the contact center world.

We’ve looked at the data and compiled our four most popular topics of 2015.

1. The Phone Channel is Dead, Long Live the Phone Channel!

Thanks to emerging customer support channels like social media and live chat, as well as evolving technologies like speech recognition, there are more ways than ever for customers to initiate (and resolve) a service inquiry. And when they have options at their fingertips, customers are showing a growing preference for self-service options using automated IVRs, knowledge bases, or simply Googling a problem and solution. With customer service channels in constant movement, what will be the impact on the phone channel?

2. Lifetime Customer Value: Measuring Customer Service Performance

Don’t we all wish that customers came with a lifetime guarantee? They’d make their first purchase and be irrevocably smitten for life? In that perfect world, customer retention would be at 100% and customer turnover would be zero. Since that’s not the world we live in, customers need to experience prompt and dedicated attention at every major customer touch point. Otherwise, you risk turning healthy customer retention rates into customer turnover turmoil, and ultimately reducing the lifetime value of your customer base.


3. A Quick Guide to Comparing In-House vs. Outsourced Contact Center Costs

If you’re already managing an in-house call center, you know that navigating the natural peaks and valleys of call volume presents a complex challenge when calculating call center costs. You know that the ratios and formulas are multifaceted, which can make a direct comparison between in-house and outsourcing a little difficult. But when you need to present a business case complete with outsourced contact center costs, you need to break down the numbers in a way that makes sense. Below, we look at the multiple factors that go into the call center cost comparison.

4. Which Customer Service Predictions Came True from 3 Years Ago

Ever try to predict the outcome of anything? It’s no easy feat. Sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke said predictions about the future can be a "discouraging, hazardous occupation." For prediction-makers, it’s often lose-lose. But we’ve been wondering if you look at a shorter window for customer service predictions, say three years ago, who would prove right and who would miss the mark? Here are the customer service predictions that caught our eye the most.

Thank you for helping us make this year great! We wish you happy holidays and New Year from the whole team at Blue Ocean Contact Centers!