Back in May, we brought together some of the best minds in Workforce Management, Operations, L&D and IT to discuss market trends, existing contact center challenges and viable solutions.

What actually happened was beyond our wildest expectations — the exchange of ideas, the rich discussions about the future of the profession, the takeaways from other organizations — were just some highlights from Forefront Atlanta a few months ago.

At the center of the discussion was the customer. Customers are more dynamic than ever before.  The same old processes contact centers have relied on for decades simply can no longer keep up. Technology enables customers to quickly and easily access the information they need, and they expect this same seamless experience when it comes to customer service.

When you add a growing millennial workforce to the mix, supporting their needs along with the dynamic customer becomes even more complicated. The scheduling flexibility and control that millennials desire just isn’t a possibility using existing contact center processes. In order to keep up with this growing demand, companies must transform the way their frontline workforces operate.

Industry Analyst, Donna Fluss discussed the role of intraday automation and schedule flexibility in meeting these crucial needs. Guest speakers from Citigroup and Cox Communications shared how they leverage automation to deliver a seamless omni-channel experience with other intraday automation users and participants.

The discussions were lively, interactive and fueled by a passion for their industry and the possibility of change. Attendees demonstrated their competitive nature with a first of its kind competition relating to the challenges of their daily operations, won cool prizes and gained new insights from their peers on how to approach these challenges with fresh thinking and innovation.

To expand the Forefront community and build on the momentum started in Atlanta, we have planned more events for those looking to lead change in their contact center environment:

• Forefront Virtual Summit – No time to travel? This 3-part interactive workshop series is broken up into short 45-minute segments spread out over 3 dates.  Catch the first on July 21st 11 AM EDT
• Forefront Dallas – This 1-day event, hosted by peers from Aetna and Citigroup  and will take on September 20, 2016

Participating in Forefront events offers a great opportunity for networking with peers and provides discussion of strategies to reshape service delivery and the underlying customer experience.