Forrester Research recently reported that the firms it surveyed increasingly view the customer experience as vitally important to their overall strategy, and that “91% of respondents feel that customer experience will be either critical or very important in 2008.”

They’re not alone in that observation. Other analysts are also saying that one of the true remaining competitive differentiators is superior customer service.

One way your company can gain a competitive edge with its contact center is by enabling idle agents to proactively reach out to your customers with information they want and need. Take a moment now to think of a few reasons your customers would want to be contacted—renewal and appointment reminders, notification that the furniture they’ve been looking at is now on sale, that a seat on a previously-full flight is now available, or that an out-of-stock item can now be ordered—the list is endless!

Today’s contact center solutions can automatically invoke agents for outbound calls—if and only if they aren’t needed for inbound calls. No more agent resources are needed than what you have today, but customer satisfaction and revenues can soar. Proactive outbound contact means fuller utilization of existing agents without the risk of missing service levels for inbound calls. Agents are the most expensive component of a contact center. Why not use them to your full advantage?