We are midway into 2024. How’s it going? It has certainly been a year of new developments in customer experience and contact centers.

In January I wrote an article series for ICMI on the future of contact centers. The last article in the series identifies 20 trends and 3 recommendations for the year. I’ve included the 3 recommendations below. You can find the 20 trends in the full article.

Here are three overall recommendations that will help ensure you’re moving in the right direction.

First, build on a foundation of employee engagement. If you look inside any successful contact center, you’ll find a culture of honoring employees, encouraging their insight, and engaging them every step of the way. Keep that in mind as you map your priorities as a leader.

Second, use your customer access strategy to guide decisions. Just think about the interrelated decisions required to, say, roll out AI support for agents. What does that mean for the skills you need? How will the workload change? How will that impact resources and budget? Considering the 10 components of a customer access strategy together helps you see the bigger picture and make better decisions on investment and development priorities.

Finally, keep your eyes on the prize—strategic value. By strategic, I mean cross-functional, impacting the broader organization. Every day, your contact center has visibility on the organization’s products, services and processes. When you capture and use that insight, you enable the entire organization to innovate.