Early adopters of customer relationship management applications and contact centers often found they had overspent for features that had great appeal in the abstract, but little application in reality. Back when those tools were in their earliest stages, users often found themselves shelling out a lot more than they'd planned for extensive configurations, integrations, and consulting ventures. It wasn't that vendors misled them: it's that no one had yet standardized the practices that tied those tools into the daily life or the center. There weren't good benchmarks for how much it should cost or how long it should take to implement screen pop, for example. Or how to collect and organize customer date and deliver it properly to agents.
But there is good news, because after some initial difficulties, those older tools all found their footing and their place as truly beneficial, transformative call center technologies. What changed?
