A typical call center contract lasts for 3-5 years. In future, e-mail can emerge as a potential threat to call centers. The reason why e-mail is becoming very popular is because it is inexpensive and requires no special hardware, software or people skills. People are slowly realizing that it is more convenient to send a mail and wait for response than to hold on a telephone and wait in queue and deal with transfer between agents. Also e-mail can be sent any time of the day, even midnight.
Earlier people use to ignore e-mails.
Now they are using e-mail seriously because of its potential. They can get it directly to the response center or through their own website or through some 3 rd party website such as financial sites, agent sites, etc. The future of call centers will be an interaction center, which transcends the call center and offers communication for all media including voice over net, e-mail, chat and may be video conferencing. It is all about communicating with the customer in the form they choose. The promoter of a call center should be prepared that voice may no longer be the only medium in the future.