I am wishing to engage in an online discussion with other call center professionals regarding the growth patterns and trends of inbound call centers globally.

For instance our email contacts are increasing quite dramatically as the preferred mode of communication in the online retail aspect of our business. Email has been around a while now but the public appears to be shifting from phone enquiries to email enquiries in droves lately. This changes our hiring, staffing, and budget requirements quite substantially as we try to anticipate the trend. Are others finding this to be true for their operation, and what other trends are you noticing?

Ellen