To answer questions and resolve service issues, forty-five percent of consumers prefer to speak with a customer service agent. But most walk away from customer service agent interactions disillusioned, disappointed, and disgruntled. Why? Consumers and companies point to misrouted calls, an inability to solve problems, and clumsy self-service-to-agent transitions. To fix these problems and deliver extraordinary customer service agent interactions, customer service process and application professionals should tackle five key initiatives: 1) mapping out proper customer routing logic; 2) modernizing call center infrastructure; 3) beefing up agent management; 4) embracing natural language and intent-based knowledge management; and 5) fixing self-service customer interactions.