Today, an always-on, 24/7 approach to inbound and outbound customer journeys is what contact centres must deliver, allowing customers to access information, ask questions or respond to communications whenever it suits them.
And automated customer support isn’t confined to phone calls. Customers want channel choice: the ability to engage and switch across SMS, email, live chat and chatbots, without friction or disruption.
When those expectations aren’t met, the impact is immediate. 42% of customers have switched providers following a poor experience handled in the contact centre, making availability and responsiveness a commercial priority rather than a “nice to have”.
This pressure lands in an already challenging environment for contact centre leaders:
- Cost per call is at a five-year high, averaging between £5.50-£6.50
- First-call sales close rates are down year-on-year, with a 25% reduction in 2025
- The volume of customer interactions continues to grow across multiple touchpoints
- Many leaders report higher agent workloads than the previous year
At the same time, simply increasing headcount is rarely a viable option. As it brings significant financial and operational implications.
As a result, contact centres are balancing on a tightrope: deliver high-quality, always-on customer experiences without increasing costs or overwhelming agents.
It’s a tall order. Traditional contact centre models struggle most. Whereas those that treat AI and automation as a necessity, not an experiment, are far better positioned to succeed.
Why traditional contact centres can’t support a 24/7 approach
Contact centres that rely heavily on manual processes are far more likely to miss the mark on consistent, high-quality customer experiences. Not through lack of effort, but instead through lack of capability.
Without automation or AI-enabled workflows, manual contact centres lack the visibility needed to shape effective contact strategies. Disconnected channels and siloed data across multiple systems make it difficult to understand what’s driving demand, where workflows break down, and where agent intervention adds the most value.
As a result, agents often spend a disproportionate amount of time handling repetitive, low-value enquiries instead of focusing on complex or high-impact conversations. This creates inefficiency and, over time, contributes to lower morale and higher fatigue.
Traditional 24/7 models attempt to solve availability problems with people alone. But scaling this way gets expensive fast. In a typical mid-market contact centre, automating just 50-55% of repetitive interactions with AI Agents can reduce monthly handling costs by £80k-£100k (for midsized contact centres), depending on volume and channel mix.
Without connected, automated systems in place, scaling availability scales cost and pressure, but leaves customer experience to chance.
Orchestrating a multi-channel customer journey
Customer support shouldn’t be confined to a single channel. In omnichannel contact centres, customers regularly move between different channels, including SMS, email, chat and chatbots - sometimes within the same interaction.
A customer might receive an SMS, reply with a question, switch to chat for clarification, and later call expecting the conversation to continue seamlessly. Managing this consistently is difficult in manual contact centres, where channels and context are often treated as separate streams.
AI Agents and AI Chatbots make this easier by connecting voice and digital channels into a single, coordinated experience, handling conversations, retaining context and supporting smooth handovers to human agents when needed.
This orchestration is what makes always-on, 24/7 support achievable at scale, and sets the foundation for supporting inbound and outbound journeys more effectively.
What “always-on 24/7” really means for inbound and outbound support
Inbound and outbound interactions are different. And so is the way that customers expect to access 24/7 customer support.
When inbound and outbound journeys are properly orchestrated and integrate AI customer service solutions:
- Customers can ask questions after receiving outbound messages, without waiting for office hours
- Routine follow-ups are handled digitally, so they don’t automatically become inbound calls
- Conversations continue seamlessly across voice and digital channels, regardless of time zone
- Human agents are reserved for moments where judgement, empathy or complexity matter most
This is what distinguishes always-on availability from simple 24/7 coverage. So, how do contact centre leaders make it a reality?
This is where AI-powered contact centre software becomes essential. Not as a replacement for human agents, but as the execution layer that makes always-on 24/7 customer support possible.
The role of AI Agents in continuous customer support
MaxContact’s AI Agents play a central role in delivering an always-on, 24/7 approach to inbound and outbound customer support, particularly in voice-led contact centres where consistency, compliance and context matter.
Rather than acting as basic automation, AI Agents handle natural, human-like conversations across voice and digital channels. They understand intent, ask clarifying questions and complete tasks end-to-end, from authentication and verification through to troubleshooting, routing and account actions, all without customers waiting in a queue to speak to an agent.
This makes AI Agents especially effective outside core operating hours, when customers still expect fast, accurate responses but human availability is limited. Every interaction is handled consistently and compliantly, with the same rules, prompts and safeguards applied every time.
AI Agents are designed to operate as part of a human-AI hybrid model, not as a replacement for human agents. When a case needs to be escalated due to complexity, risk, sentiment or customer preference, it is, with full conversational context passed on, so customers never have to repeat themselves.
Used this way, AI Agents extend contact centre capacity. They absorb repetitive and time-sensitive demand, pre-qualify and verify customers, and ensure agents are connected to the right conversations at the right time.
The result is faster responses, reduced queue pressure and consistent 24/7 support, without increasing headcount. In cost terms, organisations typically see AI-handled interactions delivered at under £0.50 per contact, compared to £6+ when handled by a human agent.
The role AI Chatbots play in always-on customer support
AI Chatbots aren’t a separate capability from AI Agents. They’re one of the digital channels through which AI Agents operate.
MaxContact’s AI Agents provide the intelligence that understands intent, manages logic and then controls workflows. AI Chatbots maximise that capability across digital touchpoints. This means that the same AI-powered conversations and workflows run consistently across chat, messaging and other digital channels.
In practice, this means customers can get instant answers and can complete simple tasks, such as scheduling a call, or respond to outbound communications through the AI Chatbot, without needing to call or wait in a queue.
Behind the scenes, the AI Agent handles intent, applies rules, and manages the conversation in exactly the same way it would in a voice-led interaction.
This is what makes AI Chatbots so effective in an always-on model. They extend AI Agent capability into digital channels, so contact centres can resolve routine and time-sensitive queries instantly, at any time of day. All whilst maintaining quality and compliance.
How to use AI Chatbots in everyday contact centre situations
In always-on customer journeys, AI Chatbots are particularly effective for handling predictable, high-volume interactions such as:
Reducing pressure without reducing service
The goal of always-on, 24/7 customer support isn’t to replace human agents or cut corners on service. It’s to remove unnecessary pressure on people, costs and operations while delivering high quality customer experience.
By handling repetitive, predictable and time-sensitive interactions, AI Agents and AI Chatbots absorb demand that would otherwise sit in voice queues or overwhelm frontline teams. Customers still get fast, accurate support, but agents aren’t tied up answering the same questions or repeating the same checks.
This shift allows human agents to focus on high-value conversations. The conversations that need judgement, empathy, reassurance or problem-solving. These moments are where human input makes the biggest difference to outcomes.
Crucially, service levels aren’t reduced. They’re improved. Customers get quicker responses, fewer handoffs and more consistent experiences, while agents work in a more sustainable, focused environment.
Always-on customer support needs the right operational foundations
AI Agents work as a standalone capability. They handle conversations and automate tasks without needing a full contact centre platform.
So, for organisations that don’t operate within a traditional contact centre, AI Agents still deliver immediate value by providing always-on customer support. They handle routine and time-sensitive interactions, and also ensure that customers get fast and consistent responses outside core operating hours.
On the other hand, for organisations that do operate with a contact centre platform in place, AI Agents and AI Chatbots can be easily integrated with core CCaaS capabilities such as:
- intelligent diallers
- real-time call routing
- call queue management
- and contact centre analytics
In a contact centre environment, AI Agents extend and enhance existing workflows, and help contact centres manage demand more intelligently by prioritising interactions, and continuously optimising performance across both inbound and outbound journeys.
With the ability to operate independently, or as part of a wider CCaaS set up, AI Agents give a wide variety of businesses the flexibility to scale availability and responsiveness without increasing headcount or incurring ongoing costs. Turning 24/7 customer support into a sustainable capability rather than an operational headache.
Deliver always-on support without always-on staffing
Customers now expect an always-on, 24/7 approach to inbound and outbound customer journeys. Meeting that expectation is reliant on operational foundations that encourage automated workflows, rather than expanding teams and ongoing costs.
By combining AI Agents, AI Chatbots and contact centre capabilities within a single, connected CCaaS platform, contact centres can deliver continuous, high-quality support that scales efficiently and sustainably.
In this model, 24/7 customer support isn’t a strain, it’s a strength that protects customer experience, teams and costs at the same time.
Deliver always-on customer support without increasing headcount.
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