Explore fresh, expert perspectives on customer engagement and innovation

Elevating Customer Experiences: MaxContact’s New Funding Boosts AI-Technology Advancements for Enhanced Customer Interactions.

Manchester-based customer engagement technology provider MaxContact announced it has secured funding to accelerate a new phase of innovation and growth.  

MaxContact, which private equity firm FPE Capital has backed since October 2020, has worked to secure additional investment to accelerate further development in AI technology and scale the UK-based team from 65 to over 100 by 2025.

Ben Booth, CEO at MaxContact, reflects on the journey, “Having dedicated years to the contact centre and customer engagement industry, we’re incredibly proud of the business we’re building. This investment supercharges our mission to give businesses a platform that makes work-life easier for them and their contact centre or customer engagement teams.”

MaxContact’s vision includes expanding its in-house team, with a key emphasis on scaling the software engineering function and operations teams to enhance customer success. It also plans to accelerate its product roadmap and the delivery of cutting-edge AI-driven technology to its customers while ensuring it delivers a best-in-class service for its valued customer base.

“Over the past six years, we’ve built a robust contact centre customer engagement (CCaaS) platform that serves thousands of users every minute of every day. It means we’ve not only got a wealth of experience in this space, but we can analyse large volumes of call and message data to develop AI tools that help to drive efficiency and ensure companies communicate compliantly with customers, simply and easily.  

One of the biggest challenges for many companies is increased customer demand. Our solutions will help businesses manage this demand more efficiently and reduce repetitive work landing in the lap of skilled agents.”

MaxContact has worked alongside FPE Capital and NatWest to secure this investment.

Kit Maclaren, Director, Corporate Banking & Structured Finance from Natwest, says “We are delighted to have been able to structure this growth finance facility for MaxContact, supporting MaxContact’s management team and FPE Capital as they continue their strong growth in the CCaaS market. This financing facility was delivered through our unique Venture and Growth Finance fund and reflects NatWest’s dedication to supporting high-growth, innovative scale-up businesses. We aim to continue working alongside SME businesses such as MaxContact, which form the heart of the UK economy, driving innovation and job creation.”  

About MaxContact

MaxContact is a customer engagement technology company with a difference. It was founded in 2015 by a group of contact centre professionals who had become frustrated with providers that over promised and under delivered on features, support and resilience. It’s now one of the fastest growing contact centre software specialists in the UK. MaxContact has been ranked one of the top 50 fastest growing technology companies in the North by the Northern Tech Awards consecutively from 2021-2023 and in 2022 received the IT Vendor of the Year Award from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, and Computing Magazine.

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Leading debt recovery solutions provider, Marston Holdings, chooses MaxContact software to support on business expansion plans.

Manchester – 25th July 2023 – Manchester-based customer engagement technology provider MaxContact today announced its partnership with Marston Holdings, a leading solutions provider in corporate debt recovery.

Marston Holdings has been operating for almost 40 years, growing both organically and through acquisitions providing integrated technology-enabled solutions for private and commercial clients. They work in various public services aiding customers in debt recovery, parking fines, court orders as well as commercial debt, now recovering up to £850m each year on behalf of taxpayers.

As a fast-growing business, Marston Holdings wanted to improve the agility and technical capabilities of its outbound dialler, which wasn’t able to match their need to scale. After an extensive procurement process, Marston Holdings selected MaxContact’s outbound dialler as a more efficient and comprehensive solution for their needs across 285 full omnichannel diallers. The software will be also integrated with Marston’s workforce management and back-office CRMs and PBX.

Marston Holdings is implementing the MaxContact solution companywide across all of its brands,  as the company continues to grow. The company also plans to implement new features based on MaxContact’s commitment to continual product development, including AI chatbot functionality.  

Tim Van Oerle, Group Managing Director at Marston Holdings, said “As a fast-growing business we need technology that can be agile and scale with our expansion. MaxContact has been fantastic at understanding these needs and providing personalised support every step of the way, and we look forward to enhancing the services for our team and for our clients and customers.”

Ben Booth, CEO at MaxContact, said “We are really excited to be partnering with the team at Marston Holdings. We pride ourselves on providing personalised service and agile technology to businesses across the UK and can’t wait to support Marston Holdings on their meteoric growth journey.”

About MaxContact

MaxContact is a customer engagement technology company with a difference. It was founded in 2015 by a group of contact centre professionals who had become frustrated with providers that over promised and under delivered on features, support and resilience. It’s now one of the fastest growing contact centre specialists in the UK with a 97% CSAT rating and over 100 customers. The company was ranked one of the top 50 fastest growing technology companies in the North by the Northern Tech Awards in 2021 and 2022 and has recently received the IT Vendor of the Year Award from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, and Computing Magazine.

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Technology can be scary.

The complexity, the cost, the pace at which it evolves.

For businesses, there is a lot riding on it. Everything from day-to-day operations to strategic future planning depends upon the right hardware, the right software, and the right management.

In the contact centre space in particular, technology has had to respond to seismic changes in the way the world communicates. There are now myriad ways for people to interact with the enterprises and organisations from which they purchase a product or consume a service. In addition, those interactions are no longer confined to certain days or times but occur 24/7.

Focus on the long-term benefits of CCaaS

Today’s cloud-powered contact centre functionality can simplify everything but, for many enterprises, the fear of getting started often means they sit on their hands; thus foregoing the multiple and immediate benefits of taking the plunge.

However, as is so often the case, partnering with the right technology provider can allay those fears: ensuring a smooth and game-changing next step on the digital transformation journey.

“Companies considering contact centre technology are clear about the benefits it brings but indecisive about the actual change – that’s why, for us, the conversation should be less about the actual sale and more about the difference it can make long term,” says Ben Booth, CEO at leading UK-based CCaaS provider MaxContact, whose transparent, plain-speaking approach is helping business leaders everywhere to overcome their nervousness.

“Contact centres are becoming incredibly complex. They are now omni-channel and produce large amounts of data capable of informing a business on the efficiencies of its workflows and how to improve the communication experience.

Choosing the right CCaaS provider is key

“Companies need a partner able to educate them and be alongside them every step of the way. Of course, it is the product which enables the new functionality, but the provider/customer relationship is easily as influential when it comes to return on investment.”

Not that the market is all about enterprises for whom a contact centre is a brand new addition to their stack.

Businesses looking to switch or upgrade existing solutions, and larger enterprises for whom acquisition has increased current contact centre complexity, make up a large portion of the opportunity.

In those cases, picking the right provider is perhaps even more key.

Don’t let fear hold you back

“We have been discussing options with a potential client with 160 sites resulting from a series of acquisitions,” says Booth.  

“They now have seven or eight different contact centre systems and want to move to just one. Understandably, there is some trepidation because the project is complex. Our strategy is to ensure that the same people from our business work from the outset and throughout with the same people from the customer’s business. That enables us to really understand that business and its needs. Having that level of consistency gives our customers confidence that the partnership will thrive which, in turn, alleviates some of that trepidation.”

“We take it very seriously because we know we have the potential to impact people’s lives, wages and careers. For us, the relationship is not all about the sale and the revenue. For us, it’s about the entire digital transformation journey and the long-term depth of the partnership.”

Pace and scale of deployment are also significant influencers on the fear factor.

Some organisations have complex contact centre needs which they need to address quickly. Others want to start small and go slowly. Again, a provider partner with the kind of culture and delivery model that plays well in both those scenarios can take the stress out of the process.

Additionally, in the case of MaxContact, a deep level of experience in verticals such as financial services and utilities means extra levels of confidence can be instilled in potential new customers from those sectors.    

“When we start any new conversation, we are normally very quickly discussing the challenges that we know the organisation is facing,” says Booth.

“That’s because we have specialist knowledge and a great deal of experience. Suddenly, where there was fear, trepidation and nervousness, there can be confidence and excitement.”

This blog was written by Simon Wright, journalist for CX Today, for cxtoday.com.

Ready to find out more about partnering with MaxContact for your contact centre solution? Book a demo today.

For contact centres operating in regulated sectors, particularly debt collection and financial services, there's an added layer of complexity: contact strategy decisions don't just affect efficiency, they carry compliance risk. Getting channel, timing, and frequency wrong isn't just a performance issue, it's an FCA one.

Our Voice of the UK Consumer 2025 report highlights the challenge:

• 63% are more likely to respond to outbound contact when it’s sent through their preferred channel.
• 58% are more receptive when the message is personally relevant, like renewals, billing or appointments.
• 52% say they’re more likely to answer a call if they’ve received an email or SMS first.
• 76% expect personalised outbound communication, not broad scripts.

[Source: Voice of the UK Consumer Report]

So how do you increase the chances of your calls being answered, messages being acted on, and customers responding positively?

Start with two foundations:

• A data-driven outbound strategy built on real behavioural insight rather than assumptions.
• Technology and automation that free agents to focus on the conversations where human interaction matters most.

Without these foundations, outbound teams risk dialling blind. With them, you can target strategically, stay compliant, reduce costs, and deliver better outcomes for both customers and agents.

What is a contact strategy?

A contact strategy, or in this case, an outbound contact strategy, is a structured plan for how a contact centre engages with customers. It sets rules for who to contact, when, how often, which channel to use, and what message to deliver.

It should also set KPIs (like contact rate, right-party contact (RPC), conversion and cost-per-contact) that you’ll use to measure success. The better the plan, the more people your agents will speak to, and the more positive those interactions will be.

1. Define outcomes & set KPIs

Before you get into outbound channels, dialler modes, or scripts, start with the “why”. What’s the outcome you want to achieve, and how will you measure it? Pick 3-4 KPIs for a period of time, set a baseline, and track against your targets.

Here are some example KPIs:

• Sales contact centre: Contact rate, Right-party contact (RPC), Conversion, CSAT
• Debt collection: RPC, Promise-to-pay (PTP) rate, Complaints rate

Without defining your KPIs and taking this step, you won't be able to benchmark or improve your contact strategy in the future. For regulated sectors, complaints rate carries additional weight; a spike is often the first indicator of a contact frequency or channel problem, and something the FCA will expect you to be able to evidence and explain.

For definitions and formulas, see our complete guide to call centre reporting metrics

2. Build your data foundation

A data-driven outbound strategy is only as good as the information behind it. Before you refine channels or scripts, make sure you’ve got the basic data covered:

• Who the customer is (ID, segment, account details)
• How to reach them (phone, email, SMS, consent/preferences)
• Consent and contact preferences (channel opt-ins, any restrictions or vulnerability flags)
• What happened last time (outcome and notes)
• When you last tried (to avoid over-contacting)
• Key dates or flags (renewals, appointments, balances)

With these foundations in place, technology can take over and save you time. MaxContact’s Contact Prioritisation feature ensures outbound agents see the best-fit records first, so no time is wasted chasing the wrong people. Contact Prioritisations allows contacts to be segmented and prioritised based on specific rules.

Here are what Contact Prioritisation rules might look like in action:

Sales: Follow up on prospects not contacted within 72 hours

Debt collection: Prioritise accounts with balances overdue by 30+ days, or, those with the highest amount of debt owed.

Utilities: Send renewal reminders before contracts expire

3. Put your contact centre software to work

Your goals are set. Your data foundations are in place. Your campaign is ready to run. With an effective omnichannel contact centre platform in place, you can optimise your entire contact workflow. Aside from reporting results, features that come as part of many contact centre software remove long-winded admin, automate certain tasks, and support agents so they can focus on conversations that matter most.

Here’s a list of key contact centre software features that optimise your contact strategy and enhance customer experience:

4. Choose the right channel, timing & cadence

For outbound campaigns, channel, timing and cadence have a direct impact on hit rates and contact success. With KPIs set and data connected, the evidence will tell you who to contact, how to contact them, and when.

Channel
Look at recent behaviour. Do they open emails, reply to SMS, or pick up calls? Use phone for urgent or complex issues, email or SMS for reminders and renewals, and self-serve/IVR for simple tasks. Make sure you always provide an easy handoff to an agent if needed.

Timing
Forget the old rules about “after 6pm” landline calls. Flexible working has changed patterns completely. Use CRM data to book calls when the customer typically answers. If queues are long, offer virtual hold or a callback rather than leaving people waiting. For regulated sectors, FCA and Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) guidance treats contact outside broadly 8am-9pm as potential harassment territory, and industry good practice often sits tighter than that. Build permitted contact windows into your campaign rules rather than leaving it to agent discretion.

Cadence
Set simple caps, for example, no more than two calls a day, five a week. Pause outreach after clear outcomes (“promise-to-pay agreed” or “not interested”). And always honour consent and channel preferences. In debt collection and other regulated environments, these caps are more than just efficiency measures, they're compliance ones. The FCA doesn't set a hard statutory frequency limit, but FOS complaints consistently flag excessive contact as harassment. Pausing outreach after a complaint or a vulnerability flag is expected.

When agents have context from previous interactions, they can also personalise outreach, for example, referencing a prior purchase or payment arrangement. These details make conversations more relevant and more likely to succeed.

How to optimise your contact centre through data-driven strategy

Outbound contact centre optimisation can reduce costs, but it’s also about creating smoother, more positive experiences for both customers and agents. And a data-driven customer contact strategy helps you to strike that balance.

By setting clear KPIs, you can measure what’s working and what needs to improve, whether that’s contact rates, first-call resolution, or customer satisfaction scores. Layer in automation and omnichannel tools, and you reduce wasted effort while making it easier for customers to get the help they need, when and how they want it.

For example, outbound skills-based routing matches the right agent to the prospective customer, while self-service options handle simple tasks without adding to queue times. Real-time dashboards and analytics give managers the insight they need to fine-tune performance on the fly.

Done well, contact centre optimisation improves customer experience and operational efficiency at the same time, giving your business a competitive edge.

Is reducing contact centre cost a priority for you? Read our guide on 7 ways to reduce costs in your contact centre without sacrificing quality.

Why your contact strategy has to flex

One thing that came through strongly in our recent Contact Strategy Webinar is this: there’s no such thing as a universal “best practice” strategy. Customers expect you to flex around their preferences, their comfort with AI, and the complexity of their issue.

A few standout insights from our Voice of the UK Consumer Report:

• 80% of customers expect brands to understand their needs and expectations.
• The AI acceptance gap is a real challenge: 65% of 25–33-year-olds are comfortable with AI interactions, compared to just 27% of over-55s. In fact, 52% of over-55s are actively uncomfortable.
• When things get complex, sensitive or financial, people want human interaction, and 60% prefer speaking to an agent in those scenarios.
• Customers are most accepting of outbound contact when it relates to billing, payments or account updates, and they often prefer an email first, then a call or SMS follow-up.
• 76% expect personalisation. That means data-driven targeting, not just broad scripts.

And the impact isn’t theoretical. One client moved from manual Salesforce dialling to MaxContact’s skills-based routing and data prioritisation. Their conversion rate doubled from 4% to 8%, simply by ensuring the right lead reached the right agent, at the right time.

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‍Tailoring your contact strategy to the use case

These insights underline why your contact strategy can’t be one-size-fits-all. The right approach depends not only on the customer but also on your business context. Sales teams and collections teams, for instance, work with very different goals, sensitivities and success metrics.

Top tips for sales contact strategies

1. Focus on speed to lead: research shows that contacting a new prospect within five minutes can achieve conversion rates of up to 70%. Wait an hour, and it can drop to 20%.
2. Use demographic and geographic filters to maximise ROI, such as prioritising leads in certain postcodes or life stages.
3. Omnichannel flexibility is key. Some prospects will respond to SMS, others prefer email or a WhatsApp nudge.
4. Skills-based routing helps by ensuring high-value or “hot” leads are automatically directed to your top-performing agents.

Top tips for debt collection contact strategies

1. Sensitivity is critical. Customers in arrears often prefer a human agent when discussing finances, rather than automated channels.
2. Prioritisation rules might focus on balance size, number of missed payments, or active repayment plans, ensuring agents spend their time where they can have the most impact.
3. Timing matters too. Contacting just after a payday, for example, can increase recovery rates.
4. Personalisation builds trust: referencing past conversations or agreements makes the customer feel understood rather than pursued.
5. Sequence your channels deliberately. In collections, starting with a letter or SMS before calling is best for regulatory defensibility. It demonstrates reasonable, proportionate outreach and reduces the risk of a harassment complaint.
6. Consumer Duty places a direct obligation on regulated firms to identify and respond to customer vulnerability. Agents need to be equipped to recognise signs of financial difficulty during a call and adjust their approach accordingly. This is a legal requirement under FCA rules.
7. Evidencing compliant contact is increasingly important, particularly if a complaint or FOS referral lands. MaxContact's Conversation Analytics and AI Call Scoring give you an auditable record of how calls were handled, with auto-fail rules that catch compliance breaches regardless of how the rest of the call went.

For a deeper dive, check out our webinar on Creating and Executing the Best Contact Strategies for Easier Debt Resolution: Watch now

Successful contact strategies start with the right platform

The best contact strategies don’t happen by chance. They’re built on data, technology, and a clear understanding of your customers, and they adapt to fit different scenarios, from fast-moving sales campaigns to sensitive debt resolution.

With the right foundation, you can:

• Increase your hit rate by targeting the right people at the right time.
• Reduce wasted effort through automation and filtering.
• Protect compliance while respecting customer preferences.
• Empower agents with the tools and context to turn conversations into outcomes.

That’s exactly what MaxContact’s platform is designed to do. From contact prioritisation to skills-based routing, omnichannel contact, and real-time analytics, it gives you everything you need to design, execute, and continually improve a winning contact strategy.

Are you ready to put your contact strategy into action and see how MaxContact can help you boost results? Book a demo of our contact centre software platform.

The FCA has moved from implementation to active enforcement, with four cross-cutting supervisory reviews now underway and the next annual board report due by 31 July 2026. The question regulators are asking is no longer "have you implemented Consumer Duty?" It's "can you demonstrate, with evidence, that your firm is delivering consistently good outcomes for retail customers?"

For contact centre teams, that shift matters enormously. The contact centre is where Consumer Duty either gets evidenced or falls apart. Call scripts, agent behaviour, handling of vulnerable customers, complaint resolution and call quality data are all in scope. If you can't produce the evidence, the regulator will assume you don't have it.

This guide covers what the Duty requires, what changed in 2025 and 2026, and what your contact centre needs to do to stay on the right side of it. It covers debt collection, insurance, banking and credit; anywhere your contact centre serves retail customers under FCA regulation.

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What changed in 2025 and 2026

The FCA has shifted from supervision to scrutiny. The regulator reviewed board reports from 180 firms and published detailed good and poor practice guidance. The consistent finding: firms are producing compliance documents without producing compliance evidence. The FCA wants data, MI and documented outcomes, not assertions.

The FCA’s four focus areas for 2026 include: how firms design products and services to meet customer needs; how firms monitor consumer outcomes; how firms design customer journeys (with specific scrutiny of friction); and whether firms' communications help customers make informed decisions. Contact centres sit in the middle of three of those four.

Enforcement consequences now apply. For serious or persistent failures, the FCA can issue public censure, financial penalties and, where SM&CR applies, individual accountability action against named senior managers. This is no longer a paper exercise with soft consequences.

Debt collection is under specific scrutiny in 2026. Collections contact strategies covering call frequency, agent conduct, handling of payment difficulty and identification of vulnerable customers are directly in the FCA's sights under Consumer Duty's "avoid foreseeable harm" rule. Firms in collections must evidence that their contact strategies are not causing consumer harm.

The July 2026 board report deadline is approaching. Every FCA-regulated firm must have its annual Consumer Duty board report reviewed and approved by its governing body by 31 July 2026. The report needs to demonstrate outcomes monitoring data, identify any customer groups receiving worse outcomes and set out remediation plans. If your contact centre doesn't have that data, your board report won't hold up.

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The four outcomes and what they mean for your contact centre

Products and services

The products and services outcome requires firms to ensure that what they're selling, collecting on or supporting is genuinely designed to meet the needs of the customers being served.

For contact centres, the practical question is: are your agents accurately representing what a product does and doesn't do? Are call scripts designed to help customers understand, or to move them through a process quickly? Are there different approaches for different customer segments, including those in financial difficulty or with characteristics of vulnerability?

In debt collection specifically, this outcome applies to the repayment arrangements being offered. If your collections contact strategy is pushing customers toward arrangements that aren't suitable for their circumstances, that's a Consumer Duty exposure.

Price and value

Customers must receive fair value; a reasonable relationship between cost and benefit. For contact centres, this outcome is most relevant where agents are selling, upselling or explaining pricing.

The FCA expects firms to evidence that they've assessed fair value and acted on the results. If your QA monitoring is revealing agents mis-explaining charges, or customers repeatedly calling back because they didn't understand what they signed up for, that's both a consumer support failure and a price and value signal.

For insurance contact centres, this is an area of active FCA scrutiny. The regulator's pure protection insurance market study is examining whether customers in that sector are receiving fair value, and contact centre conduct data is part of what firms will need to produce.

Consumer understanding

Customers must receive communications they can understand, at the right time and in a format that supports informed decision-making. For contact centres this is the most direct outcome; every call is a test of it.

The FCA's cross-cutting review on customer communications is examining whether information helps customers make genuinely informed decisions, or nudges them toward commercially convenient outcomes. Contact centre communications are in scope.

In practice, consumer understanding compliance means plain language scripting, clear disclosure of fees, risks and rights, confirmation that the customer understood before the call ends, and evidence that you've tested and monitored this at scale. For debt collection, customers must also be clearly informed of their rights and what happens if they can't pay.

Consumer support

Consumer support requires firms to provide a level of service that enables customers to realise the benefits of products, exercise their rights and get help when they need it. Contact centres are both the primary delivery mechanism for this outcome and the primary risk point.

The FCA's cross-cutting review on customer journeys is examining friction: are customers facing unnecessary barriers to getting help, making complaints or exercising their rights? Long wait times, excessive IVR routing and agents who can't resolve issues without escalation are exactly the friction points the review is looking for.

For vulnerable customers, the requirements are higher. Firms that cannot demonstrate differentiated consideration for vulnerable customers are not meeting the Consumer Duty standard. For collections contact centres this is particularly acute; contact strategies that take no account of financial vulnerability or hardship indicators are a direct Consumer Duty risk.

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Call recording and monitoring: your Consumer Duty evidence layer

Here's the practical problem Consumer Duty creates for contact centres: you need to demonstrate good outcomes across thousands of calls. You can't do that manually. Call recording and quality monitoring aren't just operational tools. Under Consumer Duty, they're your compliance infrastructure.

The FCA expects firms to have documented, data-driven evidence that their contact strategies are delivering the four outcomes.

In practice, that means call recordings that can be retrieved and reviewed to demonstrate agent conduct and customer treatment; systematic QA scoring against Consumer Duty criteria rather than just internal quality targets; sentiment and outcomes analysis that can identify at scale where customers are experiencing poor outcomes or distress; documented processes for identifying vulnerability indicators during calls; and complaint pattern monitoring to surface systemic issues rather than just resolving individual cases.

The FCA found that many board reports stated actions had been taken without evidence they worked. QA scores and call recording logs that sit in a system but aren't systematically analysed aren't sufficient. The evidence needs to be active, current and connected to outcomes.

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FCA call recording compliance: what applies to your contact centre

FCA call recording requirements under SYSC 10A apply to MiFID investment firms; those dealing in financial instruments and arranging transactions. If your contact centre operates in that space, SYSC 10A applies in full: all relevant calls must be recorded, retained for a minimum of five years and be producible on request.

For most debt collection, insurance and general financial services contact centres, the obligation is framed differently but no less real. Under Consumer Duty, if you can't produce call recordings and QA data to evidence agent conduct and customer outcomes, you effectively can't comply. The FCA doesn't prescribe the exact mechanism, but it scrutinises the evidence. Firms without systematic call recording and monitoring have no evidence base to draw on. Record all customer-facing calls, retain them for a period appropriate to your regulatory context (five years is the common standard for FCA-regulated activity), and make sure your QA process is reviewing against Consumer Duty outcomes, not just service standards.

For debt collection contact centres, call recording serves an additional purpose. It's evidence that your collections conduct complies with CONC requirements around contact with customers in arrears. CONC 7.9 sets out what's required; treating customers fairly, not using oppressive tactics, and identifying vulnerability. In an FCA investigation, recordings and QA monitoring logs are what you'll be asked to produce first.

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How your contact centre needs to adapt

Evidence by design, not retrospect

The most common Consumer Duty failure mode in contact centres is treating compliance as a report-writing exercise. The evidence needs to exist before the report, in call recordings, QA scores, outcome data and complaints analysis. If you're assembling evidence retrospectively to satisfy a board report deadline, you're already behind.

Build evidence generation into your operational processes: QA scoring frameworks that explicitly test Consumer Duty criteria, outcome tracking at campaign and agent level, and regular complaints analysis that looks for patterns rather than just volume.

Scripting and training

Every agent interaction is a Consumer Duty test. Scripts need to be reviewed against the four outcomes, not just for accuracy but for whether they genuinely help the customer understand and make informed decisions. In debt collection, the language of collections calls can easily cross from firm into oppressive if not carefully calibrated.

Training should make Consumer Duty concrete for agents, not abstract. What does "acting in good faith" mean when a customer says they can't pay? What does "avoiding foreseeable harm" mean when a customer shows signs of financial difficulty? Agents need practical answers to those questions.

Vulnerable customer identification at scale

Manual vulnerability identification; relying on agents to spot and flag vulnerability during calls, doesn't scale reliably at contact centre volumes. You need systematic processes: training that embeds vulnerability indicators, scripting that creates space for customers to disclose, and technology that can flag calls for review based on sentiment or interaction patterns.

For collections contact centres, where a significant proportion of customers may be in financial difficulty, this isn't an edge case. It's a core operational requirement.

Complaints as a compliance signal

Consumer Duty requires firms to use complaints data to identify systemic issues. A contact centre that tracks complaint volumes but doesn't analyse patterns is leaving one of its most valuable compliance signals unused. Complaints analysis should feed directly into QA frameworks, scripting reviews and training programmes, and it should appear in your board report as evidence of how your contact centre identifies and responds to consumer harm signals.

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Your 31 July 2026 board report

Your next Consumer Duty board report must be reviewed and approved by your governing body by 31 July 2026. For contact centre operations, the report needs to demonstrate how you monitor outcomes across each of the four pillars, what your call monitoring and QA data shows about customer outcomes, how you identify and respond to vulnerable customer indicators, what your complaints data reveals about systemic issues, and what remediation actions have been taken and whether they worked.

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If the answer to any of those is "we don't have that data," the remediation starts now, not on 30 July.

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MaxContact's Conversation Analytics, Auto QA and call recording capabilities are built to generate the evidence layer Consumer Duty requires, at contact centre scale, with the audit trail regulators expect to see. Consumer Duty doesn't operate in isolation. Download the UK Contact Centre Regulatory Guide 2025–2027 for a complete view of the regulatory landscape - covering PECR, DUAA, Ofcom CLI, the EU AI Act and more - in one practical resource.

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If you're working through what Consumer Duty means for your operation, or want to see how MaxContact supports compliance in debt collection, insurance or financial services contact centres, get in touch.

Which is the best dialling mode? There isn’t a simple answer, because it depends on the use case. The right dialling mode is the one that best meets the requirements of a particular campaign or customer demographic.

A dialler is simply a piece of software that automatically places calls to customers, but it can do that at different speeds and in different ways. The best way isn’t set because it changes depending on why and who you are calling. Ideally, your outbound dialleranswe will offer three modes which you can switch between as circumstances dictate.

For an overview of diallers, read our blog: Demystifying diallers – what they are and how they operate

Three dialler modes

The three main dialler modes are predictive, progressive and preview dialling. Ultimately, they all place calls automatically, so your agents don’t have to waste time dialling numbers or waiting for connections.

And they all share various features that help call centres operate efficiently. For example, they all offer call back management services, so customers who don’t answer or who do but can’t talk at that time are administered appropriately. At the same time, good call back management will ensure no customer gets called more frequently than regulations allow.

Good diallers in all modes will also recognise when calls are answered by answer machines and take appropriate action (such as leaving a pre-prepared message), without agents having to become involved in the call – this is called Answer Machine Detection (AMD).

In fact, the three modes share many similarities. But their differences are fundamental, and make each more suited to certain types of call and campaign. We explain the differences and their use cases below.

Predictive dialling

Predictive dialling is perhaps the ‘classic’ outbound call centre dialling mode, helping agents work through large databases of numbers, often as part of a mass market sales campaign.

How does predictive dialling work?

Predictive mode dials multiple numbers at the same time, and then matches answered calls to available agents. You can adjust the rate at which the dialler places calls, but speed and efficiency are of the essence with predictive dialling.

What are the benefits of predictive dialling?

Predictive dialling uses a sophisticated algorithm to estimate the number of calls that are likely to be answered and the number that are likely to ring off or connect to answering machines. It continually adjusts the rate of dialling as the algorithm gathers more information. Because a percentage of calls won’t be answered, it dials multiple numbers at the same time, ensuring agents spend as much time as possible talking to customers. It is the most intensive dialling mode but also the most efficient.

Who uses predictive dialling?

Predictive dialling is the gold standard for straightforward, high volume sales campaigns. It can quickly and efficiently work through large datasets, making sure leads are contacted while they’re still warm. Predictive dialling is about making every call count, and ensuring agents are always doing what they do best – talking to customers and leads.

Progressive dialling

Progressive diallers are auto diallers that only dial a number when an agent is available to take the call.

How does progressive dialling work?

Instead of calling multiple numbers at the same time, the system only calls the next number when the previous one is finished, or the agent indicates they are ready for the next call. Dialling is instant and automatic at that point, reducing wait time between calls.

What are the benefits of progressive dialling?

By slowing the pace down a little, the system still allows for a relatively high number of calls, but also eliminates the risk of customers abandoning calls or waiting a frustratingly long time before being connected to an agent. With progressive dialling, there is always an agent free to talk when a call is answered. That’s not always the case with predictive dialling, when customers may have to wait before being connected to an available agent.

Who uses progressive dialling?

Progressive dialling is often used in more targeted sales campaigns, or those involving higher value goods or services. Smaller, more focused data sets mean cost per call pressures are not so severe, and having an agent available when calls are answered is of paramount importance. After sales service teams may also prefer progressive dialling.

Preview dialling

Preview dialling automates call placing but only after agents have had time to gather and absorb information about the call recipient.

How does preview dialling work?

When an agent indicates availability, information about the next call is sent to the agent for preview. After a set amount of time the number is automatically dialled. The purpose of this delay is to let the agent prepare for the call, using information typically taken from the company CRM system.

What are the benefits of preview dialling?

The benefits of preview dialling are the time agents are allowed to prepare for a call. They can review all previous contacts with a customer and any other information stored on the firm’s CRM system. That stops customers having to repeat information they’ve already given and also leads to more personalised conversations.

Who uses preview dialling?

Preview diallers are particularly helpful when the reason for the call is complex or sensitive. That could be a debt resolution call, or a call responding to a customer complaint. Agents get to rehearse answers and tighten scripts before the call is connected.

Choosing the best dialling mode for your call centre

So which dialling mode is best for your call centre? Ideally, your system will allow you to switch between all three, but here are the questions to ask before choosing the right one at any given time.

Which dialler mode is best for cold calling?

It depends on the data set and what is being sold. For commodities and utilities, predictive dialling that can speed through large data sets efficiently is usually the best option. For higher value or B2B sales, progressive dialling may be preferable.

Which is the fastest dialling mode?

Predictive dialling is the fastest mode, because it calls more numbers than agents and connects agents as soon as they become available.

Which is the best dialler for current customer campaigns?

Progressive dialling is a low risk option that can improve customer experience, help nurture loyalty and effectively help agents upsell additional products and services. Because an agent is always available to have a conversation, the customers you have painstakingly nurtured over a period of time feel valued.

If we deal with more complicated calls or B2B campaigns, which dialling mode would be best?

In these instances you need to slow the pace of calls down and ensure agents are well informed about the reasons for the call or the product or service being sold. We’d recommend preview dialling for these types of calls.

My team deals with high-volume sales campaigns so which dialling mode should we use?

Predictive dialling will allow your team to get through a lot of calls in a short space of time, while keeping cost per call rates at a minimum.

Which dialling mode would help us maximise efficiency? It’s a key aim for our business

That depends on the circumstances. Predictive dialling places the most calls. But call speed efficiency counts for nothing if valued customers require a more personalised service, in which case an efficient call centre might be one that uses progressive or preview dialling. Take this on a case by case basis.

We’re looking for a dialler/dialling mode that will reduce the chance of dropping outbound calls. Which would be the most appropriate option for us?

MaxContact is your friend here. Our sophisticated customer engagement solution will keep dropped calls to an absolute minimum (in fact, close to zero), while helping you remain compliant.  

The verdict

The right dialler mode depends on the reason for the call and who you are calling. Predictive dialling works efficiently through large cold call data sets, progressive dialling reduces the risk of dropped calls and preview dialling allows for more personalised conversations. Each has huge advantages over manual dialling, but call centres must choose the balance of speed, preparedness and personalisation that best suits their needs.

Get more information on MaxContact’s feature packed dialler.

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