What are some challenges faced by vulnerable customers?
According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 27.7 million adults in the UK fall under their definition of a vulnerable customer. This includes having poor health, experiencing negative life events, low financial resilience, or having low decision-making capabilities.
According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 27.7 million adults in the UK fall under their definition of a vulnerable customer. This includes having poor health, experiencing negative life events, low financial resilience, or having low decision-making capabilities. This number is predicted to rise even further as the cost-of-living crisis impacts peoples’ finances and mental health.
However, many companies are unprepared to deliver the specific customer service support vulnerable customers now need. MaxContact interviewed 1,000 vulnerable customers who had recently interacted with a contact centre and found:
• 48% had struggled to find a phone number to contact a company in the past year
• When they had managed to reach a company’s customer services, 51% felt they were treated unfairly, and their needs were not accommodated
• The biggest problems revealed by vulnerable customers include:
∙ Being passed between different staff and having to re-explain the problem several times (51%)
∙ Having to navigate too many phone menus (IVR) to reach the right person e.g., press 1 for this, press 2 for this (45%)
∙ Feeling like the person they were talking to was trying to get them off the phone quickly (30%)
As a result, 52% said they had to abandon solving a problem because it was just too difficult, with 57% saying this had a negative impact on their mental or financial wellbeing.
The main support vulnerable customers say they want from companies is:
• Having their problem solved by one person rather than being passed between multiple advisors (46%)
• Being able to reach a real person quickly to explain their problem (39%)
• Being given enough time to properly explain and address their situation (31%)
The research also shows that vulnerable customers would like customer support services to show more empathy (23%) and 20% want customer service advisors to communicate with less jargon.
Helen Lord, CEO of the Vulnerability Registration Service, says, “Our own recent research underlines MaxContact’s findings.The cost-of-living crisis will undoubtedly place many customers in incredibly difficult circumstances. So, it’s essential that companies identify vulnerable customers early to provide them with the support they need – not only to meet regulators’ expectations but from a corporate responsibility perspective too.
It’s imperative the organisations can adapt their customer journeys appropriately, taking into account not just financial difficulties, but also mental or physical health and life events such as a relationship breakdown or bereavement, coercion or addiction.”
Gareth Morgan, H&T Group’s Operations and Communications Manager, and MaxContact client, says, “Our customer service centre provides instant, direct contact to a waiting agent. Every team member at H&T is trained to identify, explore and support vulnerable and potentially vulnerable customers.”
“It is important to us that vulnerable or potentially vulnerable customers have their account handled in the best way possible at the first time of asking.
“We prioritise call quality and customer service and do not impose limits on call times, wrap times or account updates. Therefore, H&T agents have the ability to focus on providing the best service and outcome possible for the customer. By providing time to ensure detailed and accurate notes can be recorded, we eliminate the customer needing to repeat or re-explain their circumstances in the future.”
To help customers better support the larger numbers of vulnerable customers who will be contacting them, MaxContact has created a practical checklist of measures for contact centres to consider implementing. Download your copy here to learn five practical ways to support vulnerable customers.
Ben Booth, MaxContact CEO, says, “It’s the perfect storm for customer service teams.Customer complaints are at their highest point ever and there are more complex situations and vulnerable customers to support than ever before. We know that to make a real difference with vulnerable customers, as well as staying compliant with the FCA’s new consumer duty guidance, leaders need practical, easy-to-follow advice which they can put into action at their own organisations right away.”
To see how MaxContact’s customer engagement platform can help you support vulnerable customers more effectively, get in touch.
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Ofcom's Plan of Work 2024/25: What Contact Centre Leaders Need to Know
As a contact centre leader, staying on top of regulatory changes is crucial to ensure compliance and a customer-centric approach. Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has recently published its Plan of Work for 2024/25, outlining its priorities and projects for the coming year. While the plan covers a wide range of areas, including media and online safety, there are several key points that contact centre leaders should be aware of.
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Term Dictionary
This blog uses key terms related to the contact centre industry, as defined by Ofcom guidance. You’ll see these terms throughout the text.
ADR – Alternative Dispute Resolution: A process where a third party, such as an ombudsman, helps resolve disputes between consumers and companies.
PSTN – Public Switched Telephone Network: The traditional landline telephone system.
VoIP – Voice over Internet Protocol: A method for making voice calls using an internet connection instead of a traditional phone line.
Consumer protection monitoring and compliance
Ofcom will continue to focus on ensuring that consumer protection interventions and voluntary initiatives are properly implemented and have a positive impact on consumers. This includes considering new customer protections relating to mobile roaming, inadvertent roaming, complaints handling processes, and any new rules relating to inflation-linked in-contract price rises.
For contact centres, this means a continued emphasis on delivering high-quality customer service and support. Ensuring that your teams are well-trained on handling complaints, providing clear information about services and pricing, and assisting customers who may be facing issues with roaming or unexpected charges will be crucial.
Supporting vulnerable customers
Ofcom will continue to monitor whether providers are treating customers in vulnerable circumstances fairly and giving them the support and services they need. They will work with the UK Regulators Network to improve outcomes for vulnerable consumers.
Contact centres play a vital role in identifying and supporting vulnerable customers. It’s essential to provide training to your teams on recognising signs of vulnerability, handling sensitive conversations with empathy, and offering appropriate support and solutions. Regularly reviewing and updating your vulnerability policies and procedures will help ensure you’re meeting Ofcom’s expectations and providing the best possible service to vulnerable customers.
Tackling nuisance calls and scams
Ofcom will work closely with industry, government, and other regulators to make scams harder to perpetrate. They will help consumers avoid scams by raising awareness and improving information, focusing on addressing voice scams while also exploring options to further disrupt the sending of scam messages.
As a contact centre leader, it’s important to be vigilant about potential scams and to have robust processes in place to protect your customers. This may include implementing stringent security measures, providing regular training to your teams on identifying and reporting suspicious activity, and working closely with Ofcom and other relevant authorities to share information and best practices.
Migration from legacy services
Ofcom will work with communication providers and the government to ensure issues raised by the migration to voice-over-IP services (VoIP), including the ongoing switch-off of the public switched telephone network (PSTN), are identified and addressed to protect consumers from harm and minimise disruption.
Contact centres must be prepared for the transition away from legacy systems and ensure that their technology and processes are up to date. This may involve investing in new infrastructure, updating training materials and scripts, and communicating proactively with customers about any changes that may affect them. Working closely with your technology providers and staying informed about Ofcom’s guidance on the migration process will be key to a smooth transition.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) review
Ofcom currently approves two Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes and has commenced a review to assess whether consumers are receiving accessible, fair, and consistent outcomes from the available ADR schemes in the telecoms sector.
Contact centres should be familiar with the ADR schemes available and have processes to escalate complaints to ADR when necessary. Keeping abreast of any changes to the ADR landscape resulting from Ofcom’s review will be important to ensure you’re providing the best possible support to customers who may need to pursue ADR.
Key Takeaways
Focus on delivering high-quality customer service and support, with well-trained teams capable of handling complaints, providing clear information, and assisting customers with issues such as roaming or unexpected charges.
Provide training to teams on identifying and supporting vulnerable customers, regularly reviewing and updating vulnerability policies and procedures.
Implement robust security measures and collaborate with authorities to protect customers from nuisance calls and scams.
Prepare for the transition from legacy services to VoIP, investing in new infrastructure, updating training materials and scripts, and communicating proactively with customers.
Stay informed about developments in the ADR landscape to ensure customers receive the best possible support when escalating complaints.
Navigating the evolving regulatory landscape
In conclusion, while Ofcom’s Plan of Work 2024/25 covers a broad range of areas, there are several key points that contact centre leaders should focus on. By prioritising consumer protection, supporting vulnerable customers, tackling scams, preparing for the migration from legacy services, and staying informed about ADR developments, contact centres can ensure they remain compliant with Ofcom’s regulations and continue to deliver excellent customer service.
Staying proactive, adaptable, and customer-focused will be essential as the regulatory landscape continues to evolve. By keeping these priorities in mind and working closely with industry partners and regulators, contact centre leaders can navigate the challenges ahead and seize opportunities to enhance their operations and better serve their customers.
Uncertain about Ofcom regulations? MaxContact can help. Get in touch with our team for expert guidance to ensure your contact centre has compliance peace of mind.
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5 min read
How Your Contact Centre Can Support Vulnerable Customers
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How does your contact centre support potentially vulnerable customers?
As agents speak with countless people daily, while trying to meet targets and other responsibilities, sometimes it can be tough to give each customer the time and sensitivity they deserve.
However, there has been an increasing number of vulnerable adults, in part due to the cost-of-living crisis and the pandemic. MaxContact commissioned research on 1,000 customers who identified as vulnerable across the country to find out more about their needs and how contact centre staff could better support them.
In this webinar session, MaxContact’s Sean McIver speaks with Sandra Thompson, Goleman Emotional Intelligence coach in the UK and Founder of Ei Evolution, and Helen Lord, CEO and Founder of the Vulnerability Registration Service (VRS), to explore how contact centres can support vulnerable customers.
Keep reading for the top takeaways from our discussion or tune in to the full video.
Identifying vulnerable customers
How do we define a vulnerable person?
Unfortunately, there is no one single answer to this. Vulnerability comes in all different shapes and sizes. It could relate to financial vulnerability, recent job loss, age or disability-related issues, mental illness, or bereavement. Any of these things can affect how people make decisions and how much support they need.
When handling sensitive topics in calls, it’s so important that first line staff have some training in how to best respond to and support customers going through tough times.
As Helen explains, there’s greater recognition of the different aspects of vulnerability these days – especially following the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis we currently face. People are generally more open about things like financial hardship and mental health, which is a positive step.
However, there’s still a long way to go in Helen’s opinion. There is currently a lot of talk and not enough action.
How businesses have responded to an increase in vulnerable customers
Sandra says that when leaders and staff have a better understanding of compassion and empathy, they can help to keep customers calm and resolve their problems more effectively. Part of that includes being proactive in giving out information so that customers feel like they have more control over their own situation.
Many organisations are realising this and are doing what they can to train their staff in this way. However, there are still plenty of organisations that don’t do this. As a result, contact centre staff often suffer from burnout, and customers are left feeling like the agents don’t understand them.
This leads to greater tension between the organisation and the customer, which means that issues take longer to resolve.
There are two stages of handling customer vulnerability. The first is to identify it, and the second is to think about how we can accommodate it in customer interactions.
As Helen says, dealing with vulnerability comes down to good customer service first and foremost.
Beyond that, organisations need to rethink how they map customer journeys because not all customers will experience things the same way.
For example, those experiencing mental health issues or people who are victims of economic abuse will have an entirely different experience. That’s why it’s important to consider all the different types of customer journeys.
While you may not be able to map out each individual one, understanding that everyone experiences things differently and taking things on a case-by-case basis will help agents support each customer individually.
The key to this is emotional intelligence. When agents have greater emotional intelligence, it makes them more empathetic and understanding of each customer’s journey. It also helps to keep agents themselves calm when dealing with emotionally difficult calls with customers.
Three things organisations can do to provide a better service
1 . Create content to support customers
Sandra says that if you have a good understanding of your customers and their needs, you should create content such as videos that help to build that emotional connection.
Videos with useful advice can help customers feel empowered to tackle their own challenges. This can also reduce the number of customer calls.
2 . Ensure you have the right statistics
This means, for example, having a way to see if a customer has called multiple times and keeps getting cut off. If people are discussing emotional issues on a call and they get cut off, it can increase mental stress.
Having that data keeps agents informed and ready to help customers right away.
3 . Try something counterintuitive
While many call centres have targets on call handling times, Sandra has a method that might seem a little counterintuitive.
Instead of trying to speed up the call, simply say “take your time.” When customers are stressed and are scrambling to remember a password, for example, saying “take your time” helps to keep them calm.
Once they’re calm, they’re more likely to remember a password, and you can resolve the issues much faster. While it might seem like this phrase would increase call time, you might find it does the opposite.
Protect contact centre staff
Dealing with difficult situations and emotions can take its toll on your agents as well. That’s why it’s so important to think about their wellbeing and mental health as well.
Helen suggests doing what you can to avoid a blame culture. By focusing so much on call times and targets, you just add more stress to the situation. Agents might feel rushed when dealing with sensitive issues, and this can affect customer service.
Another way you can protect contact centre staff is to ensure they have adequate training to deal with difficult calls. If agents don’t feel prepared, this can increase stress, and that affects the customer’s experience as well. Good training is a win-win for all.
Sandra shares some more ideas about how you can improve the training side of things.
1 . Don’t forget to check in on your remote staff
It’s important in today’s world to make sure you’re checking in on your remote staff. You can try out tools such as TeamMood, which staff can use to share feedback and let you know if they’re feeling low or stressed.
Remember, people won’t usually come to tell you this themselves, but a tool can prompt them.
2 . Check-in on team meetings
Before diving into your meeting agenda, have a quick check-in with everyone. Ask how they are and if they give vague answers, dig in further and ask more specific questions.
Sandra suggests, “what’s the top thing you feel amazing about?” Specific questions can help you understand your staff more easily and spot when something is wrong.
3 . Invite people to develop their understanding of emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is essential when handling difficult calls and emotional situations. Sandra suggests encouraging your agents to learn more about what it is and how you can improve it via online articles and videos.
Improve outgoing communication
Incoming communication from customer calls is one thing to think about, but we can also improve any outbound communications as well.
Sandra has three ideas you can try out:
1 . Prepare your customer for calls they’re due to receive
A quick email to let them know to expect a call over the next few days or a check-in can help to prepare customers. That way, they’re not suddenly dealing with a call and trying to figure out their account details. This can just increase stress, so a simple heads-up can go a long way.
2 . Make sure you’re tuned in to responses
Hearing and listening are two different things. When you make those outbound calls, are you really hearing the response the customer is giving? What words are they using? What behaviours are they showing when they receive calls?
3 . Empower agents
What degree of risk is there for agents who go above and beyond to help individual customers? Are agents empowered to resolve customer issues without passing them on to another member of staff?
By empowering agents to really help customers, they can feel good about their work and your customers will also get the care they need quickly.
By increasing openness and understanding – while improving staff training, contact centres can better support their customers.
To learn more about customer vulnerability and what call centres can do to improve their approach to it, tune in to the full webinar.
Blog
5 min read
Are You Ready for AI In Your Contact Centre?
Learn what AI readiness really looks like - and download the scorecard to assess yours.
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AI doesn’t fix contact centres. It scales them. If your journeys are joined up, automation can reduce the pressure your team is facing. However, if they’re fragmented, AI amplifies the friction - faster transfers, repetition and customer effort. That’s why the most useful question contact centre leaders can ask themselves isn’t “What can AI do?” - it’s, "Are we actually ready for it?".
Whether you’re running sales and retention in telecoms, payment collections with vulnerability considerations in finance, customer support in utilities, or managing multiple client programmes in a BPO, the readiness question is the same - do we have the foundations to automate without increasing customer effort or operational risk?
“Always-on” support is an operating model, not a staffing one. It's built to remove avoidable demand, protecting your team's time for high-judgement conversations, and making escalation safe when risk or complexity arises.
Always-On Service Starts with Resolution, Not Headcount.
Consumers are increasingly expecting help at any time of day, across voice and digital channels. But increasing headcount to meet 24/7 customer support expectations isn’t sustainable for most contact centres operating on tight margins.
An always-on contact centre doesn’t mean agents working around the clock. It means using AI and automation to absorb predictable demand across inbound and outbound – from service updates and appointment changes to sales follow-ups and renewals, to payment reminders and self-serve arrangements - without needing an agent for every interaction.
The trap many leaders fall into is assuming that automation alone creates always-on. It doesn’t. Always-on is the result of clear journeys, consistent rules, and controlled escalation.
The Real Readiness Problem: Avoidable Demand
Most contact centres don’t struggle because customers contact them. They struggle because customers are contacting them more than once.
A lot of volume is created by operational gaps:
Unresolved issues driving repeat contact
Too many transfers caused by poor routing
Long handle times driven by missing context
Channels operating as seperate service silos
This is the stuff that quietly drains performance. It also explains why some AI programmes stall: they automate interactions on top of broken flows, then wonder why customer effort doesn’t fall, and agent workload doesn’t change.
If you want a pragmatic AI strategy, start by identifying where the operation is generating demand it shouldn’t have to handle.
A Practical Readiness Lens: Demand, Continuity, Control
To make readiness tangible, use this simple lens. If any one of these is weak, automation outcomes will be capped - or worse, you’ll scale the wrong things.
1) Demand: Do You Know What Should Be Automated?
AI delivers value when it absorbs predictable, repeatable demand - the structured interactions that don’t require human judgement. If you can’t clearly separate predictable from complex demand, you’ll either automate the wrong things and frustrate your customers or keep too much with agents and miss the efficiency gains.
A pragmatic starting point is mapping the top drivers and asking: which ones are genuinely structured, and which are only “simple” because we’re not seeing the full context?
2) Continuity: Does Context Move with The Customer?
Customers think in outcomes, not channels. Readiness means your operation can maintain continuity when a conversation starts in chat and moves to voice, or when an outbound reminder triggers an inbound response, or when a customer returns with a follow-up and expects you to remember what happened last time.
If context doesn’t travel, automation becomes a reset button, and resets are where handle time, repeat contact, and frustration grow.
3) Control: Can You Escalate Safely and Measure Outcomes?
Automation should never be a dead end. When complexity rises, or when there’s vulnerability, a complaint, payment risk, or compliance exposure, you need controlled escalation to a human agent with the full context carried across.
If you can’t define escalation rules and success measures beyond containment” you’re not ready to scale. You’re ready to pilot.
Where AI Fits When You’re Ready: Layers, Not Channels
A common mistake is deploying AI as separate tools by channel - a chatbot here, an AI agent there - and expecting it to add up to an always on operation. It simply adds more mini contact centres to the one you already have.
A more practical approach is to treat AI as layers across the operating model:
Decision layer (AI Agents): Interprets intent, resolves structured interactions, and prevents outbound activity from automatically creating inbound pressure through unmanaged follow-up
Asynchronous layer (chatbots and messaging): Allows customers to complete routine tasks without joining a queue, while keeping journeys connected across voice and digital
Visibility Layer (Conversation Analytics): Shows where demand originates, where conversations stall, and what drives repeat contact so you can improve routing, coaching, and automation design based on evidence rather than instinct
When these layers support end-to-end workflows, AI stops being a bolt-on and becomes a genuine performance lever.
A Quick Readiness Check: The Questions Most Teams Skip
If you’re planning AI-enabled automation this quarter, these questions are worth answering before you commit time and budget:
What proportion of our demand is truly predictable and repeatable?
Where do customers repeat themselves, get transferred, or drop out?
What's creating repeat contact and how will we remove it?
What are our escalation triggers for risk, vulnerability or complexity and do we trust them?
How will we measure success beyond containment - effort, quality, outcomes, stability?
Do inbound and outbound journeys reinforce each other, or create extra pressure?
If those answers aren’t clear yet, that’s not a blocker, it's your roadmap.
Pressure-Test Your Readiness With The Scorecard
If you want a structured way to benchmark readiness across the foundations that matter - demand, continuity, escalation, and operational fit - our scorecard is designed for exactly that. Use it to create alignment internally, prioritise improvements, and shape an automation roadmap that holds up under real-world volume, not just pilot conditions. Download the Always-On Contact Centre Readiness Scorecard here.
Blog
5 min read
Automate smarter: how to identify what to automate in your contact centre
Not sure where to start with contact centre automation? Discover a proven framework for identifying the right interactions to automate — and when.
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The pressure to introduce AI in contact centres has never been greater. But automating the wrong interactions doesn’t just waste investment - it actively frustrates customers and creates more work for your team. Here’s how to get it right from the start.
The real challenge isn’t how to automate - it’s what
Most business leaders today aren’t asking whether to use AI in their contact centre. They’re asking where to start. And that’s exactly the right question to be asking.
We recently hosted a webinar exploring this challenge with Kayleigh Tait, Marketing Director at MaxContact, and Conor Bowler, Principal Product Manager. Together, they walked through the research, the common pitfalls, and a practical framework that helps contact centres make confident, data-driven automation decisions.
Here’s what they covered.
What UK consumers actually think about AI
MaxContact commissioned an independent survey of over 1,000 UK consumers who had interacted with a contact centre in the last 18 months. The findings from the Voice of the UK Consumer Report are revealing.
45% of UK consumers say they’re comfortable interacting with an AI-powered chatbot or virtual assistant. But 36% say they’re uncomfortable.
Only 36% say AI has improved their experience. Almost the same number - 32% - say it has made things worse.
65% of 25–34 year-olds are comfortable with AI, compared to just 27% of over-55s.
70% want a human when explaining their specific situation. 67% for emergencies. 61% when making a complaint.
55% of consumers have abandoned calls because of excessive wait times. 26% because they had to repeat information.
The takeaway? Automation isn’t automatically improving customer experience. It depends entirely on how and when it’s used - and critically, whether the strategy has been built around the customer or around internal efficiency targets.
The modern inbound customer journey
Most businesses treat every interaction the same, routing everything to queues. But inbound demand isn’t evenly distributed. It follows a pattern.
At the start of the journey, volumes are high and queries are simple: balance requests, payment dates, appointment changes, status updates. This is where AI and automation deliver the greatest impact - resolving queries quickly, reducing cost to serve, and freeing agent capacity without compromising experience.
As complexity increases, the role of automation shifts. Intelligent routing, context preservation from AI to human handover, and real-time agent support all help agents handle harder conversations faster and with more confidence.
At the resolution and advocacy stages, humans lead - supported by AI insights, not replaced by them. The goal is that automation removes repetitive workload at the top of the funnel, so people can focus on the interactions where judgment, empathy, and experience really matter.
How Conversation Analytics uncovers automation opportunities
Before you decide what to automate, you need to understand what’s actually happening in your contact centre. Conor Bowler demonstrated exactly how MaxContact’s Conversation Analytics makes this possible - at scale.
In the demo, Conor surfaced 28,000 calls from a single month, immediately identifying intent clusters: appointment booking accounted for 10% of interactions, technical challenges for 4%. Together, that’s 14% of call volume with clear automation potential - identified in minutes.
Using MaxContact’s AI assistant within the platform, teams can drill into individual calls, ask whether elements of those interactions could be automated, and use those insights to design workflows in MaxContact’s Workflow Studio. Those workflows can then be deployed directly to chatbots, voice agents, or email channels - with built-in escalation paths when automation reaches its limits.
For contact centres without Conversation Analytics today, this process is still possible — but relies on manual call sampling, disposition codes, and CRM data. It’s achievable, but slower and harder to repeat consistently over time.
The MaxContact Automation Framework
Based on research findings and direct experience working with contact centres of all sizes, MaxContact has developed a four-step framework for identifying automation opportunities.
Step 1: Start with real interaction data
Automation decisions should be driven by evidence, not assumption. Too often, automation projects are led top-down - driven by boardroom pressure or a use case that sounds innovative rather than one grounded in data. Starting with call recordings, chat transcripts, CRM data, disposition codes, and repeat contact patterns gives you the factual foundation to make better decisions.
Look for patterns: what are the most common reasons for contact? What consistently takes under three to four minutes to handle? What drives re-contact within 24 to 72 hours? Technology makes this repeatable - so you’re not starting from scratch every quarter.
Step 2: Cluster by intent
Rather than analysing by channel (voice vs email vs chat), cluster interactions by customer intent. Instead of ‘20,000 calls’, ask: how many were payment date queries? Balance requests? Appointment changes? Customers don’t think in channels — they think about the problem they want to solve.
Conversation Analytics surfaces these clusters automatically, saving hours of manual analysis and revealing patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Step 3: Rank by volume and effort
Not every repetitive query should be automated. Ranking by two lenses — volume (how often does this occur?) and effort (how much friction does this create?) - helps you prioritise strategically.
High volume + low effort: immediate automation potential.
High volume + high effort: may require journey redesign before automation.
Low volume + high effort: remain human for now.
Low volume + low effort: monitor and consider as a pilot.
Step 4: Validate with your team
Before you automate anything, validate the decision with the people who handle those conversations every day. Ask: Is this emotionally sensitive? Is it a brand touchpoint that customers value? Does it spike seasonally? Does what looks like a simple query often become a complex one underneath?
A payment query might look straightforward - but if it frequently leads to a conversation about payment difficulty, that’s not a candidate for full end-to-end automation. This step prevents automation decisions that look good on paper but frustrate customers in practice.
How do you know your automation is working?
Automation is working when three things improve simultaneously: business outcomes (cost to serve, conversion, retention), customer experience (faster resolution, less repetition), and operational performance (agents spending less time on repetitive tasks and more on complex conversations). If automation only improves one area, it’s likely not deployed in the right place.
Monitor containment rates, drop-off points, and escalation paths on a weekly basis for early warning signs. Review and optimise on a quarterly basis - or more frequently in fast-moving markets with changing regulation or customer expectations.
Book a complimentary automation consultancy session with our Customer Success team and we’ll run you through the MaxContact Automation Framework for your organisation: https://www.maxcontact.com/book-a-demo
Blog
5 min read
How to Measure the ROI of AI Automation in Your Contact Centre
Regardless of the industry they operate in, AI automation is a commercial necessity for contact centres, rather than a tool to experiment with.
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According to our latest Benchmark Report, 66% of contact centres are currently using or piloting AI with the aim of reducing operational costs and driving productivity.
But measuring ROI from AI automation isn’t straightforward.
A contact centre specialising in debt collection may measure ROI through reduced cost per contact, improved payment completion rates, or increased compliance consistency. Meanwhile, an outsourced contact centre that handles high-volume inbound enquiries may focus on deflection rates, average handling time or agent utilisation.
Channel mix can also influence impact. Voice-reliant operations see ROI through reduced call queue pressure and lower cost per call, while digital-first environments may prioritise customer containment and response speed.
Measuring AI ROI properly means understanding what success looks like in your specific environment, rather than relying on generic savings estimates.
Start with a baseline: what does a human-handled interaction really cost?
Before you can begin to measure the return from AI automation, you need a clear picture of what interactions cost when they’re handled by people.
For most UK contact centres, the average cost of a human-handled voice call sits between £5.50 and £6.50 per interaction. This is often used as a headline figure, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
The total cost is driven by other factors, including:
Agent salaries and on-costs
Training and onboarding, which are made more expensive by high attrition rates
Quality assurance and compliance overhead, including call monitoring and reporting
Out-of-hours staffing, which significantly increases the cost for 24/7 coverage
Inefficiencies caused by repeat calls, transfers and long handle times
Even when handled efficiently, live calls demand dedicated agent time, whereas digital interactions can be managed asynchronously and at a greater scale.
A voice-heavy operation will feel cost pressure very differently from a digital-first one, and ROI calculations need to reflect that reality.
By contrast, AI-handled interactions typically cost a fraction of a human-handled call, often coming in at under £0.50 per interaction, depending on channel, complexity and volume. That gap is where ROI potential starts to emerge, but only if you understand what you’re replacing or augmenting in the first place.
Put simply, you can’t measure ROI without first understanding what each interaction costs you now. Without a baseline, your savings might look impressive on paper but will prove impossible to validate in practice.
The core ROI generators of AI automation
Not every AI capability is designed to solve the same problem, and not every contact centre will prioritise the same outcomes.
The key to measuring ROI accurately is understanding where value is being created in your operation.
AI Agents: reducing cost per interaction and extending capacity
AI Agents deliver ROI by reducing the cost of handling routine interactions and extending service availability without increasing headcount.
Instead of relying solely on human agents to manage every enquiry, AI Agents can handle high-volume, repetitive interactions end-to-end. This includes tasks such as customer authentication, balance enquiries, payment queries and status updates. Each interaction handled by an AI Agent reduces the cost of a human-handled call.
From an ROI perspective, contact centres typically measure:
Cost per AI-handled interaction (often under £0.50)
The percentage of total interactions fully handled by AI
Reductions in out-of-hours staffing costs
Reduced call queue pressure during peak periods
When AI Agents are used to automate between 40-60% of repetitive interactions, the cost impact is significant. Organisations frequently see monthly savings running into tens of thousands of pounds, driven purely by lower cost per interaction and improved utilisation of human agents.
For Indebted (a contact centre in the debt collection industry), automating repetitive interactions with an AI Agent led to a 30% increase in contact centre productivity and a 12% uplift in resolution rates.
AI Chatbots: deflection, containment and digital ROI
While AI Agents reduce the cost of handling interactions, AI Chatbots drive ROI by preventing interactions from becoming calls in the first place.
AI Chatbots aren’t a separate intelligence layer. They’re a digital channel through which AI Agents operate, using the same logic, workflows and compliance rules. The difference is where the interaction happens.
From an ROI standpoint, AI Chatbots are measured through:
Deflection rates (queries resolved without reaching an agent)
Reduction in inbound call volume
Digital containment rates
Cost difference between chatbot interactions and human-led webchat or calls
Impact on Average Handle Time (AHT) by removing routine demand
When routine queries are resolved digitally, contact centres reduce inbound pressure, shorten queues and protect agent capacity. Customers benefit from instant responses, while the organisation avoids the higher cost of voice-based interactions altogether.
AI-powered conversation analytics: ROI beyond cost reduction
Not all AI-driven ROI comes from removing interactions. Some of the most valuable gains come from making existing interactions more effective.
AI-powered conversation analytics deliver ROI by improving visibility, performance and compliance across every conversation. Teams gain insights across 100% of interactions instead of manual samples.
From an ROI perspective, contact centres typically measure:
Reduced manual QA effort and review time
Faster onboarding and agent coaching
Improved compliance monitoring and risk identification
Earlier identification of call drivers and friction points
Improvements in agent effectiveness over time
Conversation analytics don’t directly reduce demand. Instead, they help contact centres understand why interactions are happening, where time is being lost, and how performance can be improved at scale.
ROI looks different depending on your contact centre model
The value AI automation delivers depends on how your contact centre operates, what pressures you’re under, and what success looks like to you.
Below are three common models, and how ROI typically shows up in each.
Debt collection & financial services
In debt collection and financial services, ROI is closely tied to cost control, compliance and availability.
Key ROI drivers typically include:
Lower cost per contact
Consistent, auditable compliance
Always-on availability without expensive out-of-hours staffing
AI Agents are particularly effective here because they can handle structured, repeatable interactions reliably, including:
Customer authentication
Payment flows
Balance and status updates
By automating these journeys, organisations reduce inbound demand on human agents while ensuring interactions are handled consistently and compliantly.
As seen with Indebted, automating high-volume, predictable enquiries helped reduce the cost per interaction while maintaining service availability across extended hours.
Outsourced contact centres and BPOs
For outsourced contact centres, ROI is less about absolute cost reduction and more about margin protection and scalability.
Typical ROI focus areas include:
Improving agent utilisation
Protecting margins under fixed-price or SLA-based contracts
Maintaining service levels during demand spikes
AI plays a key role by absorbing predictable demand during peak periods, reducing the need to rapidly scale your headcount. This helps BPOs meet SLAs without over-recruiting or burning out agents during busy periods.
There’s also a longer-term ROI impact through reduced pressure on frontline teams, which can help lower churn and stabilise delivery costs.
Public sector, health and support services
In public sector and support-led environments, ROI is often measured in capacity, continuity and service quality, not just financial savings.
Key ROI considerations include:
Extending service availability with limited budgets
Reducing pressure on frontline staff
Protecting agent wellbeing in emotionally demanding roles
ROI in Real Terms: Quitline Victoria
Using AI Agents to support outbound engagement, Quitline Victoria achieved a 62% answer rate, 18% completion rate and 10% re-engagement rate, extending service reach without increasing pressure on frontline counsellors.
In this context, ROI is realised through better allocation of human effort, improved service continuity and a more sustainable operating model, rather than simple cost removal.
A practical framework for calculating AI automation ROI
Step
What to assess
What to quantify
1. Baseline costs
Understand what interactions cost today
Salary, training, attrition, and out-of-hours premiums.
2. Identify automatable interactions
Pinpoint where AI can add value
% of queries that are “transactional” (Status, Pay, Reset).
3. Estimate containment & deflection
Assess how much demand AI can absorb
The volume of demand AI can fully resolve (usually 40–60%).
4. Compare cost per interaction
Quantify direct cost savings
Monthly volume × (Human Cost − AI Cost).
5. Factor in secondary benefits
Capture longer-term ROI
Reductions in agent churn and manual QA overhead.
Common ROI mistakes to avoid
When measuring the ROI of AI automation, it’s easy to focus on the headline numbers and miss what actually drives long-term value. These are some of the most common pitfalls contact centres run into.
Measuring AI in isolation AI rarely delivers ROI on its own. Its impact comes from how well it’s embedded into existing journeys, channels and workflows. Measuring AI separately from call routing, workforce management, or analytics often underplays its true value.
Expecting 100% automation AI isn’t designed to handle every interaction. The biggest gains come from automating the right interactions. The interactions that are predictable, repeatable and time-sensitive. Complex or sensitive conversations should always be assigned to human agents.
Focusing only on call deflection Reducing inbound volume matters, but it’s not the whole picture. ROI also comes from shorter handle times, better first-contact resolution, smoother handovers and improved agent productivity.
Ignoring quality, compliance and experience Lower cost interactions mean very little if service quality drops or compliance risk increases. ROI should always be measured alongside consistency and customer outcomes, especially if you’re operating in a regulated environment.
Treating ROI as a short-term metric AI ROI compounds over time. As models learn, workflows improve, and teams adapt, the value of it grows. Measuring success only in the first few weeks can hide the longer-term gains in capacity, scalability and higher resilience.
ROI is about balance, not replacement
The strongest ROI from AI automation comes from supporting people rather than replacing them.
Used as part of a human-AI hybrid model, AI Agents, AI Chatbots and analytics help contact centres reduce cost per interaction and extend capacity to deliver a more consistent service, without increasing headcount or burning out teams.
ROI isn’t something you measure once and move on from. The most successful contact centres refine automation over time as demand, channels and expectations change.
If you want to understand what ROI could look like in your contact centre, start by exploring how AI can support your existing operation.
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