1. Call Pickup Rate – Low pickup rates may indicate poor dialling strategies or incorrect customer data. Are managers addressing these issues to improve connection rates?
2. Average Call Duration – Longer calls may suggest engagement or inefficiencies. Do managers have the available insight to help distinguish between productive interactions and wasted time?
3. Average Handling Time (AHT) – Balancing efficiency with quality is crucial. Are managers optimising processes to reduce delays without compromising service?
4. Answering Machine Detection Rate – High voicemail rates waste agent time. Are contact centres adjusting their approach to minimise this?
5. Rejection Rate – A high volume of unanswered calls may point to poor targeting or dialling strategies. Are managers refining their approach based on this data?
6. Agent Wait Time Between Calls – Excessive downtime signals inefficiency. Are workflows optimised to keep agents engaged and productive?
7. Conversion Rate – Success is measured by call outcomes. Are managers analysing why some calls convert while others fail, and adjusting strategies accordingly?
8. Occupancy Rate – Are agents being overworked, leading to burnout, or underutilised, resulting in wasted resources? Do managers have the right data and leadership skills to balance their team members’ workloads effectively?
9. Data Accuracy – Poor data leads to inefficiencies and failed connections. Are managers ensuring databases remain up to date?
10. Right Party Contact Rate – If agents aren’t reaching the intended recipients, performance suffers. Are managers taking steps to improve contact accuracy?
11. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) – A positive customer experience is essential. Are managers prioritising training to enhance service quality?

• Lack of real-time performance insights.
• Insufficient training for managers to interpret and act on KPI trends.
• Inefficient processes that fail to align with data-driven improvements.
• Gaps in technology preventing optimal call routing and workflow automation.

In today’s outsourcing landscape, success depends on much more than cost savings and process efficiency.

On 25^th February 2025, Neville Doughty and Phil Kitchen from the Customer Contact Panel hosted a webinar with Joe Hill-Wilson, CEO and Co-Founder of Learn Amp and Martin Hill-Wilson, Owner of Brainfood Consulting, to discuss Sustainable Operating Models in Outsourcing. One of the most important takeaways from the discussion on sustainable operating models is that Learning and Development (L&D) must be embedded into the core of every outsourcing strategy. Without continuous learning, sustainability simply isn’t possible.

Why Learning and Development is a Sustainability Driver

In outsourcing environments, teams often face rapid change, evolving client expectations, and shifting technologies. This is reflected in the data – 92% of organisations are facing high or very high risk of top talent leaving in the next year (Brandon Hall Group, HCM Outlook, 2024). Without a structured and ongoing approach to skills development, outsourced teams can struggle to keep pace, leading to inconsistent quality, reduced productivity, and higher turnover . During the webinar, 82% of attendees reported that current procurement practice restricts the value they can bring to their clients.

The key takeaway? Organisations that embed L&D into their operating models create more resilient, adaptable, and future-ready outsourcing workforces.

Challenges in Sustainable Learning for Outsourced Teams

The panel discussed the various challenges companies face when it comes to embedding learning into outsourced operations:

• Geographical and Cultural Gaps: How can we create a unified learning experience for teams spread across different countries, cultures, and time zones?
• Engagement and Adoption: With high attrition rates common in outsourced environments, how do we motivate teams to actively engage in learning?
• Measuring Impact: How can we quantify the ROI of learning programs in outsourcing partnerships?

What Effective L&D Looks Like in Sustainable Outsourcing

When looking at solutions for the challenges discussed, the panel noted the importance of centralised learning platforms that deliver consistent, engaging content to all locations. Platforms like Learn Amp help organisations create:

• Standardised onboarding programs to accelerate time-to-competence.
• Bite-sized, mobile-friendly learning content to fit learning into busy shifts.
• Social learning spaces that encourage peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.
• Data dashboards to measure engagement, skills development, and business impact.

Embedding L&D into Operating Models: 3 Key Strategies

Treat L&D as a Business Process, not a Project
Learning shouldn’t be an afterthought or an annual event. It needs to be a continuous, embedded process that evolves with the business and its outsourcing needs. 

Make Learning a Shared Responsibility
Learning success shouldn’t fall solely on HR or L&D teams. Operations managers, team leaders, and employees themselves all need to co-own learning outcomes. 

Measure What Matters
Sustainable learning models measure not just completion rates, but real business impact: faster onboarding; fewer errors; higher customer satisfaction; and improved employee retention. The LinkedIn Workplace Report shared that 94% of employees would stay longer if companies invested in their development. 

Key Takeaway

If there’s one key takeaway from the webinar, it’s this: sustainable outsourcing depends on sustainable learning. When organisations invest in embedding learning into every stage of the outsourcing lifecycle, they create an employee experience where team members thrive.

If you would like to access a copy of the recording it is available here: Webinar Link

The year ahead promises to be a turning point for customer contact. AI and automation are advancing at an unprecedented pace, yet businesses are facing economic uncertainty, rising costs, and rapidly shifting customer expectations. The pressure to adopt new technology and improve service levels means leaders must make bold, strategic choices.

At the end of 2024, we held our annual ‘Big Conversation’ to uncover key challenges for the year ahead and hear directly from cross-sector contact centre leaders about how they’re addressing them. These insights have shaped our latest whitepaper, 2025: A Year of Difficult Conversations?. In this paper, we explore those challenges in detail and outline priorities and solutions. One theme dominates: success in 2025 will depend on how well businesses navigate ‘difficult conversations’—both within their organisations and with their customer and suppliers.

How can you make the right tech decisions in the age of AI?

AI can be a powerful tool for improving operational efficiency. However, the reality is stark: according to Gartner, 80% of AI projects fail, which is twice the failure rate of non-AI projects. Despite this, the pressure in the boardroom to “do something with AI” is stronger than ever. The key question isn’t whether to implement AI, but how to do so strategically and safely.

When AI is implemented well it can deliver valuable results. But the risks of adopting this still fledgling technology can be significant—wasted investment, damage to reputation, and disruption to operations. The businesses that succeed with AI will be those that clearly define its use cases, align them with business goals, invest in high-quality, integrated data, and ensure that AI complements human expertise rather than replacing it. AI has the potential to be a game-changer—but only with careful consideration.

How do we meet economic, regulatory and resource challenges?

While grappling technology decisions, contact centres also face ongoing economic headwinds, regulatory challenges and a 15% decrease in headcount since 2019.

As businesses introduce new contact channels and explore innovative solutions, the fundamental customer need remains unchanged—a fast and effective response

But despite the rise in self-serve and co-pilot automation, customer satisfaction in the UK has declined. While automation is handling simple queries, agents are left to tackle only the most complex cases with fewer resources overall. Agents have little respite from more intense interactions and operations have fewer agents available. Even with future AI implementations, research predicts relatively modest headcount reductions of a maximum of 15%.

What’s more, in 2025, UK contact centres will need to absorb and manage an 8-10% increase in agent costs. Meanwhile the ongoing cost of living crisis means customers remain stressed and regulatory requirements add to operational demands —all against the backdrop of a muted growth forecast and ongoing economic challenges. No wonder things feel pressured.

Consequently, leaders are exploring various ways to optimise their service models, including offshoring, automation, or refining their approach.

Getting It Right: From Good to Great

One thing is clear. Transformation isn’t optional—it’s essential. The businesses that thrive in 2025 will be the ones that take a proactive approach. The most successful organisations will define clear, achievable AI use cases, align data, technology, and human expertise, prioritise governance, security, and compliance, and engage employees in AI adoption from the start.

The path ahead will present both opportunities and challenges, but with the right strategy, tackling today’s difficult conversations can pave the way for a stronger competitive edge tomorrow.

Read our paper for more detailed analysis of the challenges, but more importantly, how to tackle those challenges and put in place a positive programme of change.

The Whitepaper is free to download and immediately accessible below. We would love to hear your experiences too. Follow us on LinkedIn to share your thoughts.

In early February I attended the IP Integration “Spotlight” event at the Midland Hotel in Manchester where we were provided access to some great insights from the team and from Steve Morrell of ContactBabel, what follows are my thoughts and reflections arising:

Something around customer adoption of automated solutions has been playing on my mind, it often happens when I suggest someone talk to an automated bot solution so they can experience first-hand how far the technology has come, where it is going and what the real possibilities are.

Being in the CX world and having several partners on our network that have such solutions, I have a number saved to my phone, just for this type of conversation.  If I pull the phone from my pocket, find the number, dial it and hand it someone to have a conversation then I often feel that the “conversation” isn’t as free flowing as it should be.  Why? Well that is a great question.

I suppose it could be that for the past 15 years when contact centres have effectively forced customers to speak to automated voice response systems, we have typically limited customer so saying one word “listen to the following list of options and then say the option you would like” or “in a few words please say why you are calling today” so for years we’ve been saying ‘please speak to this automated system in a short staccato format’. Now, in a matter of a couple of years, some businesses are offering customers the opportunity to speak freely to their bots or automations, whilst others are still on the limited few words space. No wonder consumers get confused – and the acceptance and adoption of voice automation could well be held back as a result. 

Voice is here to stay?

The truth is that voice interactions are still our favoured route of contact as customers, when it comes to getting things done and obtaining reassurance that we’ve been heard.  Whilst the death of voice in contact centres has been forecast for the past 20 years, the reality remains that voice is here to stay, millennia of evolution cannot be undone so quickly. Data shared at our webinar on the State of the Customer Experience Market with David Rickard of Everest Group in November (article link) validated this, as their research highlighted that 72% of revenues amongst the outsource community were still coming from voice-based activity in 2023 when both agent supported voice and conversational AI driven interactions were considered.

The data shared in the room in Manchester by Steve Morrell of ContactBabel corroborated this view, with 64% of interactions being cited as voice in his forthcoming 2025 report. Also that we are so keen to ensure that we speak to someone that we will now wait in the longer queues that have been identified post pandemic and that we have accepted these as the norm.

So, as a human race we have a deep attachment to use of voice, however I’m still receiving articles daily which suggest otherwise – and ours is an industry which is based on employing people to talk to customers. We need to acknowledge that ‘the bots’ or automation is coming for our lunch, which according to an article in the New York Times on February 1^st it may however already be in a place to arrange someone to bring our lunch and where may that end?

An article by Kevin Roose details several tasks which he managed to complete using OpenAI’s Operator, a new AI agent in the week prior. Most of the tasks it did autonomously with minimal intervention. It met its brief of being an AI agent that uses the computer to accomplish valuable real-world tasks, without the need for supervision, to complete tasks in the background with a handoff back to the user to enter passwords or payment card details.  However, in Kevin’s article he talks of how it ordered lunch to be delivered to a colleague’s house and responded to LinkedIn messages well, up to the point where it started signing him up to attend webinars, amongst other tasks.  There were, however, several tasks where the automation struggled or needed an amount of reassurance or confirmations. Because of which he felt that it would have been faster to do the tasks himself, but acknowledged that the AI agent is at an early stage of development.

What we do know is that the evolution of technology is only gaining pace. Peter Diamandis, founder of the XPRIZE (https://www.xprize.org/) , is cited as having said in 2020 that “the next 10 years will bring more progress than the last 100 years” Given the pace of change in the past 5 years, it is reasonable to assume that Moore’s Law will hold true in this instance –  and that we need to be ready for this.

As humans we like voice, we choose voice. But if personal assistants in the form of OpenAI’s Operator or DeepSeek were to be adopted by the general public (your customers) to complete their home admin tasks, then these systems won’t have the same emotional connection to voice conversations and will be happy to interact directly with a company bot. However, how quickly will we reach that point?

Public adoption is key then?

We can implement the best solutions in the world, but if nobody uses them, what use are they?

Whatever is coming next, we have a dependency on customers to embrace and use those solutions, whether that is voice automation in the contact centre or the potential for the eventual use of “their own” automation by customers to engage with brands to resolve issues.

We’ve seen before conversations around ‘brand by-pass’. Now, using an Alexa or alternative voice-activated AI assistant to complete simple tasks is clearly the gateway to us getting to a point of asking technology to, say, engage with our utility provider to amend our direct debit or to find a cheaper insurance renewal.  At this point we as individuals will have less input to what brands we choose to purchase, so then the brands that will succeed are those that are easiest for our automations to interact with.

But before we get to this utopian vision of admin free lives with our AI assistants ensuring the effective running of our homes and lives, we need to pass a point of public adoption of AI.

A 2023 report from Ipsos shows that 66% of people they surveyed globally expect that products and services using artificial intelligence will profoundly change their daily life in the next 3-5 years. Whilst this is the average, the range of responses on a country and demographic level vary considerably, with the proportion expressing this belief in South Korea as high as 82%, whilst France sees the lowest number agreeing with this sentiment at 51% (we in the UK see 58% agreeing with this statement).

So, whilst there is broad agreement that services using artificial intelligence will change our lives, what people are willing to adopt and how is a key consideration, acknowledging that some will be unable to adopt due to a variety of reasons.

The conversation at the Spotlight event therefore quite naturally centred on work that could be done to implement changes or applications of AI to better support the contact centre agents in delivering service efficiently without too much impact to the customer, generating a series of marginal gains which support the agent in resolving customer queries, potentially reducing call durations and in turn queues and repeat contacts –  a series of win/win scenarios which:

• Improve service
• Reduce pressure on the contact centre team
• Reduce repeat contacts
• Reduce the time customers spend trying to get through
• Reduce costs
• Improve staff wellbeing

Changes which fulfil the appetite of businesses to implement changes and leverage AI, but consider how willing customers are to adopt these changes.

Is some re-programming required?

If we want the possible AI solutions to be successful, we will have to consider how we guide customers to use these solutions most effectively. Our industry has created a sub-optimal situation through a combination of poor customer experiences in the past, limited system capabilities and a “tell me in three words” approach. If we want customers to embrace the possibilities of technology, then we need to bring them on the journey.

Consider how self-serve check-outs have become the norm when we are out shopping in recent years . There is a journey that I’ve certainly been on to this point, which I discussed with IPI’s Sam Grant at lunch.

Coming prepared, we need our customers to come to the contact prepared to engage with AI.

Similarly, from prior experiences I soon learned that I need to stop putting my shopping bag in the bottom of my basket, then putting my items of purchase on top of it, which created friction in the process when I needed to get to my bag to enable me to pack items as I scanned them.  So, ideally, we need our customers to come to the contact prepared to engage with AI (unless they don’t want to?)

Offering a choice? Do I want to self-serve or would I prefer to queue?

When I’m approaching the tills, I can see a queue for a till with a cashier or I can see available self-serve checkouts. If I can also see someone there by the self-serve tills to support me, then I can make an informed decision.

Unexpected item in bagging area! Solutions need to be flexible enough to minimise friction.

That bag I just dug out from my basket, I’ve tapped that I’ve brought my own bag, but it is perhaps heavier than the scales expect, therefore I’ve got an unexpected item. I’m removing and resetting the bag but there is a red flashing light and now I’m waiting for someone to come help me.  We’ve all been there (please tell me this wasn’t just me!). The solution has now evolved, though, replacing scales either with additional trust by the retailer, or with cameras, but the result is a smoother customer experience.

Authorisation for purchase There will be times when someone must step in. If so, ensure it is done in a timely fashion.

OK I bought wine, it’s the weekend, please don’t judge me. The process to verify that I’m of age and can make that purchase has parallels also. We need to ensure that if a customer needs support then it is quickly available. Now I want those annoying flashing lights to flash brighter, because   I need help to complete my purchase.

How do you want to pay? Payments need to be frictionless, tap and go, no creased banknotes!

The same will apply to your callers they need to be able to make the payment without being moved to another channel and of course you need to ensure you are properly protecting that payment data.

Do you require a receipt? perhaps we need to acknowledge that customers will want validation of their conversation, of what was committed to and that they can trust that it will be done.

It has taken me a long time to reach the point of clicking no to a paper receipt. I want to be able to evidence that I’ve paid and not just walked round the shop popping things in my bag. Part of the reason so many of us are still reverting to speaking to a human when we have an issue, other than our lived experiences of trying to explain a complex situation in 3-word blocks, has to be that we can say “I talked to …. And he said he’d sorted it”.

What does it all mean?

People are complex. The implementation of self service and automation of the simpler query types means that average contact centre conversations are now much longer than they were and with rising staff costs there is a clear pressure on businesses to make changes to reduce customer servicing costs.

There is a broad spectrum of solutions available to support businesses address these challenges, whether outsource or technology. These need to be properly aligned to your objectives, and it is likely that you may need to speak with someone around how to select, prioritise and deploy these solutions.

If you need to chat then feel free to drop us a line.

As part of our recent webinar with Zoom, we discussed how a brand is far more than just a name or a product; it’s the sum of what the public thinks, feels, and believes about a business. It’s built on both tangible elements like product features and packaging, and intangible ones like emotional connections, marketing, and even independent conversations beyond a brand’s control. Delivering on the brand promise—a commitment to customers about what they can expect—is therefore paramount to success. But when businesses fail to deliver, the consequences are costly and far-reaching.

Businesses increasingly turn to outsourcing partners to support customer service and contact centre operations. However, ensuring these partners can uphold the brand promise is critical. By exploring the importance of a brand promise, the risks of failure, and the value of the right outsourcing partner, organisations can better position themselves for success.

What is a Brand Promise, and why does it matter?

A brand promise communicates the essence of a company’s mission, values, and purpose. It represents what customers should expect when interacting with the business. For example, Red Bull’s brand promise encapsulates the idea of “freedom” and giving “wiiings” to people and ideas. They successfully integrate this into their sponsorships of extreme sports and events, translating their values into tangible experiences that reinforce their mission.

Delivering on this promise consistently builds trust, fosters advocacy, and encourages loyalty. Customers who feel a brand aligns with their expectations and values are more likely to:

• Pay a price premium for products and services.
• Recommend the brand to others, driving organic growth.
• Maintain long-term relationships, increasing customer lifetime value.

The cost of failing to deliver on the Brand Promise

When businesses fail to meet expectations, trust is eroded. Research reveals that 31% of customers are willing to pay more for excellent service, but failure to deliver service quality results in significant revenue loss. Poor service costs UK businesses an estimated £7.3 billion per month in employee time spent resolving issues. Additional consequences of falling short on service delivery include:

• Damaged Reputation: Dissatisfied customers share their negative experiences online, influencing potential buyers before they even engage with the brand.
• Increased Marketing Costs: Companies must invest heavily to rebuild trust and mitigate reputational damage.
• Lower Customer Lifetime Value: Customers experiencing poor service are unlikely to return, reducing their overall spending potential.

Service delivery directly underpins the price premium brands can command. Without great service, even the best product offerings lose their appeal—and profitability.

Managing customer experience at scale

The challenge for brands lies in scaling customer experiences while maintaining human, natural, and supportive interactions. Customers expect more than just advanced technology; they demand seamless, elegant, and intuitive service that delivers the right information at the right time. Poor customer satisfaction—as seen in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, which recently dropped to its lowest point since 2015—reflects the critical need for investment in experience.

To understand how service impacts decision-making, organisations should explore:

• Price Premium Expectations: How much more are customers willing to pay for exceptional service?
• Perceptions of Good Service: What defines great service from a customer’s perspective?
• Service’s Influence on Purchasing Decisions: How does a seamless experience drive loyalty and sales?

Leveraging outsourcing to deliver consistent experiences

Outsourcing has been a transformative tool for businesses over the past 40 years, enabling growth, transformation, and improved customer service outcomes. To realise these benefits, organisations must select their outsourcing partners carefully, considering solution fit, commercial alignment, and cultural compatibility.

1. Solution Alignment: The partner’s solution must match the company’s specific needs, including sector expertise, channel coverage, geography, and appetite for automation. Proven experience with similar challenges can offer peace of mind.
2. Commercial Mechanisms: The cost of service should account for the entire support structure—not just front-line agents—to ensure scalability and sustained quality. Contracts should incentivise mutual success and allow for evolving requirements over time.
3. Cultural Fit: Partners must embody the company’s values and approach, representing the brand authentically to customers. Building a genuine partnership requires mutual respect and clear processes for engagement.

Mitigating outsourcing risks

To minimise risk, businesses must define clear objectives, success measures, and realistic timelines before outsourcing. Processes should be fully documented, and knowledge transfer planned meticulously to ensure a smooth transition. Continuous communication with the outsourcing partner is essential for alignment.

Outsourcing also enables access to specialised skills, flexible scaling, and cost efficiencies, all of which support business growth without overextending internal resources. The key is selecting a partner who acts as an extension of the organisation’s team—not just a supplier.

Conclusion

Delivering on the brand promise is a strategic imperative that builds trust, drives loyalty, and sustains growth. Poor service is not just an operational issue but a risk to brand value and viability. Businesses that prioritise exceptional customer experiences can protect and enhance their reputations, achieving sustainable success.

Outsourcing, when approached thoughtfully, can be a powerful enabler of these outcomes. By choosing the right partner and fostering a collaborative relationship, organisations can mitigate risks, enhance service quality, and uphold their brand promises with confidence.

At Customer Contact Panel (CCP), we’ve witnessed first hand how these factors are influencing decision-makers, especially CX leaders and CFOs. If you’re in the midst of making an outsourcing choice, you’ve probably got one of the following on your mind. 

Growing Customer Demands: Meeting High Expectations 

It’s not just about answering calls anymore. Customers want fast, personalised, and empathetic interactions that feel seamless and aligned with your company values. This means businesses must be more careful than ever when choosing an outsourcing partner. A BPO’s cultural fit with your company is crucial—they need to speak your tone, align with your brand, and uphold the level of service your customers expect – all of which take time which you don’t have. So, companies are scrutinising potential partners more closely, ensuring they’re a perfect match. 

Technology: The New Wild Card 

Right now, you’re being asked to do more with less or deliver a better service with the same budget. With inflation, high interest rates, and currency fluctuations, offshoring doesn’t feel like a financial guarantee anymore. Add in automation—think AI tools and chatbots – and CFOs are starting to wonder if tech could be the silver bullet to that beast of a budget. Whilst AI and Automation can scale fast, they can come with hefty initial costs. Businesses are now weighing their options: 

1. Do they stick with outsourcing (onshore, nearshore, or offshore)? or
2. Do they double down on tech?

It’s a tough decision. Get it right, and they could boost customer loyalty; get it wrong, and it might lead to a backlash.  

ESG: Outsourcing in a Politically Charged World 

Outsourcing is no longer just about cutting costs; it’s also about navigating complex ethical and political waters. With Keir Starmer pushing for stricter ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) standards, businesses are questioning their outsourcing partners, especially if those countries are known for poor labour practices or environmental issues. Throw in political instability and outsourcing now feels like a risky gamble. Operations could grind to a halt at any time, and businesses can’t afford that. 

On top of that, data security is tighter than ever. With the UK government’s more stringent regulations, especially for industries like finance and healthcare, outsourcing is becoming bogged down in compliance red tape. A single data breach could ruin a brand’s reputation and customers’ trust—so finding a partner who understands data security is more important than ever. 

Lastly, with the UK’s £22 billion budget shortfall and a focus on reshoring jobs, companies are balancing cost savings against their political and ethical responsibilities. 

How CCP Makes Your Life Easier 

At CCP, we get it – outsourcing feels complex. But we’re here to simplify it for you. We help businesses make smart, informed and equitable choices through services such as: 

• Partner Matching: We connect businesses with a handpicked network of pre-vetted outsource partners (220+ partners infact), cutting down on the time and risk of finding the right partner.
• Cultural Fit Analysis: We ensure your outsourced team aligns with your brand’s values and service style, so there’s no misstep in tone or approach.
• Technology Sourcing: We know how difficult it is to cut through the sales patter and find the right tech for your customer contact needs. Well look no further, we have a network of 120+ pre-vetted and audit technology partners – who will get right to the point.

The Bottom Line 

Outsourcing decisions are taking longer now because the stakes are higher. Customers expect nothing less than excellent service, and businesses are being much more careful about who they partner with. But with the right approach, outsourcing remains a powerful tool. 

At CCP, we guide businesses through the process, ensuring they find the right fit, reduce risks, and build lasting partnerships. In fact, 93% of CCP’s clients maintain long-term relationships with their outsourcing providers – proof that our approach works. 

With CCP by your side, navigating the increasingly complex outsourcing landscape is much smoother, helping you make the right decisions for today’s customer demands and tomorrow’s success. 

Everest Group have been in the industry since 1991 and are a specialist research firm producing c. 2,500 reports per year, these include their assessment of the state of the Customer Experience Management (CXM) market.

Through this latest report they estimate the CXM  market to be in the region of between $112 and $114 billion of revenues in 2023 for work connected to customers looking for support assisted through digital or human channels. There is an expectation that revenues will, however, be flat through 2025.

However, this accounts for only one third of the market which if taking in-house operations into account would be c. $330 billion, which presents a continued opportunity for the outsource community.

Other highlights include views around channel adoption and predictions of the death of voice are still not coming to pass, when considering include both agent supported voice and conversational AI driven interactions then, 72% of revenues were still coming from voice-based activity in 2023.

The average number of FTE has reduced by 15% since 2018/19 in the 2022/23 report. We know this has been driven by automation, elimination activities, improvements in efficiency, deployment of technologies especially around agent assist. The impact of generative AI has clear contributed to the ability of agents to be more efficient and reduce AHT. However, a survey of over 200 enterprises showed that 20.6% expected no impact to headcount, the majority (37.3%) expected a moderate impact of 5 to 15% and the smallest proportion of respondents (14.3%) expected a significant impact of greater than 15%.

What are clients or prospects looking for?

What insights can we gather from the session that can be applied in our conversations?

• There is still a strong demand for voice
• Deal cycles are longer than they used to be (as we’ve heard in many discussions)
• Increased adoption of GenAI is happening
• There is a desire to develop strategic partnerships, with longer relationships to enable access to better solutions
• Cost optimisation including movement to offshore locations to balance costs remains a focus,

However, when it comes to locations the list of new ones for global English support is growing. More attention is being paid outside the traditional locations and people are talking more about sub-Saharan Africa. Whilst limited numbers have been signed so far, there is a clear interest here. This could be in part be due to people being keen to understand what talent will be needed in 3 years and what skills those people need should also be a consideration as potential clients are now asking these questions.

Priorities for businesses working with service providers still include looking for smart optimisation, operational efficiencies and the collation of insights and data that can inform decision making in the business.

There is a continued focus on the development of agent experience, driving staff satisfaction and making agent roles easier through the use of technology and GenAI to ensure that talent is retained within business, to the ultimate benefit of customer experience, of course.

What businesses want to know is how you can solve a specific problem or challenge. They are now less inclined to say “this is my volume can you staff to that” and more likely to say “this is the problem, how can we create better outcomes together?”.

Customer experience remains critical and there is a movement from delivering an OK experience at the lowest cost, to instead now looking at the end-to-end experience from marketing through the customer lifecycle and then back into the next phase of marketing.

The impact of technology?

As with all changes, consideration needs to be made as to what is appropriate for the needs of your customer. For example, the use of voice in sales environments means that there 82% of activity is still voice led, whereas in Tech support this falls to 61%.

Technology will be beneficial when used in the right contexts, modernisation of existing solutions, the ability to collate data to make decisions around both customer and employee experience, but it needs to be an enabler not just an offering. We need to be clear as to what problem you are using it to solve.

Some clients will forge strategic partnerships with suppliers bringing the right technology and people to solve an issue. Using an outsource provider can bridge the gap from the migration to emerging technologies as outsource partners have people with the skills, knowledge and experience to support that change and can flex staffing requirements as necessary.

Decision making, however, will take longer as a result of the impact of technology change across the wider organisation. Changing experiences using systems and using better data to bring a consolidated view and benefits across the wider organisation means that there will be more stakeholders in the decision making process and therefore it may take longer to make those changes – which could then contribute to the feeling that deals need to be longer in duration to ensure benefits have time to be realised

Sector specific outlook

Healthcare has grown quickly last year and it appears it will continue to do so, Retail has again grown well this year and is forecast to grow faster in 2025, travel and hospitality whilst flat this year is expected to grow faster next year as the sector starts to look more at connected experiences using generative AI.

There is expected to be some reduction in headcounts in the Telco and Media space as providers look to squeeze costs and use technology to deliver savings.

Of course, the willingness of customers to engage with AI differs by sector. Healthcare and travel and hospitality have been among the slower adopters. As technology has moved faster, BFSI and Retail are embracing these changes too, with a focus on use cases to improve experiences and end to end solutions.  Agent assist, post call automation and agent training are all areas where AI solutions are moving into production. Less progress has been made on knowledge management and least of all on the use of sentiment analysis.

Most progress has been made with transitioning to production, where there is a direct impact to the customer. The focus so far in the past 12 months has been to deploy Gen AI into “safe” internal use cases, initially.

Evolving expectations

Clients expect more than ever before from outsource providers. In terms of the top 5 capabilities / requirements, some themes are consistent with those that have always existed, however in some cases there may be more openness or need for support, especially when using new and evolving technologies.

• Uplifting quality
• Elevating customer experience
• Implementing new tools and technologies
• Productivity
• Ability to introduce new ideas

AI skilled agents who are supported by automation allowing them to be more efficient and effective and deliver better experiences as a result, is becoming a standard expectation. Future capabilities will include near real time voice-to-voice translation with minimal lag. The opportunities that this may present need to be considered, but this could support many clients, as a result there needs to be careful consideration.

If you wish to chat about or need support in any of the areas discussed then feel free to contact us. 

When you assemble a room of people with extensive levels of contact centre experience, as we did for our event hosted at Sutherland Labs, you know from the noise levels over coffee there are going to be some great conversations! Add some fantastic speakers from our outsource and technology networks to share their views of the market and a lively, open dialogue around challenges and opportunities (new and old) will follow.

We are looking forward to continuing these conversations and scheduling another event.  But in the meantime, how do we bring so much collective experience together in a short article that does justice to the quality of the conversations?

Navigating Business Decisions in a Rapidly Evolving Landscape

In the current environment, companies face a range of critical decisions, from implementing new technologies to fostering employee engagement. Despite knowing what needs to be done, many organisations struggle to translate that knowledge into actionable outcomes. This disconnect is often a result of inadequate systems, outdated training and coaching models, and an inability to adapt to change. 

In our recent L&D survey it was apparent that there is a clear gap between knowing and doing.  Results show that while employees understand their roles, there’s a significant disconnect between knowledge and execution. This is particularly evident in how businesses approach training, often relying on outdated, “once-and-done” programmes that fail to evolve alongside the changing work environment. As companies shift to remote work, many are noticing a reduction in employee loyalty and engagement, partially because of the lack of in-person interaction and relationship-building.

Addressing the Changing Needs: Evolving Training and Technology

To bridge this gap, organisations must rethink how they train their employees, particularly if they are to continue with a work from home or hybrid working model. Has enough been done to redesign training and refresher modules that better fit a virtual environment? Equally, more needs to be done to focus on continuous education rather than static, one-time courses which tick a box for compliance. Furthermore, conversational AI can be a powerful tool in reshaping learning; allowing employees to ask dynamic, evolving questions rather than relying on predefined solutions.

AI offers the potential to unlock the true capabilities of people and data, but as we have said before is not a silver bullet. It can revolutionise business processes by supporting employees in their roles, reducing friction, and enhancing decision-making. AI can also help agents manage customer queries more efficiently, giving them access to foundational knowledge in real-time. However, the challenge lies in positioning AI correctly: not as a threat to jobs, but as a tool for augmenting human capabilities.

For example, AI’s ability to analyse customer intent and apply insights to guide agents through complex interactions can dramatically improve customer experience (CX). By properly integrating AI into business workflows, companies could potentially resolve the eternal challenge of moving from being seen as a cost centre to profit centre, unlocking new value opportunities across the customer journey.

Location strategy is still a consideration as the global market evolves. The outsourcing industry, particularly in sectors like fintech, IT support, and healthcare, appears poised for significant growth.  We know countries such as South Africa have already emerged as strategic hubs for business services, offering talent and capabilities that align with the growing demand for multilingual and technologically adept service providers. Whilst there are valid concerns as to the capacity that remains available, with 33% unemployment in South Africa (60% for young people) as well as the wider continent opening for business, then combined with the capabilities of technology great opportunities remain available.

Overcoming Challenges in AI Adoption

While AI presents numerous opportunities, it also comes with significant challenges. Many process owners may be hesitant to adopt AI due to concerns about how it will impact their workforce and customer relationships. Meanwhile, senior leadership may be focused more heavily on the potential cost saving benefits.  There’s a widespread misconception that AI will replace jobs, particularly in customer service. However, AI’s true value lies in assisting and enhancing human roles, not replacing them.

For businesses to adopt AI successfully, they need to:

• Align AI with company goals and culture: AI should be seen not as a technology investment, but as a strategic asset that drives both customer and employee experience.
• Shift from a cost-saving mindset to a value-driven approach: Technology shouldn’t be about cutting costs; it should unlock value, address problems at their root cause and improve service quality.
• Build the right business case: Secure buy-in from different budget owners by emphasising how AI can enhance outcomes across the organisation.

Aligning Metrics and Culture for the AI-Driven World

To fully leverage AI’s potential, cultural and operational changes are required. Business leaders need to:

• Align metrics with an automated world: Ensure that technology handles routine tasks, allowing people to focus on complex, human-centric work.
• Redefine the agent role: The agents of the future will need to deliver more value and possess different skills compared to traditional customer service roles.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement: Embrace ongoing evolution, where AI serves to complement human skills and free up time for higher-value tasks.
• Focus on proactive engagement: Let technology handle the repetitive, allowing people to engage with customers in a more meaningful way.
• Encourage bravery in decision-making: Leaders must support bold decisions around AI investment to drive long-term success.

Irrespective of delivery location, the future of CX delivery will increasingly rely on AI and automation to enhance customer journeys, optimise operations, and drive sustainable growth.

Transformation is never-ending. Businesses must approach AI and automation not as one-time projects but as ongoing evolutions. This requires understanding the unique challenges they face, aligning technology with business goals, and ensuring that AI enhances rather than replaces the human element.

With the right strategy, AI can unlock unprecedented opportunities for growth, helping companies stay competitive in a rapidly changing world. However, without the appropriate attention to employee experience, success will be illusory or limited.

Delivering the right experiences

At Customer Contact Panel we support organisations in delivering contact centres that match their ambitions. In a Deloitte Digital research articles from May 2024 it was cited that 55% of contact centre leaders reported that they didn’t meet their strategic goals in 2023 and 76% reported that their agents were overwhelmed by systems and information*.

If you are facing challenges meeting your strategic goals or fulfilling the ambitions you have for your people, customers or technology, we have the experience to support you. Just ask. 

*Balancing priorities in a new era of contact center transformation – Deloitte Digital

Running a contact centre can be tough and a real challenge, so it is always good to know you are not alone.

However, tapping into our teams experience in running and managing a contact centre operations over the past 25+ years, we thought we’d highlight the top 4 common contact centre challenges seen in centres today:

1. Call Duration – this isn’t talking to agents about AHT, but inefficient process resulting in higher AHT is still an issue for many. Agent knowledge/competence could be part of the solution, however so could appropriate automation.
2. Repeat Contacts – whether intentional (process requirement) or unintended as a result of unclear information these contribute to:
   • Cost to serve
   • Customer retention
   • Agent frustrations
3. Improve Service Levels – in recent years average speed of answer has increased, queries have become more complex and recruitment has become tougher!
4. Understanding The Possibilities – Technology is evolving at pace and as a result it can be hard to understand the art of the possible. The CCP network has >120 technology and >220 outsource partners – so there’s plenty of options to find the right fit.

Are you facing similar challenges within your contact centre? Not sure where to start when it comes to finding the right fix? Weel look no further than CCP, we are here to provide both generous and equitable advice when it comes to your customer contact operations.

Click here to contact the team today.

Since the launch of ChatGPT and subsequent proliferation of AI-driven technologies across the customer contact technology landscape, the pace of change has accelerated exponentially. From communication analytics, quality management and agent assist, to replacing IVRs with their omni-channel equivalents and real time translation services, the impact of AI on our industry has almost been as big as the invention of the telephone itself. Not only is this a source of organisational stress, are there implications for outsourcing and contract mechanisms?

While the telephone fundamentally changed human-to-human communication, AI technologies are transforming human-to-machine interactions. And given how we now communicate with each other, that can only mean that change is both permanent and ongoing.

This permanent change is putting increasing stress on organisations to restructure how they equip themselves to communicate with both their customers and their target market, irrespective of the sector they operate in.

We are seeing organisational stress in three areas:

1. Understanding the impact of these changes across the customer and target market demographic
2. Properly evaluating the ability of existing technology platforms to accommodate change and realign to new communication paradigms in the mid to long term
3. Fully understanding the mid to long term commercial impact of bolt on technologies to deliver short term performance and cost reduction gains.

In helping organisations cope with these stress areas we see striking parallels to the changes seen when organisations first began to interact with customers remotely. The evolution which began in the 90s to get more value from data, media and communication spend resulted in specialist operational activity often being outsourced as few organisations had the specialist people, process or technology to support those functions as cost effectively as outsourced providers could.

As customer became core to operations and remote customer management became an operational necessity, organisations began to establish their own capabilities, leveraging existing data management infrastructure to control and drive insight. Customer contact levels boomed, the technology to enable customer contact saw similar growth and our industry was born as more organisations grasped the benefits of controlled and managed remote customer contact.

Considering those parallels, we ask “Should organisations be stressing themselves or does that same customer contact outsourcing industry ‘muscle up’ for this second cycle of permanent change to reduce organisational stress in the shape of Outsourcing 2.0, underpinned by end-to-end AI driven technologies and the accelerated levels of operational insight that provides?”

Observing change in the global customer contact outsourcing market

Outsourcing is a very broad church. Our global network of two hundred plus providers gives us a privileged view of the diversity of the services provided, service delivery and how services are contracted. Whilst industry pricing has generally reduced in real terms over time, the way that service pricing is presented has not really evolved that much, it has not been that complicated, clients have had a choice of:

1. straight hourly rate,
2. the hourly rate with outcome components,
3. outcome with activity components and
4. outcome alone.

Making money has not been that complicated either. As long as the effective revenue per hour outweighed the total known costs per hour, then outsourcers made money.

The outsourcers’ challenge has always been about packaging service and price to be more attractive than the nearest competitor. Of course, that global mind set has led to an incredibly diverse and attractive industry offering, but it is doing little to relieve the level of stress we see in organisations today. Especially as permanent change begins to impact on mid to long term business performance forecasts.

What we see in the global outsource community is the emergence of some clear lines of distinction between service offerings. Principally between those that have the capability (or plan to have the capability) to relieve mid to long term organisational stress and those that don’t. Whilst those customer contact outsourcers that don’t have (or don’t plan to have) this capability to de-stress, continue to be well placed to solve organisations’ immediate and short-term challenges, we have seen some significant levels of technology and skills investment towards an Outsourcing 2.0 capability, amongst those that can.

What we are not seeing enough of is an evolved, Outsourcing 2.0 contracting proposition. One that is equitable for both parties. A simple contract proposition that provides an upside for the technology and skills investment of the outsourcer and in return, long term risk and cost reduction for the client.

Striving to deliver an equitable position to accommodate permanent change

1. know more about how changes in customer contact are going to flow through product and service delivery,
2. be able to make active decisions on what those changes mean in terms of risk and profitability,
3. identify service solutions that will de-risk their journey to deliver customer contact at lower cost,
4. deliver value and benefits that justify the time, cost and effort in enabling process change
5. potentially deal with specific customer use cases where they do not have the physical capacity or technical capability,
6. do all this without compromising service delivery in terms of quality and data governance i.e. the regulatory and contracted controls supporting data privacy and data security.

We also recognise that the world of customer contact tech is changing faster than it probably ever has; and it’s hard to tell what the next few years will bring in terms of time saving and service enhancing technologies.

SaaS based technology is easier to deploy, easier to recognise ROI, is already impacting on the flow of low complexity tactical work into the global outsourcing industry. This trend is also evidenced by more work. being delivered via the client’s own technology, enabling them to leverage their existing back-end systems integrations and continue BAU without interrupting the established end to end data flows supporting their existing operational reporting and decision-making processes.

Whilst the outsourcer community is continuing to strive to deliver uncompromising value, to positively impact  service delivery and comply with regulatory and contractual data governance, there is clearly an acknowledgment of the impact that customer contact automation brings to their core market.

Contracting to deliver mid to long term value by de-risking the transition to a permanent change in customer contact

Global outsourcing capability now has a firm dividing line across it. Those that have (or plan to have) the infrastructure and technology to deliver permanent change (2.0) and those that have not.

For those that have (or plan to have), we can see the opportunity for a new type of contracting relationship with clients. A contracting relationship that:

1. de-risks the client from the turbulence of technology change whilst delivering the permanent changes we see in human communication and the impact that has on customer contact service delivery,
2. will enable the outsourcer to deliver appropriate levels of automation without compromising the clients service objectives and targeted cost reduction when expressed as simply as a ‘cost per customer per annum’.

In the context of customer contact, clients find the idea of managing permanent change, de-risking the potential downside of getting that change wrong and doing that at a fixed and reducing cost very attractive. Especially when that contract properly considers how service quality is measured and underpinned as well as being directly linked to cost.

There are then two big variables in the client conversation that are both fundamental to a new contracting proposition.

One is the composition and contracting position of the legacy technology overhead that delivers existing levels of customer contact, especially how that customer engagement technology stack is connected into the ‘back office’ technology of the organisation.

The second is about existing costs. This is the client’s understanding of their current cost of managing their customers. Specifically, how that’s calculated especially in the context of a desire to express that as a ‘cost per customer per annum’.

Recognising the barriers to change

It is easy for us to oversimplify what we see as a new contracting paradigm. But we also recognise that the old contracting models don’t proactively and deliberately reduce the organisational stresses that put mid to long term business performance at risk.

Of course, some business verticals carry significant levels of technology debt. However, unless we explore, and explore deeply, what the possibilities are, then the weight of technology debt will drown organisations and fail as a lifejacket to guarantee ongoing survival.

Unless your technology is able to destress your organisation now, then the same technology stands little chance of keeping you afloat in the mid to long term.

Customer communication and customer contact management has changed permanently and is different from customer contact pre-the explosion in generative AI. This means new risk and new levels of risk for both client and the customer contact outsource communities. Our view is that contracting between the parties needs to change fundamentally.

Outsourcing 2.0 offers a mid to long term view of how both client and service provider can benefit whilst reducing risk on both sides. By looking at contracting differently, both parties can focus on their core strengths and experiences to set and deliver against service goals and commercial objectives. To do that mutually establishing, expressing and agreeing the existing technology stack directly supporting customer engagement and the cost per customer per annum to deliver growth and service objectives.

What next?

What are your thoughts on the future of customer contact outsourcing contracts? Do you think we’re thinking along the right lines, or have we underestimated the complexity of clients’ current position, especially in the context of technology debt? Whether you’re a client or service provider we’d love to hear what you think.