CONTACT CENTRE GUIDE BLOG: 2/9 MyCustomer.com recently published ‘The Contact Centre Guide’ which was sponsored by Business Systems. For those short on time, we created a series of blogs covering the highlights from each chapter. Please find the 2nd in the series below. A big topic which can by no means be covered off in a single blog post, but we can offer some quick short, sharp insights to consider when creating or reviewing your contact centre strategy. There’s really three main areas to focus on, your customer, your capabilities and then simply getting on with it and building the strategy. CUSTOMERS: PUTTING THEM AT THE HEART OF YOUR CONTACT CENTRE STRATEGY It’s an obvious one, but when did you last profile who your customers are and what outcomes they hope to achieve when contacting you? Are the answers still the same as they were a year ago? You really need to take the time to identify and segment them so that you can get better insight on how they like to interact with you. Are they digital natives having never know a world without internet or instant information at their fingertips, if so chances are they’ll appreciate a social media centric strategy or even a community approach where they themselves generate and share answers to problems. Once you get to the heart of who they are and why they are contacting you, you can get an idea of the customer journey they take, mapping different scenarios. You can then segregate the simpler, repetitive enquiries, which can be handled perhaps by self-service technology versus the more complex interaction requiring higher skilled agent input. CAPABILITIES: ASSESSING WHETHER YOUR CURRENT OPERATION IS FIT FOR PURPOSE This leads us neatly onto evaluating your own capabilities as they currently stand. You know your customers, you know why they are getting in touch with you and how, so what infrastructure do you have in place to address this? What technology have you implemented, is it fulfilling the needs of the customer at each step of the journey? Is your technical support team geared up to help you get the most out of the technology? By evaluating the state of your existing architecture you get an accurate picture of the gap between what your contact centre currently provides and what the customer demands. Once you have done this you get a clear indication of where investment is required and whether your existing structure in place is already fit for purpose with a bit of finessing or whether you need to consider replacing it. It’s also worth benchmarking against competitors and identifying whether you feel you’re delivering better service than them, if not, why not? BUILDING YOUR CONTACT CENTRE STRATEGY Once you’ve got a handle on your customers and capabilities, you can then start thinking about the goals you want to achieve and the steps required to meet them. There needs to be some dissemination of this throughout the organisation so that everyone is working in line with each other. A budget should be developed so you know where best to invest your money. Typically a large portion of this may be earmarked for technology and you need to look back at your audience to understand which technologies might best satisfy their needs both today and in the future alongside your own business objectives. Considerations in this area may look at how you can effectively mix legacy equipment and new technology. Another important point to note before considering opening up new channels of communications is what are you doing to address the problems first on your existing channels? This could save a lot of heartache further down the line and better improve the rate of adoption and success of your new contact channel. Finally once your strategy is rolled out, plan in time to test it, monitor it and analyse it so you can identify any problems straight away and be responsive to changes in market dynamics. A final thought to leave you with courtesy of Jonathan Collard, commercial director at Tripudio Telecom. “Just remember humans still like to talk to ensure enquires are 100% resolved, so telephony based support is by no means dead.” Read the ‘Contact Centre Guide Blog 1/9 – The changing contact centre – and what you can do about it’ here. Written by: Business Systems UK
Blog 22 July, 2026 The Cost of Attrition: Why Workforce Engagement Management is a Self-Funding Strategy Contact centre attrition remains one of the most expensive challenges facing customer support leaders. CX Today reports annual turnover rates of 35-45% remain common across the industry, with each departure costing between £10,000 and £15,000 in recruitment, onboarding and lost productivity. For a 200-seat operation, that equates to roughly £700,000-£1.35 million in annual attrition costs
Blog 30 April, 2026 Customer Experience Tools: How to Choose (and Implement) the Right CX Platform for Your Business Choosing the right customer experience platform is a major decision for many businesses. The platform you choose shapes how customers interact with your business across every channel, determines what insights you can extract from those customer interactions, and influences whether or not your teams can deliver consistently excellent service. Yet many organisations approach this decision
Blog 16 April, 2026 Conversational AI in UK Contact Centres: Moving Beyond Basic Chatbots Many contact centres in the UK have implemented chatbot technology in some form or another, but with varying degrees of success. Recent industry research reveals that nearly 70% of customers become frustrated with chatbots and prefer speaking to human agents, and abandonment rates for basic chatbot interactions continue to remain stubbornly high. The problem isn’t
Blog 10 April, 2026 Proactive Customer Service: How Contact Centres Can Use Proactive AI to Anticipate Customer Needs The traditional model of customer service is almost entirely reactive: a customer discovers a problem, contacts your organisation, and waits for a solution. This approach places the burden squarely on the customer, requiring them to identify issues, navigate your contact channels, and often endure multiple interactions before their problem is solved. Proactive customer service powered
Blog 29 January, 2026 Microsoft Teams Recording Without the Risk: A Practical Guide for Regulated Organisations Microsoft Teams has become the backbone of collaboration across financial services, insurance, the public sector and other regulated industries. Trading conversations, client discussions, internal decisions and approvals are now happening daily across voice, video, chat and shared files. That shift brings opportunity, but it also introduces risk. For organisations operating under regulations such as FCA,
Blog 5 December, 2025 The clock is ticking: Why end-of-life recording systems are a critical compliance risk Outdated recording technology isn’t just an inconvenience, it’s a ticking time bomb for regulated firms. For financial services and other heavily regulated industries, end-of-life (EoL) voice recording systems can create dangerous blind spots. When vendors withdraw support, these unsupported platforms become vulnerable, exposing your firm to major compliance penalties under frameworks like MiFID II, FCA,
Blog 20 November, 2025 Proactive AI vs Reactive AI: Understanding the Difference Artificial intelligence is changing the way organisations across the UK engage with customers, but all AI solutions aren’t created equal. Many still rely on reactive models that respond only once a customer makes contact. Proactive AI takes a more advanced approach, identifying needs and acting before the customer does. Understanding the key differences between proactive
Blog 20 November, 2025 5 Ways Proactive AI Can Reduce Manual Workload in Contact Centres Contact centres today face a familiar challenge: maintaining exceptional service while managing high volumes, rising costs, and limited resources. Agents are spending valuable time on repetitive, manual work instead of focusing on complex, high-value interactions that truly build customer loyalty. This is where Proactive AI makes a measurable difference. By combining automation with intelligence, it