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Today’s customers desire personalized and quick service and interactions across different channels. Brands are expected to “know” their customers, anticipate all their needs, and deliver consistent and dependable service whether it's via text on a mobile device, calling into one of your contact centers, or chatting on a website.

They’re also expected to make use of innovations in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) space to save both staff and their customers’ time. This can seem overwhelming at first, but improving call center customer service is imperative to your operation’s customers and your bottomline.

Below, discover our best practices for how to improve customer support in your contact center.

 

Why Call Center Service Needs to Change

Customer service is shifting fast, and call centers need to keep up. Expectations are higher, digital habits are changing, and AI is reshaping how support works. Before diving into tactics, here’s what’s driving the change:

 

What’s Changing in Customer Expectations

  • Faster, more personal help: Customers want quick answers that feel tailored to them, generic one-size-fits-all responses will not cut it anymore
  • Channel flexibility: They expect support on their terms—text, chat, phone, or email
  • No repeating themselves: People get frustrated when they have to explain their issue more than once, they want seamless handoffs and systems that work smart

 

How Technology Is Reshaping Support

  • Voice AI is replacing old-school IVR: It’s creating more natural self-service experiences that engage customers and allow them to solve problems on their own time
  • Analytics and machine learning: These tools can detect intent and emotion in real time to help improve call outcomes, making your customers and your agents lives easier
  • Omnichannel platforms: Customers can switch between channels without losing context—and agents get the full picture image of what issues or inquiries they face

 

Why CX Metrics Matter More Than Ever

  • Customer experience drives loyalty and revenue
  • 83% of customers are more loyal to companies that respond well to complaints[*]
  • Loyal customers often spend more and refer others—making CX a growth lever, not just a support function

 

Actionable Ways to Improve Call Center Customer Service

There are many strategies for improving customer service in contact centers, but the best ones for you depend on your business needs and customer base.

Here are some actionable ways to provide faster and more effective customer support.

 

1. Provide comprehensive agent training

Why It’s Important

Customers contact your business because they need help with a technical problem or a product-specific issue. Some of these customers have complex questions that require much more than a scripted answer. Investing in well-trained agents with honed call center agent skills ensures you provide consistent, confident, and accurate support.

What Great Training Looks Like Today

  • Gamified Learning: Consider incorporating leaderboards, scoring, and rewards to make your training engaging
  • Real-Time Practice: Use call monitoring tools like call barge, takeover, and whisper to provide a hand-on experience and train agents on real calls happening in real-time
  • AI-Powered Simulations: AI powers roleplaying scenarios and training modules to prepare your agents for a wide range of potential customer interactions
  • Continuous and Continual Learning: By offering ongoing modules to keep agents aware and updated on new products and technologies, you ensure no one is left behind

Still unconvinced? Companies that offer comprehensive training programs see 218% higher income per employee than those who skip the training.[*]

 

2. Provide regular feedback to agents

Why It’s Important

Your agents do not want to fly blind, this is where regularly giving feedback comes in handy. When you give agents a way to understand their current performance abilities, identify areas for improvement, and keep them aligned with company goals, you end up with more engaged agents and happier customers. Regular feedback increases employee engagement–and highly engaged employees are 23% more profitable.[*]

How to Provide Meaningful Feedback

  • Automatic Scoring: Implement systems that track and score calls with no human intervention, using algorithms and pre-assigned metrics, you can assign relevant training modules automatically
  • Call Playlists: Create an album or compilation of the most exemplary (and challenging) calls for future reference and analysis
  • Speech Analytics: Use an arsenal of tools to analyze and comprehend all of your interactions to find insights into where your agents excel and where they fall short

 

3. Implement advanced call center software

Why It's Important

Advanced call center software leverages AI, Natural Language Processing, and machine learning to take traditional tools like automatic call distribution (ACD) and interactive voice response (IVR) to the next level. AI adoption leads to 35% cuts in costs for customer service operations and a 32% increase in your revenue, per latest studies.[*]

The Software Stack Powering Modern CX

  • AI Chatbots: Chatbots integrate with helpdesk software and internal knowledge bases, using NLP to answer customer questions and process routine transactions without a live agent
  • Agent Assist: Leverages AI to automatically provide agents with customer conversation history, call scripts, product information, and more during live interactions
  • Sentiment Analysis: Tracks and analyzes customer calls to determine overall customer sentiment during interactions
  • AI-driven Analytics: Analyzes 100% of omnichannel interactions to identify common customer concerns and agent performance issues requiring immediate attention

 

4. Use call routing and IVR systems

Why It's Important

IVR and call routing systems shorten customer wait times and call queues, reduce agent and customer frustration, and evenly distribute workloads. Implementing advanced routing strategies using IVR can improve customer satisfaction by 22%.[*]

How to Route Smarter

  • Dynamic IVR Menus: Voice recognition tools can guide customers through their options and smoothen out the road to finding the right agent
  • Skills-Based Routing: Match your most appropriate team member to your customer and their inquiry to maximize their satisfaction and improve FCR
  • AI-Powered Intent Matching: Tracks and analyzes customer calls to determine overall customer sentiment during interactions

 

5. Implement omnichannel support

Why It's Important

Contacting companies via nontraditional channels such as text, web chat, and social media is increasing in popularity. Companies that want to stand out should implement omnichannel support.

What Omnichannel Looks Like Today

  • Unified Agent Interface: Give your agents a clear-cut view of a customer’s previous interactions across all channels
  • Consistent Knowledge Base: Ensure that your customers are given uniform and updated information wherever they communicate with your team
  • Channel Switching: Work with your customers and flexibly switch channels without repeating information or delays

 

6. Offer self-service options

Why It's Important

Customer self-service lets customers complete routine processes like purchases, order tracking, and appointment scheduling on their own time and without interacting with a live agent.

Self-service options also reduce stress on agents, cut costs, and help to ensure consistency in service. Plus, given that 81% of consumers want to have more self-service options, they help your business meet customer expectations.[*]

cxone XO self service

 

Things to Consider for Self-Service

  • AI Voicebots: Natural language processing takes the guesswork out of tackling routine inquiries
  • Automated Order Tracking: Customers can track their orders without taking your agents’ time and efforts away from more complex issues
  • Comprehensive FAQs: FAQs for customers that address their common questions in a succinct but satisfying way

 

7. Personalize customer interactions

Why It's Important

While omnichannel support lets customers choose their method of contact, CRM integrations enable hyper-personalized customer service. Agents can review past interaction notes, customer demographics, order history, and even preset personal preferences to provide a perfectly tailored support experience. 63% of customers want a personalized customer experience that caters to their specific concerns.[*]

salesforce

 

How to Personalize at Scale

  • Proactive Engagement: Reach out to your customers before they can even ask, AI gives you the ability to predict when they are most likely to encounter problems
  • CRM Integrations: Gain concurrent access to customer purchase history, profiles, and any previous interactions in real-time to personalize responses on the fly
  • Tailored Recommendations: Proactively suggest upgrades, solutions, and additional services based on existing customer behavior logs and expressed preferences

 

8. Reduce hold times

Why It's Important

Unsurprisingly, long wait times increase abandonment rates and are one of the most common customer complaints–but what constitutes a “long wait time” may be a shock. Almost 60% of consumers were unwilling to wait on hold for more than just one minute, and over 90% were unwilling to be on hold for more than five minutes.[*]

How to Speed Up Support

  • Smarter IVR Trees: Consider reassessing and refining your IVR’s logic by using real-time call data and frequent touchpoints your customers face
  • Callback Options: Offer your customers the chance to request a callback that works on their schedule than wasting time on hold
  • Data-First Scheduling: Analytics will tell you when to anticipate call spikes or dips to ensure you have the right amount of staff onboard when needed
  • AI Voicebots: Natural language processing bots can solve the simplest and most common issues before your callers even need to reach an agent

 

9. Improve first call resolution rates

Why It's Important

The first call resolution (first contact resolution) rate is the percentage of customer issues that are resolved during the first interaction. The industry standard for FCR is just under 70%, meaning that about 70% of issues are resolved during the first interaction between the customer and an agent.[*]

Strategies to Improve FCR

  • Enhanced Agent Training: Training that works to hone agents’ ability to solve problems in an empathetic manner or navigate knowledge bases is crucial
  • Escalation Matrix: Form a structured framework to know when and how to escalate calls to supervisors
  • Agent Assist Tools: These tools will offer real-time prompts, offer suggestions from your knowledge base, and even coach your staff during live calls
  • Post-Interaction Quality Assurance: Feed your analytics fresh data on where FCR is falling short to make adjustments instantly

 

10. Offer customer callback

Why It's Important

For high-volume call centers, implementing customer callback options can greatly improve customer satisfaction. Automated callbacks let customers avoid waiting on hold, allowing them to receive a callback when an agent is available or when works best with their schedule. Callback services cut the rates of abandoned calls by at least 32%.[*]

Smarter Ways to Offer Callbacks

  • Scheduled Callbacks: Let customers pick a preferred time to get a callback and get the assistance they need
  • Virtual Queue Systems: Automatically preserve your customer’s place in line without them spending an extra second on their phone
  • Transparent Wait Times: Tell your callers about their expected hold times and offer them a callback that fits their lives better

 

11. Implement a quality assurance program

Why It's Important

A quality assurance program takes a holistic view of customer experience, using post-call customer surveys and call compliance results. QA programs have a great track record for improving both FCR and CSAT scores, with 76% of companies saying reviewing interactions improves CSAT scores.[*]

Fortifying Your QA Programs

  • Post-Call Surveys: Collect instant and direct feedback from customers about their experience just as their interactions with staff come to an end
  • Scorecards: Make use of standardized scorecards for consistent and objective evaluation of agent performance
  • Call Recordings and Transcripts: Analyze your calls for policy compliance, accuracy, tone, and resolution quality
  • Calibrated Reviews: Encourage multiple reviewers like designated QA teams, managers, and even fellow agents to assess and verify calls for objectivity

 

12. Optimize workforce management

Why It's Important

Workforce management (WFM) and workforce optimization (WFO) encompass tools that help companies allocate human resources, track attendance, and remain in compliance with workplace regulations.

Ways to Modernize Your WFM Practices

  • AI Forecasting: Project your future call volume based on historical data and seasonal trends
  • Agent Self-Scheduling: Liberate agents to bid on shifts, request personal time off, and manage their own availability within reason
  • Real-Time Dashboards: Track agent adherence, occupancy, and performance live
  • Compliance Tools: Stay aligned with labor laws and internal company policies through automated auditing

 

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Putting Strategy Into Action

Once you understand what your customers want, you can start making smarter decisions about your support experience. Here’s how to approach it:

  1. Start with customer data: Use surveys, call transcripts, and CCaaS reporting to learn who your customers are—age, location, work habits—and what they care about.
  2. Identify the top issues: Are customers frustrated by long hold times? Are they asking for chat support? Do they want quicker answers?
  3. Match strategy to need:
    • If your audience is mostly remote workers aged 20–40, prioritize omnichannel support so they can reach you on any device.
    • If wait times are the top complaint, look at call routing, staffing, or AI-driven self-service to ease the load.
    • If your customer base is tech-savvy, focus on self-service tools, like smart FAQs or virtual agents, and advanced agent training to handle complex issues.

Small changes based on real data can lead to big improvements in customer satisfaction—and help your call center stay one step ahead of rising expectations.