“The 2026 UK Contact Centre Decision-Makers’ Guide” is based on surveys with 215 UK organisations and 1,000+ interviews with UK consumers.

 

This is the largest and most up-to-date study of the UK contact centre industry, now in its 23rd year.   

 

This contact centre research provides the most up-to-date and extensive view of the issues facing the UK contact centre industry, identifies methods for improvement and helps customer-facing businesses be aware of what’s around the corner.

 

Findings are split by contact centre size and vertical market to help readers understand how they compare to businesses like theirs, and the use of over 20 years’ of historical data gives perspective to long-term changes in the industry.

 

Report key findings and contents

 

  • The average cost of an inbound call is £6.17 – 25% more than email and 83% more than a web chat
  • AI is the clear no.1 technology investment priority for contact centres over the next two years, with 78% of respondents putting this in their top 5
  • The move from voice to digital channels seems to have stalled, with customer preference for live voice interactions for complex and urgent queries at an all-time high
  • The average speed to answer remains 4x higher than pre-pandemic at its second-highest recorded level: 111 seconds
  • 62% of respondents state that “empathy” is the most valued characteristic in an agent – up from 42% in 2013
  • 46% of web chats are now handled wholly or partially by chatbots: a drop on last year’s figure

 

Chapters:

 

  • Agent Engagement, Empowerment & Gamification
  • AI-Enabled Agent Assistance
  • AI-Enabled Audio Improvement
  • Attrition, Absence & Salaries
  • Chatbots & Web Chat
  • Cloud-Based Contact Centre Solutions
  • Contact Centre Performance
  • Customer Effort, Engagement & First-Contact Resolution
  • Customer Experience Measurement & Improvement
  • Customer Identity Verification & Fraud Reduction
  • Customer Personalisation
  • Interaction Analytics
  • Mobile & Video Customer Contact
  • Omnichannel
  • Omnichannel Workforce Management
  • PCI Compliance & Card Security
  • Quality & Call Recording
  • Remote & Hybrid Working
  • Strategic Directions & Investments
  • Virtual Contact Centres & The Connected Enterprise
  • Voice AI & Voice Self-Service

 

To download “The 2026 UK Contact Centre Decision-Makers’ Guide”, as well as many other research reports, please complete the registration form below.

 

After this, you will have access to all of ContactBabel’s free end-user research and analysis by selecting the “RESEARCH” tab and choosing your reports. 

 

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