At OpenContact, we know that customer service is more than just resolving issues. To provide an exceptional experience, businesses need to work on building relationships and exceeding customer expectations.
Fantastic customer service leads to better customer retention and boosted satisfaction, which can ultimately result in higher profitability and business growth. Research by Bain & Company, the inventor of the net promoter score, shows that increasing customer retention rates by just 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.
But how businesses increase their retention and satisfaction rates looks like it’s changing. In the last couple of years, AI has exploded and is finding its way into all walks of life, including customer service. In 2026, the trend within customer service appears to be balancing innovation and cost savings with customer expectations.
With that in mind, I wanted to share my thoughts on the 5 key trends I think are currently influencing customer service in the UK.
1. AI use is becoming more realistic, and human connection is still important
Like most other industries, AI technology is being used in a range of customer service tools, helping businesses improve outcomes for customers and their staff.
Experiments with AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants have found that they help streamline processes and improve efficiencies, freeing up human agents to focus on more complex tasks.
Research by Contact Babel found that customers are most happy to deal with AI when they need a quick answer to a simple question (43% of respondents), but 38% of people said they would never be comfortable with using AI and always prefer dealing with a human.
That number rose to 66% among respondents over 65 years old, which is worth bearing in mind if you have an older customer base.
AI, particularly AI chatbots, is fantastic for answering FAQs about opening hours or returns policies and for routing queries to the correct team, but we’ve found that it struggles with more complex queries.
When there are complaints or refund requests, AI rarely hits the mark. Contact Babel found that 80% of customers are concerned about being misunderstood or receiving inaccurate answers from AI, while 67% are concerned about AI’s lack of empathy or understanding.
And this is certainly reflected in what our team is seeing – they’ve found that emotionally-charged or nuanced situations don’t have positive outcomes when AI tries to deal with them.
Customers tend to become frustrated before our team speaks to them, meaning that our agents end up having unpleasant interactions with customers they could have made smile the first time around.
So AI absolutely has a place in customer service, but it can’t replace your entire team. It should support your agents, rather than create added friction.
In the last year, businesses seem to be becoming more realistic about AI’s limitations. I’ve seen businesses attempt to replace large parts of their customer service operations with AI voice agents, only to discover that customers still want human support for more complex issues.
2. Voice is still the dominant customer service channel…
I’ve been working in the industry long enough to have been warned over and over that voice calls are on the decline and will eventually die off. But that couldn’t be further from the truth!
Voice has been predicted to decline for 20 years, as email, instant messaging, social media, and now AI have come on the scene. But phone calls still dominate, and inbound call handling still makes up around 90% of our workload at OpenContact.
Customers still want to speak to a real person when they have urgent or complex issues, and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon. Other channels have grown around voice calls, but it still remains central to any customer service strategy. If anything, it’s on the rise again.
Invoca’s B2C Buyer Experience Report found that 44% of customers said that calling was their preferred method of contact when they had a problem, up from 32% in 2022. Online, email, SMS and AI chatbot all declined compared to 2022. It just shows how much customers still value human connection.
3. …But customers expect seamless omni-channel experiences
While phone calls might still come out on top, as I said, other channels have grown around it.
Today, customers expect seamless experiences across multiple channels, including telephone, email, social media, messaging apps and live chat. They want the flexibility to contact you in the most convenient way for them at the time.
They want a choice when interacting with you so they can select the communication method which best meets their needs for their situation.
Businesses need to ensure they’re using multiple channels effectively to provide a consistent and convenient experience. Voice still wins for complex interactions, while live chat or email is great for customers who are unable or unwilling to call, and AI can deal with simple FAQs.
Here at OpenContact, we provide comprehensive outsourced omni- or multi-channel customer support to help our clients meet their customers where they’re at. We always ensure our responses are on brand and fit with our clients’ tone and image.
Ultimately, channels should complement each other, offering a holistic service for your customers – not compete.
4. Personalisation and context are more important than ever
Personalisation has become somewhat of a buzzword in customer service!
In an era of data-driven insights, many customers now want personalised experiences tailored to their preferences and past interactions. A disconnected service feels frustrating and cold, and 61% of customers say they’re often treated like numbers rather than individuals.
Personalisation isn’t just a marketing job anymore; it should be part of operational customer service.
By leveraging advanced analytics and AI-powered CRMs, businesses can collect customer data and use it to cater to their needs and deliver targeted, relevant support. And considering that 69% of customers want consistent experiences across physical and digital channels, it makes sense to personalise your customer contact wherever they reach you.
With a well-deployed CRM, you should be able to see the interactions each customer has had with you in the past, their buying habits and what they may be interested in, so you can anticipate their needs and delight them at every touch point.
We’ve found that our clients who have connected, personalised customer support see boosted satisfaction and retention rates. And this can help your bottom line – Comviva found that personalisation can reduce customer acquisition and retention costs by 28%.
5. Knowledgeable agents create better outcomes
In a time when so much of the world is becoming automated, having customer service professionals with a comprehensive understanding of a product or service is essential.
Customer service providers should be trusted advisors who guide customers through complex issues and provide valuable insights. Ensuring your agents have the knowledge they need to effectively handle customer interactions will increase your brand reputation and customer experience – 74% of consumers are likely to buy based on experiences alone.
Knowledgeable humans become a key competitive differentiator, so it’s crucial to invest time into training your customer service team so they know how to handle your most common and complex customer situations.
Here at OpenContact, we prioritise training so our customer service professionals have the knowledge they need.
On top of a comprehensive training programme, our team often gets to experience our clients’ business first-hand, so they have tangible experience to draw on when supporting customers.
For example, forest adventure course Go Ape! appointed us to deliver their customer service, so our agents enjoyed the Go Ape! experience themselves before handling any calls.
This allows the team to relate to and understand Go Ape!’s customers, reassuring them that they’re speaking to someone who has the real-world knowledge and capability to deal with their enquiry.
So, in the last 12 months, it’s become clear to me that all the customer service trends in the UK are focused on balancing efficiency with genuine human interaction.
Customer experience should be human-led and tech-enabled, not tech-reliant. Strategies need to cover all channels and should be adaptable based on where customers want to speak to you for different queries.
I believe for the rest of 2026 and 2027, businesses will be looking to build human connections for the interactions that matter.
What do you think? Are you seeing similar or something different with your customers? I’d love to connect on LinkedIn to continue the conversation.
And if you’re looking to outsource your customer service support, we can help with everything from seasonal overflow call handling to total customer contact management and everything in between.
Get in touch today to find out more.
