What does it take to build a contact centre that’s efficient and deeply human? In Puzzel’s latest podcast episode, Product Marketing Manager Raïsa Van Olden chats with Xander Freeman, Director of Digital Content at Call Centre Helper, to explore what’s changing in customer contact, why the contact centre is more valuable than ever, and how leaders can make AI work without losing the human touch.
Here are the key insights from that conversation, and what they mean for contact centre leaders today.
From “cost centre” to insight hub
For years, contact centres have been boxed in as cost centres. Xander’s challenge to leaders: stop underselling your value. If your organisation wants to deploy new technologies like AI, it needs high-quality data, and no one has richer customer insight than the contact centre.
“For the first time, contact centres have the leverage to drive business strategy,” Xander said. “The rest of the organisation needs our data to make AI work.”
The challenge now is making those insights heard. Technology plays its part, but leadership teams also need to see how this data links directly to what they care about most: revenue, retention and risk.
To earn that recognition across the business, contact centres need two things:
1) Clear visibility into what customers are saying.
2) The ability to act on those insights quickly.
Once you have both, the next step is communicating those insights in a way that resonates with senior leaders and other teams across the business.
Here’s how to make your data resonate:
- Link conversation trends to churn risk, repeat contacts or conversion.
- Quantify the cost of poor journeys against the benefit of improving them.
- Share real examples, supported by data, to influence roadmaps and investment decisions.
By translating contact-level data into business language, CX leaders can demonstrate how their teams shape everything from customer loyalty to growth strategy - moving the contact centre from cost line to insight engine.
Balancing empathy and efficiency
A common view is that AI should “strip out the simple stuff”, leaving humans to handle the complex. That’s true, but it has consequences: agents are now dealing with the most complex, emotional and compliance-heavy conversations.
Xander’s summary of the tension: too often, we treat machines like humans and humans like machines. If we over-optimise for speed, we burn out the people who carry the emotional load.
That’s where technology can help when used wisely. AI can handle routine admin, surface relevant knowledge during calls, and summarise conversations instantly, giving agents more time to focus on tone, context and empathy. Leaders, meanwhile, should measure success differently, not just in seconds saved, but in satisfaction gained.
What good looks like:
- Transparent automation: tell people upfront when they’re speaking with a bot or a voice agent, what it can help with, and how to escalate.
- Frictionless escalation: when a conversation moves to a human, pass context so customers never repeat themselves.
- Human-centred targets: measure resolution quality and outcomes, not just speed. Empathy is a capability, not a script.
By putting empathy and efficiency on equal footing, organisations can build service experiences that feel personal but run seamlessly; the best of both worlds.
Chatbots: set them up to succeed
Chatbots are a love-to-hate technology, but performance hinges on how they’re deployed. When used in the right places with the right knowledge and guardrails, they perform well and customers are satisfied. When dropped into the wrong journeys or trained on patchy content, they frustrate customers and create more work for agents.
Make them work:
- Give the bot a clear, narrow scope to start with and expand gradually.
- Invest in knowledge management. Your bot is only as good as the content behind it.
- Add governance: define what the bot can answer, when to hand over, and how to monitor accuracy.
“When chatbots are deployed in the right way, they’re brilliant,” Xander explained. “But set them up to fail, and you’ll only make life harder for your agents.”
The office is back (for some), the skills need to be too
Five years after the shift to remote work, many centres are bringing people back who have never worked in an office before. Xander notes huge interest in face-to-face training, team rituals and morale-building.
Rebuilding connection takes intention. The best leaders use this moment to refocus on coaching, culture and communication. A strong sense of belonging and continuous learning can transform everyday performance.
Think advisor, not agent: as simple queries are automated, invest in advanced listening skills, de-escalation, product depth and judgement. Consider bringing in external experts, a hostage negotiator-style masterclass on de-escalation would not be out of place.
A modern contact centre needs people who can handle emotional complexity with skill and empathy. Coaching for that kind of work is just as critical as the technology that supports it.
Five practical ways to make your contact centre more strategic
1) Translate your impact
- Reframe metrics in business terms: retention, cost-to-serve, revenue influenced.
- Share monthly “What customers are telling us” insights with Marketing, Product and IT.
2) Start small, learn fast
- Pick one journey with high volume and clear pain.
- Pilot a small change (e.g., a pre-call bot flow, or AI summaries on a single queue).
- Measure, refine, then scale.
3) Be open about AI
- Label bots and voice agents clearly.
- Publish escalation paths and service guarantees.
- Capture and action feedback on automated journeys.
4) Treat knowledge as a living system
- Give someone ownership.
- Review usage and gaps weekly.
- Align content structure to agent prompts and virtual agent intents.
5) Coach for the work agents actually do
- Use conversation insights and QA signals to target coaching.
- Support wellbeing: the work is more complex and emotionally demanding.
Final thought: From conversations to strategy
Elevating the contact centre starts with recognising its real influence across the business. Every conversation captures what customers value, what frustrates them, and what they expect next. When those insights are shared across the business, they become the foundation for smarter decisions and more personal experiences.
Xander’s message is clear: contact centres already hold the data that makes AI powerful. The real opportunity lies in using that knowledge to guide strategy, empower people, and create meaningful change for both customers and agents.
Listen to the full conversation
To dive deeper into these insights, listen to the full Puzzel Talks episode with Xander Freeman from Call Centre Helper. Hear the full discussion on empathy, AI, and what the future of customer contact looks like.
Listen to the episode here:
