Building a Frictionless Contact Centre
*Updated 14 September 2026*
A frictionless contact centre is not one where customers never need to speak to an agent. It is one where they do not have to repeat themselves, chase updates, navigate unnecessary transfers or start again every time they change channel.
For organisations, the same principle applies internally. Agents should not need to search multiple systems, manually re-enter information or spend valuable time completing repetitive administration after every interaction.
That makes contact centre transformation an exercise in removing friction across the complete customer journey rather than simply replacing one communications platform with another.
This matters as customer expectations continue to rise. The Institute of Customer Service's July 2026 UK Customer Satisfaction Index found that being easy to deal with has become more important to UK consumers, alongside value, price and service quality.
At the same time, ContactBabel's 2026 UK Contact Centre Decision-Makers' Guide reports that the average inbound call costs £6.17, while 78% of contact centre leaders place AI among their five highest technology investment priorities for the next two years.
The opportunity is clear. Contact centres need to improve customer experience while reducing avoidable effort and cost. Technology can help, but only when it is applied to the right problems.
What Makes A Contact Centre Frictionless?
The short answer
A frictionless contact centre makes it easy for customers to get the right answer, through an appropriate channel, without unnecessary repetition, transfers or delays.
Behind the scenes, customer-facing teams have the context, tools and support they need to resolve interactions effectively.
Britannic recommends looking at friction through three connected lenses.
| Type Of Friction | What It Looks Like | Typical Impact |
| Customer friction | Long waits, repeated information, unnecessary transfers, disconnected channels | Lower satisfaction, repeat contact and abandonment |
| Agent friction |
|
Longer handling times, inconsistency and employee frustration |
| Operational friction | Siloed data, poor forecasting, manual quality reviews and limited insight | Higher costs and slower service improvement |
Removing one type of friction can often improve the others.
Giving an agent better customer context, for example, can reduce handling time while also removing the need for the customer to repeat information.
Where Should Contact Centre Transformation Begin?
Contact centre transformation should start with the customer journey rather than the technology.
Before selecting new platforms or introducing AI, organisations should understand where effort is currently being created.
A useful assessment should look at questions such as:
- Why are customers making contact?
- Which enquiries generate repeat contact?
- Where do customers wait longest?
- Which interactions are transferred most often?
- Where do customers repeat information?
- Which tasks take agents the most time?
- Where are agents switching between systems?
- Which processes could be automated?
- Which interactions genuinely require human judgement?
- What happens after the interaction ends?
The answers help identify whether the underlying issue is routing, process design, integration, staffing, information, automation or the customer journey itself.
This prevents organisations investing in technology that simply makes an inefficient process happen faster.
Does Omnichannel Mean Offering More Channels?
Not necessarily.
An omnichannel contact centre should connect customer conversations and context across voice and digital channels.
Simply adding email, webchat, WhatsApp, SMS and social messaging alongside voice does not automatically create an omnichannel experience.
If those channels operate separately, customers can still experience friction.
A customer may start through webchat, send supporting information by email and then phone the organisation. If the agent cannot see that previous context, the customer effectively starts the journey again.
A better approach connects channels, customer information and business systems so relevant context can move with the interaction.
Modern cloud contact centre platforms such as 8x8 Contact Centre and the Five9 Intelligent CX Platform can bring voice and digital engagement together while supporting routing, analytics, automation and workforce tools.
Britannic's role is to integrate those capabilities around the wider customer journey rather than treating the contact centre as an isolated application.
Where Should AI Be Used In The Contact Centre?
AI should be applied where it removes measurable friction rather than introduced simply because the capability exists.
ContactBabel's 2026 research identifies AI as the leading technology investment priority for UK contact centres, with 78% of respondents including it within their top five priorities.
However, investment does not automatically translate into customer value.
AI can provide significant benefits when it is used for areas such as:
- Identifying customer intent
- Intelligent routing
- Customer self-service
- Real-time agent guidance
- Knowledge recommendations
- Interaction transcription
- Automated summaries
- After-call work
- Sentiment analysis
- Quality management
- Conversation analytics
- Demand forecasting
The question should always be what friction the technology removes.
If AI reduces administrative work but makes it harder for a customer to reach a person when they genuinely need help, it may simply move friction elsewhere.
Should AI Replace Contact Centre Agents?
AI is better used to change what agents spend their time doing.
Predictable, repetitive interactions can often be automated or supported through self-service. More complicated, sensitive or unusual interactions still benefit from human judgement, empathy and problem-solving.
This creates a stronger division of work.
Automation should handle what is predictable. People should handle what requires understanding.
Agent Assist technology can also support employees during interactions by providing relevant information, suggested answers, summaries and guidance.
This matters because a frictionless experience for customers depends heavily on creating a manageable experience for agents.
When employees can access customer history, relevant knowledge and operational systems from a more integrated workspace, they spend less time navigating technology and more time resolving the customer's need.
Why Does Customer Data Need To Be Connected?
A contact centre cannot provide a connected customer experience if the information required to serve the customer remains fragmented.
CRM platforms, contact centre technology, ticketing tools and operational systems need to exchange the appropriate information.
This can allow an agent to understand:
- Who the customer is
- Why they may be contacting the organisation
- What previous interactions have taken place
- Which products or services they use
- Whether there is an existing case or request
- What actions have already been taken
That context can improve routing and help agents resolve issues more quickly.
Data integration becomes even more important as organisations introduce AI.
The UK Business Data Survey 2026, published by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 18 June 2026, found that 41% of UK businesses handling digitised data were already using AI for at least one purpose. Adoption rose to 82% among large businesses.
However, the same research found that 17% of businesses using AI had no AI policy in place.
Contact centre leaders therefore need to consider data governance alongside innovation. Customer information should not simply be connected to every AI application because it is technically possible.
Can Self-Service Reduce Contact Centre Friction?
Yes, when it solves the customer's problem rather than simply preventing them from reaching an agent.
Good self-service allows customers to complete straightforward tasks quickly.
That could include:
- Checking an order
- Changing an appointment
- Making a payment
- Finding routine information
- Reporting a problem
- Updating account details
Poor self-service forces customers through options that do not match their needs and makes escalation unnecessarily difficult.
The quality of escalation is therefore just as important as the automation itself.
When a chatbot, virtual agent or automated workflow reaches its limit, relevant information should transfer with the customer so the human agent does not need to restart the conversation.
How Can Contact Centres Improve First Contact Resolution?
First Contact Resolution is influenced by more than agent performance.
An employee cannot resolve an interaction first time if they cannot access the right information, do not have the appropriate permissions or need another team to complete the process.
Organisations should examine the operational causes of repeat contact.
These might include:
- Poor routing
- Fragmented customer information
- Limited agent authority
- Missing integrations
- Complex business processes
- Inadequate knowledge
- Poor internal collaboration
- Unclear ownership
- Failed automation
This is why contact centre transformation frequently extends beyond the contact centre itself.
Solutions such as 8x8 Contact Centre for Microsoft Teams can connect frontline agents more closely with internal subject matter experts, while wider integration can connect contact centre workflows to CRM and operational applications.
The objective is to bring the organisation closer to the customer rather than expecting the customer to navigate the organisation.
What Can Contact Centre Data Reveal?
Contact centre interactions provide an extensive source of information about customer needs and operational problems.
Traditional reporting might focus on Average Handling Time, service level and abandonment.
These remain useful, but organisations should also ask what customers are actually contacting them about.
Conversation analytics can identify:
- Common contact reasons
- Emerging customer issues
- Repeated complaints
- Process failures
- Sentiment
- Service risks
- Product issues
- Training opportunities
- Customer intent
- Potential compliance concerns
This changes the role of the contact centre.
Instead of simply handling demand created elsewhere in the organisation, it can identify why that demand exists.
Britannic's approach is to use customer interactions as a source of operational intelligence that can inform wider service improvement.
What Does Contact Centre Transformation Look Like In Practice?
Britannic's work with Caxton demonstrates the impact of connecting technology, customer data and operational insight.
Agents gained access to customer history and real-time information, while managers gained stronger reporting and visibility of call flows.
The results included:
- 21% reduction in call handling time
- 8% reduction in call waiting time
- NPS maintained above 70 during its busiest period
The results show why transformation should be measured against operational and customer outcomes rather than technology deployment alone.
Britannic's work with Plus Dane Housing provides another example.
The organisation introduced omnichannel communications, WhatsApp, workforce management, speech analytics, quality management and email automation.
Real-time queue management helped Plus Dane increase the number of calls answered by more than 10% without increasing headcount, while average waiting times fell by almost 60 seconds.
Its customer research also found that 60% of surveyed WhatsApp users valued being able to contact Plus Dane at a time that suited them.
Both examples show that friction can be removed in different ways depending on the underlying customer and operational problem.
What Is Britannic's Friction To Flow Framework?
Britannic recommends using five stages to move a contact centre from fragmented interactions towards continuous improvement.
| Stage | Objective | Key Question |
| 1. Diagnose | Identify customer, agent and operational friction | Where is unnecessary effort being created? |
| 2. Connect | Join channels, data and business systems | Where is context being lost? |
| 3. Automate | Remove predictable and repetitive work | What can technology complete reliably? |
| 4. Empower | Give agents information, tools and authority | What prevents first-time resolution? |
| 5. Optimise | Use interaction data to improve continuously | What is customer demand telling the organisation? |
This provides a different starting point from a traditional technology migration.
The goal is not simply to move from an old contact centre to a new one.
The goal is to understand which customer and operational outcomes need to change and then use the appropriate combination of process, technology, automation and people to achieve them.
Which Contact Centre Metrics Actually Matter?
There is no single metric that proves a contact centre is performing well.
Average Handling Time can improve while First Contact Resolution falls. Self-service rates can rise while customer satisfaction deteriorates. Calls can be answered faster while the underlying reason customers are calling remains unresolved.
A balanced scorecard should therefore consider several perspectives.
| Customer | Operational | Agent | Business |
| Customer satisfaction | Service level | Agent satisfaction | Cost to serve |
| Customer effort | Abandonment | After-call work | Retention |
| First contact resolution | Wait time | Quality scores | Revenue or collections |
| Repeat contact | Channel demand | Schedule adherence | Complaint volumes |
| Sentiment | Automation success | Knowledge usage | Outcome completion |
The right measures depend on the purpose of the contact centre.
The important point is to connect operational metrics with customer and business outcomes.
What Should Businesses Review Before Transforming A Contact Centre?
Contact Centre Transformation Checklist
- Map the highest-volume customer journeys
- Identify the main reasons customers make contact
- Measure repeat interactions
- Review channel demand and customer preference
- Identify where customers repeat information
- Map transfers and escalation points
- Review First Contact Resolution
- Identify unnecessary agent administration
- Review the number of applications agents use
- Assess CRM and operational integrations
- Review routing rules
- Examine workforce forecasting and scheduling
- Assess self-service performance
- Identify appropriate AI and automation opportunities
- Review how escalation from automation works
- Assess accessibility and language requirements
- Review call recording and compliance requirements
- Assess outbound customer engagement
- Review customer and interaction analytics
- Identify where contact data could improve wider processes
- Establish baseline CX and operational metrics
- Define measurable transformation outcomes
- Test changes with users and customers
- Review performance after implementation
- Establish a continuous optimisation process
Contact centre transformation should not finish when the technology goes live.
Customer behaviour, processes and technology continue to change. The operating model needs to change with them.
What Comes After Contact Centre Transformation?
A modern contact centre should become a continuous source of customer intelligence.
Every interaction can reveal where processes are failing, where customers need more support and where unnecessary demand is being created.
That means the long-term opportunity is larger than faster call handling.
Organisations can use contact centre insight to improve digital journeys, communications, processes, products and service design across the wider business.
The most effective contact centres therefore move through three stages.
Handle the interaction. Understand the interaction. Improve what caused it.
Britannic works with organisations to assess customer journeys, integrate contact centre and business technology and continuously optimise service using platforms including 8x8, Five9 and Britannic's own CX technologies.
Organisations reviewing their contact centre strategy can book a complimentary meeting with Britannic to identify where customer, agent and operational friction is creating unnecessary effort and prioritise the improvements likely to deliver the greatest value.
