Nowadays, when a customer needs human help, they’re already a bit frustrated. Either something has gone wrong, or they need reassurance.
As such, human service touchpoints are more critical than ever to ensure customer loyalty.
Recognizing this, contact center leaders are rethinking how they support their teams, with only seven percent of saying agents’ roles haven’t changed, as per the 2025 Business Leaders CX Report.
Meanwhile, 88 percent of leaders have increased their focus on the agent experience over the past year.
These leaders understand that, while empathy matters, agents need to be equipped to go beyond: “I’m sorry you feel that way.” They must engage in active listening, validation, and effective follow-ups in these moments that matter.
After all, if the same issue happens again next time, the business has lost customer trust.
What Are Contact Centers Doing to Improve Agent Experiences?
Contact centers have always struggled to empower their teams. Yet, ultimately, that’s what they must do for agents to engage in open, meaningful conversations.
Flexible scheduling is part of the empowerment conversation, so agents can work when and where they want. That includes developing shift patterns that align with preferences and offering staff the ability to adjust their availability.
These are tangible objectives. As such, it’s little surprise that flexible scheduling is the number one initiative contact centers have adopted to improve agent experiences, according to the aforementioned report.
The second and third most adopted initiatives are AI-powered assistance and providing access to subject matter experts, likely through a Microsoft Teams integration.
Such support mechanisms are crucial, as they allow agents to feel more comfortable going off script, knowing they have something to fall back on.
As Steve Blood, VP of Market Intelligence and Evangelism at Five9, said: “We need to give staff the skills and authority to shape the customer experience—not just follow a script. The old “computer says no” mindset has to go.
“We also need to move beyond “next best action” to “next issue avoidance.” Don’t just resolve the issue—fix the underlying cause. Encourage agents to be curious, form tiger teams, and drive real improvement across the business.”
In this sense, contact centers must still further empower their employees. One idea touted by Zappos is to give agents a list of five or six things they absolutely cannot do so they understand where the boundaries lie and feel more confident in finding creative solutions.
What More Can Contact Centers Do?
Ultimately, as contact centers leverage new AI solutions, they’ll automate more simple contacts that agents often use to take a breather.
As that transition happens, agents may face a barrage of tricky contacts, and contact center leaders could face an uphill battle to release the pressure valve.
But what if it’s not just the most troublesome contacts that filter through to agents?
Consider this: customers won’t be loyal unless they associate a positive memory with the business. Customer service agents are the best-placed employees to deliver those memories.
So, what if the contact center can – instead of automating transactional but highly emotional contacts – deliberately pass them through to an agent?
That agent may follow a carefully orchestrated process designed to offer human guidance and reassurance that results in a positive memory, boosting loyalty.
Contact centers can also compose human-led conversations for contacts that are possible to automate but offer an opportunity for an upsell.
Doing so raises the contact center’s value, and service leaders avoid overburdening agents.
Of course, this involves careful consultation with the powers beyond the contact center, who will likely say: “Automate, automate, automate!”
However, this approach takes customer service toward becoming a value center rather than a cost center, as it’s so often viewed.
There are also smaller steps that service teams can take. For instance, Blood shared the example of switching from schedule adherence to schedule compliance. He said:
“Instead of forcing breaks at exact times, give agents the flexibility to finish the call properly, then take a slightly later break. That creates better experiences without losing productivity.”
More Key Findings from the 2025 Business Leaders CX Report
Like other industry studies, the report found that voice remains supreme as consumers’ preferred channel for contact center conversations.
However, it shows that generational channel preferences are more nuanced.
Typically, these studies segment preference by age, making claims like: “People over 50 prefer voice.” But that’s not always accurate.
Instead, the Business Leaders CX Report underscores the need to understand customer preferences on an individual level so the contact center can serve them better across the right channels at the right times.
Building on this point, Blood stated:
“Right now, we’re managing all channels equally, but the next step is managing them intelligently based on actual behavior and context.”
Other thought-provoking takeaways from the study include:
- While 91 percent of decision-makers expect GenAI to revolutionize service, only 54 percent of customers share that optimism.
- Business leaders significantly overestimate customer preference for social media (16 percent vs. actual three percent)
- 46 percent of leaders cite agent productivity as a top challenge in remote environments.
To dive deeper into the study and unpack more insights, check it out here: The 2025 Business Leaders CX Report
Five9 commissioned Zogby Analytics to survey over 400 business decision makers (BDMs) across the US, UK, and Canada to put together this report.
Respondents include chief experience officers and other senior CX, contact center, and IT personnel.
