Age UK’s partnership with Twilio reveals how communications technology can help scale human support, enabling Twilio Flex to power the voice infrastructure behind Age UK’s Telephone Friendship Service and Silver Line Helpline.
Loneliness amongst older generations is more crucial than ever, as Age UK research shows that 360,000 older people go a week without speaking to family or friends, with Twilio’s own research revealing that 29% of UK adults feel more isolated than ever.
At a time when many organizations are rushing toward AI-led customer engagement, Age UK’s approach demonstrates that the strongest CX outcomes often come from using technology to enable meaningful human connection, not replace it.
Speaking with CX Today, Alasdair Stewart, Age UK Director of National Services, explained that its services are designed to restore meaningful human connection at a time when opportunities for conversation have become limited.
“The opportunities for a two-way conversation have really reduced, and that’s why our service is very much geared to supporting other people,” he acknowledged.
“To provide that meaningful to a conversation, whether it’s with them for staff, or the 4,500 volunteers, that support our different services.”
Beyond Digital-First Support
Loneliness remains one of the most significant challenges affecting older people across the UK, often stemming from a lack of meaningful social connection.
As the UK’s leading charity supporting older people through loneliness, Age UK has long recognized that isolation can have a profound impact on wellbeing, as recent research from the charity found that 360,000 older people go a week without speaking to family or friends.
Furthermore, one in four older people (3.4 million people) avoid telling family or friends they are lonely because they do not want to feel like a burden, leaving many to cope with isolation in silence.
“We know there’s lots of different reasons and barriers that can stop older people building social connections within their communities,” Stewart notes.
While many services have recently shifted toward digital channels, these are not always accessible to older people, with many facing significant challenges when it comes to brand-new technology.
As a result, the launch of Age UK’s Telephone Friendship Service offered a familiar, trusted, and accessible way for many older people to stay connected, requiring no internet access or digital confidence, making it one of the lowest-barrier forms of communication available.
Stewart highlights:
“Our telephone services are designed to find the National Safety Net, to make sure that no matter where you live, there are services that you can access.”
By providing consistent telephone-based support, Age UK ensures that geography or digital exclusion does not prevent people from finding someone willing to listen.
Introducing Twilio For Flexibility When Demand Strikes
As demand for its telephone services continued to grow, Age UK recognized that it would require a communications platform that could scale alongside its services while maintaining personal, human conversations.
After redesigning its Telephone Friendship Service in 2016, Age UK integrated Twilio Flex and Twilio’s communications technology to power the voice infrastructure behind both the Telephone Friendship Service and the Silver Line Helpline.
This partnership was designed to remove operational barriers for volunteers and staff to better support older people wherever they were.
This became particularly valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic as its demand increased by more than 60%, where Twilio’s browser-based technology enabled volunteers to continue supporting callers remotely without fixed contact center infrastructure and respond better during seasonal peaks.
This enabled Age UK to deliver more than 7.4 million minutes of friendship last year, supporting roughly 10,000 older people.
In conversation with CX Today, Sam Richardson, Director of Executive Engagement at Twilio, that owning the technology gave Age UK the flexibility to make changes quickly and adapt the service without depending on a third party.
“Twilio Flex helps in a couple of ways. As Alasdair and the team scale the service, Twilio can scale at the same time.”
“I think there’s the speed, and then any subsequent changes, because Age UK owned the tech.”
Twilio’s pay-per-hour, per-user pricing model has allowed Age UK to expand volunteer capacity without excessive costs and strengthened safeguarding and service quality behind the scenes.
“Within the Telephone Friendship Service, because all those calls are facilitated using closed telephony services, we’ve got them all recorded, and then we can transcribe them,” explains Stewart.
This can help staff identify signs of safeguarding concerns that may require additional support with reduced administration, allowing teams to focus on volunteer matching and service delivery.
Twilio’s own research suggests that loneliness extends beyond older generations, with 29% of UK adults saying they feel more isolated than ever, while approximately 21% report going an entire week without face-to-face interaction.
These reveal that technology is most valuable when it enables meaningful human connection, rather than increasing the volume of digital interactions for the sake of AI hype.
Why Human Contact Counts in CX
While Twilio’s technology provides the infrastructure behind Age UK’s telephone services, the value of the service is measured by the conversations it enables.
In its latest survey, 100% of respondents said they enjoyed their weekly friendship calls, while 96% said the calls helped them feel less lonely, where one anonymous Age UK service user described the difference a regular conversation can make.
“When I wake up I feel uncertain. Within half an hour of speaking to you, I feel better. I’m so glad you’re there,” they said.
Another respondent highlighted the importance of having someone available outside traditional support hours, saying, “You don’t know what it means, having somebody to talk to in the middle of the night. I’m so grateful to The Silver Line Helpline.”
These experiences illustrate that timely, compassionate conversations can provide reassurance during periods of isolation and uncertainty, with Age UK carefully matching volunteers with older people based on shared interests or hobbies, helping conversations develop naturally into lasting relationships.
One anonymous Silver Line Helpline volunteer explains how the flexibility of the browser-based service makes volunteering accessible.
“I think it’s so important for older people to have someone to talk to,” they note.
“I often do a shift around bedtime, and a lot of people call just to say goodnight before going to bed. It’s lovely to be able to chat to them before the new day tomorrow.”
Together, these experiences demonstrate that lasting CX impact comes from the genuine human connections it helps create.
