The UK contact centre industry is losing talent and money. With recruitment costs exceeding £4,000 per hire and attrition rates at 30.2%, each departure triggers a costly cycle of recruitment and training. Traditional recruitment approaches aren't just failing—they're actively holding the industry back—each loss due to poor recruitment damages the brand's reputation and the wider contact centre industry.
Poor recruitment experiences and outdated perceptions of contact centre roles have long hindered the industry’s ability to showcase the exceptional career opportunities it offers. It’s time to break free from these cycles by embracing new strategies integrating candidate and customer experience.
At the heart of this transformation is a simple truth: only one customer exists. Future talent, existing colleagues, and customers are all part of the same unified ecosystem. By applying customer-centric principles to recruitment, onboarding, and the employee experience, we can build an organic, sustainable talent pipeline that transforms contact centre careers into respected professions..
Unnecessary complexity has been created by siloing recruitment, talent management, and customer experience. Contact centres can reduce costs, improve retention, and redefine their reputation as centres of innovation and professional career opportunities by integrating these efforts and breaking down these invisible barriers.
The Power of One
Every touchpoint shapes perception. A candidate browsing your careers page or a customer seeking support can become a brand advocate or detractor—they’re part of the same ecosystem. Many businesses treat these as separate journeys, but by breaking down the artificial barriers between candidate and customer strategies, we create a more organic pipeline of engaged talent who already understand and believe in our service values.
Mapping the Connected Journey
Contact centres that excel at customer journey mapping already possess the tools to transform recruitment. The same principles that create seamless customer experiences; identifying friction points, gathering real-time feedback, and delivering personalised interactions, are equally powerful when applied to the candidate journey.
Consider these parallel touchpoints:
A customer navigating your website compared to a candidate exploring job opportunities
A customer evaluation process compared to a candidate interview process
Customer onboarding compared to employee preboarding
Customer feedback loops compared to candidate and employee feedback
When these journeys are mapped together, patterns emerge. A clunky careers portal often reflects the same issues as a poor customer interface. Gaps in communication during recruitment often mirror breakdowns in customer communication. By viewing these journeys holistically, we can:
Identify shared pain points
Apply successful customer experience strategies to recruitment
Create consistent brand experiences
Build stronger emotional connections with both audiences.
Contact centres can uncover opportunities to enhance both experiences by aligning these interconnected journeys. The impact? Candidates evolve into advocates; customers consider careers, and a talent pipeline aligned with your core values emerges.
The Evolution of Contact Centre Roles
Today’s advisors are highly skilled professionals who:
Handle complex problem-solving while AI manages routine queries
Navigate multiple systems and channels simultaneously
Demonstrate high emotional intelligence in challenging situations
Yet, their external perception and compensation often fail to reflect these demands, remaining tied to outdated notions of basic call handling.
Reimagining Advisor Value
To make contact centre roles desirable, we must raise our expectations and offerings:
Fair Compensation
When retail, leisure, or hospitality roles offer comparable pay for less complexity, we undervalue our talent. Contact centres generate significant revenue through customer retention and upselling—pay structures should reflect this. We need to change our mindset to view contact centres as value drivers rather than cost centres. Competitive, skills-based remuneration acknowledges advisors' pivotal role in enhancing the customer experience. Bridging the gap between the value placed on customer acquisition and talent acquisition may be bold, but it could transform how we attract and retain talent.
Personalised Development
Modern advisors need:
Tailored learning paths based on their strengths
Real-time coaching powered by AI insights
Clear progression routes, whether vertical or horizontal
Advisors are at the heart of the customer experience. They can provide real-time insights that drive customer excellence. To keep them engaged, we must adapt training and development to their individual learning styles. A comprehensive knowledge base is a foundation, but it must be accessible and resonate with advisors.
Disengagement risks creeping in when learning methods don't align with individual needs. Additionally, repetition—a common complaint of contact centre roles—is often seen as a downside. However, by shifting our focus to the advisor experience, we can turn repetition into an opportunity to reinforce skills, build confidence, and support their ongoing development.
Clear Career Progression
For those looking to advance beyond customer service, we must clearly show how a role in a contact centre can be a stepping stone to a rewarding career. Equally important, however, is creating meaningful career progression pathways for those who love and wish to remain on the frontline.
Learning shouldn't stop after onboarding; it’s a journey of continuous improvement. Not everyone aspires to management. Tailoring development programmes to each advisor’s individual learning style and personal goals is key to enhancing their knowledge while retaining their expertise. Upskilling, reverse mentoring, and shadow board opportunities enable frontline advisors to grow and thrive while retaining their knowledge and experience.
We can build loyalty and create a stronger, more engaged workforce by offering tailored development opportunities for all advisors—whether they aim for management or frontline excellence.
Equally important is applying the same principles in tracking their progress as we do to measure customer satisfaction. Just as we rely on data-driven insights, feedback loops, and key performance indicators to refine and enhance the customer experience, we should adopt a similar approach to evaluating advisor development. Regular assessments, personalised feedback, and measurable outcomes can ensure that learning initiatives are effective and aligned with individual goals and business objectives. This approach reinforces a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring advisors remain engaged and empowered to be the best they can be.
Tech That Works
Despite significant investment in customer-facing technology, the tools and systems designed for advisors—and often candidates—frequently lag, creating inefficiencies and frustration. Modern contact centres require:
Intuitive interfaces that reduce cognitive load
AI-powered assistance for handling complex queries
Seamless integration across all channels
While customer UX and UI testing receive substantial attention to ensure a smooth customer journey, the same principles should be applied to advisor tools and prospective talent technology. These systems are the shop window for what it is like to be your customer or colleague, shaping perceptions from the very first interaction. Advisors need advanced, user-friendly systems to streamline workflows, reduce friction, and enhance job satisfaction. Similarly, candidates engage with technology during their application and onboarding journey, yet these systems often lack the same level of care and optimisation as customer platforms. Ensuring these touchpoints reflect the organisation’s values is essential to creating a cohesive and effective experience.
This focus on technology must also extend to the careers site, often treated as an afterthought compared to customer-facing platforms. Too frequently, careers pages are buried in dropdown menus with minimal attention to UX design or process flow. Unlike consumer facing websites - regularly updated and optimised by marketing and product development teams - the careers site and candidate journey often fail toshowcase the organisation’s innovation and employee value. This disparity results in a disjointed experience, undermining the brand’s promise.
By applying the same principles of care, design, and strategy to internal systems and talent-facing platforms, organisations can create a unified experience for candidates, employees, and customers. Investing in cutting-edge tools and consistent UX principles across all touchpoints, including the careers site, ensures that every interaction reflects the organisation’s commitment to excellence.
This approach enhances candidate satisfaction and shows that the organisation places equal value on their colleagues and customers.
Data-Driven Recruitment
Treating recruitment and customer acquisition as separate silos limits potential. Organisations can use the One Customer strategy to integrate the data, insights, and technology applied in customer acquisition—such as lifecycle management, proposition, and product development—into recruitment. Recognising that all interactions engage with the same customer pool, recruitment processes can benefit from strategies that drive customer success, including A/B testing, market segmentation, and persona-based targeting.
Leveraging AI, predictive analytics, and marketing principles enables organisations to:
Identify ideal candidates who may already exist within the customer base or prospective customer pool.
Tailor onboarding and development plans to individual strengths, learning styles, and areas for growth.
Prevent advisor churn through early interventions informed by data-driven insights.
Enhance candidate matching to align roles and customer interactions with advisors’ strengths.
This insight-driven approach transforms recruitment into a strategic, streamlined process that aligns with organisational goals while enriching the One Customer experience. Recruitment becomes more than just filling vacancies. It is critical to alignment, engagement, and retention across the business.
Final Thoughts
Closing the loop isn’tjust about refining processes—it’s about building an environment where advisors, candidates, and customers can thrive. As contact centres transition into primary value drivers for businesses, how we approach talent acquisition, development, and retention must evolve to reflect this transformation.
The One Customer concept offers a fresh perspective on aligning recruitment and customer engagement, breaking down silos, and creating unified, impactful experiences. By applying these principles, organisations can build engagement and drive success throughout the organisation.
Let’s Shape the Future of Recruitment Together
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the One Customer concept and how it resonates with your organisation. If you’d like to explore how we can support your recruitment strategy or discuss our innovative GROW programme, don’t hesitate to reach out. Contact Julie Mordue or fill out the form below to start the conversation.
