Why Your Contact Centre is an Untapped Growth Engine

Most brands still see the contact centre as a value centre at best but unlocking its real power means seeing it for what it is: a hidden engine for growth, trust, and sustainable revenue.

There’s no shortage of conference keynotes and LinkedIn posts declaring that the contact centre is a value centre, not a cost centre.

It sounds good but talk is cheap if the mindset doesn’t change. The truth is, for all the noise about customer obsession and experience-led growth, most companies still treat customer support as a team to optimise for efficiency. Yet the reality is clear: the contact centre is one of the biggest untapped growth engines in any organisation.

Charlie Adams, Director of Customer Success & Experience at Custom Connect believes many companies still underestimate what’s sitting in plain sight. “Yes, we absolutely underestimate the potential of the contact centre. It’s a goldmine of customer data points and first-hand insights. If mined and interpreted well, this information can be the difference between an average business and a thriving one.”

Charlie brings years of hands-on experience transforming contact centres from traditional cost centres into value-driving growth engines. His passion lies in bridging technology and human insight to unlock the hidden potential of frontline teams, turning everyday support moments into powerful levers for customer loyalty and business impact. Charlie is also the author of It’s Just People: A Manager’s Toolkit, a practical guide for leaders navigating real-world management challenges.

He’s seen it go both ways. “In some companies I’ve worked with, customer support is the heart of the CX strategy — often because there’s no dedicated CX function, leaving customer service teams to drive insights and improvements. On the other hand, too many businesses still treat customer support as a cost centre, leaving it on the sidelines and missing out on the immense value it holds.”

The AI Boss or Co-Pilot? 

AI in contact centres is still relatively new, and the industry is playing catch-up in figuring out how to balance human and AI capabilities effectively. “This has led to some knee-jerk decisions — like we saw with Klarna’s full-scale AI rollout, which sent shockwaves through the industry before they later reversed course, reportedly seeing a significant hit to their valuation,” Charlie points out.

Everyone’s talking about “human + AI”, but are we really getting it right? Charlie cautions that companies risk getting trapped in a tech-first mindset. “Too many organisations remain overly tech-led, choosing the technology first and then expecting agents to fit around it. This approach won’t unlock long-term value. It might deliver short-term gains, but it risks alienating the people who deliver the service.”

Instead, the real leap forward is training people to work alongside AI and not under it. “The real winners will be the businesses that focus on empowering their people — training them to work alongside AI, enhancing emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and problem-solving. AI should enhance human capability, not replace it. When people feel supported by technology rather than restricted by it, that’s when real progress happens.”

The Underrated Touchpoint: The Follow-Up

So where does growth really hide? Sometimes, in the smallest moments. Charlie pinpoints a simple action many brands overlook: the follow-up. “One of the most underrated — yet powerful — touchpoints is the moment after a problem has been resolved. Too often, businesses focus heavily on handling the issue itself but overlook the opportunity to follow up.”

“A simple, genuine follow-up message — a quick call, email, or message via the customer’s preferred channel — can turn a routine interaction into a trust-building moment. It signals that you care not just about fixing the problem, but about how the customer felt during the experience and whether everything is working well now.”

Support teams can turn a simple follow-up into a trust boost. It takes little effort but pays off big in loyalty and leaves a lasting, human touch in an often transactional world.

From Metrics to Outcomes

What holds teams back from seeing support as a growth driver? Tunnel vision on vanity metrics. Charlie doesn’t mince words: “The issue is that too many CX leaders stop at surface-level indicators like NPS and CSAT, treating them as outcomes when they’re actually just signals. These metrics are valuable, but they don’t always correlate directly with business performance.”

What’s better? Tie everything to real impact. “You could have a steadily rising NPS while customer churn is increasing — which would suggest something’s fundamentally off. The key is to connect CX metrics to real business outcomes. Customer Lifetime Value and Customer Retention Rate are a good place to start and give a much clearer picture of whether your CX efforts are delivering tangible results.”

Connection, Not Just Tracking

Tech has made tracking customers easy — but connection? Not always. Charlie explains: “In some ways, yes — technology can make it feel harder for customers to connect with businesses. But if a company is struggling to connect, that’s a choice they’re making in how they use the technology.”

It’s a simple rule: track less, engage more. “Modern tech has created more opportunities than ever for connection — from interactive websites and social media to real-time review responses and proactive service outreach. The problem lies when businesses use technology only to track rather than engage.”

Charlie’s message is clear: empower your people, use AI wisely, and treat every touchpoint as an opportunity to build trust and revenue.

The Editorial Take

For years, the conversation around the contact centre has slowly shifted from being a pure cost centre to a value centre. And rightly so! Businesses are finally recognising that the humble support desk is a goldmine of insights, relationship moments, and trust-building opportunities.

But here’s the catch: even with this progress, most companies still underestimate just how much potential sits inside those walls (or headsets). The truth is, treating the contact centre as a value centre is only halfway there. The real leap is seeing it for what it can be: a fully-fledged growth engine.

The difference? A value centre is about proving the contact centre saves money, improves satisfaction, and supports retention. A growth engine goes further: it generates new revenue opportunities, deepens loyalty, fuels innovation, and feeds back data that transforms entire business strategies.

In other words, a tiny shift in mindset, from support as a back-office function to support as a front-line growth driver, can unlock million-dollar ideas hidden in plain sight.

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