Customer Service Is Improving – But the UK’s Most Vulnerable Are Being Left Behind
CCMA’s 2026 Voice of the Contact Centre Consumer research study reveals a landmark positive shift in how UK consumers feel about customer service, but also warns of a widening sentiment gap that affects millions of vulnerable customers.
For the first time in five years, more UK consumers feel customer service has improved than feel it has worsened, a turnaround that reflects sustained investment in people, technology and digital experience across the contact centre industry.
The 2026 edition of the CCMA’s (Contact Centre Management Association) annual Voice of the Contact Centre Consumer 2026 research, supported by Zoom, is based on a nationally representative survey of 2,000 UK adults, conducted in February 2026.
The study finds that the proportion of consumers who feel customer service has improved over the past 12 months has grown to 31%, while the proportion that feel it has worsened has fallen to 26%. The shift represents a meaningful reversal of the position recorded in the last Voice of the Contact Centre Consumer study undertaken in 2024, when 31% of consumers felt service had worsened against just 21% who felt it had improved – a net negative of ten percentage points that has now been overturned.
The research also finds that consumer acceptance of self-service is growing, with willingness to self-serve rising across the majority of query types compared with 2024, a reversal of the decline previously seen and a sign that improvements to digital journey design are beginning to rebuild consumer confidence.
Despite this, the improvement in sentiment is not shared equally across the UK population. Vulnerable consumers – those who are financially vulnerable, health vulnerable, require care from others, or have recently experienced potentially destabilising life events – are less satisfied than the wider population.
Financially vulnerable consumers are significantly less likely than non-vulnerable consumers to report that customer service has improved (21% vs 32%), and more likely to say it has worsened (31% vs 25%). 63% of those with care needs and 54% of the financially vulnerable feel their personal circumstances make them more likely to be treated unfairly by organisations.
Vulnerable consumers are also more likely to avoid online customer service channels because they find them difficult to use, with 80% of those with care needs and 76% of the health vulnerable reporting they have done so. And while overall self-serve failure rates are beginning to improve, vulnerable consumers continue to experience self-serve failure at higher rates than their non-vulnerable counterparts.
On the findings and what they mean for contact centre leaders, Leigh Hopwood, CEO of the CCMA, said:
“For the first time in five years, the headline figures on customer service are moving in the right direction, and that deserves to be acknowledged. Contact centre teams across the UK have invested in their people and their processes in order to deliver better experiences, and consumers are beginning to notice.
“But the same research shows that while progress is real, it also remains uneven. Consumers with vulnerability, such as those navigating financial difficulty, health challenges, significant life events or who require care, are the ones for whom the experience is least improved. The work ahead is to make sure the improvement gains we’re seeing reach everyone in society.”
To download the Voice of the Contact Centre Consumer 2026 report Click Here
