No matter how you serve your customers, one truth is universal: your frontline service teams shape your customer experience more than anything else. They’re the ones taking the calls, responding to account questions, walking customers through billing changes, resolving disputes, and calming frustration when technology or money causes stress.

It’s meaningful work — but it’s demanding. High volumes, repetitive issues, shifting policies, and rising customer expectations can drain energy fast. And when teams burn out, customer experience dips. We know this is happening at scale because the customer experience overall has reportedly been declining for multiple years in North America, with many brands losing ground in effectiveness, ease, and emotional connection.

But the good news? Improving employee engagement is one of the fastest ways to improve customer experience—across all industries, but especially for financial services and telecom. Let’s dig into our simple, industry‑ready guide that you can use today to support your customer service and support teams and strengthen your customer experience at the same time.

Why an Engaged CX Team Matters in Telecom & Financial Services

Frontline engagement isn’t just a nice to have these days—it directly impacts how your customers feel and whether they stay.

Here’s what current research shows:

Customers switch quickly after poor service. NewVoiceMedia found that U.S. companies lose $75 billion a year due to bad experiences, with top complaints like feeling unappreciated, repeating information, or being passed between agents.
Telecom satisfaction is slipping. J.D. Power reports declining wireless care satisfaction, especially around in‑store and online experiences—highlighting the need to simplify plans and better support reps who must explain them.
CX is trending downward overall. Forrester’s 2025 CX Index shows that 25% of U.S. brands saw their customer experience decline year‑over‑year—with drops in ease, effectiveness, and emotional connection.
When service is good, loyalty jumps. NewVoiceMedia found that 66% of customers become more loyal and 65% would recommend the company after a positive experience.

So: engaging your service reps isn’t just about morale (something that is crucial to your success). It’s literally about holding onto customers.

Four Practical Ways to Engage Your Frontline Teams

And strengthen customer experience at the same time. These strategies can work across telecom and financial services, and none require reinventing your entire operation.

1. Create a Culture That Helps Teams Do Their Best Work

A positive environment gives reps the confidence and support they need to handle tough moments with customers.

What this looks like:

Clear, friendly communication between managers and reps
Supportive onboarding so new hires don’t feel overwhelmed
Space to speak up — reps should feel comfortable sharing what customers are saying and what’s confusing

Microsoft’s global service research highlights that customers expect ease and speed. And frontline employees can deliver on that best when they feel equipped and supported.

Why it matters:
Happy, confident employees tend to create calmer, smoother customer interactions, especially in high‑stress telecom billing moments or financial services account issues.

2. Recognize Great Work Early and Often

Recognition doesn’t need to be fancy. It just needs to be consistent.

You can:

Celebrate helpful call resolutions
Give shoutouts for tough saves or patience during difficult interactions
Highlight positive customer comments
Offer small rewards for hitting quality measures, not just speed

NewVoiceMedia research shows that feeling appreciated is a major factor in emotional connection and long‑term loyalty for both employees and customers. Research from Psychology Today shows that feeling appreciated plays a crucial role in whether employees stay, perform, and feel connected to their employer — a lack of appreciation is one of the top reasons people quit. When customers feel genuinely appreciated, they say they form stronger emotional connections with a brand, and emotionally connected customers are significantly more loyal, visiting and spending up to four times more.

3. Support Skill‑Building and Career Growth

Most frontline employees want to grow — and when they see a future, they’re more engaged.

Ways to do this:

Offer cross‑training (billing + troubleshooting; deposits + disputes)
Create clear paths to roles like QA, training, workforce management, and team lead
Give access to micro‑learning or skills refreshers
Explain how today’s interactions connect to bigger goals (NPS, account retention, churn reduction)

Telecom and financial services benefit when support reps can see the whole picture. Customers often switch between different ways of getting help like calling, chatting online, or messaging through an app — and having that context helps reps solve problems faster.

4. Use Technology and Tools to Make Their Jobs Easier

When tools work well, reps have more time to help people. When tools are clunky, your teams AND your customers feel it.

Examples of helpful tools:

Knowledge bases that use everyday language
AI‑powered suggestions to help reps find answers faster (think: “next best step” or wording guidance)
Ticketing or CRM systems that show full customer history
Better self‑service options so reps handle fewer repetitive requests
Automation for simple status checks or balance lookups
Omnichannel visibility, so reps don’t ask customers to repeat information

Microsoft’s State of Customer Service report notes that customers expect agents to have quick access to accurate information, which only happens when internal tools actually support reps.

Bonus: Modern AI tools can lighten routine tasks, but they shouldn’t replace the human touch customers still want, especially when money, identity, or connectivity is at stake.

What This Looks Like in Telecom

Telecom customers often call during vulnerable moments: a dropped connection, a confusing bill, or an unexpected fee. With industry churn rising—T‑Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T all saw customer movement in the last 12 months. And service teams are feeling the pressure. Customer‑care satisfaction in U.S. wireless declined in early 2025, led by in‑store (−8) and website (−10) drops on a 1,000‑point scale, according to J.D. Power—a sign that plan complexity and shifting offers are making service harder for both customers and reps. Forrester reported that CX quality continued to erode in 2025: in the U.S., 25% of brands declined and only 7% improved, with broad drops across effectiveness, ease, and emotion—the same dimensions service teams influence every day.

But your engaged reps:

Explain complex plan changes more clearly
Calm billing frustration before it becomes a cancellation
Help customers navigate device or network issues with empathy
Prevent churn by reinforcing trust during moments of doubt

What This Looks Like in Financial Services

Financial services customers expect quick, clear answers—especially for fees, fraud alerts, and disputes—and many will switch if service feels confusing or slow. Research of financial services consumers from Salesforce’s Connected Financial Services Report shows rising expectations for easy, personalized, hybrid support and a growing willingness to change providers for a better experience. They also said many customers might change providers if these needs aren’t met.

Overall satisfaction is steady but varies by brand; in 2025 ACSI scores, banks and credit unions were strong overall, yet individual brands look to have swung year over year. Meanwhile, independent audits show wide gaps in web and mobile quality among banks—so service teams often carry the load when digital falls short. And across the market, Forrester’s latest CX Index confirms multi‑year CX headwinds (only 7% of U.S. brands improved while 25% declined), with drops in effectiveness, ease, and emotion. Notable because those are the same areas front‑line teams influence every day.

Engaged reps make the difference. They:

Make policies and fees clear, helping customers avoid surprises and frustration.
Guide customers through digital steps when they get stuck, closing gaps between app, web, and phone support.
Handle sensitive issues with empathy, especially during fraud or claims questions—moments that shape long‑term trust.

When reps are engaged and equipped with the right tools and context, they reduce effort, solve issues faster, and help customers feel more confident staying with their financial provider.

When You Take Care of Your People, They Can Take Better Care of Your Customers

Telecom and financial services compete against big players in each industry on pricing, location, availability, and experience—and experience is delivered by people first. The big takeaway here is that how you support your team, recognize their work, tool and train them, and listen to feedback, can lead to better employee and customer loyalty. We predict your customers will feel the impact of your efforts immediately.

Service teams are the heartbeat of CX. When they thrive, your brand strengthens.

Customer experience hinges on the people who serve customers every day. In telecom and financial services, engaged frontline teams are the difference between repeat contacts and first‑time resolution, between frustration and trust. The data shows CX expectations keep rising while patience falls—so the companies that equip and appreciate their service reps, simplify journeys, and use AI to remove repetitive work will consistently outperform. When reps can see the full context and feel supported, they explain complex policies in plain English, resolve issues faster, and prevent churn—right where it happens: in real customer moments.

How Insight Global Can Help CX Teams in Telecom + Financial Services

Build and scale high‑performing CX teams

Contact‑center staffing (onshore, nearshore, offshore) for voice, chat, social, and back‑office queues.
Rapid surge support for billing events, outages, fraud spikes, claims season, and new product launches.

Enable an AI‑ready, engagement‑driven workforce

Upskill agents and leads on AI‑assist tools, knowledge use, and first‑contact resolution habits.
Playbooks that reduce handle time without sacrificing empathy or compliance.

Right‑shore with confidence

Design the right mix of onshore/nearshore/offshore by intent and risk—then stand up talent, QA, and knowledge flows that keep experiences consistent across sites.

Professional services that make work easier for customer service reps (and better for customers)

Journey and knowledge tuning, agent desktop simplification, and light‑weight automations that lower effort and repeat contacts.
Practical governance for content, QA, and analytics—so wins stick and scale.

Talk to us about your CX goals

Staff the team you need, where you need it
Build a flexible pipeline of CX talent—onshore, nearshore, or offshore—for today’s volume and tomorrow’s growth.
Stand up (or tune) your Customer Experience operation
From workforce models and quality programs to knowledge, AI‑assist, and journey fixes—we’ll help your reps do their best work.

Level Up Your CX Teams with the Experts at Insight Global

Questions? Call us toll-free: 855-485-8853