Free Research Guide
The 2026 US Contact Centers Guide
18th Edition
Get a comprehensive data-backed view of how US contact centers are improving customer experience, quality, efficiency, agent performance, and technology strategy in a rapidly changing service environment.
Find Inside:
- Benchmarks for CX, QA, operations, HR, and technology
- Analytics, coaching, self-service, and agent assistance trends
- CX measurement and improvement insights
- AI, digital, and cloud adoption findings
- Strategic investment priorities for the year ahead
207 Contact Center Leaders Surveyed | 270 Pages | Sponsored by MiaRec
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Why Download This Guide Now?
CX, QA, and revenue leaders face rising expectations, tighter efficiency goals, and fast-moving AI adoption.
Benchmarking is getting harder
Leaders need to measure speed, cost, satisfaction, effort, FCR, quality, and journeys together.
QA can’t stay limited to samples
Teams need better ways to analyze interactions, coach agents, and turn QA into CX insight.
AI is changing expectations
AI, analytics, self-service, and agent assist are reshaping contact center strategy.
What You’ll Learn in the Research Guide
Which metrics matter most now
See how leaders are balancing traditional operational measures with customer-focused metrics like CSAT, NPS, and first-contact resolution.
Where QA is falling short
Understand why many teams struggle to turn quality programs into broader CX, coaching, and process improvement.
How AI and analytics are being used
Learn how contact centers are applying interaction analytics, agent assist, self-service, and automation across voice and digital channels.
What’s shaping 2026 investment priorities
Explore the workforce, technology, cloud, CX, and operational challenges influencing contact center strategy.
Key Insights from the Research
The report highlights where US contact centers are making progress—and where persistent gaps still remain. Here is a snapshot of the findings explored in the full guide.
Customer satisfaction is the top contact center metric
32% of respondents selected customer satisfaction rating / NPS as the most important metric they track, ahead of first-contact resolution and speed to answer.
Agent workflows show clear automation opportunities
77% of respondents say new agents struggle to familiarize themselves with systems, 80% agree agents duplicate or cut-and-paste data across applications, and 70% report problems with post-call work.
QA is not yet delivering its full business value
Only 35% of respondents said QA is very effective at driving CX improvements, and just 12% said it is very effective at providing insight to the wider organization.
Call recording is nearly universal, but modernization is still active
96% of respondents use call recording, and 19% say they want to replace or upgrade their current system—suggesting many teams are looking beyond basic recording toward richer QA, compliance, and analytics use cases.
