Hodny Benazzi, General Manager UK at CM.com, examines why always-on availability has become the truest test of customer centricity in modern retail and how AI, automation and unified service models are reshaping customer expectations while giving retailers the tools to finally close the widening service gap.
Customer centricity has been retail’s mantra for years. Yet the measure of it has changed. If you are not available when customers reach out, claims about putting customers first do not land. For many customers, availability has become the most concrete expression of care. This is due in part to our changing shopping habits and collective understanding of how powerful retail technology allows brands to provide seamless services at all times of the day. Customers understand that if a company can sell them a product at six in the morning or nine o’clock at night, they can provide basic support at those times too. Yet too many retailers are allowing a gap between these basic expectations and the reality of the services they provide to emerge. And while they do they allow competitors to get ahead.
The expectation gap
Let’s start with a lay of the land. It’s true to say UK retailers are providing more expanded support services than in years gone by. Across the top 25 UK retailers, 80% now provide support beyond standard business hours. And yet only 28% deliver true round-the-clock help. Given seven in 10 UK shoppers say 24/7 availability is something they highly value, many brands are allowing an expectation gap to emerge.
So, what can be done? While profit margins are tight and retailers continue to face a difficult economic environment, the prospect of hiring more support agents might not sound too enticing. But always-on support is not about doubling headcount. It is about redesigning the service model for how people communicate today.
Here are some basics. Customers will always prefer using the channels they are already accustomed too, with support that is clear and familiar. Live chat and WhatsApp that can sit alongside email, often as the first stop. When service meets customers where they already are, resolution times drop and satisfaction rises. This is also where an integrated AI-plus-human model shines: AI handles routine queries, gathers context, executes simple actions and keeps the conversation moving, while humans step in for exceptions, sensitive issues or low-confidence cases. Handoffs should be seamless with full history and next-best actions passed to the agent. In practice, this lets retailers offer 24/7 triage and resolution without massively expanding headcount, reserving people for the moments that matter most: reducing time to resolution and lifting overall customer satisfaction.
Agentic AI: an essential tool for retailers
Now much of the tech that allows companies to provide round-the-clock support will be familiar to most retailers. This only strengthens the imperative for brands to invest and level the playing field with rivals. But what about those that want to get even further ahead? Here, a class of AI tools is changing what always-on service looks like. These tools are not new, but their applications are changing the game for those employing them.
Traditional generative chatbots might be able to answer routine questions and escalate when needed. Useful in a supportive role, sure. But agentic AI tools go even further. These are AI assistants that can take proactive action, not just provide information. They recognise intent, pull relevant data, perform multi-step tasks and decide what to do next within clear guardrails.
In practice, an Agentic assistant can confirm stock, update delivery details, process a return, suggest a suitable replacement and book a callback, all within the same conversation. It does this at any hour and maintains context if the customer moves from web chat to WhatsApp. When the situation is complex or sensitive, it hands over to a person with a complete summary, so the customer does not need to start again.
This is not about replacing people. It is about giving teams a capable partner that handles the repetitive and the predictable while humans focus on judgement and empathy. The impact shows up in faster first responses at night, higher resolution rates on common tasks and smoother escalations when the human touch matters most.
Designing for continuity across channels
There are also some age-old rules that retailers must not forget when remodelling their service offerings to align with the modern customer. One is that availability without continuity creates its own frustrations. The customer who starts a chat in the morning and sends a message at midnight expects the conversation to continue. Omnichannel platforms make that possible by binding identity, history and context. With a single record, agents see what happened before, what was promised and what was resolved. That continuity is the difference between a quick answer and a repeat of yesterday’s problem.
Training follows the same logic. Equip teams for the channels you prioritise and make sure playbooks reflect how customers actually behave. Define what is handled by automation and what requires a human. Make handover simple and visible to the customer. This sort of clarity builds trust.
Importantly, the convenience brands should be providing is not just customer friendly. It is commercially smart. When help is immediate and easy to access, more customers complete purchases, fewer abandon baskets and more return. In a competitive market, the gains from shaving minutes off response times and removing friction compound over a year. The brands that close the availability gap will feel it in both revenue and loyalty.
A practical roadmap to always-on
The broad lesson is this: availability is an essential service, not a burden. Brands must be aware of the moments where customers most often need help, especially outside office hours. They must prioritise the channels that matter to them and allow a combination of human agents and AI to provide a seamless experience. For those that want to get further ahead, Agentic AI should be employed to handle tasks proactively, across systems and with context. The best programs start focused, expand based on results and keep humans in the loop. They also accept that customer expectations will keep moving. What feels advanced this quarter becomes commonplace next. That is why an operating model that blends people and intelligent automation is so powerful. It adapts as expectations shift.
