When People Can’t Find Answers, Organisations Pay the Price:

Reducing Cost to Serve Through Better Information Access

11 November 2026

by Paul Stanton

Organisations invest significant time, effort and budget into delivering services, supporting customers and improving experiences. Whether it’s a university supporting students, a council serving residents or a housing provider helping tenants, the goal is the same: Helping people get the information and support they need.

But when answers are difficult to find, even the best services can fall short.

Every day, thousands of questions go unanswered, are delayed or become lost in a maze of webpages, documents and inboxes. On the surface, these may appear to be minor inconveniences. In reality, they can have a direct impact on satisfaction, engagement, service performance and organisational costs.

Because when people can’t find answers, they don’t just feel frustrated. They make decisions.

Small questions, big consequences

People sometimes lose confidence in an organisation because of one major issue. But more often, it’s the accumulation of smaller frustrations that builds a poor experience. It might be:

1. A missed Council Tax payment reminder
2. Confusion around Housing Benefit eligibility
3. Difficulty finding information about financial support or wellbeing services
4. A resident unsure how to report a missed bin collection
5. Uncertainty about accommodation support or tuition fee payments
6. Difficulty finding information about service eligibility, deadlines or next steps
7. A patient unable to find the right service they need
8. An NHS staff member working at an unfamiliar location, needing to find the local working policy before their shift starts.

Individually, these are straightforward enquiries. But when people struggle to find answers, those issues can quickly begin to stack up.

1. A resident may delay seeking support because they can’t find the right information
2. A student struggling financially may not realise help is available
3. A customer may abandon an online process altogether if they become frustrated by the effort required to get an answer
4. A patient misses an appointment as they didn’t have the information they needed to attend.

None of these situations start as major problems. The information needed to resolve them often already exists. The challenge is making that information accessible when people need it most.

The hidden pressure on service teams

Behind the scenes, staff work hard to support residents, students, customers and service users. But demand continues to grow. During peak periods, contact centres and service departments can face increasing volumes of enquiries, many of which are repetitive and information-based.

The questions might be urgent or less important, but they shouldn’t require a manual response every time. Yet, many organisations still rely on staff to handle these enquiries through email, web forms or phone calls. As volumes increase, response times lengthen. Backlogs build and valuable staff time is diverted away from the complex cases where their support is most needed.

Then: Delays become drop-offs

Timing matters more than many organisations realise.

A resident who needs urgent support may not wait days for a response. A prospective student comparing universities during clearing may choose another institution before receiving the information they need. Someone struggling financially may simply give up searching for help altogether.

In these moments, an organisation’s ability to provide fast, reliable answers can directly influence outcomes for example:

1. A resident abandoning an online service request
2. A vulnerable individual delaying access to support
3. A prospective student choosing a different institution
4. A customer losing confidence in the organisation
5. A current student disengaging from their studies
6. A patient’s treatment delayed because they couldn’t access the information they needed in time or accessed the correct diagnostic appointments.

“These scenarios occur every day, often for reasons that are entirely preventable. Access to accurate, immediate information is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s an essential part of delivering effective services.”

Paul Stanton

Product Manager – AI, Netcall

Cost to serve: The financial reality of information access

Poor information access doesn’t just affect experience. It carries a real operational and financial cost.

When people turn to contact centres for help because they can’t self-serve for the information they need, each avoidable enquiry equals time, resource and budget. And rising demand puts growing pressure on often teams that are already stretched.

Every unnecessary enquiry contributes to an organisation’s cost to serve. Whether that enquiry arrives by phone, email or web form, staff time is required to find information, provide answers and manage follow-up. When thousands of repeatable questions are handled manually, the cumulative impact on operational costs can be significant.

Beyond efficiency, delays and poor experiences lower satisfaction and reduce engagement. And that can easily impact customer retention and lost revenue.

For universities, this may contribute to student attrition and lost tuition fee revenue. For local authorities, it can mean increased pressure on services, avoidable contact volumes and higher operating costs. Across every sector, the pattern is the same: When information is difficult to access, organisations pay the price.

The challenge isn’t information – it’s access

Most organisations aren’t short of information. They hold extensive knowledge across websites, policy documents, knowledge bases, FAQs and internal systems. The challenge is helping people find the right answer quickly and confidently.

This is where AI-powered search can make a meaningful difference.

Agent-Ex: Search enables people to ask questions in natural language and receive accurate answers drawn directly from trusted organisational content. Regardless of the topic or answers they are searching for, they can access answers instantly without navigating multiple websites or waiting for a response.

The benefits extend far beyond self-service:

1. Reduced volumes of repetitive enquiries
2. Faster access to support and information
3. Greater consistency across communications
4. Improved experiences for residents, customers and students
5. Enhanced reputation and trust due to more responsive and accessible service delivery
6. Increased visibility into the information that people are actively seeking, enabling them to fill content gaps and continually enhance user experience.

How much does it cost to serve when people can’t find answers?

When people cannot find the information they need, organisations often experience higher contact volumes, increased operational costs and greater pressure on service teams. Every avoidable enquiry requires time and resource to resolve, increasing the organisation’s cost to serve while creating friction for the people seeking support.

Remove the barriers

Organisations don’t need to reinvent their services. They need to remove the barriers that make those services difficult to access.

When information is easy to find, people are more likely to stay engaged, complete journeys successfully and access the support available to them.

Agent-Ex: Search helps make that possible by connecting people with trusted answers at the point of need, reducing pressure on service teams and improving experiences across the organisation.

Because when people can find answers quickly and confidently, everyone benefits.

About the author

Paul Stanton

Product Manager (AI)

Paul Stanton is a Product Manager for Liberty AI at Netcall and part of the team driving the adoption of AI across the Liberty platform. With a background spanning product management, UX, engineering and organisational transformation, Paul helps turn emerging AI capabilities into practical solutions that deliver real value for customers. His work spans AI strategy, evaluation, governance and customer adoption, with a focus on making AI trusted, effective and scalable.