Listening sits at the heart of every meaningful customer interaction.
Even as technology, channels and expectations have evolved, the quality of listening remains one of the most important determinants of the customer experience.
Yet listening is not a binary action. It is not simply something we do or do not do. It exists on a spectrum, and the depth at which we listen often shapes the quality of the service that follows.
"Most people do not listen with the intent to understand;
they listen with the intent to reply."
Stephen Covey, Best selling author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The Five Levels of Listening, Through a Contact Centre Lens
Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, described listening as five distinct levels: ignoring, pretending, selective listening, attentive listening and empathetic listening.
Each level aligns closely with a part of the customer journey inside a contact centre.
1. Ignoring: the missed moment
This is the point in a customer journey where an issue exists, but the organisation never becomes aware of it. Calls go unheard, quality slips unnoticed and risks remain invisible.
In contact centres with that monitor and assess a small number of randomly selected calls, this often happens unintentionally.
2. Pretending: the superficial acknowledgement
This occurs when a customer’s input is acknowledged, but no meaningful understanding is gained. In a contact centre context, this can look like generic responses or incomplete coaching loops.
The customer feels acknowledged, but not understood.
3. Selective Listening: the partial picture
Traditionally, this is where most contact centres have operated. Only a small percentage of interactions are reviewed and only certain issues are surfaced.
Leaders see some of the journey, but not all of it.
4. Attentive Listening: the informed view
Here, the organisation listens with intention. Insights provided to the organisation helps to determine the root cause of issues. When these issues are identified, coaching moments are recognised and the customer journey becomes clearer.
Managers start to see patterns instead of isolated events.
5. Empathetic Listening: the complete understanding
This is where the full context is understood. Not only what was said, but how it was said, why it was said and what the customer needed.
At this level, the organisation listens with accuracy, context and humanity — creating the conditions for meaningful service and continuous improvement.
Why Listening at Scale Matters Now
In the past, achieving attentive or empathetic listening across an entire contact centre was nearly impossible. Limited sampling created blind spots, and important moments in the customer journey often slipped through unnoticed.
Today, speech analytics allows teams to listen with consistency across every interaction.
This does not replace human understanding. It enables it.
With full visibility:
- customer frustrations surface earlier,
- coaching becomes fair and objective,
- risk appears before it becomes an incident, and
- the customer journey becomes clearer end-to-end.
Listening becomes something an organisation does with intention, not something left to chance.
Insight Is Only the Beginning
Meaningful listening is about more than extracting information. It is about identifying the root cause of issues and responding thoughtfully to this.
The organisations that improve the fastest are those that:
- connect insights to action
- support agents with clarity and context
- build consistency through shared understanding
- strengthen trust by addressing issues early
- treat listening as a cultural practice, not a task
When listening improves, the entire customer journey improves with it.
A More Human Future for Contact Centres
Technology can help us hear more, but the responsibility to understand remains human.
Empathy, fairness and clarity still determine the quality of the customer experience, technology simply strengthens the foundation they rest on.
Meaningful listening is not a trend, but a continuous practice that defines how well organisations serve the people who rely on them.
Further Insight
To explore how listening has shaped the evolution of contact centre performance, you can listen to Rod Jones’ short podcast overview here.
If your team is exploring ways to listen more meaningfully across every interaction, we’re always open to a conversation. Contact us.
