Agent experience in customer service: Listening beats guessing

In this special guest post, Amber Scott from Serta Simmons Bedding shares why listening beats guessing when it comes to improving agent experience in customer service.

Not every interaction has the same weight. Some are quick questions, and others are high-stakes decisions. And when a customer is spending money or facing a real issue, the situation requires more than a transactional response.

That’s why we’ve focused on identifying the moments that matter most in our customer journey, and using that to guide where automation should go, and where human support creates the most value. One of the biggest unlocks for us didn’t come from a new tool or platform. It came from formalizing a better way to hear what’s happening in the experience, and using that insight to drive improvement.

At Serta Simmons Bedding, we consider ourselves a constant improvement organization. Whether it’s 1%, 10%, or 100%, we’re always looking for ways to get better. And we’ve learned that the clearest insights come from people closest to the customer: our agents. That’s why the customer service agent experience is crucial.

The best improvement ideas come from the front line.

For us, improvement projects and initiatives have always come from agents because they are closest to the customer. They hear the questions customers ask, feel the friction in broken processes, know where customers get stuck, and spot patterns long before they show up in reports. But even when an organization values agent feedback, it can still be challenging to translate input into action. Feedback can become fragmented or dependent on who speaks at the right time, and change can start to feel like it’s happening to agents rather than with them.

This year, we formalized the process to improve the customer service agent experience by creating a CX Council. Every month, we bring together a group of CXers and create space for honest conversation about what’s happening day to day. I joke that it’s a bit of a gripe session. But it’s not unproductive griping, it’s structured feedback focused on what’s not working for agents and customers.

We ask questions like:

• What’s not working today?

• What creates friction for you?

• What’s creating friction for customers?

• What situations keep repeating?

• What’s slowing everything down?

It’s simple, but powerful. The CX Council gives us a consistent rhythm for surfacing issues and driving improvement initiatives, giving agents a real seat at the table.

Closing the loop: This was your voice.

Capturing feedback is important, but the impact comes from turning the input into action and making it visible. We don’t want agents to feel like they’re speaking into a void. So when we take CX Council insights and turn them into initiatives, we bring them back to the team and connect the dots. This was their voice. This is what they told us was problematic for them or their customers, and we’re listening.

That has gone a long way in helping agents feel like they’re part of what we’re doing here. It’s not around them, it’s for them. When people feel included in the improvement process, their mindset changes. Instead of just reacting to problems, agents become part of how the organization solves them.

Better agent experience creates better customer outcomes.

Agents are a key part of the customer journey, but especially in moments where customers need clarity, reassurance, or help navigating complexity. When agents feel heard and supported, customers benefit. Not because it’s a feel-good story, but because it changes real outcomes. Conversations become smoother, knowledge is easier to access, resolutions are faster, and teams are better prepared to show up with confidence.

Improving the customer service agent experience also helps reduce repeat friction. When agents surface pain points early, the organization can address the root cause instead of repeatedly solving the same problems one customer at a time.

Automation is accelerating, but we stay intentional.

Very soon, we’ll be able to automate almost everything. I’ll be honest, I’m an AI enthusiast, and I love the direction we’re headed. I want customers to have an end-to-end automated experience available if that’s what they prefer. Some customers want speed, convenience, and self-service, and we should meet them there.

But we’ve also spent time focusing on a simple question: what provides value to our customers and to Serta Simmons Bedding? Because the goal isn’t to automate for the sake of automation. It’s to automate in a way that improves the customer journey. And that means thinking carefully about where the human touch is important.

Identifying the moments that matter.

When we think about where automation goes first, we focus on the moments that matter. A great example comes from our direct-to-consumer business, where customers call to buy a mattress. It’s an expensive purchase, and it can be life-changing. If you’ve had a great mattress, you know it, and if you’ve had a bad one, you really know it.

That pre-purchase decision is more complex than it seems. People have questions, want guidance, and need confidence that they’re making the right choice. That’s why we make sure agents are available during that decision-making moment. On the B2B side, another key moment is when something doesn’t go as planned. Occasionally, we have to delay an order to a retailer, which can create a ripple effect and impact their customers, too. In those situations, we always pick up the phone to understand the impact, stay present, and work toward solutions. That’s where the human touch creates real value, and why we’re intentional about what we automate, while protecting the moments that matter most.

The bold future: Personal AI agents for every customer.

If I had unlimited resources, with privacy compliance considered, I’d love to move toward a customer experience where anyone who interacts with us has their own personal AI agent. You’d call us or visit our site, and the experience would be connected. It would recognize you and your history. It might say:

“Amber, how’s that Tuft & Needle going?”
“Oh, I saw you have our linen sheets…”

This kind of connected experience through technology is what excites me. It makes the journey more personal, more seamless, and more efficient—while still keeping humans in the loop where needed.

CX metrics.

When I think about the metrics that will matter more moving forward, customer effort stands out because it plays a specific role as automation expands. It’s not just “how happy did the bot make you?” It’s “how easy did this make it for you?” This aligns with what customers increasingly want: fewer steps, less friction, and faster resolution. It’s also a way to evaluate whether automation is improving the experience or shifting it to a different channel.

We also measure handle time to understand efficiency and complexity, but don’t use it to police individual agents. In fact, I expect the handle time for live agents will rise as digital tools take on simpler interactions and agents handle more complex work. That’s why I’d love to retire the outdated belief that customer service is low-level. We all know it’s not. CX requires judgment, understanding, and a tremendous amount of power skills. And as AI takes over more Tier 1 and Tier 2 work, the world should recognize what it truly means to be a customer service agent.

Finally, a practical point: it’s important to understand what matters to your business and translate CX metrics into that language. Inside a CX organization, we love metrics. We have pages and pages of them. But when I’m talking to senior leaders—SVP, COO, CEO—they don’t want to hear about handling time, or CSAT. What they want is to understand how we’re helping the business increase revenue and cost efficiency, and the metrics should support that story.