2024 Australian Contact Centre Industry Best Practice Report
For the past five years, the team at Smaart Recruitment has produced the most comprehensive report on the Australian contact centre industry. The 2024 Australian Contact Centre Industry Best Practice Report delivers insights valuable to anyone working in the industry here.
From a humble 48 pages in 2019, the 2024 edition contains 15 different categories across 163 pages, packed with expert insights, statistics, KPI performance and case studies. Over 300 contact centres contributed, making it the most robust industry data available in Australia.
2024 also saw the introduction of ACXPA's own Call Centre Rankings / Mystery Shopping results — genuine Voice of the Customer insight into what customers are actually experiencing across multiple sectors.
This article is our summary of the key findings. The full 163-page report is produced and owned by Smaart Recruitment and is available from them at contactcentrebestpractice.com.au.
15 categories, 163 pages
Grown from 48 pages in 2019 to the most comprehensive view of the industry available.
300+ contact centres
Contributions from senior leaders, managers, team leaders, agents and specialist roles.
The year of AI
AI permeated almost every element of the contact centre — though the results didn't match the hype.
Contributing authors and companies
Pulling together such a comprehensive report is no easy task, and a big shout-out to James Witcombe from Smaart Recruitment, who has again done a brilliant job — supported by a range of local industry experts who contributed writing, commentary, best-practice tips and future predictions.
ACXPA has contributed to every edition of this report since 2020, with our CEO Justin Tippett authoring the Mystery Shopping Results section — bringing an independent, standards-based view to complement the self-reported data. Their support, and that of their companies, enables the report to be produced at no cost to the industry — so where possible, please show them some support in return.
Key Findings from the 2024 Report
If there was one emerging trend across 2023/2024, it was artificial intelligence.
Digital transformation and the emergence of AI have impacted nearly all areas of the contact centre, and many sections of the 2024 report included case studies and pilots showing how AI is being used to improve either the agent or the customer experience.
That said, some things are constant. Challenges with recruitment, retention and employee engagement — and getting the balance right between remote working and being in the office — remain ever-present.
Remote & Flexible Working
After the dark days of COVID, a new "normal" is emerging, with companies settling into a rhythm of balancing remote work and time in the office.
There also appears to have been a shift in offering agents flexibility with their rosters, as contact centres become more prescriptive about when they need resources rather than letting agents select their hours. Whether that trend continues is uncertain — more contact centres are now forecasting they'll allow agents more flexible roster choices in the coming 12 months.
Key findings for remote and flexible working:
- 55% of employees are working from home on any given day — down from 57% in 2023 and a peak of 76% in 2022, a second consecutive year of decline.
- 56% of contact centres expect no change in the coming year, with 31% expecting options to decrease further. Only 13% expected work-from-home options to increase.
- Full flexibility (agents choosing where to work at least 90% of the time) reduced from 37% in 2022 to 14% in 2024, suggesting centres are becoming more prescriptive.
- The top three concerns for managers running a remote workforce are unchanged since 2023: employee engagement (48%), a disconnected workforce (47%) and mental health (44%).
- Data security as a concern has risen noticeably, from 6% in 2023 to 11% in 2024.
- 89% of contact centres now let agents swap and/or bid for shifts — 60% allow swapping only, 28% allow both swapping and bidding, 1% allow bidding only, and just 11% allow neither.
- 52% say absenteeism is no different for remote workers, while 32% say agents required to work in the office have higher absenteeism.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is now a core focus for many businesses, and the contact centre channel can be a goldmine for improved efficiency, customer experience and employee experience.
New questions in the 2024 report provided specific insight into the contact centre technology currently in use, or forecast for implementation within 12 months:
- 51% use skills-based routing to direct calls to the most appropriately skilled agent.
- Automated quality assurance is used by just 8% — a figure expected to increase in coming years.
- 34% provide agents with a single desktop giving a full view of the customer profile for case management and workflow.
- 37% have agent learning supported by knowledge management, automated quality management and real-time coaching.
- 28% have one simple process for the customer to identify and authenticate themselves across all channels.
- 18% have integrated channels offering an experience based on the customer's profile, propensity, needs and complexity of issue.
Asked about the most important future CX and digital transformation initiatives, the three highest priorities were:
- Agent learning supported by knowledge management, automated quality management and real-time coaching (71%)
- Ability to authenticate and identify the customer once only, identify issues proactively, then ensure ongoing case management (70%)
- Self-service with a high containment rate — customers resolve issues with minimal effort, with a clear path to alternatives (70%)
Artificial Intelligence
In the 2023 report we forecast an explosion in AI-related tools and awareness — and 2024 did not disappoint. AI has permeated almost every element of the modern contact centre.
37% of Australian contact centres now use AI in some capacity (19% experimental, 15% low-to-moderate, 3% at a high level), and a further 35% expect to implement it within the next 18 months.
But it hasn't been all smooth sailing. The results suggest many of the vendor claims and the hype around the benefits are not translating into reality:
- Only 23% said AI helped improve customer satisfaction scores — a decrease of 9% from 2023.
- For assisting the running of the contact centre, "met expectations" dropped from 62% in 2023 to 37% in 2024.
- Using AI to reallocate resources where better suited dropped from 53% in 2023 to 30%.
- AI helping increase conversions fell from 24% to 14%.
- AI helping extend service reach and availability fell from 42.5% to 33%.
On where AI is being used, almost every area fell in 2024 compared with 2023 — chatbots were the only category to hold steady:
- Chatbots and virtual assistants (56%) — no change from 2023
- Speech analytics (51%) — down 10%
- Natural language IVR (12%) — down 14%
- Robotic process automation (22%) — down 11%
- Predictive call routing (18%) — down 8%
New for 2024, the report captured additional areas of AI use, which will be interesting to track: Agent Assist (15%), knowledge management (31%), and analytics and predictive models (24%).
Another notable change is who manages AI. Contact centre managers now have very little involvement — down from 48% in 2023 to just 7% in 2024 — which perhaps explains why the positive impact of AI has also decreased. The IT department (32%), IT & operations (25%) and the improvement/transformation team (10%) now lead AI management.
The majority of contact centre managers (55%) rely on industry associations to learn more about AI, followed by tech vendors (54%), conferences and events (52%), 45% who conduct their own research, and AI-specific vendors (42%). Looking ahead, the key reasons for not using AI were complexity and reluctance to change (60%), reluctance from senior managers (20%) and cost (20%).
Self-Service (new for 2024)
Recent industry research on customer preferences suggests customers like to self-serve where possible. With the rise of AI, contact centres have a significant opportunity to optimise those options further, reducing manual effort and smoothing the experience.
Self-service isn't suited to every contact type, and barriers like complexity and cost mean adoption is uneven across the industry. Key insights from this new category:
- 42% of contact centres currently offer self-service support and say it's working, while 25% use it but aren't getting the expected results.
- Where self-service is offered, 39% can capture how many customers use it, 41% cannot, and 20% can only estimate.
- It's a key focus area — 70% rated optimising self-service as "very important" in 2024.
- Chatbots (76%), a customer-facing knowledge base (53%) and video tutorials (31%) are the most common options being explored.
- For those who have implemented it, the leading benefits are streamlining the customer journey (49%), operational efficiency (44%), reduced human support headcount (30%) and greater access to information (29%).
- For those looking to implement, the primary drivers are streamlining the customer journey (74%), greater access to information (69%), operational efficiency (63%), reduced headcount (49%) and cost optimisation (43%).
Customer adoption of self-service
| Share of customers using self-service | Contact centres |
|---|---|
| Under 10% | 8% |
| 11–20% | 15% |
| 21–30% | 22% |
| 31–40% | 9% |
| 41–50% | 11% |
| Over 50% | 28% |
| Unsure / not measured | 7% |
Absenteeism & Attrition
Managing absenteeism and attrition has always been challenging, and in 2024 there were pleasing signs after a particularly brutal 2023.
The cost-of-living crisis is clearly impacting the industry, with agents' number one reason for leaving being to seek a more competitive salary. Contact centres themselves are split: exactly 50% are satisfied or very satisfied that their frontline salaries are competitive, against 27% who are dissatisfied — which suggests that when agents leave, they often leave for higher-paying sectors rather than another contact centre.
Perhaps reflecting the increased focus on employee experience, there was a notable decrease in agents citing dissatisfaction with their work as their reason for leaving — down from 23% in 2023 to 13% in 2024.
Absenteeism
- Average absenteeism decreased from 13.4% in 2023 to 12.9% in 2024.
- Peak absenteeism was 22.5%, down from 25.4% in 2023.
- Smaller centres (under 100 seats) have comparably lower absenteeism (12.6%) than larger centres over 1,000 seats (16.3%).
- While 12.9% is an improvement, compared with a national workplace average of 6% it remains high and adds considerable cost.
- 52% saw no difference in absenteeism between remote and office work; 32% said it was higher for those required to be in the office.
- 45% said their levels are "about normal", with 31% saying it's an area they're really struggling with — down from 40% in 2023.
Attrition
- 27% is the average attrition rate, a decrease of 5% from 2023 and similar to pre-"great resignation" levels.
- Attrition is significantly lower in smaller centres: 20.3% for 0–50 agents, versus 43.4% for 500–1,000 seats and 43.1% for 1,000+.
- More agents are leaving the company altogether (62%) rather than moving to internal roles (38%) — though there's been a small 3% shift towards internal roles.
- Leading reasons for leaving: financial / seeking more money (51% — the third year of increases, up 13%), pursuing a different career (51%), personal reasons (32%), and dissatisfaction with the work (13%, down 10%).
- Retention rates increased at every measure point, with 6 months (up 7% to 77%) and 12 months (up 5% to 69%) the most noticeable gains.
Employee Engagement
Despite often-negative perceptions, contact centres are heavily invested in employee engagement. In 2024, 89% of respondents measured employee engagement in some capacity — up from 79% in 2023.
- The most common measurement frequency is annually (34%), followed by bi-annually (27%) and quarterly (20%). Best practice is considered to be quarterly.
- On a 0–100 scale, employee engagement increased slightly to 75% (up from 74% in 2023).
- Asked to recommend their organisation as a place of employment (an NPS-style question), the average score was 8.0 — up from 7.9 in 2023, but still below the 8.3 high of 2022.
There's a revealing gap between what managers think matters and what agents say matters. Managers believed the most meaningful initiatives were more rewards for performance (49%), opportunity for professional development (37%) and increased shift flexibility (28%).
Frontline agents, however, ranked them differently — putting increased shift flexibility first, then professional development, then rewards for performance, followed by more face-to-face activities in the office and socially.
Innovation & Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is not a new business concept, but it's gaining increasing focus in the contact centre as it looks to drive efficiencies and improve the overall customer experience. In 2024 the report spotlighted failure demand and continuous improvement opportunities.
- Failure demand has decreased for a second consecutive year, to 27% (down from 31% in 2023 and 35% in 2022).
- The biggest sources of data used to understand customer pain points were complaints (88%), customer satisfaction surveys (85%) and customer interaction data such as calls and transactions (72%).
- Asked how effectively their organisation involves contact centre employees in problem-solving and solution design: moderately effective (44%), slightly effective (24%), very effective (20%), not effectively (8%) and extremely effective (4%).
- Where a continuous improvement program is in place, the key focuses are making existing processes more efficient / fixing issues (87%), automating processes (67%) and product enhancements (43%).
Contact Centre Performance
Hundreds of metrics are measured in a contact centre, and they differ by size, function and industry sector. Still, some general observations can be drawn from the 2024 report.
- Average Speed of Answer increased from 101 seconds (2023) to 115 seconds (2024).
- Abandonment Rate has taken the mantle as the most important metric per contact centre managers, with industry results decreasing marginally from 9% to 8%.
- The most popular Service Level target was 80/20 — higher than last year's most popular 80/30.
- Despite higher targets, 42% reported not achieving their target, and 21% reported being within 10% of it.
- Average Handling Time was 543 seconds, up from 507 seconds in 2023.
The top six metrics rated by importance by contact centre managers in 2024 were abandonment rate (92%), customer feedback (89%), average speed of answer (88%), first call resolution (79%), grade of service (72%) and average handling time (71%).
For the first time, benchmarking data for synchronous channels (e.g. live chat) was included: average speed of answer 369 seconds, abandonment rate 7%, average handling time 566 seconds.
Also new, asynchronous channels (messaging, email): the most common average speed of answer was under 5 minutes (31%), followed by 5 minutes to 1 hour (23%). Abandonment rate 3%, and average handling time 26 minutes.
Customer Experience
The importance, awareness and understanding of customer experience continue to increase — and so does the contact centre's role as a contributor to a business's CX outcomes.
CX metrics in use
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Promoter Score (NPS) | 66% | 57% | -9% |
| Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) | 54% | 55% | +1% |
| Internally developed metrics | 33% | 28% | -5% |
| Retention rate | 26% | 30% | +4% |
| Customer Effort Score (CES) | 13% | 9% | -4% |
| Employee Experience (EX) | 0% | 20% | +20% |
| Customer churn | 11% | 16% | +5% |
| Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) | 9% | 8% | -1% |
| Not using any | 9% | 7% | -2% |
NPS remains the most common CX metric (57%) — but that's its lowest usage in four years, down from 66% in 2023.
- Post-call surveys are the most popular post-interaction survey (45%, no change), followed by post-email surveys (35%, up 2%).
- Email remains the most popular method to capture customer satisfaction (63%, up 4%).
- IVR-based post-call surveys decreased from 31% to 26%, and SMS had the biggest decrease — down 9% from 19% to 10%.
- Asked the main focus area to improve CX in 2024, the answer was clear: 53% cited process, followed by people (27%) and personalisation (8%).
- The voice channel delivers by far the highest satisfaction (78%), with live chat next at just 8%.
- Speech analytics use was largely flat: 29% for customer insights (down 2%), 29% for quality management (up 3%), and 49% not using it at all (down 1%).
On the biggest changes to customer expectations over the past 12 months, managers cited higher expectations of agents (32%), better self-service capability (28%) and privacy and security of customer data (16%).
Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management returns in 2024 after first appearing in the 2023 report. Where 2023 focused on awareness and usage, 2024 focused more on benefits, satisfaction and importance.
Also new for 2024, the report split purpose-built Knowledge Management Systems (designed for contact centres to help agents respond quickly and efficiently) from "other knowledge solutions" such as Microsoft SharePoint, which are typically document storage.
- 100% of respondents were either very satisfied or satisfied with their current KMS. However, those rating it "very satisfied" fell sharply from 71% in 2023 to 50% in 2024.
- Similarly for provider support: 100% were very satisfied (58%) or satisfied (42%) — but "very satisfied" dropped sharply from 85% in 2023 to 58% in 2024.
- Senior leaders increasingly recognise the importance of a KMS: 31% said it had increased significantly and 38% increased slightly. 0% reported a decrease.
- KMS integration with other systems is growing: internal/other teams outside the contact centre (31%), telephony (28%), website (22%), chatbot (9%) and ChatGPT/other language models (3%).
Mystery Shopping: The ACXPA Call Centre Rankings (new for 2024)
For the first time, the 2024 report included the results of the ACXPA Call Centre Rankings mystery shopping program.
Unlike most of the report data, which is self-reported by over 300 contact centres, the mystery shopping results are determined by making actual calls to companies — reflecting the real outcomes of those experiences.
Calls are assessed across more than 80 metrics to determine an Access Score (how easy it was to reach a live agent), a Quality Score (the level of service provided by that agent) and an Overall Ranking Score, providing genuine Voice of the Customer insight.
The printed report included results from August 2023 to January 2024. The leaderboards below show the Q4 2023 data — and you can always view the latest call centre benchmarking data, updated monthly.
Explore the Rankings by Sector
The rankings are updated monthly. View the latest industry benchmarking data, or explore mystery shopping results by industry sector:
Recruitment
After the year of the great resignation in 2023, contact centre recruitment appears to be shifting back towards an employer's market.
Specialist contact centre recruitment agencies were used more to fill frontline roles (+6%), and more internal teams used dedicated internal contact centre recruitment roles (+7%) — suggesting that finding high-quality agents is becoming an increasingly specialised function.
- The top concern from recruitment and talent teams is unchanged: salaries are not competitive enough. But that figure declined from 62% in 2023 to 56% in 2024.
- Another notable decline was low volume of applicants — the second-highest concern last year at 48%, down to 28% in 2024.
- AI may be showing its first notable impact on contact centre jobs: only 25% expect to recruit more agents in 2024, a steep decline from 46% in 2023. 19% expect to recruit fewer, and 47% about the same.
- Over the previous 12 months, 30% of agents were hired as remote workers, up from 26% in 2023.
- Remote hiring appears to be easing — 22% forecast it will "decrease a little" (up from 7% in 2023), while "increase significantly" fell from 14% in 2023 to 0% in 2024.
- For management, leadership and specialist roles, remote recruitment shifted notably from 15% to 31% — companies are more open to leaders working remotely.
- 34% say the quality of frontline agents hired has improved — the third consecutive increase (up from 15% in 2022 and 28% in 2023).
- 24% are using recruitment agencies to fill vacancies, also a third consecutive increase (18% last year).
Workforce Planning & Optimisation
Workforce planning and optimisation is a highly specialised function that can deliver significant efficiencies for the contact centre workforce.
- The number of dedicated Workforce Management roles increased from 6.0 to 7.8.
- Consistent with contact centre management roles, 75% of workforce planners started their careers on the phones.
- Retention in WFM roles is high — 36% have worked in WFM for 5–10 years, and 37% for more than 10 years.
- Internal training is still the most common (66%), but only 16% use third-party training on WFM processes and best practice — a concern, and a significant opportunity to find greater efficiencies.
- 71% now use a cloud-based WFM system, up 6%, and that increase is expected to continue.
- The two biggest challenges for workforce planners are the business overriding scheduling decisions (38%) and providing agents the scheduling flexibility they want (36%). Notably, inability to recruit staff — one of last year's two biggest challenges — fell from 42% to 12%.
Forecasting
- 60% of centres that forecast use a workforce management system; 36% are still using Excel.
- More centres are measuring forecast accuracy (83%, up from 76%), with daily measurement the most common frequency (36%).
- There's been an increase in forecasting for email (+3%) and back-office tasks (+8%).
Scheduling
- The majority now schedule monthly, up from 31% in 2023 to 48% in 2024.
- Rotating rosters remain the most common (62%), followed by fixed rosters (30%).
- Fully flexible rosters (where agents have a lot of control over the shifts they work) decreased from 24% in 2023 to 18%.
- The most common roster notice period is four weeks (40%), followed by six weeks (25%) and two weeks (16%).
- 64% use adherence to schedule as a KPI (down 2%), with 88% the most common target.
The Role of a Team Leader
Often described as the most important role in the contact centre, the team leader certainly has one of the most demanding — with huge influence over culture and performance.
The 2024 data suggests the once-loyal team leader role is starting to shift, which may be cause for concern given the ramifications for the contact centre.
- Leadership, coaching and development, and "checking in" with team members were the top three priorities for team leaders in 2024.
- 56% of team leaders feel too much time is spent in meetings (up 8% from 2023), followed by dealing with personnel issues (28%) and escalations/complaints (21%).
- Asked which functions they'd like removed from their role, dealing with remote working issues (43%) and coordination such as rosters (33%) led — while the need to be the subject matter expert saw the greatest increase (up 10% to 16%).
- Asked to identify their two greatest weaknesses, team leaders cited reporting and analysis (32%) and dealing with remote worker issues (26%).
- Only 30% of contact centres have a structured, ongoing learning program for their team leaders — concerning, given their influence on culture and performance.
- Perhaps reflecting frustration at that lack of investment, the number of team leaders looking to stay in their current contact centre fell from 62% in 2023 to 50% in 2024.
- There's also been a notable increase in team leaders seeking to advance within the same organisation but outside the contact centre — up from 25% to 31%.
Salaries & Bonuses
The cost-of-living crisis in 2024 has been well documented in Australia, with many people struggling under inflation and rises in interest rates, energy and food prices.
That has placed increased focus on salaries as employees look for relief — and in good news for employees, salaries increased noticeably for many roles.
💰 Looking for the latest salary data?
The figures below are from the 2024 report and reflect that point in time. For the most current benchmarks across every contact centre role, see our Australian Call Centre Salaries page — always kept up to date.
Frontline Customer Service salaries by state
| State | 2023 | 2024 | Difference | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Australia | $55,000 | $58,000 | +$3,000 | +5.4% |
| Queensland | $55,600 | $57,500 | +$1,900 | +3.4% |
| Victoria | $57,600 | $60,000 | +$2,400 | +4.1% |
| New South Wales | $62,800 | $63,500 | +$700 | +1.1% |
| Western Australia | $64,500 | $65,000 | +$500 | +0.7% |
National averages (2024)
Team Leader salaries (2024)
| Role | Base | Avg bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Service Team Leader | $89,500 | $8,900 |
| Inbound Sales Team Leader | $84,100 | $12,000 |
| Outbound Sales Team Leader | $85,000 | $15,000 |
| Collections Team Leader | $84,500 | $12,900 |
| Helpdesk / Technical Team Leader | $88,700 | $6,100 |
Customer Service Team Leader roles saw a significant increase, rising from $83,200 + super (with an $8,500 bonus) in 2023 to $89,500 + super with an $8,900 bonus — a 7.6% increase. Outbound Sales Team Leaders remain the highest-paid team leader role, on $85,000 + super with an average $15,000 bonus.
Workforce Planning roles continue to pay well, with a Workforce Planning Manager on a national average of $133,000 + super. Knowledge Managers also saw a healthy increase, rising from $116,200 + super to $130,000 + super — up 11.8%.
Management salaries (2024)
While there were modest increases in frontline and middle management roles, senior contact centre roles either remained static or decreased — perhaps a realignment after the significant growth through COVID, when senior managers were rewarded for managing remote workforces and major change.
| Role | Base | Avg bonus | % with bonus | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operations Manager | $127,000 | $11,000 | 40% | — |
| Senior Operations Manager | $152,900 | $15,900 | 100% | -15% |
| Contact Centre Manager | $129,000 | $11,800 | 28% | -1% |
| Senior Contact Centre Manager | $153,800 | $20,900 | 63% | -2% |
| Head of Contact Centre | $179,500 | $25,600 | 50% | -5% |
| Head of Customer Service / CX | $198,800 | $24,625 | 67% | -3% |
| Customer Service / CX Manager | $136,000 | $12,500 | 66% | — |
| General Manager | $205,900 | $25,600 | 75% | -15% |
All salaries + super. Source: Smaart Recruitment 2024 Australian Contact Centre Industry Best Practice Report. For current benchmarks, see Australian Call Centre Salaries.
Conclusion
There is no question there is a significant amount of diversity in the Australian contact centre industry.
One of our aims at ACXPA is to keep providing you with valuable information to help you benchmark, learn and share — so we can all succeed as an industry.
You can also view the latest Australian Call Centre Rankings — revealing wait times, quality performance, navigation times, talk times and over 80 metrics across a range of industry sectors, updated monthly.
Get the Full Report
This article is our summary of the key findings. The full 163-page 2024 report is produced and owned by Smaart Recruitment and is available from them at contactcentrebestpractice.com.au.
The data tells you what. These tell you what to do about it.
Benchmarks are only useful if they change something. These are the two places ACXPA members go to act on them.
🎯 The Call Centre Hub
Standards, benchmarking, workforce management, coaching, complaints and training — the complete operational toolkit for running a modern call centre, in one place.
🗣️ Call Centre Roundtables
Practitioner-led sessions where contact centre leaders work through the issues in this report — attrition, absenteeism, AI, rostering — with people facing exactly the same problems.
Find the partners behind high-performing contact centres
Looking for the technology, recruitment or advisory partners to lift your own performance? Browse Australian suppliers in the ACXPA Supplier Directory.
Browse the full ACXPA Supplier Directory →
