Executive Summary – Australian Banks Q1 2025
Introduction
With high-value products, fierce competition, and massive marketing budgets, you’d expect Australian banks to be delivering world-class customer experiences – especially when it comes to phone enquiries that often kick off critical sales conversations. But Q1 2025 results tell a different story.
ACXPA independently assessed the phone-based customer experience of leading Australian banks using our national Contact Centre CX Standards, capturing over 80 data points across Accessibility, Agent Mastery, and Overall CX. These metrics reflect what matters most to customers – getting help quickly, speaking with capable staff, and feeling respected throughout the experience.
While smaller banks like HUME Bank and Bank Australia continue to challenge the status quo with strong, consistent results, the broader banking sector is falling short. In fact, the sector ranked last in all three core CX categories when compared with six other major industries – a signal that systemic CX issues are being left unresolved.
This executive summary unpacks the results for Q1 2025 – highlighting the top performers, exposing the most persistent CX failures, and providing the insight needed to drive meaningful change in a sector that simply cannot afford to underperform.
Top Performers
✅ Best Overall CX Performer – HUME BANK (60.9%)
HUME Bank retained its position as the sector leader for Overall CX in Q1 2025, following its top result in Q4 2024. While their score dipped slightly, they still outperformed all other banks, highlighting both their consistency and the broader underperformance across the sector.
📈 Top Accessibility Performer – HUME BANK (70.2%)
HUME Bank also led the way in Accessibility for the second consecutive quarter, narrowly ahead of Bank Australia (68.8%). NAB was the highest-ranked Tier 1 bank, but with a score of just 58.5%, the result underscores how far the major players remain from best practice standards (100%).
⭐️ Best Agent Mastery – HUME BANK (66.4%)
Rounding out the top performance across all three core metrics, HUME Bank once again claimed the highest Agent Mastery score. Their frontline staff consistently delivered the most effective customer interactions of any bank assessed.
💡 Industry Insight:
Despite HUME Bank’s continued strong performance, the banking sector as a whole went backwards in Q1 2025, recording lower scores across all three key CX metrics—Overall CX, Accessibility, and Agent Mastery. In fact, the sector ranked last in every category compared to the other six sectors assessed. A clear signal that the banking industry is struggling to meet customer expectations at even the most fundamental levels.
Biggest CX Challenges
🧠 Agent Skill Gaps Still Holding Banks Back
Agent Mastery remains a major issue across the sector, with interactions continuing to fall well below best practice as defined by the ACXPA Contact Centre CX Standards. When you consider the average Australian home loan is now $665k – delivering around $200k in profit to the bank over its lifetime – it’s staggering that more isn’t being done to train frontline staff to convert and retain these high-value opportunities.
😡 Accessibility Fails Continue to Damage First Impressions
The banking sector has ranked last for Accessibility in 6 of the past 7 quarters. Customers face long wait times, convoluted IVRs, and a lack of urgency on high-stakes enquiries. In Q1 2025, 21% of mystery shopping calls for new home loan enquiries weren’t answered within 10 minutes – a poor first experience that risks undermining brand trust and sales outcomes.
Only one bank – Bank Australia – answered 100% of calls within 10 minutes. Westpac was the lowest performer, with 38.9% of calls going unanswered beyond the 10-minute threshold. In a competitive market, slow response times are more than just an inconvenience – they’re a missed opportunity.
📉 ING: Four Quarters at the Bottom
Despite a modest 7% improvement from Q4 2024, ING remained the lowest-ranked bank for the fourth consecutive quarter. With an Overall CX score of just 27.4%, ING recorded the lowest result of any contact centre measured nationally – across more than 50 organisations benchmarked in Q1 2025. Performance in both Accessibility and Agent Mastery continues to fall well short of sector expectations, highlighting serious gaps in CX delivery.
🏆 Key Wins (Yes, There Are a Few)
⏱️ Smaller Banks Are Showing the Way
While Tier 1 banks continue to struggle, HUME Bank has now led the sector across all key CX metrics for two straight quarters, with Bank Australia also emerging as a standout performer. These smaller institutions are proving that delivering respectful, human customer experiences is not only possible — it’s becoming a competitive advantage. In a market where customers are increasingly fed up with feeling like a number, this matters.
📉 Slight Progress in IVR Design
Endless menu options are still a source of friction, but there’s a small win here: the average number of IVR layers has declined for four consecutive quarters, now sitting at 2.9. While that’s still the highest of any sector (read: still frustrating), it’s a step in the right direction.
Recognising Call Centre Excellence for Australian Banks
Congratulations to the top-performing Australian banks delivering exceptional customer experiences via their call centres in Q1 2025.
These rankings are based on independent mystery shopping assessments, using real customer enquiries to measure how effectively contact centres support Australians exploring new banking products like home loans, credit cards, and savings accounts.
Recognition in these rankings reflects more than just meeting expectations – it highlights the banks combining speed, clarity, and professionalism to build trust, reduce drop-off, and convert interest into measurable outcomes.
These calls often represent high-value opportunities, where the quality of the first interaction can directly influence acquisition and long-term customer value.
60.9%
52.3%
50.5%
27.4%Quarterly Trend
Overall CX
Australian Banks
The Overall CX Score is the most important metric in our benchmarking program – a single, weighted score that reflects how easy it is for customers to reach a contact centre and the quality of the experience once connected.
As the defining measure of customer experience, the Overall CX Score blends Accessibility (30%) and Agent Mastery (70%) to reflect both access and impact – with a greater emphasis on the agent’s role in shaping outcomes. Penalties are applied for major breakdowns to ensure a true picture of performance from the customer’s perspective.
Key Metrics Trend – Australian Banks (12-Month View)
The chart below highlights a 12-month trend across three core CX performance metrics for Australian banks:
- Overall CX – A weighted composite score reflecting the end-to-end customer experience, factoring in accessibility, agent quality, and call handling efficiency.
- Accessibility – The ease of reaching a human agent.
- Agent Mastery – The quality and effectiveness of agent conversations.
Overall CX
This is the headline metric – representing the total customer experience across every stage of the call journey. It’s calculated using a weighted combination of the Accessibility and Agent Mastery scores, providing a holistic view of how well Australian banks are delivering end-to-end service during key sales interactions.
Accessibility
This measures how easily and quickly prospective customers can reach a real person. It includes navigating phone menus, clarity of options, queue times, and whether callers successfully speak with a representative. Higher scores reflect smoother, more customer-friendly access experiences.
Agent Mastery
This evaluates the quality and professionalism of frontline service. It includes how well Australian banks’ call centre agents greet, listen, and explain the suitable financial services product, along with empathy, clarity, and overall service delivery. It’s a direct measure of agent capability during high-value conversations.
Learn more about the Australian Contact Centre CX Standards that power these assessments.
Call Centre CX Quadrant – Australian Banks Q1 2025
This Call Centre CX Quadrant illustrates how Australian banks compare in Accessibility (ease of reaching a live agent) and Agent Mastery (quality of customer interactions).
Striking the right balance is no easy feat – some banks offer fast and easy access but fall short in agent skill or engagement, which can undermine the overall experience.
Others may deliver strong agent interactions but frustrate customers with long wait times or difficult menu navigation before help is even reached.
The top-right quadrant represents CX best practice – banks that make it both easy to get help and deliver high-quality conversations that build confidence and drive conversion. 📊⚡️
