Executive Summary – Australian Aged Care Providers Q1 2025
As aged care continues to evolve in response to growing demand and heightened customer expectations, the quality of first impressions, particularly via the phone, remains a critical marker of trust, care, and capability. In many cases, a single phone call is the starting point for a life-changing decision, making every interaction count.
To support sector-wide improvement, ACXPA independently assessed the phone-based customer experience of leading aged care providers in Q1 2025 using our national Contact Centre CX Standards. This approach evaluates over 80 data points across accessibility, agent capability, and overall experience – providing a clear view of how aged care providers are performing against best practice benchmarks.
While the sector showed encouraging signs in some areas, including low IVR complexity and above-average agent accessibility, the data also reveals widespread gaps in frontline skills and missed opportunities to communicate value to prospective customers.
This executive summary outlines the sector’s performance across key CX metrics, highlighting standout performers as well as the most urgent areas for improvement.
Top Performers
✅ Best Overall CX Performer – Uniting NSW.ACT (67.1%)
Uniting NSW.ACT have led the aged care sector for the previous two quarters, establishing itself as the top performer in this sector, with Silverchain in second place with 64.2%.
📈 Top Accessibility Performer – Silverchain (93.7%)
When it comes to making it easy for prospective customers to make enquiries, Silverchain has set a high benchmark with a ranking of 93.7%, making it easy for customers to reach a live agent with their enquiry about in-home services.
⭐️ Best Agent Mastery – Trilogy Care (57.5%)
Trilogy Care leads the sector for Agent Mastery, with a ranking of 57.5%, just marginally ahead of Uniting NSW.ACT with 56.3%.
💡 Industry Insight:
Overall CX performance decreased in Q1 2025 (-4.8 pts from Q4 2024), with Aged Care Providers ranked 5th (of 7) industry sectors – reflecting the challenges in the emerging sector in implementing best-practice customer service.
Biggest CX Challenges
📞 First Impressions Count: Accessibility Still Letting Some Providers Down
The phone remains a critical channel in aged care, where empathy and attentiveness are expected from the very first interaction.
While the average wait time across providers was a commendable 1 minute and 44 seconds, accessibility gaps persist.
One provider failed to answer 43.4% of calls within 10 minutes, well outside acceptable standards and a likely driver of customer abandonment.
In a sector where decisions are often emotionally driven and time-sensitive, such performance not only impacts customer trust but also risks losing new business to more responsive competitors.
🧠 Skill Gaps in Agent Mastery
The Q1 2025 results mark the third consecutive quarter of declining scores, highlighting an ongoing challenge for aged care providers in meeting best practice standards for phone-based customer interactions.
Scores for Agent Mastery – measuring soft skills and behaviours such as empathy, listening, problem-solving and more ranged from a low of 39.9% to a high of just 57.5%, indicating systemic shortfalls in frontline training and coaching.
While the aged care sector continues to show strong intent in caring for customers, these results suggest a significant opportunity to uplift capability where it matters most – at the first point of contact.
With the phone channel often being the front door to new business, these gaps risk not only customer dissatisfaction but also lost revenue and reputation.
🗣️ Explaining Value: A Missed Opportunity to Inform & Reassure
One of the lowest-performing soft skill areas was “Explained Key Features”, with an average score of just 19.1%.
This metric reflects the employee’s ability to clearly articulate the services or benefits relevant to the caller’s enquiry – an essential component in building trust and guiding informed decisions.
Such a low result suggests many frontline staff may lack either the product knowledge or confidence to communicate offerings effectively.
For aged care providers, this represents a critical gap: if prospective customers aren’t helped to understand what’s available, they’re unlikely to move forward with confidence, or at all.
🏆 Key Wins
📞 Strong Access to Live Agents
The aged care sector ranked 3rd out of 7 industries for phone accessibility, outperformed only by Internet Service Providers and Education Providers. This reflects a stronger-than-average commitment to answering customer calls quickly and efficiently.
⏱️ Low Effort Menus
With an average of just 0.7 menu options, aged care providers offer the most direct path to a live agent across all sectors. This simplicity is particularly important for elderly callers, reducing frustration and improving access. A third of all providers had no IVR at all, and for those that did, no provider had more than one layer of menu options.
🔎 Easy to Find Contact Details
Aged care was the only sector to achieve a perfect score (100%) for the ‘Search’ metric, meaning every provider made it easy for prospective customers to find a phone number on their website – an essential first step in delivering a positive experience.
Recognising Call Centre Excellence for Australian Aged Care Providers
Congratulations to the top-performing Australian aged care providers delivering outstanding customer experiences via their call centres in Q1 2025.
These results are based on independent mystery shopping assessments, using genuine customer enquiries to evaluate how effectively providers are supporting families navigating aged care options.
Recognition in these rankings goes beyond meeting expectations – it highlights providers who bring warmth, clarity, and responsiveness to moments that often carry emotional weight.
By making it easier for families to ask questions, explore options, and feel heard, these organisations are not only improving the customer experience but also building trust and securing future care decisions.
67.1%
64.2%
57.9%
29.5%Quarterly Trend
Overall CX
Aged Care Providers
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 – Aged Care Providers (12-Month View)
The chart below highlights a 12-month trend across three core CX performance metrics for Australian aged-care providers:
- 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 aged-care providers are delivering end-to-end service during key sales enquiries 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 aged care providers’ staff greet, listen and explain suitable services – 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 – Aged Care Providers Q1 2025
This Call Centre CX Quadrant illustrates how Australian aged care providers 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 aged care providers 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 – aged care providers who make it both easy to get help and deliver high-quality conversations once the conversation begins. 📊⚡️
