Australian Call Centre Industry Q4 2024 Call Centre Rankings

Executive Summary

The Q4 2024 public report provides a comprehensive view of customer experience (CX) performance across the six key sectors: Banks, Car Insurance providers, Councils, Education Providers, Internet Retailers and Energy Retailers, along with an analysis of overall industry trends.

Both sector-wide trends and business-specific results are explored, shedding light on performance gaps, operational efficiencies, and opportunities for improvement.

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1. Overall CX Scores

Industry Trends

• The sector-wide Overall CX Score for Q4 2024 was 55.8%, marking an improvement of 2.7% from Q3 2024. This represents a positive shift after a few quarters of gradual decline, and highlights an industry-wide effort to stabilise and improve CX performance.

• This improvement in the Overall CX result was driven by record-breaking scores in Accessibility (the ease of connecting to a live agent) and a modest increase in Agent Mastery scores (the quality of live interactions).

• Despite the overall industry-wide improvement, significant performance disparities remain across individual contact centres. For instance, underperformers such as ING Bank scored just 20.4%, while the highest-performing contact centre for Q4 2024, TPG Internet, achieved 70.9%.

• TPG Internet achieved the best individual result for the Overall CX Metric in Q4 2024, with a score of 70.9%. While this is a commendable achievement, it’s worth noting that this is the lowest leading score recorded since tracking began, well below the previous highest score of 83.3% (achieved by TPG Internet) in Q2 2024.

Sector Highlights

• Banks, who have consistently ranked last since the start of 2023, achieved their best-ever result in Q4 2024 with a score of 51.5%. This improvement relegated the Car Insurance sector to last place for the first time, with an Overall CX ranking of 46.4%.

• Education Providers repeated their strong performance from Q3 2024 to lead the industry, albeit with a slight decline from 64.5% to 60.5%. Energy Retailers followed closely behind with a score of 60.1%.

With an industry-wide average of 55.8%, it’s clear that contact centres still face substantial challenges in delivering consistent, high-quality customer experiences.

Accessibility has shown steady improvement, likely supported by advancements in tools such as AI, knowledge management platforms, and intranets to assist agents. However, soft skills remain an ongoing Achilles’ heel across the industry.

This gap often leads to suboptimal customer interactions, underscoring the critical need to nurture both technical and interpersonal skills in agents to drive meaningful improvements in customer service.

2. Agent Mastery Scores

Industry Trends

• After reaching an all-time low of 51.1% in Q3 2024, the Agent Mastery Score, which reflects the quality of live customer interactions, showed a slight improvement to 51.3% in Q4 2024. However, this remains well below the best result of 57.6% achieved in Q1 2024.

• This marginal increase was primarily driven by a 2.2% rise in the DISCOVER competency compared to Q3 2024. However, the ENGAGE and ENERGY ratings recorded their lowest-ever results, at 30.7% and 64.4%, respectively.

• Significant variability in performance continues to underscore the need for targeted training and greater consistency across employees. In Q4 2024, Agent Mastery scores ranged from 35.4% (TasTAFE) to 66.5% (Youi), the industry leader for the quarter. While Youi’s score of 66.5% was the top result, it also marks the lowest leading score in any quarter to date (with the highest quarterly result ever recorded being 88.1%).

Sector Trends

• Energy Retailers led the industry for Agent Mastery for the first time, with a score of 54.3%, closely followed by Councils with a score of 52.8%.

• Car Insurance, which had ranked last for the previous two quarters, improved to 47.8% (+2.7%), bumping the Education Providers down to last place with a score of 47.6%, marking their lowest recorded result.

With an industry average of just 51.3%, the data highlights the ongoing challenges faced by organisations in equipping frontline employees with the soft skills necessary to provide high-quality interactions.

One key observation is the decline in Empathy, which has plummeted to an all-time low of 58.9% across the industry (-10.0% from Q3 2024). This range spans from 0% (Allianz Insurance) to 100% (Brisbane City Council), further emphasizing the skill disparities across the industry.

3. Accessibility Rankings

Industry Trends

• The industry-wide Accessibility Ranking improved to 69.2% in Q4 2024, up from 67.4% in Q3 2024, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of improvement in 2024. This is a significant increase from Q1 2024, where the score was 63.3%, making it much easier for customers to reach a live agent.

• This improvement is primarily driven by reduced wait times across the industry, which has seen the fourth consecutive quarter of shorter wait times. Additionally, the percentage of calls answered reached a record high of 94.3%.

• The number of menu layers decreased slightly (-0.1) to 2.2 layers, and total message time (the duration customers are forced to listen to recorded messages before being placed in the queue) also decreased slightly from 38 to 36 seconds.

Sector Trends

• Education Providers maintained their position as industry leaders for the third consecutive quarter, with an impressive 90.4%, consistent with Q2 2024 results. This represents the highest quarterly result for any sector since records began in August 2023.

• For the first time since records began, Banks were not at the bottom of the rankings, with Car Insurance providers recording their lowest-ever result of 50.9%, down 3.4% from Q2 2024.

• As with other metrics, significant variation exists across the industry, with scores ranging from a low of 15.9% (ING Bank) to a high of 98.1% (TasTAFE).

While many businesses are making significant strides in improving access to live agents, there remains a persistent trend of complex IVR menus, long forced messaging, and, in some cases, excessive wait times. These factors continue to contribute to customer frustrations.

Given that many of the scenarios tested involve new business opportunities, this trend points to a potential loss of customers and damage to brand reputation due to a poor first impression.

4. Average Wait Times

Industry Trends

• Average wait times across the industry have decreased for the fourth consecutive quarter, now averaging 1:21 minutes, a reduction from 1:50 in Q3 2024 and significantly lower than the 2:40 minutes recorded in Q1 2024.

• The leading contact centres for Q4 2024 reported an average wait time of just 2 seconds, with Dodo Internet and TAFE WA leading the industry. Dodo Internet has now led the sector for five consecutive quarters, with an average wait time of just 3 seconds across all of 2024.

• On the other hand, ING Bank recorded the longest average wait times for three consecutive quarters, indicating ongoing systemic challenges in forecasting and meeting customer demand. Their wait time for new account and home loan enquiries was 6:30 minutes, although this is an improvement from the previous quarter’s 6:44 minutes.

Sector Highlights

• Energy Retailers delivered the best average wait times in the industry for the first time, with an average of just 50 seconds for new connection enquiries. Education Providers were just behind with an average of 51 seconds for new course enquiries.

• Banks again had the longest wait times across all industry sectors, with an average of 2:21 minutes for new account and home loan enquiries. While this still lags behind other sectors, it represents the best-ever result for the banking sector, significantly improving from Q2 2024’s average of 4:34 minutes. The range of results varied, from 23 seconds (Great Southern Bank) to 6:30 minutes (ING Bank), the longest wait time among all contact centres assessed in Q4 2024.

• After four consecutive quarters of improvement, average wait times for Education Providers increased from 30 seconds to 51 seconds in Q4 2024. Most of the Education Providers assessed experienced an increase from Q3 to Q4.

While often criticised for long wait times, the data shows consistent improvements across the industry. For the scenarios we test, which focus on new business opportunities, this improvement is exactly what you’d expect to see.

The first experience with a brand is critical, and by providing short wait times along with experienced agents possessing both product knowledge and strong soft skills, organisations can ensure the best outcomes for converting inquiries into new business.

However, it’s important to note that existing customers—dealing with account inquiries, claims, etc.—may often experience a different reality. These queues are typically treated with lower priority, which leads to much longer wait times and frustration for customers.

As an industry, there is still much work to be done to help contact centre practitioners better forecast demand and influence business stakeholders. Ensuring they are equipped with the necessary resources to meet this demand, and articulating the positive ROI to the business, remains a crucial area for improvement.

5. Calls Answered

Industry Trends

• The percentage of calls answered within our defined thresholds—10 minutes for sales inquiries and 15 minutes for customer service inquiries—improved to 94.3% in Q4 2024, up from 89.8% in Q3 2024. This marks the best-ever result recorded, a notable increase from the low of 84.6% recorded in Q1 2024.

• However, this still means that 4.7% of calls were not answered within the established thresholds. In the ‘real world,’ this translates into thousands of customers receiving a poor first experience with a brand, representing a significant lost opportunity for businesses—especially in the context of new business scenarios.

• Results across the industry varied significantly, ranging from 44.4% (ING Bank), which has had the lowest result for three consecutive quarters, where 55.6% of calls for new account/home loan inquiries were not answered within 10 minutes, to 73% of contact centres achieving a perfect 100%, the best-ever result.

• Only 14% of contact centres have achieved 100% in every quarter since the benchmarking began in August 2023, highlighting the ongoing challenge of aligning forecasts with actual demand.

Sector Trends

• Three sectors achieved a perfect 100% in Q4 2024: Councils, Energy Retailers, and Education Providers. This marks the first time we’ve seen more than one sector achieve the perfect score in a quarter.

• Banks again had the lowest calls answered percentage, with 84.0%. They have ranked last across all sectors for five consecutive quarters, with only one bank (Bank Australia) achieving 100%.

Given the significant efforts and investments made by marketing teams to generate new inquiries, it’s concerning that some businesses continue to fail to answer calls within a reasonable timeframe, which results in missed opportunities for new customer acquisition.

Conclusion

The Q4 2024 report highlights both progress and ongoing challenges in the customer experience (CX) and contact centre industry, with notable improvements in certain areas, but still significant disparities in performance.

The overall industry saw a positive shift in the Overall CX Scores, marking a much-needed recovery after several consecutive quarters of decline. Key drivers of this improvement were enhanced accessibility and slightly better Agent Mastery scores, but soft skills still remain a considerable challenge for many businesses. This continues to underline the need for a balanced approach to customer service, combining both technical proficiency and strong interpersonal skills for more effective customer interactions.

While the sector-wide Agent Mastery scores remain below their historical highs, the data signals that frontline employees require more consistent, focused training, especially in areas like empathy, engagement, and energy. These soft skills are critical to fostering positive customer relationships and reducing the variability in CX performance across contact centres.

Accessibility has also improved, with reduced wait times and greater ease in reaching a live agent. This marks a promising trend, aided by the increasing adoption of AI tools and knowledge management platforms. However, the complexity of IVR menus and forced messaging still remain barriers to efficient customer access. As many of our testing scenarios involve new business opportunities, there’s a clear risk of losing potential customers due to poor first impressions.

The reduction in average wait times is another positive trend, but it is still an area that requires attention, particularly in sectors like banking and education, where wait times can often be lengthy. While the improvements in response times for new business inquiries are encouraging, existing customers—especially those with account-related inquiries—continue to face delays, highlighting the need for better demand forecasting and resource allocation.

Calls answered within defined thresholds also improved, but there remains a significant percentage of missed opportunities, especially in businesses like ING Bank, which continues to fall behind on call response times. Despite this, the industry saw an increase in contact centres achieving a perfect 100% for calls answered within the threshold, particularly in sectors like Councils, Energy Retailers, and Education Providers.

In conclusion, while there have been some significant strides in improving customer experience across key metrics, substantial challenges remain, especially around soft skills development, accessibility, and wait times. As we look forward to 2025, it’s crucial that businesses invest in improving both their technical infrastructure and their frontline employees’ customer service capabilities to bridge these gaps and continue elevating CX standards across the industry.

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HIGHEST/LOWEST RANKINGS FOR Q4 2024 

The High/Low Rankings below provide a snapshot of the range of performance across the Australian Call Centre industry for eight selected metrics—just a small preview of the 80+ metrics available in our Contact Centre CX Benchmarking reports.

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Benchmarking Data for Other Industry Sectors

In addition to the overall industry and sector information we publish, you can also view specific benchmarking data for each industry sector we assess – click the links below to learn more and view data.