Australian Call Centre Industry Rankings October 2023 

Executive Summary

Our first Call Centre Ranking National report was published in August 2023 and started with assessing five industry sectors: Banks, Councils, Energy Providers, Internet Providers and TAFEs.  For this Australian Call Centre Industry Rankings October 2023 report, we’ve added a new industry sector: Car Insurance.

You can learn more about our assessment methodology, but in summary, we conduct a series of mystery shopping calls at random times and days, posing as a real customer, and then we assess the call using 48 different metrics that provide us with three key scores:

• The Accessibility Score captures how easy it was to connect to a live contact centre agent including wait times, complexity of IVR Menus, hold experience, etc.
• The Quality Score (QIS) measures the experience received during the interaction with the live contact centre agent using the five core competencies from the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards: Engage, Discover, Educate, Close and Energy.
• The Overall Score combines the two scores above with proprietary weightings on the competencies that influence the customer experience the most, and it’s this score that is used to determine the overall ranking results.

Key Findings from the Australian Call Centre Industry Rankings October 2023 Report

For each industry sector, we randomly selected a minimum of six different businesses with the key observations including:

• The Councils were ranked as the best overall sector (64.8%), with the Banks the lowest ranked of the industry sectors (41.8%) for the third consecutive month.
• Only one industry sector, Energy Providers, answered 100% of the mystery shopping calls within our thresholds (10 minutes for sales calls, 15 minutes for customer service calls).  The worst performing sector was the banks, failing to answer 39.9% of calls we made to banks, delivering a poor experience for potential new customers and missed opportunities for the banks to convert those calls into new business.
• When it comes to being able to connect to a live agent, the TAFEs were rated the best for Accessibility (75.4%) with the Banks again the lowest-ranked sector (42.0%) for the third consecutive month.
• Quality was rated as ‘Below Standard’ across the industry averaging 56.8% (- 2.6% from September 2023) 59.4%, with the Councils the lead sector at 67.1% and the new sector, Car Insurance, rated the lowest for quality with 43.7%.
• Average Wait Times across the industry was 02:26 minutes, an increase of 00:20 minutes from the previous month.  The quickest wait times were delivered by the Energy Providers (00:31 minutes), and the longest wait times on average were the Banks (04:18 minutes).
• Navigation time (of the IVR menu where present) averaged 00:27 minutes, a decrease of 00:08 minutes from September 2023. Councils had the shortest menu navigation times (00:12 minutes) and Banks the longest (00:45 minutes).
• Customers also endured an average of 00:36 minutes of recorded announcements before being placed in a queue, with the Internet Providers the shortest (00:08 minutes) and the Energy Providers the longest (00:58 minutes).
• When it comes to the number of IVR layers, the Banks had the most, with an average of 3.3 layers, compared to the Councils, with the lowest at 0.8.

Jump Straight to a Section:

Key Results by Industry Sector

Overall Score Rankings by Sector

Accessibility Score Rankings by Sector

Quality Score Rankings by Sector

Average Wait Times by Sector

Calls Answered Percentage by Sector (ACXPA Members only)

Menu Navigation Times by Sector (ACXPA Members only)

Pre-Recorded Message Times by Sector (ACXPA Members only)

Average Talk Times by Sector (ACXPA Members only)

Quality Competencies Sector Rankings (ACXPA Members only)

Download Report (ACXPA Members only)

Key Results by Industry Sector for October 2023

The tables below rank the various industry sectors we assessed across four key metrics.

Each sector had some stand-out performers, with a special mention to the Holmesglen TAFE in Victoria, which was the top-rated contact centre in Australia for October 2023 with a score of 85.6%.

2nd place was awarded to Northern Beaches Council (82.9%) and 3rd place, the City on Onkparinga (79.5%) who were the overall winners the previous two months.

Connecting to a live contact centre agent was easy in October 2023 was more difficult as compared to the September 2023 results, decreasing from 69.1% to 65.9%.

• Energy Providers were the biggest improver (+13.4%).
• TAFEs had the largest decrease (-12.6%) with a score of 75.4%, however this was still the best result for all of the sectors we assessed.
• For the third consecutive month, the Banks were assessed as the most difficult sector to connect to a live contact centre agent with a score of 42.0%, the only sector to achieve a ‘Poor’ rating.
• A large contributor to the ‘Poor’ rating for banks was:
  • 39.1% of calls to banks (for sales-related calls) were not answered due to delays in excess of 10 minutes, representing lost revenue opportunities for them.
  • Banks had the longest wait times of all industry sectors, with customers waiting, on average, 04:18 to connect to a live agent.
• On average, customers were forced to listen to 00:36 minutes of pre-recorded messaging before being able to speak to a live agent, an increase from September 2023 of 00:06 minutes. Internet Providers had the shortest messaging (00:08 minutes) and Energy Providers the longest (00:58 minutes).
•  The average time stuck in an IVR (press 1 for this, 2 for that) was 00:27 minutes (down from 00:08 minutes the previous month), with Councils having the the quickest menus to navigate (00:12 minutes) and Banks the longest (00:45 minutes).
• The average wait time across the industry increased by 15.8% (02:06 minutes to 02:26 minutes), with the best sector the Energy Providers (00:31 minutes) and Banks the longest (04:18 minutes)
• Across all the contact centres we assessed, 14.6% had no IVR.

Across the industry, Quality declined to 56.8% which is rated as ‘Below Standard’.

As many of the mystery shopping calls we make are new revenue opportunities, this suggests there is a significant opportunity for organisations who invest in improving the performance of their contact centre employees.

• The best Quality across the industry was delivered by the Councils (67.1%), the second consecutive month leading the industry and the highest quality score recorded to date for any sector.
• The lowest quality was delivered by our newest sector, Car Insurance providers with a score of 43.7% the lowest score we have ever recorded for an industry sector.
• The TAFE sector had the largest improvement compared to the previous month (+4.7%).
• The ‘Engage’ Competency continued to be the worst performing competency and the only one rated as Poor (41.8%), with even basic things like the correct use of a customer’s name only scoring 29.9%.
• The top Quality Competency was ‘Energy’ with 72.3%.
• You can view more insights on the quality competencies further down in the report (or click here to jump to it)

The average wait time across the industry increased by 28% (02:06 minutes down to 02:26 minutes), with the best sector in October 2023 the Energy Providers (00:31 minutes) and Banks the longest (04:18 minutes).

• Energy Providers was the only sector that a decrease in wait times compared to the previous month, a decrease of 01:01 minutes to 00:31 minutes.
• Councils has the largest increase in wait times (+01:44 minutes to 03:18 minutes).
• Banks has the longest wait times (04:18 minutes) for the third consecutive month.

You can view the leaders for each sector in the tables below.

View Additional Information By Industry Sector:

Each Industry Sector has its own YTD and monthly reports – click the button below to view specific industry data.

View All Year-to-Date (YTD) Rankings >