Executive Summary – Australian Call Centre Industry Q1 2025
The Q1 2025 results shine a spotlight on the state of customer experience across Australia’s contact centres – and the message is clear: the best are getting better, but the national average is slipping.
ACXPA independently assessed the phone-based customer experience of over 50 contact centres across seven sectors using our national Contact Centre CX Standards. These standards benchmark more than 80 data points across three key pillars: Accessibility, Agent Mastery, and Overall CX.
While standouts like ENGIE, TasTAFE, YOUI and Holmesglen continue to set the pace, most sectors recorded a decline this quarter – highlighting growing inconsistency and missed opportunities to deliver great service when it matters most.
This summary outlines the industry’s overall performance in Q1 2025, with key trends, challenges, and takeaways to guide improvement across the board.
Top Performer Highlights
🥇 ENGIE led the nation for Overall CX with a score of 73.4%, continuing its strong performance across multiple metrics.
📈 TasTAFE delivered the highest Accessibility score nationally at 99.0%, setting the standard for customer access and ease.
🧠 YOUI topped the Agent Mastery rankings for the second quarter in a row, with frontline agents scoring 69.8% for conversation quality.
⏱️ Dodo and ENGIE shared the fastest average wait time at just 3 seconds – proving instant service is achievable when resourcing and systems align.
Key Challenges
📉 CX Scores Trending Down
Overall CX fell to a national average of 54.6% (–1.8 pts from Q4), with five of the seven sectors declining. A sign that inconsistent delivery is outweighing incremental improvements.
🧠 Agent Mastery Still Underperforming
Despite strong results from a few leaders, the national average for Agent Mastery remains just 52.1%, weighed down by weak performance in soft skills like empathy, clarity, and control.
📞 Accessibility Gaps Hurt First Impressions
The Banking sector had the worst accessibility result nationally, with 21% of assessed calls not answered within 10 minutes. Delays like this are more than inconvenient – they’re missed revenue.
🙁 Calls Still Ending Flat
The ‘Close’ competency – covering final checks, gratitude, and last impressions – remains the lowest-performing behaviour across the board. Many calls simply fizzle out instead of finishing strong.
🏁 Industry Insights
🔁 Consistency Is the New Competitive Edge
Holmesglen, TasTAFE, YOUI and ENGIE have all maintained leadership positions across multiple quarters – proving that consistent CX excellence is achievable with the right systems and investment.
⚠️ Big Brands Falling Behind
Telstra continues to rank last in Accessibility among ISPs. ING once again recorded the lowest Overall CX result of any contact centre nationally – highlighting systemic issues in execution despite strong brand awareness.
🤝 Access Alone Isn’t Enough
Several providers, especially in the Internet sector, offer exceptional accessibility but fall short once connected. Strong soft skills and emotional connection are still the missing link in many interactions.
🏁 Final Word
The Q1 2025 results reveal two contrasting realities:
- A group of leading organisations are proving that fast, human, high-quality service is possible – and commercially powerful.
- The national average is trending down, soft skill execution is inconsistent, and accessibility failures continue in critical sectors.
For brands committed to better:
- Prioritise Access – Missed calls mean missed opportunities
- Invest in Agent Capability – Conversations convert when agents are confident and human
- Close with Care – Final impressions shape lasting ones
- Don’t rely on brand alone – The customer experience must match the marketing
The leaders aren’t lucky. They’re deliberate. And they’re pulling ahead.
Recognising Call Centre Excellence in Australia
Congratulations to the top-performing contact centres delivering standout customer experiences for their business in Q1 2025. These results are based on independent mystery shopping assessments, using real customer enquiries to evaluate how well contact centres are meeting the expectations of Australian consumers.
While industry averages provide important benchmarks, it’s the ability to respond quickly, reduce friction, and convert interest into action that separates the best from the rest.
Quarterly Trend – Overall CX
National
The Overall CX Rankings reflect how easy it is to connect and communicate with a live customer service agent at an Australian contact centre, assessed across over 80 metrics derived from the Contact Centre CX Standards.
The rankings are determined by the Accessibility rankings (how easy it was to connect) and Agent Mastery rankings (the skills and behaviours of the live agents), with weightings applied to the key drivers of customer satisfaction.
Key Metrics Trend – Australian Call Centre Industry (12-Month View)
The chart below highlights a 12-month trend across three core CX performance metrics for the Australian call centre industry:
- 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 effectively contact centres deliver end-to-end service across all sectors and customer types.
Accessibility
This measures how easily and quickly customers can reach a live person. It includes website access to phone numbers, phone menu complexity, clarity of options, time spent in queue, and call answer rates. Higher scores reflect faster, simpler, and more customer-friendly access to support and sales teams.
Agent Mastery
This evaluates the skill, confidence, and professionalism of frontline agents. It covers how well they greet callers, understand needs, explain options, resolve enquiries, and close the call – including tone, empathy, clarity, and overall delivery. It’s a direct reflection of the human side of the experience.
Learn more about the Australian Contact Centre CX Standards that power these assessments.
Call Centre CX Quadrant – Australian Call Centre Industry Sectors Q1 2025
This Call Centre CX Quadrant illustrates how Australian contact centres sectors 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 sectors 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 IVRs before help is even reached.
The top-right quadrant represents CX best practice – sectors that make it both easy to get help and deliver high-quality conversations once the conversation begins. 📊⚡️
