Australian Call Centre Industry Q2 2024 Call Centre Rankings
Introduction
In August 2023, we commenced mystery shopping calls to random call centres across Australia to gain insights into the real performance of call centres from six industry sectors: Banks, Car Insurance Providers, Councils, Energy Retailers, Internet Retailers and Education Providers.
Using trained mystery shoppers based in Australia, we pose as real customers to rank the ACCESS (how easy it was to connect to a live agent) and the customer service/quality of the interaction using over 80 different performance metrics as defined in the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards.
This provides real Voice of Customer (VoC) insights into the performance of the call centre channel for consumers based on live interactions, as opposed to self-reported or survey-based data.
To maintain our anonymity, we use a range of different scenarios when mystery shopping the call centres.
These scenarios are typically related to new business opportunities, as many call centres require existing customers to provide account details, serial numbers, ID requirements, etc. for more detailed enquiries.
This can mean that customers with billing enquiries, technical enquiries, complaints, etc, may have different experiences as they are often treated with a different priority and handled by completely different teams.
Table of Contents:
Highest/Lowest Rankings (ACXPA Members Only)
Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards
The Australian Call Centres are assessed using the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards that have been developed and refined over 30 years to assess the moments that matter to customers.
When businesses consistently achieve high ratings in these core competencies, there is a direct correlation to improved business metrics however you measure them, such as improved Sales Conversions, NPS, Customer Effort Score, efficiency, reduced AHT, etc.
The standards apply to all contact centres and are adapted to customer service or sales calls.
- Customer Service is assessed across five core competencies and 18 call-handling behaviours that directly correlate to better customer and business outcomes: Engage, Discover, Educate, Close, Energy.
- Access is assessed using over 40 metrics, from average wait times, hold times, number of IVR options (press 1 for this, 2 for that), the time forced to listen to recording messages and so on.
- The Customer Experience score is a measure of performance on the competencies that most influence the customer experience and it’s this score used to determine the overall ranking results.
As Australia’s leading industry association for contact centres, we provide insights, resources, and training to help the Australian Call Centre Industry improve its customer experience, which in turn delivers improved efficiencies and cost savings for its businesses.
Australian Call Centre Quality Rankings:
POOR
(<45%)
BELOW STANDARD
(45% to 60%)
MEETS STANDARDS
(61% to 75%)
EXCEEDS STANDARD
(76% to 90%)
OUTSTANDING
(>91%)
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE RANKINGS Q2 2024 (Australian Call Centre Industry)
The Customer Experience Rankings reflect how easy it is to connect and communicate with a live customer service agent at an Australian Call Centre.
The rankings are determined by the ACCESS rankings (how easy it was to connect) and CUSTOMER SERVICE rankings (the interaction with the live agent) with weightings applied to the key drivers of customer satisfaction.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Of the six business sectors we assessed in Q2 2024 (banks, car insurance, councils, energy retailers, internet retailers, and education providers), internet retailers led the industry for the second consecutive quarter.
- The industry’s overall customer experience ranking declined for the third consecutive quarter, rated as below standard, falling to 53.1% (-1.6% from Q1 2024), the lowest quarterly score since records commenced in August 2023.
- The sector that improved the most from the previous quarter was Internet Retailers (+4.6%), with Car Insurance providers the largest decrease (-10.1%).
- TPG Internet was rated the top call centre in Australia for Q2 2024 (83.3%), followed by iiNet (79.6%) and Holmesglen TAFE (75.0%).
- Banks were again the lowest-ranked industry sector for customer experience in Q2 2024 (36.0%), having been the lowest-performing sector each quarter since records commenced.
- Access Rankings (how easy it was to connect to a live agent) improved in Q2 2024 (+1.8%) to 65.1%, the best quarter on record and rated as ‘Meets Standards’. Australian Councils recorded the largest improvement in accessibility (+14.0%) which is welcome news to ratepayers, whilst customers seeking to speak to a live agent for Car Insurance found it increasingly difficult, with a 9.3% decline from Q1 2024.
- Average Wait Times across the country decreased to their best-ever quarterly result of 2:07 minutes (-00:33 minutes), led by the Council sector, which decreased wait times by 02:33 minutes. The banking sector had the longest wait times in Q2 2024 of all industry sectors, at 04:34 minutes (+00:54 minutes from Q1 2024).
- Whilst it was easier to connect to a live agent in Q2 2024, the quality of customer service declined to 53.4%, rated as ‘Below Standard’ and the lowest on record. Car Insurance Providers registered their lowest result to date (44.4%), whilst Internet Retailers led the way in customer service with a score of 61.6%.
Customer Experience Rankings (Industry)
Q2 2024
Q1 2024
Trend
ACCESS Rankings Q2 2024 (Australian Call Centre Industry)
The Call Centre Access Rankings reflect how easy it was for customers to speak with a live person via a company’s call centre.
59 individual elements are assessed, capturing the entire experience before interacting with a live agent, including queue wait times, how easy it was to find the phone number, the number of menu options (e.g., press 1 for this, 2 for that), messaging times, hold music, audio quality, and lots more.
Mystery Shopping calls to Australian Call Centre Industry are terminated if wait times exceed 10:00 minutes for sales scenarios, 15:00 minutes for service scenarios.
Access rankings across the Australian Call Centre Industry was rated as ‘Meets Standard’ and the Q2 2024 ranking of 65.3% is the highest result for any quarter since records commenced.
- Overall, it was easier to access a live agent in Q2 2024 than in Q1 2024, with the ACCESS Rankings across the industry increasing from 63.3% to 65.1% (+1.8%).
- iiNet was ranked the easiest business to connect to a live customer service agent in Q2 2024 at 95.1%, with RACV the most difficult at 0.9%.
- Education providers were the easiest to connect to a live agent (81.8%), just ahead of Internet retailers (81.6%), and banks were the most difficult to access a live agent (36.6%).
- The Banking sector has been last in the ACCESS Rankings every quarter since records commenced in August 2023, and the Q2 2024 rankings, at 36.6%, were the lowest on record ever since records commenced.
- Compared to Q1 2024, accessibility to Car Insurance providers decreased the most (-9.3%), with access to Australian Councils improving the most (+14.0% to 75.1%) in Q1 2024.
- Across the industry, 12.3% of calls were not answered within our wait time thresholds (an increase of 3.1% from Q1 2024), with Banks the worst industry sector, failing to answer 44.4% of our calls within a 10-minute threshold. Across all call centres assessed across Q2 2024, ING failed to answer the most calls, only answering a third of the calls we made.
- Not one industry sector answered 100% of calls in Q2 2024, with Councils and Internet Retailers the highest-ranked, answering 96.3% of all calls.
- 10.5% of all call centres assessed had no IVR (press one for this, two for that), with ANZ having the highest number of menu layers (6.0) of any call centre in Australia. By sector, Australian Councils had the least number of menu layers (0.7), with Banks having the highest (4.0).
- The recorded messages customers were required to listen to before joining the queue ranged from 00:05 minutes (TasTAFE) to 02:27 minutes (RACV).
- Total Access Time, which captures the entire time from dialling until connecting to a live agent, decreased across the industry from 03:43 minutes to 03:11 minutes (-00:30 minutes) ranging from 00:30 minutes (Aussie Broadband) through to 09:49 minutes (ING).
- 16.3% of Call Centres offered a call-back option if there were extended wait times, down slightly from Q1 2024 of 18.8% (-2.5%).
- Talk times averaged 06:24 minutes across all call centres in Australia in Q2 2024, down from 06:42 minutes in Q1 2024.
AVERAGE WAIT TIMES Q2 2024
- Average Wait Times across the country decreased to their best-ever quarterly result of 2:07 minutes (-00:33 minutes), led by the Council sector, which saw wait times decrease by 02:33 minutes.
- In Q2 2024, the Banking Sector had the longest wait times of 04:34 minutes (+00:54 minutes from Q1 2024).
- The industry’s average wait times in Q2 2024 for individual call centres ranged from 00:04 minutes (Dodo Internet) to 08:27 minutes (ING).
- Wait times increased the most for banks (+54 seconds) in Q2 2024 compared to Q1 2024, with the biggest decrease for Councils (-153 seconds).
Access Rankings (Industry)
Q2 2024
Q1 2024
Trend
Customer Service Rankings Q2 2024 (Australian Call Centre Industry)
Customer Service is assessed across five core competencies (Engage, Discover, Educate, Close, Energy) and 18 individual call-handling behaviours directly correlating to better customer and business outcomes.
Whilst trying to access a live customer service agent can often be challenging due to complicated IVRs, wait times, etc., what happens during the call can still have a large influence on customer satisfaction.
Recent CX Statistics continue to highlight the importance of interacting live with a customer service employee and the preference to speak to a live agent rather than an automated chatbot/AI, etc.
The quality of customer service across the Australian Call Centre Industry in Q2 2024 was rated ‘Below Standard’ with a ranking score of 53.3%, down from 57.6% in Q1 2024 (-4.3%) and the third consecutive quarterly decline.
- In Q2 2024, Internet Retailers delivered the best customer service (61.6%), with Car Insurance providers providing the poorest (44.4%).
- The Internet Retailers had the largest improvement in customer service (up 3.6% to 61.6%) and were the only sector to rank higher for customer service compared to Q1 2024.
- Car Insurance providers registered the most significant decline (down 9.1% to 44.4%), their lowest quarterly score on record and the lowest quarterly score for any industry sector.
- Customer Service rankings for individual call centres ranged from 34.2% (RACV Insurance) to 83.5% (ANZ).
- The ENGAGE competency, used to assess how call centre agents build rapport with customers, take ownership, and provide a personalised experience, was ranked the lowest with a score of 35.6% (-0.4% from Q1 2024).
- Obtaining and using a customer’s name in a conversation, one of the four ENGAGE behaviours, was ranked at just 27.2% for Q2 2024 (+ 1.2% from Q1 2024), with industry sector scores ranging from 9.5% (Councils) to 40.5% (Car Insurance providers). The highest score in Australia was 100% (Holmesglen TAFE, Vic), the only call centre to achieve 100%. 34% of all centres we assessed scored 0% for Q2 2024.
- ‘Empathy’, one of the four ‘Energy’ behaviours we assess, decreased across the call centre industry sector to their lowest-ever quarterly result of 73.2%, a decrease from 82.9% in Q1 2024, with Energy Retailers the most notable decline (-34.3%).
- The ‘Check’ results, one of the four ‘Educate’ behaviours, assess whether the customer service agent consistently checks in with the customer for understanding, comfort, and suitability whenever key details are provided. Across the industry, rankings decreased to 14.8% in Q2 2024, down from 21.0% in Q1 2024, ranging from Councils (11.1%) to Energy Retailers (23.1%).
Customer Service Rankings (Industry)
Q2 2024
Q1 2024
Trend
Curious about the Call Centre Rankings for other industry sectors?
Aged Care
Performance based on initial enquiries from families and carers regarding aged care options and service availability.
Banks
Rankings based on new product sales calls, including home loans, credit cards, and personal banking enquiries.
Car Insurance
Metrics focused on new car insurance sales calls, covering quote requests, policy comparisons, and onboarding.
Education Providers
Rankings based on prospective student enquiries, including course information, application support, and enrolment processes.
Energy Retailers
Performance on new sales enquiries, such as plan switches, new connections, and customer acquisition.
Internet Retailers
Call handling performance for new internet service enquiries, including provider switching and new home setups.
Local Councils
Metrics based on general enquiries from ratepayers, covering council services, rates, and local support.
Add Your Sector
Can’t find your industry listed? Learn about how to gain valuable insights for any industry sector.
Purchase exclusive insights for your Business
If you’d like to gain Voice of Customer (Voc) insights specifically for your contact centre and benchmark your results against your competitors, we offer a cost-effective, fixed-price benchmarking service that makes it easy!
Starting from just $1,167 per month, by purchasing our Contact Centre CX Benchmarking Service, you’ll receive the following:
- Mystery Shopping results for your contact centre, with each call assessed across over 80 different metrics – including the quality assessor’s notes, the employee’s name (where provided) and the full call recording.
- Benchmarking data for any five call centres you nominate in your industry sector, so you can benchmark your performance directly against other call centres that matter the most to you.
- Industry average data from all the call centres we assess so you can compare your results with the broader industry averages.
- A monthly email with data to track your performance, along with the call recordings.
- A quarterly report containing insights and trends that are easy to understand, along with actionable recommendations to help improve your performance.
- An optional Quarterly Insights workshop for your team (conducted live via Zoom) that can provide additional insights, coaching and guidance.
- Access to training to help you improve results.
