🏆 Australian Call Centre Rankings · Q3 2026
Australian Call Centre Industry Rankings Q3 2026
When a new customer calls ready to buy, which Australian contact centres are easiest to reach, and which handle the sales conversation best? This report compares seven industries side by side and recognises the organisations setting the standard.
Every month we mystery shop banks, car insurers, energy retailers, internet providers, education providers and aged care providers as new customers making a sales enquiry. Councils are the one exception: we call them as residents with a general enquiry.
Every call is scored against 48+ CX metrics aligned to the ACXPA Contact Centre CX Standards. Nobody is told when we are calling.
Overall CX
All-industry average: getting through and the conversation, combined
59.0%
▲ 4.0 pts on Q2 · best on record
Accessibility
How easily callers reached a real person
68.8%
▲ 2.7 pts on Q2
Agent Mastery
How well agents handled the conversation
56.7%
▲ 2.6 pts on Q2 · best since Q1 2024
Sectors improving
Sectors whose Overall CX rose on Q2
7 of 7
a first since records began
The quarter in one line: Australia's best quarter on record, with every sector improving and the warmest conversations we have measured, but the opening of the call is still where most agents fall short.
Recognising call centre excellence
🏆 Australia's Leading Contact Centres – Q3 2026
The three highest Overall CX results on new-customer sales calls this quarter, from three different industries.
🥇 1st in Australia
84.1%
Overall CX · Energy
The highest Overall CX of any organisation we benchmark, up 12.2 points on Q2.
It set the best Agent Mastery (79.9%) and Engage scores in the country, and sits 23.0 points above the energy average, the widest margin of any organisation.
🥈 2nd in Australia
73.8%
Overall CX · Internet
Back on top of the country's strongest sector.
The highest Accessibility in Australia (95.1%), and callers reached a person in 0:31, the fastest of any organisation.
🥉 3rd in Australia
73.5%
Overall CX · Banks
Leads banking for a second consecutive quarter, answering every assessed call.
Its 21.2-point lead over the banking average is the second-widest margin any organisation holds over its sector.
📈 Most Improved on Q2
Three organisations lifted Overall CX by more than 20 points in a single quarter.
▲ 35.0 ptsBendigo Bank · Banks
Overall CX 24.3% → 59.3%
Every assessed call was answered, up from 27.8% in Q2.
Accessibility rose 44.6 points to 68.9%.
▲ 34.9 ptsING · Banks
Overall CX 12.5% → 47.4%
82.2% of assessed calls were answered, up from 38.9% in Q2.
Agent Mastery rose 12.5 points to 53.0%.
▲ 22.9 ptsRACV · Car Insurance
Overall CX 39.1% → 62.0%
Every assessed call was answered, up from 77.8% in Q2.
Agent Mastery rose 14.3 points to 59.9%.
Sector by sector
🥇 Who Leads Each Sector – Q3 2026
The organisation with the highest Overall CX in each industry this quarter. Each sector report goes further, with its leaderboard, a scorecard of every headline measure and results for a selection of organisations.
⚡ Energy
84.1%Leads energy for a seventh consecutive quarterRead the energy report →
🌐 Internet
73.8%Back on top of internet providersRead the internet report →
🏦 Banks
73.5%Leads banking for a second consecutive quarterRead the banks report →
🚗 Car Insurance
71.7%Leads car insurance for a sixth consecutive quarterRead the car insurance report →
🏛️ Councils
68.8%Leads councils on Overall CX and AccessibilityRead the councils report →
🏡 Aged Care
67.4%Back on top of aged care providersRead the aged care report →
🎓 Education
65.2%Leads education providers for the first timeRead the education report →
📈 Your contact centre
Where would you rank?We score your line the same way, against the same CX Standards.Explore Benchmarking →Seven industries compared
📊 Sector League Table – Q3 2026
Internet is the top sector for a seventh consecutive quarter, at 67.2%. Energy and car insurance are a tenth of a point apart in second and third.
Every sector improved its Overall CX. Banking moved furthest (+8.4 points) but is still seventh, because it is the hardest sector to reach: it has the lowest Accessibility and the lowest share of calls answered.
Select a column heading to sort the table.
| Sector | Overall CXi | vs Q2i | Accessibilityi | Agent Masteryi | Calls answeredi | Time to reach a personi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1🌐 Internet | 67.2% | ▲ 4.2 pts | 86.5% | 58.9% | 100.0% | 1:03 |
| 2⚡ Energy | 61.1% | ▲ 1.7 pts | 69.3% | 59.0% | 94.1% | 2:34 |
| 3🚗 Car Insurance | 61.0% | ▲ 4.5 pts | 67.3% | 59.7% | 96.8% | 2:49 |
| 4🏛️ Councils | 60.2% | ▲ 4.4 pts | 66.6% | 57.4% | 98.6% | 2:26 |
| 5=🎓 Education | 56.4% | ▲ 1.2 pts | 74.5% | 51.0% | 94.4% | 1:28 |
| 5=🏡 Aged Care | 56.4% | ▲ 1.0 pts | 76.3% | 51.6% | 92.9% | 2:54 |
| 7🏦 Banks | 52.3% | ▲ 8.4 pts | 52.1% | 57.7% | 83.8% | 3:53 |
| All-industry average | 59.0% | ▲ 4.0 pts | 68.8% | 56.7% | 94.6% | 2:32 |
Notes Six sectors are new-customer sales enquiries; councils are general enquiries. Calls answered means answered by a person within ten minutes (fifteen for councils). Average wait and time to reach a person include unanswered calls, counted up to the time limit.
Your sector doesn't decide your score. The highest and lowest sectors are 14.9 points apart. Inside banking, the highest and lowest banks are 58.6 points apart. What an organisation does on the phone matters far more than the industry it is in.
What changed across Australia
📈 Industry Trends – Q3 2026
The all-industry Overall CX average rose 4.0 points to 59.0%, the best result since our records began in Q3 2023.
All-industry averages by quarter. Switch the time range, or add a sector to compare it with the industry.
Hover over or tap the chart to see each quarter.
94.6% of assessed calls were answered, up from 89.5%. The average wait fell from 1:53 to 1:21, and time to reach a person from 3:05 to 2:32.
Impact rose 9.5 points to 80.4%, the highest on record. Agents scored 80.3% on empathy, up from 69.3%.
Agent Mastery rose 2.6 points to 56.7%, its best since Q1 2024. Six of the seven sectors improved it.
All-industry figures are the average across every organisation we benchmark, so each organisation counts equally whatever its sector.
Where the call is won and lost
🎧 What Happens Once a Customer Gets Through
Agent Mastery is scored across five competencies. Agents are strongest at how the call feels, and weakest at how it opens.
Each dot is a sector; hover over or tap one to see its score. The diamond marks the all-industry average.
💡 Being liked and being effective are different things
Councils set the best Impact score of any sector (92.1%), yet the lowest Engage score (20.5%).
Internet tops the country on Overall CX, yet has the lowest Impact score.
Where the industry is losing ground
🚪 Where Australian Contact Centres Still Lose the Customer
More customers are getting through. The opening of the conversation is where most organisations still fall short.
The opening is the cheapest fix in the call. Asking for and using the caller’s name scored 28.6%. Outlining how you will help costs one sentence, and it turns a list of questions into a call the customer can follow.
As more service moves to bots and online channels, the reason a customer still picks up the phone is to deal with a person. That human connection is the part of the call the industry most needs to get better at.
The end of the call slipped too. Close fell to 52.3%, and it is below 50% in councils, education and aged care.
Banks are missing customers who are ready to switch. With four interest rate rises this year and the cost of living biting, more Australians are shopping around for a better deal, from home loans to energy, insurance and internet.
Yet banking answered only 83.8% of assessed calls within ten minutes, the lowest of the seven sectors. A new customer ready to move their home loan is the caller most likely to be left waiting.
Phone menus are still deep in places. Callers worked through 2.0 menu layers on average, and 3.2 in car insurance, the deepest of any sector.
See Phone Customer Service Training for the skills behind a strong opening.
Go deeper
📚 Read the Q3 2026 Sector Reports
This report is the national view. Each sector report goes deeper, with its leaderboard, a scorecard of every headline measure, the CX Quadrant and what moved for a selection of organisations.
