Executive Summary – Australian Councils Q1 2025
Introduction
The Q1 2025 results show signs of positive momentum across the council sector, with Agent Mastery improving for the first time in four quarters — placing councils second overall among all industry sectors. The City of Onkaparinga continues to lead the way in Overall CX, Monash City remains the benchmark for Accessibility, and the City of Casey reclaimed top spot for Agent Mastery, demonstrating the quality of service being delivered once callers reach a human.
However, key experience gaps remain — particularly at the start and end of interactions. Councils continue to rank last in both the Engage and Close competencies, with limited personalisation and low levels of expressed gratitude making many calls feel functional rather than customer-centric. And while councils like Casey are delivering strong service when engaged, Accessibility remains a barrier. In fact, one in three calls to Casey were not answered within 15 minutes in Q1, highlighting the need to better balance service quality with availability.
With community expectations rising, the path forward lies in combining the strengths already present in many frontline teams with improvements in timeliness, personalisation, and emotional connection — ensuring council services feel as human as they are helpful.
Top Performers
✅ Best Overall CX Performer – City of Onkaparinga, SA (65.7%)
The City of Onkaparinga continues to set the benchmark for council contact centres, leading the sector for the third consecutive quarter with a strong overall CX score.
📈 Top Accessibility Performer – Monash City, VIC (89.0%)
Monash City maintained its leadership in Accessibility for the third straight quarter, making it the easiest council for community members to reach a live agent. The gap, however, is narrowing — with Onkaparinga now just 0.6% behind.
⭐️ Best Agent Mastery – City of Casey, VIC (60.7%)
The City of Casey returned to the top spot for Agent Mastery, reclaiming the lead they last held in Q4 2023. Their score of 60.7% was narrowly ahead of last quarter’s leader, the City of Stirling, who scored 60.2%.
💡 Industry Insight:
After three consecutive quarters of decline, Agent Mastery rebounded in Q1 2025 — lifting 2.3 points to 55.1%, and placing councils 2nd among all seven sectors. A promising sign that service quality is regaining focus across local government.
Biggest CX Challenges
😶 Engagement Fails to Launch
The Engage competency – part of the Agent Mastery framework – assesses how well agents create a strong first impression by demonstrating ownership, building trust, and personalising the interaction. Councils have ranked last across all sectors for this critical behaviour for four consecutive quarters.
One major driver? The way customer names are used – or more accurately, how they’re not used meaningfully. With a sector average of just 1.6%, name usage often comes across as transactional rather than genuine, missing the opportunity to set the right tone. It’s a vital moment being wasted – and one that shapes the entire customer experience from the outset.
🙄 Missing the Moment to Close with Care
The Close competency is all about how a conversation ends — delivering a final check, showing appreciation, and leaving a lasting positive impression. Unfortunately, councils ranked last across all sectors for the behaviour of expressing gratitude, with just 19.0% of interactions acknowledging the caller’s time, patience, or engagement.
It suggests a persistent transactional mindset — as if answering the question ends the job. In the public service context, that might feel efficient. From the customer’s perspective? It feels cold.
📉 City of Casey: Great Conversations, If You Can Get One
Despite delivering the strongest results for Agent Mastery in Q1 2025, the City of Casey continues to struggle with basic access — ranking last for Accessibility for six consecutive quarters. A third of calls in Q1 were not answered within 15 minutes, suggesting long, frustrating delays for ratepayers simply trying to speak to someone.
Whether due to chronic resourcing gaps or a lack of urgency around timely service, the result is the same: a great conversation means little if callers can’t get through to have one.
🏆 Key Wins
⏱️ City of Onkaparinga: The Ones to Beat
The City of Onkaparinga has now led the sector for three consecutive quarters in Overall CX, driven by consistently strong performance in both Agent Mastery and Accessibility. They continue to set the benchmark for local government service delivery.
📞 Making It Easy
Councils ranked 3rd out of 7 sectors for Accessibility in Q1 2025, aided by streamlined caller journeys. Over 40% of councils assessed had no IVR at all, and those with menus typically offered a minimal number of options — making it easier for community members to reach a human quickly.
📈 Impact Where It Counts
While overall performance in the Impact competency has declined across the broader industry for four consecutive quarters, councils continue to lead in three of the four core behaviours — Vibrancy, Clarity, and Control. These behaviours form the emotional engine room of great service, where tone, empathy, and communication combine to turn functional calls into memorable experiences. When callers do get through, many council teams are getting the most important parts right.
Recognising Call Centre Excellence for Australian Councils
Congratulations to the top-performing Australian Councils delivering standout customer experiences via their call centre 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 ratepayers.
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.
65.7%
62.5%
62.1%
38.5%Quarterly Trend
Overall CX
Australian Councils
The Overall CX Score is the most important metric in our benchmarking program – a single, weighted score that reflects how easy it is for customers to reach a contact centre and the quality of the experience once connected.
As the defining measure of customer experience, the Overall CX Score blends Accessibility (30%) and Agent Mastery (70%) to reflect both access and impact – with a greater emphasis on the agent’s role in shaping outcomes. Penalties are applied for major breakdowns to ensure a true picture of performance from the customer’s perspective.
Key Metrics Trend – Australian Councils (12-Month View)
The chart below highlights a 12-month trend across three core CX performance metrics for Australian Councils:
- 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 well Australian councils are delivering end-to-end service during key public interactions.
Accessibility
This measures how easily and quickly community members can reach a real person. It includes navigating phone menus, clarity of options, queue times, and whether callers successfully speak with a representative. Higher scores reflect smoother, more ratepayer-friendly access experiences.
Agent Mastery
This evaluates the quality and professionalism of frontline service. It includes how well council contact centre agents greet, listen, and respond to public enquiries – from rates and rubbish to local events – with empathy, clarity, and accuracy. It’s a direct measure of agent capability during important service conversations.
Learn more about the Australian Contact Centre CX Standards that power these assessments.
Call Centre CX Quadrant – Australian Councils Q1 2025
This Call Centre CX Quadrant illustrates how well a selection of Australian Councils 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 councils 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 menu navigation before help is even reached.
The top-right quadrant represents CX best practice – councils that make it both easy to get help and deliver high-quality conversations once the conversation begins. 📊⚡️
