🏆 Australian Call Centre Rankings · Q3 2026
Australian Councils Q3 2026 Call Centre Rankings
Nobody chooses their council. A resident with a question about a rates notice, a missed bin or a planning permit has one number to ring, which makes that call the clearest measure of how a council treats the people who fund it.
We mystery shop Australia's councils as residents making everyday general enquiries, and score every call against 48+ CX metrics aligned to the ACXPA Contact Centre CX Standards. Nobody is told when we are calling.
Overall CX
The headline score: getting through and the conversation, combined
60.2%
▲ 4.4 pts on Q2 · highest since Q3 2025
Accessibility
How easily callers reached a real person
66.6%
▲ 0.1 pts on Q2
Agent Mastery
How well agents handled the conversation
57.4%
▲ 3.4 pts on Q2
National ranking
Councils' Overall CX against the other sectors we benchmark
4th
of 7 sectors · all-industry 59.0%
The quarter in one line: councils explain things better than any sector we benchmark and open the call worse than any, while a few still make residents wait too long to get through.
Recognising Call Centre Excellence for Australian Councils
Congratulations to Whitehorse City, which leads Australian councils this quarter with the highest Overall CX and Accessibility in the sector.
For a resident, a good council call is quick to reach and leaves them clear on what to do next. The councils at the top of this table answer quickly and explain things clearly.
68.8%
68.7%
66.2%
47.6%Australian Call Centre Rankings · Q3 2026
Contact Centre CX Quadrant
Australian Councils · Everyday resident enquiries
68.8%Access 87.5%Mastery 60.7%
68.7%Access 83.3%Mastery 62.5%
66.2%Access 76.0%Mastery 62.0%
53.8%Access 75.3%Mastery 44.7%
51.4%Access 56.5%Mastery 49.3%
47.6%Access 17.4%Mastery 60.6%
How quickly and easily a caller gets through to a real person: phone menus, recorded messages, wait time, and whether the call is answered at all.
How well the agent handles the call once answered: understanding what the caller needs, explaining options clearly, and checking the caller is ready to proceed.
Easy to reach and a strong conversation. Councils in the Best Practice corner score 80%+ on both.
Shows a selection of the councils ACXPA benchmarks, not every council in the sector. Scores are the quarter average of independent mystery shopping calls, rated against the ACXPA Contact Centre CX Standards.
Australian Councils · Q3 2026
The Quarter in Review
Australian councils averaged 60.2% Overall CX in Q3, up 4.4 points on Q2 and the sector’s highest result since Q3 2025.
More calls got through. 98.6% of assessed calls were answered within 15 minutes, up from 92.1% in Q2. Agent Mastery rose 3.4 points to 57.4%, while Accessibility held at 66.6%.
Whitehorse City led at 68.8%, just 0.1 points ahead of Maroondah City, with City of Onkaparinga third. City of Launceston posted the largest gain in the sector, up 11.3 points to 51.4%.
At the bottom, City of Casey finished lowest at 47.6%, held back by an Accessibility score of 17.4%. Its conversation scored 60.6%, above the sector average.
📊 How councils compare nationally · Overall CX, Q3 2026
Councils ranked fourth of the seven sectors, 1.2 points above the all-industry average of 59.0%.
They lead every sector on Educate (73.3%), giving residents relevant, clearly explained information, and on Impact (92.1%, a record for councils), which covers tone, empathy, control of the call and plain-language clarity. But they score lowest of any sector on Engage (20.5%), the opening of the call, as they did in Q2.
Every headline measure at a glance
📊 Q3 2026 Scorecard – Australian Councils
The sector average for each measure, how it moved since Q2, and the best and weakest council results this quarter.
Brisbane City
City of Boroondara
City of Greater Geelong
Knox City
Mornington PeninsulaQ3 2026 is the average of July, August and September. Hover over or tap a measure to see what it covers. Average wait and time to reach a person include unanswered calls, counted up to the time limit. Councils are allowed 15 minutes to answer, as a council enquiry is rarely as time-critical as a sales call. Green is better, red is worse.
Where would your council sit in this table? Council Benchmarking scores your own customer service line on every one of these measures, alongside the peer councils you choose. Plans start from $397 a month.
Add your council's columnThe stories behind the numbers
🏛️ Council by Council – What Moved in Q3
Where the sector is losing ground
🚪 Where Councils Still Keep Residents Waiting
The phone menu isn’t the problem for councils. The queue is.
How long it takes to reach a person, split into navigating the phone menu, listening to recorded messages, and waiting for an agent:
Includes unanswered calls, counted up to the time limit. Totals can differ from the parts by a second because each figure is averaged separately.
Most of the time to reach a person is spent in the queue. On the average call, residents waited 1:32 for an agent, against 0:21 in the menu and 0:34 of messages. Councils use fewer menu layers than any other sector we benchmark (1.1 on average).
The opening of the call is the weakest part of the conversation. Engage averaged 20.5%, the lowest of any sector we benchmark. Brisbane City, the fastest council to reach, scored 2.8%.
It is the moment a resident decides whether they have been heard, and the cheapest part of the call to get right. See Public Sector Customer Service Training for the Welcome, Intent, Name and Bridge steps that make up a strong opening.
Sector Trends – Australian Councils (12-Month View)
How the sector’s three headline scores have moved over the last four quarters. Each bar is the average for Australian councils in that quarter.
