Australian Councils Q4 2024 Call Centre Rankings

1. Overall CX Scores

Council Sector Trends

The Overall CX Scores reflect a composite measure of customer experience, combining key metrics such as Accessibility, Agent Mastery, Average Wait Times, and Calls Answered. These scores provide a holistic view of how well councils are meeting customer expectations, particularly for general enquiries about council services.

• The sector-wide Overall CX ranking for Q4 2024 was 59.8%, marking the third consecutive quarterly decline, down 0.2% from Q3 2024.
• This decline is primarily driven by falling Agent Mastery scores, which have now decreased for four consecutive quarters.
• Individual council scores showed moderate variation, ranging from 55.4% (City of Casey) to 65.0% (City of Onkaparinga)—a 10-point spread reflecting consistent but moderate performance across the sector.
• With the highest council score reaching only 65%, there is significant room for improvement in delivering best-practice customer experiences. This is further underscored by the sector’s third-place ranking among the seven industries measured, trailing Education Providers (64.5%) and Energy Retailers (60.1%).

Council-Specific Results

• City of Onkaparinga topped the sector for the second consecutive quarter, achieving an Overall CX score of 65.0%, with Brisbane City Council close behind at 64.1%.
• City of Casey ranked last for the sixth consecutive quarter, with a score of 55.4%. However, this represents their best result to date and their third consecutive quarter of improvement, placing them just behind Monash City (56.2%).
• Notably, City of Casey achieved the largest improvement, increasing 6.8% from Q3 to Q4, reflecting a positive trend despite continued challenges.

Key Insights and Opportunities

With accessibility metrics improving across the sector, the focus must now shift towards enhancing agent soft skills, particularly through targeted training and coaching. Strengthening these competencies will not only improve overall customer satisfaction but also drive greater operational efficiency, benefiting both councils and their communities.

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2. Accessibility Rankings

Council Sector Trends

Accessibility Ranking measures how easy it is for customers to connect with a live contact centre agent, accounting for factors like queue times, IVR efficiency, and system clarity. This metric is critical as it directly impacts the customer experience for those seeking to engage with their local council.

• The council sector achieved an average Accessibility Ranking of 78.7% in Q4 2024, marking the third consecutive quarter of improvement and the best result to date, reflecting progress in reducing barriers for customers seeking live assistance.
• Despite this progress, the council sector ranked third out of six industries measured. Car insurance providers recorded the lowest score at 50.9%, while the Education sector led with an impressive 90.4%. This highlights that, even with improvement, councils remain behind industry best practices for ensuring easy access to live agents.
• Accessibility scores within the council sector varied widely, from 56.7% (City of Casey) to 88.0% (Monash City), illustrating a stark contrast in customer experiences and highlighting inconsistencies in how councils prioritise live access to customer service employees.

Council-Specific Results

• Monash City led the sector for the second consecutive quarter with an Accessibility Ranking of 88.0%, although this was down from the previous quarter’s result of 96.9%.
• City of Casey recorded the lowest Accessibility Ranking for the fifth consecutive quarter at 56.7%. However, this is their best result to date since benchmarking commenced in August 2023 and a significant improvement from Q1 2024, when they scored just 0.6%.
• The significant gap between top and bottom performers underscores the need for underperforming councils to prioritise improvements in IVR design, reduce queue times, and increase agent availability to minimise customer friction.

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3. Agent Mastery Scores

Council Sector Trends

Agent Mastery measures the soft skills and effectiveness of contact centre agents across five core competencies: ENGAGE, DISCOVER, EDUCATE, CLOSE, and ENERGY.

These skills are crucial for delivering a high-quality customer experience, where agents must establish trust, understand customer needs, and provide clear, actionable advice to local residents. 

•The council sector recorded an average Agent Mastery score of 52.8% in Q4 2024, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of decline and the lowest score to date for the sector.

•Despite the drop, councils still placed second among all industry sectors, behind Energy Retailers (54.3%), highlighting the widespread challenges in delivering high-quality customer service across the call centre industry.

• Performance varied significantly, ranging from a low of 42.5% (Monash City Council) to a high of 57.9% (City of Stirling), underscoring the inconsistency in agent performance across councils.

Competency Breakdown

Across the five Agent Mastery competencies, all areas experienced declines, suggesting systemic challenges in training and coaching agents in soft skills.

• ENGAGE: Decreased for the fifth consecutive quarter, falling to 15.5%, the lowest ever recorded for any sector since benchmarking began. This highlights significant concerns regarding agents’ ability to create a strong first impression, build trust, demonstrate ownership, personalise interactions, and set the stage for a successful conversation.

• CLOSE: Experienced the sharpest decline, dropping 7.4% from Q3 to Q4, with agents struggling to conclude interactions effectively, perform a final check, express gratitude, and leave a lasting positive impression.

• EDUCATE: Declined by 1.8% to 73.4%, though this remains a strong result and the highest score across all industry sectors, reflecting the call centre agents’ ability to provide clear and relevant information during interactions.

• ENERGY: Dropped 1.4% to 82.3%, yet councils continue to lead the industry in this area. Contact centre employees consistently maintained an empathetic tone while efficiently managing conversations, ensuring customers could achieve their goals with ease.

Council-Specific Results

• City of Stirling led the council sector in Q4 2024 with a score of 57.9%, making it the only council to lead in two quarters during 2024, having also topped the rankings in Q2 2024.

• Monash City Council recorded the lowest Agent Mastery score at 42.5%, the lowest-ever quarterly result for any council. Monash has ranked last for six consecutive quarters, indicating systemic issues in frontline agent training and coaching aligned with industry best practices.

• City of Launceston was the biggest improver, increasing 5.8% from Q3 to Q4, while the City of Frankston recorded the largest decline, dropping 8.4% over the same period.

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4. Calls Answered

Council Sector Trends

Calls Answered measures the percentage of calls answered by a live agent within 15 minutes of being placed in the queue. The majority of mystery shopping calls focus on general enquiries, such as rates, rubbish removal, and community services.

• The council sector achieved a 100% Calls Answered rate for the first time in Q4 2024, marking its highest performance to date. This achievement follows four consecutive quarters of improvement after reaching a record low of 80.0% in Q4 2023.

• Three sectors achieved a perfect 100% Calls Answered rate in Q4 2024: Councils, Education Providers, and Energy Retailers, demonstrating that this benchmark is not only attainable but increasingly becoming a standard across industries.

Council-Specific Results

• Brisbane City Council and the City of Onkaparinga remain the only councils to have consistently achieved 100% Calls Answered in every quarter since the program commenced in 2023.

• In a significant turnaround, the City of Casey achieved a perfect 100% in Q4 2024 for the first time, an impressive improvement from Q1 2024, when 0% of calls were answered within 15 minutes.

5. Average Wait Times

Council Sector Trends

• The council sector achieved an average wait time of 1:27 minutes in Q4 2024—the sector’s best result to date and a significant improvement from the peak of 4:25 minutes in Q4 2023.

• Comparatively, the longest sector average was 2:21 minutes (Banks), while Energy Retailers recorded the fastest average wait time at just 0:50 minutes.

• Wait times across the council sector varied widely, ranging from 0:20 minutes (City of Onkaparinga, SA) to 4:13 minutes (City of Casey, Vic), highlighting the disparity in customer experiences that can exist between councils.

Council-Specific Results

• City of Onkaparinga led the sector for the second time in 2024, first topping the rankings in Q1 with 0:28 minutes and ending the year in first place again in Q4 with an impressive 0:20 minutes average wait time.

• City of Casey recorded the longest average wait time at 4:13 minutes, marking their fifth consecutive quarter with the longest wait time among councils and the fourth longest across all contact centres. However, in a welcome improvement for local residents, this was their best quarterly result to date, significantly down from their Q1 2024 peak of over 15:00 minutes.