Australian Banks Q1 2024 Call Centre Rankings
Introduction
In August 2023, we commenced mystery shopping calls to a minimum of six different Banks across Australia to assess the performance of their call centre to provide Voice of Customer (VoC) insights into the performance of the call centre channel for consumers and add additional value for ACXPA Members who are seeking regular, independent industry benchmarking data based on real calls, not self-reported information..
We pose as real customers and assess the Accessibility (how easy it was to connect to a live agent) and the Agent Mastery that measures the quality of the interaction using over 80 different performance metrics as defined in the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards.
As the majority of Banks require existing customers to provide account information prior to connecting to a live agent for enquiries, all the scenarios we tested were posing as new customers searching for credit cards, home loans, term deposits etc, that can be considered new business opportunities for the Banks.
Existing customers may have different experiences, as they are often treated with a different priority and handled by completely different teams.
Banking sector data is published monthly for ACXPA Members, and we publicly release a quarterly report (like this) containing average sector information, executive commentary and a small sample of the individual results for three random Banks.
Banks that purchase our Contact Centre CX Benchmarking reports receive the data for all 80 metrics for their contact centre each month, call recordings, assessors notes, trend data and benchmarking data for any five competitors they nominate. Learn more >
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Q1 2024
Of the six business sectors we currently assess (Banks, Car Insurance, Councils, Energy Retailers, Internet Retailers, and TAFEs), Banks were the lowest-ranked overall sector for Q1 2024 with a score of 43.0%, primarily due to difficulties getting through to a live agent.
When we were able to navigate our way through the extensive menu options and wait times, the quality of the Agent Mastery was ranked 4th (of 6).
- The Overall CX ranking score for Banks in Q1 2024 was 43.0%, the lowest of all sectors. Scores for each bank ranged from 32.2% (Bendigo Bank) to 64.1% (NAB), with NAB being the top-rated bank for the past five consecutive months.
- Accessibility rankings for the sector were 44.2%, with scores ranging from 32.3% (CBA) to 68.6% (NAB). The Banking sector has been ranked the worst of all sectors every single month since records commenced in August 2023 (For comparison, the highest sector for Q1 2024 for Access was Internet Providers, with 81.8%).
- Agent Mastery scores for the sector were 57.5%, with scores ranging from 43.6% (Westpac) to 71.1% (ANZ).
ACCESSIBILITY RESULTS Q1 2024
Accessibility scores (how easy it was to get through to a live person) across the Australian banking sector have continued to be rated as ‘Poor’, coming in last of all sectors for the previous seven months since we commenced the surveys.
- For Q1 2024, the Commonwealth Bank was the most difficult to get through a live agent with a ranking of 32.3%, with NAB the easiest at 68.6%.
- Across the banking sector, 35.2% of calls we made were not answered in Q1 2024 within our 10-minute threshold, which, despite the poor result, is the Bank’s best result to date. Only one bank, NAB, has answered 100% of the mystery shopping calls we have conducted since August 2023. Conversely, Bendigo Bank failed to answer 55.6% of our mystery shopping calls in Q1 2024, and they have consistently had the lowest result since records commenced, suggesting systemic issues with matching resources to demand.
- Average wait times across all Banks decreased to their best-ever result in Q1 2024 with an average wait time of 03:40 minutes, a decrease of 00:43 minutes from the Q4 2023 results.
- Westpac’s average wait time for Q1 2024 was just 00:04 minutes, marking the sixth consecutive month of being the quickest to answer calls of all banks.
- Bendigo Bank had the longest wait times (06:29 minutes), followed by ING (05:28 minutes).
- All Banks had a minimum of two IVR layers (press one for this, two for that) ranging from 2.3 layers (Bendigo Bank) to 4.7 layers (Commonwealth Bank).
- In addition to making menu selections, customers were forced to listen to recording messaging ranging from 00:24 minutes (Bendigo Bank) to 01:39 minutes (CBA).
- 50% of the Banks are now using a combination of push button and speech recognition technology to help customers navigate the menu options.
- Westpac and CBA were the most prominent in encouraging people waiting in the queue to speak to a live agent to hang up and shift their enquiry to online.
- Westpac disconnected 33% of our calls in Q1 2024 as there was no option to cater to our enquiry type. Rather than providing an option to still talk to someone, the call was simply disconnected.
- Talk time averaged 05:38 minutes across all banks, ranging from 03:29 minutes (Bendigo Bank) to 08:05 minutes (ANZ).
AGENT MASTERY RESULTS Q1 2024
The Quality of customer service measured via the Agent Mastery across the Banking sector was rated ‘Below Standard’ with a score of 57.5%, ranging from 43.6% (Westpac) to 71.1% (ANZ).
- Of the five Agent Mastery competencies we assessed using the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, the ‘Engage’ competency was the lowest rated at just 25.0%. Banks continually fail to build rapport with customers, take ownership, and provide a personalised experience. Scores ranged from 12.5% (ING & Westpac) to 41.7% (NAB).
- The ‘Educate’ competency was the highest rated with a score of 75.5% ranging from 50.5% (Westpac) to 83.3% (ANZ, CBA and ING).
- Using the customer’s name during the conversation, one of the four ‘Engage’ behaviours we assess, was ranked at just 16.7% for the Banking sector, with ANZ, Bendigo Bank and CBA all scoring 0% for Q1 2024.
- ‘Empathy’, one of the four ‘Energy’ behaviours we assess, was rated at 79.6%, down from 89.8% in Q4 2023. Scores in Q1 2024 ranged from 66.7% (ANZ & Westpac) to CBA (100%).
- There were no major audio issues observed in Q1 2024 across any of the Banks, however, CBA had distracting audio on 33% of their calls.
Australian Call Centre Quality Rankings:
POOR
(<45%)
BELOW STANDARD
(45% to 60%)
MEETS STANDARDS
(61% to 75%)
EXCEEDS STANDARD
(76% to 90%)
OUTSTANDING
(>91%)
OVERALL RANKINGS – Q1 2024, AUSTRALIAN BANKS
*The Overall Rankings are determined by the Access Score and Quality Score, with a higher weighting applied to the quality of the call. Deductions/penalties are applied for metrics that impact the customer’s experience, such as technical glitches, audio quality, and a failure to answer calls within our 10-minute threshold.
ACCESS SCORES – Q1 2024, AUSTRALIAN BANKS
The Call Centre Accessibility Rankings rate how easy it was for customers wanting to speak to a live person to discuss their banking requirements.
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 (i.e. press 1 for this, 2 for that), messaging times, hold music, audio quality and lots more.
Mystery Shopping calls to Banks are terminated if wait times exceed 10:00 minutes.
QUALITY SCORES – Q1 2024, AUSTRALIAN BANKS
Whilst average wait times are typically longer for the banks than other industry sectors, it’s still what happens during the call that can have a large influence on the satisfaction of the customer.
Recent CX Statistics continue to highlight the importance of the live interaction with a customer service employee, and the preference to speak to a live agent rather than an automated chatbot/AI etc.
The Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards have been developed and refined over 30 years to measure Agent Mastery, and when businesses consistently achieve high ratings in these core competencies, there is a direct correlation to improved business metrics however you measure them – Sales Conversions, NPS, Customer Effort Score, improved efficiency, reduced AHT etc.
The standards apply to all contact centres and are adapted to customer service or sales calls.
Quality of the Agent Mastery 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.
Learn more about the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards >
DEDUCTIONS – Q1 2024, AUSTRALIAN BANKS
Deductions are applied to the overall scores if there are moments that can negatively impact the customer experience, including excessive queue messages, technical glitches, menu navigation challenges, audio distractions, etc.
A low score (i.e. 0.0%) means there were no deductions applied.
LIFETIME AVERAGES – AUSTRALIAN BANKS
The lifetime averages for six metrics, displaying the top three Banks, the Bank with the lowest score, and the lifetime sector average.
ACXPA MEMBERS QUARTERLY REPORT DOWNLOAD ⬇️
Download a quarterly report that contains sector averages for 40 metrics plus the averages for 23 individual metrics for three random Banks each quarter.
Purchase exclusive insights for your Bank
If you’d like to gain Voice of Customer (Voc) insights specifically for your contact centre and benchmark your results against other Banks, we offer a cost-effective, fixed-price benchmarking service that makes it easy!
Starting from just $1,297 per month, by purchasing our Banking CX Benchmarking Service, you’ll receive the following:
- Six Mystery Shopping calls into your call centre each month at random times and days where you’ll receive the full assessment against 48 metrics, our quality assessor’s notes, the employee’s name (where provided) and the full call recordings.
- Benchmarking data for any five banks you nominate, so you can benchmark your performance against other Banks that matter the most to you.
- Banking sector average data from all the other Banks we assess, providing you with sector-wide results to further compare your results to.
- 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.
