65.4% 64.2% 63.6% 30.0%Data accurate as of August 2026
Know exactly how your council contact centre performs — measured independently.
We mystery-shop councils on real resident general enquiries and service requests and score every call against the national Contact Centre CX Standards — plus any of your own service, compliance or customer-charter metrics.
No surveys, no self-reported data — just a clear, defensible picture of how you compare, and where to improve.
Councils are already using ACXPA to benchmark performance, lift efficiency and improve the customer experience.
Why benchmarking matters for local councils
In local government, contact centres do far more than answer phones — they shape community perception, resolve resident enquiries and support critical services like waste, rates, planning and permits. If residents can’t reach help quickly, or receive inconsistent answers, trust and satisfaction suffer.
ACXPA benchmarking shows what residents actually experience on real calls, and where improvement will have the biggest impact — using independent scoring councils can rely on for transparency and accountability.
Our public mystery shopping focuses on general enquiries and service requests, so results are comparable across councils. Private programs can include rates, waste, planning, compliance, accessibility or customer-care evaluations.
With community expectations rising and budgets under pressure, defensible, independent data is the fastest way to show where service is strong, where to focus, and that ratepayer funds are being well used.
See where councils rank right now
Every quarter we mystery-shop the sector on real resident enquiries and publish the results against the national Contact Centre CX Standards. It updates itself, so it’s always the current picture.
Rankings reflect independent ACXPA mystery-shopping assessments scored against the national Contact Centre CX Standards. Councils shown are selected by ACXPA for public sector benchmarking — inclusion does not imply they are ACXPA clients or members, or that they endorse ACXPA.
48+ metrics behind every CX score — plus your own
Every call is scored against the Australian Contact Centre CX Standards. You can also add your own metrics, KPIs or compliance checks — ID verification, disclaimers, plan accuracy — so the report reflects what matters to you.
Accessibility
How easily a resident can find you and reach a real person — menus, messages, queue and speed to answer.
Agent Mastery
How skilfully the agent engaged, uncovered the need, explained the process clearly and closed the call.
Experience deductions
Penalties for the frustrations that lose customers — long waits, dropped calls and being passed around.
Benchmarking for councils — from a free ranking to a full program
Whether you want a quick independent read, a head-to-head against comparable councils, or a private program with your own metrics — there’s an option to suit.
Council Call Centre Rankings
See how selected councils perform each quarter in our public leaderboard, scored against the national CX Standards.
Sector Insights
ACXPA members get high-level council sector CX insights and sample results from a selection of councils.
Monthly Snapshot
Your own contact centre mystery-shopped and scored every month against the council sector average.
Peer & Competitor Benchmarking
A done-for-you program: we mystery-shop you and up to 10 councils you nominate, every month.
Private Benchmarking
The same scoring against your own centre only, with the option to add your own compliance checks and KPIs.
Call Quality Assessments
Agent-level scoring of your own call recordings against the CX Standards — independent QA for coaching.
Every council call centre benchmarking service, side by side
Whether you want a monthly check on your own centre, a head-to-head against comparable councils, or a private program on your own terms — here’s how our council call centre benchmarking services compare, all scored against the same national CX Standards.
Swipe to compare →
| Feature | Monthly Snapshot | Most popularPeer & Competitor | Private Benchmarking | Call Quality Assessments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| From | $397/mo | $750/motrial from $697 | $943/mo | $632/mo |
| Your own Contact Centre CX score | ||||
| Compared to the council sector average | ||||
| Compared to named competitors | 3–10 | |||
| Metrics assessed on every call | 23 | 48+ | 48+ | 48+ |
| Accessibility (IVR, wait time, answer rate) | ||||
| Agent soft skills & behaviours | 5 competencies | 5 competencies & 18 behaviours | 5 competencies & 18 behaviours | 5 competencies & 18 behaviours |
| How calls are captured | Mystery shop | Mystery shop | Mystery shop | Your recordings |
| Add your own criteria / compliance | Optional | |||
| Confidential — never published | Optional | |||
| Get started | Get the Snapshot | Start with a trial | Explore private | Explore QA |
Reporting you can actually act on
No dashboards to decode. Your results and the raw evidence behind every score arrive each month; trend analysis and recommendations come with your quarterly report — the depth scales with the service you choose.
Every month — your data
The call recordings, your scores across 48+ metrics, and evaluator notes as results come in.
Every quarter — your report
A full benchmarking report: trend analysis, council sector rankings and practical recommendations.
Expert-led workshops
Optional live sessions where our team walks your leaders through the results and what to improve.
See a sample monthly report
A colour-coded, executive-ready snapshot of your scores against the council sector average. Illustrative sample only — all data is fictional.
See the full 23-metric sample report+
| Metric | Sector avg (last 3 mo) | Sector avg (this mo) | Trend | Your result | Rank | vs sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | ||||||
| Overall CX Score | 54.3% | 60.6% | +6.3% | 78.1% | 1 | +17.5% |
| Accessibility — how easily customers reach a live agent | ||||||
| Accessibility Ranking | 67.7% | 67.8% | +0.1% | 94.3% | 1 | +26.5% |
| Search | 100.0% | 71.4% | -28.6% | 100.0% | 1 | +28.6% |
| Design | 66.7% | 70.7% | +4.0% | 83.3% | 2 | +12.6% |
| Ease | 89.3% | 85.7% | -3.6% | 100.0% | 1 | +14.3% |
| Audio | 80.8% | 65.7% | -15.1% | 100.0% | 1 | +34.3% |
| Timing | 73.4% | 81.6% | +8.2% | 92.9% | 1 | +11.3% |
| Key accessibility metrics | ||||||
| Calls Answered % | 94.2% | 97.6% | +3.4% | 100.0% | 1 | +2.4% |
| Menu Navigation Time | 00:30 | 00:35 | +00:05 | 00:26 | 3 | -00:09 |
| Total Message Time | 00:35 | 00:33 | -00:02 | 00:24 | 4 | -00:09 |
| Total Time Spent in Menu | 01:05 | 01:09 | +00:04 | 00:51 | 4 | -00:18 |
| Average Wait Time | 01:40 | 00:50 | -00:50 | 00:04 | 2 | -00:46 |
| Total Time to Reach Live Person | 02:44 | 01:59 | -00:45 | 00:55 | 2 | -01:04 |
| Talk Time | 05:04 | 07:21 | +02:17 | 08:27 | 5 | +01:06 |
| Total Experience Time | 07:53 | 09:20 | +01:27 | 09:22 | 4 | +00:02 |
| Menu Navigation Layers | 2.0 | 2.7 | +0.7 | 2.0 | 2 | -0.7 |
| % of Calls with Access Deductions | 22.0% | 33.3% | +11.3% | 0.0% | 2 | 33.3% fewer |
| Agent Mastery — skill across five competencies | ||||||
| Agent Mastery Ranking | 54.3% | 60.6% | +7.3% | 71.2% | 1 | +13.7% |
| Engage | 32.6% | 44.6% | +12.0% | 54.2% | 2 | +9.6% |
| Discover | 46.7% | 45.9% | -0.8% | 77.8% | 1 | +31.9% |
| Educate | 59.8% | 75.0% | +15.2% | 79.2% | 1 | +4.2% |
| Close | 53.7% | 66.8% | +13.1% | 83.3% | 1 | +16.5% |
| Impact | 60.0% | 60.4% | +0.4% | 62.5% | 1 | +2.1% |
From insights to improvement
Benchmarking shows you where you stand. An ACXPA membership is how your whole team closes the gaps — plugging into Australia’s biggest library of contact centre training, tools and live expertise, across every domain your centre touches.
Training that builds mastery
Targeted CX Skills courses in sales, service and contact centre management. Members save 25% on live training.
65+ tools & resources
Australia’s leading collection of calculators, templates and cheat sheets you can put to work today.
50+ hrs of live expert sessions
Every year — unscripted roundtables and Member Bytes with practitioners, plus the full searchable archive.
Eight specialist hubs
Customer Service, Call Centre, CX, WFM, Complaints, Coaching, Training and Benchmarking — a home for every part of your operation.
Not a member yet? Plenty is free to use right now:
Built and run by people who’ve actually run contact centres
ACXPA is the industry association behind the Australian Contact Centre CX Standards. Our benchmarking is designed and delivered by practitioners who’ve spent their careers running and improving contact centres — not stats graduates scoring calls from a spreadsheet.
Every call is assessed by an experienced human assessor who knows what good actually sounds like on the phones.
See exactly where your council contact centre stands
Start with a low-risk trial, get your monthly snapshot, or talk it through with us first.
