As well as the Call Centre Ranking results below, ACXPA Members also have access to a range of additional insights, including all the monthly reports, trend data, additional performance metrics, a downloadable spreadsheet and lots more!
Councils August 2023 Mystery Shopping Results
August 2023 was the first month we commenced the Mystery Shopping of Australian Councils with six councils chosen to commence with.
Key observations from the data:
- Average wait times for councils was 5:25 minutes, the longest wait times of all sectors measured across the industry.
- Brisbane City has the lowest wait times (0:22 minutes) with City of Stirling (WA) the longest at 11:22 minutes, followed by City of Casey (Vic) with 10:14 minutes.
- 11% of calls made to councils were not answered after exceeding the 15-minute wait threshold, with City of Casey (Vic) and City of Stirling (WA) only answering 67% of calls made within the 15-minute threshold.
- Quality across all councils assessed was rated as ‘Below Expectations’ with the lead performers City of Onkaparinga (SA) the lead performer (83.8%) with City of Casey (33.8%) and Monash City (31.3%) the two lowest rated performers.
- The ‘Engage’ competency was rated the poorest of the five quality competencies at 31.3% with ‘Energy’ rated the highest at 78.1%.
- 66% of councils had no IVR making it easier for customers to connect to a live agent, with City of Stirling the only council assessed to have two layers of options.
- City of Casey, although only having one IVR layer, took the longest on average to navigate (0:53 minutes).
Councils August 2023 Key Results
The summary data for the last month Australian Councils call centre performance is below.
Overall Ranking
Average Score
Council Average
Australia
#1 Ranked Call Centre
City of Onkaparinga
(SA)
Lowest Ranked Call Centre
City of Casey
(Vic)
Quality Score
Average Score
Council Average
Australia
Highest Score
City of Onkaparinga
(SA)
Lowest Score
Monash City
(Vic)
Quality Summary August 2023
The quality of the customer interactions across all Councils assessed was rated as ‘Below Expectations’ with a score of 55.8%.
- The lead performer for quality was City of Onkaparinga (83.8%) with Monash City Victoria (31.3%) and City of Casey Victoria (33.8%) rated the lowest.
- Key Results across all quality metrics:
- Engage (31.3%) – The lead performer was City of Onkaparinga (SA) (58.3%), and the lowest rated was Monash City (Vic) (0%).
- Discover (68.8%) – The lead performer was City of Onkaparinga (SA) (100%), and the lowest rated was was Monash City (Vic) (33.3%)
- Educate (53.1%) – The lead performer was City of Stirling (87.5%), and the lowest rated was Monash City (Vic) (25.0%)
- Close (47.6%) – The lead performer was City of Onkaparinga (SA) (100%), and the lowest rated was City of Casey (Vic) (16.7%)
- Energy (78.1%) – The lead performer was Brisbane City (QLD) and City of Stirling (WA) (100%), and the lowest rated was City of Casey (Vic) (25.0%)
Accessibility Score
Average Score
Council Average
Australia
Highest Score
City of Onkaparinga
(SA)
Lowest Score
City of Stirling
(WA)
Accessibility Summary August 2023
- Councils were rated as ‘Meets Expectations’ for accessibility (70.4%) with City of Onkaparinga (SA) the highest rated (95.7%) through to City of Stirling WA (37.5%) and City of Casey Vic (37.7%) the most difficult to access.
- The average wait time to connect to councils was 05:25 minutes, the highest of all sectors measured with Brisbane City Council being the quickest to answer (0:22 minutes) and City of Stirling the longest at 11:22 minutes.
- Three councils had no IVR making it easier for customers to connect directly to an agent – Brisbane City, City of Onkaparinga and Monash City.
- Two councils failed to answer 33% of calls within the 15-minute cut-off threshold, City of Casey (Vic) and City of Stirling (WA).
Average Wait Time
Average Wait Time
Council Average
Australia
Shortest Wait Time
City of Onkaparinga
(SA)
Longest Wait Time*
City of Stirling
(WA)
Average Wait Time Summary August 2023
- Councils took the longest to answer across all sectors that we tested with an average wait of 05:25 minutes.
- The quickest to answer was City of Onkaparinga (0:04 minutes) whilst the longest wait times were City of Casey (10:14 minutes) and City of Stirling (11:22 minutes).
*We disconnect calls that go beyond a 15-minute wait time, so the actual wait times may be longer. ACXPA Members can see the percentage of calls not answered/exceeding the threshold in the members-only exclusive data.
Exclusive Members-only Insights
How to get your Council included
If you’d like to gain insights specifically for your Council’s contact centre performance, and benchmark your results against other councils either in the same state or across Australia, we’ve got a new, cost-effective, fixed-price benchmarking service that makes it easy!
Starting from just $1,297 per month, by signing up for our Contact Centre CX Benchmarking Service, you’ll receive the following:
- At least six Mystery Shopping calls into your call centre each month at random times and days.
- At least six Mystery Shopping calls each into five other Councils that YOU nominate (either the same state or National) plus the data from all the other councils who have signed up for the service.
- All Mystery Shopping calls are comprehensively assessed including:
- A Quality Insights Score (QIS) – the experience measuring the experience of interactions with a contact centre agent using five core competencies and 18 call-handling behaviours.
- A Contact Centre Accessibility Score (CCAS) – measuring the experience of connecting to a live contact centre agent across five competencies and 30 elements including IVR navigation times, wait times, IVR performance etc.
- The overall performance score – ACXPA Contact Centre Insights score (ACCIS).
- For your own six calls, you’ll receive additional insights, including the employee’s name (where provided), the quality assessor’s notes about each call and the call recording.
- Monthly data report to track your progress, and the call recordings and scores for each call made to your business
- 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 (conducted live via Zoom) that can provide additional insights and guidance.
What type of scenarios do we use to conduct the Mystery Shopping calls?
We use enquiries that are general in nature that don’t require us to disclose personal information.
How does the scoring work?
You can learn more about the framework we use here >
How many calls are assessed?
For the public monthly report, we include at least three calls per council – as more councils sign up for the service, more calls will be included.
When you sign up for the Benchmarking service, you will receive a minimum of six calls for every council included. If you’d rather have a larger sample size, please refer to our customised Benchmarking service >
How can we improve our score?
Our Mystery Shopping program has been designed to provide Councils with the insights they need to improve performance! You’ll receive detailed information on your performance against over 48 individual elements so you know exactly where to focus, and we also include a quarterly report that provides you with personalised key recommendations on areas to focus on.
We also offer a range of training courses that can help teach your frontline employees the skills they need to deliver great customer service (Customer Service Phone ‘Essentials‘ & ‘Professional‘), as well as training courses for your Team Leaders/Managers so they know how to coach effectively using the Quality Framework to improve your performance (and scores!).
How do I get my contact centre included?
We have a fixed-price service starting from $1,297 per month that will provide you with information on your councils, as well as a benchmark of your performance against a minimum of five other councils that you can nominate. Learn more >
How do I order the service?
We have an online ordering form that makes it easy to order the service, nominate the councils you’d like to benchmark against, who you’d like the reports to be sent to etc. View the online order form >
How do I access the data for councils?
ACXPA Business Members get full access to the summary monthly data for councils (and other sectors) along with a host of other benefits. An ACXPA Business Membership starts from just $497 per year and includes five individual memberships you can allocate to key employees who could benefit from gaining access to leading industry insights for contact centres, customer experience (CX), digital service, and in-person customer service.
If you sign your council up to the Contact Centre CX Benchmarking Service, you will gain access to ALL data.
Is there someone I can speak to to learn more?
Absolutely! If you’d like to speak to someone further about the Benchmarking Service, please get in touch with our General Manager of Quality Insights, Simon Blair – 0407 002 113 or [email protected]
What type of scenarios do we use to conduct the Mystery Shopping calls?
We use general enquiries that don’t require us to disclose personal information. Questions about bins, upcoming events, rates etc.
Do councils really care about the service they provide?
We’d really like to say yes! But sometimes whether it’s through a lack of resources or skills, the customer experience that is delivered is well below expectations.
When Councils focus on delivering a better customer experience, not only is it good for you, it actually makes them more efficient meaning they can invest in more services for you.
How do I get my Council included?
We encourage you to contact your local Mayor and ask them to ensure your Council is included. Just send them a link to this page!
Why does ACXPA publish results each month?
Our mission is to improve the level of customer experience in Australia so by publishing the results monthly, we’ll continue to ensure that councils are accountable for the level of customer service they are providing to their ratepayers.
What type of services does ACXPA offer?
In addition to the Mystery Shopping CX Benchmarking, we offer a range of services and resources for people working in contact centres, customer experience (CX), digital service and in-person customer service/retail. You can learn more about us here >
