2024 Australian Banks Call Centre Rankings

What type of scenarios do we use to conduct the Mystery Shopping calls?

We use enquiries that are general in nature and don't require us to disclose personal information, such as new customers looking for home loans, term deposits, credit cards, etc.

How does the scoring work?

Over the past 30 years, we've developed standards based on consumer preferences and the metrics that matter - the ones that can influence the customer experience.

You can learn more about the framework we use here >

How many calls are assessed?

Real customers are not interested in sample sizes or the thousands of other calls handled by the call centre each day; they only care about their call and will make all their judgements and decisions based on that one single experience.

And that's what our Call Centre Rankings reports capture - what a random, real customer can and does experience.

That said, we make a minimum of six calls to each bank to ensure

How can we improve our score?

Our Mystery Shopping program has been designed to provide Banks with the insights they need to improve performance!

You'll receive detailed information on your performance 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 Bank included?

If your bank is not listed in our reports, you can purchase our Contact Centre CX Benchmarking service, and your bank will then be automatically included in the monthly ranking reports.  Learn more >

How do I order the service?

We have an online ordering form that makes it easy to order the service, nominate the Banks 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 Banks?

ACXPA Business Members get full access to the summary monthly data and quarterly trends for three random Banks (and other sectors) along with a host of other membership 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 purchase the Contact Centre CX Benchmarking Service, you will gain access to ALL data for your call centre and any five Banks you nominate.

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 simon@acxpa.com.au or contact us on 03 9492 2871.

What type of scenarios do we use to conduct the Mystery Shopping calls?

Questions about credit cards, home loans, savings accounts, term deposits etc - most of our scenarios are about new business opportunities for the Banks that don't require us to disclose personal information.

Why do you hang up at either 10 or 15 minutes?

All our Mystery Shopping calls are conducted live by our accredited Mystery Shoppers, who are all based in Australia. We cut off the calls at either 10 minutes (sales scenarios) or 15 minutes (service scenarios) for three key reasons:

1. Research has shown that these wait times are towards the end of the typical times customers will wait before they hang up.
2. It keeps it real! Real customers don't care about sample sizes, whether it was a busy day for the call centre or that they had high sick leave etc - they only care about their experience when they called, and that's what our Mystery Shopping is designed to reflect - real customer experiences.
3. It's expensive. As we use real human beings to conduct the Mystery Shopping call, it's simply not practical to pay them often for hours (hello Centrelink!) whilst waiting for the call to be answered. So unless we get a very generous sponsor that enables us to wait the full time, we thought this was a reasonable decision.

Why don't your results align with my experience?

Despite the perception, call centres are complex operations involving lots of people, processes, technology and the random nature of call arrival as we don't know when people are going to call!

Even with the best planning, this can result in a varying level of performance depending on a wide range of factors, including the time of day, whether everyone who was rostered attended work, whether the number of calls forecasted is accurate, and much more.

In addition, calls for service can be treated very differently than sales, and many call centres have the technology to alter the priority of calls answered depending on their nature, previous history, status within the organisation, and so on.

All of these factors can result in a much different experience every single time you call a contact centre.

As we've mentioned though, most customers don't really care about any of that and will make their decision based on their phone call only - and our mystery shopping is designed to capture that - a snapshot of what customers are experiencing.

Finally, we are also unable to test the experience for existing customers. To maintain the anonymity of mystery shopping, we cannot provide account details, etc., which many call centres now require before being placed into the queue.

And frustratingly, its often the existing customers who receive the worst experience 😱

Do the Banks really care about the service they provide?

We'd really like to say yes, as it's a highly competitive marketplace, and research consistently shows that when customers aren't happy, it's bad for business.

But sometimes, whether it's through a lack of resources or skills, the customer experience that is delivered is well below expectations.

When banks focus on delivering a better customer experience, not only is it good for you, but it also helps make them more profitable so everyone wins.

Why are the reported wait times lower than what I normally experience?

As we conduct Mystery Shopping calls, we need to remain anonymous, so we can only test scenarios that involve replicating a new customer.

Banks often require existing customers with enquiries to enter their account details, meaning we cannot test the experience for existing customers.

It's not uncommon for Banks to treat new customers differently than existing customers, with the calls given different priorities and handled by different teams.

How do I get my Bank included?

We encourage you to contact your Bank and ask them to ensure they are 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 consumers are able to make informed decisions based on the quality of customer experiences each bank provides.

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 >