View the Q2 2024 Councils Call Centre Rankings with average wait times, customer service quality, answer percentage and results for over 40 metrics.
Each month, we conduct mystery shopping calls at a cross-section of Australian Councils to provide Voice of the Customer (Voc) insights into the genuine experience customers receive when trying to connect to a customer service employee at an Australian Council.
Call Centre Wait Times for Australian Councils, the quality of customer service provided by the Council, hold times, the number of menu options and more are all assessed using the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, which contain over 80 different individual performance elements.
Each quarter, we publicly report on four key metrics:
- The ACCESS score measures how easy it was to connect to a live contact centre agent at an Australian Council, which includes metrics such as call centre wait times, the number of IVR options, talk times and more.
- The CUSTOMER SERVICE score measures the customer service skills of the contact centre agent across five core competencies and over 30 individual elements.
- AVERAGE WAIT TIME - the time it takes for the call to be answered after the customer has navigated through the menu options and has been placed into a queue, to the time the call is answered by a live customer service agent.
- The CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE score measures performance on the competencies that most influence the customer experience and is used to determine the overall ranking results.
This combination provides powerful, independent insights into the call centre customer performance of Australian Councils, enabling us to ensure we provide the industry resources, skills and insights where it matters most to help Australian Councils improve the experiences for the customer and their ratepayers.
ACXPA members gain access to additional monthly reports they can download, along with year-to-date and lifetime average data.
Plus, as an ACXPA Member, you'll gain access to a range of industry best practices, resources, training, and support to help you deliver efficient and effective customer experiences.
How the Mystery Shopping Calls are made to Australian Councils
Our Australian-based mystery shoppers are specially trained to replicate real customer enquiries, with calls made at random days and times using differing scenarios tailor-made for councils such as rates enquiries, rubbish, local events, etc.
Whilst there can always be some debate around sample sizes, ratios of FTEs to ratepayers, demographics, busy periods than usual, etc, that can potentially influence results, the reality is none of that is important to a customer.
Customers only care about their call and will make all their judgements and decisions based on that one single experience, and that is what our Mystery Shopping results are designed to capture and reflect.
As we need to remain anonymous, the published results typically reflect the experience for general council enquires only.
Ratepayers with specific questions about planning permits, complaints., payment plans, etc., may have a different experience.
Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards
Australian Councils are assessed against the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, which we have refined for over 30 years and 50,000 calls.
The Quality Standards we use:
- Provide clear guidance on what is required to deliver a good customer experience via the contact centre regardless of size, sector, product or service.
- Uses scores that have a direct correlation to business outcomes - when businesses consistently achieve above 'Met Standards', there is a direct correlation to improved results however you measure them – Customer Satisfaction, Sales Conversions, Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score, improved efficiency, reduced AHT etc.
- Provide insights you can act on - there is no point having data for 'data's sake'. The whole idea of benchmarking and standards is to help you identify specific areas in which you excel and specific areas in which you need to work on to improve business outcomes. Our Standards enable you to hone in on over 80 different performance elements, ensuring no stone is left unturned!
The Latest Australian Councils Call Centre Rankings
Each quarter, we publicly release the leaderboards for the top three and lowest Australian Councils on this page for four key metrics:
- Customer Experience Ranking - the ultimate recognition!
- Most Accessible - how easy it was to connect to a live person.
- Best Customer Service - the quality of the customer service interaction with the live person.
- Best Wait Times - the average time to get through to a live person.
Below are just four metrics - each month, there are over 80 metrics available!
ACXPA Members can view all key metrics, and if you purchase the Contact Centre CX Benchmarking monthly reports for your Council, you'll be able to see all benchmarking data for your contact centre and any five councils you'd like to benchmark your performance against.
Best CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Australian Councils - Q2 2024
1st:Frankston City Council68.0%
2nd:Brisbane City Council65.5%
3rd:Onkaparinga Council64.1%
Lowest:City of Casey46.4%
COUNCIL SECTOR AVE60.4%
INDUSTRY AVE53.1%
Best ACCESS
Australian Councils - Q2 2024
1st:Frankston City Council90.6%
2nd:Monash Council89.9%
3rd:Brisbane City Council79.7%
Lowest:City of Casey34.6%
COUNCIL SECTOR AVE75.1%
INDUSTRY AVE65.1%
Best CUSTOMER SERVICE
Australian Councils - Q2 2024
1st:Stirling Council61.5%
2nd:City of Casey61.0%
3rd:Brisbane City Council59.4%
Lowest:Monash Council50.2%
COUNCIL SECTOR AVE57.7%
INDUSTRY AVE53.3%
Best WAIT TIME
Australian Councils - Q2 2024
1st:Launceston Council00:28
2nd:Frankston City Council00:43
3rd:Monash Council00:49
Longest:City of Casey07:24
COUNCIL SECTOR AVE01:50
INDUSTRY AVE02:07
Australian Councils Quarterly Reports
Each month, we publish data on over 80 metrics on customer service performance delivered via the contact centres for Australian Councils.
Monthly Reports and Trends data is also available for ACXPA Members, and if you'd like to access the full data (over 80 metrics) for your call centre and any five Councils you nominate, view our Contact Centre CX Benchmarking service >
Australian Councils Q1 2024
View the Q1 2024 Councils Call Centre Rankings with average wait times, customer service quality, answer percentage and results for over 40 metrics.
Interested in Viewing Over 80 Voice of Customer Insights for Your Council Every Month?
Purchase our Contact Centre CX Benchmarking Service, and you’ll receive the following:
- Mystery Shopping results for your council, with each call assessed across over 80 different metrics - including the quality assessor’s notes, the employee’s name (where provided) and the full call recording.
- Benchmarking data for any five councils that you nominate so you can compare your performance against other Councils that matter to you.
- Aggregate (sector) data for all the other councils we assess to provide you with sector-wide results to further compare your results.
- A monthly email with data to track your performance.
- A quarterly report containing insights and trends that are easy to understand, along with personalised, 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 best-practice training that will deliver improved results for both your customers and your business.
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