Car Insurance Providers Q2 2024 Call Centre Rankings

The Australian Car Insurance Providers are assessed using the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards that have been developed and refined over 30 years to assess the moments that matter to customers.

When businesses consistently achieve high ratings in these core competencies, there is a direct correlation to improved business metrics however you measure them, such as improved Sales Conversions, NPS, Customer Effort Score, efficiency, reduced AHT, etc.

The standards apply to all contact centres and are adapted to customer service or sales calls.

• Customer Service is assessed across five core competencies and 18 call-handling behaviours that directly correlate to better customer and business outcomes: Engage, Discover, Educate, Close and Energy.
• Access is assessed using over 40 metrics, from average wait times, hold times, number of IVR options (press 1 for this, 2 for that), the time forced to listen to recording messages and so on.
• The Customer Experience score is a measure of performance on the competencies that most influence the customer experience and it’s this score used to determine the overall ranking results.

As Australia’s #1 industry resource for contact centres, we provide insights, resources, and training to help Australian car insurance providers improve the customer experience they provide, which in turn delivers improved efficiencies and cost savings for their stakeholders.

Access rankings across the Australian car insurance sector was rated as ‘Below Standard’, rated second last of all industry sectors for the previous two quarters (and just ahead of the banks), decreasing from 58.4% in Q1 2024 to 49.2% in Q2 2024 (-9.3%).

Again, for context, the mystery shopping calls we are conducting are for new business opportunities posing as a customer looking to purchase a new insurance policy or switch from their current provider.

• Youi was the easiest car insurance provider to connect to for new policy enquiries, their second consecutive quarter in first place (RAC insurance was ranked first in Q4 2023).
• For Q2 2024, RACV was ranked the lowest and, therefore, the most difficult car insurance provider to connect to a live customer service agent, with a ranking score of 0.9%. This was the lowest result of ALL contact centres nationally, and they have ranked last for Access among the car insurance providers for the past nine consecutive months.
• Across the car insurance sector, 12.7% of calls were not answered within a 10-minute threshold. AAMI failed to answer the most calls throughout Q2 2024 with 22.2%. After three car insurance providers achieved 100% in Q1 2024, not one provider answered 100% of calls within 10 minutes in Q2 2024.
• Car insurance providers continued their healthy obsession with layers of menu options on their IVRs (press one for this, two for that), ranging from an average of 0.7 layers (Budget Direct) to 5.4 layers (RACV).
• In addition to making numerous menu selections, customers were forced to listen to recorded messaging ranging from 00:30 minutes (Allianz) to 02:27 minutes (RACV), which was the longest of all call centres nationally.
• 50% of car insurance providers use push-button IVRs, and 50% use a combination of touch and voice/natural language IVRs to help customers navigate to the person best able to assist them.
• RACV was the only car insurance provider that attempted to push customers off the phone channel to either its app or website, occurring on 100% of all our mystery shopping calls.
• The Total Time in Menu reflects the length of time customers are ‘stuck’ selecting options and listening to recorded messages, and for the car insurance providers in Q2 2024, results ranged from 00:56 minutes (Allianz) to 03:41 minutes (RACV), the longest of all contact centres we assessed nationally.
• Talk times averaged 12:01 minutes across all car insurance providers in Q2 2024, up from 11:25 in Q1 2024 (+5.2%), ranging from 06:41 minutes (RACV) to 16:14 minutes (Youi).

AVERAGE WAIT TIMES Q2 2024

• The average wait times across the car insurance sector increased 00:19 minutes from 02:19 minutes to 02:38 minutes (+13.7%).
• Average wait times for car insurance providers in Q2 2024 ranged from 01:43 minutes (Allianz) to 03:28 minutes (RAC).
• Budget Direct had the biggest increase in average wait times, from 00:12 minutes in Q1 2024 to 02:48 minutes in Q2 2024, and AAMI had the largest decrease, from 07:03 minutes to 03:05 minutes.
• Allianz had the lowest average wait times in Q2 2024 with 01:43 minutes, followed by Youi with 02:09 minutes.
• The longest wait times for any month in Q2 2024 was 07:00 minutes, (AAMI, April 2024).

The Quality of customer service across the Car Insurance sector in Q2 2024 was rated ‘Below Standard’ for the third consecutive quarter with a score of 44.4%, down from 53.5% in Q1 2024 and the lowest of all industry sectors in Q2 2024.

• The Customer Service ranking for individual car insurance providers ranged from 34.2% (RACV) to 52.9% (AAMI).
• After Youi led the rankings for eight consecutive months, RAC claimed their first monthly win in June 2024.
• RACV (34.2%) was the lowest quarterly customer service score of all contact centres nationally in Q2 2024.
• Of the five quality competencies we assessed using the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, all rankings decreased, with Close (13.2%) and Energy (13.7%) having the largest decreases.
• The ‘Engage’ competency was the lowest rated at just 39.1%, down slightly from Q1 2024 (43.1%), with car insurance providers often failing to build rapport with customers, take ownership, and provide a personalised experience.
• Engage competency scores ranged from 25.0% (AAMI) to 62.5% (Youi).
• The ‘Energy’ competency was the highest Customer Service competency in Q2 2024, with a score of 61.5%. However, this declined from the previous quarter’s score of 75.2%. Energy scores ranged from 27.8% (Allianz) to 84.7% (RAC), with Allianz having the lowest energy competency result of all contact centres nationally.
• Using the customer’s name during the conversation,  one of the four ‘Engage’ behaviours was ranked at 40.5% (up from 34.1% in Q1 2024), ranging from 16.7% (Allianz) to 83.3% (Youi).
• ‘Empathy’, one of the four ‘Energy’ behaviours we assess, decreased across the car insurance sector from 80.2% in Q1 2024 to 62.7% in Q2 2024, with only one car insurance provider scoring 100% (RAC).  AAMI and RACV (33.0%) were the lowest rankings nationally across all contact centres.
• The ‘Check’ results, one of the four ‘Educate’ behaviours, was ranked at 11.9% in Q2 2024, down from 15.9% in Q1 2024, which is used to assess if the customer service agent consistently checks in with the customer for understanding, comfort and suitability whenever key details are provided.  Youi was the highest ranked (38.9%) and three car insurance providers scored 0% (Allianz, NRMA & RACV).