Car Insurance Providers Q4 2024 Call Centre Rankings
Introduction
ACXPA’s benchmarking initiative provides valuable insights into the performance of Australian Car Insurance Providers’ call centres, offering a detailed analysis of customer experience and accessibility.
As Australia’s leading call centre industry resource, we conduct this research with a rigorous methodology grounded in over 80 metrics from the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards. Our approach ensures a robust and impartial assessment of performance that is free from any vendor or commercial bias.
The analysis focuses on new business and sales inquiries, simulating real-life scenarios of potential customers seeking to either purchase new car insurance or switch from an existing provider. These high-stakes interactions are pivotal in the fiercely competitive car insurance market and reveal critical opportunities for growth and improvement.
By applying realistic scenarios, our trained Australian-based mystery shoppers uncover key challenges and opportunities in these interactions, helping insurance companies identify gaps, refine processes, and enhance their ability to convert opportunities into loyal customers.
Importantly, ACXPA’s benchmarking initiative not only equips insurance companies with the tools to improve their individual performance, but also serves as a vital mechanism to raise standards across the car insurance sector, ultimately benefiting businesses and customers alike.
Executive Summary – Car Insurance Sector Q4 2024
📊 Executive Summary Overview
This report provides a snapshot of just 5 of the 80+ metrics assessed as part of the Car Insurers CX Benchmarking Service. These headline metrics reflect how car insurance providers are performing across key areas of the contact centre customer journey, including accessibility, agent capability, and overall experience delivery.
The five key metrics are explored in detail for ACXPA Subscribers and Members, with an executive summary below avaiable to all readers.
✅ Overall CX Scores – How well car insurers deliver customer experience.
✅ Agent Mastery Scores – Evaluating agent soft skills and effectiveness.
✅ Accessibility Rankings – Assessing how easy it is for customers to reach a live agent.
✅ Calls Answered – The percentage of calls answered within 10 minutes.
✅ Average Wait Times – Measuring queue time before speaking with an agent.
🔷 Top Performers & Car Insurance Sector Trends
✅ Best Overall CX Performer – YOUI (70.7%)
YOUI retained the top position in the sector for the fourth consecutive quarter, with their Q4 result placing them second overall across all industries—just 0.2% behind TPG Internet.
📈 Most Improved – RAC Insurance (+10.7%)
RAC Insurance recorded the most notable improvement, increasing from 44.9% in Q3 to 55.6% in Q4, marking their second-best result of 2024.
❌ Lowest Overall CX – Allianz (27.1%)
Allianz recorded the lowest score in the car insurance sector and second-lowest across all industries measured, dropping sharply from 47.8% in Q3.
💡 Industry Insight:
Despite modest improvements, the Car Insurance sector now ranks last among all sectors for Overall CX, highlighting significant gaps between high and low performers.
⚠️ Biggest CX Challenges
📉 Accessibility Remains the Sector's Weakest Link
The sector ranked last in Accessibility across all industries, with a Q4 score of 50.9%, down from 54.3% in Q3. Long and complex IVRs, forced messaging, and poor menu design continue to impede customer access.
🧠 Agent Soft Skills: Mixed Results with Room for Growth
Agent Mastery Scores improved to 47.8% in Q4 (up from 44.7%) but still ranked second last of all sectors. Declines in ENGAGE (-7.0%), CLOSE (-10.8%) and IMPACT (-1.6%) reveal specific coaching gaps.
🔀 Performance Disparity Across the Sector
YOUI achieved 66.5% in Agent Mastery (up 11.9%), while RACV and Allianz lagged at 39.7% and 40.1% respectively. Similarly, Accessibility ranged from YOUI’s 80.4% to RACV’s 25.8%, despite RACV leading on wait time.
🏆 Key Wins & Opportunities
📞 Calls Answered Rate Continues to Improve
The sector-wide average rose to 92.1% in Q4 (up from 90.5%), with 71% of providers answering 100% of calls within 10 minutes. AAMI, Budget Direct, and RACV maintained a perfect 100% call answer rate for the second quarter running.
⏱️ Wait Times Are Down
The sector's Average Wait Time dropped from 100 seconds in Q3 to 67 seconds in Q4. RACV led with the shortest average wait time of just 16 seconds—a dramatic improvement from 3:43 minutes in Q1 2024.
📉 NRMA Recovery Continues
After recording the longest wait times in Q3 (4:47 minutes), NRMA improved significantly to 1:21 minutes and boosted their Calls Answered rate from 66.7% to 88.9%.
🚧 Ongoing Challenges
📉 Allianz Performance Deterioration
Allianz dropped across four of the five core CX metrics in Q4 2024. While scores declined significantly in Overall CX, Accessibility, Wait Time, and Calls Answered, their Agent Mastery score improved slightly, from 38.3% to 40.1%..
🧩 Low Agent Mastery Scores Persist Across the Sector
No provider exceeded 70% in Agent Mastery, with sector averages still well below industry best-practice benchmarks.
📊 Wide Disparities Undermine Customer Experience
Top and bottom performers remain over 40% apart in Overall CX Score, limiting sector-wide progress.
💡 Next Steps for Car Insurance Providers
🎯 Invest in Soft Skills Training
Prioritise coaching on customer engagement, discovery, and effective closing techniques to improve Agent Mastery outcomes. (Explore our Training Courses >)
🔄 Simplify IVRs and Onboarding Journeys
Tackle Accessibility issues by reducing friction in IVRs and forced messaging. (View our IVR Best Practices insights Member Bite Video >)
📈 Use Benchmarking Data to Drive Targeted Improvements
Leverage our quarterly insights and full benchmarking reports to identify key gaps and outperform competitors. (Explore the Car Insurance CX Benchmarking Service >)
Key Metrics Trends – Australian Car Insurance Providers Q4 2024
The chart below provides a 12-month trend analysis of three key contact centre performance metrics:
• Overall CX – An overall measure of the customer experience delivered by Australian Car Insurance providers via their contact centre.
• Accessibility – The ease of reaching a live agent.
• Agent Mastery – The quality and effectiveness of agent interactions.
The Car Insurance sector ended Q4 2024 with its lowest industry ranking to date, despite gains in CX scores and reduced wait times. Persistent issues with accessibility and inconsistent agent capability signal a pressing need for targeted investment in customer experience delivery to capitalise on converting opportunities to new revenue.
Scroll down for deeper insights into these trends and their impact on performance. 🚀
Call Centre CX Quadrant – Australian Car Insurance Providers Q4 2024
This Call Centre CX Quadrant illustrates how Australian Car Insurance providers compare in Accessibility (ease of reaching a live agent) and Agent Mastery (quality of customer interactions).
Achieving excellence in both is challenging – while some car insurance providers make it easy for customers to connect to a live agent, they may struggle with agent expertise and engagement, leading to poor-quality interactions.
Others may have highly skilled agents but create barriers to access, frustrating customers before they even reach help.
The top-right quadrant represents industry best practice, where car insurance providers successfully balance both fast access and high-quality service – the ultimate CX benchmark. 📊🚀
Curious How Your Car Insurance Business Stacks Up?
Access powerful insights on Accessibility, Agent Mastery, and more with our Car Insurance CX Benchmarking Framework. Over 80 metrics to uncover performance gaps and growth opportunities.
ACXPA Business Members can get a detailed intro report for just $497 ex GST!
Discover Even More Call Centre Ranking Insights
In addition to the Car Insurance Sector information we publish, you can also view Australian Call Centre Industry Benchmarking data for additional industry sectors – click the links below to learn more and view data.
Curious about the Call Centre Rankings for other industry sectors?
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