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!
Australian Councils December 2023 Call Centre Rankings
This is the fifth consecutive month of assessing the performance of call centres for Australian Councils, which first commenced in August 2023.
Each month, we conduct mystery shopping calls to a minimum of six different councils across Australia to assess their performance posing as real customers and assess both accessibility (how easy it was to connect) and the customer service/quality of the interaction when speaking to a live agent across 48 different performance metrics.
You can read more about the assessment criteria and methodology here >
Scroll below for additional insights, or use the links below to jump directly to a section.
Call Centre Rankings Key:
POOR
BELOW STANDARD
MEETS STANDARDS
EXCEEDS STANDARD
OUTSTANDING
Councils Overall Rankings (December 2023)
The Overall Score Rankings provide insights into the Contact Centres we assessed as the best for Australian Councils.
Each mystery shopping call we make is assessed against 48 different criteria. Our local (Australian-based) trained assessors make the calls at random times and days throughout the month.
The Overall Score is determined by combining the two primary component scores below and applying some proprietary weightings that place a higher emphasis on the quality of the interaction:
- Accessibility Score – measures the experience of connecting to a live contact centre agent.
- Quality Score – measures the experience of the interaction with a contact centre agent.
Key Findings – Overall Scores, Councils December 2023
After achieving their best-ever result in November 2023 with a score of 76.5% as assessed against the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, in December 2023, it was the complete opposite, with performance across the sector the worst result since we commenced reporting in August 2023 with a score of 54.5% (rated as ‘Below Standard’).
December 2023 also recorded the longest wait times since we commenced reporting as well as the quickest talk times, suggesting that across the sector, Councils were insufficiently resourced for the call demands in December and rushing through the calls.
Not surprisingly, the rush to get customers off the phone also resulted in their lowest-ever result for quality.
For context, the mystery shopping scenarios we used in December 2023 were general customer service enquiries such as rubbish, rates, etc.
- The overall scores for each Council ranged from 0% (City of Casey, Vic) to 73.8% (City of Onkaparinga, SA).
- The City of Onkaparinga (South Australia) has led all councils for three of the five months since we commenced reporting in August 2023.
- This is the third month (of five) that the City of Casey (Vic) has been the lowest-ranked council, primarily due to the inability to get through to a live person, suggesting there are ongoing resourcing concerns that are unable to handle the call demand.
- Accessibility scores (how easy it was to get through to a live person) across all Australian Councils also decreased to the lowest ever result with a score of 56.8% (Below Standard) with scores ranging from 3.1% (city of Casey, Vic) to 100% (City of Onkaparinga, SA) who has achieved 100% for the past two consecutive months.
- Across the Councils Sector, only 61.9% of our Mystery Shopping calls were answered within a 15-minute wait time, with only two councils answering 100% of the calls we made within 15 minutes, Brisbane (QLD) and the City of Onkaparinga (SA). This is the lowest result to date for the sector, with the City of Casey, Victoria (0%) and the City of Stirling (33%) the most difficult to connect to a live person.
- The quality of customer service also declined to the lowest recorded result in December 2023 of 54.5% (Below Standard) as assessed against Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards.
- Quality scores for each Council ranged from the lowest of 35.0% (Monash, Vic) to the highest of 64.9% (Brisbane, QLD).
- In December 2023, the average wait time across all Councils increased to their longest-ever wait time of 05:37 minutes, ranging from 00:05 minutes (City of Onkaparinga, SA) to 15:00 minutes (City of Casey, Vic) with every call hitting the maximum threshold before we disconnected.
- Average talk times also decreased to their lowest-ever result of 01:49 minutes, down from an average of 03:33 minutes across all councils in November 2023, to ranging from 01:18 minutes to 02:43 minutes.
- Of the five Quality Competencies we assess using the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, the ‘Engage’ competency was the lowest rated at just 19.4% for the fourth consecutive month, the lowest result to date. Perhaps driven by a rush to get people off the phone, Councils continually failed to build rapport with customers, take ownership of the call and provide a personalised experience.
- The ‘Engage’ Quality Competency scores ranged from 8.3% (City of Onkaparinga, SA) to 33.3% (Brisbane City, QLD) with every Council rated ‘Poor’ against the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards.
- 42% of Councils had no IVR layer (press one for this, two for that) with calls answered by a live agent.
- Across all Councils with an IVR, it added an additional 00:10 minutes for customers to navigate (+00:01 minutes from November 2023).
- In addition to the menu navigation time, all Councils forced customers to listen to pre and post-IVR recorded messages before speaking to a live agent, adding an additional 00:23 minutes to each call (+00:05 minutes from November 2023), with City of Casey’s the longest at 00:52 minutes (over double the next closest of 00:25 minutes).
Councils Accessibility Rankings (December 2023)
The Call Centre Accessibility Rankings are designed to assess the ease of the phone experience for customers who want to speak to a live person at their local council.
The Call Centre Accessibility Score measures the experience before interacting with a live agent, with our assessment including 30 individual elements grouped into five core components: Search, Design, Ease, Audio and Timing (along with deductions for calls not being answered within thresholds, technical glitches, etc).
Elements included are queue wait times, how easy it was to find the phone number, ease of menu options (i.e. press 1 for this, 2 for that), hold music, audio quality, etc.
Mystery Shopping calls to Councils are terminated if wait times exceed 15:00 minutes. If any call wait time exceeds 15 minutes, the maximum threshold time of 15 minutes is applied to calculate average wait times (meaning actual wait times would be higher than reported).
ACXPA Members can access the number of calls exceeding the 15-minute threshold in their summary download report.
Key Findings – Accessibility & Average Wait Times, Councils (December 2023)
Overall, the Accessibility of Councils in December 2023 was rated as ‘Below Standard’ for the first time since we commenced reporting in August 2023, with a score of 56.8%, a decrease of 20.7% from the Australian Council’s October 2023 results, and the lowest recorded score to date.
- Only one Council was rated as ‘Outstanding’, the City of Onkaparinga (SA), achieving a perfect 100% score for the second consecutive month, and they have led all Councils for four of the five months we have been publishing reports.
- The lowest Accessibility score in December 2023 was 3.1% for the City of Casey, rated the lowest of all Councils for the past three consecutive months.
- The average Wait Time across all Councils increased from an average wait time of 03:18 minutes in November 2023 to 05:37 minutes in December 2023, the highest recorded wait times since we commenced reporting in August 2023.
- Across the Councils we assessed, only 61.9% of the mystery shopping calls we made were answered within 15 minutes, with the City of Casey failing to answer any calls within 15 minutes and the City of Stirling answering 33%.
- Only two Councils have answered 100% of calls since we commenced reporting in August 2023: Brisbane City Council (QLD) and City of Onkaparinga (SA).
- The City of Onkaparinga (SA) achieved the quickest average wait time for the second consecutive month with a 00:05 minute average wait time in December 2023, the fourth time (of five months) they have had the quickest wait time of call Councils we assessed.
- The City of Casey (Vic) had the longest wait time in December 2023, with every call exceeding a 15:00 minute wait time, the threshold where we disconnect. The City of Stirling (WA) had the second longest wait times with an average wait time of 10:12 minutes.
- On average, across all the Councils, the time required to navigate the IVR menu options increased by 00:01 minutes from November 2023 to 00:10 minutes in December 2023. City of Stirling’s (WA) took the longest at 00:25 minutes.
- 42% of Councils had no IVR at all.
- In addition to the time it requires customers to navigate the menu and wait for the call to be answered, Councils also add time to each call with pre-recorded messaging that customers are forced to listen to, adding an additional 00:23 minutes to each call (+00:05 minutes from November 2023).
- The City of Casey (Vic) recorded the longest messages at 00:52 minutes, considerably longer than the next 00:25 minutes (Brisbane City Council, QLD). The quickest was the City of Monash (Vic), at 00:04 minutes.
- Talk time across all Councils averaged 01:49 minutes, considerably lower than the November result of 03:33 minutes. Average talk times ranged from 01:08 minutes (Launceston, Tas) to 02:43 minutes (Brisbane City Council, Vic).
Councils Quality Rankings (December 2023)
Regardless of the wait times, it’s still what happens during the call that has a large influence on the satisfaction of the customer.
Recent CX Statistics continue to highlight the importance of interacting live with a customer service employee and the preference to speak to a live agent rather than an automated chatbot/AI, etc.
The Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards have been developed and refined over 30 years, and when businesses consistently achieve high ratings in these core competencies, there is a direct correlation to improved business metrics however you measure them – Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Sales Conversions, NPS, Customer Effort Score, improved efficiency, reduced AHT etc.
The standards apply to all contact centres and are adapted to customer service or sales calls.
Quality is assessed across five core competencies and 18 call-handling behaviours that directly correlate to better customer and business outcomes: Engage, Discover, Educate, Close, Energy.
Learn more about the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards >
Key Findings – Quality Scores, Councils (December 2023)
When assessed against the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, the Council sector was assessed as ‘Below Standard’ with a score of 54.5%, the lowest recorded score to date.
- Brisbane City Council was the top-ranked Council for Quality in December 2023, scoring 64.9%.
- The lowest Quality score for Councils in December 2023 was 35.0% for Monash, Victoria, which has had the lowest quality score for three of the five months we have been reporting.
- Only two councils were rated as ‘Met Standard’ against the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards in December 2023, Brisbane City Council (QLD) and City of Onkaparinga (SA).
- All Councils decreased in quality in December 2023 (compared to November 2023), with the City of Monash, Vic, registering the largest decrease of 35.1% and Launceston (Tas) the lowest decrease (-8.1%).
- Collectively, of the five quality competencies we assessed, Councils recorded their lowest-ever result in four of the competencies, rated as ‘Poor’ for both ‘Engage’ and ‘Close’.
- ‘Educate’ was the best-rated quality competency in December 2023, with a score of 76.4% (which is still their lowest recorded score to date.
- The lowest-rated quality competency was again ‘Engage’, with a score of 19.4%, the lowest result since we commenced reporting in August 2023.
- Of the four elements we assessed within the ‘Engage’ competency, ‘Name’ was rated the lowest, with all councils scoring 0%, with agents failing to obtain and use the customer’s name in the conversation.
- The City of Stirling (WA) was the only Council to achieve 100% for the ‘Discovery’ Quality Competency, the second consecutive month they have achieved the perfect score.
- After the best-recorded result for the Energy competency in November 2023, an average score of 97.6% across all Councils, the results decreased to their lowest-ever result in December 2023 of 76.4%. Two councils, however, achieved 100% – the City of Onkaparinga (SA) and Launceston (Tas).
- Training is available for all Councils to improve quality results (View: frontline employees courses and Team Leader courses).
Additional information on the quality competency scores is available below this section (or you can click here to jump to the section).
Exclusive Video Interview!
Available for all ACXPA Members, watch the recorded Contact Centre Managers Roundtable interview with the City of Onkaparinga (SA) Contact Centre leaders.
You’ll gain some great insights into how they are achieving their consistently high results, along with a few tips!
Australian Councils Quality Competencies Summary (December 2023)
Breaking quality performance into five core competencies (and 18 individual metrics) enables you to hone in on specific strengths and weaknesses that can be used for coaching to improve the agent’s performance.
We have training courses to help Team Leaders and frontline employees improve performance!
Download the ACXPA Members Summary Report (Councils December 2023)
The ACXPA Members Summary Report for Australian Councils December 2023 contains additional data exclusive for ACXPA Members, including the results for three random Councils monthly.
Councils who purchase the Contact Centre CX Benchmarking service will see the FULL data for ALL Councils we assess plus any five councils you’d like to benchmark your performance against.
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?
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?
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 Contact Centre CX Benchmarking service, you will receive a minimum of six calls assessed 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 and a benchmark of your performance against a minimum of five other councils 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, which contains the data for five random councils each month.
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 from ALL councils.
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, due to a lack of resources or skills, the customer experience delivered falls well below expectations.
When Councils focus on delivering a better customer experience, it is not only good for you but also 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 include your Council. 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 provide 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 >
How to gain exclusive insights for your Council
If you’d like to gain insights specifically for your Council’s contact centre performance and benchmark your results against other councils 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:
- Six Mystery Shopping calls into your call centre each month at random times and days where you’ll receive the full assessment against 48 metrics, our quality assessor’s notes, the employee’s name (where provided) and the full call recordings.
- Mystery Shopping calls to five other Councils that YOU nominate in the same state or nationally, allowing you to benchmark your performance against the Councils that matter most to you.
- We aggregate data from all the other Councils we assess, providing you with Council sector-wide results to compare your results to.
- A monthly email with data to track your performance along with the call recordings.
- 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, coaching and guidance.
CX Roundtables - Upcoming Guest
Live and interactive sessions for customer experience professionals in Australia.
Contact Centre Manager Roundtables - Upcoming Guest
Live and interactive sessions for contact centre professionals in Australia.
Next Members Symposium Livestream: Tuesday, 21st May, 2024, 13:30 AEST
The Members Symposium sessions are only available to ACXPA Members!
ACXPA Members can watch the symposium live, and, can watch any of the sessions at any time in their Video Library.
Preview of upcoming Symposium Sessions:
IVR Best Practice
Over 90% of contact centres are using an IVR (Press 1 for this, press 2 for that), and we've encountered many contact centres with over four layers of options for customers to select from. In this session, Nadine will be sharing some best practice tips on IVR design for 2024.
Presented by Nadine Power, Chief Product Officer, Datagamz (and ACXPA National Advisory Board Member)
Tips to Boost Engagement on Calls
Of the five quality competencies we assess as part of the Australian Call Centre Rankings, the 'ENGAGE' competency from the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards has consistently been at the bottom of the rankings throughout 2023 and into 2024.
In this session, Simon will provide some tips that can be shared with agents on how to increase engagement with customers at the start of calls.
Presented by Simon Blair, General Manager Quality Insights, ACXPA
More sessions announced soon!
(If you're interested in speaking at one of our events, click here to learn more >)
