Australian Councils Q1 2024 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 rubbish, rates, services, 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?

For the public monthly report, we include at least three calls per council per month.  – as more councils sign up for the service, more calls will be included.

When you purchase 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 80 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 over 80 metrics on the performance of your contact centre, and benchmarking data for any five 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 three 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 directly on 0407 002 113 or simon@acxpa.com.au, or call us on 03 9492 2871.

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 such as rubbish, upcoming events, rates etc.

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 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 >