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 Energy Providers November 2023 Call Centre Rankings
This is our fourth consecutive month of assessing the Energy sector, where we conduct mystery shopping calls to six different Energy Providers across Australia.
You can read more about the assessment criteria and methodology here, but in short, we make random mystery shopping calls 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.
Just 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
Energy Providers Overall Rankings (November 2023)
The Overall Score Rankings provide insights into the Contact Centres we assessed as being the best in their sector.
Each of the mystery shopping calls we make is assessed against 48 different criteria and the calls are made by our local (Australian-based) trained assessors 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, Energy Providers (November 2023)
Following on from the August, September and October results, overall, the Energy Providers were assessed as ‘Met Standards’ for the second consecutive month, with an overall score of 63.3%, marginally down 0.2% from the October results.
- Red Energy was rated the best energy provider in November 2023 with a score of 75.8%, with Alinta Energy the lowest overall score for the second consecutive month on 53.5%.
- Accessibility (how easy to get through to a live person) across the sector was rated as ‘Met Standards’ with a score of 68.6% ranging from 42.9% (AGL) to 83.7% (Red Energy).
- After the sector’s best month ever in October with average wait times of just 00:31 seconds, average wait times across all Energy Providers increased with an average wait time of 01:17 minutes in November 2023, adding an additional 00:46 seconds when trying to connect to a live agent.
- Energy Australia had the lowest average wait times for the month of November (00:04 minutes), while customers trying to connect to AGL waited the longest on average, 02:41 minutes.
- Quality (talking to a live person) has increased slightly across the sector with a score of 61.0% (up 0.09%), the first positive increase after three consecutive monthly declines.
- Of the five Quality Competencies we assess using the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, the ‘Engage’ competency continues to be the lowest performer (45.9%) with ‘Energy’ the highest at 81.8%.
- The top-ranked Energy Provider for Quality was Red Energy (72.4%), who have led in two of the four months we have tested.
- Following on from October 2023 results, all Energy Providers in November 2023 again answered 100% of the calls we made within 10 minutes.
- All Energy Providers had a minimum of two IVR layers, adding, on average, an additional 00:23 minutes to every call.
- Pre and Post IVR Messaging (i.e. recorded announcements customers are forced to listen to) added an additional 00:57 minutes to each call, with AGL having the longest at 02:03 minutes.
- Talk time averaged 07:20 across all providers, ranging from 04:50 minutes to 12:22 minutes.
Energy Providers Accessibility Rankings (November 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 to discuss their energy requirements.
The 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 including 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.
Key Findings – Accessibility Scores, Energy Providers (November 2023)
Overall the Accessibility of Energy Providers was rated as ‘Meets Standards’ with a score of 68.6%, a decrease of 2.8% from the October results.
- Three Energy Providers were rated as ‘Exceeds Standards’ for Accessibility, and one each for ‘Met Standard’, ‘Below Standard’ and ‘Poor’.
- The most accessible Energy Provider in November 2023 was Red Energy (83.7%), well ahead of the lowest-ranked provider at 42.9% (AGL) who have continued to have the lowest score since we began the reports in August 2023.
- For the second consecutive month, all Energy Providers answered 100% of the mystery shopping calls we made within 10 minutes.
- The average wait time to connect to an energy provider in November 2023 increased to 01:17 minutes, an increase 00:46 minutes when compared to October 2023 when the average wait time was just 00:31 minutes.
- Energy Providers continue to force customers to listen to prerecorded messages and often lengthy menu options. On average, an additional 00:23 minutes was required to navigate the IVR menu and another 00:57 minutes were taken up being forced to listen to recorded messages.
- Alinta Energy had the longest IVR menu options to navigate; however, AGL’s menu navigation took the longest (00:43 minutes).
- Talk time across all Energy Providers averaged 07:20 minutes, a slight increase from the previous month (07:04 minutes)
Energy Providers Quality Rankings (November 2023)
Whilst average wait times vary between Energy Providers, its what happens on the call that can have a large influence on the satisfaction of the customer.
And whilst there appears to be a push by many organisations to try and move people away from the phone channel, a number of recent studies have shown that over 70% of consumers surveyed said that speaking to a real person instead of a chatbot is highly important so when it comes to trying to secure new business, providing customers with a seamless experience on their preferred channel should be high on the priority list!
The Quality Insights Score (QIS) measures the experience received during the interaction with the live contact centre agent across five core competencies (Engage, Discover, Educate, Close and Energy) and 18 individual behaviours as defined in the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards.
Key Findings – Quality Scores, Energy Providers (November 2023)
When assessed against the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, the Energy Sector was assessed as ‘Met Standard’ for Quality with score of 61.0%, a slight increase of 0.09% from October 2023.
- The top-ranked energy provider for Quality in November 2023 was Red Energy, with a score of 72.4% with Simply Energy the lowest on 50.7%.
- The most improved from the previous month was Red Energy, with an increase of 18.8% (53.6% to 72.4%).
- The largest decrease from the previous month was Simply Energy, with a decrease of 19.3% (70.0% down to 50.7%).
- Energy Providers continued to struggle in the ‘Engage’ competency with an average score of 45.9%. The highest score was for the ‘Energy’ competency, with 81.8%.
- Using a customer’s name appropriately is one of the poorest-rated elements of the Engage Competency, with an average score across all providers of 38.9%.
- Training is available for all Energy Providers to improve their scores (and, more importantly, the customer experience) – we have courses for frontline employees and Team Leaders.
You can see additional information on the quality competency scores below (or just click here to jump to it).
Energy Providers Average Wait Time Rankings (November 2023)
The Average Call Centre Wait Time measures the time to connect to a live call centre employee in Australia after navigating the IVR systems (press 1 for this, press 2 for that) and listening to any pre-recorded messaging.
Most people would refer to this as waiting in a call centre queue (or being stuck on hold), and it’s often the measure that has the highest correlation to customer frustration.
*Mystery Shopping calls are terminated at 10:00 minutes for sales-related mystery shopping calls. As we disconnect at 10:00 minutes, the actual wait times would be higher. In the event of any calls exceeding 10 minutes, the maximum threshold time of 10 minutes is applied to calculate average wait times.
ACXPA Members have access to the number of calls that exceed the 10-minute threshold in the summary download report.
Key Findings – Average Wait Times, Energy Providers (November 2023)
Average Wait Times for Energy Providers increased by 00:46 minutes from the October 2023 results (00:31 minutes) to an average wait time in November 2023 to speak to a live person of 01:17 minutes.
- All Energy Providers experienced an increase in their average wait times in November as compared to October, with AGL (+01:12 minutes) and Simply Energy experiencing the largest increases (+01:11 minutes).
- Whilst an average wait time of 01:17 minutes is still low compared to some other industry sectors, Energy Australia averaged just 00:04 minutes in November (and 00:03 minutes in October), which is a stand-out result.
- The longest average wait time in November was 02:41 minutes (AGL), the second consecutive month they have had the longest wait times.
Energy Providers Quality Competencies Summary (November 2023)
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 – Sales Conversions, NPS, Customer Effort Score, improved efficiency, reduced AHT etc.
They are applicable to all contact centres and are adapted to suit either 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 >
Download the ACXPA Members Summary Report (Energy Sector November 2023)
The ACXPA Members Summary Report for Energy Providers November 2023 contains additional data exclusive for ACXPA Members, including the results for three random Energy Providers each month.
Companies who purchase the Contact Centre CX Benchmarking service will see the FULL data for ALL Energy Providers we assess.
What type of scenarios do we use to conduct the Mystery Shopping calls?
The scenarios we use are typically based on new sales opportunities.
How does the scoring work?
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 Energy Providers sign up for the service, more calls will be included.
When you sign up for the CX Contact Centre Benchmarking service, you will receive at least six calls for every Energy Provider included in the report. If you’d rather have a larger sample size, please refer to our customised Benchmarking service >
Why aren’t all the Energy Providers included?
We’d love to have all the Energy Providers included; however, conducting independent Mystery Shopping is expensive!
We randomly chose Energy Providers to commence our program with, and as (or if) other Energy Providers sign up to our CX Contact Centre Benchmarking program, we’ll be able to publish a larger sample size each month.
How can we improve our score?
Our Mystery Shopping program has been designed to provide Energy Providers 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 or improve sales:
- Customer Service Phone ‘Essentials‘ & ‘Professional‘
- Inbound Phone Sales ‘Essentials‘ and ‘Professional‘),
- 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 contact centre, as well as a benchmark of your performance against a minimum of five other Energy Providers that 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 Australian Energy Providers 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 full data for the Australian Energy Providers?
ACXPA Business Members get full access to the summary monthly data for Energy Providers (and other sectors) along with a host of other benefits.
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.
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?
Most of our mystery shopping scenarios involve new sales opportunities where we don’t need to disclose account numbers or personal information.
Why do you hang up at either 10 minutes?
All our Mystery Shopping calls are conducted live by our accredited Mystery Shoppers who are all based in Australia. We cut off the calls at 10 minutes for two key reasons:
- Research has shown that these are at the end of typical times customers will wait before they hang up, especially a sales queue when there are alternatives in the marketplace.
- It’s expensive! As we use real human beings to conduct the Mystery Shopping call, it’s simply not practical to pay them often for hours (hello Centrelink!) whilst waiting for the call to be answered. So unless we get a very generous sponsor that enables us to wait the full time, we thought this was a reasonable decision.
Do Australian Energy Providers really care about the service they provide?
As a competitive marketplace, it means there are a range of different approaches. As a commoditised product (it’s the same electricity when you switch on the lights no matter who you purchase it from!), price is, of course, an important consideration.
But smart Energy Retailers are also realising that providing a good customer experience can be a competitive advantage. But sometimes, whether it’s through a lack of resources or skills, or a strategic choice, the Contact Centre experience that is delivered is well below industry standards.
If, for example, Australian Energy Providers choose to under-resource the contact centre, or use offshore call centres, and can pass those savings onto you in the form of cheaper electricity, that may be acceptable to some consumers who are happy to forgo some service to receive cheaper prices.
We don’t get involved in the strategy of each business, we simply report on the data against industry standards.
We do, however, believe that delivering a better customer experience is not only is it good for you as a consumer, but it’s also good for the business as all of the latest CX statistics will confirm.
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 Energy Providers are accountable for the level of customer service they are providing and to enable consumers to make an informed choice.
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.
Purchase exclusive insights for your Energy Business
If you’d like to gain insights specifically for your contact centre performance, and benchmark your results against other Energy Providers, 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.
- Six Mystery Shopping calls each into five other Energy Providers (a total of 30 calls) that YOU nominate so you can benchmark your performance against other Energy Providers that matter the most to you.
- Aggregate data from all the other Energy Providers we assess providing you with Energy sector-wide results to further 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 for your team (conducted live via Zoom) that can provide additional insights, coaching and guidance.
- Access to training to help you improve results.
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 >)
