Australian Energy Retailers Q1 2026 Call Centre Rankings
These results show how effectively Australian energy retailers handle new customer and switch enquiries — based on real mystery shopping calls from households and small businesses comparing providers, seeking better deals, or setting up new connections.
Each call is evaluated across more than 80 CX metrics aligned with the Australian Contact Centre CX Standards . This ensures a consistent, independent, and data-driven view of how effectively retailers manage enquiries, explain plans, and convert interest into active accounts while delivering a smooth, confident onboarding experience.
For energy retailers, these results matter. Every unanswered call, long queue, or confusing quote process represents lost customers, increased churn, and wasted marketing investment.
Our benchmarking highlights exactly where friction occurs — and how the best energy retailers turn first contact into fast, confident conversions. Through ACXPA’s Energy Benchmarking Services, energy retails can identify service gaps, lift enquiry handling performance, and reduce acquisition costs through smarter CX design and agent capability.
Executive Summary – Australian Energy Retailers Q1 2026
Australia's energy retailers recorded their sharpest quarterly decline on record in Q1 2026, with Overall CX averaging 55.4% — marking the fourth consecutive quarterly decline for the sector. Engie (73.0%) led for the eighth time in the last 11 quarters, extending its streak to five consecutive quarters at the top. Meanwhile, Origin Energy (24.8%) recorded the lowest result ever seen by any energy retailer since tracking commenced in Q3 2023.
Accessibility averaged 63.7%, continuing the sector's decline for a fourth consecutive quarter. While Engie (94.1%) remained dominant, Origin Energy (45.0%) recorded its worst-ever Accessibility result and sixth consecutive quarter of decline — collapsing from 81.9% in Q1 2025 to 45.0% in Q1 2026. In contrast, Alinta (63.4%) and Energy Australia (57.9%) showed resilience, with Alinta achieving five consecutive quarters of improvement and Energy Australia rebounding sharply from a record-low Q4 2025 result. Average Wait Times deteriorated to 1:57, reversing the prior quarter's progress.
In Agent Mastery — which assesses conversation quality across the five ACXPA competencies of Engage, Discover, Educate, Close and Impact (ACXPA Contact Centre CX Standards) — the sector improved slightly to 54.6%, gaining 0.7 percentage points from Q4 2025. Energy Australia (65.0%) led the metric for the second consecutive quarter, while Origin Energy (35.2%) posted the worst Agent Mastery result ever recorded by any energy company across the entire measurement period.
The sector's trajectory highlights a widening gap between consistent leaders and struggling retailers. While pockets of strong performance persist — particularly among Engie, Red Energy, and Alinta — Origin's collapse across all metrics demonstrates the compounding impact of deteriorating customer access and conversation quality. With best-practice benchmarked at 100%, even the sector's leaders retain significant opportunity to improve efficiency, clarity and acquisition effectiveness.
🏆 Top Performers – Energy Retailers Q1 2026
Engie led for the eighth time in the last 11 quarters and the fifth consecutive quarter, reinforcing its position as the sector's most consistent performer. Its Q1 2026 result of 73.0% marks a 5.7 percentage-point gain from Q4 2025, demonstrating sustained leadership across both Accessibility and Agent Mastery.
Accessibility measures how easily customers can connect with a live agent, including Average Wait Time, IVR navigation, and Calls Answered Percentage (full definitions here). Engie delivered 94.1% in Q1 2026, just below its Q4 2025 result of 94.8% (the best Accessibility result recorded nationally across all sectors).
Agent Mastery assesses how effectively agents Engage (build rapport and ownership), Discover (identify customer needs), Educate (explain clearly), Close (conclude with confidence), and create lasting Impact through empathy and communication quality. Energy Australia led this metric for the second consecutive quarter with 65.0%, though this represents a slight decline from Q4 2025.
Engie maintained its sector-leading Average Wait Time of just four seconds in Q1 2026, marking six consecutive quarters of leadership and delivering the fastest customer access in the sector.
⭐ Key Wins – Energy Retailers Q1 2026
Engie extends Overall CX leadership with strong quarterly gain
Engie achieved 73.0% for Overall CX — a 5.7 percentage-point gain from Q4 2025 — driven by improvements in both Accessibility (94.1%) and Agent Mastery (63.9%). The retailer reclaimed second place in Agent Mastery with an 8.4 percentage-point improvement, demonstrating balanced strength across both customer access and conversation quality.
⬆ Alinta achieves five consecutive quarters of Accessibility improvement
Alinta recorded its best-ever Accessibility result at 63.4% in Q1 2026, extending an unbroken improvement trajectory: 39.1% → 41.7% → 46.4% → 60.2% → 63.4%. This represents a 24.3 percentage-point gain over five quarters, demonstrating sustained focus on reducing customer access friction.
⬆ Energy Australia reverses four-quarter decline in Accessibility
Energy Australia improved Accessibility by 23.8 percentage points from its worst-ever Q4 2025 result of 34.1% to 57.9% in Q1 2026. The retailer also achieved the greatest improvement in Average Wait Time, reducing it by 01:38 (from 02:22 to 00:44).
📈 Momentum achieves best-ever Agent Mastery result
Momentum recorded its best-ever Agent Mastery result at 55.4% in Q1 2026, demonstrating improved conversation quality across the five ACXPA competencies of Engage, Discover, Educate, Close and Impact.
🌟 Red Energy leads Impact and Educate competencies
Red Energy led the Impact competency at 85.3%, reflecting strong ability to leave customers feeling confident and valued. The retailer also led Educate at 78.1%, demonstrating clarity and effectiveness in explaining product and service details.
⚠ Overall CX Challenges – Energy Retailers Q1 2026
📉 Origin Energy records historic collapse across all metrics
Origin Energy posted the worst Overall CX result in sector history at 24.8%, down from 41.0% in Q4 2025 and marking its fourth consecutive quarter of decline. The retailer also recorded the lowest-ever Accessibility (45.0%) and Agent Mastery (35.2%) results across any energy company since tracking commenced. Origin's six consecutive quarters of Accessibility decline saw it collapse from 81.9% in Q1 2025 to 45.0% in Q1 2026.
⏳ Origin's wait times reach new record high
Origin recorded an Average Wait Time of 6:45 in Q1 2026, up from 5:31 in Q4 2025 and representing the longest wait time ever measured by any energy retailer. This is Origin's fourth consecutive quarter ranked last for Average Wait Time. In a competitive acquisition environment where customers are enquiring about new energy plans, extended connection times materially increase the risk of abandoned enquiries and lost revenue opportunities.
🔻 Sector Average Wait Time deteriorates
The sector's Average Wait Time increased from 1:34 in Q4 2025 to 1:57 in Q1 2026, reversing the prior quarter's improvement. All energy retailers except Engie (unchanged at 0:04) and Energy Australia (improved by 01:38) experienced increased wait times. Momentum recorded the largest deterioration, increasing by 01:39 (from 01:20 to 02:59) to its worst-ever result.
🗣 Engage and Discover remain the weakest Agent Mastery competencies
The sector averaged 45.1% in Engage (building rapport and demonstrating ownership) and 40.4% in Discover (identifying and exploring customer needs). These early-stage competencies continue to represent the sector's weakest performance areas, indicating opportunity to improve rapport-building, active listening, and needs exploration in the critical opening stages of customer conversations.
⚡ Calls Answered in 10 Minutes declines sector-wide
The sector's Calls Answered Percentage dropped to 88.6% from 92.7% in Q4 2025. Origin Energy (61.1%) recorded the worst result in any quarter for an energy retailer since tracking commenced, extending its decline to four consecutive quarters. Alinta also declined significantly, falling to 76.7% after achieving 93.3% in Q4 2025, marking two consecutive quarters of decline.
Recognising Call Centre Excellence in the Energy Sector
Congratulations to the top-performing energy retailers delivering exceptional customer experiences in Q1 2026. These rankings are based on independent mystery shopping assessments, using real customer enquiries to evaluate how effectively providers support Australians looking to switch plans or connect new energy services.
Recognition in these rankings highlights retailers who excel at both customer access and conversation quality — turning first contact into confident conversions. In a competitive acquisition environment, every smooth interaction represents market share gained, while friction creates churn and wasted marketing investment.
73.0%
66.5% 62.9%
24.8%Quarterly Trend
Overall CX
Energy Retail Sector
The Overall CX Score is the most important metric in our benchmarking program – a single, weighted score that reflects how easy it is for customers to reach a contact centre and the quality of the experience once connected.
As the defining measure of customer experience, the Overall CX Score blends Accessibility (30%) and Agent Mastery (70%) to reflect both access and impact – with a greater emphasis on the agent’s role in shaping outcomes. Penalties are applied for major breakdowns to ensure a true picture of performance from the customer’s perspective.
Learn more about the Contact Centre CX Standards >
Key Metrics Trend – Energy Retailers (12-Month View)
The chart below highlights a 12-month trend across three core CX performance metrics for Australian energy retailers:
- Overall CX – A weighted composite score reflecting the end-to-end customer experience, factoring in accessibility, agent quality, and call handling efficiency.
- Accessibility – The ease of reaching a human agent measured across over 40 metrics, including ease of menu navigation, wait times, recorded messaging lengths and more.
- Agent Mastery – The quality and effectiveness of agent conversations delivered through soft skills and behaviours, measured across five core competencies and over 18 individual metrics.
Overall CX
This is the headline metric – representing the total customer experience across every stage of the call journey. It’s calculated using a weighted combination of the Accessibility and Agent Mastery scores, providing a holistic view of how well energy retailers are delivering end-to-end service during key sales interactions.
Accessibility
This measures how easily and quickly prospective customers can reach a real person. It includes navigating phone menus, clarity of options, queue times, and whether callers successfully speak with a representative. Higher scores reflect smoother, more customer-friendly access experiences.
Agent Mastery
This evaluates the quality and professionalism of frontline service. It includes how well retail energy call centre agents greet, listen, explain plan options, handle moving enquiries, and support switching decisions – along with empathy, clarity, and overall service delivery. It’s a direct measure of agent capability during high-value conversations.
Learn more about the Australian Contact Centre CX Standards that power these assessments.
