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 Internet Providers October 2023 Call Centre Rankings
This is our third consecutive month of assessing the performance of call centres for Australian Internet Providers which first commenced in August 2023.
Each month, we conduct mystery shopping calls to a minimum of six different Internet Providers 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 >
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
Internet Providers Overall Rankings (October 2023)
The Overall Score Rankings provide insights into the Contact Centres we assessed as being the best for Australian Internet Providers.
Each mystery shopping call 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, Internet Providers (October 2023)
Following the August and September results, the Internet Providers were again rated as ‘Below Standard’ in October 2023 as assessed against the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards with an overall score of 53.4%, the lowest score since we began reporting in August 2023, decreasing 4.6% from the previous month.
For context, the mystery shopping scenarios we used in October 2023 were for new internet connections (new customer/revenue-generating opportunity).
- The overall scores for each Internet Provider ranged from 0% (Telstra) to 67.5% (iiNet), with iiNet being the top-rated Internet Provider for the second consecutive month.
- Accessibility scores (how easy it was to get through to a live person) across Australian Internet Providers continue to be strong, assessed as ‘Meets Standards’ with a score of 71.7%, with all Internet Providers with the exception of Telstra assessed as ‘Exceeding Standards’.
- We were unable to connect to a live person at Telstra as every single mystery shopping call exceeded the 10-minute wait time threshold where we disconnected. All other providers answered 100% of the mystery shopping calls we made within the 10-minute wait time.
- The Quality of customer service continues to be low across the sector (rated ‘Below Standard’) with a score of 54.7%, ranging from 42.1% (Dodo) to 59.9% (Optus).
- Average wait times across all Internet Providers increased to their highest-ever wait times in October 2023 with an average wait time of 02:43 minutes, an increase of 00:36 minutes from the September 2023 results.
- iiNet had the lowest average wait time for the month of October (00:05 minutes), the second consecutive month of being the quickest to answer of all Internet Providers (they had 00:08 minute average wait times in September 2023).
- Telstra had the longest wait times with all calls in excess of 10:00 minutes. Of the Internet providers that did answer their calls within our 10 minute wait time cut off, Optus had the longest average wait time of 04:10 minutes.
- Of the five Quality Competencies we assess using the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, the ‘Engage’ competency was the lowest rated at 41.7% for the third consecutive month. Internet Providers are continually failing to build rapport with customers, take ownership on the call and provide a personalised experience. With the Engage Competency, scores ranged from 33.3% (Aussie Broadband & Dodo) to 58.3% (iiNet).
- All Internet Providers had a minimum of one IVR layer (press one for this, two for that), which added, on average, an additional 00:20 minutes for customers to navigate (-00:15 minutes from September). Aussie Broadband had the quickest menu options (00:15 minutes), and Telstra had the longest (00:30 minutes).
- In addition to the menu navigation time, customers were also required to listen to pre and post-IVR recorded messages, adding an additional 00:08 minutes to each call (- 00:22 minutes from September), with Optus having the longest with 00:12 minutes.
- Talk time averaged 06:42 minutes across all Internet Providers, ranging from 04:50 minutes to 07:49 minutes.
Internet Providers Accessibility Rankings (October 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 internet requirements.
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 Internet Providers are terminated if wait times exceed 10:00 minutes. If any call wait time exceeds 10 minutes, the maximum threshold time of 10 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 10-minute threshold in their summary download report.
Key Findings – Accessibility & Average Wait Times, Internet Providers (October 2023)
Overall, the Accessibility of Internet Providers was rated as ‘Met Standards’ with a score of 71.7%, a decrease of 3.9% from the September 2023 results.
- All Internet Providers were assessed as ‘Exceeds Standards, ‘ with scores above 82.3%, with the exception of Testra, which was rated ‘Poor’. Telstra impacted the overall sector average, which was rated 0% for Accessibility in October 2023.
- Telstra was rated 0% for Accessibility in October 2023 as we were unable to connect to a live customer service person in any of our mystery shopping calls within 10-minute wait times, the time at which we disconnect.
- Average Wait Time for the Internet Providers increased by 00:36 minutes compared to the September 2023 results, with an average wait time of 02:43 minutes in October 2023, the highest average wait time since we commenced the reports in August 2023.
- With the exception of Telstra that was rated 0%, Optus was the lowest-rated Internet Provider for Accessibility in October 2023, with a score of 82.3%, which is still rated as ‘Exceeds Standards’, highlighting the strong performance of the businesses in this sector in making it easy for customers to connect to them.
- Across the Internet Providers we assessed, the sector failed to answer 17.7% of the mystery shopping calls we made within 10 minutes. This was solely attributed to Telstra scoring 0%; all other Internet Providers answered 100% of the calls we made.
- Three Internet Providers- Aussie Broadband, Dodo, and iiNet- have answered 100% of calls since we commenced reporting in August 2023.
- iiNet again achieved the quickest average wait time in October 2023, with a 00:05 minute average wait time. This is the second consecutive month they have been the quickest to answer calls.
- Telstra have had the longest wait times for the past two consecutive months, with 07:03 (September 2023) and 10:00 (October 2023). *As NO calls were answered within 10-minute wait times when we disconnected, the actual wait times would have been significantly longer.
- On average, across all the Internet Providers, an additional 00:20 minutes was required to navigate the IVR menu options, with Telstra’s taking the longest at 00:30 minutes.
- In addition to the time it requires customers to navigate the menu and wait for the call to be answered, Internet Providers also add time to each call with pre-recorded messaging that customers are forced to listen to, adding an additional 00:08 minutes to each call (a decrease of 00:22 minutes from September). Optus had the longest recorded messages with 00:12 minutes.
- Talk time across all Internet Providers averaged 06:42 minutes, ranging from 04:50 minutes (TPG) to 07:49 minutes (Optus).
Internet Providers Quality Rankings (October 2023)
Whilst average wait times are typically shorter for calls to the Internet Providers as compared to other industry sectors, it’s still what happens during the call that can have a large influence on the satisfaction of the customer.
Recent CX Statistics continue to highlight the importance of the live interaction 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 – 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, Internet Providers (October 2023)
When assessed against the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, the internet sector was again assessed as ‘Below Standard’ for Quality with score of 54.7%, a decrease of 4.7% from the September 2023 result of 59.4%.
- Optus was the top-ranked Internet Provider for Quality in October 2023, with a score of 59.9% (still rated as ‘Below Standard’).
- Optus was also the most improved from the previous month, with an increase of 12.6% (47.3% to 59.9%).
- Dodo had the largest decrease in their score, down 13.5% to 42.1%, the lowest of all Internet Providers in October 2023.
- We were unable to obtain a Quality score for Telstra as they failed to answer any of our Mystery Shopping calls within the 10-minute wait time threshold.
- Of the five quality competencies we assessed, collectively, Internet Providers were rated ‘Poor’ for ‘Engage’ and ‘Close’ and ‘Below Standard’ for ‘Discover’ and ‘Educate’. Only one competency, ‘Energy’, was rated as ‘Met Standard’.
- ‘Energy’ was the best-rated competency in October 2023 with a score of 63.3%.
- The lowest rated quality competency was ‘Engage’ with a score of 41.7%.
- Of the four elements we assessed within the ‘Engage’ competency, ‘Bridge’ was the poorest-rated element, with 60% of the Internet Providers scoring 0%.
- Training is available for all Internet Providers to improve their customer service quality (View: frontline employees courses and Team Leader courses).
Additional information on the quality competency scores is available below (or you can click here to jump to the section).
Internet Providers Quality Competencies Summary (October 2023)
Breaking quality performance into five core competencies (and 18 individual metrics) enables you to identify strengths and weaknesses that can be used for coaching to improve the agent’s performance.
We have training courses that can help both Team Leaders and frontline employees improve performance!
Download the ACXPA Members Summary Report (Internet Providers October 2023)
The ACXPA Members Summary Report for Internet Providers October 2023 contains additional data exclusive for ACXPA Members, including the results for three random Internet Providers each month.
Companies who purchase the Contact Centre CX Benchmarking service will see the FULL data for ALL Internet 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 (i.e. customers looking to purchase a new internet connection or considering a move from another provider)
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 Internet Provider – our paid service includes a minimum of six calls.
When you sign up for the CX Contact Centre Benchmarking service, you will receive at least six calls for your business along with every other Internet Provider included in the report. If you’d rather have a larger sample size, please refer to our Customer Service Benchmarking service >
Real customers are not interested in sample sizes or the thousands of other calls handled by the call centre each day, they only care about their call and will make all their judgements and decisions based on that one single experience.
And that’s what our Call Centre Rankings reports capture – what a random, real customer can and does experience.
Why aren’t all the Internet Providers included?
We’d love to have all the Internet Providers included; however, conducting independent Mystery Shopping is expensive!
We randomly chose six Internet Providers to commence our program with and as other Internet Providers purchase the CX Contact Centre Benchmarking, we’ll be able to include more Internet Providers each month.
How can we improve our score?
Our Mystery Shopping program has been designed to provide Internet Providers with the insights they need to improve performance!
When you sign up to our CX Contact Centre Benchmarking service, 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 Internet Providers that you can nominate. Learn more >
When you purchase the service, your contact centre will then be included in the public monthly reports.
How do I order the service?
We have an online ordering form that makes it easy to order the service, nominate the Internet 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 Internet Providers?
ACXPA Business Members get full access to the summary monthly data for three random Internet Providers each month (and other sectors) along with a host of other membership 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 customer enquiries so a potential sales opportunity for the Internet Provider.
Why do you hang up at either 10 or 15 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 either 10 minutes (sales scenarios) or 15 minutes (service scenarios) for three key reasons:
- Research has shown that these wait times are towards the end of the typical times customers will wait before they hang up.
- It keeps it real! Real customers don’t care about sample sizes, whether it was a busy day for the call centre or that they had high sick leave etc – they only care about their experience when they called, and that’s what our Mystery Shopping is designed to reflect – real customer experiences.
- 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 Internet Providers really care about the service they provide?
As a competitive marketplace, it means there are various commercial approaches. As a commoditised product (it’s typically the same internet when you switch on the computer no matter which Internet Retailer you purchase it from!), price is, of course, an important consideration.
But smart Internet Provider 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, an Australian Internet Provider chooses to under-resource the contact centre, or use offshore call centres, and can pass those savings onto you in the form of cheaper internet plans, 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 Internet 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. You can learn more about us here >
Purchase exclusive insights for your Internet Business
If you’d like to gain insights specifically for your contact centre performance, and benchmark your results against other Internet Providers, we’ve got a new, cost-effective, fixed-price benchmarking service that makes it easy!
Starting from just $1,297 per month, by purchasing 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 for any five internet companies you nominate, so you can benchmark your performance against other Internet Providers that matter the most to you.
- Aggregate data from all the other Internet Providers we assess providing you with 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.
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 >)
