Australian Internet Retailers Q2 2024 Call Centre Rankings

The Australian Internet Retailers are assessed using the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards that have been developed and refined over 30 years to assess the moments that matter to customers.

When businesses consistently achieve high ratings in these core competencies, there is a direct correlation to improved business metrics however you measure them, such as improved Sales Conversions, NPS, Customer Effort Score, efficiency, reduced AHT, etc.

The standards apply to all contact centres and are adapted to customer service or sales calls.

• Customer Service is assessed across five core competencies and 18 call-handling behaviours that directly correlate to better customer and business outcomes: Engage, Discover, Educate, Close and Energy.
• Access is assessed using over 40 metrics, from average wait times, hold times, number of IVR options (press 1 for this, 2 for that), the time forced to listen to recording messages and so on.
• The Customer Experience score measures performance on the competencies that most influence the customer experience, and it’s this score that determines the overall ranking results.

As Australia’s #1 industry resource for contact centres, we provide insights, resources, and training to help Australian internet retailers improve the customer experience they provide, which in turn delivers improved efficiencies and cost savings for their stakeholders.

Access rankings across the Australian Internet Retailer sector are rated as ‘Exceeds Standard’, and the ranking score of 81.6% was the second highest recorded for all industry sectors in Q2 2024 (just behind Education/TAFEs on 81.8%).

• The easiest internet retailer to connect to a live customer service agent in Q2 2024 was iiNet, with a score of 95.1%, the highest of all contact centres nationally and the second consecutive quarter of being the most accessible business in Australia to connect to a live customer service agent.
• For Q2 2024, Telstra Internet was ranked the lowest and, therefore, the most difficult Internet retailer to connect to a live customer service agent, with a ranking score of 48.9%. Telstra Internet has ranked in last position for 11 consecutive months.
• Across the Internet retail sector, 3.7% of calls were not answered within a 10-minute threshold, which is the best quarterly result for internet retailers to date.  Aussie Broadband and Telstra Internet (88.9%) were the only two internet retailers that did not answer 100% of calls within the threshold.
• Australian Internet retailers averaged 2.0 layers of IVR menu options (press one for this, two for that), (+0.2% from Q1 2024), ranging from 1.7 layers (Optus Internet) to 2.4 (Telstra Internet).
• All Internet retailers had recorded messages customers were required to listen to prior to joining the queue, which ranged from 00:07 minutes (iiNet) to 00:31 minutes (Dodo Internet).
• Total Access Time, which captures the entire time from dialling until connecting to a live agent, decreased across the sector in Q2 2024 to 01:21 minutes, ranging from 00:30 minutes (Aussie Broadband) through to 04:23 minutes (Telstra Internet).
• Talk times decreased by 00:28 minutes to an average of 07:31 minutes across all Australian Internet Retailers in Q2 2024, ranging from 05:13 minutes (Dodo Internet) to 10:52 minutes (iiNet).

AVERAGE WAIT TIMES Q2 2024

• The average wait times across the Internet Retail sector decreased by 00:23 minutes (-31.1%) from 01:14 minutes to 00:51 minutes which was the lowest average wait time of all industry sectors for the second consecutive quarter.
• Average wait times in Q2 2024 ranged from 00:04 minutes (Dodo Internet) to 03:40 minutes (Telstra Internet).
• Dodo Internet has had the fastest wait times in Australia of all contact centres we assessed for the previous two quarters, averaging 00:03 minutes in Q1 2024 and 00:04 minutes in Q2 2024.
• Aussie Broadband has also been consistently fast, averaging 00:07 minutes in the previous two quarters.
• Whilst Telstra Internet had the longest wait times of all internet retailers, they also recorded the biggest improvement down from an average o6:30 in Q1 2024 to 03:40 minutes in Q2 2024 (-02:50 minutes/-43.6%).
• iiNet had the largest increase in wait times in Q2 204 from 00:05 minutes to 00:18 minutes (which is still a good result!).

The Quality of customer service across the Internet Retailer sector in Q2 2024 was rated ‘Meets Standard’ for the first time with a ranking score of 61.6%, up from 58.0% in Q1 2024 (+3.6%) and the highest customer service ranking of all industry sectors in Q2 2024.

• Customer Service quality rankings in Q2 2024 ranged from 37.1% (Dodo Internet) to 80.4% (TPG Internet).
• TPG Internet had the largest improvement in customer service (+15.8%), and Dodo Internet had the largest decrease (-9.0%) compared to Q1 2024.
• Of the five Quality Competencies we assessed using the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, the ‘Engage’ competency was rated lowest at 52.1%, up from 44.9% in Q1 2024 (+7.2%). While this was the lowest quality competency score for the internet retailers, it was their highest to date, and the highest of all industry sectors in Q2 2024. Whilst it’s an industry-leading result, it’s still only 52.1%, suggesting there is still a lot of scope for internet retailers to improve their initial engagement and rapport-building with customers.
• The ‘Engage’ competency scores ranged from 33.3% (Dodo Internet) to 80.6% (iiNet), the highest of all contact centres nationally in Q2 2024.
• The ‘Energy’ competency was the highest Customer Service competency in Q2 2024, with a score of 71.1% with scores ranging from 41.7% (Dodo Internet) to 100% (Aussie Broadband), the only internet retailer to achieve 100% in any quarter since records commenced.
• Using the customer’s name during the conversation,  one of the four ‘Engage’ behaviours, was ranked at 31.5%, consistent with the previous quarter, ranging from 0% (Optus Internet) to 88.9% (iiNet)
• ‘Empathy’, one of the four ‘Internet’ behaviours we assess, was also consistent with the previous quarter with 65.7%, ranging from 33.3% (Dodo Internet) to 100% (Aussie Broadband).
• The ‘Check’ results, one of the four ‘Educate’ behaviours, is used to assess if the customer service agent consistently checks in with the customer for understanding, comfort and suitability whenever key details are provided.  The Internet Retail sector ranking decreased to Q2 2024 to 14.8% (-7.4%) with 50% of internet retailers scoring 0%, the highest was 55.6% (TPG Internet).