Launch of the Australian Call Centre Rankings Report

Melbourne, Australia – September 21, 2023 – The Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) has launched a new industry report that sheds light on the experience consumers are receiving when trying to ring a contact centre in Australia.

The new Call Centre Rankings report assessed contact centres in Australia for Banks, Energy Providers, Councils, TAFEs and Internet Providers assessing their performance across over 40 different performance metrics.

“We assessed contact centres on two primary performance pillars, how easy it was to connect to a live agent factoring in wait times, the number of buttons to press etc., and then the experience of the interaction with the contact centre employee,” said Justin Tippett, CEO of ACXPA.

“Across the industry, it’s clear that businesses need to invest more into their contact centres to ensure its adequately resourced, and that contact centre employees are equipped with the skills they need to deliver efficient and effective customer experiences”, Tippett said.

Simon Blair, General Manager of Quality Insights for ACXPA, who has over 30 years of experience in the contact centre industry, is leading the team that conducts the Mystery Shopping calls and is the co-developer of the framework that is used to assess the performance of the contact centres.

“Whilst the current talk is all about AI and technology, the fundamental skills of customer service and basic contact centre management seem to be in freefall, so we’ll be helping organisations to identify specific areas of weakness and then ensuring they have the resources, training and support they need to deliver an improved level of service”.

“Not only is that great for customers, but delivering a better customer experience is great for businesses leading to increased efficiencies, increased profitability and higher levels of employee engagement and customer retention,” he said.

Australian Call Centre Rankings Report Key Findings

The first report revealed insights from assessing 36 different contact centres across five different sectors (Banking, Councils, TAFEs, Energy Providers and Internet Providers).

Key findings from the August 2023 report:

• 44% of calls to banks (for sales-related calls) were not answered either due to delays in excess of 10 minutes or due to technical glitches with the answering service/IVR. NAB and CBA were the only two banks that answered 100% of all the calls we made while we were unable to connect at all to ANZ.
• Banks were rated as the poorest performers of all industry sectors in both accessibility (29.7%) and the quality of the interactions (44.7%).
• Internet Providers (60.4%) were rated as providing the best overall customer experience, led by Aussie Broadband (77.8%) with Telstra the lowest (50.6%).
• The average time stuck in an IVR (press 1 for this, 2 for that) across the industry was 0:43 minutes, with Councils (0:20 minutes) providing the fastest navigation and Banks the longest (1:10 minutes) with up to 5 layers of options.
• The average wait time across the industry was 03:13 minutes with the best sector Internet Providers (0:51 seconds) with banks the longest (4:42 minutes) however, several banks had delays in excess of one hour at various times.
• When assessing the best quality over the phone, the energy sector led the way (63.9%) with Red Energy (75.4%) the best performer and Alinta Energy the lowest score (56.3%).
• Banks (44.7%) and TAFEs (45.9%) delivered the poorest quality over the phone with NAB (31.3%) and TAFE WA (34.0%) the lowest rated in the respective sector.
• Of the Councils assessed, Monash City, Victoria (31.3%) and City of Casey, Victoria (33.8%) received the lowest Quality Score, with City of Onkaparinga rated the highest (83.8%).
• Best overall performance by sector:
  • Banks – Commonwealth Bank (45.2%)
  • Energy Providers – Simply Energy (69.7%)
  • Internet Providers – Aussie Broadband (77.8%)
  • Councils – City of Onkaparinga, South Australia (87.3%)
  • TAFEs – Tas TAFE (60.7%)

To see more insights from the report, visit: https://acxpa.com.au/call-centre-rankings/australian-call-centre-industry/

About ACXPA

ACXPA helps Australian businesses elevate their customer experience via voice, digital and in-person channels by empowering their employees with the skills, industry insights and professional support networks they need to succeed.

ACXPA is backed by leading Customer Experience (CX) experts from brands including SEEK, Red Energy and Yarra Valley Water. Members have access to monthly symposiums and workshops, a Video Library of expert presentations, in-person networking events, world-class training, templates and calculators, members and suppliers directory, support forums and other practical resources.

Learn more about ACXPA: https://acxpa.com.au/about-acxpa/

Media Contact:

Justin Tippett, ACXPA CEO

[email protected]

0418 396 691

Media Resources: https://acxpa.com.au/media-kit/