Australian Call Centre Rankings August 2023 Industry Results
Executive Summary
Launched in August 2023, ACXPA commenced publishing insights into the performance of the Australian Contact Centre industry each month.
Not based on company-submitted results, but on independent Mystery Shopping calls designed to reveal insights into the customer experience that customers receive when contacting organisations via their contact centre.
The calls are assessed against the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, with over 48 individual metrics providing clear insights into the experience customers receive in trying to connect to a live agent, as well as the experience interacting with the agent.
In our first Australian Call Centre Industry Performance August 2023 report, we turned our attention to five industry sectors:
- Banking (New customer enquiry to invest some money)
- Councils (General Enquiries)
- TAFEs (New course purchase enquiry)
- Energy Providers (New customer sales opportunity)
- Internet Providers (New customer sales opportunity)
For each sector, we’ve randomly selected a minimum of five different businesses with the key observations including:
- 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.
- Banks were rated as the poorest performers of all industry sectors in both accessibility and the quality of the interactions.
- Internet Providers (60.4%) were rated as providing the best customer service, however, still well short of providing a premium level of customer service.
- The average time stuck in an IVR (press 1 for this, 2 for that) was 0.43 minutes, which customers are forced to go through before being able to connect to a live agent. Councils (0:20 minutes) offered the fastest navigation with 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)
- Energy Providers delivered the best quality over the phone (63.9%) with Banks the poorest (44.7%,) just marginally behind TAFEs (45.9%).
- Across the five quality metrics we assess, ‘Engage’ was the poorest across the industry, resulting in customer interactions that start poorly, and they don’t tend to improve from there.
The report and data below provide summary insights across the core competencies we use to assess performance. Each month, we’ll continue to add additional sectors and businesses.
If you’d specifically like your business or industry sector to be included, please refer to our Contact Centre CX Benchmarking Service.
Ranking Key:
Poor
< 45%
Below Standard
46% to 60%
Meets Standards
61% to 75%
Exceeds Standards
76% to 90%
Outstanding
> 90%
Overall Performance Scores for August 2023
The ACXPA Contact Centre Insights Score (ACCIS) provides an overall performance score for contact centre performance in Australia based on live Mystery Shopping calls that consists of two primary components:
- Contact Centre Accessibility Score (CCAS) – measuring the experience of connecting to a live contact centre agent.
- Quality Insights Score (QIS) – the experience measuring the interactions with a contact centre agent.
We add both scores together and apply a weighting of 70% to the QIS score and 30% to the CCAS score to determine the final ACCIS score, along with some additional percentage deductions based on the overall call answered percentage.
This places a higher weighting on the quality (and skill) of the interaction with the expectation that getting through to an organisation with ease should be the minimum expectation.
The ACCIS score is used to determine the industry sector rankings we produce each month (below) as well as the overall rankings (best to worst) call centres by industry sector.
August 2023 Overall Rankings by Sector Leaderboards
Accessibility
The Contact Centre Accessibility Score (CCAS) measures the experience before interacting with a live agent.
Performance is measured across five different categories and 30 individual elements including:
- If the calls were answered within thresholds*
- Queue Wait time.
- How easy it was to navigate the menu (press 1 for this, 2 for that).
- The number of IVR layers.
- The time taken to navigate the menu.
- How easy it was to find the phone number.
- If there was a push to other channels (i.e. live chat, contact forms etc_
- Quality of audio.
- And lots more!
*We wait on hold for 10 minutes (sales scenarios) or 15 minutes (service scenarios) before we disconnect the call.
Accessibility Summary August 2023
- 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.
- The average time stuck in an IVR (press 1 for this, 2 for that) was 0.43 minutes, which customers are forced to go through before being able to connect to a live agent. Councils (0:20 minutes) offered the fastest navigation with 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)
Quality
The Quality Insights Score (QIS) measures the experience a customer has when interacting with a contact centre agent for either a customer service or sales call.
Quality is assessed across five core competencies and 18 call-handling behaviours that directly correlate to better customer and business outcomes.
- ENGAGE – Build a strong first impression and build trust through taking ownership, personalising and revealing how you will help satisfy their needs.
- DISCOVER – Conversation that explores and confirms both what they need from the call and what they wish to achieve through your products and services.
- EDUCATE – Fully inform your customer with targeted, relevant information that checks suitability, understanding, commitment & resolution.
- CLOSE – Control the end of the call with a strong final check, expression of gratitude and thanks to create a strong final impression.
- ENERGY – Energy, empathy, clarity and efficient call management that builds connection and makes it easy for the customer to get what they need.
Learn more about the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards >
Quality Summary August 2023
- Overall, the industry was rated as ‘Below Standard’ with a Quality Score of 53.2%
- Energy Providers delivered the best quality over the phone (63.9%) with Banks the poorest (44.7%,) just marginally behind TAFEs (45.9%).
View Additional Quality Information By Sector: Banks | Councils | Energy Providers | Internet Providers | TAFES
Average Call Centre Wait Times
Queue Wait Times by Industry Sector
The Average Call Centre Wait Times in Australia 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).
For most people, they would refer to this as waiting in a call centre queue, 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 calls and 15:00 minutes for customer service calls so any wait times above this are not included meaning actual wait times would be higher than reported.
Industry Average
Lead Sector: Internet Providers
Longest Sector: Councils
Banking
Sector Average
Shortest Average Wait
Longest Average Wait
Energy
(Electricity)
Sector Average
Shortest Average Wait
Longest Average Wait
Internet
Sector Average
Shortest Average Wait
Longest Average Wait
TAFEs
Sector Average
Shortest Average Wait
Longest Average Wait
Councils
Sector Average
Shortest Average Wait
Longest Average Wait
View Additional Average Wait Time Information By Sector: Banks | Councils | Energy Providers | Internet Providers | TAFES
How many contact centres do you assess in each sector?
Each month we do a snapshot of the industry and typically mystery shop a minimum of five different businesses in each sector.
Can I get the data for each contact centre that was assessed in each sector?
Yes, businesses that join the Contact Centre CX Benchmarking Service receive data on all the contact centre centres assessed in the same sector as you (we guarantee a minimum of five other competitors you can benchmark against).
How many mystery shopping calls do you conduct for each business?
A real customer makes their assessment off the single call that they make – they don’t care about averages and minimum sample sizes – their entire judgement will be made from that one call. Harsh, but true.
At a minimum, we will conduct at least three different calls at different times and days to each business and we assess each call across over 40 different metrics.
Is there a way to ensure my contact centre is included?
Yes, please refer to our Contact Centre CX Benchmarking Service which offers a fixed-priced model. Businesses that are subscribed to the service will have their results included in the published results each month.
I didn’t see my business sector – is there a way to get benchmarking data for my business sector?
Yes! If you join our Contact Centre CX Benchmarking Service, you’ll receive insights for your contact centre, plus five other competitors you nominate.
This will provide you with both industry sector information and some great insights into how to improve your own contact centre’s performance and how you compare against others in the industry. Learn more >
Is there trend data available?
We started publishing reports in August 2023 and additional trends and insights will be made available for ACXPA Members. View Membership options >
View Additional Information By Sector: Banks | Councils | Energy Providers | Internet Providers | TAFES
