Councils Call Centre Wait Times the Worst in Australia

Melbourne, Australia - October 3, 2023 - The Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) has released their latest industry report that sheds light on the experience consumers are receiving when trying to ring a local council in Australia.

Mystery Shopping conducted throughout August 2023 revealed that across five sectors, including Banks, Energy Providers, TAFEs and Internet Providers, that Councils had the longest wait times of all the sectors.

"We assessed Council's 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 quality of the interaction with the contact centre employee," said Justin Tippett, CEO of ACXPA.

Key findings from the Councils report included: 

Average wait times for councils was 5:25 minutes, the longest across all sectors measured in the report. 

Brisbane City Council (QLD) had the lowest wait times (0:22 minutes) with City of Stirling (WA) the longest at 11:22 minutes, followed by City of Casey (Vic) with 10:14 minutes.

Across all calls to councils, 11% of calls made to councils were not answered after exceeding the 15-minute wait threshold. City of Casey (Vic) and City of Stirling (WA) failed to answer 33% of calls made within the 15-minute threshold.

The Quality of service across all councils assessed was rated as 'Below Expectations' with the best performer the City of Onkaparinga (SA) with 83.8% and City of Casey (33.8%) and Monash City (31.3%) the two lowest rated performers.

66% of councils had no IVR (press 1 for this, press 2 for that) making it easier for customers to connect to a live agent, with City of Stirling the only council assessed to have two layers of options.

City of Casey, although only having one IVR layer, took the longest on average to navigate( 0:53 minutes).

Three councils had no IVR making it easier for customers to connect directly to an agent - Brisbane City, City of Onkaparinga and Monash City.

Councils were rated as 'Met Expectations' for the Accessibility metric (70.4%) with City of Onkaparinga (SA) the highest rated (95.7%) through to City of Stirling WA (37.5%) and City of Casey Vic (37.7%) the most difficult councils to access a live agent.

"Whilst there were a couple of stand-out performers, it's clear there are frustrations for ratepayers who just want to speak to someone at their local council. Even basic things like a friendly welcome, using the customer's name etc. were lacking in many councils resulting in very transactional interactions where people are treated like an inconvenience, rather than treating the customer with a personalised, friendly experience" said Tippett.

To see more insights from the report, visit: https://acxpa.com.au/mystery-shopping-insights/

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/

ENDS