The Minister for Human Services has reported that Centrelink’s phone line waiting times have “dramatically improved” since the 2,750 extra call centre workers were appointed last year and in 2017.
The Minister, Michael Keenan said that about half of the new staff had completed their training and were now helping to answer tens of thousands of additional customer calls each week.
“This boost has resulted in an 11-minute reduction in wait times on Centrelink’s employment services line and a four-minute improvement on the families line,” Mr Keenan said.
“The early results are extremely encouraging and prove that the use of private call centre workers is an effective and efficient way to improve customer service at Centrelink.”
He said the new workers had been with Centrelink for just a few months, but already there were “dramatic” improvements on some of the busiest phone lines.
“This will be welcome news for the more than one million Australians who call Centrelink every week,” Mr Keenan said.
“We have also achieved a 42 per cent reduction in the number of engaged signals experienced by callers — something that I have been determined to eliminate since taking on the Human Services portfolio just over a year ago.”
He said that with more than 1,000 extra staff still to come on board over the next few months, he was confident that even better results could be delivered during the year.
