Completion date: September 2025
The Australian Centre for Evaluation helped Services Australia test how a simple SMS impacts call‑answer rates.
Every year, Services Australia contacts thousands of customers while delivering services. Yet customer service officers cannot always get through.
To test ways to get more customers answering calls, Services Australia ran a randomised trial and a staff survey.
Methods
During the trial, Services Australia called almost 5,000 customers. These customers were randomly allocated to one of the following groups:
- received the existing pre‑call SMS
- received a pre‑call SMS with revised wording
- received no pre‑call SMS.
Services Australia ran a survey to explore staff views along with the trial. The agency’s internal data and ethics risk assessment processes reviewed the evaluation. The trial approach was set out in a pre‑analysis plan.
Key findings
The trial showed the SMS worked. For customers who received an SMS, call‑answer rates went up by 12 per cent. This compared to 52 per cent for customers who did not receive the SMS.
Changing the SMS wording, however, brought no further benefits.
This finding supports Services Australia’s continued use of SMS to alert customers, both in existing and new areas. It shows how testing ideas like this can help improve service delivery – saving time for agency officials and customers.