New study exposes poor customer service across super fund call centres

Superannuation is mandatory and good customer service should be too.

Super Consumers Australia is calling for mandatory customer service standards after a mystery shopping study of 20 major super fund call centres gave the industry a failing grade. The country’s largest super fund, AustralianSuper, stood out for the wrong reasons, failing to answer 90% of calls.  

The consumer advocacy body partnered with Customer Service Benchmarking Australia (CSBA) to independently assess call centre customer service across 1,000 mystery shopper calls. The full report includes fund-by-fund rankings, and consumers can use Super Consumers Australia’s new online comparison tool to see how their fund’s call centre performed in the pilot study. 

The study comes as consumer harms persist due to poor customer service across super funds, including delays to death and disability benefit payments, service disruptions and cyber incidents. Poor service can prevent people from accessing their own super and make difficult situations even more distressing.

“People don’t just need a healthy super balance to have a dignified retirement. They need to know their fund will pick up the phone when they’re grieving, need to access their money or ask a simple question, and actually help them,” says Super Consumers Australia CEO Xavier O’Halloran.

The pilot found:

• No fund performed strongly: the average customer experience score was just 49.9%, no fund scored above 55%, and none reached the 80% “green zone”. 
• Many funds failed to take ownership: 23% of prospective customers were told to “go online” as the only solution. In 58% of calls where someone rang on behalf of a customer with limited English, funds shifted responsibility back to the caller instead of offering direct support to the customer. 
• Many funds failed to provide empathy and support: 70% of calls from customers experiencing vulnerability scored 5 out of 10 or lower for empathy. These calls involved people urgently seeking access to super after distressing events, but funds often failed to acknowledge hardship, ask questions or explain what help was available. 
• Service was a lottery: individual call scores ranged from 20% to 86%, showing callers didn’t get consistent support, even within the same fund. 

Two funds, AustralianSuper and Team Super, struggled to answer the phone and were therefore excluded from the overall rankings. Just 10% of calls to AustralianSuper connected and 52% to Team Super, compared with 87% overall. 

Mandatory standards are needed to lift service 

Super Consumers Australia said the findings show the need for mandatory customer service standards across the super system, backed by public reporting, independent benchmarking and better staff training.

“Superannuation is mandatory, but good customer service is not. That has to change,” says Mr O’Halloran. “This pilot study shows that, right now, getting the right support can depend on who answers the phone.”

The organisation said people can see how the 20 major super funds tested performed on customer service using its pilot comparison tool. If their fund is not listening, explaining things clearly or helping them resolve issues, they should make a complaint and ask the fund to fix the problem.

“People should not have to beg their super fund for basic help. If your fund is not listening, complain. If poor service keeps happening, consider taking your money elsewhere,” says Mr O’Halloran. 

Media contact: 

Talisa Clavijo (02) 7908 6323
tclavijo@superconsumers.com.au

Downloads and resources

Superannuation Call Centre Scorecard

Superannuation Call Centre Experience Report (July 2026) – CSBA

Good super service shouldn’t be a lottery (July 2026) – Super Consumers Australia