Customer Service Overload: New Zealand Spent 24 Million Hours On Hold In 2024

Auckland, New Zealand – 5 March 2025 – New research from ServiceNow, the AI platform for business transformation, reveals New Zealanders spent 24 million hours (11.3 hours per person) waiting to make a complaint or resolve an issue in 2024.

The ServiceNow Customer Experience Report reveals one reason behind lengthy wait times is customer service employees are only spending one day (22%) in a typical five-day working week fixing customer issues, with their remaining time wasted on tasks like admin (16%), chasing other departments for information (10%) or waiting for answers (9%).

The report shows wait times have improved slightly, down 4% from 25.1m hours last year. This is partly explained by fewer people contacting customer service (down 2%) and more people using digital channels, like online chat (+5%), brand apps (+22%) and social media (+8%), which on average take less time than phone or email*.

Kate Tulp, New Zealand Country Manager, ServiceNow says:

“For the first time, we’re seeing signs that some organisations are addressing our nation’s customer service problem, by helping teams with the right tech to solve issues fast. In a cost-of-living crisis where 96% of people are changing behaviour like cutting back on spending, customers will vote with their feet and turn their backs on poor service”

In comparison, Australia’s customer service has continued to decline, with wait times across the ditch skyrocketing to 123.6 million hours – 11.1 hours per person.

Service disconnect

The research reveals a significant disconnect between the service businesses think they are delivering and what customers experience:

• Customers say they wait more than 4 days on average for issues to be fixed
• Yet the majority (56%) of customer service employees claim its less than 30 minutes to resolve simple complaints
• 62% customer service employees say complex issues are solved in under 2 hours

Ms Tulp says: “It’s great to see we’re beating the Aussies where wait times are still getting worse. Kiwi are making the move to digital channels, and businesses are waking up to the problem by using technology to resolve issues without human intervention.”

Ms Tulp continues: “Despite a small improvement, business leaders shouldn’t be high fiving themselves. Your teams may think they are fixing things quickly, but your customers disagree. This shows how disconnected organisations are, which leads to significant delays customer service teams are often not aware of.”

Customer service fast-track

When making a complaint, Kiwi are reaching for contact methods that are slower than AI-powered options, with phone the most popular despite being one of the slowest.

• Email takes 2.8 hours on average to reach a resolution
• Phone takes 2.5h
• Social media 1.6h
• Brand apps 1.5h
• Online chat (live chat, AI chatbot) 1.4h

Industry breakdown

• Nearly every sector struggled with increasing wait times:
• The financial services industry and government fared worst, taking 1.7 hours on hold
• Government had a spike in wait times, climbing by 30 minutes per person
• Telecommunications (1.6 hours)
• Retail & ecommerce (1.4 hours)
• Household and utilities (1.3h) was the only sector to improve year on year (cf. 2023 1.4)
• Transport was the best performing (1h)

Organisational roadblocks causing delays and employee stress

Employees face significant roadblocks to solving customer issues:

• One third of employees (32%) say delays in receiving responses or support from other teams is an issue
• 31% are slowed down by repeatedly having to explain the same issue to multiple people or departments
• just one in five (21%) saying their organisations systems – from CRM to billing, delivery and logistics – are integrated and working together easily

Ms Tulp says: “Any leader should be asking themselves – why are we paying our customer service teams to spend four days in five on internal systems? AI can become the brains of your organisation so your team can focus on what they’re supposed to – helping customers!”

These roadblocks are taking a toll on employee wellbeing:

• 1 in 2 (53%) say angry customers are the most challenging part of their role
• 41% struggle with customers who are emotional or upset
• Nearly a quarter say they need more training (23%)
• 1 in 5 says they need more supportive management (22%) and better mental health support (20%) to manage their current role

Fixing the issues

The research reveals an increased appetite for brands to roll out AI-powered tools to support customer demands.

• Three quarters of consumers believe AI will help with after-hours service (74%)
• 3 in 5 (59%) think AI will improve speed and efficiency
• Yet just 13% of customer service employees say their organisation has an AI chatbot available for their customers to use

Kate Tulp says: “Organisations need to act now before customers leave. More than 4 in 5 will ask for a refund or switch brands for slow service. With loyalty on edge, the answer is simple: provide a fast and easy customer journey. AI is the answer to our nation’s customer service problems: it will help people get what they need, when they need it.”

Case study – Southern Cross Health insurance adopts AI to improve service

New Zealand’s largest private health insurer, Southern Cross Insurance, has deployed an AI-powered virtual agent with ServiceNow to help its team resolve common requests.

“We now have a 24/7 service desk where employees can easily find what they need anytime and have deflected hundreds of calls since we went live,” says James French, Principal Lead – Platform Experiences at Southern Cross Health Insurance.

“Users can now track the status and resolve issues quickly. Even when there is a delay, they know why and how they can follow up. This improved our satisfaction rating to 99.3% last year, up from 70%,” continues James.

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