Improving Customer Experience
Aim
Providing a transport network centred on what our customers need and value
Approach
- Working with our customers to understand what they need and value
- Ensuring consistent communications
- Seeking to improve our customers’ experiences
- Encouraging shared vision and commitment
- Demonstrating a proactive whole-of-government approach to transport outcomes
Key Performance Indicators
Target achieved
Not achieved - action is being taken
On watch
Target
| Status | Level Of Achievement |
|---|---|
| % Overall satisfaction with our performance |
|
| % of calls self-serviced |
|
| % Customer Centre resolving enquires at first point of contact |
|
Looking Ahead
- Deliver the "Improving Main Roads Digital Presence" project which seeks to ensure a digital presence effectively servicing customers’ needs in a way that minimises resource requirements
- Engage with the community to review and further develop customer segments and needs
- Develop a corporate stakeholder engagement plan and measures to determine effectiveness
- Audit and review existing Advisory Groups
Introduction
Our goal is to provide consistent communications and services of value to our customers by understanding their needs. Through profiling and segmenting we seek to understand how our customers use the network and what their information requirements are. Over the next year we will be seeking input from our customers to assist in defining their needs and what they value in terms of transport outcomes. Customer experience has three key focus points.
- Community engagement: moving towards partnering with the community through utilising the knowledge, views and expertise of the community to guide sustainable outcomes in our decision-making
- Stakeholder engagement: partnering with stakeholders by utilising their knowledge, views and expertise to guide sustainable outcomes in our decision-making
- Customer experience: the holistic experience our customers and stakeholders have with us, recognising that they are likely to engage at different times in all categories of business and via multiple touch points
Good customer experiences create the strongest possible reputation within the community for Main Roads. We want to be recognised as an organisation with world-class outcomes for our customers, achieved through a safe, reliable and sustainable road-based transport system.
Customer Segments, Needs and Commitments
As part of the first phase of our Customer Experience Initiative we have identified customer segments, needs and commitments. We are keen to seek additional feedback through our online form. Information, still at draft stage, is set out in the tables below.
- Data and technical information
Customers who want or require easy access to our data and information - Feedback and involvement
Customers who want to be heard and considered - Approvals and advice
Customers who want/need approval processes and/or advice - Travel experience
Customers who want a safe and reliable travel experience
The next steps of the Customer Experience Initiative are to validate, prioritise and weight the customer segments and to identify and test complimentary needs and commitments. We will then feed these into the redevelopment of our customer experience and the “Improving Main Roads Digital Presence” project.
Community Perception Survey
Our Community Perception Survey has been conducted annually for more than 20 years giving us information on how the community perceive overall performance in the areas of safety, maintenance and the provision of cycleways and pedestrian facilities. The following table shows this year’s results.
| Satisfaction with | 2015 (%) | 2016 (%) | 2017 (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our overall performance | 96 | 91 | 87 |
| Road safety | 94 | 91 | 90 |
| Provision of cycle ways & pedestrian facilities | 76 | 83 | 87 |
| Road maintenance | 95 | 88 | 84 |
| Sustainability* | - | - | 85 |
*Collected for the first time in 2017
As part of the survey we also asked the community to rate our performance on a range of factors. The following graph shows those results compared against last year’s responses. Outcomes are similar, with a positive element being the increased satisfaction around managing traffic congestion.
Customer Feedback
We value customer feedback and regularly report on and investigate trends and issues, to provide insights for and to help improve our business areas. We continue to see a large increase in the number of customer requests and a growing but smaller increase in complaints. The types of feedback received from all sources across the past 12 months are shown below.
Customer Requests
This year we received almost 7,000 customer requests. The top 10 categories are shown and represent almost 65 per cent of all customer requests.
Customer Complaints
This year we received almost 3,400 customer complaints. The top 10 categories are shown and represent almost 80 per cent of all customer complaints.
Customer Information
We provide a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year service through our Customer Information Centre (CIC). The CIC plays an important role in state-wide incident response and management, providing timely and accurate information to the public. Our front-line customer service area is also an important information source for road network activity.
Introducing self-service options on the phone continues to improve services for customers. While call volumes continue to increase, our reach to the community also continues to grow through our social media channels and online services. Refining the channels we use to engage our customers continues to be a priority.
| Customer Contact Statistics | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telephone calls | 119,400 | 124,664 | 103,531 |
| No of calls self-serviced * | 22,817 | 16,409 | |
| Email enquiries | 21,270 | 21,046 | 30,474 |
| % of enquiries to customer centre | 91 | 86 | 73 |
*Introduced mid 2015 first year full reporting is 2016
Complaints Handling Process
We provide an accessible, fair and equitable complaint handling process, meeting Australian Standard for Complaints Handling, AS ISO 10002 – 2006. Fifty per cent of respondents to last year’s complaints survey judged our handling of their complaint as satisfactory. This figure is based on our monthly complaints handling survey which aims to:
- Check compliance to process and commitments
- Assess customer perception
- Identify staff training requirements
- Investigate and resolve reasons for non-compliance
- Identify opportunities to improve customer experiences.
For more information on complaints or to understand our commitment to follow through on your concerns, please visit our website.
Digital Channels
In addition to our regular radio updates and early morning television crosses we also provide travel journey information on a range of digital channels. We support business areas within Main Roads, such as incident management, as we find this the best way to reach our customers. Following is an overview of our digital communication approaches.
Website
Our website continues to be a popular source of information for the community with more than 1.74 million visitors to the website from more than 200 countries during the year. Popular content includes:
- Travel planning information, with Alerts being the most visited area of the site
- Heavy vehicle services
- Project information including NorthLink WA, Mitchell Freeway and Roe 8.
Our following for both our Perth Traffic and WA Roads accounts continues to grow with both used by other agencies and the media for real-time traffic updates. We now use images on Twitter for special event messaging, boosting customer engagement. Twitter continues to be a successful method of notifying road users of incidents or disruptions on the road network.
- Perth Traffic – 56,700 followers and 4,885 tweets, earning 10.8 million impressions. Click here for more info.
- WA Roads – 14,100 followers and 1,034 tweets earning 1.58 million impressions. Click here for more info.
On our Facebook account, updates of what we are doing around the state help us stay in touch with the community. In the past year our Facebook following grew to just over 41,000. Our posts reached more than 3 million customers with Throwback Thursday (#TBT) continuing to be a community favourite.
Youtube
Youtube showcases some of our services, network changes and fantastic images of some of our construction projects. Our YouTube subscribers increased by more than 50 per cent to 381 over the past 12 months and we expect this to continue as we grow our content and continue to promote this service across our other medium.
Our Instagram account, which started in January 2016, complements our digital channels. We have more than 1,400 followers and will continue developing our Instagram engagement with the community
LinkedIn allows us to engage with those specifically interested in Main Roads business and services. More than 4,200 experts and professionals follow and share our posts, providing another channel in a suite of communications tools
Review of Digital Experience
The Improving Main Roads Digital Presence project seeks to move Main Roads from a digital presence that has grown organically to service a number of identified customer needs, to a digital presence that effectively services our customer needs in a way that maximises return on investment. The project commenced in June 2016 and will continue throughout 2017-18.
Road Crews Go Above and Beyond
Our work crews provided excellent customer service for the community in a busy year on regional roads. Visit the case study for a small sample of some of their stories.
View Case Study