Improving Customer Experience

Looking Ahead

Projects and activities planned for next financial year, some of which have already commenced, include the following:

• deliver the new website project, which seeks to improve our customers’ online interactions with us
• redefine how we deliver key services such as travel information, based on what the community wants and expects
• refine our new Customer Experience Measures, ensuring a focus on the right things and use of data and analytics to continuously improve
• transition Main Roads’ telephony services to be provided by the Department of Transport
• discover and surface previously untapped customer insights to help ensure every area at Main Roads is working towards better outcomes for the community

Our Customers’ Experience

Customer experience starts with understanding our customer needs, pain points and expectations. We use that understanding to develop and deliver services for improving experiences in all interactions.

We know we won’t always get it right, or make everyone happy all the time, but that doesn’t stop us from striving to deliver better outcomes for our customers and stakeholders.

General Gino

Customer Types: regional and metro motorists, general public or community members

Key Need: I want to travel from A to B safely and efficiently

Pain Points: I don’t like not knowing about issues affecting my journey until it’s too late, I don’t like not knowing what work is going on in my local area, I don’t like not knowing who to report issues to, I don’t like it when issues I’ve reported don’t get fixed

Improving Gino’s Experience: Communication during Incidents

Managing the road network during incidents and significant weather events is critical for us. This year, Tropical Cyclone Veronica caused 1,244 kilometres of road to be closed across the Pilbara and damaged numerous properties requiring substantial communication support during and after the cyclone.

We know that our customers like to source and receive information in different ways, particularly with regard to incidents and events with significant impacts on the road network.

During Cyclone Veronica we used a range of channels for communicating critical network information to road users and the community, including:

• Travel Map
• website
• traffic broadcasts
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Customer Information Centre.

Read the Cyclone Veronica Case Study to find out more.

Critical Christy

Customer Types: community advocates, local government, researchers and students

Key Need: I want to get the right information early on about the things that matter to me, so I can have my say

Pain Points: I don’t like finding out about things that impact me too late in the project, I don’t like not having an opportunity to have my say on things that matter to me, I don’t like feeling like my opinion doesn’t matter

Improving Chrissy’s Experience: MySay Transport

MySay Transport is an interactive, online consultation portal enabling the community to provide thoughts and insights for shaping Western Australia’s transport network.

Alongside our portfolio partners, we use MySay Transport to help shape what and how we deliver, operate and maintain State Roads in Western Australia. Through MySay we collect valuable feedback and data on proposed projects and initiatives.

Kwinana Freeway Foreshore Access

Between December 2018 and February 2019, we asked the community to complete a survey on how and when they use the Kwinana Freeway foreshore.

We received 366 responses and the information collected will assist us in planning for the future maintenance and protection of the Kwinana Freeway.

Visit MySay Transport to learn more.

Investigating Yvonne

Customer Types: industry or interest groups, lobbyists or journalists, politicians

Key Need: I want to get more information about an issue I am invested in and I want to get a response from Main Roads

Pain Points: I don’t like having to wait a long time for information or a response, I don’t like receiving less than the full story on an issue, I don’t like feeling that my opinion doesn’t matter

Improving Yvonne’s Experience: Project Website

We have made it easier for customers to discover how we are transforming and upgrading the road network, with the introduction of a state-wide map to our Project website. The map enables users to explore road projects in our state, including plans for future developments.

Users can view clusters of work in a state-wide view and zero in on areas of interest for project overviews with an option to read more on the detailed project pages. With a look and an approach based on Google Maps, the Project map provides a familiar and simple user experience.

The Stay Updated feature of the website allows customers to subscribe to the latest project news and keeps them up-to-date on areas they are invested in.

Visit the Project website to learn more.

All-Wheels Andy

Customer Types: heavy vehicle drivers or companies, fleet managers, compliance officers

Key Need: I want to be given timely and accurate information to get on with my job

Pain Points: I don’t like it when I’m on the move and I can’t access accurate road information, I don’t like trying to understand government lingo, I don’t like Main Roads changing things without me knowing

Improving Andy’s Experience: Travel Map

Our Travel Map helps residents, tourists and commercial road users travel on Western Australia’s vast road network. Sourced from a network of  data and information, the Travel Map provides accurate and timely information about road conditions, closures and other incidents that may impact road use.

Fatigue is a silent killer on Western Australian roads so planning ahead is crucial to managing fatigue on long road trips. This can present even bigger challenges for heavy vehicle drivers who do not have the same flexibility or capacity to stop and revive before continuing their journey.

This year, we enhanced our Travel Map to display a wide range of data about rest areas across the State road network. Additions such as Heavy Vehicle Parking and Overnight Stopping, allow drivers to plan journeys ensuring safe and efficient travel to and from their destination.

Visit the Travel Map to learn more.

Detail Darren

Customer Types: consultants, engineers, land developers, government

Key Need: I want to source relevant and accurate standards, specifications and guidelines so I can propose, design or construct

Pain Points: I don’t like not knowing what information I need to obtain, I don’t like things being out of date, I don’t like conflicting information

Improving Darren’s Experience: Standards and Technical Expertise

We have accumulated a wealth of specialised knowledge on design and construction of roads and bridges and associated environmental aspects. Expertise is used for developing guidelines, standards and specifications, for internal staff and external consultants.

This specialised knowledge is available on our website for customers like Darren. Such information plays an important part in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of our road network. On our website, a broad spectrum of information on the following is available: road and bridge design, environmental management, pavement technology, surveying methods and data, traffic engineering, and projects and contracts.

Visit Main Roads website to learn more.

Maintenance Max

Customer Types: traffic managers, minor works crews, local governments

Key Need: I want to know rules and regulations so I can get the job done

Pain Points: I don’t like not knowing what information I need to obtain, I don’t like the way in which things are processed and interpreted. It should be black and white. I don’t like not knowing where my application is in the approval process

Improving Max’s Experience: trafficmap

The trafficmap provides, in relation to roads in Western Australia, fast, easy traffic information about vehicles – including the number and type of vehicles travelling, speed of travel and, for some locations, the mass of the vehicle.

Drawing data from more than 4,000 sites across Western Australia, trafficmap helps identify the way people use the road network and how this has changed over time.

This makes the trafficmap vital for traffic managers, crews, local government and the community for planning, executing and navigating efficient and safe use of the road transport network.

Visit trafficmap to learn more

Community Perception Survey

Our annual Community Perception Survey gives people an opportunity to tell us what they really think. By examining responses about our performance in construction, maintenance and management of the road network, we can plan and deliver projects and services based on what the community wants, needs and expects.

The following table shows this year’s results.

We also ask the community to rate our performance across a range of services and responsibilities. 

This helps us determine our strengths and priorities, giving insights for integrating into our strategic planning and day-to-day operations.

At a state-wide level, priority areas for Main Roads to address are related to road infrastructure and minimising congestion.

The following matrix shows our perceived strengths and priority areas.

Customer Feedback

We value customer feedback and regularly investigate trends and issues that provide us with insights for improving our business areas. The types of feedback received from all sources across the past 12 months are shown below.

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.

Self-service options on the phone continue to improve services for customers. Our call volumes have had a very slight increase during 2019, and our customer interaction via email and digital services continues to rise. In 2019, we undertook work to refine the channels we use for engagement with our customers and to improve the digital experience. This continues to be a key priority as we progress the new website project in 2020.

Complaints Handling Process

We provide an accessible, fair and equitable complaint handling process, meeting Australian Standard for Complaints Handling, AS ISO 10002 – 2006.

We use our customer information and quality assurance framework to:

• check compliance to process and commitments
• 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.

Engaging with Local Communities

Main Roads is delivering an unprecedented program of major infrastructure works across the Perth metropolitan area, with 72 projects in the delivery stage and numerous others at the latter stages of design and development.

We are engaging with distinct communities across 29 Perth metropolitan projects and many more in the regions. Transforming our road network brings with it the challenge of minimising the impacts of construction on local communities in the vicinity of the works and providing timely, ongoing communication to road users.

We are widening key sections of the Mitchell and Kwinana Freeways, upgrading major intersections and enhancing other key arterial routes such as Armadale and Wanneroo Roads to improve safety, relieve congestion and enhance traffic flow.

In the past 12 months we have significantly strengthened contractual requirements for external contractors delivering engagement on our behalf, and put in place forums to encourage cross project collaboration, ensuring communications are delivered in an effective, customer-centric manner. The outcome has been a marked improvement in the quality and consistency of our engagement programs, in accordance with ever-increasing community expectations.

In addition to projects being delivered, future projects have necessitated earlier engagement with stakeholders and the community, fostering better understanding of the works and advocating our broader vision for our State’s road network.

Engaging at an earlier point within the project lifecycle enables us to integrate natural opportunities for regular evaluation following each phase of community input. Structured evaluations of our strategies are included at the end of the planning, development and procurement stages of the project lifecycle, and again at six-monthly intervals during the construction period.

Open and Transparent Project Communications

We provide project information and engagement opportunities reflecting the diverse ways in which communities seek and digest information. We maintain a strong digital presence ensuring changes to the road network can be shared in real-time and we utilise online engagement including community surveys with strong levels of participation.

Our communications include effective use of the portfolio MySay Transport forum, which has encouraged community participation on a number of high profile projects including the High Street Upgrade in Fremantle and our Orrong Road Planning Study.

This has been complemented by encouraging online subscriptions to our newsletters and project updates through our centralised Customer Relationship Management system, and the ongoing restructure of our Projects website to create a more user-friendly customer experience.

Widespread community input – though information sessions, reference group meetings and face-to-
face meetings on projects in both metropolitan and regional areas – confirms that traditional engagement techniques remain popular and relevant for the community.

Feedback from the broader community and specific stakeholders informs our work from early planning stages to final delivery; this is balanced against the technical requirements that ensure our road network enhancements continue to improve the travel experiences of all Western Australians.

Digital Channels

In addition to our regular media updates, we provide project and road user information on a range of digital channels. We support business areas within Main Roads with their communication needs, and our customers have told us that this is their preferred way of receiving information.

Our website continues to be a popular source of information for the community with more than 1.31 million visitors.

The official source of traffic and travel information for the main road network in Western Australia is our Travel Map. This includes live, up-to-date information on road conditions, closures and other incidents that may affect road use. With enhancements to rest area information, users can now filter travel requirements such as overnight stopping, accessible toilets and bins. The map is most popular during major incidents, and has had more than 858,000 visits.

We’ve made it easier for customers to discover how we’re transforming and upgrading the road network, with the introduction of a state-wide map. The map enables customers to explore all projects currently taking place across the state, including our plans for future developments.

Popular projects include:

• NorthLink WA
• Matagarup Bridge
• Great Northern Highway – Muchea to Wubin

Our Twitter following, for both our Metropolitan and Regional accounts, continues to grow with both accounts used by other agencies and the media for real-time traffic updates. Images during major incidents visually help motorists understand impacts, and they highlight the need to take alternative routes. Twitter continues to be a successful method of notifying road users of incidents or disruptions on the road network:

• Perth Traffic – 63,379 followers and 6,999 tweets, earning 49,336 clicks on links posted
• WA Roads – 16,878 followers and 1,598 tweets, earning 9,813 clicks on links posted.

Our Facebook channels are expanding with two new groups for customers to communicate with us. The Main Roads WA in the Kimberley Group allows customers in the Kimberley region to interact with us and to hear about things relevant to their community.

Information on major traffic disruptions during peak travel is now provided through our Perth Traffic Group. For users seeking information on possible impacts on their trip, this complements our existing traffic channels.

Customers continue to connect with us on our NorthLink WA Group, with the most popular topic being new road sections due to open. Our members have nearly tripled to 3,431.

Our corporate page, with more than 54,000 followers, continues to provide updates on our activity around the state. Our posts reached more than 5.5 million customers with images from hay bale relief deliveries over east being our most viewed post during the year, reaching more than half a million people. A new way to share information is through Facebook Stories and is another avenue for us to promote Main Roads.

To join any of our Facebook Regional or Project Groups visit the Main Roads Facebook page. Throughout the year we anticipate that more of our regions will create Community Group pages.

YouTube showcases some of our services, network changes and fantastic images of our construction projects. Our YouTube subscribers increased by 244 to 740 over the past 12 months and we expect this to continue as drone footage becomes more popular. We continue to promote this service across our other media.

We have nearly 2,500 Instagram followers and continue to develop our engagement focusing on trending hashtags and story highlights. The use of Stories, which are available for 24 hours, is increasing on Instagram. They are a great tool to promote communications, such as advising customers
what the Matagarup Bridge lighting theme is. Our Instagram account started in January 2016 and complements our digital channels.

LinkedIn allows us to engage with those specifically interested in Main Roads business and services. Our following, which increased by around 2,450 over the past year, is now more than 8,850 followers.

Disability Access and Inclusion Action Plan 2018-2020

Over the year, we have been working on delivering key actions from the Disability Access and Inclusion Plan (DAIP) 2018-2022. The DAIP aligns with the Western Australian Disability Services Act 1993, amended in 2004 and 2014, and was produced in recognition that people with disability, their families and carers have the same rights to access our products and services as any other member of the community. The implementation of our plan is being actioned by an internal working group and monitored by Corporate Executive to ensure we keep access and inclusion a high priority when we are making decisions.