By taking a people, process and systems approach, one water utility’s customer experience transformation project has streamlined services and significantly improved satisfaction, showing how digital tools, co-design and cultural change can create more transparent, efficient and trusted services.
During Ozwater’25, Urban Utilities’ Developer Services Transformation Project won the national Customer Experience Award (sponsored by WSAA) at the Australian Water Awards. The Customer Experience Award recognises projects that promote a culture of valuing excellent customer experience and moving towards customer centricity.
The project delivered an innovative digital solution alongside a cultural change program, resulting in an outstanding 10% uplift in Overall Customer Satisfaction by meeting the needs of diverse customer groups.
Know of an outstanding water community project? Nominations for state and territory awards are now open.
Urban Utilities Head of Developer Services, Customer and Innovation, Nicole Johnson said the transformation behind the project was threefold, focusing on people, systems and processes, in order to benefit everyone.
“We took that approach because we realised there were multiple problems we needed to solve. And when we talk about people, that includes both our customers and our team,” she said.
“The transformation project was about moving from a predominantly manual operating arrangement, which wasn’t always meeting the needs of our customers or our team, to something more efficient, faster, and easier to use for everyone.”
With the utility working towards true digital transformation, Johnson said there was a need to revisit processes, practices, support templates and customer guidance: “We approached it as a coordinated, team-led effort. That created shared ownership, both internally and externally”.
“The reality is, we might design something and think it's brilliant, but our customers might disagree. That’s why we built trust by testing things with them. Even having them vote on priorities helped,” she said.
“It was eye-opening. Often our team’s needs aligned closely with customer needs. There were some differing expectations, but generally, what’s easier for us tends to be easier for our customers, too.”
Johnson said that all businesses need to deliver more for less, and operate with prudency and efficiency, while ensuring great value, and Urban Utilities is no exception.
“We heard directly from our customers and our people – they wanted a better experience and expected greater transparency and enablement. At the same time, we have continued to receive increasing application volumes and with greater complexity,” she said.
“As such, the challenge was to meet increasing demands and expectations while enhancing quality assurance, efficiency, activity information, customer service and employee experiences.”
Johnson said enhanced visibility and self-servicing, digital notifications, and automation of services in the Developer Services Portal were the top three customer nominated digital benefits that really shifted the dial.
“We know from surveys and forums that our development customers want easy, timely, flexible and transparent assessment services,” she said.
“Each customer segment has different preferences and needs, but the greatest positive impact noted by development customers was the increase in self-service options and enabling the many different application stakeholders to see the application status along with assessment ‘journey’ phases.
“Customers also commented on appreciating our engagement approaches and receptiveness to new ideas and feedback. We host in-person and online forums to nominate and prioritise improvements, answer questions and share technical information and well as undertake individual engagements.”
Striking the right balance between delivering a new digital experience and embedding cultural change across an organisation is no easy feat, but Johnson said working together in true collaboration across teams helped implementation.
“This initiative was a partnership approach with finance, digital and development groups but involved every part of the business because these are Urban Utilities customers, not just the customer of team A or B,” she said.
“Lean workshops, in some cases with facilitators from a different business area, helped mixed groups undertake process flows and value mapping. Integral to success was establishing a shared understanding and appreciation of the benefits of a coordinated approach and shared investment in effort.
“Whether refining design standards for approval conditions and compliance, focusing on debt recovery, reviewing the management of network isolations for new development and security bonds to manage risk, it takes a whole of business approach enable a positive customer experience and our customers are our partners in delivering positive business and community outcomes.
“By taking a people, process and systems approach, comprehensive change can be achieved. By having teams accountable for culture and business initiatives that focused on everything from wellbeing and collaboration to solve customer and business issues, means there is a shared interest in outcomes.”
When it comes to winning the Customer Experience Award at the Australian Water Awards, Johnson said everyone was overjoyed by the recognition.
"These are such respected awards, they help highlight the great work being undertaken across the water industry, and it shines a light on the value of customers, particularly the diversity of development customers from renovators to multi-national corporations,” she said.
“We joke that development/water assessment is a little like the Australian Taxation Office, critical but never on anyone’s most loved list as it involves some tough decisions, so this recognition also feeds the soul for the many dedicated people working hard in assessment to enable safe and reliable services and connection for communities.”
And while the work has been celebrated, it’s by no means over, Johnson said.
“This is a continual journey of discovery for us all. Digital change can’t occur without shifts in business operations and thinking,” she said.
“There is more we can and should be doing with customers. Despite having a way to go in closing the gap between customer expectations and outcomes, at Urban Utilities we are committed to continual improvement, and our people and customers expect nothing less.”
Know of any amazing water work being done in your area? Nominations for state and territory awards are now open.