Sweden's 'The Road to Excellence' International Benchmarking Study of Customer Satisfaction for Winter Services and Pavements

摘要

The Swedish Road Administration commissioned an international benchmarking study to helpunderstand why road user customer satisfaction survey results for winter services and pavementshave been stagnant or decreasing even when there has been no change in the maintenancestandards and adherence to them. The technical data collected from road conditions assessmentsindicate that the roads are in satisfactory or good condition, but the customer satisfaction resultswere indicating otherwise. The objective of the international benchmarking study was todetermine reasons for disconnect and how to measure customer satisfaction in relation tomeasurable road condition indicators. Several issues were addressed: what kind of customersurvey would be most appropriate, what questions should be asked and how, and what factorsaffect road user attitudes. Research was needed to assess the problem and potential solutions.An international study was initiated to compare what was done in other countries and tobenchmark customer satisfaction surveys. The study approach consisted of interviews in eightcold climate countries consisting of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Scotland, Slovenia,Alberta (Canada) and Minnesota in the USA. Each country responded to questionnaires onwinter services and pavement conditions, and was also visited to ensure accuracy of responsesand for clarifications.The benchmarking study shows that road administrations are sophisticated users of customersurveys. They use a variety of surveys and have tailored them to serve their objectives. Theresults indicate that the survey type, the survey method, and the way questions are phrased doaffect the results and their subsequent interpretation. The surveys provide subjective informationat a point in time, which may not coincide with the road condition survey. Part of disconnectbetween customer satisfaction and road condition is explained by this anachronism. Another parthas to do with the difference between the expected and provided level of service. Increasinglythe road administrations appear to conduct measurable road condition surveys for processingpayments in performance-based maintenance contracts, and subjective customer attitude andopinion surveys to develop maintenance standards and performance measures. The formeremploy increasingly complex, but cost-effective technologies, while for the latter employ focusgroups, driving panels, and special studies in novel ways. Responsive customer complaintcenters are common and found useful. In the workshop that concluded the study it was voicedthat the challenges in measuring customer satisfaction are similar in the participating countries,but approaches gauging them, especially for winter services, differ. The benchmarking studyshowed that countries and states can learn from each other and while practices are rarely directlytransferable, improvements are possible. It is not only useful to benchmark road managementprocesses and practices, but utilized wisely they may provide motivation for better road budgets.